Chapter 28
Bang!
The moment the stone structure collapsed from above, Lionel’s body flew in like lightning.
“Agnes!”
Without even time to draw breath, firm arms wrapped around Agnes.
Immediately, a thick boulder fell and struck Lionel’s shoulder hard.
“Kuh-.”
The dull pain transmitted to his bones flashed his vision for a moment, but he did not show it on his face. Gritting his teeth, he confined Agnes deeper into his embrace.
Crack—!
The framework cracking in succession. The chandelier hanging there creaked from the impact.
As if it would fall any moment.
Lionel exhaled shortly.
There’s no time to evade.
“……Damn it.”
Instinctively, he drew the pistol from his waist.
The moment he pulled the trigger,
Bang—!
With a deafening roar hitting the ears, the chandelier shattered into pieces in midair.
Whoosh, the poured crystal fragments scattered, cutting through the air.
Glass shards grazed the face and back of the hand, drawing red lines.
Blood seeped out with a stinging sensation, but Lionel’s attention was solely on one thing.
As the thickly rising dust settled, Agnes in his arms came into view.
“You-!”
Veins bulged on Lionel’s neck.
Sudden anger surged up.
He wanted to question her.
Why did you let go of your hand? You should have screamed to be saved.
Unable to even move alone, were you planning to be crushed to death like this?
However, at the soft body temperature coiling around his fingertips, all those words folded back into his mouth.
Agnes’s shoulders trapped in the firm arms were trembling finely. Like a frightened bird.
The gray eyes that had seemed like a ruined place with the light turned off a little while ago were regaining vitality.
“Your Grace? Why are you here…….”
The eyes shaking here and there showed that Agnes was considerably flustered.
Soon after. Lionel realized that Agnes was clutching something.
‘……Toe shoes?’
The white box tightly held in Agnes’s both hands.
Through the torn ribbon, the glittering front tip of new toe shoes was revealed.
It was the very toe shoes that he himself had shoved into the trash bin.
Lionel’s gaze hardened for a moment.
In this situation, clutching mere toe shoes so preciously?
Confusion, and an inexplicable emotion mixed, gradually shaking Lionel’s eyes.
It felt like something heavy was stuck in his throat.
It was an unpleasant feeling. However, the remnants of that emotion did not last long.
Because piles of dirt were already falling whoosh from the ceiling of the grand theater that had lost its supporting axis.
“Get up. If you don’t want to die here.”
Lionel ignored his throbbing shoulder and lifted Agnes.
“Your arm is injured……! I’ll handle it myself-,”
“Handle what yourself? When you can’t even walk alone.”
“…….”
Agnes said in a trembling voice, but Lionel did not answer.
Though she was trying not to show it, Agnes’s breathing was rapid.
Like that time she collapsed in the annex.
And yet, saying she’ll handle it herself.
Lionel wrapped Agnes’s head and made her face bury into his chest.
“As long as you don’t move, it’ll be fine, so stay still.”
It was a cold tone, but each action was careful.
It was already the third time. Holding Agnes.
Perhaps because of that. The sensation of holding Agnes was no longer unfamiliar.
The small frame clinging pitifully seemed almost welcome.
As they exited the dust-filled passage like that, Kain’s silhouette was visible at the end of the blackened corridor.
Kain, upon spotting Agnes, hurriedly tried to approach but hesitated.
It was because of the chandelier fragments scattered all over the floor.
Even at a glance, they looked sharp enough to easily pierce shoe soles.
Hesitating at the thought that he might step wrong and injure his sole, Kain met eyes with Agnes.
“Ah, uh……, Miss Agnes.”
Kain belatedly took a step, but Lionel had no intention of waiting for that.
Lionel pulled Agnes deeper into his embrace and passed by Kain as is.
Crunch.
Unlike Kain, the sound of fragments crushed under the boots of his unhesitating steps echoed eerily.
☆☆☆
“Colonel!”
The moment he saw the figure walking out to the theater entrance mixed with dust and flames, Lionel’s adjutant Kalt Lockwood ran over with fierce steps.
“Do you know how startled I was when you suddenly ran into the theater!”
“Enough with the fuss.”
Lionel side-glanced at Kain who was lingering hesitantly behind and furrowed his brows.
Outside the theater was already a chaos.
How fast their feet were. Journalists who had heard the news were positioned among the evacuated audience.
“There, it’s Duke Valheim!”
“Colonel, what is all this? Could it be another terrorism? Is it Ribelt’s doing again this time?”
“Wait, isn’t that person the Duchess?”
Shutter sounds and flashes from black-and-white cameras burst like lightning from all directions.
The flashing lights poured onto Agnes’s pale face.
The knights shot at Agnes like predators finding appetizing prey.
Lionel, upon seeing that, immediately took off his jacket and covered Agnes’s face.
And right away handed Agnes to Kalt.
“Take her to the hospital. She was right next to it when the explosion happened.”
“What about Your Grace?”
Agnes, supported by Kalt, grabbed Lionel.
“Your Grace is injured too.”
Lionel stared at the slender hand tightly clutching his uniform sleeve.
The blue eyes slowly moved gaze from the hand still unable to control the trembling to Agnes’s face.
“I wonder if you can say that even knowing what state you’re in right now.”
A long red line was drawn on Agnes’s white cheek.
Lionel, who had unconsciously tried to brush the wound, clicked his tongue.
“Get treatment first. Today’s matter…… let’s talk again after that.”
Agnes moved her lips as if to say more, but Lionel had already turned his gaze to scan the crowd.
At that time, Kalt who was about to leave whispered secretly.
“All audience members have been evacuated. However, we missed two of them. One was arrested, but the other seems to have hidden among the crowd.”
Lionel’s eyes changed sharply in an instant.
That gaze pierced a point on the floor in the crowd.
Blackened footprints and traces where the gunpowder smell had not yet disappeared.
“Colonel……?”
At the same time as Kalt’s call, Lionel tilted his head crookedly.
Toward the suspicious young man mingled among the elderly gentlemen soothing their startled hearts.
Black gunpowder was smeared on the man’s shirt collar.
Tension spread in an instant.
The adjutant and knights also turned their heads simultaneously to watch that direction.
The man who noticed those gazes spat a low curse.
“Damn, our Colonel is consistently sharp. On the battlefield or here.”
The Ribelt emblem revealed through the torn robe.
The man charged with a single scream.
“For the revival of Sercadia!”
In an instant, the knights narrowed the encirclement, but the blade was already plunging toward Lionel.
At that moment.
“Rael! It’s dangerous!”
Agnes shook off Kalt’s hand and staggered forward.
Her body losing balance swayed as if to fall, but Agnes threw herself toward Lionel.
As if to protect him.
‘……!’
Lionel’s eyes shook greatly.
Me…… shielding? Agnes Bardo?
Even amid the confusion, Lionel reflexively pulled the pistol’s trigger.
“Argh!”
The bullet grazed the man’s side.
Clang-, the knife the man dropped hit the stone floor making a loud noise.
The man who let out a scream clutched his side and staggered.
Then, swinging his blood-spread hand in the air to push people, he limped and fled toward the alley.
“Catch him!”
At Lionel’s command, the knights drew their swords all at once and chased after him.
The sound of military boots pounding the stone floor spread through the street in unison.
Even amid all that commotion, Agnes was still holding Lionel as if protecting him.
Agnes’s shoulders stiffened greatly at the successive gunshots and screams.
Lionel caught his breath and muttered lowly.
“Did you just shield me? Why?”
“Your Grace saved me too. And you said it. That you…… dislike getting hurt.”
Though it was a very small voice, that one word from Agnes lingered unusually clearly in Lionel’s ears.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
