Chapter 335.2: The Place That Once Was (Part 2)
“Eve, what’s wrong?”
Mr. Armand looked at me with concern.
Yes he’s my Mr. Armand.
My lover.
My husband.
The other half of my life.
If I can’t trust even him… Then who can I trust?
“Mr. Armand… there’s something I want to know.”
Evelia reached out and wiped the blood from Armand’s face with her sleeve. Her once clean white sleeve was now stained red. Her hand was also stained with blood.
“Mm, go ahead.”
Armand looked like he didn’t want her to get dirty. So after blocking his nose again, he kept wiping her sleeve gently with his fingers,
But now both his hands and her sleeve were marked with blood.
“I want to know… about you, Mr. Armand.”
“Me? Is there anything important about me…?”
“About you and… the House of Nightingales.”
“——”
As soon as Evelia said those words, Armand’s hand, still wiping blood, froze. That reaction was impossible to ignore.
Seeing it made Evelia’s heart grow tight with fear again.
Not only Evelia. Even Armand, who had still been a bit dizzy just moments ago, became a little more awake after hearing those words. Of course, it didn’t make the fever or its side effects go away, but compared to how sleepy he had been earlier, he looked a lot better now.
“Mr. Armand, you really are connected to the House of Nightingales, aren’t you?”
Evelia finally gathered her courage and said it out loud. Even though a voice in her heart had been warning her not to ask such a thing, she still chose to trust Armand and ask anyway.
As long as she asked, maybe she’d understand. There must be something she didn’t know yet…
“—That, huh…”
Armand started speaking as he tried to sort out his thoughts. How should he explain the connection between himself and the House of Nightingales?
How did Evelia find out? And if she did know something, how much did she learn?
Did she go out and investigate while I was “asleep”?
No… that doesn’t sound like her. Evelia doesn’t seem like the type who would go digging into my background.
Then maybe someone told her? Who? The Second Prince?
But the Second Prince shouldn’t have enough info to trace this back to me either.
Then, was it something I accidentally said while I had memory loss? Did I let something slip about the House of Nightingales?
—Forget it. I’ll just ask Eve directly. Since she already asked me this question, that means she’s prepared to hear the answer.
Well… “prepared” might be an overstatement. Honestly, it’s not some huge, serious secret. I just didn’t want to bring up that “dark past” of mine…
—Since Evelia asked, I’ll just answer step by step.
Compared to the very tense and worried Evelia, who was still feeling shaken by the pressure of the Second Prince, Armand actually seemed much more relaxed. To him, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
He didn’t want to talk about this part of himself mainly for two reasons. First, to keep it a secret. The fewer people who knew, the safer the secret, and the fewer problems for him. Second, he didn’t want to give Evelia any extra pressure.
If someone she trusted turned out to have come from the House of Nightingales… That would feel pretty strange, right?
“So, Eve—how did you find out?”
To keep the conversation from getting too serious or tense, Armand chose a lighter tone. He sat beside Evelia, doing his best to stay clear-headed so he could understand how she felt and what she meant, and also to figure out the best way to explain the whole thing.
“It’s… the mark on your hand.”
“The mark?”
Hearing that, Armand raised the hand with the mark on it. There were still traces of the nosebleed he’d had earlier.
Normally, alchemy marks like his were very faint and hard to notice. But for someone with the right experience, small details in the pattern could reveal the truth.
In Armand’s case, his hand’s natural lines helped hide the mark even more, so most people wouldn’t notice it.
But the people around him were different. One was Rachel, who created alchemy marks. The other was Evelia, a top-level assassin who had used marks for years.
So once even a tiny part of the mark was exposed, there was no way to hide it. He could only admit he was unlucky.
“I see… So I used the mark in front of you after all…”
Thinking that, Armand gave a small smile. But this time, it wasn’t a forced smile. It was a real, helpless one.
“So, I guess that means… you know now, huh?”
“Yeah…”
Seeing that teasing smile on Armand’s face, Evelia understood what he was talking about.
“You’re the one who kept fighting with me over targets, the shadow in black armor and a black cloak.”
“Correct. As expected of my Eve.”
For experienced fighters, just the style and placement of a mark was enough to recognize someone.
That’s exactly why Armand never used his mark openly as the Captain of the Royal Knights. Like just now, once it’s revealed, anyone who knows how to look can quickly figure out who he really is.
“Can’t believe it… the person who used to be my rival is now my husband.”
“Yeah, I didn’t expect that either, Mr. Armand,” Evelia said as she leaned slightly closer to him. “So that time in the clock tower before the party…”
“Mm, that was me.”
“You even punched me.”
“And you almost cut my throat.”
“You threw me out the window.”
“Come on, I was the one who had to clean up the mess afterward!”
The two of them kept going back and forth, talking about that past fight like it was a shared memory. The battle in the clock tower was the most unforgettable one for both of them.
Not just because it was the last time the “unknown shadow” and “Red Crow” faced each other. But because it was also their most urgent fight. They both wanted to finish quickly and rush to the royal ballroom. Not knowing that their enemy… was actually their dance partner.
When the fireworks exploded over the ballroom, they had already shared a deadly dance of blades and swords.
And after that night, the clock tower became their secret meeting place. They would sneak away from the ball and meet at the tower, looking for light under the fireworks—
It seemed like that was the moment when they truly began walking the same path together.
That place… really was worth remembering.
“Then, did you… leave the House of Nightingales, or…?”
“Of course I ran, Eve. I told you, running away is what I’m best at.”
“Ran away? You mean from the House of Nightingales?”
Just hearing that word made Evelia’s mind return to painful memories. There had been someone who once tried to run away with her too, but…
“Yeah, I escaped from there.”
Even though Armand was saying something like a victory line, his voice sounded even lonelier than before.
Evelia noticed the change in his tone and curiously asked.
“You got out… and that doesn’t make you happy?”
“Huh? Oh… I mean, I should be happy… but I’m not. Haha…”
This time, it really was a forced smile.
“Why not?”
He escaped that nightmare, why wouldn’t that make him happy?
“Haah…”
This time, it was like a deep wound had finally been reopened, and Armand’s heart twitched in pain.
“—Because the thing that mattered most to me… I left it behind there forever.”