Chapter 123. What on earth are you doing here?
It was something he had expected to some extent.
That the Duke, who accompanied the Crown Prince on his return to the palace, might come here in pursuit of Deborah after she left the mansion—
Of course, he had never discussed this with Deborah.
Since she seemed reluctant to talk about anything related to the Duke, Jade had not pried further.
However, he could tell from the way the man looked at Deborah before.
Raymond von Cheister would never let Deborah go with his own hands.
Jade stared straight at the arrogant face looking down at him.
“This is unexpected. For the Duke of Cheister to visit my humble bookstore.”
At Jade’s words, spoken with a thin smile, Raymond’s brow furrowed fiercely.
But that was only for a brief moment.
His expression soon returned to its original state, and a short sentence flowed from his lips.
“Helena Lowell.”
“…….”
“Tell me where that woman lives.”
A terribly high-handed attitude.
To barge in unannounced and utter nothing but such a commanding tone.
Well, he hadn’t expected the man to observe any etiquette, but the sheer consistency of the attitude made him chuckle.
“I cannot simply give away the residence of my precious benefactor to just anyone.”
“……Just anyone?”
“Ah, I see I have committed a discourtesy. Even if it is the Duke of Cheister.”
“…….”
In the murderous atmosphere flowing between the two, Robin, standing in the back, became extremely tense.
Just as he was watching anxiously, wondering if something was about to happen—
“It would be best for you to speak. Unless you want your precious benefactor to fall into trouble—.”
“…….”
The words were spoken like a threat.
But Jade knew all too well that those words were not a mere bluff.
He could not let an innocent person be harmed by his own futile pride.
Jade bit his lip hard and finally opened his mouth.
“……She is not in Ruvake right now.”
“Not here?”
“Yes…… She is staying in Balteon for missionary work.”
“I assume you aren’t spouting nonsense.”
Ha, at the words dismissing his statement as nonsense in an instant, Jade burst into a hollow laugh.
“How could I? How would a lowly person like me dare to do such a thing to the Duke of Cheister?”
It was then.
The moment Raymond shifted the direction of his questioning as if aiming for a gap in his guard.
“Then, has Deborah ever been here?”
At the sudden question, Jade’s gaze shook violently for a moment.
“……Why are you asking me that?”
The wavering eyes and the one-beat-late response; Raymond intuitively felt that Jade knew something about Deborah’s whereabouts.
“Where is she? Speak.”
“……I do not know.”
“Speak.”
“I’ve told you several times that I don’t kn—”
“That filthy blood of yours is the exact image of your mother.”
The expression on Jade’s face, which had been speaking irritably, instantly froze hard.
Raymond, staring straight at Jade, continued his fierce denunciation.
“That filthy blood, which salivates only over what belongs to others.”
“…….”
At the sharp criticism of his mother, sparks flew in Jade’s eyes.
He knew well what kind of pain his mother had caused him, but he found it hard to understand how he could pour out such terrible verbal abuse on someone who was already deceased.
“……I have never done that.”
“Never done that?”
“Yes. Deborah is not an object. Naturally, she is no one’s possession, so it means I have never coveted what belongs to another.”
At those blue eyes staring straight back at him, Raymond’s eyebrows twitched for a moment.
He felt like wringing the neck of the insolent Jade right now for daring to speak such arrogant words in front of him, but finding Deborah was a more urgent matter for now.
It would not be too late to think about a lowly half-blood bastard who didn’t know his place after that.
“You’d better think carefully and answer this time.”
“…….”
“Unless you want to see everyone around you, including that woman named Helena in Balteon, shoved into the mud all at once—.”
A cold warning that he would not ask twice.
Jade had to realize miserably that this, too, was not a mere warning.
Watching those blue eyes, which resembled his own to an unpleasant degree, turn colored with anger and despair, Raymond spoke once more.
“Tell me where Deborah is.”
At that command, which left him no choice, Jade’s face contorted wretchedly.
“Sigh…….”
Sitting on the bed, Deborah let out a long sigh.
Even though she had walked around all day until her legs were swollen, it was difficult to find a suitable job.
She first looked into a maid position that provided room and board, but unfortunately, she was told it was only possible with a letter of recommendation from a previous employer.
Of course, there were ways even if one couldn’t get a recommendation.
It was a method of being hired through an introduction from someone you know, but with Teacher Helena gone, there was no way Deborah would have such a network.
Next, the place that provided room and board was an inn, but they said there were no vacancies now.
In the end, after wandering here and there all day, she was on her way back after writing down her name, experience, and skills at the servant registration office.
Deborah fell into various thoughts while massaging her aching legs.
Of course, she didn’t think it would be easy, but she didn’t know that getting a job would be this difficult.
To think that the label of ‘orphan’ that always followed her everywhere would become a stumbling block even at a time like this…….
She kept trying to cheer herself up, but she couldn’t help the bouts of depression that rushed in from time to time.
“…….”
Then, her thoughts suddenly drifted in another direction.
It was already the third day of her stay at Jade’s house.
In the midst of time passing helplessly, the face of the man she had been trying hard not to think about surfaced.
Would he have returned by now……?
If he had returned, he would know that I was gone…….
By any chance, on the day I disappeared…… did he look for me?
Or…….
While having various thoughts, a chuckle escaped her lips unintentionally.
It was so absurd and pathetic that she was still having such thoughts after walking out on her own.
It was something she started knowing it was a relationship that would end eventually, no matter when.
Then, she should just forget it cleanly and go back to how she was before…….
There were moments when the longing that surged up was hard to endure.
The time it became most severe was at midnight when darkness settled.
The memory and the sensation of the moment she fell asleep held in the man’s wide and warm embrace dug into her entire body every night, making it hard for Deborah.
Even though it wasn’t a cold season, she felt as if a sudden chill was creeping into her body, so Deborah pulled up her knees and buried her face between them.
‘If Teacher were by my side at a time like this, I would have so much to ask…….’
It was while Deborah was closing her eyes tightly with such thoughts.
Click.
The sound of the door opening was heard.
……?
There should be no one in this mansion who would burst open a guest’s room door without knocking.
In her bewilderment, her head slowly lifted upward.
And, seeing the tall man standing in front of her, she froze in place unintentionally.
For a moment, she thought it was a dream.
Because she missed him so much, because she longed for him so deeply…… she thought she was seeing things.
Otherwise, there was no way this man would be here.
There was no way he would be standing in front of her like this…….
The man approached Deborah, who remained motionless, with large strides.
“…….”
“…….”
Between the two, a very short silence flowed.
What broke that silence was a faint sound from Deborah’s mouth.
“How…… are you…… here…….”
With a dazed expression, the sound came out unintentionally.
The mouth of the man, who had been staring down at Deborah for a long while, finally opened.
“Is it important how I got here?”
“…….”
“As for you—.”
“…….”
“What on earth are you doing here?”
A voice that seemed to suppress anger, and the man’s coldly frozen face.
All of those things were what let her know how angry the man was with her right now.
She couldn’t say anything, no, not a single word.
So she just kept her mouth shut, but suddenly the man tightly grabbed one of the sitting Deborah’s arms.
The pain felt through the gripped arm was one thing, but no, more than that—
At the man’s action of trying to drag her toward the door just like that, Deborah hurriedly grabbed his arm.
“Wa-Wait, wait a minute!”
The man, who was pulling her roughly, stopped his steps for a moment at those words.
Fearing the man’s heart might change, Deborah opened her mouth hurriedly.
“Where…… where are we going now?”
The brow of the man who looked back furrowed fiercely in an instant.
“Where are we going?”
With a face that seemed to ask why she was asking something so obvious, Deborah’s heart sank in an instant.
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