Chapter 116
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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Dear, I believe you may be misunderstanding.
Chapter 116
'What on earth just happened?'
I had lost consciousness for a moment.
Two horses with eyes rolled back had charged toward her, and startled Rüfel's face flashed before me as the horses pulling the carriage bolted wildly in all directions.
And then, and then....
'There was a loud crash.'
I couldn't even see what had toppled over.
As my eyes instinctively squeezed shut and the screams of passersby pierced my ears, I was already falling backward.
'Come to think of it... someone seemed to have pulled me....'
The moment that thought reached her, Grace's eyes snapped open.
Startled, she bolted upright, and a familiar voice reached her ears.
"If you sit up so suddenly, you'll strain your body."
She whipped her head around toward the source of the voice.
Sunlight streaming through the parted curtains cast its glow upon white hair.
The crimson eyes that gleamed even more vividly in that light were also visible.
"...You."
"Your face suggests you haven't suffered any serious injuries. That's fortunate."
Yet the one speaking these words had bandages wrapped around both his arms and shoulders.
Grace couldn't begin to fathom what had transpired.
"That questioning look on your face tells me everything. It's simple, really. I saved you from nearly meeting your end. By my own hand, no less."
He tapped his chest with considerable pride.
The natural curve of his eyelids made the situation seem far less grave than it ought to have been.
Grace, who had been studying him quietly, asked with wariness etched across her features.
"Where is Rüfel? And where am I?"
"This is one of my private estates, and Rüfel is receiving treatment in the other room. I pushed you out of the way hastily to save you, and he was struck by the horse instead. Fortunately, he wasn't trampled."
Rüfel was injured!
As Grace moved to descend from the bed, Hiss blocked her path.
"He's still undergoing treatment. There's nothing to be gained by visiting him now. Besides... this is what you intended to submit to the newspaper, isn't it?"
Only then did Grace realize that what Hiss had been reading beside her was the documents she had brought with her.
"Why are you reading this?"
Hiss sighed as he watched Grace's sharp interrogation.
"I was the one who picked it up after you fell and it scattered across the street. It nearly got trampled and destroyed before the article could even be published, or worse, seen by others first. I gathered it all up and brought it here."
At his words, Grace's expression became somewhat flustered.
Yet her rigid demeanor didn't soften in the slightest.
"I appreciate that, but I still don't believe you had the right to read it. I'd prefer if you returned it to me. And I truly am grateful for saving me."
"You really are...."
Hiss stared at Grace for a moment before laughing.
"Quite rigid. You're similar to that horse colt."
"Please don't call him a colt. He's my precious husband."
Grace spoke with a serious expression.
Hiss laughed again.
"How fearless you are, Grace Black. Or should I say, Grace Blooming?"
"...."
"There's no benefit in baring your fangs so recklessly at your opponent. Especially when you've walked defenseless into someone else's territory like this."
"That sounds like a threat."
"Not a threat, exactly. Just... a gentle reminder to stay vigilant."
He approached Grace with a smirk playing at his lips.
Though his pale complexion gave him a sickly appearance, his large frame prevented him from seeming weak.
Hiss drew near with an unhurried, deliberately menacing slowness.
Standing directly before her, he tilted his head with a curious expression.
"Don't you find me threatening?"
Instead of answering, Grace simply stared at him.
"...So you don't find me threatening at all. Why is that?"
It was a feeling even Grace couldn't explain.
I knew this man possessed something dangerous, yet I didn't sense that he would harm me.
"Is it keen intuition, or...?"
Hiss bent one knee and sat down.
Looking up at her from the bedroom where she sat, he murmured softly.
"Is it because you're a witch that you sense something?"
"...!"
Startled, I widened my eyes without thinking.
Watching her stiffen, Hiss stretched his lips into a smile as red as a ripe cherry.
His curved eyes held a mischievous and predatory gleam.
"You shouldn't be so obvious about it."
His cool hand brushed across Grace's eyes.
"I learned about you through investigation. Deduction would be the more accurate term."
"Why did you investigate me?"
"At first, it was curiosity."
He shrugged as he spoke.
"Then it became interest."
"...."
"And now, I need you."
"You need me?"
Hiss nodded and rose from his seat.
Then, as if it were the most natural thing, he sat beside her and stretched both arms behind him, leaning back at an angle.
His tilted head pointed toward his family's seal.
"My family has wielded considerable power for generations through the Council of Elders. Even the heads of houses cannot defy them."
He suddenly began speaking of Serviente.
Though he was a man whose intentions were difficult to discern, he didn't seem the type to speak needlessly, so Grace listened to him in silence.
"Because the Council of Elders plays with the lives of the heads of houses."
"...Playing with their lives, you say?"
"Listen carefully, Grace. This is a secret of our house that I've never told anyone until now. I'm confiding it in you."
He whispered in a low voice, as if sharing a mischievous secret.
"When children are born in our house, we select which child will become the next 'serpent.' And from infancy, we feed them something."
"What?"
"Poison. A poison that becomes an excellent painkiller."
"...!"
"A serpent must shed its skin. And shedding brings tremendous pain. No other painkiller works—only that one can be used. And only the Council of Elders within our house can produce it."
Shedding.
It was something Grace had never considered.
A side effect of The Curse unique to us, unlike other creatures.
"Is that why you were coughing back then...?"
"Ah! Exactly. I missed the timing for taking the medicine and collapsed, coughing up blood. And to be more honest, I deliberately took it a bit late that time."
As Hiss laughed playfully, his crimson eyes, visible through the narrow slits of his elongated gaze, gleamed with a wild intensity.
"I thought that way you might show me even a little interest."
"...What good would it do to receive your interest?"
At her exasperated words, he reached out and grasped her hand.
Just before Grace could brush his hand away, he tapped the tips of her fingers lightly.
"You were bitten by me once, weren't you? But you seemed completely unaffected, and that...touched my curiosity. Normally, when bitten by a serpent, the poison should take effect."
"Poison? You were a venomous serpent?"
"It's a characteristic passed down through each house. If my poison enters you, you become unusually susceptible to my pheromones...."
"Ph-pheromones?"
It was one of the words she'd seen while cramming for her marital studies.
A hormone that induces sexual attraction, as it were.
"You don't need to look so startled. Anyway, you don't feel any sexual attraction toward me, do you?"
Hiss, speaking flatly, leaned his body toward Grace.
"...Do I?"
"No!"
A beautiful face seemingly designed to enchant drew close to her in a flash.
Startled, she quickly pushed Hiss away and retreated backward with a rustle.
"I-I prefer big, robust men! I don't have a taste for sickly men! Don't try to seduce me—it won't work!"
Pushed back forcefully, Hiss's eyes widened before he burst into laughter.
Could rejection be this delightful?
He laughed, clutching his stomach, then set aside his seductive gaze and spoke.
"Preferring big, robust men. Truly the words befitting the wife of Lucas Black. Well, fine. Let's set that aside. Anyway, that's not what matters."
Hiss straightened his posture and sat properly.
For reasons he couldn't explain, his expression had become considerably more relaxed.
As if her iron resolve had instead put his mind at ease.
Having shed his dissolute and lascivious gaze, he patted the space beside him reassuringly.
"Our Elder Council has trained and manipulated the heads of houses with that poison. Yet that very Council ordered your death."
...No, how many shocking revelations was I hearing from this man's lips today?
Grace stopped her startled flinch and let out a hollow laugh.
"Kill me? Why?"
"Who knows? Why indeed? I was curious myself, so I investigated. And I thought about it. I pondered it again and again."
Hiss's long, elegantly-jointed fingers tapped against his own forehead.
"Your mother, who came from a foreign land. She disappeared for several days and then returned, or so the story goes. After that day, the young master of House Oellin fell ill for days and spoke in delirium. He called the Marquess's wife a witch."
"...."
"It was merely the ravings of a mad child, and since Marquess Capren kept such strict discipline over his servants, the rumor never spread beyond the household. But as you know, our family is unusually sensitive to the word 'witch,' you see."
"And then?"
"If, as I suspect, your mother was a witch, and therefore witch's blood flows through your veins as well... then why on earth would the Elder Council order your death?"
Gulp.
I swallowed hard.
"Ah... the Elder Council despises the very existence of witches. Even if they can't be certain, they want to eliminate even the slightest possibility. Once that thought occurred to me, the rest became clear."
"Clear? What do you mean by that?"
"The Elder Council wishes to perpetuate The Curse. In doing so, they maintain eternal power and their privileged status. Even if The Curse were to end someday, they hope it won't happen in their lifetime... such selfish hearts."
To achieve this, they have fed poison to the young heirs of the houses, and wielded those house heads—poisoned and tamed—as they saw fit.
Hiss laughed with a nervous edge.
"The moment I realized this, I felt chills run down my spine. And I made a decision."
Hiss fixed his gaze upon Grace.
"I would never allow you to die."
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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