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“It is because of me. Because of me—”
As Agnes’s breathing turned unsteadily rough, Lionel, noticing her state, immediately shook his head.
“It is not like that; I merely got cut because I was careless. It is not even that deep of a wound.”
‘It is not because of you.’
It was the moment he added that softly, as if reassuring her.
Somewhere outside the warehouse, radio static briefly crackled.
Krrrrch .krrrrrrch.
“……!”
Lionel hastily raised his hand and covered Agnes’s ears.
So that her already rough breathing would not be agitated further by the sound of the radio.
Because of that, Lionel’s hand, which he had tried hard to hide in his pocket, naturally came out into the open.
The blood that trickled down from his forearm had already spread to the back of his hand.
Lionel, noticing the red stain transferred from his hand to Agnes’s cheek, belatedly knitted his brows.
“……Oh, dear.”
He wiped away the blood on Agnes’s face with the tip of his thumb.
Then, as if pain surged from his arm, his ribcage heaved deeply.
Due to the close distance, the heat mixed into Lionel’s breath was conveyed directly to Agnes.
Only then did Agnes realize that Lionel’s physical condition was not good.
Even in the midst of that, all of Lionel’s focus was directed toward checking on the person in front of him. As if his own body was of no concern at all.
Watching that sight, something surged up intensely inside Agnes.
She quietly raised her hands and pulled away the large hands wrapping around her ears.
“Wait, Agnes—!”
Lionel tried to grab her hands in surprise, but fortunately, the sound of the radio was growing distant.
Therefore, the worst-case scenario he was worried about did not happen.
Agnes let out a much smoother breath and looked at Lionel’s arm.
“It is not just a light graze.”
Feeling Agnes’s gaze, Lionel quickly covered the wound with his other hand.
“Ha. I did not come to show you such a pathetic sight.”
Letting out a self-mocking laugh, the crease between Lionel’s brows deepened a bit more.
From him, who could not hide his self-loathing, a single phrase sounding like self-blame spilled out.
“Every time, I show you only bad sides of me.”
Agnes did not make any answer.
Instead, she moved her body carefully inside the narrow space.
As she untied the scarf wrapped around her neck and tried to check Lionel’s wound, Lionel tried to pull his arm back, fearing Agnes’s hands might get dirty.
However, Agnes wrapped the scarf over it so that blood would no longer flow from the wound.
“Do not move.”
“…….”
Rustle.
For a while, only the sound of fabric brushing against fabric filled the silence inside the warehouse.
The thing that broke that silence was Agnes’s voice.
“……You said those knights outside came to find the secret letter. If so, why did you come here?”
“…….”
Lionel could not answer readily.
Instead, he was staring down at Agnes’s hands touching his body as if he were absentminded.
Hands carefully tying the blood-soaked scarf.
Slender, white fingers were trembling slightly.
Lionel, who watched for a long while as if to store that sight in his memory, slowly raised his head.
Then, the gazes of the two people entangled head-on in midair.
“I…….”
Lionel’s lips, about to speak, hesitated.
Because Agnes’s eyes, which he met after a long time, were so transparent.
That was why he could not tell if a person like him dared to be this close, or if he was allowed to bring up these words.
Nevertheless, Lionel stared straight into Agnes’s eyes and revealed his complete heart.
Because Agnes had asked.
Because she was curious.
So he had to answer.
“I…… came to find you.”
☆☆☆☆
As Lionel’s answer fell, Agnes’s hands, which had finished stopping the bleeding, slowly fell away.
“You came…… to find me.”
Agnes’s voice began to tremble.
“Then am I going to return to the Duke’s residence again now?”
“No. If you do not want to, you do not have to return anywhere. I just—”
As if pain surged from his arm again, Lionel clenched his teeth tightly once and barely finished his words.
“I just wanted to confirm if you were alive. And I just wanted to see if you were safe.”
“…….”
“So if you become completely safe, that is enough. I will not bring up words like returning to the Duke’s residence.”
Even though she had merely asked a question.
Because just the thought of having to return to that desolate and cold place choked her breath tightly, Agnes pressed the bottom of her pit of the stomach with her hand and opened her mouth again.
“……Why do you ask nothing? Do you not hate me? I deceived you and ran away.”
“How could I hate you?”
At the firm answer without a single shred of lie, Agnes’s lips trembled faintly.
Agnes quietly stared at Lionel’s face. As if trying to gauge the true intention hidden beneath his words.
Inside the narrow warehouse, only each other’s rough breathing moved back and forth lowly.
The words that came out next might have been a mere impulse.
At the statement that he did not hate her, Agnes blurted out the thing that had been weighing on her mind all along.
“The report that I helped Rebelt is not true.”
However, as soon as she spoke the words, Agnes regretted it.
How would Lionel react to these words she brought up without context?
Lionel, whom she met again, had changed somewhat.
Even so, she could not be certain whether he would believe these words.
Would they end up going in circles and hurting each other again after all? However, Lionel nodded as if it were only natural.
“I know.”
“……Why are you so sure?”
“Because you said it was not.”
At that moment, Agnes’s stomach surged.
It felt stifling, as if the thing blocking her pit of the stomach was rising up to her throat.
A lump of emotion, which seemed like sorrow and also like tears, kept getting caught every time she took a breath.
Agnes tapped lightly over her chest.
She had thought that all emotions had died as she left Lionel.
However, every time she brought up words one by one, the wounds she had pressed down while telling herself she was fine began to sting again.
That was so painfully sore.
She wanted to become calm.
Yet she could not do so.
“Why…….”
Agnes’s voice shook.
“Why now, like this—”
The voice, as if about to snap, eventually lost shape and crumbled into the empty air.
Yes, let us admit it.
Lionel had changed.
Instead of rumors, he believed her words. And he tried to protect her as if she were something extremely precious to him.
Perhaps it had been like this even before she left him.
Only, back then, she was too exhausted and worn out, so she might not have had the leeway to notice that fact.
However, even if that were so…….
‘Why are you doing this only now?’
Even though he was not by her side when she actually needed him, searched for Lionel, and begged.
Why only now, when she had given up, thinking everything was over…….
Emotions pressed deep within her heart rose up to her throat and overflowed.
Agnes struggled to swallow the thing caught in her throat.
Even Agnes herself could not tell what she wanted to say.
Whether she wanted to express anger toward Lionel.
Or whether she wanted to question him, asking why he did not do so back then when he was capable of this. Everything was unclear.
Emotions that had been swallowed and hidden for too long had long lost their original function.
Agnes clenched her fist tightly.
So that her crescent-shaped fingernails dug into her skin.
Then, Lionel’s cool hand wrapped around Agnes’s fist and gently unfurled it.
And he pulled her trembling hand up and placed it upon his cheek.
“Rather, hit me. Until your anger subsides.”
“…….”
“I am the human who committed the sin, so why do you hurt yourself?”
The rough tip of his thumb distressingly swept over the fingernail marks left on Agnes’s palm.
Lionel begged Agnes in a low voice.
“It is because I am a wretched bastard. Because I am a son of a bitch, I persistently found you, who said you disliked it, and am acting like this again. So blame it all on me.”
However, Agnes did nothing.
Because she felt that even if she slapped his cheek as Lionel said, this stifling feeling would not disappear.
Instead, she pulled out the secret letter she had kept in her chest and slid it into Lionel’s hand, which was holding hers.
“I was worrying about how to handle this…… but I end up giving it like this. You said earlier that the Emperor was looking for the secret letter. This is that secret letter.”
“Agnes……? How do you have this?”
Lionel’s two eyes, which had been looking at Agnes painfully, lost their way and shook.
And soon, above them, primitive worry turned into fear and surfaced.
“Did someone approach you by any chance? Don’t tell me the Emperor also knows this—!”
Fearing whether she had crossed paths with a dangerous person, or whether she had been caught up in a troublesome matter because of that.
Rather than the fact that the secret letter was right before his eyes, that point seemed more important to Lionel.
“……The thing you worry about did not happen.”
Agnes took a step backward.
Because of that, even though it was a narrow distance, a gap was created between the two people.
Footsteps were beginning to be heard again from outside the warehouse.
The footsteps of the knights that had grown distant were, this time, clearly approaching toward this place. This small warehouse was no longer safe either.
“At any rate, the person those people are looking for is me. So, Lionel, take the secret letter and leave this place.”
“Agnes, I have not received an answer yet—, *Ugh*.”
Lionel leaned his upper body forward following the moving Agnes, then let out a groan. It was because he moved his injured arm suddenly.
As time went by, Lionel’s condition was visibly worsening.
As if stopping the bleed was not working at all, the scarf was already dyed bright red with the blood flowing out from the wound.
Agnes could not turn a blind eye to that.
If they blindly endured inside this narrow warehouse like this until the knights completely retreated, it was certain that the one to collapse first would be Lionel.
Thus, instead of holding onto the remnants of emotions that had ended, Agnes chose the alternative that could break through this situation most efficiently.
That was the role always demanded of her, and Lionel had also always weighed efficiency.
At any rate, as long as she was not there, Lionel would be able to escape this place as much as he wanted.
It was the moment she reached that conclusion. The presence of someone stopping right in front of the warehouse was heard.
Sensing the presence, Lionel’s and Agnes’s bodies stiffened simultaneously.
Shortly after,
Knock. Knock.
The sound of a light knock echoed inside the warehouse.
