Chapter 28

Rafael leaned on the chair by the bed and grasped his chin. A practitioner, who was halfway dragged by the employees of the Carnesis Mansion, trembled while examining Annette. It was the same practitioner who had visited the mansion to prove Annette’s ‘innocence’ before.

In front of Rafael, the young practitioner in his early 30s was as nervous as a rat who had met a snake. Before RafaeI’s beastly eyes, the practitioner recoiled and shuddered, while expressing his opinion.

“The fever is due to the inflammation caused by the fracture. The fracture has been corrected, so if Madam takes the inflammatory drug I prescribed and take a good rest, she will get better soon.”

The doctor who wrote the prescription tremblingly, looked at Rafael with eyes wanting to say something. In response, Rafael glared at him with a fierce look.

“What are you looking at?”

Rafael thought he wanted to say something like, “It looks like a husband hit his wife.” Of course, it was just Rafael’s delusion, but he felt really unpleasant because of that. It was because there was a possibility…

All Annette held in that little hand was a book and her mantle. Surely they couldn’t have been dangerous enough to fracture her finger bones. And considering the fact that Annette was fine until yesterday afternoon, the culprit was probably himself. Rafael’s eyes, which had become sore from sleepwalking, became grim.

However, contrary to Rafael’s thoughts, the practitioner did not doubt him at all. Even though the practitioner was intimidated by Rafael’s aura, he pushed out something with his trembling hands. It was a letter of introduction.

“There is a very capable female practitioner around here. Apparently, Madam seems to have a weak constitution, but if this is the case, wouldn’t it be better if she’s taken care by another woman? Well, if you don’t mind, I can arrange a meeting.”

Despite his fear, the practitioner steadfastly recommended a colleague, and then quickly left the mansion as if he was running away. Looking at his running back, it seemed that he would never step in this direction again. The recommendation of a colleague probably was to push in another scapegoat to suffer on his behalf.

“What, take care of each other? That’s not funny.”

Rafael frowned and tried to resist throwing away the letter of introduction given by the practitioner. As the practitioner said, Annette was very small and weak. So, it wasn’t a bad idea to have a female practitioner work as the chief physician of the Carnesis family.

Most aristocratic families already had their own family doctors. But the Carnesis was a newly-acquired title purely because of Rafael’s ability, and he was the first Marquis in the Deltium kingdom. The mansion had just been built a few years ago, and still had the smell of a new house, so he was not able to hire a separate doctor.

Rafael clicked his tongue but eventually put in a separate letter of introduction. Later, when Annette woke up, he was going to ask about her opinions on this. He didn’t realize he was paying attention to Annette’s opinion for the first time.

Annette’s mind was confused. This was because of the fever and inflammation caused by the fracture. The mental shock and fatigue caused by the regression, and the stress and worry she felt because of Rafael accumulated one after the other, and finally exploded. In addition, she decided to smuggle herself out of the country and paid attention to this and that. So it was natural for Annette, who had a weak constitution, to become sick.

Rafael sat in a narrow chair by the bed and frowned. It had already been two days since Annette’s fever. The furnitures in Annette’s bedroom were of small size to match her body. So a large, well-built man like Rafael had to fold his body in order to sit down. Rafael, sitting in an uncomfortable position, looked at Annette with a wry look.

A bandage was wrapped around Annette’s right hand which was protruding out from the blanket. Her bandaged right hand was thicker than her slender wrist and seemed as if she was wearing mittens. Strangely, Rafael found the hand ugly. Unwilling to see it anymore, he pushed it back into the blanket. Rafael then reached out to measure Annette’s body temperature and muttered ferociously.

“That damn quack. He said she would get better soon.”

Annette’s fever did not go down easily even after taking the medicine prescribed by the practitioner. Rafael had never taken care of anyone, but strangely, he felt as if he was used to nursing Annette. He carefully woke her up, gave her the medicine, and then wiped her nape and cheeks with a wet towel. He did all this very skillfully as if he had done this a lot.

His hand, which had only wielded a sword so far, was astonishingly nursing someone. Thanks to this, Annette’s condition was becoming quite stable. However, there was only one problem in this situation…

‘Why am I doing this?’

Rafael recalled the troubles he had repeated countless times over the past two days. It was enough to give this work to any of the numerous maids working in the mansion. If he wanted to, he could have Annette get a different maid every hour so that she could receive the best care.

But, why couldn’t he leave her side and went as far to personally take care of her? 

To solve this unanswered question, Rafael locked himself up in his room and drank alcohol on purpose. However, he eventually came back to her bedroom in an intoxicated state. There was an anxiety that he felt whenever he wasn’t near Annette. He couldn’t even explain it himself, but he couldn’t bear not being around her because he thought Annette would suddenly stop breathing if he was not there.

He himself didn’t know what the hell he was thinking. Looking at the unfortunate Bavarian woman, who looked so pretty, he thought he was going crazy.

‘Well, she is truly very pretty.’

Rafael’s deep blue eyes glanced over Annette’s face. Even though she hadn’t washed her face for two days, she still looked so pretty that he felt ashamed of himself. Before she got married to him, she was considered one of the best bride candidates in the Deltium’s high society, so he didn’t know whether he was worthy of her.

Yes, it was all because of that little wicked face of Annette. That Bavarian woman had a needlessly pretty appearance, so it must be a mistake that she ended up with a jerk like him.

Rafael grinded his teeth and looked down at Annette with bloody eyes. Maybe she felt a sense of crisis while she was asleep, but Annette frowned, making her forehead wrinkle. She then groaned a little in pain.

“Uh…”

Her lips, which were too red for her white face, parted a little. Rafael felt awkward and a little irritated at seeing Annette sleeping comfortably with her mouth wide open, oblivious to all his troubles.  Frowning, he reached out and touched her luscious lips.

Then Annette suddenly closed her lips and gently sucked the tip of his index finger. She seemed to be dreaming of eating something. Her soft lips, like petals, wrapped around his finger, and her small moist tongue moved around as if she was sucking a candy. The texture of her little tongue felt on his sensitive fingertip was so hot and sweet that he thought he would go crazy.

Rafael became stiff and looked down at the face of Annette, who was sucking his finger. Her lips were stretched and her face looked very innocent. Seeing her pretty lips devour his finger, he wanted to put something other than his finger in there.

Suddenly, his lower body became stiff.  Rafael was startled as if he had been burned. He hurriedly took his finger out of Annette’s mouth and then immediately ran out of her bedroom. Swear words flowed out of Rafael’s distorted mouth. He couldn’t understand the sudden anger that he felt. But it was clear to him that one day, that desolate woman, Annette Bavaria would creep into his heart and set it on fire.

Annette’s head was blank. She felt like she ate something delicious in her dream. Annette groaned and lifted her heavy eyelids. The  bright afternoon sunlight blinded her eyes. Because of this, Annette’s eyesight returned only after blinking for three or four times.

The first thing that caught her eye was the familiar view of her room. Annette woke up and looked dazedly at the small dust particles floating in the air. Her hearing recovered only one step later than her sight and a strange sound flowed into Annette’s ears.

It’s just…

It was a small sound of something metallic hitting regularly. Annette lifted her head and looked up in the direction of the sound. Surprisingly, she found Rafael sitting there.

Rafael, with a strangely dissatisfied expression, looked very cold and sharp. He was sitting awkwardly in a cream-colored chair that was much smaller than his size. Annette stared at him blankly, wondering why he was sitting there.

With something in his hand, Rafael was making this strange noise by hitting it against the bedside table with a bored expression. Annette lifted her eyes to see the object in Rafael’s hand, and was startled when she saw what it really was.

‘That ring…..!’

It was the ring that Annette received from Railin, the leader of the smuggling guild. She was sure she had hid it in a drawer, but she couldn’t understand how it ended up in Rafael’s hands. A surprised Annette, reflexively raised her upper body. Rafael, who sensed her movements, turned his head.

“Good. You woke up just in time.”

Rafael with a stiff face raised his body and got up from the chair.