Chapter 5

“Scrape the fat off a little cleaner. There’s still too much on it.”

I sat in the yard with one leg crossed over the other, directing Luke while he crouched there, face dark, scraping pig fat with all the resentment in the world.

“Chloe Brooks, you are doing this on purpose. When my brother’s here, you never ask to render lard. The second he leaves, you dump the nastiest work on me.”

I walked over and patted his shoulder.

“What are you talking about? This is good stuff. Some years I don’t get to eat pork fat more than once or twice.”

Luke’s expression stayed sour.

“It’s greasy, sticky, smells awful. You’re biased. You just enjoy tormenting me.”

I leaned in and kissed his pale cheek.

“Talk less. You’re about to spit all over my lard.”

He shut up instantly.

His face turned redder and redder, but the scraping speed of his hands doubled.

Only after I poured the chopped fat into the pot did he wash his hands and come back over.

“Give me another kiss and I’ll scrape lard for you tomorrow too.”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“As if I can afford that much pork. Pork’s expensive.”

Luke looked at me in disgust.

“Cheap little thing. I could buy you a hundred pigs.”

I could not be bothered to answer that, so I changed the subject.

“Is your brother’s mission dangerous this time?”

Luke crouched by the stove and obediently fed it firewood.

“He just went back to report in. He should be back tomorrow.”

My eyes darted.

“Then why didn’t you go? Won’t your master blame you?”

Luke looked up at me and scoffed.

“Don’t try to trick me into talking. Do I look stupid?”

I curled my lip.

“Fine. Don’t tell me.”

Anyway, once night came and he ended up dizzy in my bed, I could get all kinds of things out of him.

When that fool felt too good, he listened to everything I said.

Since Logan was away, I planned to question Luke properly and find out who they really were.

But that night, just as I was about to climb into bed, Luke suddenly rolled out of it.

I panicked and grabbed the blanket.

“Hey! I just got it warm. What are you doing?”

He turned back, face grave.

“Stay inside. Don’t come out.”

Then, as if from nowhere, he drew two swords.

With one light leap, he flew out through the window like a dark bird.

I clenched my fists.

What was wrong with him?

The front door was wide open, but he still had to leap out the window and dirty my windowsill.

The sounds of fighting erupted in the yard—hard, metallic clashes in the dark.

I peeked outside.

There were at least fifteen, maybe twenty black-clad men.

Standing not far away with a terrible expression on his face was Ethan.

“So,” he snapped, coughing angrily, “you really dare take what belongs to me?”

The men with him fought Luke in complete silence.

Watching them, I remembered what Logan had once said.

The more I know, the more danger I’m in.

Ethan’s eyes never left me.

Across all those moving bodies, his gaze was fixed and stubborn.

The floating words looked as confused as I felt.

What is wrong with him?

Why is the hero trying to snatch her away by force now?

This whole story’s gone off the rails.

Go, Luke! Protect that face!

It’s simple.

Someone stole his favorite toy.

She didn’t matter much before, but Ethan grew up near princes and nobles. He became an honored scholar. No one ever took anything from under his hand before.

Least of all his legal wife.

That would drive anyone mad.

I held my breath, unable to look away from Luke.

My heart tightened with every clash of steel.

Only when the yard had been cleared and the fight narrowed down to just him and Ethan did I finally understand something.

Luke had not boasted.

Not once.

Ethan seemed to realize it too.

He retreated two steps, actual alarm flashing across his face.

Luke advanced, sword in hand.

Then with a flick of the blade, he sliced through the white fur cloak draped across Ethan’s shoulders.

“I’m not killing you,” Luke said lazily, “because cleaning up that kind of trouble would be annoying. But I’m tired of you showing up to ruin our life.”

The tip of his sword turned.

The threat in it was obvious.

“Get lost. Come again and next time it won’t be your hair falling.”

Ethan was trembling with rage.

But the guards he had brought—all of them—were already on the ground.

Naturally, he did not dare say another word.

Luke stayed outside to deal with the bodies.

I went back to bed.

The floating words were in shock.

She really unlocked the hidden version.

Both guards are top-tier monsters.

Luke just took on twenty men by himself without a scratch.

Now I really want to know who these brothers actually are.

So did I.

I tossed and turned for half the night until Luke finally came back.

He lifted the blanket and slid in beside me.

I frowned.

“Did you wash?”

He paused.

“I did. There’s no blood smell left.”

Then he rubbed against me pitifully.

“Chloe Brooks, you have no conscience. I worked all night and the first thing you do is yell at me.”

I was silent for a moment.

Then he spoke again.

“Chloe, we need to leave Maple Hollow.”

He sounded vaguely aggrieved.

“When my brother gets back, if he scolds me, you have to speak for me. They came after us first. If I hadn’t fought back, you’d have been dragged away.”

I nodded and wrapped my arms around his waist, resting my head against his chest.

“Okay.”

He turned over and pinned me down at once.

“I worked all night. Why are you still trying to tempt me?”

People really were different.

If it had been Logan, he would have hugged me gently and soothed me.

Luke only knew how to hold me tight when it mattered most.

The next day, Luke grumbled the whole time while helping me pack.

“Chloe Brooks, your underthings have holes in them. I’ll buy you new ones. Why are you still keeping these?”

I clicked my tongue.

“Do you even know how to live? They still work.”

Then I thought of something and looked up at him.

“If we leave just like this, what if your brother comes back and can’t find us?”

Luke picked up one of my shirts and frowned at it as if it offended him.

“I sent him a message. He’ll find us.”

That was when I realized he had not been bragging about anything.

Because he moved me from my drafty little shack into a brand-new square house with real rooms and painted beams.

When he had said he could buy me a hundred pigs, he may very well have meant it.

When Logan finally returned, Luke was sweeping the courtyard and cursing the entire time.

“This is the third time I’ve swept it. Your old broken house wasn’t this clean. How many times do you need it done before you’re satisfied?”

My eyes lit up.

I dropped everything and ran straight into Logan’s arms.

“You lost weight.”

I reached up and touched his face.

He took my wrist, brought it to his lips, and kissed it.

“I was delayed coming back,” he said softly. “Sorry for making you worry.”

Luke threw down the broom.

“I’m done. Next time I’m the one going on the mission. Damn it. Chloe Brooks, if you don’t throw yourself at me like that when I come home one day, I swear I’ll strangle you.”

Logan was quiet for a second.

Then he turned his face away.

“There won’t be a next time. I’ve already asked our master to release us.”

The air went still.

Even Luke’s expression changed.

“He agreed?”

Logan nodded.

“There’s only one last mission left.”

Neither brother said anything after that.

I poked Logan lightly in the waist.

“What does that mean?”

He smiled faintly and pulled me into his arms.

“It means Luke and I may have to leave for a while.”

Then his throat moved.

His eyes darkened.

“If we don’t come back… then just do what you did after leaving Ethan. Find yourself another man.”

My eyes stung.

I knew the kind of lives they lived were never safe. Men like them came crawling out of piles of corpses.

But we had lived so peacefully these last days that I had truly begun to think of them as my family.

It was impossible not to fear losing them.

Luke bent to pick up the broom again and snorted.

“She’s crying again. Brother, stop scaring her. Ethan’s twenty men weren’t even enough for me to warm up. Together, we’ve never failed.”

I knew he was trying to comfort me.

So I sniffed and snapped back, “Then if danger comes, you’d better protect your brother.”

Naturally, Luke exploded.

“Chloe Brooks, your favoritism is disgusting! He’s your man and I’m not?”

The new house was big.

Too big.

And too empty.

Logan said it was not safe yet to assign servants to me.

“I arranged a few guards nearby,” he said. “If anyone tells you to run, you run with them. Everything has been arranged.”

Then he put on that dark mask again, lowered his head, and brushed his lips against mine with lingering tenderness.

“Chloe, don’t wait for us. Just live your life well.”

My eyes turned burning hot.

I nodded over and over.

Luke put on his veil too.

In the dim night, he looked just as he had the first time I saw him—dressed all in black, impossible to read.

This time, the talkative one said nothing at all.

He only lifted a hand, wiped away my tears, then turned and leaped out through the window.

I stared.

Then I shook my head helplessly.

The door was wide open.

That idiot still insisted on leaving through the window.

After they disappeared into the night, my tears finally spilled over.

Life went on.

But the days were no longer the same.

Where once there had been someone cursing while sweeping my yard, and someone quietly cooking porridge for me, now there was only me doing everything alone.

I found myself missing my old little house that leaked from every corner.

At least it had not felt so empty.

I sat in the yard, watching day turn into night and night into day again.

The sun rose.

The sun set.

One day followed another.

Only the floating words kept me company.

She really looks like a lonely old widow now.

No, more like a child left behind.

Please, I was about to cry and now I’m laughing so hard I can’t breathe.

The two guards aren’t really not coming back, are they?

Poor Chloe.

And today is the day the hero marries the princess.

She lost three husbands at once.

I sighed.

So Ethan really was getting married today.

I did not know what I felt.

Not sadness.

Something closer to emptiness.

The sky slowly darkened, and I thought rain might be coming.

I got up to bring in the smoked pork hanging by the window before it got wet.

Then I heard footsteps outside.

I froze.

My heart missed a beat.

Was I imagining it?

I turned.

No.

Footsteps.

Fast and urgent.

More than one person.

Joy burst through me so suddenly it hurt.

I ran to the front gate and flung it open—

And felt as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water over my head.

It was Ethan.

He seemed surprised that I had come out to meet him.

He wore bright red wedding robes, though his hair was messy and his whole figure was coated in road dust. Two personal attendants followed behind him.

“Chloe—” He lit up and reached for me. “You knew I was coming?”

I raised my hand to slam the gate shut.

His face changed at once.

He shoved his way inside.

Then from the darkness behind him, two or three black-clad guards appeared.

Ethan looked stunned by the disappointment on my face.

Then rage flared in his eyes.

“You weren’t waiting for me. You weren’t hoping for me.”

“Of course not.”

That only made him angrier.

“Do you know what I have done for you? For you, I threw away everything. My future. My life. I walked away from my own wedding at the risk of losing my head, and this is the face you greet me with?”

I wanted nothing to do with him.

“Who asked you to run from your wedding? If you lose your head, what does that have to do with me?”

The floating words were stunned too.

The hero ran away from his wedding?

What is happening?

Strangely, I kind of think he’s gone crazy for real.

Ethan’s jaw clenched.

“Didn’t you tell me yourself,” he said, “that you would rather die than share your husband with another woman? I gave up my career, my title, everything. I risked execution. All because I could think only of that one sentence. Have you forgotten?”

He reached for me again.

“Come with me, Chloe. Let’s run. Back to Maple Hollow, or another town just like it. I’ll stop chasing rank and office. I’ll sell candy apples again. I miss your smoked pork. I miss you. Come away with me.”

His eyes were redder and redder as he spoke.

“On our wedding night, we knelt before heaven and earth. You swore you would follow your husband all your life.”

I shook my head.

“My first husband is already dead.”

Ethan went still.

Then understanding dawned.

“You weren’t waiting for me.” His expression changed. “You were waiting for those two foreign spies?”

I blinked, not understanding at first.

But Ethan read my face at once.

Then he threw back his head and laughed, tears almost coming to his eyes from the force of it.

“Chloe Brooks. Chloe Brooks. I thought you knew more than this. You can’t even tell what country those men belong to, and you followed them anyway? You really are just as foolish as ever.”

His eyes turned red with anger again.

“Stop waiting. They died three days ago. They stayed hidden at my side all that time to assassinate the crown prince. Protecting you—sleeping with you—was only an excuse to wait for another chance. Did you really think anyone would fall in love with a country woman like you?”

It felt as though a hand had closed around my heart and crushed.

Tears fell before I could stop them.

Seeing them, Ethan was startled for just a breath.

Then his jaw tightened harder.

“Cry then. In this world, I’m the only one who truly loves you. They even hid their names from you. Chloe, they failed. My death was fake. Theirs is real. Come with me.”

He stepped toward me, slowly.

I was hurting too badly to even step back.

All the warmth they had given me, all the gentle care, all the words whispered against my ear in the darkness—at that moment, all of it became the sharpest knife in the world.

It split my chest open.

I could hardly breathe.

And just as Ethan’s hand reached for my arm—

A blade rang from its sheath.

The next second, hot blood splashed across my face.

Half of Ethan’s finger dropped to the ground.

His scream tore through the yard.

And mingled with it came Luke’s careless voice.

“Didn’t I tell you already? Touch Chloe Brooks again and I’ll cut off your hand.”