I Picked Up a Witch With Amnesia

10. What Happened One Night – 08

The mansion of Duke Dekaraznan, in front of Sarah’s room.

Instead of going into the room, standing in front of the door, Cain and Sarah were facing each other. Cain was currently wearing only one shirt. Because Sarah’s clothes were soaked with rain, he took off his cloak and wrapped it around her in order not to reveal her like that in front of others.

‘…Cain.’

Sarah couldn’t stand it because she was more concerned about the fact that she was wearing Cain’s cloak than the fact that her clothes were soaked in the rain. It could have been his own illusion, but it seemed that his body odor was subtly buried in this coat.

‘…Perhaps it smells strange from me, right?’

This cloak is definitely Cain’s. Later, when I returned this coat to Cain, Cain accepted it.

– Sara, does this coat smell strange?

If he said that, he might faint right away, so Sarah had no choice but to wrap herself up in a cloak even more. Since it happened like this, his coat was soaked with water, so I made an excuse that I would wash it and return it later, so I wouldn’t give it back today.

Whether or not he knew Sarah’s intentions, Cain only looked at her with an eye that he was really worried about her. I couldn’t help but be worried when a delicately grown, weak woman from an aristocratic family was soaked in the torrential rain like that.

“Sarah, then rest in peace. If you build up your pride by pretending that nothing is wrong or that you are fine, you could get sick later, so don’t overdo it today.”

“…Cain. am i annie? Or are you my mother? No, I don’t think my mother interfered as much as you did.”

When Sarah answered in a pouty tone for some reason, Cain sighed softly and stared at her whole body.

“…What, what are you looking at…?”

Sarah involuntarily wrapped her arms around herself, but unfortunately, what Cain wanted to see wasn’t her curves, which were so wet that the inside was clearly visible.

Cain’s gaze glanced at her once. Her lips were pale blue and her complexion pale. Only the cheeks and forehead were left with a reddish tinge, which, by all accounts, seemed to be the first sign of hypothermia.

‘It’s a very damn right symptom.’

Cain also knew all too well how terrifying hypothermia was because he had suffered a severe fall for a year during the expedition. As they approached the Duchy of Estelle from the islands to subdue the Witch of Winter, the snow grew stronger and the cold grew harsher day by day. There were countless days when fist-sized hailstones fell from the sky or record-breaking snowfalls that easily surpassed the height of a human being prevented them from moving forward.

If Bianca hadn’t stabilized their body temperature with magic or Ariel hadn’t healed them with divine power, Cain would have had all of his fingers and toes cut off by frostbite before he even reached the Duchy of Estel, leaving him unable to open a spoon properly.

In any case, there was no person in the expedition who did not suffer from hypothermia. Not to mention Bianca, who belonged to the weaker body, and even the princess, whose body was like a monster, would sometimes lie down sick. That much, the winter that raged on the continent was terrible.

As long as he had a history of experiencing pain, Cain was only genuinely worried about Sarah. After all, Sarah was his fiancée in the past. In other words, there was no way he could feel welcome at the situation where the woman he once loved was in pain.

“…Anyway, I hope you take good care of yourself. I don’t want to hear that you’re sick later.”

Saying that, Cain turned away from him without hesitation, and Sarah unknowingly grabbed his back.

“…Ka, Cain…!”

“what’s the matter? Do you still have something to say?”

Although she called him over, Sarah realized that she had nothing to say to him.

“…This, this coat? What are you going to do? Can I really not take it?”

Even thinking about it, nothing but really stupid words came out.

“You can return it later. That’s all right, so go to your room and get some rest.”

Leaving only words of comfort to himself until the end, he soon disappeared.

“…What am I doing…”

Really, I was just frustrated with myself. If I keep going like this, I think that I might just hang around with him until I die of old age.

****

kiik-

Sara opened the door and stepped inside, looking a bit weary. She wondered if she could finally rest in peace without being noticed by others, but unfortunately, it had been a long time since a passenger had already taken a seat in her room.

“Where and what were you doing until you finally entered the room?”

“…Uncle.”

In the middle of the room, her uncle, Gail Cernard, was sitting in a chair waiting for her with the haughty attitude of a room owner.

“Really, it is absurd. Are you crazy, or are you lacking? Are you misunderstanding that we came here to play?”

Even though he entered his nephew’s room without a single word of warning, the only thing that came out of his mouth was primary criticism of his nephew. The only thing that mattered to him was the fact that he had come to her room because he had something to say, but he had to wait here for a long time because Sarah was away at the time.

He didn’t care if Sarah’s clothes were soaked, or if her face was pale from it, or if his niece was shivering from the cold. What he was interested in was Sarah Cernard as a ‘tool’, because Sarah Cernard as a human being was not his interest.

“…sorry. Uncle.”

In spite of the middle-aged man’s truly arrogant words, Sara had no choice but to bow her head in silence, biting her lips gently. It was truly humiliating to bow one’s head to such a person, but there was nothing I could do about it now. Because, in that human hand, the present-

“Well, it happened. After all, I knew very well that you were a rambunctious woman who only believed in your humble appearance and behaved like an idiot. If it had not been for that smooth face, I would not have brought you to such an important occasion.”

Even though the middle-aged man clicked his tongue and made outrageous insults at her, Sarah just kept an expressionless face and listened to her uncle’s verbal abuse in one ear and let it flow out the other. No, I tried to flow.

Okay. It’s familiar. Ever since the man who was the head of Count Cernard’s family and called his own father made the man in front of him take charge of his ‘discipline’, this kind of insult was really nothing among the things he did to himself. So, it’s something you just have to be patient with. …Okay, bear with it. It’s just a matter of passing this moment somehow.

“By the way, Sarah. How’s the seduction of Duke Dekaraznan going? Even though the Duke of Dekaraznan has a fiancée, I don’t think it would be too difficult to seduce him with your body.”

Saying that, the middle-aged man glanced at her whole body with a genuinely grim look. Sarah instinctively felt a physiological disgust at the disgusting gaze that seemed to lick her entire body. …indeed, it gives me goosebumps. Would he be able to look at his one and only nephew with a lewd and sinister gaze?

At this moment, he knew very well what kind of answer his uncle wanted from him. He was forcing her now. For the sake of the family, her niece seduced a man like a prostitute in the red light district, and was blatantly forcing her to take it into her hands.

“…Uncle.”

Alas, if it were me in the past, I might have accepted such a disgusting offer. He might have openly opened his legs to Duke Dekaraznan, acknowledging that there was no meaning to a body that had been cultivated to be sold elsewhere at a high price anyway.

However-

“…I.”

– Because I’m worried. It’s raining outside like this, how could I stay still after hearing that you suddenly disappeared?

She was no longer who she used to be. The pessimistic woman of the past, who was pessimistic about the world itself, had already disappeared. It was not at all that she longed for the desire to monopolize him now and again. The things she wanted didn’t exist either then or now.

…but I just admired it. For the sake of myself, I just wanted to stay by his side, who stretched out his hand without a moment’s hesitation. I just wanted to rely on her as a support even a little more. It was only in my mind that even such a self would be allowed to that extent.

He didn’t want anything more than that, and he firmly believed that he shouldn’t ask for anything. A man like him, a woman like himself, didn’t suit me.

“…I will not. Uncle. I will never be able to seduce the Duke of Dekaraznan.”

“…what?”

“I can do anything else. However, you cannot whisper love to someone you do not love and seduce him.”

Because, deep in her heart, she had already embraced another man. Even though I know very well that love will not come back, I don’t want to have any regrets towards him anymore.

She firmly shook her head at her uncle’s words. It was an obvious, dissenting expression.

For a moment, there was only cold silence in the room. The middle-aged man puts a really dumbfounded expression on his face, and that face soon turns into a face full of anger.

“…under. Today, you talk a lot, Sara.”

The middle-aged man jumps up from his seat and strides towards her. The uncle’s arm rises slowly. Seeing her uncle like that, Sarah closed her eyes tightly without realizing it.

That person has always been like that. If anything didn’t go his way, he was the kind of person who did not hesitate to use violence even against his niece, who was much younger than himself. Sarah’s hands trembled, just a little, as she imagined the violence to come. More than the pain caused by violence, she felt so sorry for herself that she couldn’t say anything even after being assaulted by a man like that.

“…seems cunning.”

…But the man’s hand didn’t hit her on the cheek. No, I had no choice but to be patient. Even if it was Count Cernard, it was an act that was too risky for the Duke of Decaraznan to wield violence against his nephew.

“…no, yes, no no. I don’t know where else, but I can’t possibly touch your face. It’s a precious ‘product’, but it’s a precious asset that you don’t know when you can bewitch the Duke of Dekaraznan. Isn’t that so, Sara?”

The uncle’s hand gently caresses the part of Sarah’s neck, through her shoulder, and down to her cheek. His touch was very different from Cain’s touch that had once been for her. To be specific, it was disgusting. Every time he caressed her skin, Sarah had to taste the terrifying sensation as if several snakes were crawling all over her body.

“Don’t pretend to be arrogant or expensive. Sarah. Don’t you know yourself well? You are just a commodity. In other words, it was nothing more than an ornament that was cultivated with great value in Sernad. When you know that all too well, what are you going to do if you hesitate to spread your legs now?”

“…..”

“Well, since you’re a cute niece, I’ll give you a day or so. During that time, I’d like to think about it a little. Judge for yourself how you act will bring good results to you.”

The middle-aged man, who did not let go of his sticky eyes toward her until the end, quietly left her room, leaving only a sneer at her until the last moment.

“…ah.”

The moment her uncle left the room, Sara, who had lost all strength in her whole body, collapsed onto the floor.

“…ka, in…”

It was scary. The other day, Sara tried something called ‘rebellion’ against her uncle for the first time. But at the last moment, she couldn’t make any protest against the man.

It wasn’t that I was afraid of pain. It wasn’t that the man was afraid. However, because of that fear, she was only afraid of herself who might eventually agree to follow that man’s words.

“…Sorry…”

Eventually Sarah covered her face with her hands and burst into tears. However, no sound came out of her mouth.

That was the last pride that remained of a woman named Sarah Cernard.