Chapter 115
“……”
Agnes stood beside the bed, looking down at the deeply sleeping Lionel.
His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, and even his fingertips remained completely still, telling her that Lionel had fallen into a deep sleep.
Only then did Agnes let out a faintly trembling breath.
Even her hands were shaking.
The tension from the moment she had slipped into the dining room and dropped the sleeping pills into Lionel’s glass just before he arrived still had not left her body.
Unlike her cold fingertips, her heart was still racing.
Agnes pressed her hands firmly against her skirt.
She couldn’t bring herself to ask about Raul.
“……It wouldn’t mean anything now, even if I did.”
When she had first discovered the words engraved beneath the drawer and the diary’s first page, Agnes had resented Raul.
Because she had not known that all of those messages had been the traces Ilena had left behind for both herself and Raul after welcoming Agnes into the world alone.
Every question had been directed toward Raul.
If he had known of her existence, why had he never once come looking for her?
Even when they had met face to face, why had he shown no sign of recognition?
There was so much she wanted to ask.
But now, there was no one left in this world who could answer those questions.
So this was enough.
There was nothing left for her to wonder about.
There was nothing left for her to linger over here.
Agnes carefully raised her hand and gently wiped away the tear resting upon the bridge of Lionel’s nose.
“……Once you wake up after a good sleep, everything will have returned to where it belongs.”
Before she knew it, the night had grown deep.
By the time the footsteps of the servants passing outside the bedroom gradually faded and the lights throughout the Duke’s residence went out one by one, Agnes rose from the bed.
As she stepped into the hallway, Agnes looked back just before the bedroom door closed.
Through the half-closed door, the hallway light streamed into the room, illuminating Lionel and the small note lying beside him.
Agnes gazed at the sight for a long while, as though trying to etch it into her memory.
At last, she closed the door and released the doorknob.
Along with a quiet farewell.
“Take care, Rael.”
☆☆☆
After leaving the bedroom, Agnes walked down the hallway toward the exit.
The mansion was so quiet in the depths of the night that it seemed to be holding its breath.
The lamps lining the walls had already been extinguished.
Suppressing the unusually loud sound of her wheelchair, she left the main building and headed toward the entrance of the Duke’s residence.
There, she saw a carriage waiting in the snowy street.
It was the carriage Leuceviten and Kain had sent.
When Agnes had visited the Bel Air townhouse not long ago, she had already asked them for help.
Inviting Lionel to dinner tonight—something entirely unlike herself—had also been part of that plan.
The knights stationed outside her bedroom had always remained there under the pretense of protecting her.
And the only nights they ever left their posts were the nights Lionel stayed at the estate.
That was why she had chosen tonight.
The night when everyone would let down their guard because Lionel was by her side.
Although she certainly hadn’t expected Lionel to rush over without ignoring her request.
“So it was this simple.”
Why had she convinced herself all this time that escaping was impossible?
Smiling bitterly, Agnes was about to board the carriage.
Then it happened.
A faint presence came from behind her.
“Are you leaving, Lady Agnes?”
“……! Simon.”
When she turned around, Simon was standing behind her, though she had no idea how long he had been there.
For a brief moment, she tensed, wondering if he would wake everyone else in the estate.
Instead, Simon simply draped the shawl he was holding over her shoulders.
He did not even ask where she was going at such a late hour.
He merely wrapped the shawl around her a little more securely, as though seeing off someone embarking on a long journey.
“You still haven’t fully recovered.”
“Please don’t skip your medicine.”
He took out a medicine pouch he had prepared beforehand and firmly placed it into Agnes’s hand.
She could feel the shape of the medicine bottle beneath the soft leather pouch.
Simon then stepped back and bowed deeply before Agnes.
“I’m sorry that all I ever showed you while you were here was my inadequacy.”
Just then, the carriage door opposite Simon opened.
A warm yellow light flowed out from inside along with Kain’s voice, enveloping Agnes.
“Please, Your Grace.”
☆☆☆
With Kain’s help, Agnes climbed into the carriage and rested the side of her head against the window.
Simon was still standing outside.
Behind him, white snow drifted down over the Duke’s residence.
“Have you decided where you’d like to go, Your Grace?”
“……I’m not sure.”
“If you still haven’t decided on a destination, then as I suggested before, why don’t you come to Maresen with us?”
When Agnes had asked them to help her leave the Duke’s residence, she had only requested that they take her as far as a place where she could board a ship.
She couldn’t bring herself to impose upon Leuceviten and Kain any further.
So she had planned to leave for Eran, another port city rather than Maresen.
Since Eran’s sea route was rough and few people traveled there, it would also be easier to avoid Lionel.
However, Leuceviten had insisted that she could never allow Agnes to travel alone.
She had said that they should accompany her at least as far as the port.
And apparently, she had meant every word.
She had even hastened her original schedule and finished preparing to depart for Maresen.
“Grandmother left this morning ahead of us.”
“She went to an inn near the port.”
After telling Agnes to take her time deciding, since the journey to the port was still long, Kain looked out the window.
“By the way, they said we’d be getting a heavy snowstorm.”
“The weather really doesn’t look good.”
Just as Kain had said, a heavy snowstorm was expected to continue for several days beginning early that morning.
On a day like this, even carriage tracks would be completely buried beneath snow piled up to one’s shins by morning.
Even if someone tried to pursue them, they would never find their trail.
It was the perfect weather for escaping.
The carriage quietly began moving through the darkness before dawn, swallowing every sound.
Beyond the carriage window, the world was gradually losing its shape beneath the falling snow.
At the same pace, Agnes felt as though her heartbeat was slowly returning to normal.
Watching the snowflakes grow larger and heavier, Agnes prayed silently.
May this snow erase every trace of me.
So that I will never have to face Lionel again.
But as always, the world did not grant Agnes’s wish so easily.
It happened just as the carriage unexpectedly changed direction while leaving behind the endless walls of the Duke’s residence.
“Hm?”
“This isn’t the right road.”
To check what was happening, Kain opened the small window leading to the driver’s seat and exchanged a few words with the coachman.
The coachman explained that they had originally intended to take the narrow path beside the estate, but because the snow was piling up too quickly, it had become impossible to pass, so they had turned toward the main road instead.
The fact that the Black Iron Knights’ headquarters stood halfway along this road was somewhat concerning.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a major problem.
They had simply chosen the safer route.
The carriage continued smoothly along its new path.
Just as it was passing in front of Lionel’s knights’ headquarters—
The carriage suddenly slowed.
Then it lurched violently with a heavy jolt.
A short, grating scraping sound echoed from the wheel buried beneath the snow.
Hearing the coachman muttering in concern, Kain immediately stood up and stepped outside the carriage.
“It seems something’s wrong with the wheel.”
“I’ll go check.”
“Please wait here for a moment.”
Once the door closed, silence settled over the carriage once more.
Within that silence, Agnes absentmindedly looked outside.
Then she noticed a single red speck.
“……?”
No.
It wasn’t a speck.
Beyond the window, swaying among the falling snow, was a torch.
Someone was walking near the knights’ headquarters carrying a flame.
And almost at the same moment, two things happened simultaneously.
Kain, who had been inspecting the wheel, seemed to notice something and hurriedly opened the carriage door again.
At the same time, the torch slipped from the air and rolled onto a wooden crate buried beneath the snow.
For an instant, time itself seemed to slow.
The moment the flame touched the crate, the snow melted into steam.
Everything that followed entered Agnes’s vision in slow motion.
The hidden heat lying beneath burst forth.
Like a flower in full bloom, the flames engulfing the crate swelled outward.
At the same moment the scorching pressure surged toward the carriage—
Something suddenly yanked Agnes out of the carriage.
“Your Grace!”
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
