Nausea surged within her. Her body twisted involuntarily as if she were having a seizure.
Bedford, damn Bedford! Ariella cursed Bedford and Aaron over and over again with her churning stomach.
“Stop thrashing around. Just stay still!”
Seeing his fiancée convulsing, Aaron finally lost his composure.
Thud! With a loud sound, Ariella’s head shook violently. In an instant, all the strength drained from her body.
She felt the thin fabric of her clothes sliding down her arms. Her vision was dizzy, and her mind was hazy, but the situation she was in felt painfully clear, suffocating her.
A frantic touch and the weight pressing down on her. The rich scent of red wine mingled with hot breath.
Nothing was forgotten; everything was etched deeply into her mind.
Rustle, rustle…
In the basement where not a single ray of light penetrated, the sensation of long-legged insects crawling up her limbs in search of food came to mind.
If that was the first thing that made Ariella deeply hate Bedford, the second was Oliver’s death, and this was the third.
And how many more things would slice through her insides in the future, she could not dare to fathom.
Should she bite her tongue and die? In that fleeting moment, Ariella genuinely contemplated it.
At that time, she was so exhausted, and life felt unbearably long and torturous.
‘Kaia, Oliver…’
The ones she had relied on with her fragile body and heart had already perished. So, she felt there was no reason for her to endure any longer.
Ariella was about to bite her tongue.
If no one had come to open the locked door and rescue her at that moment, she surely would have.
Bang!
“Miss Ariella!”
If the beginning of the nightmare was Aaron’s hateful voice, the end was always this clear voice.
A man who pushed through numerous obstacles and entered the room. With the last sight of sweat dripping from the tips of his soft light brown hair, Ariella woke from her dream.
***
There were days when Ariella would silently stare at Adam for an unusually long time.
On days when she had a truly terrible nightmare, especially one featuring Aaron, she would always gaze at Adam like this.
And every time, Adam would ask with a voice that had grown stiffer, his white skin flushed red.
“…Is there anything you need, Miss?”
“Ah.”
Only then did Ariella realize she had been staring blankly at Adam and snapped out of her thoughts, shaking her head.
“No, it’s not that… I just feel sorry.”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“Keeping a skilled person like you by my side.”
Adam Pavel. A young knight whose beauty matched his exceptional skills had been reduced to merely guarding a noblewoman due to that day’s events.
On the day Ariella came of age, Aaron had tried to forcefully assault her despite her resistance, and no one among the people of Bedford had come to her aid, but Adam, who had only been with her for two years, had reached out a hand of salvation.
“Step away from the lady, Your Highness! If you don’t, I will draw my sword!”
His voice, resolutely shouting even against the crown prince, became a great source of strength for Ariella. However, it was received entirely differently by Aaron.
How dare a mere knight, the son of a baron, challenge him. Naturally, Aaron harbored resentment and swung his fist at Adam.
Yet, even at that time, Adam, who had already made a name for himself with his outstanding skills, easily dodged the drunken twenty-year-old crown prince’s charge, protecting Ariella without even touching Aaron.
In the end, that day, Aaron left the Duke’s residence in a huff, having gained nothing.
Afterward, Aaron immediately blocked Adam’s path, ensuring that he could not work anywhere outside of Bedford.
He even pressured the Duke of Bedford to punish Adam severely. He demanded that they find some way to frame him for a crime.
However, the Duke of Bedford refused. It wasn’t because he recognized the merit of saving his daughter.
“I will remain silent and keep to myself. Please do not punish Sir Adam. For the sake of keeping Aaron from rampaging around Bedford, we need at least one person like him.”
The day after the incident, Ariella went to the Duke and made this request.
If she had mentioned that she had almost been assaulted and demanded to break off the engagement, the Duke would have surely exploded in anger and silenced her. He would have punished Adam for causing trouble.
However, Ariella’s calmness satisfied him, and thus the Duke graciously granted her request. Exactly as Ariella had calculated.
Yet, despite these efforts, Ariella could not prevent Adam’s path from being blocked. Matters outside of Bedford were beyond her control.
Ariella always felt sorry about that. If it weren’t for her, he should have been treated much better in a position far superior to this.
