Chapter 23
Chapter 23: Live To Sienna Pt.23
She had decided to take revenge on Arya, and the most important thing for that to come to fruition wasn’t amassing power or gathering information. The key was to give up on Carl.
But seeing him that weak again shook her mind. She wondered if she should remain by his side once more to protect him.
Sienna shook her head. It was due to those kinds of thoughts that Arya had been able to take advantage of her so easily. It had been very simple to use Sienna by digging into her admiration for Carl.
Of course, she wondered what power she had by herself, a little girl who would just have the title of empress, but no political power to back it. But if Carl had had just a little bit less to worry about, Arya would not have been able to pull off her plan. Even his recent speculation on the Bluebells had made him vulnerable.
Sienna took her eyes off Carl’s face and sighed deeply, staring at the ceiling.
“At this rate, it seems Aunt Kelly’s mansion will turn into a hospital.”
She had just come up with that joke to get Carl off of her mind, but her words ended up making her feel more depressed.
Roy, as usual, couldn’t be awoken and was still asleep. Since ten days had already passed, she began to worry that there might be something wrong with him. Sienna sometimes stopped by Roy’s room and placed her fingers under his nose to confirm that he was still breathing. Even if he had saved Kelly’s life, the owner of the mansion, and though he was being cared for, what good was all that if he wasn’t going to wake up?
“Even the concerns I have about Priest Roy are enough to make me feel like I’m dying here.”
She looked Carl lying down peacefully. He was sleeping with a relaxed expression on his face. Her heart ached suddenly for him. The peaceful man had looked so distraught before. So, she used her finger to press firmly against his stiff forearm.
The wrinkles of Carl’s brow narrowed, and surprised, Sienna hid her hand.
“Ugh.”
He opened his eyes with a faint moan. Sienna seemed to be flustered and ellated, and she struggled to keep her face calm. When Carl, who had opened his eyes fully, tried to lift himself up with difficulty, Sienna stopped him.
“The wound hasn’t healed yet, so it’s too early to move.”
Sienna gave him a spoonful of the herbal water that had been previously prepared, but he raised himself up and took the glass of water from Sienna’s hand, as if displeased with being treated as a patient, and drank it in a gulp.
“Are you the one who saved my life?”
Carl looked at Sienna with suspicion, trying to understand why she would have saved him.
“If you want to thank someone, please thank Kevin and Robin. Not me.”
“Kevin and Robin?”
Sienna told him that Kevin was the one who found him, and Robin was the one who carried him when he was hurt. Carl nodded and said that he would repay their assistance. Then, he stared at her face and said, “I think I’ve seen you somewhere.”
He took a good look at Sienna’s face and snapped his fingers suddenly when it occurred to him, exclaiming, “You’re that person from the pickled mir shop!”
The truth was that he had remembered her immediately, as soon as he opened his eyes and saw her face.
He remembered her being unsure of the efficacy of the herbs in her hands when she was holding a pair of scissors. As she had held the medicinal herb above his stomach, she had told him, at that moment, that the only person he could trust was her and that he had no choice but to do so. He couldn’t easily forget her bright red hair.
Yet, he had just pretended to recognize her after waking up. He kept wondering why she had looked at him that way that day, so he didn’t want to tell her how many times a day he had been thinking of her.
Sienna rose from her seat and greeted him formally.
“I’d like to introduce myself to you formally. I’m Sienna, the only daughter of the Waters Family.”
“You knew my name that day. So, you really were from nobility.”
Then, he tried to rise from the bed, but Sienna stopped him.
“Your body has not yet fully recovered. I thought you only had cuts on you, but you were exposed to poison. That’s what has kept you asleep for the last three days.”
Carl scowled at her words. Even if there had been blood loss, it had been strange for him to have lost consciousness that fast.
“I didn’t give you the wrong medicine, so you don’t have to make that face. I was even praised by the best doctor in the city for my proper use of the flopple. The doctor said that there are sometimes cases of assassins using knives coated in poison. He said that extreme poisons that kill the targets as soon as the knives touch them are difficult to deal with and expensive, so most rather use drugs that cause their victims to lose consciousness quickly.”
Carl hadn’t frowned as an insult to her, but because he had been unconscious for three days, and Azrael and Count Peer would have been worried about him. But Sienna’s extravagant response made him laugh. He wanted to talk to her more, but he had to go back to Azrael, who was definitely worried.
“Where are my clothes?”
“The clothes… were covered in blood…”
“Ah… You mutilated my clothes with the scissors. In the midst of all that chaos, I could see you ripping and tearing away at my clothes piece by piece.”
Sienna became angered by his words. She felt sorry for herself that she had remained anxious and worried until he woke up.
‘What did I expect. He has always been this kind of person. No, maybe he’s like this only to me…’
In the past, she had thought he had hated her because he had been forced to marry her because of her and Arya. When Carl woke up, she had wondered if there was even the tiniest of possibilities that he might give a little bit of his heart to the person who saved his life.
Even after doing that, she had still worried. She had worried that facing him would open her heart back up to him and make her heart waver for him again, or that she would become greedy again, but those things were nothing more than a pathetic delusion. He was never a man to give himself up.
“Why is Sir Carl always so cold only to me…”
Sienna unknowingly spoke her mind. She didn’t finish her sentence, shutting her mouth midway, but it was already too late.
“Always?”
“I’m sorry. It was a slip of the tongue.”
“That’s strange. I thought that we first met at the market, but I get the impression that you know me well, or why else would you call me ‘Carl’ as you please, and not ‘Crown Prince?'”
She shook her head.
“No, that’s not it. To me, Carl is also… No, the first time we met, Your Highness, was indeed in front of that pickled mir store. I lived my whole life in Heidel. It’s at the end of the North. How could I have known you? I called Your Highness informally… because I’m ignorant of the manners of the nobility. I apologize if I was in any way offensive.”
Even with her explanation, he still had a doubtful look on his face.
“There’s so much that is suspicious in that statement. You said you didn’t know me because you’ve only lived in the North. So, how come you recognized me at once that time?”
“…”
Sienna couldn’t come up with a good excuse, but she couldn’t tell the truth. Having been married to him for five years, she could not say that it was more convenient to call him by his name than to call him Crown Prince.
“… It was just a coincidence.”
“…”
As expected, looking at his expression, he did not seem to have believed her.
“I’d like to question you further, but I don’t have the time, along with the audacity to blame the person who saved my life…”
He rose from his seat then.
“Are you going to leave? Your body won’t be able to take it yet.”
“I’ve got someone who is worrying about me, so I’ll have to take my leave. I’ll pay you the reward you deserve for saving my life soon. Do you have anything special you want?”