Chapter 109
The essence of what Kain had told her was simple.
Lionel was pursuing the truth behind the carriage accident.
And he might have already reached the end of it.
The assumption she had dismissed as nothing more than speculation had gradually taken the shape of certainty.
Agnes looked at Lionel.
The man before her stood with an appearance that could only be described as flawless, as though he would never allow even the slightest crack to form.
There was no way for Agnes to guess what thoughts were hidden behind that noble face.
And so, she could not bring herself to raise the subject recklessly.
The moment she learned Lionel was here, she had rushed over without thinking.
Agnes had to admit that it had not been a wise decision.
She had acted too hastily.
“Do you… have something to say to me?”
Contrary to Agnes’s assumption, however, Lionel was far from flawless.
If anything, he was much closer to being rotten to the core.
Lionel was no different.
He, too, could not read Agnes’s thoughts.
So Lionel merely kept staring at Agnes’s lips.
Again and again.
As though he refused to miss even the slightest movement.
While the two remained locked in that strange standoff, it was another explosion that shattered the silence between them.
*Boom—.*
Through the open window came an explosion even louder than before.
At the same time, the outside world flashed brightly as though lightning had struck.
It was unmistakable.
Something serious was happening.
Yet the first thing Lionel looked at this time was not outside the window.
It was Agnes’s face.
He wanted to make sure the noise had not triggered her trauma once again.
“Are you alright?”
Agnes looked startled.
Fortunately, however, there were no signs that hyperventilation was setting in.
Only then did the tension finally leave Lionel’s rigid shoulders.
But his relief lasted only a moment.
“Colonel!”
Urgent footsteps echoed through the ducal estate in the middle of the night.
Then Kalt came running at the front of the group, his face deathly pale.
“It’s a terrorist attack. Explosions are occurring simultaneously throughout the capital.”
As if to prove his words, air raid sirens began blaring in the distance.
“The first explosion was reported in District 7, where the slums are located.”
Every second mattered.
Even after hearing the report, however, Lionel could not move immediately.
Every fiber of his being screamed at him.
‘Don’t leave Agnes behind like this.’
‘Whatever she wants to say, don’t avoid it this time.’
‘You have to hear her out.’
Seeing Lionel remain motionless, Kalt spoke again with growing urgency.
“Colonel. You must hurry.”
Urged on by Kalt, Agnes finally took a step back first.
“Go.”
“Hurry.”
As the warning sirens grew even louder, impossible to ignore any longer, Lionel finally clenched his teeth.
“…I’ll return as quickly as I can.”
“Please wait for me.”
☆☆☆
The place Lionel found when he rushed to the site of the attack was none other than the shelter located in the slums.
The very place he had personally visited not long ago in search of Hunts Lockwood.
“Oh, heavens! What in the world happened here?!”
“Please help over here! Someone’s injured!”
People’s desperate cries overlapped in front of the building, where the flames had yet to die down.
Heat still radiated from the blackened walls.
Thick, acrid smoke drifted through the shattered window frames.
Fortunately, all of the homeless people and children who had been inside the shelter had already escaped outside.
Some had suffered moderate injuries after inhaling smoke or being struck by debris.
Thankfully, none of them appeared to be in critical condition.
Lionel walked toward the rear of the burning building.
There, he found traces of a burned fuse.
A line of ashes remained on the ground.
The explosion had been deliberately set near the outer wall of the building.
‘If they had intended to detonate it inside, they wouldn’t have placed it here.’
Lionel picked up a shattered, charred wooden plank.
It appeared to be part of the box that had contained the explosives.
Although it had been badly burned, the mark of the [Bardo trading company] stamped on the box was still recognizable.
‘A bomb from the Bardo trading company…’
Rebelt.
It was them.
“So this is where those rat bastards have been hiding.”
At that moment, murmurs erupted all around him.
“Who would’ve thought Rebelt had been hiding here!”
“Exactly! We were completely fooled!”
Excited voices filled the area in front of the shelter.
Among them, one remark stood out especially clearly.
“If that person hadn’t warned us to run, we’d all have been trapped inside! It would’ve been a disaster!”
Warned them to run?
Was someone already aware that a bomb would explode here?
Lionel immediately stopped the homeless man who had spoken and questioned him in greater detail.
Intimidated by Lionel’s imposing presence, the homeless man nevertheless explained as clearly as he could.
“In the middle of the night, someone woke everyone up and told us to get outside immediately.”
“We believed him, and not long after we got out, the bomb exploded just like that.”
“Did you see his face?”
“He was wrapped up in something like a rag, so I couldn’t see his face.”
“But since he was one of the group that suddenly appeared at the shelter, I figured he must’ve been with Rebelt too.”
Scratching the back of his head, the homeless man suddenly clapped his hands.
“Oh! But he also said something.”
“He said that tonight, it wouldn’t only happen here.”
“He said fires would break out elsewhere too.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than another explosion erupted.
This time, it came from the exact opposite direction of the slums.
The sky flashed once again.
A crimson light engulfed the city.
As the surroundings became as bright as day, Lionel noticed something on the ground that had previously escaped his attention.
It was a daisy emblem.
At first glance, it resembled Rebelt’s insignia.
But upon closer inspection, there was a difference.
Beneath the flower, wrapped around it, was a thorny vine—the crest of House Guten.
And Lionel had seen the combination of a daisy and thorny vines before.
On the tapestry inside the Guten Marquis estate that had belonged to Raul.
In other words, the emblem symbolized the former young Marquis of House Guten.
Raul Herben Guten.
Lionel’s gaze turned ice cold.
The mastermind behind this terrorist attack might not be Rebelt itself.
If this truly was the mark left behind by the one responsible for the explosions, then there was only one possible culprit.
“…Raul.”
Yes.
It all led to him.
☆☆☆
At the very moment Lionel discovered Raul’s trail, Agnes remained standing in the same place.
“……”
In the end, she never managed to ask Lionel whether he knew the truth about the accident.
Watching the direction in which Lionel had disappeared, Agnes quietly turned her wheelchair around.
Toward the bedroom Lionel had been using until lunchtime.
“Lady Agnes, your new bedroom is this way.”
“No.”
“I’ll go back to the bedroom I originally used.”
“B-But…!”
The maid, who had naturally assumed Agnes would head toward her new bedroom, was visibly flustered.
However, she could not disobey her mistress’s orders.
Unable to do anything else, she could only fidget helplessly.
Leaving the maid behind, Agnes pushed the wheels of her wheelchair forward with determination.
When she finally reached Lionel’s bedroom, it was crowded with busy servants.
Several were installing a new mirror in the bathroom.
Most of the others were preoccupied with cleaning up the dressing room.
Blending into the commotion, Agnes wheeled herself toward the dressing room.
Just then, several servants carrying armfuls of torn military uniforms finally noticed Agnes and froze in place.
“L-Lady Agnes… Why have you come here…?”
Every one of them hurriedly tried to hide the uniforms behind their backs, their startled expressions making it obvious they were concealing something.
Sensing their suspicious behavior, Agnes quietly passed between them and entered the room.
The inside was even worse than it had appeared from outside.
Torn-off buttons.
Ripped epaulettes.
Even shattered radio parts.
The dressing room looked as though a storm had swept through it.
“Lady Agnes, the reason this happened is—”
The personal maid hurried after Agnes, looking as though she wanted to explain herself.
But Agnes spoke first.
“…There’s something you didn’t tell me.”
“N-No, there isn’t. Everything I know is what I already told you.”
Frantically waving her hands, the maid could not even meet Agnes’s eyes.
As Agnes remained silent, the maid grew increasingly pressured.
Her hands fidgeted restlessly.
Simon had ordered everyone to keep quiet.
But at the same time, she could not bring herself to lie to Agnes, her mistress.
She was trapped with no good choice.
For several long minutes, she remained torn between the two.
In the end, however, she chose Agnes over Simon.
“The truth is… after you lost consciousness, Lady Agnes… His Grace deliberately injured his own hand.”
“And then… he destroyed all of these military uniforms.”
“……”
Thinking Simon would certainly scold her if he found out, the maid tugged hard at the end of her sleeve as though she might tear it apart before forcing out her final words.
“He said…”
“That he was the one who had ruined you, Lady Agnes.”
☆▪︎▪︎☆
