Cheombeong!
A heavy splash followed as Dane settled back into the water.
"Then, would you help me with my back? I can't quite reach it."
"Pardon?"
"My back."
Rose was dumbfounded. She had expected him to dismiss her, telling her not to talk nonsense — but he was readily granting her permission?
Regardless of her disbelief, her body moved obediently.
"Excuse me."
Rose peeked her head over the partition. Dane was sitting in the bathtub, his back to her.
Chalbak.
She picked her way across, stepping carefully over the pools of blood on the floor. Just as she reached the bathtub,
"······."
her eyes met Dane's as he turned his head slightly to look back at her.
"Your face looks like a beet."
"--!"
Rose jumped on the spot. She scrunched up the bridge of her nose as hard as she could and grumbled.
"That word 'beet' — it's the nickname I hate most."
"Is that so."
"Yes. I used to get teased about it all the time since I was little."
The vibrant red hair, the verdant eyes. The combination was tailor-made for all sorts of vegetable-themed nicknames.
Worse still, Rose's cheeks tended to change color easily with her emotions — so "beet" was a particularly frequent jab.
"I like beets. They're tasty."
But the casual remark Dane tossed out stopped her in her tracks.
"······Pardon?"
"But if it displeases you, my lady, I'll keep that in mind."
Had she just heard something incredible, or was that her imagination?
While Rose floundered, Dane pointed to his lower back.
"I can't quite reach here."
"Ah, yes."
Rose snapped back to her senses and picked up a towel from the floor. Then she made her way toward Dane's back.
'Wow...'
She had felt it even when he was clothed, but Dane's body was nothing short of perfection. His well-trained physique, knit tightly with muscle. The density and firmness were remarkably harmonious.
'He was the prize that the Academy's art students had been coveting.'
Countless art students had wanted to ask if he would model for them, just once.
But he was a Schmaichel. No student would dare make such an audacious proposal to the sole heir of House Schmaichel.
To see that body of his bare, this close up. And to be allowed to attend his bath, no less.
'Unbelievable.'
It was too dreamlike to believe. Rose took several deep breaths. She couldn't bring herself to look beyond his shoulders.
What she could see of Dane's back alone was already too stimulating. She gripped her trembling hands tightly and slowly pressed the towel against him.
"Here?"
"Mm."
Rose carefully wiped the towel along the muscles of Dane's back. Then she discovered something.
'What kind of scars...'
There were far too many.
From his shoulders down his back, small scars were scattered everywhere. The largest was a long gash that ran diagonally across his back.
'Was he slashed in the back?'
Rose imagined the moments when these wounds had been inflicted, and she kept wiping them down with care.
There must have been endless pain and battles before he could fight without a single wound, as he did now. And she finally understood why Dane had permitted her to attend him.
'His forearms...'
It might be disrespectful to say of him, but they were truly monstrous forearms. The massive muscles attached to both of Dane's forearms were restricting his range of motion.
'No wonder he couldn't reach his back. Good thing I offered to help.'
Rose nodded to herself and diligently wiped down the whole of Dane's back.
She would give it her all to clean him thoroughly! That was Rose's only goal. She couldn't even think of anything else.
And so engrossed in her task was she that she didn't even notice her hands drifting past his side and toward his front.
Tak.
Rose froze when Dane suddenly grabbed her wrist.
"Are you doing this on purpose?"
"······Pardon?"
Dane's eyes, meeting hers, gleamed with an unreadable light.
Holding his gaze made her breath come faster. As if pinned beneath a predator's claws — or caught by the back just before a predator pounced.
What kind of tension this was, why her back prickled and her toes curled — the Rose of now still couldn't understand.
Before she knew it, the bathroom had gone quiet.
Ttuk.
Then a single drop of water fell from the towel in Rose's hand.
"Step back."
Dane's languid voice washed over the silence. At the same time, the hand gripping her wrist fell away.
"······Yes."
Rose set the towel down and slipped behind the partition. Only after catching her breath and regaining her composure did she realize how strangely tense she had been.
'What... just happened?'
All he did was grab her wrist and say a few words. He hadn't even gripped it tightly.
Yet the ear touched by his voice flushed with heat. The wrist he had held still burned.
Sabak.
A sound of fabric brushing against skin reached her. Dane seemed to be putting on a spare robe that had been set nearby.
"My lady."
Dane pushed open the partition and stepped out. Rose's gaze was briefly stolen by the water drops falling from his wet hair.
"Yes, Your Grace."
She barely managed to turn her head and face him.
"You must have a maid brought from your family."
At the sudden shift in topic, Rose could intuit what Dane was about to say. The image of Sonya's unnaturally pale face came to mind.
"Yes, there's one. A girl named Sonya."
"How much do you trust her?"
"······."
She didn't answer right away — not because she trusted Sonya. It was because she was deliberating how much of her past memories, the present situation, and everything in between she should lay out.
"My bedroom was changed only a few days ago. But the enemies knew exactly that I was staying in the marital bedroom."
Rose squeezed her eyes shut.
'...Just as I thought.'
Sonya had leaked Rose's information outside.
— That was the moment it was confirmed.
"Several hypotheses can be drawn."
Dane said, sweeping back his wet hair.
"First, your maid handed information to another house. Second, your maid handed information to House Vikander, and a different house that learned of it sent the assassins."
"······."
"And lastly, the third —"
Dane's eyes gleamed coldly.
"House Vikander heard the maid's information and sent the assassins."
Rose clutched her robe tightly.
'Sonya...'
She wasn't a maid loyal to Rose, but she didn't hate Rose enough to want her dead, either.
The Sonya she had seen earlier had been especially terrified. That was the face of someone who hadn't anticipated anything like this happening.
'She wasn't that cunning.'
Sonya had probably just relayed Rose's information as House Vikander had instructed. Without knowing what consequences it would bring.
"First, let me say this — what I'm about to tell you isn't to defend myself or my family."
"Continue."
"To start with, the third hypothesis: House Vikander doesn't have the finances to hire that many assassins."
Dane's cold gaze wasn't directed at Rose. Thanks to that, she could calmly voice the thoughts in her heart.
"And the first hypothesis — there's no evidence Sonya contacted any other faction recently. She hasn't been in this castle for long, either."
"Mm."
"Lastly, the second hypothesis. Sonya must have received orders from my stepmother before leaving Vikander Castle. To report everything she learned about my whereabouts."
The more she spoke, the steadier her breathing became, and her voice gradually filled with certainty. But there was something slightly uncomfortable about saying the next line.
"······And my father has met Sir Henrik Schmaichel."
Even so, Rose could say this without hesitation.
"I'm certain he orchestrated this raid."
Henrik Schmaichel. Dane Schmaichel's uncle, the man with the highest succession ranking after Dane himself. And in her past life, the nemesis who had tried to harm Dane until the very end.
"······."
Dane's eyes were darker than usual. What that deeply sunken gaze meant, the Rose of now couldn't tell.
"······My lady,"
Dane's lips crooked upward.
"I sometimes can't tell whether you're bold, or simply without fear."
"Pardon?"
"Do you realize how dangerous what you just said was?"
Jeobeok.
Dane took a single step toward Rose. It was only one step, but in an instant his shadow stretched and swallowed her whole.
"You're essentially saying your own house is in collusion."
"······."
"Are you not afraid of the consequences? Knowing what I might do?"
Rose exhaled shallowly, fighting to keep her composure.
"I thought the truth shouldn't be hidden."
"Even knowing that arrow would come back to strike you?"
Rose had been bracing herself for this question someday. Ever since she had learned her father had ties to Henrik Schmaichel.
So she answered with certainty.
"You already ruled me out as a suspect."
"······."
"You assumed it was the maid acting alone — not something I ordered. Even though you could have suspected me first."
Dane neither confirmed nor denied. He simply tilted his head as if to tell her to continue.
"I thought Your Grace would listen to whatever I had to say without twisting it to the worst interpretation. That's why I told you honestly."
"Then, what do you plan to do from here?"
When she had first discovered what Sonya had done, a thought had struck Rose like lightning. It could be dangerous — but if it succeeded, the gains would be tremendous.
"I intend to use that maid against them."