Chapter 62

The dawn was rising outside the window. The warm white sunlight crept into the room, slowly illuminating the room. Sitting stiffly on a divan, Raphael turned his head. Then he saw Annette’s beautiful face sleeping quietly on the bed. It was a defenseless and lovely face, enough to make people sigh.

Raphael, after rising silently from his seat, began to look around her hidden jewelry box. In contrast to his large physique, his movements were quite agile and quiet just like that of wild beasts. After finding what he wanted, Raphael carefully picked up the thing without waking Annette up.

The object looked just like what it was in his memory. The ring made of the finest amethyst glinted even in the dim light of early morning. The alphabet “S ” engraved with gold leaf on the surface particularly caught his attention. Raphael wasn’t aware of its meaning before, but now he did. It meant that Annette was a client of a special information guild.

The Secret Guild.

Even Harold Evans, his only acquaintance, also had the ring as he was once in a position to run secret errands for the king. But what about Annette? She was an ordinary woman who enjoyed a peaceful daily life by doing embroidery with her fine hands or reading books. But she was also a woman who secretly hid the token of the Secret Guild deep in her drawer.

Raphael looked at the amethyst ring on his palm with an expressionless face. At first glance, one could see that the size of the ring was too big to fit Annette’s fingers. That implied that it wasn’t a ring that was meant to be worn in the first place. Suddenly, Harold’s words flashed in Raphael’s mind.

“It’s a guild that deals with everything except assassination; like exchanging information, sales of various illegal items such as poison, aphrodisiacs, and other weak drugs, kidnapping people, private loan business, etc…. Ah! I heard they’ve recently also ventured into smuggling and also smuggle people outside the kingdom. It’s a pretty expensive service, but if you want to run away from your reality, you won’t be pouring your money down the drain.”

Raphael’s hand, grabbing the ring, unknowingly tightened. Yes, Annette might have gone there to just trade information. She wasn’t the type to set foot into illegal crimes. And as for smuggling out of the kingdom….. he wasn’t sure. Raphael’s face, looking down at the sleeping Annette, showed signs of distress.

Yes, nothing was certain yet. It was not reasonable to break Annette’s possessions. Raphael clenched his teeth and placed the ring back in its place. But the moment he closed the drawer, his emotions surged a little. Tak! The sound echoed in the room. Raphael’s keen intuition sensed a disturbance on the bed.

“Umm……Raphael?”

Sure enough, Annette lifted her eyelids that were heavy with sleep. Her confused pink eyes scanned his face and gave him a worried look. Annette reached out and caressed his cheek carefully. Since he had just woke up, his body temperature, which was higher than usual, felt warm as he came close to her.

“Did you have another nightmare? Come here.”

Annette lifted a corner of the quilt and tugged his neck gently. Raphael’s blue eyes looking down at her became a little darker. There was no way he could resist this temptation. He gently lied down beside her as she led him. Then Annette, who stretched out her arms and embraced Raphael’s head, affectionately appeased him.

“It’s all right, Raphael. You’re a good person. I… I’ll protect you. So relax and sleep well.”

It felt good to hear Annette’s delicate voice, which had become a little husky because of sleep. Her wise and elegant manner of speaking was too cute. It felt like someone was pouring the whole bottle of sweet maple syrup into his ear.

Raphael slowly closed his eyes. He liked the feeling of being held in her delicate arms. Annette smelled of clean white musk and some flowers. As she was again breathing steadily, she had fallen asleep before she knew it. Her barely audible and peaceful breath tickled his forehead.

‘After being so kind to me, you wouldn’t leave me behind, would you?’

Raphael tightly clenched his jaw to prevent his face from getting distorted. He slowly raised his torso so that Annette wouldn’t wake up. Then he locked her sleeping figure in his arms. Raphael bowed his head and softly whispered in Annette’s ear.

“You’re not going anywhere, Annette.”

Raphael’s flowing, black hair wrapped around Annette’s small face. Unintentionally, her figure looked like a poor prisoner trapped in a grate. Satisfied with this, Raphael hugged her a little more tightly. Annette groaned in protest as she felt stuffy.

Raphael quietly kissed the frown on her forehead. He felt sorry for her, but he didn’t feel like letting go of his arms. If she felt this captivity was too much, then she would have to better get used to it. He didn’t plan to ever let her go.

Annette, who woke up in a disarray, checked the clock reflexively. Her body nowadays seemed to be more sluggish than usual, so she had overslept by two hours more. Since she had a lot of things to care about these days, it seemed like she was getting mentally tired.

Annette carefully removed Raphael’s arms that were hugging her waist. She was going to let him sleep a little longer. Annette always felt sorry for Raphael because he had suffered long from a sleeping disorder. So, she did not want to disturb his sleep as much as possible.

‘If I leave, what will he do?’

Annette recently had a headache because of this concern. Raphael had now begun to sleep well, but it would become harder for him if she disappeared and his sleeping disorder might also return to its original state. Annette wistfully looked down at Raphael’s sleeping face.

His profile, revealed through his disheveled black hair, was just as beautiful as that of an ancient male god. It was amazing to see that his skin didn’t get tanned even though he practiced his swordsmanship skills every day. Annette slowly swept her fingers over Raphael’s straight forehead, high nose, and sensual lips. Then, she got up from the bed.

“Hah….”

Her troubles were not over yet, but she had to start the new day. Annette stretched out her body and went out of the bedroom in an indoor gown. It was quite late for breakfast, ao she planned to grab a brunch or something. But the plan didn’t go as she wanted. As soon as Annette went out to her private parlor, she ran into a maid, who had an embarrassing look on her face.

“Madam, I beg your pardon, but there’s a visitor who has been waiting for you for the past two hours.”

“Visitor? What…… Oh my goodness! I must be out of my mind!!”

Just when Annette asked with a perplexed face, she belatedly recalled the promise and was horrified. Today was the day she was scheduled to meet Eucaly and take a brief interview of her. In this life too, Eucaly, Annette’s doctor in her previous life, met her again under a mysterious connection. However, her first impression would turn out to be bad. Seeing Annette rushing to the parlor, the maid was remorseful and bowed her head repeatedly.

“I should have woken you up somehow, but since the master was inside…… I just couldn’t enter like that. I’m really sorry, madam.”

“No, it’s okay. Can you help me with something? Go down and quickly assort her as much as possible.”

Annette waved her hand and offered a realistic alternative. Just as the maid said, she and her husband were spending intimate time together, so the employees were not allowed to interfere recklessly. This was entirely Annette’s fault. She was not a bad hostess who passed on her faults to her employees.

The maid’s face brightened a little after receiving Annette’s forgiveness. All the maid had to do was just bow a little and express her gratitude, but instead, she helped Annette get ready as fast as possible. Thanks to her, Annette was able to head downstairs in a decent appearance in just fifteen minutes.

When she opened the door to the parlor, she saw Eucaly sitting on the sofa. Her face was exactly how it was in Annette’s memory.

Even though Eucaly, who was of mixed descent from the Eastern Continent, had been here for a while, truthfully she was quite an experienced practitioner. However, she had one disadvantage and that was that her features were too modest. Because of her expressionless face, she looked a little gloomy. But no one really cared about one’s appearance or sociability in the profession of a practitioner.

“I’m sorry I’m late. Did you wait for a long time?”

Annette politely apologized to Eucaly, who rose from her seat on seeing her. They were not empty words; Annette’s face clearly showed that she was really sorry. Even as a noblewoman, she sincerely apologized to a servant who was not even a noble. After seeing this, Eucaly, who lacked sociability, confidently shook her head to say no.

“No madam. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Eucaly Kayun.”

“Nice to meet you, Miss Kayun. I must have forgotten because I had a lot of work yesterday. I’m so sorry.”

Annette almost called Eucaly in a friendly way like in her previous life. Annette smiled sheepishly as she called out Eucaly’s exotic surname. It was a mistake that was unlike Annette’s usual self, who was always thorough with her promises. Annette sat down with a remorseful face. She raised her eyes and looked towards Eucaly.

Fortunately, there was tea and cookies placed in front of Eucaly. Seeing the steam rising from the tea even after the two hour wait, the maid must have paid thorough attention. Annette smiled sweetly, inwardly pledging to raise the maid’s salary and asked a question.

“So, Miss Kayun. Do you want to be the family doctor for our family?”