Max wanted to pretend to be calm, but she couldn’t help her stiff facial muscles. Ruth hurriedly turned away his face and coughed as if he saw nothing.

  Max nodded her head gloomily. She had been depressed before, thinking that marrying Princess Agnes would have been more beneficial to Riftan, and now Ruth’s words confirmed that fact again and her heart sank infinitely. Because of his marriage with her, he created a feud with the royal family and even antagonized the knights.

  While staring at the edge of the desk, Max barely spat out her trembling voice.

  Max was a little relieved hearing his words, she was sure he was right since Ruth was the kind of person who says out loud what’s on his mind.

  Max replied in an unconfident tone. Ruth also sighed hearing it, as if he had not high expectations.

  Glancing at his tired face, Max recalled the things that had happened earlier. Her mouth was dry, so she swallowed and managed to open her lips, which felt as if they were glued.

  Ruth gave her a curious look. Max pretended to look away and opened a book. Her heart was thumping unsteadily.

  Now, when asked, she frowned as if she was hesitating. Max drew courage and spoke.

  Max’s face flushed as she blinked back. Ruth, who seemed to get what she was saying only after seeing this scene, said

  and gave a short sigh.

  That was a fact she already knew: if magic could have solved it, her father would have used it before. However, she recently learned that there are many magicians in the world who create new kind of magic. Max has never been able to ask because she was afraid of being disappointed, but she had an expectation that Ruth could create a magic for her. She blushed and talked as if she was clinging to him.

  Max tried not to show disappointment, but her shoulders dropped. She pretended to be calm, smoothing her messy hair.

  An uncomfortable silence fell again. Feeling restless, Max stood up.

  Ruth hurriedly caught her trying to turn around before she could go outside. Max opened her eyes wide at the embarrassment. He let out a low groan and uttered in a discouraged tone.

  After rolling her eyes around, Max faltered and sat back on the chair. Ruth sat with his arms folded as if he didn’t know what to say, looking up at the ceiling for a long time.

  It was a very insensitive question to ask. Max blushed and looked at him.

  Max was beaten to the point where her skin was swollen and then healed, but as the days went by, the symptoms of stuttering only got worse. Ruth saw that Max’s face was distorted with embarrassment and raised both hands defensively.

  Max trembled slightly, recalling the terrible memory of reading a book in front of her father. Whenever she stuttered, her father would slap her on the back with a riding whip. She tried hard to erase the frightening memory from her head, shedding only a fraction of the truth.

  Max’s face got almost purple with discomfort. She had always covered it up and ignored it, but whenever the topic of conversation was mentioned, she just wanted to immediately run away from the spot. Max thought she had brought up a useless issue and looked anxiously at the door with regret, but Ruth was not ready to free her.

  Max blinked her big eyes with surprise and Ruth smiled bitterly at her puzzled expression.

  Ruth frowned at her rough tone. Max shrugged her shoulders, she was embarrassed that she overreacted to what he said: he was only giving her some advice.

  Ruth parted his lips as if he was about to say something more, but then just closed his mouth. Max got up from her seat and left the library as if she was running away.

  However, while she was running out like that, Max had a faint doubt in her mind: there really wasn’t any hope of fixing it? Didn’t she think, talking to herself from time to time, that it seemed to be better than before? Max, who was moving quickly across the hall, stopped in front of the stairs.

  Her father hated her opening her mouth in public: because of this, Max was confined to her room with a tutor. Even after her liberation from such a harsh education, she did not open her mouth unless it was necessary. It was because of the embarrassing look in people’s eyes, she was uncomfortable with their look of frustration.

  Max even thought of wanting to die if someone asked her to repeat what she said, since it was hard to understand. Getting older, she did not say a single word for months. Recalling it, Max suddenly realized that speaking recently didn’t feel so terrible. Sometimes it was fun to have a conversation. It was an unbelievable change.

  She didn’t know. Her memory was so distorted that she couldn’t even tell if she was the same woman who acted as the hostess of Calypse Castle. Max bit her lips. Perhaps while she was with her father, she had crushed all her possibilities. Max told Ruth that she tried, but she wasn’t sure if she really did. In fact, she’s had given up for a long time.

  She hesitated because she was afraid of fretting over useless hopes. Then suddenly Riftan’s face came to her mind. When she remembered his fierce anger because of her, Max heart tightened painfully. She couldn’t let Riftan punch people whenever she was insulted. Among the arrogant aristocrats, some may mock him for having a stuttering wife.

  Max stared dimly under the railing with a cloudy look and grabbed her skirt.