CH 139

Rowena raised an anxious gaze to the second floor, the location of Lenoa’s room. A few moments ago, Lenoa had given her room up to Gareth, who had returned with Elena in his arms, and now there was dead silence. The quiet was what made Rowena anxious. After all, she had gone up to the corner tower of the castle with William to see if her sister had successfully reunited with Gareth, and she had seen the man go berserk. She regretted doing so; what she had witnessed amidst the villages was a bloodthirsty madman. Such a sight had caused her heart to freeze and her body to tremble in fear.

“I’m hungry,” a voice blurted at that moment, prompting Rowena to come back to reality.

“W-what?” she asked for clarification.

Completely exhausted and sprawled out on the floor of the hall, Giggs repeated, “I’m going to starve to death.”

Rowena was dumbfounded at the bear-like man’s attitude that remained nonchalant even though he was bleeding profusely from an untreated injury.

“Everything hurts, and I’m starving. It feels like I’m going to die one way or another—from the pain or the hunger.”

Strangely, everyone relaxed and laid on the hall floor at Giggs’ absurd remarks. The most urgent situation, one that had been scarier than any battle, had now passed. All of Gareth’s men had been devastated, thinking that Elena could not survive Gareth’s frenzied state this time, but a miracle had happened in front of them. Some men let out a sigh of relief, realizing that they had avoided death yet again.

Rowena moved quickly to tend to the injuries of the men in the hall. A delicious aroma emanated from the kitchen while she, Marina, and Lenoa took care of the wounds. Giggs left his damaged shoulder to Rowena as he leaned to the side to watch the kitchen through the wide-open hall door. It was snowing again outside, which meant that the bloodshed was going to be covered for a while.

‘Ah, my joints. For heaven’s sake, everything hurts,’ Giggs thought to himself. Still, his shoulder gradually became comfortable as Rowena treated his injury. ‘I guess blood can’t fool anyone. She’s quick and skilled, just like Madam.’ Giggs slowly relaxed, but he then began to worry again when Lydia popped into his head. He was afraid to send Ethan a piece of meat rather than a living woman. He knew that Gareth wouldn’t care, but he was still worried about his boss for breaking a promise. Giggs was uncertain whether Gareth was going to explain why he had broken the agreement and ask for forgiveness as it was more likely that his boss would not do such a thing. Frankly, he was sure that his boss would do the exact opposite and tell Ethan that he would kill Lydia again if he had to, given his temper.

‘Gah, I don’t know. I’ll just leave it up to Madam.’

* * *

Having taken his armor off, Gareth slid into bed with Elena. He hugged her tightly and gently stroked her hair and back with blood-stained hands in silence. He remained quiet for a while, caressing and touching her body gently. Before long, Gareth reached down and stroked Elena’s flat stomach. Elena stopped breathing for a moment and looked into Gareth’s eyes with shaky eyes.

With tears in his eyes, Gareth met Elena’s gaze and apologized, “I’m sorry. I’m terribly sorry for putting you through something like this.”

Elena began to shed tears again at his whisper.

“It’s all because of me. I was the one who did wrong, but you are the one who had to pay for it. I’m sorry.”

Still feeling his hand on her stomach, Elena wrapped her hands around Gareth’s face filled with grief and murmured, “It’s not your fault, Gareth.”

However, Gareth shook his head without saying a word.

“It’s not your fault,” Elena repeated, to which Gareth shut his eyes tight as if he was blaming himself for the miscarriage. Elena spoke with a tearful voice as she brushed over his closed eyelids with her thumbs, “I won’t be able to cry to my heart’s content if you do this, you know. It’ll look like I’m blaming you, too. I want to cry, Gareth, and I want to be consoled by you.”

Her tearful voice made Gareth’s heart release the remainder of his suppressed emotions. Gareth hugged Elena tightly and patted her on the back as her tears soaked his chest. Elena cried to her heart’s content, liberating the sorrow that had been confined within her.

“I’m sorry, Elena,” Gareth whispered as he continued to pat Elena on the back so that she could cry as much as she needed. That was all he could say as he could not think of anything else. Gareth constantly apologized, kissing her trembling forehead and her hair while thinking, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’

Once Elena barely managed to stop her tears, she asked for a favor with a hoarse voice.