Don’t Ask, It’ll Hurt If You Know - Chapter 48

It must be a dream again.

Chloe was certain it was a dream, because there was no way Ian MacMilden would smile so prettily at her otherwise.

However, the fact that Ian was appearing so frequently in her dreams lately felt a little unsettling. It felt even more ominous because she had recently dreamed of the exact scene where he and Bianca met at the Basilock Grand Temple.

If so, is this also a scene where Ian and Bianca meet? Or is it merely a simple fantasy manifesting as a dream?

“Hello, Chloe.”

She was thinking it must be the latter, given the overly close distance with Ian, when his low voice reached her. His voice, too vivid to be a dream, traveled through her eardrums and into her head. The touch of his fingertips against her cheek was cool yet soft.

Only then realizing it wasn’t a dream but reality, Chloe was startled and quickly pulled her upper body upright.

“Ugh.”

But perhaps because she had been lying down for so long and rose too suddenly, an intense pain shot through her waist and around her solar plexus, causing her to fall forward instead of standing up. If Ian hadn’t quickly grabbed her arm, she would have buried her face in the blanket.

“Are you alright?”

Chloe, who answered by simply nodding her head, rolled her eyes to look at Ian’s face. The pretty smile she had seen when she first woke up was nowhere to be found, and the usual expressionless face was before her.

It seemed that smile was definitely a fantasy. Just as Chloe, feeling a little aggrieved, was about to say something, she heard hurried footsteps.

“Are you alright, My Lady!”

It was Dr. Bertrand. Behind him, Dorothy, who was crying profusely, was also visible. As the doctor approached, Ian moved to give him space.

Dr. Bertrand set down the medical bag he had brought on one side of the bed and carefully checked Chloe’s condition.

“Is there anywhere you feel discomfort or pain?”

“No. Not particularly.”

“When she woke up, she was sweating cold and looked extremely distressed.”

When Ian started to say something unnecessary, Chloe narrowed her eyes and glared at him. Despite her silent look telling him not to, he paid no attention and meticulously explained the state she was in when she woke up. Dr. Bertrand listened seriously to his story and asked Chloe.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“……I did have a nightmare.”

I am experiencing a nightmare, or perhaps something worse, even now.

Chloe swallowed the words she couldn’t say and shrugged her shoulders. The doctor, who didn’t have the ability to read her mind, began to nag, saying it was because her body was weak, and while medicine was important to restore her vitality, she also had to eat well.

If she had just said she was fine, he would have let it go, so why this trouble? Chloe glared at Ian, having to listen to scolding she didn’t need to hear. Today, his shameless face looked even more obnoxious.

“My Lady? Are you listening to me?”

“Ah, yes. I’m listening.”

Knowing that he would nag even more if he caught her being distracted, Chloe nodded her head like a well-behaved student. Dr. Bertrand smiled contentedly and continued.

“Still, I’m glad to see My Lady awake today. I had heard a few times that you woke up, but I never saw it, so it kept weighing on my mind. That’s why I’ve been staying at the Count’s mansion since yesterday. So I could rush to you the moment you woke up.”

Dr. Bertrand left the bedroom, saying he was staying on the first floor and to call him whenever she needed him.

Dorothy, also following the doctor’s advice that she had to eat well to recover her vitality quickly, rushed out to fetch a meal.

After they left, an awkward silence hung in the bedroom. She had known Ian MacMilden for quite a long time, but this was the first time being with him felt so uncomfortable. It hadn’t been like this even when she first met him. As her mouth and lips dried up, Chloe moistened her chapped lips with her tongue.

“Here.”

A glass of water was suddenly held out in front of her, and Chloe, who unconsciously took the cup, blinked her eyes wide and looked up at him.

“You’re not going to drink it?”

“Huh? No, I am.”

She was clearly thirsty, but Chloe drank the water with the strange feeling that she was being forced to drink it because Ian offered it. As she drank the cool water, her rigid mind slowly began to clear. With that, the basic question of why Ian was here arose.

If she was curious, all she had to do was ask.

“Why are you here?”

The moment Chloe asked the question, she recalled what happened at the Basilock Grand Temple yesterday.

Did he come because of that? She desperately hoped not, but since there was no other guess she could make, she felt anxious. Her unease intensified when Ian let out a laugh that sounded like a self-derisive chuckle.

“Why would I be here? I came to visit a sick friend.”

“……Is that all?”

“That sounds like a question implying you wish there was something else.”

While hitting the nail on the head, his reaction was different from usual, causing Chloe to flinch and tightly grip the empty cup. Normally, if she had asked him like this, he wouldn’t have remained silent as he was now but would have pried and asked what she was hiding and to tell him the truth.

He must have come because of the sapphire. What should I do?

Of course, she should apologize, but the problem was that Chloe Elena wasn’t supposed to know what happened yesterday. The moment she revealed that she knew everything, she would be suspected, so Chloe couldn’t say anything. Even in that moment, her mind spun quickly, considering how to resolve this situation.

“……I’m ready.”

If she couldn’t speak first, she would make him speak first. Chloe straightened her back as much as possible and looked at Ian MacMilden with a resolute gaze.

“I’m ready to hear whatever you have to say, so you can say whatever you want. I’ll listen to anything.”

Ian’s lips tilted diagonally to one side.

“You’re ready to hear anything?”

The moment she saw that, Chloe felt something was wrong, but the water was already spilled. Since she couldn’t take it back now, she tightly clutched the blanket and nodded her head.

Ian, who had been looking down at her face, which clearly showed her nervousness, sat on the bedside. As one side of the bed dipped, her heart dropped with it.

“Then let me ask just one thing.”

“……What is it?”

“Are you going to marry the Crown Prince?”

What kind of nonsensical question was this? Completely missing her expectations, Chloe was flustered for a different reason and looked at him. Ian met her gaze directly and pressed her.

“Answer me. Do you have even the slightest desire to marry the Crown Prince?”

“……Are you serious?”

“Do you think I would joke about something like this?”

It was even more absurd because it didn’t seem like a joke. She didn’t know what he was thinking to ask something like that, but this she could answer definitively.

“No.”

The blue eyes staring straight at Ian MacMilden were not just firm but cold.

“I will not marry the Crown Prince. I will not marry the Crown Prince, or any other man.”

Ian nodded at her clear-cut answer, which made her previous hesitation feel like a lie. However, his expression wasn’t very good, perhaps because it wasn’t the answer he wanted. It was difficult to define exactly how he looked, but if she had to define it, it was perhaps troubled.

Could he have wanted a positive answer? If so, then she was disappointed. Chloe had always said she would never get married. Since she had clearly stated that even at Rumonie, there was no way Ian MacMilden wouldn’t know.

Marriage. At the thought of the terrifying word, Chloe shuddered and turned her head away.

She wanted to scold him and ask why he was asking such a thing and if he, too, wanted her to get married, but since she also had her own fault in this situation, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

But was that really all of the questions? Since he said he would only ask one thing, it seemed he wouldn’t ask anything more…….

“Excuse me for a moment, My Lady.”

The conversation was interrupted as Dorothy returned, pulling a food tray.

The large tray held a rather large amount of food for one person to eat. There were also some foods that Dr. Bertrand couldn’t possibly have allowed.

When Chloe looked at her in confusion, the maid replied, glancing at Ian.

“The Young Duke has not had lunch yet, so I brought some for him as well, just in case.”

“I told you I was fine.”

“What’s fine about it?”

Chloe countered Ian’s refusal.

“Let’s eat together. I didn’t want to eat alone anyway, so this works out perfectly.”

The moment he saw her smile innocently, as if it truly worked out perfectly, Ian recalled the hunger he had forgotten. Suddenly, the delicious smell of the food stimulated his nose, and a desire to eat something came over him, so he readily nodded his head.