Chapter 111
“Help you?”
Lionel let out a mocking laugh.
“Rebelt is asking me for help of all people?”
Deciding it was not even worth listening to, Lionel adjusted the direction of his gun and aimed at Raul’s abdomen.
Then he noticed another presence behind Raul.
Looking more closely, a small child was peeking out while clutching a worn robe.
The child’s face was smeared with soot, as though they had been at the site of the explosion.
Come to think of it, Raul’s running posture had seemed somewhat awkward from the beginning.
‘Was it because he was carrying the child?’
As if on guard, Raul stepped forward and shielded the child behind his back.
“This child has nothing to do with any of this.”
“I merely saved them from being caught in the explosion, so please let them go.”
“I beg you.”
Staring at Raul as he instinctively protected the child, Lionel gave a slight tilt of his head.
At once, the child scampered out of the alley.
Now Raul and Lionel were finally left completely alone.
Raul’s Adam’s apple bobbed with tension.
Not long ago, when Raul discovered the bomb Nick had hidden behind the shelter, it felt as though his heart had dropped into the pit of his stomach.
And then there was the moment he realized that every trace of his wanted posters had vanished.
By the time he understood that something had gone terribly wrong, Nick had already branded Raul as the traitor who had abandoned Rebelt.
At first, Raul had tried to stop the attacks together with a handful of the members.
But he simply lacked the strength to stop terrorist attacks spreading across the entire city by himself.
“If you needed help, you could have gone to the Capital Defense Force instead of me.”
“It isn’t as though I didn’t try.”
“I anonymously reported the locations where the attacks would occur, but they never acted.”
In the end, Raul had to choose.
Would he flee?
Or would he stop the needless slaughter, even if it meant being captured himself?
Raul chose the latter.
And the person he chose to help him was Lionel.
Ironically, the man who had stood at the exact opposite side of him and fought him most fiercely until now felt like the only possible option.
The Lionel Raul had watched on the battlefield all this time was, at the very least, not a man who treated his comrades and subordinates like disposable pieces on a chessboard.
Even amid the inhumane reality where people betrayed yesterday’s comrades without hesitation just to survive, Lionel had protected his own principles to the very end.
That was why Raul had appeared before Lionel fully prepared to be arrested.
Because he believed that Lionel, at the very least, would never turn a blind eye while innocent people were sacrificed.
And just moments ago, when Lionel had allowed the child to leave, Raul became certain.
His judgment had not been wrong.
“You may arrest me here if you wish.”
“But please stop Nick.”
“Before more innocent people are hurt.”
The fingertips resting on Lionel’s trigger relaxed ever so slightly.
The unwavering sincerity shining in Raul’s expression reminded him of Agnes.
‘Jerome Winterbolt’s unit ignored the report?’
That same Jerome, who was obsessed with earning military achievements, had not even touched a case of this magnitude?
It was suspicious beyond belief.
Lionel also knew that the current situation was anything but natural.
The Imperial Family had issued the order to execute Raul with excessive speed.
Almost as though they had been waiting for it.
Lionel had already sensed that the Imperial Family had a hand in all of this.
There was no way the Emperor would be satisfied merely by scattering Raul’s portraits across the Empire.
But just because he suspected the Imperial Family’s involvement, did that mean he could trust Raul?
That was an entirely different matter.
Lionel carefully examined Raul once more.
Perhaps he had run into the flames to save the child, because the ends of his hair were scorched, and his clothes were riddled with holes where sparks had burned through them.
There was not a single thing about him that appeared threatening.
If anything, he looked weak and pitiful.
Seeing that, Lionel’s eyebrow twitched as he curled the finger resting on the trigger.
Realizing a shot was coming, Raul tightly shut his eyes.
“So you don’t believe me.”
“No.”
“If anything, I’m beginning to think you might actually be worth believing.”
“Then why…?”
“I can’t officially keep alive someone who has already been ordered executed.”
The next moment,
Bang—!
A sharp gunshot echoed throughout the alley.
But contrary to expectation, the bullet did not pierce Raul.
Instead, it grazed past his ear and buried itself in the wall behind him.
Lowering the smoking pistol, Lionel fixed Raul with his icy blue eyes.
“But unofficially… that’s a different story.”
☆☆☆
“Lady Agnes, we’ve arrived.”
At the same time, Agnes was transferring herself into the wheelchair that Simon had prepared in front of the Bardo trading company.
Fortunately, Lionel had not completely forbidden her from going outside, so visiting the company had not been difficult.
Although Simon had accompanied her.
“I’ll go in by myself.”
“Please wait here.”
Simon hesitated for a moment at Agnes’s words.
Then he nodded and remained beside the carriage.
The reason she had come today was to gather the personal belongings she had left behind at the company.
Since she had given up ownership of the company, she would have no reason to return here again.
As soon as she entered, the building was filled with an unfamiliar sense of desolation.
Ever since Chloe had been arrested, operations had been temporarily suspended, and the number of employees had visibly decreased.
One of the few employees who remained noticed Agnes and approached her.
“As you requested, we’ve gathered all the belongings you used and placed them on your office desk.”
“Thank you.”
It seemed Simon had contacted them in advance.
Thanks to that, Agnes did not have to gather everything herself.
She briefly glanced toward the direction where the backyard was located before wheeling herself straight to the office.
When she opened the office door, white sheets draped over the furniture came into view.
Just as the employee had said, a small box rested on the desk.
Agnes approached it and opened the cardboard box.
The contents were little more than miscellaneous odds and ends.
The ink bottle she had used, several pens, a few notebooks.
And an old dance costume.
That was everything.
Lifting the box onto her lap, Agnes carefully pulled away the cloth covering the desk.
Rustle.
As the fabric slid away, the old desk appeared, looking exactly the same as when she had last seen it.
Agnes gently ran her hand across the desk’s rough wooden grain.
“…This really is the last time.”
Giving up the company was neither a reckless impulse nor an act of defiance.
She simply did not want to covet something that was never hers again after her greed for something that did not belong to her had brought her to this point.
After all, she had no idea what price Lionel would eventually demand in return for giving her the company.
If only she had realized sooner that wanting nothing meant having nothing to lose.
Then perhaps things might have turned out differently.
The pointless thought crossed her mind for a fleeting moment.
Swallowing her bitterness, Agnes sat before the desk and slowly looked around the office as though offering it a final farewell.
Then she reached out and pulled open the top drawer.
At the bottom of the drawer was the same engraving she had noticed before.
Agnes traced it with her fingertips.
“I wonder who used this desk for something like this to be carved into it.”
It was at that moment, as she examined the engraving she had failed to inspect properly before, that a gasp escaped her lips.
“Huh…?”
The design she had assumed was just an ordinary flower somehow looked strangely familiar.
It did not take her long to realize it was a daisy.
Nor did it take long for her to remember that the same daisy was the emblem embroidered on Rebelt’s clothing.
Filled with confusion, Agnes traced the design with her fingertips.
Why is Rebelt’s emblem carved here?
But her attention was soon drawn elsewhere.
Beneath the engraved date under the daisy emblem, she noticed another line of faint writing.
The letters had faded so badly with age that they were almost impossible to see.
Holding her breath, Agnes lowered her head even further to make out the writing.
Then her eyes widened, and she froze in place.
Because her own name was written there.
“…Why is my name here…?”
At that very moment—
**Bang!**
A sharp gunshot tore through her ears like an auditory hallucination, and Agnes abruptly raised her head.
Startled, she hurried outside still holding the drawer in her hands to see what had happened.
Apparently she had not imagined it, as the employees had also gathered in the front courtyard of the company, murmuring anxiously while looking around.
“Didn’t that sound like a gunshot just now?”
“I don’t know… Maybe.”
Unease from the mysterious gunshot lingered in the air like an echo.
And just as that anxiety was about to spread through the growing murmurs, the newspaper delivery boy handing out papers in front of the company shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Breaking news!”
“It is reported that Duke Valheim has killed the terrorist Raul!”
Before the delivery boy’s shout had even finished echoing across the company walls, the strength left Agnes’s hand.
The drawer slipped from her grasp, fell to the ground, rolled away, and finally stopped against a stone.
As the afternoon sunlight fell across the overturned drawer, it illuminated the faded inscription.
『Celebrating the birth of our beloved daughter, Agnes — Ilena & Raul』
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
