<CHAPTER 09>
You Are Mad
It was less a question than a declaration.
It was like confirming something as inevitable and unchanging as the rising and setting of the sun.
Evelyn’s black eyes widened into perfect circles.
Fenril stared at his lord in shock, his mouth falling open without realizing it.
The only ones calm in the room were the young attendant Gail and the man who had asked the question.
Evelyn, who had nearly begun pressing him for answers, bit down on her lip.
*I have to be careful.*
*For some reason, if I get caught in Rexfail’s scheme of doubting my identity, it will become troublesome.*
She wanted to know how he had recognized her.
But pursuing that curiosity now would be the same as confessing.
So she locked the question deep inside her heart.
Instead, she began to act.
It was something she had done since she first learned to walk and understand words.
Once she set her mind to it, it was not difficult to mask her true feelings.
“Yes, I am ‘Ivy.’”
The one who reacted first was Fenril.
He looked back and forth between her and the Crown Prince, who showed no reaction at all.
It was the confusion of a sane man thrown among the mad.
Evelyn barely suppressed a laugh.
“Ivy.”
Rexfail called her name in a gentle voice she had never heard before.
Something inside her felt ticklish.
It seemed to start somewhere behind her ear, or perhaps lower in her throat.
She shivered slightly, as if trying to shake off the sensation.
“I may be ‘Ivy,’ but I never permitted you to use my nickname.”
“Permitted?”
There had once been a time when he behaved like a man who required permission to speak, breathe, eat, and move.
Under the watch of Duke Embrio, he had endured suffocating restraints with detached indifference.
But the man before her now looked down at her with arrogance born of innate nobility.
Though he was seated and looking up at her, she felt as if he were towering far above her.
*Rexfail….*
She had once wished to see him like this.
She had wanted him to live proudly as a member of the imperial family, unbowed before nobles or his father.
But she realized now she had never truly imagined what that would feel like.
The pressure he exuded made it difficult for her to breathe.
She realized she had stopped breathing altogether.
When she tried to inhale again, the simple act felt strange and difficult.
*What is wrong with me?*
Her hand rose to her chest.
Rexfail noticed her struggling and withdrew the force of his presence.
The atmosphere softened instantly.
“Easy. Sit. Breathe, Ivy.”
Her vision spun.
She leaned into the hand supporting her.
He guided her safely to a long sofa and eased her down.
Fenril watched everything.
The woman who called herself Ivy rested against the Crown Prince as though accustomed to such support.
Suspicion filled his gaze.
*Her smile earlier. This composure now. And those words.*
*Suspicious. Far too suspicious.*
As a knight, his experience told him to remove her from his lord’s side.
But another instinct warned him not to intrude.
He hesitated.
Meanwhile, Evelyn slowly regained her composure.
Rexfail signaled to Gail.
The clever young attendant quietly left the room with the teapot, making sure the barking dog did not reenter.
“Are you well?”
Rexfail pressed a light kiss to her temple as he asked.
The thought that he was gentle with women other than herself made her chest tighten.
She pushed him away and sat upright.
Though the dizziness had not fully vanished, she could move.
She closed her eyes and curled her shoulders slightly inward.
It was an old habit of the former Crown Princess Evelyn.
Whenever she needed stability or to gather her thoughts, she would fold herself inward like that.
“I am ‘Ivy.’ But I do not know who this ‘Ivy’ you speak of is.”
Rexfail smiled unconsciously.
Even without looking directly at him, she furrowed her brows exactly as she used to.
A small laugh escaped him.
“Your Highness.”
“Call me Rex.”
She ignored him.
“I am Raven. I do not know whom you see in me, but I am not that person.”
It was the first deliberate lie she had spoken.
“I do not know how you learned I was called ‘Ivy,’ but the Ivy you are calling is someone else.”
Leave me.
Just as you did when my poisoned body was healed and you abandoned me without regret.
But as before, her wish was crushed.
“Ivy.”
He lifted her hand and pressed his lips to the back of it.
She flinched as though burned by wax.
He did not release her.
“Evelyn.”
Her thoughts stopped.
The name she had lost in death was spoken again.
And it was spoken sweetly.
Confusion, denial, and the urge to demand answers tore at her.
“You are mad.”
Her voice trembled as she said it.
Rexfail laughed softly.
Each burst of laughter shook his shoulders.
He leaned over her like grass bending in the wind.
She tried to avoid him, but failed.
Rexfail rested against her legs and murmured quietly.
“Evelyn.”
She did not answer.
He held her firmly.
“You have returned. To me.”
His eyes closed in satisfaction.
Across the room, Fenril’s anxious gaze met Evelyn’s restrained one.
