The festival had ended, and a desolate darkness fell once more.
“Why are you here, like this?”
Olivia just blinked, offering no answer. Because of her pale complexion, her reddened eyes appeared even redder in the darkness.
With her hair disheveled and her dress a mess, the woman was hunched over without a single movement, looking like a discarded doll left to fend for itself.
“Olivia.”
Kneeling on one leg, Johan unhesitatingly closed the distance, and his gaze landed on her vacant blue eyes.
His intense eyes were reflected in the transparent tears that fell, sliding down her smooth cheek and a slender chin, before dropping onto her pristine chest. Above the deeply cut neckline, her full chest slowly rose and fell, and a teardrop-shaped sapphire scattered light. Johan unconsciously held his breath, slowly pulling down the jacket draped over his shoulder.
Olivia was completely drenched. Her body, soaked with rainwater, shone a ghostly white under the moonlight. A searing heat spread from the cut on her palm from a shard of glass. Johan let out a shallow sigh.
The horse chestnut trees lining the banks of the Vichen River swayed in the wind, and raindrops that had collected on their leaves fell in a heavy patter.
He wrapped the jacket, which was a bit too big for her, around her shoulders and asked, “What happened?”
Even though they were making eye contact, her vacant eyes seemed to not see him at all. However, tears still pooled and streamed from her bloodshot eyes. The rain was subsiding, so those were definitely tears. Johan reached out his arm.
“…”
There was not a moment of hesitation in the man’s actions. As if she were his own woman, he reached out his hand without reservation and wiped away her tears. In the fleeting moment that his warmth touched her cold skin, the time that had stopped began to flow again.
Finally, the man in front of her slowly came into focus.
“…”
For a moment, she thought it was an illusion. Why would the man who should be in Londos… be here? It didn’t make sense. So, Olivia thought it was just a fantasy created by the magical fireworks.
“Olivia.”
“…”
The moment her name was called again, it was no longer a misunderstanding or a fantasy. Olivia’s face hardened, and she quickly pulled away. Johan’s hand, which was wiping her tears, stopped in midair. The shabbily wrapped bandage was soaked with rainwater.
“I asked what happened.”
Their gazes tangled in midair again. No sound could be heard. Why was this man here? That was all she could think about.
“Wh-why are you… here…”
The words she stammered out couldn’t connect, hovering in the air before disappearing. When Johan met her eyes, which were trembling with more than just confusion—it was fear—he was overcome with an inexplicable displeasure.
“What about you?”
The man’s gaze fell between the sparse, transparent raindrops.
“I asked you a question, Olivia.”
“…I just got lost. I didn’t know where to go. So… but why are you…”
“Alone, without a maid?”
Johan’s eyes narrowed.
“I was in a state of chaos.”
“So you were crying like a child? Just because you lost your way?”
“…”
Olivia, feeling uncomfortable under his prolonged gaze, finally turned her head away. The rain had stopped at some point. As the clouds passed, moonlight streamed thinly through the horse chestnut leaves. Olivia wiped her cheeks with her wet palm and bit her lip.
Why him, of all people? She felt resentful.
Why do I keep running into him? She was terrified, especially in this state.
Olivia covered her chest with her hands, where the man’s gaze had lingered. Because the thin fabric was soaked, the river breeze, now that the rain had stopped, felt chilling, and her skin became feverish. Her body was trembling.
“…I think I should go.”
Olivia tried to stand up and take a step, but her injured leg was giving her trouble. Her body swayed and tilted. At that moment, Johan wrapped his left arm around her waist and pulled her toward him.
“!”
Their bodies were pressed together. A flustered Olivia pushed hard against Johan’s chest. At her feeble resistance, Johan obediently released his grip. Taking advantage of the moment, she limped backward.
It seemed that simply getting out of his embrace wasn’t enough for Olivia. It was as if she were a woman running away from a groper. It felt as though the three years they had lived as husband and wife only existed in his mind.
“I’ll be going.”
Johan’s lips twisted, and his eyes hardened.
“Do you know the way?”
“…”
Her movement to turn away stopped.
Where should I go?
The lease for the townhouse in Riverside had expired. Olivia regretted not extending the contract just in case.
‘For me to concede to Olivia Blanchet, three times the prize money is a loss. I lost my honor.’
The memory of the moment she faced that cruel truth became vivid again, and she knew the Lancelot Hotel wasn’t the answer. She didn’t want to see it right now.
‘The promotional effect was great, though. I didn’t spend a penny, and the media and high society went crazy on their own.’
Promotional effect.
That man only had a purpose, and he was just a person who smiled kindly at everyone.
She had thought that kindness was love.
Love.
What a pathetic and grand misunderstanding.
I was a fool.
I should have left for Brier. If only Count Blanchet hadn’t shown up at the Litten Central Station that day. By now, she might have been living a quiet, peaceful life with Anne. Then Edgar wouldn’t have… and she wouldn’t have run into this man in such a way.
“Let’s go back.”
Her thoughts were brief.
In her bewilderment, Olivia’s head shot up. Their eyes met, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. His face, which was more gaunt than when she had seen him at the Leopold Hotel’s opening party, was looking down at her calmly.
As the night deepened, the river breeze also became colder. Her body was burning, but at the same time, she felt goosebumps. Olivia doubted her ears. Let’s go back? Where?
“No. I refuse.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Olivia was firm.
“You don’t even know the way.”
“…I still don’t want to.”
Just because she was lost for a moment didn’t mean she could go somewhere that wasn’t the right path. Especially if she knew that the end of that path was a cliff.
“Why?”
He asked with an expressionless face. But even as he just stared silently, a sense of oppression weighed down on Olivia. Johan, who was waiting for an answer, ran a hand through his hair. As his golden hair, wet with rainwater, fell back, a scar on the left side of his forehead became visible.
“…”
Come to think of it, he had one on his arm, too.
He was a mess.
How did he get so hurt?
She was suddenly curious but didn’t say it out loud. The circumstances of a man she shouldn’t get involved with were of no concern to her. The man suddenly took a step forward just as Olivia’s eyes were about to move away from his splinted left arm. She instinctively took a step back.
“I asked why.”
“Because I have no reason to follow you. I’ll… find my own way.”
“You have… no reason?”
“Yes. I don’t. It’s just dark, but it’s not an unfamiliar path. Goodbye.”
Olivia turned around quickly. Her vision swayed greatly, but fortunately, she avoided falling. She hunched her shivering shoulders from the chill and took an unstable step. She could feel a gaze like a blade on her back, but her wobbly steps sped up. However, she couldn’t get very far.
“Ouch!”
The horrible pain in her swollen left foot made her head spin, and her body slid down. At that moment, Johan supported Olivia’s back with one hand. As her soft chest was pressed against his, Olivia, trying to regain her balance, grabbed both of Johan’s shoulders.
Johan’s brows furrowed in a deep frown. He gritted his teeth, feeling the bone-shattering pain of his fractured shoulder. A startled Olivia’s hands reflexively let go and flailed around his chest.
As her frail body, with the chiffon clinging to it, rubbed against him, the issue wasn’t his injured shoulder but something else. Damn it.
“Just… hold on.”
He said with a grimace.
“Let go of me.”
Olivia struggled. In the end, it was Johan who surrendered. Olivia limped away again.
“A carriage is waiting. Just walk to it.”
Olivia let out a hot sigh. It seemed a terrible cold was coming on. Even as her body trembled, Olivia didn’t avoid his eyes, which were looking at her intently.
“Hold on.”
Johan held out his hand again. A dark red bloodstain was seeping through the wet bandage. Olivia stared at his hand and parted her dry lips.
“We’re divorced.”
“So?”
A tired Johan closed his eyes tightly and then slowly opened them, asking back.
“So now… I don’t understand why you’re being so kind to me.”
“…”
Since when did you become so obsessed with reasons?
With narrowed eyes, Johan stared at the extremely familiar woman who was acting like a stranger.
“Does being divorced mean I have to become a complete jerk?”
“…”
“Then you shouldn’t have shown up in front of me in that state. I’m trying to help you when you look like you’re about to collapse, so is this really such a big deal?”
The old Olivia Blanchet was easier to handle, Johan thought. Back then, when she was so easy that she wasn’t even attractive, a simple, unenthusiastic agreement would resolve a problematic situation. All the reasons were because of him. But the current you…
“I asked if it’s such a big deal for me to take you somewhere if you have a place to go, and if you don’t, to have you stay for one night. Olivia.”
The horse chestnut leaves were swept away by the strong river breeze. A rustling sound seeped into the taut silence. Olivia, who could no longer endure it, parted her lips with difficulty. She was burning up.
“…Even if I have nowhere to go… I’d rather not… go with you.”
“You-”
The starless, pitch-black sky plummeted to the ground at that moment. Olivia’s body, which had been stubbornly standing, tilted.
“Olivia!”
The voice shouting the name that had become so familiar to him was swallowed by a terrible fever and became faint. The tiara, whose existence she had completely forgotten, rolled away forlornly. Even in the mud, the fake queen’s crown shone brilliantly. The light and sound slowly faded away, and then a perfect blackout followed.
