Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 104
Meanwhile, Izar, who was holding Freesia’s hand from the opposite side, also clenched his teeth harder when he saw Canopus.
‘What’s a priest who should be celibate doing…’
A suspicious glint flashed in those red eyes as they looked at the struggling Freesia. He hoped it was just his imagination, but no matter how much he looked with his sharpened nerves…
The two must have known each other before.
‘Hold it in.’
That’s not important right now. The immediate issue is that Freesia, who was on the verge of death, has not yet calmed down.
Izar pulled her towards him, away from the priest’s hand, and held her limp body in his arms.
“Is the healing complete? Will it happen again?”
“With four priests praying together, she should be fine. However, her energy has been drained due to the seizures, so a physician should monitor her carefully.”
Izar nodded slowly.
Now that Freesia had passed a critical point, he didn’t want to show this vulnerable side of her to another man.
“You’ve done a great job late at night. You will be rewarded as you wish.”
At Izar’s words, the other priests looked at each other with brightened eyes. They shouted the name of Adamant, but money had long become their other god.
However, unlike the others who left joyfully, Canopus glanced sideways at the bed while covering his face with the hood of his white priest’s robe.
The pale-haired woman in the arms of the large man looked as if she would be swallowed whole.
Those two people themselves didn’t realize that the man’s heart was already in that small woman’s hands.
* * *
After the priests left, Freesia’s breathing became noticeably calm.
However, her face was still deathly pale, and in the faint moonlight, she looked as if she was on the brink of death with a bluish tint.
Izar looked down at Freesia in his arms and occasionally wiped her face with a towel.
Originally, he had intended to speak at this time. To say that this marriage meant nothing and that she also meant nothing to him.
From beginning to end.
However, Izar ended up mumbling different words instead.
“…You were always on that hill.”
At some point, he became aware of the shepherdess’s existence.
Since he was very young, back when his father was still alive.
<Do you think you’re miserable now, Izar?>
From the day his father admonished him, as Izar stood there, unsure of what to do with his bloodied hands from excessive training.
<Then look at that. Look at someone worse off than you. Know clearly that anyone can become such a worm if they fall.>
After his father’s passing, he inherited the dukedom properly.
There was no time for self-pity in those years. But sometimes, no matter how hard he rode, a vague suffocating feeling wouldn’t go away.
In those moments when dealing with monsters didn’t help at all… during such times, he secretly watched this woman.
The girl, much smaller than others her age, couldn’t play with other children. While others played by the stream, she searched for work with her bruised and battered hands every day.
He had never been to the stream. His status was too high for that, and he didn’t have the leisure to idle away.
He wasn’t the only one deprived of joy.
That small child must have it harder than him. She had to do physical labor and support a mad mother.
Watching young Freesia in secret made him feel a bit lighter.
‘I used to console myself, thinking I was in a better situation…’
A lord comparing himself to the lowest of his serfs, feeling superior internally—he even found himself laughing at the thought.
So when he said, ‘If there’s any leftover work at the castle, give it to the mad woman’s daughter’… it might have been his way of wanting to bestow a favor out of sympathy.
It was only later that he found out that the ‘leftover work’ was shepherding, which was difficult for any woman to do.
Hearing this, he felt a peculiar irritation, but Freesia unexpectedly cared for the sheep with perseverance.
If she was handling it better than expected, then that was enough.
Afterward, whenever he looked over his shoulder absentmindedly, he saw the small girl driving the sheep on the hill at dusk, her hair fluttering in the wind.
And then, his always on edge mind would calm down.
This went on as he reached the age of eighteen, Izar thought that feeling was superiority.
Until he saw her foolishly lose a lamb and wander in the forest.
