Beast of the Frozen Night

The man smacked his lips in regret.

No way, in such an open place . . . Anne looked at the man with her terrified eyes. Unlike her who had been messed up, the man was neat and his black mask was intact. The man appeared to be in good shape, unruffled and composed. Except for the fact that his face was covered.

“How dare you harass a woman . . . Take off the mask and show your face.”

The man narrowed his eyes and approached Anne. Afraid that the man would rush at her again, Anne tensed, trying to pull herself back, but her feet froze under the pressure.

“Wait quietly. I’ll come pick you up soon.”

“Who . . .”

“At that time, I won’t let you off the hook like now, so it would be better to gain some weight. It will be difficult if you die.”

The man’s last words echoed as if filling the space around them. The moment she stared blankly at him with a bewildered look, her vision blurred and her eyes opened at the same time.

The elaborately crafted ceiling pattern entered her clear vision. It was her bedroom.

A dream? No . . . This . . . It wasn’t a dream.

Anne, realizing that the strange man of her dream was her husband, the Grand Duke, buried at the far end of her memory, she bit her lip in her contempt.

Immoral and unscrupulous human being.

The only thing that came to her mind right now was the Grand Duke parading under the name of her husband. She thought she had never met him, and she was horrified this spring that she didn’t recognize him, even after the fact that she had met him exactly half a year ago.

I am sure. He’s been deliberately hiding the fact that he’s met me.

The man’s last meaningful words half a year ago still dominated her mind. That meant that he had been preparing for this marriage from that day on.

From the beginning, he was thinking of bringing me. I, a fool, fell for his tricks.

As expected, she should have been suspected from the moment the marriage contract, an important contract between two families, was so easily overturned by one person. Unlike her parents who got blind and saw it as an opportunity, she should have noticed.

Not convinced that there was any trick to her own marriage, even though she realized that Marie was not the Grand Duke’s mistress, but the man’s last words, her memories of that day, convinced her.

Feeling the humiliation of being deceived, Anne twisted her fingers mercilessly.

“Miss, are you awake?”

Emily, who had heard the rustling and noticed that Anne had opened her eyes, took a step closer.

“What . . . happened?”

Ever since the Grand Duke forced her to do it on a cold balcony, her memories have been in jumbles. She slowly remembered the violent hand that seemed unacceptable.

Whether he thought it was exciting or not, or whether he had only intended to inflict shame on her in the first place, the Grand Duke removed his hand at the last minute and continued his meal dignifiedly. It was the last scene that remained in her mind.

“I was told that the Miss suddenly collapsed while having dinner with His Grace. You suddenly had a fever and was unable to regain consciousness. The doctor’s words scared me.”

“Help me up.”

She tried to get up, but her body was heavy like lead. The duvet covering her was hot, and it was unpleasant to feel her clothing she was wearing sticking to herself.

Emily, who supported Anne’s back with some of the plush cushions, raised her. It was as if she had back pain as she had slept for quite some time.

“How long have I been lying down?”

“Three days.”

Emily wiped Anne’s sweat-drenched forehead with the clean water-soaked towel.

Anne was surprised to hear that it had been three days, but she nodded her head. Then she waved her hand as she didn’t need Emily to wipe her face again, and looked around, blinking her still-hazy eyes.

“Give me some water.”

Her throat burned, as she hadn’t taken a proper sip of water for three days. As she drank the glass of water Emily was handed over, her head, which had been complicated, seemed to fade a little with the coolness.

Anne stared at Emily with an indifferent expression and opened her mouth.

“Did you take care of me all this time?”

“Yes. Marie came and went a few times, but I said I would do it.”

It seemed that Marie had also come and gone too. But there were no mentions that the Grand Duke had visited.

“Did nothing else happen while I was away?”

“Ah, there was a letter.”

Putting down the towel she was holding, Emily opened the drawer on the side table and pulled out white envelopes.

Different patterns were engraved on the sealing wax. One was the seal of her family, Libelois, one was that of her former fiancee, Salton Whitmore, and the last was Sienna Pellimont’s family, a woman she had no contact with at all.

“Would you like to see them now?”

“No, just throw them away.”

She was concerned about the letter from the Libelois family, which had arrived twice, but she couldn’t afford to pay attention to it. At least for now . . .

“Anyway, where is that man now?”