Villain, Let Me Touch You! - Chapter 16
It was obvious that he was going to stop my retirement anyway, so I had prepared for it in secret.
But he knew?
As I shook my head, he reached out. A large hand touched my cheek. I felt a rush of heat.
“What’s the matter, Rienna? Not satisfied with the manor? Or perhaps not content with the title of Baroness? Just wait a bit longer. Whether it’s the title of Viscount or a Marquess you desire, I’ll make it happen.”
Money is good, power is good, but I was content with what I had at the moment. If a person gets too greedy, they’ll burst. Right now was perfect. A noble title within my reach, a decent estate, and a lifelong pension. If I managed my assets carefully, both my maid and I could live quite comfortably.
The choice to stay at the palace wasn’t a bed of roses for me; it was more like a path of thorns. I knew what the future held and that there was no place for me in it.
“Please let me retire.”
“No, Rienna, tell me something else, okay?” His voice was sweet as he soothed me.
The tug-of-war to quit or not continued. He objected much harder than I expected. Wasn’t it Helios’s nature to never let anyone go?
I might be competent, possessing special abilities unknown to others, but not so much that Helios had to keep me.
“You aren’t going to leave this palace. I know that.” Helios turned away, not wanting to talk about it any further.
Seeing him move away, I shouted, “I’m resigning!”
My sudden outburst made his back muscles twitch. Slowly, he turned his head. His gaze was unexpectedly fierce.
I screwed up. I made a mistake.
Helios isn’t pleasant, especially to those who oppose him; he never forgave those who challenged him.
A cold sweat broke out, and soon my back was damp.
“Your Majesty, I didn’t mean to shout…” I blurted out in an attempt to steady myself.
Then an unbearable tickle struck my throat. Gulping, as I attempted to take a deep breath, it felt as if my parched throat split open. And then I broke into a coughing fit.
“Cough, cough!”
“Rienna?”
He came closer and looked at me distantly. His eyes were shaking like a ship hit by a storm.
“I’m not trying to sh—cough, cough—shout.”
Oh, why isn’t this cough stopping?
The more I tried to suppress it, the worse the coughing became. My back jerked unintentionally, and my intestines threatened to jump out of my throat.
I raised my hand to say I was fine. I wasn’t, but I thought I would be.
As if to mock me, something gurgled deep in my lungs. Soon my mouth was full of blood, and my hands, clamped over my mouth, were damp. The crimson blood that stained my palm seemed like an indelible mark in my eyes.
What is this? Blood? Is that my blood?
Having never caught a cold in the midst of winter while living as Rienna, the idea of suddenly bleeding seemed unbelievable.
Helios grabbed my limp hand and pulled it up. His face was pale as he knelt down to be eye level with me.
“You… what is this?”
That’s what I wanted to know.
Helios’s eyes fluttered wildly. He had been so calm in the face of his own death, but now he was shaken by the sight of blood.
I looked at him with a strange gaze, realizing that I was the one who was bleeding, and I panicked.
“Doctor, please call a doctor!”
And exactly half a day later, I was told, “You have six months to live.”
I received a terminal diagnosis.
“Rienna is terminally ill? Examine her again.”
Yes, please, try again. There was nothing in the original story about me having a fatal disease.
I looked at Ebony desperately. But she remained unchanged. Her complexion as she spoke was deathly pale.
“No matter how many times I try, it’s the same. She has six months to live.”
Crack.
There was a crashing sound.
It was the sound of my life plan, my happy future, crashing to the ground.
I blacked out again.
