Olivia's eyes opened, gradually adjusting to the dark room in which she found herself.
Olivia felt numb and unable to process her situation, lying on a bed without understanding why.
'Am I not dead?'
'Did the poison not kill me?'
'Could a physician have healed me?'
A sudden, heavy headache struck Olivia, causing her to groan in pain.
Olivia turned slowly, only to feel her body sink into someone's embrace.
Alarmed, Olivia extended her hand.
Despite the surrounding darkness, Olivia managed to find her way to the person's throat before any harm could be done.
However, to Olivia's surprise, instead of the person beside her immediately succumbing to her grip, Olivia got flipped onto her back and had her hands pinned to the bed.
'He...he is a man,' Olivia couldn't help but grunt as she struggled against being pinned.
A warm breath brushed against her face, indicating that the man was hovering over her.
How dare he?
Olivia attempted to free her hands, but they remained firmly fixed.
Olivia then shifted her focus to her legs.
Strangely, her legs also became immobilized, pinned to the bed.
Olivia couldn't comprehend how this could be happening.
'Who could he be?' Olivia wondered once more.
'If he is an enemy, he should have killed me, given that he was right beside me.'
Frustrated, Olivia grunted as she struggled against her restraints, but her efforts were in vain.
Feelings of helplessness and wounded pride flooded Olivia.
How could an assassin like her find herself so helpless against an unknown adversary?
Tired of grunting and struggling, Olivia finally voiced out, "Who are you?"
Receiving no response from the man who had her pinned, Olivia asked again, her patience wearing thin.
"Whose assassin are you? I'm certain you're not from Stone Cloud. Or..."
Before Olivia could finish her sentence, a slight flicker cut through the darkness, and suddenly the room became a bit clearer.
This allowed Olivia to see the face of the man who was pinning her to the bed.
However, when she finally did, Olivia was taken aback to realize that he was shirtless.
No, Olivia knew he was shirtless, as her hands had traversed his chest to his throat.
However, seeing him more clearly left Olivia feeling even more startled.
"The doctor said you might behave strangely, but I didn't expect you to be this erratic, Miss Jolene," The man's voice broke the silence.
Her wrists were released, and the man moved off her to lie beside her.
'Why do his words sound slightly different?' Olivia found herself asking, though she remained calm, sensing no immediate threat from him.
'Who is he? I'm quite certain I've never set my eyes on him before. Someone as handsome as he is would be well-known in this village. Could he be from another village? And why is he lying next to me?'
Olivia's mind churned with questions, her frustration mounting due to her lack of information about her current predicament.
Trying to recall how she had ended up where she was, Olivia struggled to remember anything after she had lost consciousness after being betrayed and stabbed.
Rage coursed through her as she recalled that moment.
Olivia then sat upright, her gaze now fixed on the man sitting beside her.
Yet, Olivia couldn't shake the feeling that everything around her seemed different.
The room held unfamiliar objects, and the man himself...
"Who are you, I asked, young man?!"
"You call your husband a young man, Miss Jolene?" The man retorted.
Olivia heard the man's response as he got up from the bed and walked around it, finally settling down next to where she was.
Even with his close proximity, Olivia didn't flinch. Her main concern was how she ended up there.
However, Olivia's eyes widened when the man moved even closer, touching her forehead with the back of his palm.
"Miss Jolene, it seems your temperature has gone down. I will tell the cook to prepare something for you, even though it's still dark."
"I said, who are you?!" Olivia shouted, slapping his hand away from her forehead, and decided to rise from the bed, which felt overly comfortable.
But as she stood up, Olivia realised she was half naked.
She was in an unfamiliar outfit that covered her chest and pubic region.
Slowly, Olivia's eyes fell on the heavy cloth on the bed, and she used it to cover herself.
The man, still seated on the bed, noticed her reaction and remarked, "Miss Jolene, should I remind you that you were the one who removed all your clothes, claiming you wanted us to consummate our marriage?"
He paused before adding, "It was quite an unusual sight, considering your reputation for being prudish."
"What?" Olivia exclaimed before swallowing hard. She realized that this man had not answered a single question directed at him.
Or perhaps he had, but why was he spouting such nonsense?
Her surroundings were markedly different; the familiar scent of firewood smoke was absent, and yet the atmosphere was comfortably warm.
As Olivia continued to scan the room, her gaze finally landed on the source of the light.
Frowning in confusion, she wondered why it appeared so unfamiliar.
"Could you please stop looking around?" Olivia's attention was abruptly drawn back to the man standing before her.
"Are you having trouble with your vision?" she heard the man mutter.
"In that case, we have to make an appointment with the eye surgeon. Sleep for now and don't strain those eyes, they are pretty expensive."
Baffled by all the confusion, Olivia quickly settled on the idea of confronting the man to force him to reveal his identity. He had been evading her questions and responding with nonsense for far too long.
Although she hadn't sensed any murderous intent from the man, she couldn't be certain now.
Without hesitation, Olivia grabbed the strange object emitting light and struck the man's head with it.
His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed unconscious.
Taking a slight gasp, Olivia placed the light-emitting object onto a table. Although it was starting to blink, she paid it no mind as long as she could see.
Letting go of the cloth she had been clutching around her, she scanned the room for a suitable rope to restrain him.
Once she spotted it, she bound the man's legs and tied his hands behind him.
Olivia then looked around for something to wear.
"Let's see if you can escape, young man."