While enduring the pain in my heart, I continued to provoke him with words. Regardless of whether his pain was real or not, as long as I saw him in pain, my guilt towards my father, brother, and mother would decrease a little.
"I did it on purpose, what can you do about it?" I stared at him straight in the eye and smiled.
Liam pursed his lips, a hint of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes. I was shocked in my heart, and then he released the hands holding my face, turned his head to look at the kneeling palace maids behind him, and said, "If such a thing happens again, all of you will be punished with caning."
"You! Shameless!" I was greatly shocked. He knew exactly how to manipulate me. He knew that I was softhearted and I always couldn't bear to punish the people around me.
Most importantly, he meant what he said.
"Rie, be good, let me apply the medicine to you first." Liam instructed the palace maids to bring the ointment and then pulled me to sit on a soft cushion. "Don't move."
I didn't have as much strength as him, and I had lost all my martial arts skills. I could only let him manipulate me.
I knew this was the ointment he personally prepared. Contrary to his tough attitude just now, his actions of applying the medicine to me were very gentle, which reminded me of our life in Cloud Valley. When I was injured from practicing martial arts, he applied the medicine for me.
The ointment applied to my face was cool and refreshing, and the burning pain immediately disappeared.
"Don't worry, the swelling will go down soon," he said as he finished applying the medicine. He held my face in his hands again, examining it closely while comforting me.
His touch made my heart tremble slightly. I turned my head away in a bit of panic and escaped from his warm palm. "You only care because you're afraid my face will be ruined," I said.
The king of Southern Radiant Kingdom was once fascinated by my face, and several times couldn't help but want to possess me, but I rejected him with various reasons.
"Of course not, what I'm concerned about is that you don't know how to take care of your own body."
"If you hadn't ruined my martial arts, I would have been in good health." In other words, my current condition was caused by him.
"I... " Liam hesitated to speak, but in the end, he didn't say anything.
That was because he couldn't refute me.
I sneered, but more than that, it was heartache.