Felyn lay on the bed, wondering if he might have overdone it.
That moment in Adeline's arms—it felt like he'd been beaten to death by her.
Right now, he was lying in Adeline's bed, surrounded by blankets and sheets carrying the soft scent of a young girl.
Adeline had slept here before.
Every breath Felyn took seemed to be pressed against the bare skin of that girl.
The private doctors from the Claude family that Adeline had summoned surrounded Felyn in a circle, taking turns examining him.
Adeline, now changed into a long dress, stood off to the side. Her hands were clenched so tightly they’d turned pale, and her eyes never once left Felyn.
Ever since she saw him collapse to his knees, her entire world had crumbled.
She had never thought her actions would truly hurt Felyn.
That moment of panic and regret had drowned her like a crashing wave.
“This is all my fault...” She wanted to ask about his injuries multiple times, but she was afraid of disturbing the doctors, so she could only whisper softly to herself, “How could I do this to you...?”
Felyn, lying on the bed, couldn't keep playing anymore.
Thanks to the healing devices in Adeline's house, his body’s red marks were already fading.
But even so, Adeline still insisted the doctors come and give him a full examination.
As Felyn watched the doctors examining him with such seriousness, he couldn’t help but think—so, I’ve run into colleagues, huh? Everyone really knows how to act.
Calling in private doctors also caught the butler’s attention. Adeline glanced at the communication seal lighting up, then looked at Felyn again before stepping outside the bedroom to explain, just to avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding.
Now only Felyn and the group of doctors remained in the room.
To become a private doctor for the Claude family, you needed more than just top-notch medical skills. You also had to be good at reading the room.
When a handsome young man was lying on Miss Adeline’s bed at her private villa, and Miss Adeline looked so anxious—
Well, no need to guess what kind of relationship they had.
This kid must’ve latched onto Miss Adeline’s golden thigh!
“Mr. Felyn, I’m deeply sorry about your injuries.”
A doctor who looked like the head physician came to Felyn’s bedside, pulled down his mask to let Felyn see his face.
“I left in a rush. This really isn’t much, just a small token.”
He pulled a spell seal out of his pocket and slipped it under Felyn’s pillow, smiling kindly before going on to inquire about Felyn’s condition.
Felyn thought, no wonder you’re the department head! You can even find a way to gift bribes like this.
“Mr. Felyn, I came out in a rush too. I only brought this—please don’t mind.”
“Mr. Felyn, this is a coupon from our beauty clinic. You can get unlimited treatments there for a year.”
These doctors all knew that in situations like this, the patient might not remember who gave him gifts—but he’d definitely remember who didn’t.
“How’s Felyn doing?”
Adeline pushed open the door and entered, seeing the group of doctors all smiling as they stood around Felyn’s bed. She immediately assumed they were giving him last rites.
“Miss Adeline, Mr. Felyn is in excellent health.”
“We gave him a thorough check-up. Nothing serious, but he hasn’t been sleeping well. We’ve prescribed him something.”
“That’s good. That’s really good.”
Adeline finally let out a sigh of relief.
After a while, when the doctors noticed that Adeline’s full attention was on Felyn, they realized they were just getting in the way and quietly excused themselves.
Adeline personally walked them out, then quickly jogged back to Felyn’s side.
“Felyn, are you feeling better now?”
“Mm! I don’t feel any pain at all now—look, there aren’t even any marks left!”
Seeing the energy return to Felyn’s face, a soft smile finally lifted the corners of Adeline’s lips.
She had been so frightened just moments ago.
She never expected that a light wave of her hand would hurt Felyn so much that he collapsed to his knees.
“Adeline, these things…”
Felyn turned and pulled out the thick stack of spell seals from under his pillow. He didn’t know exactly how much money was inside, but it felt like it had to be at least several hundred thousand crowns.
“These are get-well gifts from the doctors.”
Felyn wasn’t dumb. These gifts were clearly meant to get him to speak kindly about them in front of Adeline.
But Felyn didn’t consider himself the type to accept favors and then turn around and be disloyal. If Adeline found out he secretly took bribes while serving her as her knight, it would only leave a bad impression.
Looking at the spell seals in Felyn’s hand, Adeline immediately understood what the doctors were thinking.
Those people probably misunderstood and thought she and Felyn were… that kind of relationship?
Adeline pressed her lips together and gently rested her hand on her knee.
“It’s fine. Since it’s a token from the doctors, you can keep it.”
She neither denied nor refused this misunderstanding.
Felyn didn’t try to be overly polite either. Not taking the money would be foolish.
Adeline sat right next to him, tightly holding Felyn’s hand.
While Felyn was still wondering what kind of expression would best suit the moment, Adeline softly spoke, “Felyn, I... I didn’t mean to hit you. I just wanted to get your attention. When I saw you with Viloti, I was scared that you’d leave me.”
All of her usual pride vanished in that instant. Adeline finally voiced her true feelings.
“I only realized just now... no one likes getting hit. That clerk lied to me.”
Adeline slumped over the edge of the bed like a deflated balloon, staring at Felyn with her big eyes, filled with helplessness.
When she had stepped out earlier to explain things to the butler, she also told him to thoroughly investigate that shop, “Serafina’s Secrets,” to see if they were involved in anything illegal—like tax evasion.
By now, the Claude family’s security squad was probably leading the imperial guards to surround the place.
“How could I ever leave you, Adeline?”
Felyn struggled to sit up and moved closer to her.
“No matter what you do, I won’t leave you. Because I want to see you happy. I want to see you smile.”
He gently held Adeline’s hand. “There may be many people who come and go in this world, but I’m not one of them. As long as you need me, I’ll be here.”
Adeline then saw Felyn flash her a warm smile.
“Don’t be afraid of losing me. Because I’ve already decided to stay by your side… until the day you tell me, with your own mouth, that I should leave.”
Which was the same as saying: until the contract ends. That’s what Felyn was really thinking.
Adeline blinked. Her gray-blue eyes shimmered with a complicated emotion Felyn couldn’t read.
He still didn’t understand just how dangerous the identity of a “patient” could be right now.
Under his gaze, Adeline stood up and lightly touched the spell switch on the wall. Her rose-tea-colored hair shimmered under the last sliver of light, then melted into the darkness.
The room was instantly swallowed by blackness, save for a few stubborn strands of moonlight squeezing through the curtains, sketching silver lines across the floor.
Felyn could feel the pink, warm scent of desire drifting through the air.
In the dark, he could just barely make out Adeline’s graceful figure drawing closer.
“Adeline?”
In such an intimate atmosphere, Felyn instinctively lowered his voice.
Adeline’s foot slipped under the covers first, then her entire body followed, sliding lightly into the bed.
The soft mattress dipped under her weight, and the blanket rustled gently.
In the dark, Felyn could clearly feel someone beside his pillow.
Her breathing, soft and rhythmic like a summer night breeze, brushed against his ear with the warmth and cadence only a young girl could have.
Adeline didn’t get too close, keeping just enough distance between them to hover in ambiguity.
She had planned to explain why she’d gotten into bed with him, but now she figured—there wasn’t really anything to explain. Lying in a patient’s bed didn’t need an excuse.
I just wanted to be close to Felyn.
So Adeline chose silence. No explanations.
The two of them—teenage boy and girl—lay side by side in the dark, staring up at the pitch-black ceiling as if watching a starlit sky only they could see.
Only the sound of each other’s breathing and heartbeats filled the room.
Adeline’s pinky finger wandered restlessly, lightly brushing the back of Felyn’s hand.
When she noticed Felyn didn’t pull away, she slowly slid her fingers into his palm.
Her hand was incredibly soft, soft like it had no bones.
At such a close distance, Adeline’s scent enveloped him completely.
Not just the smell of roses—there was a subtle fragrance that only appeared when close enough, something purely hers. Like the beauty of a blooming summer garden.
Felyn closed his eyes, and it felt like he’d fallen from the bed into that garden.
A garden in full bloom under a bright blue sky, never withering, never disturbed.
He and Adeline sat together in a white gazebo draped in vines.
She wore a pale blue dress and a sun hat, holding a tin of homemade cookies on her lap. With freshly washed hands, she fed him one at a time.
And under her nervous, expectant gaze, he would say:
“These are really good, Adeline. Thank you.”
That’s how Felyn felt right now.
Then the sound of a communication seal rang out, shattering Felyn’s short-lived fantasy.
Adeline let out a small hum, reluctantly pulling her hand away from his and turning slightly to the side.
Her fingertips tapped out a brief reply on the seal device, then returned to Felyn’s side and found his hand again.
But for the next five minutes, her communication seal barely stopped ringing.
“Adeline, you’re not going to answer?” Felyn asked.
“It’s just work stuff. I can ignore it for now.”
In the dark, Adeline’s voice sounded like a glittering rainbow bridge, making even the darkness feel romantic.
She was always so busy.
Student council, Claude family duties, daily studies—Adeline poured almost all of her time into these things.
There’s that saying: the greater the power, the greater the responsibility.
A brilliant genius, the pride of the Claude family, admired by all—every step Adeline took had to be perfect. That was no easy thing.
If Felyn had been her place, he’d have given up long ago. You needed either steel nerves or stupidity to stick around.
Felyn felt Adeline's fingers draw little hearts in the center of his palm.
“Do you think I’m gone too far?”
Felyn didn’t have the patience to do everything perfectly, but he was more than patient when it came to pleasing a client.
This wasn’t the first time Adeline asked him that tonight.
When a client keeps asking the same question, it means you need to dig deeper—find out what emotion they’re hiding. Otherwise, you’ll never truly understand them.
Adeline had seen him with Viloti, gotten angry, and rushed out to confront him.
Then, once she calmed down, she got scared—scared she’d frightened him off—and tried every way to keep him.
But in the end, she lost control and hit him.
Now she was probably thinking how dumb she was—trying to make him stay, but ending up pushing him away.
Felyn calmly analyzed what was going on in Adeline’s heart. He believed the real problem still went back to one thing—why she still held onto what happened in kindergarten.
After all, everything else had spiraled from there.
If he could resolve that, then he could soothe her unknown fears, and she wouldn’t keep worrying about losing him.
And anyway, this was his job. She pays, he fulfills her emotional needs.
“You’re asking me if you went too far—do you want me to be honest?”
Felyn’s voice was soft, but it weighed down on Adeline like a heavy stone.
Since he said that much, then he must think I really did go too far.
He has every right to be angry. I yelled at him in front of everyone… and today I even hit him.
“Mm... go ahead.”
“Adeline, I do think you went a bit too far.”
Adeline’s whole body went stiff. Her toes curled tightly together. She felt a loud hum echo inside her head.
(End of Chapter)