Chapter 135. A Guest Arriving on the Rain
There was a superstition handed down from olden times in Ruvake.
The saying went: “A guest who arrives on the rain brings ominous energy stained upon their sleeves.”
While some dismissed it as a mere superstition, the majority of people still did not welcome visitors who arrived on gloomy days.
It was the same even now.
The man who had served as the gatekeeper of Elphengreen for over a decade fell into serious contemplation for a moment about what to do with the visitor who arrived in this dismal weather.
Usually, the types of visitors seeking the Cheister Dukedom were divided into specific categories: those of noble birth or those whose identities were so clear that anyone could recognize them.
In other cases, the standard procedure was to report to the interior first and wait for instructions.
The reason the gatekeeper hesitated despite the established protocol was that today was the very important day when the master of this manor, the Duke of Cheister, was moving his residence.
However, since he could not simply turn away a guest at his own discretion, the gatekeeper ended his brief deliberation and spoke toward the suspicious guest.
“State your name and status.”
At the blunt tone, the man poking his face out of the carriage window flinched for a moment before answering in a calm voice.
“Laurent Belmont, a priest from the Rescott Parish.”
“And the person inside there?”
When he pointed to someone visible inside the narrow carriage and asked, the man who identified himself as a priest spoke again.
“……Godric Pollock, a merchant.”
At that peculiar combination of a priest and a merchant, the gatekeeper’s rugged face furrowed slightly.
“What is your business here?”
“I have come to…… see the Duke of Cheister.”
“Did you make an appointment before coming?”
If they had, there was no way he wouldn’t have known, but the gatekeeper threw the question according to the fixed custom.
“We did not, but…… it is an important matter that I must see him in person to discuss, and we have come in such haste, so please convey that to him.”
“…….”
As expected, upon confirming they were guests who had come blindly without an appointment, the gatekeeper’s expression crumpled fiercely.
In this foul weather, the thought of having to go all the way to the interior of the manor, which was quite a distance away, was nothing short of a nuisance.
But what could he do? It was his duty.
Damn it, a harsh curse eventually flowed from the gatekeeper’s mouth.
“Wait here for a moment. I’ll go get confirmation from inside.”
At the words that finally dropped, a faint sigh escaped the priest’s mouth.
Rumble—!
At the sudden peal of thunder, the gatekeeper glanced up and looked at the sky.
The sky, which had been bad since morning, was now completely covered with thick, pitch-black ink clouds.
“Damn, the weather sure is bizarre.”
Tsking his tongue at the eerie weather, the gatekeeper soon turned around and disappeared into the interior.
***
“Since the weather is like this, how about departing tomorrow instead?”
The words were offered cautiously.
Raymond, who was just standing up, turned his gaze toward the window for a moment.
The sky, which had been unusual since dawn, was now entirely covered with black ink clouds.
After staring blankly at the scenery for a while, Raymond turned his head back to the opposite side a moment later.
“No, I will depart as scheduled.”
“…….”
Upon hearing that he insisted on departing in such weather, the old butler Greig’s expression changed to one of concern.
Raymond lightly patted the butler’s shoulder and smiled.
“I leave my mother and Cecilia in your care.”
“……Yes, I shall do so.”
A short while ago, for a final greeting before leaving, Raymond had headed to his mother Eleanor’s bedroom.
However, he had to turn back at the door without even seeing her face.
It was an expected outcome.
A cold-hearted son who leaves his mother behind because he is crazy for a woman—to her eyes now, he would look like nothing else, so it was natural that she wouldn’t want to see his face.
He understood it with his head, but his mouth nonetheless felt as bitter as a medicinal herb.
However, it was already a decided matter.
Knowing that the person he must protect now is Deborah and no one else, Raymond decided to keep running straight ahead.
“Go and bring Deborah he—.”
Knock, knock.
He was just about to command Charlotte, who stood beside Greig, to bring Deborah.
At the sudden sound of a knock, everyone’s gaze turned toward the door.
The person who opened the door and entered was none other than Robin.
Raymond stared fixedly at Robin as he walked slowly inside.
“What is it?”
He asked because he knew Robin had hurriedly left his post a moment ago at someone’s call.
“That…… someone says they have come to see the Duke.”
Upon hearing the words coming from Robin’s mouth, Raymond’s brow instantly crumpled fiercely.
“Now?”
The reason he asked was very simple.
A party who suddenly showed up in this weather without even making an appointment.
Whoever it was, they were no different from an unwelcome guest in the current situation.
Furthermore, it was almost time to leave.
Since delaying further could cause a significant deviation from the planned time, Raymond decided, after a brief thought, not to meet the guest who had arrived.
However, a beat faster before he could even speak, Robin’s mouth opened first.
“They said it is an important story that they must see you in person to tell…… and said he is a priest from some parish.”
An important story that must be told, and a priest at that.
At that strange combination, an unknown unpleasantness crawled slowly up his spine for a moment.
After that, a short silence settled inside the study for a while.
Greig, Charlotte, and Robin.
While everyone was simultaneously waiting for the words that would come from his mouth, Raymond’s gaze suddenly moved to the clock hanging on the wall of the study.
His blue eyes, which moved as if calculating something, moved back to the front a moment later.
“You go and bring that person here, and Charlotte.”
After giving a brief instruction to Robin, Raymond gave that same command to Charlotte again.
“I will depart in thirty minutes, so bring Deborah here around then.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
At the precise instruction, the two immediately bowed their heads in response and left the study.
He didn’t know exactly how important the matter was, but he concluded that about thirty minutes would be sufficient.
He thought that allotting that much time would not greatly derail his plans.
However, Raymond would realize clearly not long after that that his thought was a great miscalculation.
***
Flash—!
At the flash of lightning outside the window, Deborah’s body flinched for a moment.
After staring outside for a long time, where it looked as though a downpour was about to break out, Deborah’s gaze slowly moved to the clock hanging on the wall.
‘Why is there no news yet…….’
She thought she had heard they were departing around noon, but the time was just passing noon now.
Wondering if something had happened, her mind grew even more anxious and restless, especially with the addition of the unusual weather outside.
Unable to sit and wait any longer, she was just standing up with the thought of pacing inside the bedroom.
Click.
At the sound of the door opening, Deborah’s head turned there like an arrow.
The face visible through the gap of the opened door was Mrs. Charlotte, whom she hadn’t seen in a few days.
Deborah quickly walked toward Charlotte as she approached.
“Let us go, the Duke told you to come to the study.”
Ah, finally.
At that moment when the long-awaited time arrived right before her eyes, a long sigh of relief flowed from Deborah’s mouth.
Nodding her head, Deborah quickly followed behind Mrs. Charlotte, who was leading the way.
‘Now, if I just get into the carriage and leave this place…… then, there will be no problem…… yes, no problem…….’
The entire time she walked down the long hallway, Deborah repeatedly recited that to herself as if casting a spell.
In the end, until the very moment before departure, nothing had happened.
Since Ludmilla’s sudden appearance and departure yesterday afternoon, Deborah had to suffer through all sorts of ominous imaginations until now.
That terrible memory of being dragged away while unconscious and forced into a wedding ceremony.
She thought Ludmilla might know about that false marriage, which had been carried out secretly through the schemes of the orphanage director and the old merchant.
That she was threatening her like this because of that.
However, seeing that nothing had happened after all until now, she reached the conclusion that her concern was ultimately a mere groundless fear.
She believed that she had worried far too much about the Ludmilla matter, and just as she first thought, it was certain that Ludmilla knew nothing.
Deborah truly thought so.
Without having any inkling of what might be waiting at the end of this path toward the man—
With every step Deborah took, a long black shadow cast itself over her.
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