My Vengeful Former Lover

After brushing his hair in a brusque manner, Lucius straightened his spine and looked ahead.
He asserted that he didn’t need to think too much and should get to the bottom of the issue.

“Are you done?”

The servant responded nervously to the one-tone lowered voice.
“Yes, m’lord.
But the scholar outside has something else to report.”

“Tell him to return tomorrow.
I’m leaving to see Deatrice, prepare my things.”

“To the madam?”

When the servant asked so suddenly, Lucius reprimanded, “Dare to make your master repeat himself twice?”

The servant quickly realized that Lucius was enveloped in an unusual atmosphere, so he kowtowed immediately.

“I’m so sorry, m’lord! I will do as you say right away!” and then quickly scampered outside the door.

Left alone, Lucius took off his blood-stained clothes.

***

It was already meal time when they arrived at the site and Deatrice was just looking around the status of the distribution of goods, especially with food such as soup, bacon, and bread loaves.

At first, people had a hard time adjusting to her presence and behaved stiffly around her.
Soon enough, the way they treated her became more natural as they had gotten more used to interacting with her.

Suspicious eyes still gathered wherever she went, but at least it was already a lot better than the first time.

While walking and checking to see if everything was evenly distributed to the wounded, she suddenly saw a child, whose height did not even come close to her waist, running towards her.

The boy was playing with his friend and was looking behind him so he didn’t really notice who was in front of him.

He bumped into Atkins who stood in front of Deatrice.

As the boy rammed against his hard body, he grabbed his poor nose and sat down.
Deatrice sent Atkins behind her and crouched in front of the boy.

“Are you alright?”

The soup in a barrel splashed all over his body and bacon rolled on the floor from the bread the boy was holding.

Deatrice knelt and wiped the liquid off the boy’s body with her own hands, not feeling an ounce of embarrassment over her actions just because she was of higher status.
Instead, she displayed a friendly attitude, and he remained as docile as a small animal being petted.

“I… I’m alright.” The boy responded with an awkward voice.

“I’m glad the soup isn’t hot.
Let me see your face.”

The boy raised his head, just as Deatrice had told him, but then it was like he had suddenly seen something beyond her, and his body stiffened.
He urgently pushed her hand away, picked up the loaf of bread that had fallen to the floor, and then hastily walked away.

With his speedy actions, Deatrice was confused, so she looked behind her.

Her gray eyes met with red ones.
Lucius was looking at them with his head tilted crookedly.

“Hello.” came his friendly greeting.
His handsome face wasn’t too cold, but his voice was monotonous.

Deatrice got up slowly and faced Lucius.
She had anticipated the possibility that they may coincidentally encounter each other here, so it wasn’t exactly surprising to see him now.

Back then, he had been very obsessed with her safety and was very sensitive if she was hiding any wounds or injuries.
He had expressed his feelings for her this way.

While conversing with the people here today, her perspective about him changed a little.

“We’ve been with the commander for a long time now, but we’re not the first unit he had taken charge of.
Before, it was the bait corps, commanding them one after another.
No one had been able to do that thing in quick succession.
In fact, he almost died.
It’s terrifying just thinking about it.”

“He’s been baiting for more than half a year? There was no such news in the papers.”

“Well, the only time we need a bait corps is when our military is at a disadvantage.
Maybe the Empire didn’t disclose it for some reason.”

It was the first time she heard about it.
Deatrice had only known about his military life as the newspaper had described—a semi-heroic narrative about a knight favored by the emperor after being saved by him, and then successfully leading their troops in war.

But that would not be able to encompass the six years he spent on the battlefield and what he had experienced there, leaving Deatrice in silence.

“The most difficult thing in war is when a friend, who was just with you yesterday, is found the next day as a cold corpse.”

Pinter shook his head tiredly, adding, “Those were probably the most difficult times in the commander’s life.
The bait corps is literally hell on earth, where less than half survives today, and then half of that half would just be dead tomorrow.”

Hearing Pinter’s words, Deatrice thought how it wasn’t so easy to imagine a life where you lose a friend or a colleague every day.
But having such an experience, Lucius might’ve become sensitive to when his own people get hurt.

With that in mind, it felt a little less annoying when she thought back to when he had locked her up in a room.
Of course, that didn’t mean she would always be willing to follow his will.