Deceived, Yet Drawn to You - Chapter 101

The servants who had come out to the entrance hall to greet them shrieked in shock. Blair, who had just returned to the mansion, didn’t seem to grasp the situation properly even as she faced Rufus. And Rufus didn’t miss that opportunity.

“…Ugh!”

“Good heavens, young master!”

Rufus’s eyes, bloodshot with a sense of defeat, shook wildly. His entire face was flushed red like a demon as he lunged at Blair.

“Ah! Madam…!”

“Kyaa!”

Screams erupted from all directions, no one knowing whose they were. At the instant the air felt ready to burst from tension, Rufus’s fist, swung with such force that veins bulged over the back of his hand, stopped dead in midair.

“…!”

Feeling solid resistance, Rufus flinched. Only after a brief silence did he realize he hadn’t touched even a single strand of Blair’s hair. The woman who’d been right in front of him a moment ago was nowhere to be seen, and only a man’s broad shoulders blocked his view. Like a wall Rufus could never cross, no matter what he did. Panting in fury, he lifted his gaze.

Edmund stood with his back completely to Blair, gripping Rufus’s wrist. He’d snatched it before it could ever reach her.

At the same time, a crushing grip clamped down, strong enough to feel like bones might break. Only then did Rufus come to his senses and glare viciously at Edmund.

“You… you filthy bastard, let go of me right now!”

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

The low voice that fell over his head was colder than ice. The eyes staring straight at Rufus burned with frigid rage.

“Let go!”

As the feeling of blood flow vanished and unbearable pain followed, Rufus screamed in a shrill voice.

“Aah! Mother! Mother…!”

Even at his cries for Isabelle, Edmund didn’t relent and twisted Rufus’s wrist, slamming him hard toward a cabinet near the entrance.

With the weight of two men colliding, the glass bottles on the cabinet shattered with a crash. The maids’ screams rang out, sharp enough to tear at the ears. The hand gripping Rufus’s wrist shifted, and before anyone realized it, Edmund had seized Rufus by the throat.

“Ghk! Khhk…”

“There’s a limit to how far you can go.”

“…Let go, let go…”

“How dare you raise a hand at her?”

Anyone could tell Edmund had lost his reason. He was a man who’d endured Isabelle’s humiliations for over twenty years without ever losing his composure.

A few steps away, Blair trembled with a pale face. When she saw Rufus’s face turning blue, she sucked in a startled breath and hurriedly grabbed Edmund’s shoulder.

“E-Ed, stop…!”

But his body, solid like stone, did not budge. No matter how she tried to stop him, he was too enraged to hear. At the same time, another voice rang out from the stairs.

“Let go of my son at once!”

Edmund, breathing low, slowly turned his head toward the sound. Isabelle came running down, clutching her skirt, all the color drained from her face.

“I said let him go…!”

What followed was a voice that sounded almost like a plea. Edmund narrowed his eyes slightly, still gripping Rufus’s throat.

That noble-born woman who’d trampled and humiliated the bastard of House Libert her entire life was begging him. Isabelle, who’d ruled through arrogance and self-righteousness, looked ready to drop to her knees before Edmund. It should have been satisfying to see, yet his insides twisted strangely. As his grip tightened with a quiet pressure around his half-brother’s throat, Edmund became aware of a small warmth clinging to his shoulder.

“You can’t do this, Ed….”

“….”

“I understand that you’re angry, but this… this isn’t like you.”

Rufus, trapped in that vicious grip, was now rolling his eyes back. Edmund stared down at that face for a moment, ground a curse between his teeth, then flung him away as if throwing off filth.

Freed at last from the hand choking his airway, Rufus collapsed face down on the floor and broke into dry, hacking coughs. Isabelle rushed over and carefully cradled her son’s head against her skirt. Turning his eyes away from the revolting sight, Edmund finally looked back at Blair.

Shaken by the sudden chaos, the woman was trembling like a leaf. Compared to Rufus, she was the one who looked as if she might faint at any moment. Edmund slowly reached a hand toward Blair’s cheek, then hesitated, afraid she might collapse.

How could anyone swing a fist at a woman so fragile she barely weighed anything? Even when he tried to suppress it, rage surged up regardless.

“Hk… hhuu….”

“Oh, my son… my child, are you all right?”

After checking Rufus for a long while as he gasped for breath, Isabelle shot Edmund a glare with tear-filled eyes.

“You… what on earth do you think you’re doing! Do you really think you’ll get away with this?”

“You’ve got some nerve saying that.”

Turning his head, Edmund looked down at the hat lying sprawled on the cold stone floor of the entrance hall.

“If you were going to do something you couldn’t take responsibility for, you should’ve been prepared for this much.”

“My son was just angry. Wouldn’t you be too? Hearing out of nowhere that you’re being sent off to Rorschach to live under a woman’s shadow. Wouldn’t that make you angry as well?”

“If he wanted to vent his anger, the target should’ve been me. Why did he resort to violence against my woman?”

“….”

“And your assumption is wrong. From the start, I would never have ended up marrying a woman from Rorschach.”

Edmund twisted his lips.

“Unlike Rufus, I’ve never lived by relying on a pretty face or bloodline alone.”

As soon as he said it, Blair stiffened at his side. Unaware of that, Edmund continued without pause.

“Consider yourselves lucky this is where it ended. I would’ve been justified in retaliating the same way, but I held back for my wife’s sake.”

“You, you….”

“The wedding is right around the corner. Rufus has nothing but his looks, so make sure you discipline him properly. Otherwise, there’s no reason Rorschach would take him in.”

With a mocking glance at Isabelle, Edmund wrapped an arm around Blair’s shoulders and started toward the bedroom. Behind him, Rufus, still coughing, shouted after Edmund’s back in a completely hoarse voice.

“You stole everything that was supposed to be mine. That place was mine. Everything you have belongs to me!”

Unlike Blair, who faltered at those words, Edmund didn’t turn back even once. When she carefully looked up at his face, she couldn’t find even a trace of wavering there.

***

Back in the bedroom, Blair went into the bathroom alone at Edmund’s urging that she wash first. She stood under the pouring water for a long time, but the negative thoughts clinging to her mind refused to wash away.

In truth, her emotions had been tangled ever since they left the capital and returned to Eldenvale. Even in the carriage, leaning almost into Edmund’s arms while feeling his gentle hand stroking her hair, she couldn’t shake the unease hanging over her chest. That was the case even though she’d accepted his apology and returned like lovers closer than ever.

Because she knew this was nothing more than a temporary patch.

She knew the relationship wouldn’t last unless the fundamental problems were resolved. And there was also the unresolved matter of the witnessing ritual.

Who could have known that the night she opened her heart to him would turn out to be so humiliating? Of course, from Isabelle’s perspective, who wanted nothing more than to drive a wedge between her and Edmund, malice was inevitable. If the misunderstanding was tainted by Isabelle’s influence, then it was only fair to hear Edmund’s side as well. But….

Where did the truth end? Did Edmund really use her feelings to secure his position as heir? Enough to station Rufus outside their wedding night bedroom? The more she thought about it, the more her anxiety spiraled without end.

In the end, it all came down to trust. Because her faith in the man was shallow, her heart wavered again and again. Even while unable to fully trust Edmund, Blair still wanted to remain by his side, longing for love. Even if she had to cover her ears and close her eyes, even if she had to hold tight to the anxiety crouching in her chest.

And it was in that fragile state, having barely patched the relationship together, that she ran into Rufus the moment she returned to the mansion.

Both the way his inferiority toward Edmund erupted into violence directed at her, and the fact that Edmund nearly killed him in response, were shocking. Yet what kept echoing in her mind was not that, but Edmund’s voice, which somehow felt like it reflected her own situation.

That unless you had a presentable appearance or noble blood, you were not even useful. That otherwise, you were not worth looking at. Those words felt as if they were aimed at her as well.

‘…No. That’s just another form of inferiority.’

Blair murmured to herself and tried to steady her mind, but once ignited, those thoughts were not easily extinguished.

“Haa….”

Only after a long while did she finish bathing. She slipped on a robe and pushed open the bathroom door, then met Edmund’s eyes. He was seated at the table by the window, idly turning a glass in his hand.