Chapter 29
“Your Grace, are you all right!”
Simon came running with a flushed face.
His neatly combed hair had become disheveled from jostling through the crowd.
Simon’s mustache trembled as he spotted Agnes, who was gasping for breath.
“Oh, goodness…….”
Like most people in the ducal household, Simon had not grown attached to Agnes.
Yet even Simon felt pity at how unwell Agnes appeared.
In the midst of this, the reporters were even more excited.
Shutters clicked frantically, and flashing lights poured mercilessly onto Agnes.
By tomorrow morning, those photos would likely be on the front page of the newspapers.
With sensational headlines like ‘Duchess Appears at Terror Scene.’
First, getting Agnes out of here was the priority.
“Kalt.”
“Yes!”
As Kalt approached, Simon lent his arm as well.
The two supported Agnes, hurriedly loaded her into the carriage, and disappeared with the sound of wheels heading toward the hospital.
Only when quiet returned did the pain become clear.
Lionel briefly massaged his throbbing, heated shoulder and brushed off the blood flowing down the back of his hand.
Lionel pressed the revolver’s cylinder to check, then loaded live rounds into the empty chambers.
Even as his hands moved mechanically, his mind was filled with questions about Agnes.
With narrowed brows, Lionel moved his steps toward the alley where the culprit had fled.
Knights searching the passage, oppressed by smoke, coughed out.
Faint embers still remained scattered in the hazy mist.
Click.
The sound of slowly raising the revolver and completing the loading cut through the silence.
Gravel crumbled under his military boots.
Tap, tap—.
From somewhere, faint footsteps could be heard.
Seemingly close yet far, with an irregular rhythm.
Lionel’s gaze pierced the darkness, seeping deep into the alley.
As he parted the smoke and took one step, then another, several black shadows briefly flashed beyond the rising haze.
It was the man from earlier. Beside him was someone who appeared to be the leader of Rivert.
Confirming the opponent, Lionel aimed the revolver without delay.
However, due to the short range, the bullet grazed the brick and bounced off, scattering sparks into the air.
“Ha, annoying.”
Lionel swept back his irritating forelocks, then snatched the rifle from the soldier beside him and shouldered it.
After briefly holding his breath and pulling the trigger, flames burst from the muzzle.
Bang-.
The gruesome sound of flesh being pierced filled the alley. A scream of pain burst from the fleeing man’s mouth.
The recoil strongly jolted his injured shoulder, but Lionel immediately reloaded and shifted the muzzle direction.
Toward the one who seemed to be Rivert’s leader.
Bang—!
The gunshot echoed through the alley once more.
However, the man had already used his fallen comrade’s body as a shield to block the bullet.
Casually abandoning the comrade who had become a bullet catcher, the man staggered and hid himself in the darkness. Without noticing a scrap of paper falling from his inner pocket.
Lionel lowered the gun and approached the man crawling on the ground.
The man collapsed on the blood-soaked stone floor trembled when he met Lionel’s murderous gaze.
Lionel aimed the muzzle at the man’s forehead with an indifferent face.
Because of a guy like this, Agnes had nearly died.
Twice.
Recalling that fact, flames flickered in Lionel’s eyes.
It was fear. In the form of anger.
Lionel was furious at the fact that he might have lost Agnes.
However, his hatred toward Bardo was too deep to acknowledge that emotion.
Thus, Lionel attached an arrogant reason to his anger.
Deciding the life or death of those bearing the Bardo name should be up to him.
Therefore, without his permission, Agnes should not die, nor even be in danger.
Even if he were to discard her, the decision to do so should be his.
That must be why he was so angry.
Because they dared to touch his prey without permission.
Lionel whispered that to himself. Even though his instincts had already begun to stop attaching the modifier ‘hatred’ next to Agnes’s name.
“Hiiik-. Damn it, y-you’re abandoning me?”
Grinding his teeth at the fact of being betrayed by his comrade, the man soon threw away his convictions and began begging abjectly.
“W-Wait. You’re going to kill me? I’ll tell you everything you want, so p-please spare me!”
“Well. One guy who opens his mouth is enough.”
Should he just kill him like this.
However, soon Lionel slowly released his finger from the trigger.
If the captured one died under torture without enduring it, it would be
troublesome, so capturing one more as insurance was rational.
“Arrest him.”
Only then did the soldiers, who had been holding their breath, move in unison.
Chains clanked as they were fastened to the man’s wrists and ankles.
Groans mixed with screams echoed in the alley.
Lionel lowered the gun and slowly rotated his blood-soaked shoulder.
In that instant, a piece of paper half-submerged in a puddle of blood caught his eye.
“……Ha?”
Lionel picked up the paper stained with sticky blood.
Much of it was not intact, but it was enough to grasp the contents. The written content was something Lionel also knew.
It was the same as the documents Agnes had dropped in the imperial palace garden.
In an instant, the fiery anger that had shaken his chest subsided as if doused with ice water.
How is this in Rivert’s hands.
Could Agnes have given it to them?
If so, is Agnes also involved in this incident?
A small doubt instantly spread into an abyss-like deep distrust.
Lionel lowered his eyes.
The circumstances of Bardo’s involvement in this terror attack were clear.
And what turned that mere suspicion into conviction was none other than Agnes.
By suddenly appearing at the theater and testifying that the box containing the bullets belonged to Bardo.
But now, with traces of Agnes found on Rivert, the truthfulness of all her actions became opaque.
If this document was something Agnes had personally handed over.
Everything could have been intentional.
From coming to the theater to her actions just now in trying to save him—all of it.
If things went wrong, to avoid suspicion, or to divert attention to aid the Rivert remnants’ escape.
If so, it was truly admirable.
Because the worry filling Agnes’s ash-gray eyes had been genuine.
“……Agnes Bardo.”
Lionel clenched and unclenched the hand not holding the gun.
The freshly dried blood cracked stiffly along his palm lines.
How much of the person named Agnes could he trust—from where to
where.
Doubt and confusion wrestled on the scales with equal weight.
Like Lionel’s instincts tightrope-walking between hatred and attraction, unable to fully tip to either side.
***
Beyond the collapsed wall, someone was breathlessly watching the entire scene.
It was Adrian Bardo.
Sweating to his fingertips, he crouched tightly.
Brick dust crumbled in his clenched hand.
“I-I’ll tell you everything! Please just spare me!”
The trembling voice of the Rivert remnant pierced his ears.
Adrian’s face turned deathly pale.
“Damn, damn……!”
At this rate, it’s over.
If the guy says even one more word, the fact that he was involved in today’s grand theater incident will be revealed.
Blood rushed to his face, then cooled again.
“Those damn Rivert bastards…… how can their mouths be so light!”
Muttering through gritted teeth, his gaze drifted toward Lionel.
The silhouette of Valheim visible beyond the smoke looked like a monster.
“……What to do.”
Adrian clutched his head.
Who could cover up this situation.
Who could tie Valheim’s hands right now.
His survival-driven mind spun rapidly. And finally found a solution.
One name flashed in his mind.
A figure with power as immense as the emperor’s, who checked Lionel while harboring deep-rooted inferiority toward him.
“Colonel Jerome Winterbolt.”
If Lionel was in the north, Jerome was in the capital.
The emperor’s younger brother, leading the capital defense forces, and harboring deep inferiority toward Lionel.
Adrian’s lips twitched faintly.
A smile thickened, mixed with anxiety, relief, and greed.
“……Yes. If it’s him, it’ll be possible.”
Adrian slunk away like a sewer rat before his presence was discovered.
To go to Jerome Winterbolt, who would dislike Lionel gaining more merit by capturing Rivert more than anyone.
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