Lucian's heart ached in regret. Their fun time was interrupted yet again.
"Oh, if it isn't Lord Duremont," Celine pulled the string and aimed at Lucian again, "Has your blindfold been a fashion accessory all this time?"
"I'm blind in one eye, not in both. Please put down that bow, Lady Rochefort," young master Mathieu tried to reason.
"Remove your blindfold and I might spare him," she said as if she had found a new target for her cruel game.
"I will!" Mathieu exclaimed, he removed his blindfold, revealing the scars around his purple eyes that made him look terrifying. "Happy, My Lady?"
Celine kept her bow up, "Not really. Maybe going for a second round would make me feel better," she said and shot another arrow.
"!!!" Mathieu jumped in to block it with his body, protecting Lucian, "Run," he urged, groaning from the pain of being hit by the arrow, "I'll stall her, you get out of here."
"I can't leave you here like this," Lucian said in protest.
"Leave!" Mathieu shouted, "She won't kill a Duremont in broad daylight. You, on the other hand..."
Lucian didn't have a backer, powerful enough to stand against the Rochefort house, and couldn't risk his life just to save Mathieu.
"I'll call for help," Lucian said, a bit rushed.
"No, anything but that! I'll be fine, I promise, just go!" Mathieu urged Lucian to leave, to get as far away from Celine as he could.
Lucian got out of water with a splash, not forgetting to take the arrow with the note with him, "Don't die."
Mathieu struggled a nod.
"Witnesses should stay for the show, don't you think so?" Celine said, stopping Lucian in his tracks, "Lord Duremont jumped into the arrow's trajectory by himself, you saw it."
Lucian turned his head towards her as she fled the crime scene, letting Lucian do the saving, "Hold on."
He helped carry young master Mathieu to his tent. He broke the arrow, then used the medical kit he had in his backpack to stop the bleeding and clean the wound, bandaging it up.
'I warned him about meeting a bad ending when someone crosses my Celine's path...let's pray the arrow she shot at him will teach him that lesson...'
Celine immediately leveraged on Mathieu's earlier stunt in protecting Lucian by targeting Lucian again.
It gave Lucian an opportunity to get close enough to get some information out of Mathieu.
'We are great partners in crime, aren't we?'
Mathieu was sweating, gritting his teeth, enduring the pain, "Arrgh."
"Why do you keep helping me?" Lucian wondered aloud in worry, as if he didn't intentionally inflict pain to Mathieu, "I'm nobody to you."
Mathieu sighed softly, resting his head on the pillow, "Not just you, it's also Lady Rochefort I wanted to help. I can't let her ruin her life because she looked down on someone she shouldn't have."
"I'm just a merchant, what could I possibly have done to her?" Lucian asked, his tone light, as if he were just asking for the sake of conversation.
Mathieu chuckled and then winced in pain when Lucian pressed on the wound to bandage it tighter, "That's right...You've been enduring her abuse without retaliation, but what if one day she chose to target your loved ones instead? Wouldn't you want to strike her then?"
"My loved one?" Lucian had no idea what Mathieu was blabbing about. He only had one person he loved, and that person was Celine, "Who?"
Mathieu was getting nervous again, "Um, I don't know, but you don't plan to stay single your whole life, right? I was...I was just thinking of a hypothetical situation where you did find someone you loved, and then Lady Rochefort decided to make that person's life miserable as well...you know?"
"Who are you?" Lucian asked, there was a pinch of curiosity and innocent teasing in his tone, "Where is the old Mathieu?"
"What? Hahaha..." Mathieu laughed suspiciously, his voice rising in pitch, "Of course I'm Mathieu! Who else would I be?!"
The way he reacted to Lucian's questions was strange, but he was probably just trying to avoid getting into trouble, "You saved me, so I'm indebted to you now. Whoever you are, I owe you my life."
Mathieu seemed to trust Lucian's words completely and slowly calmed down, "You are such a great man, I don't know why she wouldn't choose you over that guy."
That cryptic talk again.
Mathieu looked like he was itching to tell Lucian something important, but held back every time he opened his mouth.
"Who is 'she'?" Lucian asked, his tone patient, "And who is 'that guy'?"
Mathieu bit his lip, his expression conflicted, "You have to swear on the knight's honor that you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you."
"..." Lucian didn't like the sound of it, but he agreed anyway, "I swear on the knight's honor that I won't tell anyone what you are about to tell me."
Mathieu sighed in relief, "Alright, I'm trusting you here," he began, "The truth is...I had a dream about the future and you were in it!"
"..." Lucian blinked twice.
Mathieu continued to explain how Lucian was a man, who had luck with money, but not with love. A man, whose kind heart was not rewarded by the woman he loved, but instead taken advantage of and used.
He talked about how Lucian would destroy the Rochefort house for the sake of his loved one. He would sacrifice himself to marry Lady Rochefort, and ultimately, help his love from the background, watching her fall in love with someone else.
Mathieu was vague about it, as if he didn't know much about politics. Just that there was going to be a war, a big war between the kingdoms, all because of one person capturing the hearts of many.
"What about you?" Lucian asked, "Who are you to her? To me from the 'future'?"
"Me? I'm just an Extra!" Mathieu said, a bitter smile appearing on his face, "A stupid, useless Extra! I will die a terrible death for helping Lady Rochefort bully you and the one you love."
Lucian remained silent.
"I know it sounds crazy, but there's an important event that will happen during the hunting competition."
Lucian leaned over to hear Mathieu's secret.
Mathieu whispered into Lucian's ear, "There's going to be a shackled attack during the competition, and it's going to cause a lot of casualties. Young master Edmund will become one of them. It will change Lady Celine forever. She will become even crueler than before. She's going to ruin many lives in the future, and I want to stop her from doing that."
"By saving young master Edmund?" Lucian guessed.
Mathieu nodded, "Yes. If young master Edmund doesn't die, then Lady Rochefort won't become the person I saw in the future! My life will be saved, the Duremonts will be saved, everyone will be saved! Including you, me and her!"
Mathieu even mentioned the fishing scene, where Lucian would one day share his past trauma to his "love", how Celine had forced him to catch fish blindfolded, and that she would shoot him with arrows when he failed.
"So that's how you conveniently appeared there," Lucian said, making Mathieu nod and groan in pain again.
Celine promised to help Lucian train catching arrows with his hand while he promised to help her with a new business strategy she had in mind.
They were always in an enclosed room, and wanted to take the most of this opportunity to roam around outside.
It's not like they had to be glued to each other to enjoy each other's company.
Lucian excused himself for a second and walked deeper into the forest, opening the note from the arrow.
'Try fishing with closed eyes, if you dare,' the note said.
╔═══ Author's note ════╗
Thank you for the feedback regarding the story's pacing in the previous chapter, please continue doing so, and don't be afraid to share your opinion.
As an amateur writer (I've been writing for 6-7 years as a hobby), I'm still learning, and what I want to convey to readers doesn't always get through. Every interaction you make with the story (reaction gifs, comments, reviews) helps me improve and write faster.
All who read this far, thank you too! 😁
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