Chapter 10
****
My snowflake.
The words brought back the name she had seen in Claude’s room a few days ago.
No way.
Something like a bolt of lightning crossed Elise's mind. No way, could it be her…?
"Major!"
Lieutenant Gregory and Dr. Billman rushed out, startled by the commotion outside.
But they couldn't get any closer because Claude was rolling around like a wary animal.
He acted as if someone would snatch Elise from his arms the moment he let go.
He tried to harm those who approached him, and eventually Lieutenant Gregory had to knock him down by striking the back of his neck.
"Don't go. Please..................."
Claude pleaded incoherently, even as he collapsed.
"I've given him a sedative, he should be sleeping soundly now."
"Yes, thank you. Doctor."
Subdued by the lieutenant, Claude lay quietly on the bed and drifted off to sleep.
His eyes were red from the constant sobbing.
My snowflake.
Her mouth opened of its own accord as she remembered the name he'd called her over and over again.
"Can I ask you a question, Doctor?"
“Anything. What do you want to know, Your Grace?"
"Don't go."
She remembered the look on his face, so desperate, so needy, so sure he would die without her.
A face he'd never show her in the first place.
But maybe.
"Is it possible... Is there any chance he might confuse me with someone else, like, say, think I'm someone else?"
"Well. It is possible."
"Is that really possible?"
Against his better judgment, Dr. Billman affirmed.
"Yes. It's certainly something like that can happen."
"......I see."
Suddenly, Elise understood the intensity in his eyes and the way he was acting.
Claude thought the woman was her.
They had entered into a contract marriage for their mutual benefit, and he had forgotten the contract, forgotten the marriage, forgotten her. He erased both their beginning and their end.
And then he put another woman's memory in the place of her sin. He mistook her for his lover ‘Snowflake’.
She was overwhelmed with emotions she couldn't describe.
She couldn't afford to show her confusion in front of others.
Elise decided to focus on the here and now.
"I think it's best if we keep his amnesia a secret for now."
"I agree, Your Grace, he has many enemies."
Dr. Billman and Lieutenant Gregory agreed.
Technology was advancing rapidly, but there was still a lot of ambiguity when it came to the human brain, the mental side of things.
Different doctors have different opinions, and if you tell them that your memory is failing, they might put you in a psychiatric ward, or they might use bizarre methods of torture in the name of therapy.
Elise promised to keep Dr. Billman's unbelievable list of therapeutic treatments a secret.
***
"We'll be going, then."
"Yes, thank you, you two."
With Elise’s farewell, Lieutenant Gregory and Dr. Billman left the mansion.
"He’s been through a lot."
"I'm just grateful he’s alive."
As they walked away, Lieutenant Gregory asked as if he'd just remembered something.
"But, Doctor. If he lost his memories, why did he only forget Her Highness, is it just a coincidence?"
"I don't know. Except... his own will may have played a role."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm saying that if he only erased one specific person, he must have really wanted it to happen."
"...Wanted to erase."
Lieutenant Gregory turned around and caught sight of his superior's wife as she walked back inside the mansion.
Hair as black as ebony. Eyes like a frozen wall of ice.
Her face reminded him of his superior acting like a lost dog.
Wasn't it a loveless marriage?
What was the Major's attitude now that he had lost all his memories, and had chosen to forget them?
He couldn't figure out what was what.
He'd heard the social gossip about how bad things were between the couple.
Whenever he went to the mansion, the Major's face was always somewhat unhappy.
...... But it didn't seem like they had any real feelings.
Gregory thought back to just over a year ago.
He was back in the capital on a short vacation, and he and his fiancée were enjoying a cup of tea at a café.
It was through a mutual friend of his fiancée's that he learned that the Major's wife was ill.
She was invited to the Empress's tea party, where they had humiliated her.
Gregory, who had kept the curse to himself, spoke up a few days later when he returned to his unit and was debriefing.
"And, Major. Your wife... doesn't seem to be feeling well."
"...."
The Major nodded at the report that flowed like water and stopped moving at the same time.
"I heard about this while I was in the capital, and I'm sure you've heard it from your doctor, but I thought I'd pass it along just in case."
The sheet of paper in the Major's hand crumpled into a ball.
There was a moment of stunned silence. The Major, who had been staring straight ahead for a moment with the hairs on his neck standing on end, snapped.
"So. What does that have to do with me?"
"That's-----."
"Do you think that’s important enough to convey to your superiors, Lieutenant Gregory, with the enemy at your doorstep?"
"No, sir, I'm sorry."
Despite what he'd said about it being none of his business, that night. The Major's official car had left the unit without a driver.
Gregory couldn't figure out what the hell was real.
...Well. It didn't matter.
Whatever their relationship, she was the only real family the hero had right now.
***
After seeing them off, Elise returned to Claude’s room.
Climbing the stairs was especially difficult for her, since she usually lived on the first floor.
She realized that if she had to stay in the main house without her sight, she would never have made it to the third floor, where her bedroom was.
When she reached the bedroom and pulled back the veil on the bed, Elise's breath caught in her throat. Her gaze collided with a pair of glowing green eyes.
"You're awake... Ah!"
A large, outstretched hand snatched her up. A massive body climbed on top of Elise as she lay on the bed. In an instant, her limbs were subdued. Resistance was impossible.
"Who are you?”
A chilling voice pierced her ears. She felt suffocated by the intimidation radiating from his downcast eyes.
She had been told he would be sleeping rough for a while.
Apparently, even the harsh drugs were not enough to overcome that hardy body.
"Answer me. Who are you?"
The grip on Elise's wrist tightened, as if to crush her. She let out an involuntary groan, and the hand that had been clamping down on her like handcuffs relaxed.
"I am your wife."
"Wife?"
His brow crinkled as he asked, confusion gripping his mind.
"You mean I'm married?"
His dark eyebrows rose as he searched his memory and came up with nothing. Elise stifled a shudder and spoke quickly.
"You've had a bad head injury, and it's caused your memories to be disturbed, memories that involve me."
"So you're saying that I married you, I hit my head and turned into an invalid, and I only forget my wife?"
"..yes."
It was a leap of abbreviation. She was embarrassed by the self-deprecating language, but there was nothing untrue about it, so she confirmed it.
"You expect me to believe that?"
Cold arsenic flew at her and stung.
"I know it's hard to believe, but it's true, and if you'll step aside for a moment, I'll get a doctor and explain."
"That's for later."
The man didn't budge.
"...Your Highness?"
"Elise."
After a moment of silence, he rolled her name off the tip of his tongue.
"Is that your name?"
Come to think of it, he'd been calling her that since the funeral. Why did he remember her name when he'd forgotten everything else?
"Yes, it is," she said.
"Wife."
His gaze remained fixed on Elise's face. The warmth in his eyes was alien to her, as they had always been cold.
"Do you remember something, anything at all?"
"I don't remember anything, except that I want to touch you, somehow."
"What?"
"Your hand. Can I hold it?"
It was a polite question, in contrast to the unceremonious press of his body.
"Tell me, Elise."
At the same time, his hand slowly slid up Elise's. From wrist to palm. Then to her fingers.
"How far may I touch you?"
***
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