# 47
47
that night,
After talking to Hugo about trivial matters as usual, Angelica went to bed early in preparation for the hunting festival the next day.
She was not expecting a peaceful sleep, as she had recently become accustomed to distorted, formless dreams...
But she did not expect the nightmare to be more severe than that.
“What impudence is this that makes you say such things?”
Angelica's voice echoed within the dream, mixed with a clear tone of exasperation.
Everything in this dream was strange.
She seemed to be Angelica herself, and at the same time like a separate person watching her from afar.
Whenever she tried to fit into the role of “Angelica,” her consciousness kept reminding her insistently that what was happening was nothing but a dream.
“Haven't you realized that this is the only option you have left?”
The voice came from somewhere nearby. It was the Emperor, Cain Avendale.
Her eyes widened in surprise; She had never seen him before in her dreams.
While Angelica's face was frozen, as if it was covered in a layer of ice.
“Do you really think you have no other choice but this?”
The tone of sarcasm in her voice increased, but neither Cain, nor Cyril, nor even Hugo, sitting next to them, commented on her rudeness.
That silence made her even more angry. She ran her hand through her hair narrowly, then stopped when she saw the red thread wrapped around her fingers.
Tons!–
He pulled the thread tightly until it sank into her skin, so she clenched her hand violently, looking at the joints that were red as if they were burning.
“Of course...you don't lose anything, so you can say whatever you want.”
She knew that very well.
They will always come out with minimal losses thanks to her.
As for her...she will remain the only loser, with nothing at all.
It was not her that lost, but the empire itself.
Or rather...Hugo Bernstein.
“Hugo Bernstein...you agree too?”
She asked him in a tone that she already knew the answer to, and pointed to his neck with her hand.
“You know what's going to happen, don't you?”
There was silence.
“It will happen again.”
The word stopped in the air.
“Recurring?”
At that moment, her consciousness returned all at once.
Angelica's lips parted in a crooked smile.
“Everything... will be repeated again.”
Even that thing you didn't dare name.
“Huh!”
She suddenly twitched as if someone had snatched her from the depths of the water.
She gasped loudly, placing her hand on her chest, breathing hard.
Cold sweat drenched her body, and she felt as if the blood had been drawn from her veins.
"my lady!"
The bridesmaids rushed towards her in horror when they saw her trembling like a wet chick.
She couldn't respond, but just closed her eyes tightly.
“It was… a dream.”
But its details were fading quickly, like sand between the fingers.
Only one word remained in her mind:
“Repetition.”
What is repeated? Why did you feel that there was no good in this matter?
With the help of the maids, she sat on the edge of the bed.
Their anxious voices reached her, but she barely heard them.
Then, unwittingly, her eyes fell on Hugo Bernstein standing outside the window.
I exhaled deeply.
The sight of him didn't usually move her heart...but today, it was different.
She couldn't tell what she was feeling—was it anxiety? Or fear? Or something deeper than that?
“Ma’am, are you okay? Are you going fishing today?”
One of the bridesmaids asked her cautiously. Her pale features did not bode well.
In fact, she knew that she was not okay, and that she would be a burden to him if she went.
I can give him the tissue before setting off...
So she convinced herself.
“Yes... I'm fine.”
She said it even though her body denied it.
And suddenly—
Her body lit up with a faint flash.
“I'll go.”
She said it as if her decision had been forced on her.
Why? Didn't know.
She subconsciously touched her neck, and a faint smile appeared on her lips.
“Just a nightmare... nothing more.”
So she convinced herself, while the faint golden light continued to glow around her.
And somewhere, a barely audible whisper echoed:
“It will happen again...”
Did her repeating that she was fine really have any effect?
As soon as they reached the mountains where the hunting competition was to be held, some color returned to her pale face.
“Angelica, you can still come back.”
Hugo said in a worried tone, as he had been observing her features since the morning without taking his eyes off her for a moment.
He had tried to convince her more than once; At the breakfast table, and in the carriage too, but she paid no attention to his words.
As usual...it was no different now.
“I said I was fine, didn't I?”
She shook her head firmly.
Is it reasonable to miss an occasion like this because of a passing nightmare?
She didn't have a high fever, nothing serious...
Just a slight dizziness, and a sharp tingling in her neck, as if something had been hurt there.
“I think I got a little scared last night.”
In the end, she blamed it all on Luke Ratlay.
It is true that his threats were empty, of the kind made by the villains of bad stories.
But for some reason, her neck seemed to sting whenever she remembered him.
“As I expected.”
Hugo's eyes flashed faintly when he heard Luke's name.
He should have gotten rid of him from the start.
While he was thinking about doing this, the Emperor's voice sounded announcing the start of the hunting festival, so Hugo temporarily retreated from his thoughts and listened to Cain's speech.
Meanwhile, Angelica stuck her hand inside the collar of her dress.
Then something small rubbed against her palm.
“Hmm… not that.”
She pushed the bottle aside and fumbled until she finally got hold of the handkerchief.
She looked up at Hugo with a satisfied smile, as if she had accomplished something great.
'Here you finally smiled.'
So thought Hugo, who was watching her in deliberate silence.
She was writhing all night, moaning in her sleep, and repeatedly touching her neck while muttering incomprehensible words.
He didn't understand what she was saying, but the pain was clear in her voice.
That was why, even though it was just a nightmare, his heart remained heavy all night.
"Um… Wego? This…"
She called him in a low voice, extending her hand towards him.
He lifted his gaze from her flushed cheeks, to look at what she was holding.
At her fingertips was a handkerchief.
“This...”
His fingers opened slightly, and his gaze fell on the embroidery.
Black panther, symbol of the Bernstein family.
He stared at him in disbelief, then looked at her again, and she smiled with a gentle curve in her eyes.
“It's a handkerchief. I sewed it myself!”
“You… by yourself?”
“Yes... that's why the tiger's ears might look a little weird...”
Her voice dropped at the end of the sentence, and the tips of her ears turned red in embarrassment.
Hugo studied the handkerchief carefully.
It was not professional embroidery, the ears were too long, and the teeth protruded too much, making it more of a cuteness than a prestige.
However…
The red eyes embroidered in the middle were enough to tell him without a doubt who this handkerchief belonged to.
“...”
He felt something suffocating in his chest.
It was as if his heart contracted and then opened repeatedly, in one moment.
He suddenly remembered her fingers, which were always swollen and red whenever she returned from Cain's laboratory.
'So... it's all for this handkerchief.'
She didn't have to do all this.
However, he couldn't stop the joy from creeping into his heart;
This is the first thing that was given to him completely, for free.
He felt as if something was overflowing at his throat,
Just one word… she was begging to get out.
'I love you.'
A word he did not dare to utter.
But his lips finally moved, submitting to what his heart dictated.
“…Angelica.”
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