Don’t Ask, It’ll Hurt If You Know - Chapter 33

“Ha, haha…… I’m back, I’m back!”

She was as happy as she had been distressed, no, even more so. While she was laughing like a person gone mad from sheer joy, she heard a knock.

“……Ack!”

Chloe turned her head without thinking and fell over with the chair. Crash! A loud bang echoed in the bedroom. A soft carpet was laid out under the bed, but there wasn’t one near the dressing table. Because of that, Chloe’s face was horribly contorted from hitting her b******s hard on the floor.

However, since the door had burst open, she couldn’t attend to her aching backside and looked toward the door again. Due to the backlighting, she couldn’t see his face clearly, but she immediately knew who it was.

“……Ian?”

How could she not know? It was Ian MacMilden, of all people.

But why is Ian at Countess Elena’s mansion?

Her bewilderment was brief. Her face turned bright red as she realized her ridiculous state. How did she end up in such a state every time she met him? She wanted to jump up, but her damned body wouldn’t listen. Now it was hard to even move a single finger, and as she stood there, unable to do anything, Ian strode toward her.

And then he put his arms under her armpits and knees and lifted her up. It was the so-called princess carry.

Chloe, who had been instinctively hugged in his arms, let out a silent scream. It was because the lewd dream she had when she was Bianca Lloyd came to mind.

The vivid sensations of embracing his neck and passionately kissing him surged back, and her gaze naturally fell to his lips. His thin, red lips looked enticing today.

……Would it feel like that if she actually kissed him?

At the sudden delusion, Chloe slapped both of her cheeks so hard it made a loud smack sound. Ian looked at her strangely, but she didn’t have the time to care about that.

While Chloe was floundering in her delusion, Ian gently laid her on the bed and stared at her. His gaze was so intense that her face felt a tingling sensation.

As her cheeks, which she had slapped hard until they turned red, stung, her delusion faded, but it was still embarrassing and awkward to look at his face.

Nevertheless, Chloe did not avoid his gaze. Avoiding it would have hurt her pride and shown that something was up. She absolutely did not want him to find out she had had such a crazy dream.

Her desperate desire not to be caught made her eyes focus. When she glared with a fierce look, a sense of relief flashed in his golden eyes.

“Ha…… it really is Chloe Elena.”

Ian said, sighing deeply as if muttering to himself.

Chloe was about to ask him grumpily who he thought she was, but she froze with her mouth open when he suddenly hugged her. The scent of his body, which she had inhaled deeply without realizing it, was overwhelming. When she exhaled it, her mind snapped back.

“L-let go of me!”

Chloe pushed Ian away with her two trembling arms, which were weak from overexertion. But he didn’t budge, like a massive mountain. Instead, he hugged her slender waist even tighter and buried his face in her shoulder.

“You……!”

“Thank goodness.”

Chloe, who was about to say something, stopped when she heard a voice that sounded like it was about to break. His reliable shoulders were trembling uncharacteristically.

“I’m so glad you woke up.”

His image overlapped with her memory of Ian weeping as he looked at her on the bed.

“Even so, the Young Duke MacMilden seems to be very fond of you, sister.”

“The Young Duke visits you every morning and evening while you’re ill.”

When she recalled what Jeremy had said before, the strength completely left her hands. She still didn’t agree that he liked her. But she could feel for certain that he was extremely worried about her, so instead of pushing Ian away, Chloe hugged his broad, trembling back tightly.

And when she awkwardly patted him, Ian lifted his head. His golden eyes, looking down at her, were not wet at all.

“That’s so clumsy.”

At his scolding mixed with laughter, Chloe’s eyebrows tilted up.

“I’ve never done it before, so of course it would be clumsy! It must be nice for you, being so good at comforting others!”

As Chloe retorted sullenly and tried to push him away again, Ian hugged her waist once more and buried his face in her shoulder. Chloe, who had been caught and hugged him again without meaning to, blinked her eyes wide and then scrunched up her face.

“What are you doing?”

“Keep going.”

“What?”

“You’ll have to practice a lot to get good at it, so keep going.”

What kind of idiotic thing was that? Chloe was dumbfounded, but Ian was serious. That was even more absurd, and she stared fixedly at the top of his head before messing up his neatly styled hair.

Normally, he would grimace and pull away, telling her to stop, but Ian didn’t. He just stood still as if it didn’t matter if Chloe pulled out all his hair.

“You’re not moving away?”

“No.”

That was also absurd, but what made her even more dumbfounded was his subsequent reply. He said it so naturally that for a moment, Chloe wondered if she was the strange one.

“Stop saying weird things and go get the doctor.”

His body, which hadn’t budged no matter how much she pushed him, immediately pulled away at the mention of the doctor. That should have been a good thing, but for some reason, she felt a sense of disappointment. Chloe lightly clenched and unclenched the hands that had been hugging him.

“I’ll go get the doctor.”

“Ah, no……!”

The moment Chloe nodded, hiding her unexplainable feelings of disappointment, she felt a terrible pain, as if someone had hit the back of her head hard. With an inexplicable and intense pain, Chloe couldn’t even properly moan and collapsed forward.

“Chloe!”

Ian was startled and tried to support her. He seemed to be saying something, but at some point, a ringing sound started in her ears, so Chloe couldn’t understand anything.

“You’re so greedy.”

When the ringing stopped, a woman’s voice was heard.

“You have everything, and you can do anything…… don’t steal my prince, too.”

It was Bianca Lloyd’s voice. What was she always saying was stolen? Chloe wanted to tell her to stop talking nonsense and that her delusions were a disease, but her voice wouldn’t come out.

When Bianca’s voice faded, the ringing started again. Beeeep. The sound was so maddening that Chloe wanted to cover her ears, but she couldn’t do even that.

It felt like her body was constantly sinking below the surface of the water.

In reality, even though she knew she couldn’t lose consciousness right now, Chloe was helplessly sucked into the dark water where not a single ray of light could reach.

* * *

“Gasp!”

Chloe opened her eyes, letting out a violent breath as if she had been holding it for a long time. She saw the rustic ceiling, which had been unfamiliar but was now familiar. It was Bianca Lloyd’s bedroom.

No way…… I returned again?

“No.”

That can’t be. It can’t be. It absolutely must not be!

The words she couldn’t say, because she wanted them to be so true, lingered in her mouth and then disappeared. Chloe violently shook her head and got out of bed. When she had returned to being Chloe Elena, it was hard to even move a single arm, but in this body, she could move as she pleased. Although there was a little pain, it was bearable.

After arriving at the dressing table, Chloe pulled away the cloth covering the mirror.

The cotton candy pink curly hair. Her chubby cheeks with lingering baby fat and slightly reddish cheeks, and eyes a little lighter than her hair color.

It was undeniably Bianca Lloyd. Chloe rubbed her eyes until they were bloodshot and slapped her cheeks to deny the reality she was seeing with her own two eyes, but nothing changed.

I really…… came back? I’m Bianca Lloyd again?

“This is insane.”

Her body, which had finally accepted reality, collapsed weakly.

“This is insane!”

A shriek of despair echoed in the bedroom. Chloe, who had slumped onto the floor as if she had fallen, tightly gripped the hem of her skirt until her hands turned pure white. Her lips, which were even more devoid of color, trembled uncontrollably.

In contrast, the eyes looking down at the faded carpet were chilling. It was as dreadful as she had been happy to have returned to her original body. She was also frustrated because she didn’t know the reason for her return, or the reason why she had gone back to her original body in the first place.

“What happened to me, to my body?”

Did I fall into a coma again? I’m not dead, am I? Or did Bianca Lloyd take over?

Either way, it was equally horrible. She decided to put her despair aside for a moment and check on her body’s condition first, so Chloe ran toward the door without even putting on her coat.