Chapter 72
Blue veins bulged over Lionel Edmund Valheim’s smooth forehead.
The maids were busily passing by, moving ornaments with excited faces.
The landscape of the quiet and orderly Duke’s residence was nowhere to be found, and it was as noisy as if an official banquet were being prepared.
At any other time, he would not have cared.
However, because he had wished for the mansion to be quiet today of all days, this clamor grated against his nerves.
It was Cedric Alexio Valheim’s birthday.
Even if he had forgotten, Nora surely would have known that fact.
If so, even if the atmosphere wasn’t solemn, there was at least no reason for the mansion to be in such chaos.
Lionel Edmund Valheim’s gaze sank coldly.
“You.”
One servant, who was walking while perilously stacking boxes, froze at that voice.
“Explain what this situation is.”
“D-Duke, you have arrived?”
“Skip the greetings and explain, I said.”
*Hieek.*
The servant, who quickly set down the boxes at Lionel Edmund Valheim’s fierce aura, bowed their head.
“A-Agnes invited the boutique shop staff, so we were in the middle of moving dresses and ornaments.”
“……Agnes?”
Lionel Edmund Valheim’s brow furrowed deeply, as if he had heard something preposterous.
He was about to try and understand that such a situation might have unfolded because Agnes might not know what day it was today, but—
A box caught at his feet shattered his thoughts without mercy.
With a light thud, a small box rolled forward.
The moment he reflexively dropped his gaze, Lionel Edmund Valheim’s breath stopped for a moment.
Black metal peeking through the gap in the box.
It was Cedric Alexio Valheim’s dog tags.
Lionel Edmund Valheim’s mind went blank in an instant.
It was the item Cedric Alexio Valheim had held in his hand until the very end.
It was an object that should never be treated carelessly like this.
But why was this rolling on the floor in such a state?
“Who told you to put this out here?”
“That is…… because Agnes said there was not enough space in the dressing room and told us to put the items in another room, so we had no choice—,”
Agnes. It was Agnes again.
Was there nothing else to say besides that name?
A trembling breath escaped between Lionel Edmund Valheim’s lips as if he were suppressing rage.
“Did Agnes specifically tell you to move the items to the room where Cedric Alexio Valheim’s belongings were stored?”
“Yes. We also tried to stop her, but Agnes would not listen.”
The servant, who had been strictly cautioned by Nora, shut their eyes tight and nodded.
“The Head Maid also mentioned that today is Lord Cedric’s birthday and suggested changing the boutique shop’s visit to another day, but rather, it seems that made Agnes upset.”
Lionel Edmund Valheim’s jawline convulsed greatly.
……That Agnes did such a thing even while knowing it was Cedric Alexio Valheim’s birthday. And that she did it on purpose because she was upset.
Furthermore, that she intentionally made Cedric Alexio Valheim’s keepsakes roll around the floor like trash?
If it had stopped at just a lively atmosphere, it might have been okay.
However, how should he take these words now?
To anyone’s eyes, was this not the same as insulting the deceased Cedric Alexio Valheim?
Nevertheless, Lionel Edmund Valheim barely held onto his reason and caught a passing boutique shop staff member to verify once more.
Whether it was true that today’s visit and the movement of the items were according to Agnes’s will.
The answer that came back was simple.
They said it was so.
Lionel Edmund Valheim felt the back of his neck gradually grow hot.
Just then, Agnes, whom he had longed to see, appeared at the end of the hallway.
At this moment, it would have been better if she hadn’t appeared at all.
“Lionel?”
Agnes called him with clear eyes, as if she knew nothing.
Lionel Edmund Valheim looked at that face unconsciously and discovered something.
Agnes was wearing his mother’s brooch.
With an innocent face that seemed to know no deception.
The clumsy trust that had been barely holding together could no longer endure and cracked in all directions.
Along the lines of the fractures.
Confusion, a sense of betrayal, and an unexplainable rage instantly tangled together and swallowed Lionel Edmund Valheim’s reason.
“That…… why are you wearing that?”
“Pardon?”
Agnes truly looked as if she had no idea why.
The moment she raised her hand to touch the brooch, Lionel Edmund Valheim’s hand reached out faster and snatched it away roughly.
*Tuk.*
Along with the brooch, a piece of the dress’s decoration fell to the floor.
The falling metallic sound echoed exceptionally loudly.
“Are you this excited even while knowing what day today is? For someone who turned the mansion upside down so noisily on my brother’s birthday, you have a quite innocent face.”
Agnes’s eyes distorted immediately.
It was a face that didn’t even know why she was being blamed.
“Birthday…… you say?”
“Are you letting out your frustration at not being able to go outside by insulting Cedric Alexio Valheim like this?”
Agnes’s pupils shook for a moment.
Soon, Agnes realized something and quickly shook her head.
“It’s a misunderstanding, Lionel. I didn’t know today was your brother’s birthday. If I had known, there’s no way I would have done such a thing. This is all the Head Maid—,”
“I’m sure you’ll say that. Naturally, you wouldn’t have known that the brooch you were wearing was a keepsake of my mother that Cedric Alexio Valheim cherished during his lifetime either, right?”
Lionel Edmund Valheim’s lips twisted.
“And you probably didn’t know that the room you pushed the dresses into was where Cedric Alexio Valheim’s keepsakes were organized.”
“Wait, just a moment, Lionel.”
Agnes scanned the floor with confused eyes.
The box kicked at Lionel Edmund Valheim’s feet came into view.
‘The room Mrs. Nora mentioned is…….’
Only then did Agnes, grasping the situation, bite her lip hard.
‘It’s my fault. I should have checked more.’
She felt pathetic for following Mrs. Nora’s words exactly just because she didn’t want to expend emotional energy.
Even while knowing that woman was never favorable toward Agnes herself. Why did she do that?
No matter how much an answer didn’t return, she should have asked and asked again.
A moment’s lapse in vigilance eventually created an irreversible emotional rift.
Lionel Edmund Valheim let out a cold laugh.
“How convenient. Everything is resolved with the single phrase that you didn’t know.”
“Lionel, please listen to my story. It really isn’t something I did.”
“Is that so? Everyone in this mansion says it was your command, but you are the only one saying it isn’t.”
Agnes reached out her trembling hand and grabbed Lionel Edmund Valheim’s fingertips.
“Lionel, I’m sorry. It’s my fault. Because I didn’t act more carefully……. But I really—,”
“Stop. I don’t want to hear it right now.”
Lionel Edmund Valheim roughly brushed off Agnes’s hand.
Lionel Edmund Valheim’s face also distorted as if in pain, as if swallowing the venomous words trying to burst out.
And with the words that flowed out lowly as a finale, Lionel Edmund Valheim left the mansion.
“……I really don’t know what your true face is. I thought I had come to know a little, but it seems I was wrong.”
***
After that day, Lionel Edmund Valheim did not seek Agnes.
No, he did not enter the mansion at all.
Nevertheless, when the day for the walk promised with Lionel Edmund Valheim arrived, Agnes headed for the garden steadfastly.
However, even until the winter rain began to fall from the dark sky and soak her collar, Lionel Edmund Valheim did not come.
Rain-soaked hair stuck to her cheeks and cold water droplets fell repeatedly on the back of her hands, but Agnes remained in that spot.
Until the wheels of the wheelchair were half-embedded into the rain-soaked soil.
Like that, Agnes waited for hours in the rain for the Lionel Edmund Valheim who did not come.
The rain gradually grew heavier.
The water pooled beneath the pillars of the corridor had already soaked her ankles twice, three times.
As if the tips of her feet cooled when her heart cooled, the part that she didn’t know was body or mind gradually hardened.
But Agnes did not move. Even though she vaguely guessed that Lionel Edmund Valheim would not come, she simply kept her place.
As the price for facing the winter rain with her whole body, Agnes suffered from a high fever for many days thereafter.
Agnes lost the boundary between night and day while consumed by the fever.
She could not feel the difference between dawn and evening, and dream and reality blurred together.
On the night that it was becoming exactly four days of suffering like that, Agnes discovered Lionel Edmund Valheim standing at the doorway without a sign in her blurred vision.
“……La…… el……?”
Agnes barely lifted her heavily swollen eyelids.
She could not tell if that was truly Lionel Edmund Valheim or a cruel hallucination created by the fever.
Nevertheless, Agnes grabbed onto the Lionel Edmund Valheim who might be an illusion and pleaded.
“Why didn’t you come. The walk…… I said let’s definitely do it this time…….”
It seemed she also asked if he hated her that much. She didn’t remember well, but.
her voice, submerged in fever, wavered like a wave.
“Since I already couldn’t keep it three times, the second price…… I’ll change it.”
Between the words, her breath broke and connected, and with every phrase, the suppressed emotions crumbled layer by layer.
“It’s okay even if you don’t take me for a walk…… Just any time, please believe me just once. Just me as I am…….”
The more she spoke, the more Agnes’s throat became dry and hot.
However, her reddened eyes forced back the tears.
“Just once, even just one time is enough, please?”
“…….”
However, even in the dream, Lionel Edmund Valheim was heartless.
‘I understand.’ He never let her hear that one phrase.
During the few days Lionel Edmund Valheim did not visit, Agnes was scared.
It felt like she finally knew her situation.
An existence that is discarded just like that if Lionel Edmund Valheim doesn’t seek her.
An existence that no one will look for no matter where she is placed in the mansion.
Such a shabby and insignificant existence was herself.
What if Lionel Edmund Valheim tries to never see her again like this?
What if he never returns, leaving only her behind inside this cold room with the large window?
The breath she had held back for a long time finally burst out like a sob.
“Don’t abandon me, Rael. Because I was all wrong, so, please…….”
However, even to the plea wrung out while throwing away her pride, an answer still did not return.
The shadow that had stayed for a very brief moment gradually became faint and disappeared beyond the gap in the door.
Like that, only Agnes’s feverish breathing remained in the room again.
That night, winter rain poured down once more. As if crying in Agnes’s stead.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
