Chapter 110

“…Malena.”

Odelliana clenched her teeth as she stood beside the bed, staring down at Malena’s body wrapped head to toe in bandages. She had come straight to the infirmary after hearing how grave Malena’s condition was. The woman still had not regained consciousness. Ironically, the one who had been taken prisoner had survived with her life intact, while Malena was the one hovering at death’s door.

“She has passed the critical point,” the attending physician said carefully, as if trying not to startle her. “Please do not worry too much.”

Even so, Odelliana could not banish the gloom from her face.

“…When she was first brought in,” she asked quietly, “how bad were her injuries?”

The physician explained that Malena had suffered multiple severe fractures across her body, along with minor internal organ damage.

“Bone fragments had pierced her organs,” he continued, his tone clinical. “But she was rescued quickly, and we were able to intervene in time. She endured a high fever for the first few days, but it has since subsided. Now all that remains is to wait for the bones to set properly and for her to wake.”

So this was how Malena must have felt, watching her that day.

Odelliana knew she should be grateful that Malena was alive, but the sight of her lying there, broken and unmoving, left a bitter taste in her mouth. After asking the infirmary staff to take good care of her, Odelliana returned to the castle and collapsed onto her bed.

That was when a familiar voice spoke from nearby.

“I heard the lord of the castle even prepared a ship for you. So why didn’t you run?”

Odelliana froze and turned her head. Matthias was leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

“…How long have you been here?” she asked.

“I came about an hour ago and waited.”

He pushed himself off the wall and approached the bed.

“Why did you choose to stay, when you could have escaped?”

There was reproach in his voice, cold and unmistakable. Odelliana let out a hollow, humorless laugh.

“What would have been the point of saving myself and abandoning my family?”

“If you had thought of your disciple, you would have run,” Matthias said sharply.

“So I should have sent you into mortal danger out of selfishness,” she shot back, “and then crawled away alone to save my own life?”

“Yes,” he replied without hesitation. “That’s exactly what you should have done. If I had been even a moment later—”

He stopped himself. His golden eyes darkened in an instant, sharp with a memory he clearly did not want to revisit. He had already been to Malena’s ward. He knew exactly what condition she was in. The image of Malena lying there like a living corpse kept overlapping with Odelliana’s face in his mind. If he had been later. If anything had gone wrong. The thought alone made fury surge through him.

“For my sake,” he continued, voice tight, “for the disciple who walked into hell to protect you, you should have been selfish to the very end.”

Matthias knew everything she had done over the past three years.

He had heard how, when Eisenwald’s gates were first opened, Blair had prepared ships for evacuation, and how she had chosen to remain in the refugee camps instead. How she had taken on the role of a commander, how she had stayed among the refugees, coordinating efforts, treating the wounded, acting as the backbone of the infirmary. When he learned how relentlessly she had worked for three years, rage had boiled up inside him.

“There was only one thing I ever wanted,” he said, his voice low.

Odelliana said nothing.

“Your safety.”

Still she remained silent.

“And your happiness.”

The words struck like a blade. They were not flattery. She knew that better than anyone. Matthias had always proven himself through action, not empty reassurance. From the day they first met until now, everything he had done had centered on her, never himself. Knowing that made his anger painfully understandable.

And yet, even so, Odelliana did not regret her choice.

Even knowing Malena lay broken in a bed. Even knowing she herself had nearly been forced beneath an enemy commander. She did not regret staying.

“Running away and surviving would have been nothing more than an assumption,” she said steadily. “I made the most rational decision I could in that situation.”

Matthias said nothing.

“The enemy had already spread throughout Eisenwald. Even if I had fled along the river, there was no guarantee I wouldn’t have run into them. Leaving with nothing but Malena, Liam, and Sir Martin would have been far more dangerous than staying here, where the allied forces were stationed. I had contingency plans in place in case the gates were breached.”

He dragged a hand through his hair in frustration and exhaled sharply. He was not someone who often showed emotion, which only made the rawness of his anger more palpable. Still, she wanted him to understand, even a little.

“Eisenwald and Blair are just as precious to me as you are,” she said quietly. “This place is my home. Protecting my family and the people I love is my responsibility. That’s why I stayed.”

She believed that, truly. Despite her crippled body, she had fulfilled the roles of dozens of people. Hundreds of patients had passed through her hands. She had organized civilians, issued orders in Blair’s stead, treated the wounded day and night.

Eisenwald could not afford to waste a single person. Even those who were not soldiers had been given tasks. Cooking for the knights, tending the injured, helping with supplies, washing uniforms. Small things, but meaningful ones.

“And in the end,” Matthias said coldly, teeth grinding, “you greeted your disciple naked on the enemy’s bed.”

The sound of his clenched jaw was sharp. It did not matter to him what she had contributed to the war. What enraged him was the suffering she had endured, the danger she had faced, the humiliation she had nearly been forced to endure.

The memory was still vivid. The enemy commander’s thick hands gripping her hips, prying her apart, trying to force his grotesque body into her. Matthias’s eyes went glacial.

He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back. Odelliana fell onto the bed, the mattress yielding beneath her, and Matthias climbed over her, pinning her in place as he looked down at her.

“Didn’t you promise,” he said quietly, “that if I wanted this shell, you would give it willingly?”

“…I did,” she admitted.

“Then you should have treated it with more care.”

Her lips parted, but no words came. Beneath his thin tunic, his body was clearly defined, muscles sculpted and efficient. Just as in her previous life, his physique was beautiful, but now it stirred something different. Heat crept into her thoughts, foreign and unsettling.

His large hand pressed against her flat stomach.

“Master,” he said firmly, “this body now belongs to your disciple.”

She did not answer.

“So I will not tolerate you abusing it any longer.”

He removed his hand, laced his fingers together, and pressed a gentle kiss to the back of her hand. Odelliana watched him and asked softly, “Are you going to take me now?”

“No.” Matthias shook his head. “You need time to prepare yourself as well.”

“You’ll wait for me?” she asked.

“Not for very long,” he said frankly. “I’m impatient by nature.”

He lowered himself against her, draping his body over hers and burying his face against her neck. The gesture was strangely familiar, reminiscent of quieter days long ago, and yet utterly different. His grown body was heavy, solid, unfamiliar. And yet it was not repulsive. There was no instinctive rejection. His embrace felt warm, grounding, like coming home.

After a moment’s hesitation, she wrapped her arms around his waist as she always had. His hands were cold. His chest was hot. The warmth seeped into her chilled body, easing the exhaustion from her limbs.

Odelliana felt relief knowing that he still wanted her. That the feelings born in youth had not faded. At least he would not leave of his own accord.

And yet her heart felt heavy. She still could not return his feelings in kind. All she could offer him was the body she had promised.

“…Didn’t you resent me,” she asked suddenly, “for sending you to the front lines?”

A low laugh sounded near her ear.

“It is impossible for me to resent you,” Matthias replied calmly.

“Even if I drove a blade into your back?”

“If you ordered it, I would do it myself,” he answered without hesitation. “Why dirty your hands?”

“…You’re terrifying,” she muttered, pushing at him weakly.

He did not let go.

“How could I ever hate you,” he said softly.

The words were simple, almost self-mocking, but they soothed her more than she expected. She lifted her head and glanced at his face. When she kept staring, he tapped her cheek lightly with a finger.

“You seem pleased with how your disciple turned out.”

“I’m just… surprised,” she admitted. “I didn’t expect you to change so much in three years.”

He took her hand and lifted it to his cheek. The coolness of his skin made her flinch. He smiled, slow and teasing.

“You may look and touch as much as you like,” he said lightly. “I belong to you now.”

She blinked, flustered, and hurriedly buried her face against his chest.

“…What nonsense.”

Her cheeks felt a little warm.

The presence of the man he had become loomed large, far larger than the boy he once was. Words she would have brushed off before now made her acutely aware of him. He was no longer a boy, but a grown man, unashamed of his desire.

And perhaps, she thought dimly, her own heart had shifted as well during those long years of waiting, if his attention no longer felt quite as unbearable as it once had.