Chapter 126
“Colonel. As per your orders, all funeral procedures for Lady Agnes have been completed.”
“……I see.”
Kalt closely observed Lionel standing before him.
Lionel had maintained a immaculate appearance throughout the entire period following the funeral.
The shirt he used to wear loosely draped and unbuttoned was now neatly fastened, and a cravat was impeccably tied over the buttons done up to the tip of his neck.
The jacket, draped over his shoulders without a single disarray, made it look as if today were just an ordinary day, rather than the day after a funeral.
It was a sight hard to believe for a man who, until merely yesterday, could not step even a single foot out of the bedroom where Agnes’s lingering scent remained.
Documents were neatly arranged on top of the desk.
Even the sound of the winter rain falling outside the window felt strangely orderly.
That perfect tidiness was rather chilling.
He had become fine—far too fine. And that, in just a single night.
As if he were neither the person who had hugged the urn while being drenched in the rain, nor the person who had collapsed drunk for several nights.
Right now, Lionel looked as though he had returned to the face of his coldest and most dangerous days during the war long ago.
A person could not change like this overnight.
Kalt looked doubtfully at Lionel, who was slipping his hands into gloves as if he were about to go out.
Outside, darkness had already settled heavily.
“Colonel, where are you planning to go?”
“Tonight, I am going to smuggle Raul out of the Empire.”
“Pardon?”
At the answer that returned so casually, Kalt’s voice rose.
A moment like this, where he could not read his superior’s mind at all, was a first even for Kalt.
Lionel was originally a person who did not reveal his emotions, but right now, the degree of it was on a different level.
What words he would utter,no, it was impossible to even gauge what he had already finished doing.
A chilly sensation swept down Kalt’s spine.
“Colonel, even so, Raul Herben Guten is a Rebelt—,”
“Do you have a complaint?”
At Lionel’s vivid, sharp gaze, Kalt swallowed his dry saliva hard.
Kalt realized that what those eyes signified was not persuasion or a command, but a notification.
Disobedience was not tolerated. Kalt reflexively snapped his heels together and straightened his waist.
“……I have none. I shall follow the Colonel’s orders.”
***
The night was deep, and the air near the border was exceptionally cold.
On the road where even starlight was dim, a single carriage was running as if gliding soundlessly.
To the hooves of the horses pulling the carriage—which did not even have lanterns attached—cloth was padded to deaden the noise.
Lionel did not close his eyes even once inside the carriage.
Raul, who sat opposite him, was likewise speechless.
The carriage, which was dashing through such a suffocating silence, came to a rattling halt as it reached the border line.
Alighting from the carriage, Raul looked at the border field where winter eulalia bloomed, stretching out in the darkness.
Beyond that was not the Empire.
If he only crossed the red flags dividing the border visible far away, Raul would become a free man.
“If you follow this path, you will be able to cross the border completely before the sun rises.”
“……Why are you setting me free? If I choose not to leave the Empire like this, what do you plan to do?”
Lionel lowered his eyes for a moment.
“If you wish for that, I shall respect that choice. However, if you remain in the Empire, you will not escape execution.”
“Those words mean that my comrades will all be executed.”
“That is correct.”
Lionel did not hide any facts.
The choice was entirely Raul’s portion.
“To tell me to abandon my comrades and preserve only my own life alone…… What a truly cruel freedom, Colonel.”
Raul let out a lonely laugh. Even if it were such a cruel freedom, it was because he felt like a mercenary creature for being unable to refuse it in the end.
Despite that, Raul still wanted to live.
Even if he lost his lover, lost his daughter, and would ultimately lose his comrades—he wanted to try living a little longer.
Staring at the barren land unfolding before his eyes, Raul looked straight at Lionel.
“Agnes, my daughter…… Have you ever sincerely cherished her?”
Lionel could not say anything in the face of that question.
Shame choked his throat first, so his lips would not open.
However, as if gauging the weight of that silence, Raul spat out his words calmly.
“Do not take to heart the words I blamed you with before. I know that Agnes’s death is not your fault.”
Yet even at those words, Lionel could not find an answer on how to reply.
It was because it was correct that Agnes had died because of him.
After turning around once to look at Lionel, who had no answer, Raul stepped forward just like that toward the border.
Then he stopped and turned his head halfway.
“I heard from Nick that they are looking for a secret letter related to the war that the Emperor sent to Sercadia.”
Lionel’s eyes shook minutely.
“I once heard a story that the person who possesses that secret letter…… intends to leave for Marsen. This is as far as the story I can give you goes.”
Raul did not say any words beyond that.
Closing and opening his eyes for a very brief moment, Raul began to move his stopped steps again.
Rustle, rustle.
Only the sound of pushing through the winter eulalia reverberated, wedging through the night air.
Lionel did not leave that spot until Raul’s back completely disappeared into the darkness.
Only after even the rustling sound that was heard sparsely died down did Lionel take out a cigarillo from his inner pocket and light it.
Now one thing was finished.
And the most important one remained.
Right now, the article spread by Jerome was gathering momentum, taking the past rumors surrounding Agnes as its nourishment.
Although a long time had passed since the charges against Edrian and Chloe were revealed, those who knew the inside story were still a minority.
Even though the fact that the Bardo Trading Company had spearheaded the weapon smuggling was widely known, the suspicion that Agnes was involved in that matter was hardly removed.
People believed that she had merely escaped guilt thanks to her status as a duchess.
Therefore, the reputation that Agnes was a shameless person who sold weapons to Sercadia to enter the Imperial Ballet Troupe still dominated the market.
When the existence named Raul was added on top of that, there was almost no one who doubted the Imperial Court’s announcement that Agnes had aided Rebelt.
Hence, Lionel intended to overturn the very first stigma surrounding Agnes head-on.
However, people who were already addicted to provocation would hardly pay attention to past truths.
If so, provocation must be covered with a larger provocation.
Taking out a new cigarillo, Lionel handed it to Kalt, who was guarding his rear.
After hesitating for a moment, Kalt received it with both hands and held it in his mouth.
Lionel directly opened the lid of the Zippo lighter and lit the end of Kalt’s cigarillo.
Staring at the swaying light of the lighter, the corners of Lionel’s eyes slanted up frostily.
“In tomorrow morning’s article, reveal that ruining Agnes’s legs was due to an order I issued.”
“Colonel……!”
“And also correct the rumor that Agnes engaged in weapon smuggling to raise lobbying funds for entering the Imperial Ballet Troupe, stating that it was a groundless rumor as well.”
Pausing his words for a moment, Lionel pushed the lighter into his inner pocket, then inhaled the cigar smoke deeply and exhaled it.
“And say that even at the time of the marriage, I knew the possibility that the rumor might be false.”
Kalt’s eyes widened.
“State that nevertheless, blinded by hatred toward Bardo, I deliberately covered up the truth. Reveal it like that.”
“If that happens, the Colonel’s reputation will—”
“It does not matter.
The fastest and most powerful way to prove Agnes’s innocence was not defending her.
Putting a complete perpetrator at the forefront.
That was precisely the most certain method.
Words defending a deceased person are easily treated as excuses.
However, if a perfectly fine living powerholder—and one who holds honor and trust at that—confesses to their crime themselves, the story changes.
Day and night, stories regarding that shameless powerholder would probably be talked about throughout the entire Empire.
And regarding a woman who withered away under that power, belated sympathy and pity would boil up.
That was enough.
If only he could regain Agnes’s honor, Lionel could throw away a thing like his reputation as much as needed.
Even if that was the honor he once considered his entire life, even if it were a name built up by crossing through blood and death, it was the same.
“Make me the sinner, not Agnes.”
