Don’t Ask, It’ll Hurt If You Know - Chapter 43

I shouldn’t have suggested going to the Basilock Temple together.

Chloe tapped her head lightly against the carriage wall, regretting it too late. She wanted to hit it harder, but she couldn’t, since Ian MacMilden was sitting opposite her.

His mere presence was overwhelming, and adding to that, he was watching her continuously, arms crossed as if to make sure she didn’t do anything foolish. It was utterly uncomfortable.

Still, up to this point, it was fine. Although it was stressful, it wasn’t unbearable.

The problem was that her body was growing hotter and hotter, starting from where his gaze landed. It wasn’t the heat of anger, but a s****l heat.

I was aroused by looking at Ian MacMilden! That’s insane!

Chloe hugged her trembling arms and denied it. As if mocking her, the heat grew more and more distinct. Her eyes kept drifting to his lips, and the dream she’d had during her wet dream kept surfacing in her mind.

Kissing him, his face buried in her tits, his rough, cat-like tongue licking her n*****s…….

“Eek!”

Unable to endure the swirling fantasies any longer, Chloe slammed her head hard against the carriage wall. The impact was so violent that the carriage shook greatly.

“Are you alright?”

Naturally, the coachman was startled and stopped the carriage. Ian told the coachman that it was fine and to start moving, then called her name in a voice laced with annoyance.

“Miss Bianca Lloyd.”

“Your Highness.”

At that moment, Bianca’s voice echoed in her mind.

“Oh, Your Highness. Please call my name again. Look at me, look at me, Your Highness.”

Startled, Chloe looked around, then seeing the pink-haired woman reflected in the window, she was even more shocked and shot up.

Just then, a wheel hit a stone, and the carriage lurched violently. Because of that, Chloe lost her balance, stumbled, and ended up inadvertently sitting on Ian’s lap.

Chloe’s heart plummeted to the floor as she faced Ian’s face from a distance of barely a span. The heat she had just managed to quell flared up again, and her mouth went dry.

Meanwhile, her eyes were fixed on his lips. The image of those lips, slick and glistening with saliva, shimmered back into her memory.

I want to kiss him.

Just as the sudden thought struck her and Chloe gasped, attempting to lift her a*s off his lap, Ian shoved her away violently.

“Aack!”

Chloe was flung away with a shriek. The carriage floor was cushioned with carpet, but it didn’t absorb the entire impact.

Stroking her a*s, which hurt enough to bring tears to her eyes, Chloe stood up and glared at Ian, her eyes wide.

It wasn’t even intentional; it was an accident, yet he threw her!

Chloe wanted to snap something sharp at him, but she was rendered speechless by Ian’s glare, which was beyond displeasure—it was contempt.

This was also because the moment she met his gaze, she felt a pain like a hot, sharp poker plunging into and stirring her heart.

“It’s your fault.”

To make matters worse, when Bianca’s voice sounded, Chloe gritted her teeth.

“Because of you, Your Highness hates me now!”

Shut the f**k up. This happened because I suddenly heard your voice, so don’t blame me!

If she hadn’t had that f*****g dream, and if she hadn’t had the ridiculous thought of wanting to kiss him, she wouldn’t have been sitting there spaced out and would have stood up immediately.

If she hadn’t entered this woman’s body in the first place, none of this would have happened!

It was all Bianca Lloyd’s fault—that woman’s fault. Chloe internally cursed the formless Bianca. Whether it worked or not, Bianca’s voice was no longer heard. The strange phenomena of her heart racing or her body heating up when she looked at Ian also stopped.

Instead, she felt slightly nauseous and had a headache, so Chloe put a hand to her forehead and sat down in her seat.

Ian was looking out the window. His face was indifferent, but his eyes held a lingering displeasure that he hadn’t quite managed to erase.

Chloe wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, but she didn’t know how to start, and she feared that speaking up would only worsen the situation, so she remained silent.

She had a terrible feeling that the already long journey was going to feel even longer.

* * *

After the unintentional close encounter, no conversation passed between them until they arrived at the Basilock Temple. The heavy silence pressed down on her shoulders, making her heart feel heavy too.

Though her body was comfortable and she’d saved money, she had suffered greatly emotionally. Having finally arrived at the temple, Chloe practically leaped out the moment the door opened.

Escaping the confined space, where she’d been trapped for over an hour with a man whose mere presence overwhelmed his surroundings, felt like heaven. She even had the illusion of seeing a divine halo behind the temple, which was carved from pure white marble.

Please, let me go back alone. She didn’t have a carriage to ride back in because she hadn’t been able to hire a shared one, but she knew mentioning it to Jeremy would somehow solve it. Or, she could simply ask any visitor to the temple to give her a ride to the nearest stagecoach stop.

Yeah, I’d rather beg than return with that goddamn bastard.

Chloe cursed Ian internally as she watched him stride towards the temple. A mid-ranking priest, having heard the House of MacMilden’s carriage had arrived, hurried out and bowed courteously.

“Jake, a faithful servant of the Chief God Ethos, offers his greetings to Young Duke Ian MacMilden. May the blessing of the gods be with you always.”

Ian nodded slightly, accepting the greeting, and stated his purpose for visiting.

“I’ve come to see Priest Jeremy.”

“Ah, you’ve come to see Brother Jeremy. I will inform him immediately that the Young Duke has arrived. Could you please wait briefly in the reception room?”

Hmm, there’s an advantage to coming with Ian, I suppose.

If she had come alone, she would have had to go through a complicated verification process, starting with identity checks and stating her purpose for meeting Jeremy. Of course, that was because she was using Bianca Lloyd’s identity. If she had come as Chloe Elena, she, too, could have met Jeremy immediately, just like Ian.

I feel it anew, traveling in this body is truly inconvenient.

With an even stronger desire to return to her original body, Chloe hoped her meeting with Jeremy wouldn’t be in vain, and she followed Ian to the reception room.

The reception room they arrived at was just as narrow and enclosed as the carriage. There was one window, but it didn’t open for safety reasons. The thought of waiting for Jeremy with Ian in this stuffy place made her sigh involuntarily, but the silver lining was that Jeremy arrived sooner than expected.

“You came to see me…… Sister?”

Jeremy, who had only heard that Ian MacMilden had arrived, was utterly surprised to see Chloe in Bianca’s form, his eyes wide. Chloe, moved by the appearance of the younger brother she had longed to see, teared up and tried to approach him, but Ian moved first.

“Do you know what this is?”

Ian asked, abruptly showing him the sapphire.

He knew, of course. Jeremy was about to answer ‘a sapphire’ when he paused, noticing Chloe vigorously waving both arms behind Ian. For a brief moment, his mind spun faster than ever before.

“Hmm, so…… you brought the sapphire…… on behalf of Sister Chloe.”

Jeremy spoke slowly on purpose, watching Chloe’s reaction. Seeing her nod fiercely confirmed it was the correct answer. Finally relieved, Jeremy smiled brightly and spoke to Ian.

“Sister Bianca was supposed to bring it, so I was very surprised to hear the Young Duke had arrived. It must have been a bother, but thank you for carrying out her request.”

Jeremy bowed courteously and reached for the sapphire, but Ian clenched his hand, preventing him from taking it. Then, he narrowed his eyes, looked down at Jeremy, and asked.

“Did Chloe truly ask you to bring this to her?”

“Pardon? Ah, yes. She did…….”

“Jeremy just confirmed it.”

Even after confirming it directly with Jeremy, Ian still couldn’t shake his suspicion. Chloe snapped irritably and grabbed the wrist that held the sapphire.

“So, please hand the sapphire over to Jeremy now, and the Young Duke can leave. I have an important matter to discuss with Jeremy privately.”

Ian’s eyebrow slanted upward at the words, which were delivered like a barrage. So what if he glared? She had been nervous earlier, but not this time. Chloe confidently met Ian’s gaze, and as they stared at each other in a virtual staring contest, the first one to turn his head away was Ian.

“……My apologies.”

With that brief apology, Ian handed the sapphire to Jeremy and left the reception room without so much as looking at Chloe.