Chapter 16
Agnes, who had arrived at the Bardo mansion by carriage, collapsed onto the bed as if crumbling.
Everything was a mess.
The business plan she had prepared with great care could not be found anywhere, as if it had been lost somewhere.
It’s fine. Anyway, it’s useless now.
Agnes took in the tattered ceiling with her eyes.
The wallpaper that had half fallen off shook subtly as if mocking Agnes.
On this day more than any other, she did not want to return to this room.
However, only after wandering the streets did she realize the fact that in this vast capital, there was not a single place where she could comfortably rest her body.
A situation with nowhere even to escape.
That was her current position.
She covered her eyes with both hands and swallowed the tears she had been holding back, but the emotions she could not suppress finally burst out.
‘I shouldn’t have done that…… To that extent……’
Regret leaked out without her realizing it.
It was the first time she had slapped someone’s cheek. Her stinging palm had burst blood vessels.
“If that’s what you want, it might be fine to have a mistress. For example, like that pretty-faced dancer from earlier.”
Recalling Lionel’s heartless voice, Agnes could not swallow her tears.
She resented Lionel for treating her like a cheap object.
There was no reason anywhere to hear such insult from him.
“I said no, ugh. I kept saying the rumors aren’t true.”
Lionel did not listen to even a single word of excuse.
It was not that she did not understand.
Lionel was a textbook soldier who moved only based on thoroughly clear evidence.
And she had nothing to present to prove her innocence.
Still, Agnes did not sit collapsed.
There must still be something she could do.
“Yes, first let’s find evidence that I didn’t embezzle the weapons. Then Lionel will treat me like before……, sob.”
However, the determination was short-lived. The end of her words mixed with sobs.
Tears she could not hold back fell onto the bed along her temples.
Cold sweat flowed, and her shoulders trembled.
An uncontrollable sense of fear climbed up her spine.
‘……I’m still scared.’
Every time Lionel approached, her breath would catch, and a cold chill wrapped around her entire body.
In fact, just looking straight at him and opening her mouth required tremendous control for Agnes.
The moment even a little intimidating atmosphere emanated from Lionel, the fear she had tried to ignore would dominate her mind.
In this state, how should she face Lionel from now on……
Ahnes shook her head and raised her body from the bed.
But she could not collapse.
If she sat down like this, everything remaining ahead would feel burdensome and make her want to run away.
“……Let’s endure.”
As she gathered her resolve like that, suddenly her stomach felt empty.
Agnes belatedly realized that the energy left in her body had hit rock bottom.
Adrian had not given her food for over two days, saying she had to act as an expensive commodity for a perfect appearance at the banquet.
Upon realizing that fact, the suppressed hunger rushed in all at once.
“First, eat something…… Then whether finding evidence or rehabilitating. Let’s try anything.”
Muttering like that, Agnes raised her body from the bed.
But as if mocking such resolve of Agnes, the moment she tried to stand on both feet, strength left her legs.
Thud.
One knee hit the floor, making a heavy sound.
“Haha……”
The tears that had stopped spun around again.
No matter how much she tried to ignore it, the miserable reality stabbed her heart.
Struggling to walk to the mirror while leaning on the wall, Agnes caught her breath and raised both arms.
She wanted to confirm what she could do now.
No, in fact, she did not want to accept it. The fact that her legs were completely ruined.
Perhaps it was just an illusion from the shock of falling on stage.
Maybe just her ankle was a bit swollen. It might not be to the extent of being irreparable.
Now…… it might be different.
Hoping it was her hasty misjudgment, Agnes carefully lifted her heel with a desperate heart. It was the basic posture of dance she had repeated countless times.
“……It’s okay. I can do it.”
But as soon as she took one step, Agmes’s body lurched forward again.
Tak-.
Agnes reflexively stretched out both arms and braced the floor.
A small sound echoed as her fingertips slipped and brushed the cold wooden floor.
She could not move for a while due to the shock.
It was not an illusion.
Her legs still did not move.
Heat from friction remained on her palms.
With trembling hands, Agnes pinched her legs.
There was no sensation.
Even pinching hard enough to draw blood, no reaction came back.
“Move…… Please……”
Her desperate voice melted into the air.
Agnes repeated the same words until her lips swelled.
“Move, I said……”
Those words circled the room like a spell. But her legs remained numb.
It felt as if shackles made of the heaviest stone in the world were fastened to her ankles.
No matter how much she tried to move, they were too heavy, shackles made so that she could never move……
“Move, I said……! Please…… Why, why won’t you move……!”
Agnes struck her legs on the floor with her fists.
Pain was not felt, but that made it more agonizing.
Her sobs gradually turned into screams, and eventually desperate wailing filled the room.
And even in the midst of that, feeling the hunger in her stomach, Agnes laughed hollowly.
She had become unable to dance, which was practically the meaning of life. Yet in this situation, her body was demanding food to survive.
“Haha…… It’s not even funny.”
Muttering like that, Agnes released strength from her body.
Moonlight flowing in through the window cracks shattered and poured onto the floor.
In that light, Agnes lay face down on the floor like an old doll and did not move for a long time.
How should she live from now on.
The silence of the room sinking under the moonlight felt like the shadow of tomorrow that would befall her.
Suffocating in that numbness, Agnes closed her eyes.
Hoping that tomorrow would not come just like this.
☆☆☆
Time flowed without rest.
The only grace period given to Agnes, who had been floundering in despair, came to an end, and finally the wedding day approached swiftly.
In front of the door of the grand cathedral. Agnes, dressed in a white dress, was sitting in a wheelchair.
Holding a small bouquet in her hand, Agnes’s eyes shook under the veil.
‘I wanted to walk even relying on crutches……’
However, no matter how hard she tried, she could not escape the wheelchair.
After gathering her mind, she visited a doctor, but nothing changed.
The doctor said he could not be sure if she could walk again, let alone stand on stage.
If lucky, through rehabilitation she might take three or four steps, but the process would be painfully agonizing.
Unless a new treatment was developed, with current medicine there was nothing more he could do, and he withdrew from treatment.
After that, Agnes tried practicing standing even alone.
But it did not take long to realize that some things cannot be done with effort alone.
Agnes gripped the bouquet tightly as if it were her only lifeline.
She did not want to stand in front of people like this.
She still could not forget the gleaming eyes she had seen at the banquet.
Because of that, after that day, she avoided places with many people.
But in the end, the day came when she had to face people’s gazes head-on.
Before she could even prepare her heart, the huge door opened.
Along with the gentle organ melody, the wheelchair began to slowly roll down the virgin road.
Numerous nobles’ gazes focused on Agnes all at once.
Agnes tried not to lower her head. Fortunately, thanks to the veil, her vision was blurry, so she could endure to some extent.
Like that, holding her neck stiffly, she finally arrived beside Lionel.
It was the first face she saw since the palace garden.
Right after the banquet, Lionel had left the capital to pursue the remnants of the Cercadia rebels, and she heard he returned only this morning.
The expression of Lionel, whom she saw after so long, was simply calm, as if nothing had happened.
He did not even show anger.
His coldly closed lips, the pale blue eyes without a single disarray, were like a machine made only to move limbs.
Agnes found it hard to look at that merciless face and lowered her gaze.
This marriage was not achieved by her will, but nonetheless, in one corner of her heart, the pain of guilt lingered.
The ceremony flowed excruciatingly slowly.
The voice of the officiant echoing in the cathedral, the hushed whispers, all sounded distant to Agnes’s ears.
In the hazy time like gray fog, only three things were vividly etched in Agnes’s memory.
Lionel’s expressionless face.
The clunking sound of the overturned wheelchair wheels.
And the boot mark stamped on the hem of the dress.
Those alone explained today to Agnes.
Like that.
Leaving indelible wounds on each of Lionel and Agnes.
The marriage of the restored duke and the merchant’s daughter, who had drawn attention across the empire. The two people who had been a hot topic in high society, their wedding came to a close.
Like a cruel play.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
