CH 72

“I guess you’ve decided to play innocent until the end, Lady Elena. If that’s the case, I’ll tell you. Lady Adelia used to be our lord’s lovely younger sister,” Madel replied in a cynical voice, as if she was fed up with Elena.

‘Younger sister…’ Elena mulled over Madel’s words.

“And all the clothes that were burned down, thanks to you, were Lady Garcia’s, Lord Gareth’s mother. The coat you are wearing is hers as well.”

Elena didn’t ask anything more when she realized that the very thing she had been digging into was the story behind Gareth’s family; the story everyone knew but her. Processing Madel’s words, Elena ended up burying her face in her palms.

* * *

When Elena arrived at the castle and entered the hall, she bumped into Gareth who had just come out of his study.

“Where have you been?” Gareth asked, frowning at her thin coat. He had received the long awaited message from Hansen and had returned to the castle from the construction site as soon as he could.

“I took some food with Madel to the people working on the walls,” Elena answered quietly.

Gareth then glanced up at the second floor and passed by Elena as if he had nothing more to say.

“Gareth,” Elena called.

Gareth stopped walking and looked back at Elena. “What?”

The message from Hansen held an unexpectedly huge amount of information. There was a lot to be reread and analyzed, which had caused Gareth to spend most of his afternoon in the study. He had realized that he usually never stayed in his study for that long, and decided to continue looking over the messages in the armory so that Lydia wouldn’t grow suspicious of him. Staying in his study wouldn’t have been a problem if it weren’t for Lydia, but since she was staying on the second floor, he couldn’t do as he pleased. In any case, Gareth had decided that he had to quickly make a decision after analyzing the messages and was feeling restless.

“If you have something to say, say it now,” Gareth said impatiently.

However, Elena only looked back at him in silence. Gareth turned away from her again. The wound he had made on her face made his heart ache; he didn’t understand why it was healing so slowly. Gareth wondered if Elena wasn’t taking good care of herself. It was strange that she still had the wound, since she had a deep knowledge of mushrooms and herbs and was able to make good medicine. Gareth wanted to ask if she was letting the wound remain on her face as a way to make him miserable, but he didn’t have time to talk about it or listen to her complaints at this moment.

“I’m sorry. I’ve made a mistake,” Elena said.

Gareth stopped walking again and slowly turned around to look at Elena.

“I’m very sorry about making you burn down your memories. I was just curious about you and wanted to know more. But I was in the wrong. It was my fault for trying to get to know you.”

At that moment, Gareth’s keen sense of hearing picked up a creaking sound from the second floor, where Lydia was. Gareth’s face quickly went stoic as he uttered, “Don’t try to learn more about me, Elena.” Knowing that Lydia was listening in to their conversation from above, all of Gareth’s attention was now focused on the second floor.

‘Just what in the world do you want from me, Lydia?’ he thought.

Elena’s heart sank at Gareth’s indifferent reply. When she looked up at him, he seemed to be distracted by something else. “Are you saying that I shouldn’t put meaning into our relationship, Gareth?” she asked in a trembling voice.

“It’ll be ridiculous for anyone to put meaning into a relationship with a bloodthirsty madman like me, Elena.”

Elena clenched her trembling hands. ‘If he’s telling me not to care about him, then…’ Although her heart felt like it was shattering into pieces, Elena held back her tears and opened her mouth. “I thought we already had a meaningful relationship, and that was why… that was why you kept holding me…”

Gareth furrowed his eyebrows, but answered coldly, “Whatever we had is none of my business now.” Gareth heard another creaking sound come from upstairs, signaling that the door was closing. With those final words, he quickly turned around and headed for the armory.

* * *

Gareth rubbed his forehead with one hand, reading the details of the messages Hansen had sent. There was fire, pointy thorns, and lush trees lurking inside a big door. On one side of the parchment were bushes drawn with thin strokes. It was a code saying that the blacksmiths were working hard every day and that there were countless people with sharpened weapons in the capital, like dense leaves. The faint bushes on one side meant that there were other forces of unclear factions. Gareth smiled, glad that the message had arrived before he made a move.