Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 63

Mad Hatter opened his eyes to the morning sun. The first thing he checked was the person in his embrace. He didn’t know for how long she had been awake, but the brown eyes, which had no trace of sleep left in them, looked up at him. Drenched in happiness, he smiled.

“Good morning,” he said quietly as he flexed the arm that was holding SoYoon. His lips touched the top of her head as if they had become accustomed to being there. After lightly kissing her tousled white hair, he got up.

“I’ll wash up in the bathroom in the living room. You can use the one in here.”

He pointed to the en suite bathroom and left the room. SoYoon got up soon after him.

After she washed up, the smell of food triggered her senses. As she stepped into the living room, she saw tomato scrambled eggs, cooked bacon, scones, jam, and black tea on the table.

Mad Hatter was putting down his bowl of vitamin capsules when he saw her and said, “You’ve come just in time. Please sit.”

As always, she sat on the long sofa as Mad Hatter sat opposite and looked at her. His face looked peaceful on the outside, but there was a shadow underneath.

Mad Hatter’s eyes met hers, and he smiled. It was his usual smile.

“What is your schedule like today? Are you very busy?”

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“Yes. I have requests to fulfill all day.”

“Hmm, I see. You must be hungry, since you didn’t eat dinner last night. Hurry and eat.”

Mad Hatter poured the tea into her cup, applied jam to a scone, and handed it to her. The jam was the same one she had bought at a fancy bakery in Central on behalf of Tweedle Dee. The jar was smaller than her finger, but it cost 30,000 carol. She thought the price was ridiculous for the amount and had wondered if anyone would buy such a thing, but here she was eating it herself. Realizing what she was thinking, Mad Hatter told her.

“Someday, I’ll attempt making jam.”

His voice sounded determined. SoYoon was going to ask if that was necessary, but she thought it better not to say anything.

After thinking for some time, she swallowed the piece of scone in her mouth and answered, “I’ll look forward to it.”

That was the correct answer, SoYoon thought as she saw the ecstatic smile on Mad Hatter’s face.

***

After breakfast, Mad Hatter waved goodbye to SoYoon and got ready to leave himself. His destination was Heart’s house.

Heart’s minions were immensely tense, but today, Heart invited Mad Hatter as a guest. Heart’s men escorted him into the office. When the door opened, he saw Heart with narrowed eyes.

Mad Hatter sat on the sofa that Heart indicated and asked him, “What’s your business? You’ve intentionally kept White Rabbit busy all day and called me here, which means you don’t want her to get in the way. Isn’t that true?”

“It’s something important. It’s regarding Whitey.”

Heart did not want to see Mad Hatter’s face, so he continued the dialogue from his desk instead of on the sofa. Someone else might have found this rude, but Mad Hatter didn’t think much of it as he had other things on his mind. The moment Heart uttered the nickname Whitey, her real name tingled at the edge of his tongue.

Ye SoYoon.

Seeing how she had asked him to call her SoYoon, he assumed her last name was Ye and her name was SoYoon. There was a chance that YeSoYoon was her name, and SoYoon was a nickname, but he doubted she would ask to be called by her nickname after years of not hearing her real name.

SoYoon—it was a name that you had to pronounce carefully by slightly puckering your lips. He had no intention of revealing this treasure to anyone else. Even saying the name silently filled his mouth with such sweetness that he couldn’t help but grin. That smile didn’t last long, however.

“Shall I escort you to the drawing room, Chapelier prince? Alice seemed to be disappointed that it was hard to see you these days, as you’ve been away from your house so often.”

“You mean your concubine? There’s a rumor that she’s pregnant. You must be on good terms with her. I tend to stay away from women who belong to someone else. I hope you will relay the warning that she shouldn’t go around being friendly to every man she sees, although I doubt that she would listen. She must not trust you at all if she came to me of all people.”

“You stay away from women who belong to someone else?”

“Of course. Is there any other woman that you claim as yours?”

It was a rhetorical question. That’s how Heart deciphered Mad Hatter’s explanation. At the same time, Mad Hatter’s words reminded him of the time that he had told Heart not to assume that SoYoon was his. Mad Hatter also remembered the time he had found the kiss mark on the back of her neck.

The two men both reached for their weapons. The next moment, the sound of the blue blade of an ax and wire sliced through the air.

Heart pushed off his desk and swung at Mad Hatter’s head with his ax. Mad Hatter just barely avoided it and wrapped Heart’s wrist with his wire. Heart quickly got out of it and swung again with his loose hand. Although it was not severe, the cut on his cheek was pretty deep, and Mad Hatter frowned.

“Why? Are you afraid you will lose your greatest weapon?”

Heart laughed raucously. Mad Hatter, dripping blood down to his chin, laughed with him.

“Of course. She does like my face so very much.”

The short dialogue ended quickly, and the two men charged at each other again. The ax hit Mad Hatter’s shoulder. He blew magic into his wire to strengthen it to block the attack, then swung his leg around to kick Heart’s side. Heart faltered a moment then slid his ax down the wire toward Mad Hatter’s left hand.

The unsavory sound of metal on metal echoed through the room. Mad Hatter unraveled the wire and stepped back quickly, but his hand was already bleeding heavily.

“Were you planning to chop off my hand?”

“Aren’t you right-handed? Isn’t it fine to be missing one useless hand?”

Although he said this, Heart had no intention of chopping off Mad Hatter’s hand. If he had wanted to, it would have already been flying off before Mad Hatter released his wire. Heart also knew that he could never be a match alone against Mad Hatter’s magic.

That meant all this was nothing but a temper tantrum. With SoYoon between them, they were unable to deliver the final blow to each other. Heart swung his ax menacingly and destroyed the back of the sofa. Then he plopped on his armchair. Mad Hatter sat on the undestroyed side of the sofa.

“Compared to last time, the wound is not so bad.”

He frowned at his blood-soaked face then healed just his face with his powers. Heart frowned also but watched without complaint, thinking it was better than having SoYoon fret about Mad Hatter’s hurt face.

“Did you finish off your outside business?”

“I destroyed Cheshire’s lair in Outhouse and killed most of his men. His position as a lawyer is probably destroyed by now also. Because in Outhouse, you can make anything happen with money,” the young and beautiful descendant of royalty said snidely.

Heart sunk deeper into the sofa and asked lazily, “What about Cheshire?”

The smile on Mad Hatter’s face disappeared. Unlike what he had told SoYoon, he had in fact gone to the hospital where Cheshire was residing.

What awaited him, however, was an empty hospital room. He had checked with the nurse, but they didn’t know where he had gone either. Mad Hatter glared at Heart, who he knew already realized all this.

“I lost him. He must have figured out I’d be coming.”

“Oh, what a shame.”