You Said You Wanted Us to Break Up - Chapter 65

“Did you cry?”

That was the abrupt question from Demian when he visited the next day. His words naturally reminded me of what had happened with Sioden the night before.

In the late hours, Sioden had insisted on dragging me to the room with the organ, and when things didn’t go well, he seemed flustered and kept apologizing.

“I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“I’m really sorry.”

The apologies I had heard before entering the bedroom echoed vividly in my ears.

It was true that I had cried a lot while holding Apple last night without receiving any comfort from those words, but I didn’t need to tell Demian the truth.

“No, I just didn’t sleep well.”

As I replied casually, a look of disbelief swept across his face.

“Didn’t sleep well? Is that why your eyes are so swollen?”

Even though they should have calmed down somewhat after the morning’s cold compress, it seemed to bother Demian.

“Yes, when I don’t sleep, they get like this.”

As I answered calmly, Demian muttered. It seemed he hadn’t thought that way when we were children.

I couldn’t understand how he could say such things, considering how close we had been as kids, but I let it slide. It wasn’t the first time Demian had thought whatever he wanted.

“If it’s okay with you, I’d like to finish the conversation we started yesterday.”

The frown on Demian’s face immediately transformed into a smile. He leaned forward as if he were about to take my hand.

“You’re going back south with me, right? Good thinking. I’ll talk to my brother about it….”

“It’s not that kind of story.”

Demian’s previously relaxed expression stiffened.

Suddenly, I felt like I had interrupted him in the middle of his words. However, for some reason today, I thought that even if he got angry, it wouldn’t scare me that much. It wasn’t that I had become bold; rather, I was too tired to be scared and tremble like usual today.

I lowered my gaze and muttered softly.

“You said you wouldn’t marry me off when we return south.”

“……”

“To be honest, I don’t believe that.”

Then I waited for Demian to get angry. He hated being doubted more than anything else in the world. Thinking back to his old temper, he would have shouted right away. Yet, no matter how much I kept my eyes down, I didn’t hear any angry words above me.

In the unexpected silence, I cautiously raised my head. It was then that Demian asked, in a voice so soft it made me doubt my ears.

“How can I make you believe me?”

What? His words were so different from what I expected that I flinched, and Demian began to spill out words I hadn’t even asked for.

“Is this because I’ve been terrible to you? Not listening to you when we were kids, just yelling….”

Did he realize he was acting that way? The fact that Demian was aware of his own behavior was shocking. He leaned forward, still in disbelief, to hear his own words.

“I’ll explain. I’ll tell you everything about why it had to be that way.”

He rolled his eyes, looking only in one direction.

“But we can’t do that here. There might be ears listening…”

Muttering this, Demian wiped his face again. Whenever he rubbed his face so roughly, it usually meant he was losing control of his temper, which sent a chill down my spine.

Should I pick up what I just said now? A sense of unease rose from deep within me.

It was then that Demian, brushing aside his fallen hair, spoke.

“Let’s go up to the ramparts.”

* * *

‘My sister will understand this much.’

As he led his younger sibling up to the ramparts, after years of not seeing each other, Demian thought.

‘I’ll explain the details, so just focus on bringing Iella back to the south.’

Before leaving for the north, Iswen had said that to him.

However, the Iella he met again had changed a lot since childhood.

It wasn’t necessarily bad that she had changed. Demian didn’t care what form his sister took.

The problem was that the grown-up Iella no longer trusted him.

It was understandable. Though he wasn’t particularly good at understanding others’ feelings, Demian knew that he and his brother had failed to be someone Iella could rely on.

Thus, in order to gain the necessary amount of trust, he had no choice but to reveal the secrets he had hidden from Iella.

That was the reason for bringing Iella up to the ramparts. He didn’t know what kind of eyes and ears might be in Raslet.

Since he was going against his brother’s wishes, Demian wanted to act cautiously. Unlike inside the castle, where there were many places to hide, once he was on the ramparts, he could at least confirm with his own eyes that there were no people around.

Demian asked his younger sibling, who was following him a little behind.

“Are you cold?”

“……No.”

But her face was pale for that reason. Just as he was about to say something with a furrowed brow, Iella asked.

“Um, you’ll only talk about what’s necessary on the ramparts, right?”

“Of course.”

After hearing the details, Iella would understand how much their brother and him cared for her.

Then she would easily discard a husband who was worse than an enemy. Still, he was concerned about his sister’s poor complexion. Demian urged her again.

“I’ll only have a short conversation. But if you really don’t want to go, just say so.”

Iella lowered her gaze and shook her head.

“……No, I can go.”

Finally, when they reached the ramparts, a cold wind blew. The sound of the wind was strong, but it was actually okay at this level.

He could hear the voices of people nearby, but they wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop on conversations from far away.

However, if they stayed too long, Iella would surely get cold, so he decided to speak only what was necessary and go down quickly. Thinking this, Demian turned back and asked,

“Are you really not cold?”

Soon, Demian’s eyes widened.

His sister was shivering with a corpse-like face.

* * *

“Let’s go up to the ramparts.”

When Demian said that, the first thing that came to mind was a memory from the past.

The whip that sliced through the air like the cry of a beast and the burning sensation felt on his back. Though it had never appeared in a nightmare, if it had, it would have ruined all my nights.

It was a moment that had now vanished, leaving only a scar, but I could vividly recall it whenever I wanted. I had simply buried it consciously. There were many other painful memories as well. So, I thought I could endure it this time too.

But as I stepped into the place where the cold wind howled, my stomach involuntarily chilled. I felt nauseous and bent over without realizing it. Demian, looking back at me, asked in a rising voice,

“Why does your face look like that?”

I stammered a response.

“I, I’m just feeling a bit unwell…”

“Feeling unwell?”

He asked again, as if he couldn’t believe it, and then suddenly grabbed my arm. In an instant, I was hoisted onto his back. It was so surprising that I couldn’t even believe it; I had never experienced this even as a child.

Carrying me, who was frozen in place, Demian quickly descended the stairs they had just climbed and shouted,

“Get a doctor!”

Only then did I begin to realize what kind of situation we were in. I hurriedly tried to stop him from causing a commotion.

“I’m, I’m fine.”

It wasn’t that I felt unwell; it was the memories that had resurfaced that were the problem. I thought resting would make it better, and I didn’t want to make a fuss.

Demian didn’t listen to my words. Before I knew it, he had returned us to the parlor where we had been together and set me down on the sofa.

“Fine? What’s fine about looking like a corpse…!”

Thanks to Demian’s straightforward way of speaking, I could guess what I looked like even without looking in a mirror.

“Are you hurt? Did you catch a disease?”

I couldn’t say anything to him as he held my wrist and asked questions. I had been taken hostage instead of my husband’s childhood friend, and there I had been whipped. It was something I had never experienced in my life, so perhaps it still hadn’t been forgotten.

There was no way I could say such things to Demian.

Before long, the doctor Demian had requested arrived. It was Luke, a familiar face I had seen several times. Immediately after, Apple rushed into the room behind him.

“Miss!”

Her hair and outfit were disheveled. It seemed she had hurriedly come because she was holding back due to Demian’s temper.

Demian strode up to Apple.

“You’re Iella’s maid.”

Looking around, Demian barked, “Everyone out except for this girl and the doctor.”

Seeing him act like this, just like he had in Rowen, left me speechless. If Demian behaved like this, the one who would ultimately bear the brunt of it would be me, which made it all the more frustrating.

Apple didn’t seem to care what Demian was doing. She sat down next to me.

“Miss, what happened?”

As she gently stroked my cheek with her warm hand, I tried to steady my breath while leaning into her embrace.

“On the wall, the wall…”

Before I could even finish saying I had gone up, Demian interrupted.

“Why is she like this? What happened?”

It was then that Apple turned to Demian sharply.

“Did you take her to the wall? How… what happened to her up there? Is she alright?”

I knew Apple had wanted to say this for years, but I never expected her to say it so openly. I was so shocked that I didn’t even think to stop her and just stared blankly while leaning against Apple.

It seemed Demian was just as flustered. He blinked his one eye and asked,

“What do you mean? Speak clearly. What on earth happened on the wall…?”

Still glaring at Demian, Apple raised her hands to cover my ears.

Even so, it wasn’t completely soundproof, and I could hear everything she was saying.

“Miss was whipped on the wall.”

“…What?”

“So if you have any conscience…”

Before Apple could finish her sentence, I heard the sound of the parlor door opening.