Chapter 19
The back view of Hunts, carrying a pouch of gold coins, was swallowed by the darkness.
Chloe, who had been watching that sight from inside the carriage, threw off the cumbersome hat.
Then, the wig that was integrated with the hat was also removed together.
The revealed hair was bright yellow blonde like gold.
Completely different from Agnes. A deep yellow color that could not be mistaken even from afar.
“Hmm, this is quite useful more than I thought?”
While flipping her disheveled hair, Chloe turned the wig this way and that.
The noble society that had been crushed by the war turned its eyes back to luxury as soon as peace arrived, as if it had never happened.
It did not take long for adornment and fashion to raise their heads.
Recently, the decisive event was when a grand duchess appeared wearing a silver-haired extension wig at an imperial ball.
After that day, wigs quietly spread by word of mouth among high-class women.
It was not yet at the stage of being universally distributed.
It was merely a secret trend quietly enjoyed only by some top merchants quick with information and some of the upper class.
So, who would imagine.
That the person in the photo is not Agnes, but Chloe.
“Struggle hard, Agnes.”
Humming, Chloe combed the wig.
Hair was not something only Agnes could use.
Unlike black-and-white cameras, color cameras still had immature technology, so the resolution was not very good.
Unless it was taken close up.
That means.
If the photo was taken from a distance at a clever angle, it could sufficiently cause confusion about who the person in the frame is.
Moreover, manipulating train tickets or something. As long as there was money, it was not a difficult task.
Chloe’s crimson lips drew a pleasant arc.
“Even so, the result will be the same.”
***
No one in the ducal castle welcomed Agnes.
After receiving the report that remnants of Cercadia had infiltrated the empire, Lionel had hardly stayed in the main castle.
It was common for him to return late at night or be away from home for days altogether.
Naturally, Agnes found it difficult not only to have a conversation with him but even to face him.
Although Lionel had not treated her warmly, still, in this unfamiliar place, the only person Agnes could rely on was him alone.
But as if even that was not allowed.
Lionel never stayed in the same space as Agnes.
Since the master of the castle treated Agnes as if she did not exist, the attitudes of the servants were no different.
Even when changing the bedding, attending to baths. Even when opening doors, no one exchanged a single word.
As if Agnes was not a living human, but merely air passing by briefly to do what needed to be done.
On the dining table, abundant food was served at set times, but there was no one to share that food with.
An existence that no one sought.
A person no one spoke to.
Thanks to that, Agnes was unintentionally able to keep Lionel’s warning from the first night well.
As he had wanted, she stayed without wandering around recklessly, living quietly as if she did not exist.
As such a life repeated, sometimes absurd thoughts occurred.
Perhaps she had already died in the carriage accident?
That when she fell into the ground with the explosion, it was not just the body, but the existence of Agnes Bardo itself.
So, no one could see her, and that was why no one spoke to her—such unrealistic thoughts.
Even in the Bardo mansion, she had lived a life without presence, but at least then she received contempt mixed with ridicule.
Like that. On nights left alone in a room where silence had settled, the carriage accident came to mind, and she suffered from nightmares.
As soon as she lay in bed and closed her eyes, explosive sounds were heard.
She felt the illusion as if the bed was suddenly sinking into the ground.
At those times, Agnes would pull her wheelchair and quietly slip out into the corridor.
Because she needed a place anywhere to catch her breath even for a moment.
On nights when she could not sleep, Agnes wandered alone inside the castle.
Every time, a strange sound mixed with the wind was heard. Something like piano sounds.
Thinking it might be an auditory hallucination, Agnes still followed the sound and rolled her wheelchair to the annex.
Because that performance resembled the piano Lionel used to play.
Today was the same.
The only difference from usual was that rain had started falling from the sky that had been cloudy all day.
“Ah……. If it rains like this, the wheelchair won’t move.”
The shallow raindrops quickly thickened and made the ground muddy.
Agnes panicked, grabbing the wheels that were stuck in the soft mud and not rolling properly.
In this state, it was difficult to return the way she came.
But she could not just stand there blankly getting rained on until the ground hardened again.
Agnes eventually opened the door to the annex, which she had always only come up to and turned back.
The inside of the annex she entered like that was dusty, as if it had not been used for a long time.
Yet strangely, only the piano placed in the center was clean.
As if someone had used it until just yesterday.
Agnes approached the piano and opened the lid. With a creak— sound, the keys were revealed.
Agnes carefully lifted her fingers.
The tip of her index finger pressed one key.
Ding—
A piano sound that was somehow subtly off-key echoed in the room.
That imperfect tone reminded her of the melody she had heard with Lionel in childhood.
An imperfect but nostalgic sound.
While pressing the keys a few more times, Ahnes’s eyes caught sight of a worn sheet music and a small drawer.
When she carefully opened the drawer, something familiar caught her eye inside.
It was letters.
Agnes unknowingly drew in a breath.
Unfolding the letter with trembling hands, she recognized it at a glance.
They were the consolation letters she had sent until now.
The ones where no reply had ever come, so she could not even be sure if they had arrived properly.
Agnes carefully took out the letters one by one and unfolded them.
“He kept all these…….”.
Agnes’s fingertips trembled faintly.
In the smell of the paper that had faded yellow over time, her past self remained intact.
She wrote the first letter right after Lionel enlisted in the military.
When sending supplies to his unit, she secretly attached a small folded note on the back of the receipt.
There were often people who tried to insert letters for family or lovers into supplies, giving bribes to the merchants.
But Adrian strictly forbade such acts, and if discovered, both the letters and items were thrown into the trash.
Because of that, Agnes had no choice but to send notes that looked like memos written by the merchant.
Since she had organized documents in place of Adrian since childhood, imitating the handwriting was not difficult.
Thanks to that, the letters were delivered safely without being caught.
All the letters she had sent like that were here.
“I’m glad the letters reached Rael safely…….”.
In the days of isolation where they reached nowhere, the only consolation was writing letters.
That Lionel had cherished those letters so preciously.
Agnes’s eyes turned red.
However, before that tender emotion could fully ripen,
Click.
The door to the annex opened.
At the long shadow stretching across the floor, Agnes unknowingly swallowed dryly.
It was Lionel.
In military uniform, he approached with large strides, carrying a dark expression.
“What are you doing here?”
Agnes was startled and lowered the hand holding the letters.
“Well, I was looking for a place to avoid the rain……,”
“Did this annex seem like a place anyone could come and go? Who told you about this place?”
Lionel’s voice growled low like a ferocious beast.
“Moreover, touching my things.”
His gaze pointed to the letters.
Agnes looked at him as if frozen. She was at a loss for words.
It was different from the reflexive fear that arose whenever she simply saw Lionel.
Today, there was something much more directly grating on her nerves.
The moment Lionel took a few steps closer, Agnes’s breathing began to shake.
The smell of mud and rain, and piercing through that, the strong smell of gunpowder.
As if he had just returned from an operation, his military uniform carried the heavy scent unique to the Black Iron Knights.
Moreover, the damp air made all those presences even denser.
When the damp smell of gunpowder brushed her nose, Agnes’s pupils widened greatly.
Smell and sight entangled, calling forth memories.
Just before the carriage fell below the bridge, the silhouette of the Black Iron Knights watching from the opposite side of the bridge.
And the smell of guns and gunpowder embedded in the bodies of the Cercadia soldiers who were beside them.
The stimulated senses finally placed Agnes back on the bridge on the day of the carriage accident.
She thought it had gotten a bit better.
The terror of that day began to be recreated intact in this space.
The terror of that day began to be recreated intact in this space.
“Did I not ask. Who told you about the existence of the annex.”
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
