Crazy Like a Fox

Chapter 8

Lisbelle slowly opened her eyes.

Huh?

She found herself in an unfamiliar place. The room was spacious and neatly arranged, and, although there were only a few pieces of furniture, Lisbelle realized she was lying on a bed. A light blanket covered her body. The sheets were much softer than those on her own bed, so she knew she wasn’t in her room.

Lisbelle pulled her hand out from under the blanket and held it up in front of her eyes, inspecting it from different angles. The golden light she had seen just before losing consciousness was now completely gone.

“What was that?”

Her voice was hoarse. She raised her other hand and repeatedly flipped her palms, checking if the light would reappear, but even after many tries, the piercingly bright light that had hurt her eyes did not come back.

Really, what on earth was that? Lisbelle wondered, her mind still-dazed. For some reason, she felt completely drained of strength. It was similar to when she had jumped into the castle lake—in her nightgown, in the middle of winter—and had ended up wandering around on her own due to a high fever. She was utterly exhausted, her energy sapped. But now that she was awake, she couldn’t just lie there. Any further delay was a luxury she couldn’t afford. Lisbelle pushed the blanket aside and sat up.

The dress she had been wearing was gone, as if someone had taken it off, and she was now wearing a slip. Even at a glance, it was a high-quality slip, far superior to the nightgowns she wore at the castle. Lisbelle looked down at her outfit in confusion but then shrugged it off. She was accustomed to the maids stripping her down and bathing her to change clothes after she collapsed from exhaustion following one of her feigned seizures. She pushed aside the thin lace canopy, and only then did she get a proper look at the room.

“Where am I?”

The room Lisbelle had awakened in was even larger than her original one. It wasn’t lavish, but the furniture shone like new with no signs of wear. Clearly, it wasn’t a room inside the tower used by the royal family. Could it be the main castle where Lucife resided? But the main castle wouldn’t have opened for her without Lucife’s permission. She wasn’t dead yet, so there was no reason for her to be taken to the main castle.

Lisbelle looked down at her own body, remembering that Jekyll had clearly aimed his sword at her neck. She lightly touched the back of her neck with her hand. It’s still attached properly, right? For now, her neck was firmly in place, but that made it even less likely that this was the royal castle. Jekyll wouldn’t have just laid his sister, whom he had tried to kill moments ago, gently in a nice room. That didn’t make any sense.

Lisbelle dismissed the assumption that this place was the castle. She turned her head; there was a large window on one side of the room, half-covered with curtains. She got down from the bed, feeling a tingling pain in her feet where they touched the floor, but that level of pain did not even come close to being painful for her. Lisbelle approached the window without hesitation and pulled aside the pale curtains.

Finally, she could see the view outside the window properly. It was pitch-black night. Each house had dimly lit lanterns dotting the landscape like stars.

“Huh...”

Lisbelle blinked in surprise. She had never looked down on the capital from such a height before. Even in the royal castle, she would have to climb to the top of the highest tower to see such a view.

Where... is this? As someone who had never stepped outside the castle, Lisbelle had no way of knowing that this was the most luxurious inn in the capital, particularly the very top floor. She unlocked the latch and went to push the window open, but it was shut firmly and quite heavy.

At the moment she put strength into her hand to push it open, an unfamiliar voice spoke from behind, “Do not open it.”

Lisbelle jumped in surprise and turned her head.

“Who...”

She couldn’t finish her sentence. Until just now, it seemed like the voice had clearly been heard from quite a distance, but in the blink of an eye, the owner of the voice had appeared right behind her.

Lisbelle froze in place, turning only her head. The dark gray eyes were staring straight at her, the color like the ashes of an extinguished ember. A large hand, big enough to lightly cover the back of her own that was holding the window latch, was placed on top of Lisbelle’s fingers. It was startlingly cold.

Clack.

The man, while covering the back of her hand, applied pressure and closed the window, and soon it was completely shut again. Eventually, the man calmly withdrew his hand.

“If you open it, it will get out. You still have no control over it.”

“What…?”

Lisbelle bit her lip and turned back to look at him. The man had black hair and deep gray eyes. His height and build were similar to Rodges’. His black shirt was unbuttoned partway, revealing a prominent Adam’s apple and a straight neck. Her gaze traveled up from the smooth jawline to lips that were oddly tinged with red for a man. His eyes were wide and sharp, but the slightly hooded eyelids gave him a languid and sensual look. He was an unusually handsome man, but Lisbelle had no time to admire his face.

A stranger. An unfamiliar man. His ash-gray eyes were inscrutable and impassive. At first glance, they looked similar to Rodges’ eyes, but they were not. Rodges was skilled at hiding his thoughts, but not this man. Lisbelle knew right away. He was someone who had neither the reason nor the need to hide himself.

An intense, indifferent pressure weighed down on her chest. Lisbelle had never seen eyes like these before.

“Who are you?”

However, the voice that came out of her mouth sounded no different from usual. Lisbelle only came to her senses after hearing her unusually high-pitched and overly cheerful voice. When faced with a stronger opponent, I must not appear weak. Lisbelle was driven by her almost self-imposed indoctrination.

“Where am I, and who are you?”

She spoke like a crazy woman out of habit, but as the princess of this country, no one could reprimand her for speaking informally. The man didn’t seem to mind, either.

With a faint smile, he shrugged slightly. “Well. I wonder who I am, and where we are…”

“That’s not an answer.”

“I don’t know who you are, either. We’re in the same position, so let’s not ask difficult questions.”

His answer was ambiguous, but there was no room for rebuttal. Lisbelle had no intention of revealing she was a princess, and it seemed he wasn’t curious either. Moreover, he was no longer looking at her. His gray eyes glanced down. Lisbelle frowned and glanced down to follow his gaze, noticing the floor was stained red with blood.

“Should I have warned you not to move around carelessly?” he muttered to himself as he took a step toward her.

Lisbelle flinched and backed away, but she was blocked by the window. It provoked a strong sense of repulsion in her.

“Don’t touch me.”

Though she sensed fear in his expression, his eyes exuded an unabated sense of dominance yet remained cold and indifferent, causing her heart to beat uncontrollably.

“Aren’t you in pain?” he asked.

“That’s none of your business.”

The man tilted his head as if he didn’t understand her strong rejection. Then, as if realizing something, he let out a short sigh.

“Ah.”

His hand, which had been hovering in the air without touching Lisbelle, was quickly withdrawn. His long fingers moved gracefully, drawing a small circle. A blue light flickered. Lisbelle frowned as she observed his expression, then gasped at the sudden change in the man’s demeanor.

Thin silver-framed glasses appeared on his face, their elongated round lenses shielding the intense gaze of his gray eyes. The man spoke while adjusting his glasses, “I guess it’s better now. My apologies. I forgot that I took them off for a moment.”

It was an abrupt apology, delivered as if it resolved all issues. Yet Lisbelle somehow felt she understood its underlying meaning. The oppressive aura that had surrounded her seemed to have eased considerably.

“Is it okay now?” The man smiled affectionately and spread out both his hands to show her. “I don’t have any weapons, and I have no intention to harm you.”

Lisbelle remained silent.

“And I’m starting to get really worried.”

He gestured downward.

It was only then that Lisbelle noticed the tingling pain in the soles of her feet. The wound had burst open, slightly healed, and burst open again repeatedly, but now her feet seemed to have reached their limit. If it gets inflamed or infected, it could become a big problem.

Just as the thought crossed her mind, the man’s arm wrapped around her waist. She was taken aback for a moment. Their already close bodies were now tightly pressed together with no space between them, their noses almost touching, and his soft, even breath grazing Lisbelle’s jawline.