Chapter 46
Even after boarding the carriage, the sense of anxiety did not subside.
What had Chloe instructed the workers to do?
Agnes clasped her hands tightly.
Since childhood, whenever Chloe’s mood was twisted, she would always take it out on her.
By destroying the few precious things she possessed.
Now, the backyard is the only precious thing she has left…….
“Duchess, shall I turn the carriage back?”
Lucian asked, perhaps noticing her anxiety.
“……No.”
Agnes hesitated for a moment but eventually shook her head.
She couldn’t let herself be bound by a mere premonition.
Right now, work took precedence over emotions.
Upon arriving at the main gate of the trading company under the Count, Agnes blinked blankly.
The place was as busy as a battlefield.
Countless people were moving to and fro carrying loads, while others ran around with ledgers in hand.
And at the center of that chaos stood Lionel.
“Wait……?”
Agnes closed and opened her eyes firmly, wondering if she had misseen.
A long black coat casting a shadow. Hands clad in black gloves tucked into pockets.
Even the cigar smoke rising in the air permeated with the scent of winter.
It really was Lionel.
“……Why are you, here…….”
The man who had never once replied to her numerous telegrams was here without any notice.
Suddenly, a newspaper article about the House of Count Guten came back to her mind.
It seemed it was Lionel’s unit that had been entrusted with the trading company confiscated by the military.
Lionel, who had been covering his lower face with a large hand—tendons prominent—while holding a cigar between his fingers, flicked the cigar.
Before she knew it, those vivid blue eyes were looking at Agnes.
“I didn’t expect to meet you here.”
“Have you returned from the North?”
Lionel looked at the sky for a moment as if gauging something.
“It’s been about five days since I returned to the capital.”
“It’s been…… quite a while. I didn’t know because you didn’t stop by the mansion. It would have been nice if you had told me you were here.”
Agnes tried to speak as calmly as possible, but it was difficult to hide the disappointment lurking beneath.
The corners of Lionel’s mouth twisted slightly.
“It’s not as if you are my superior, so why go through the trouble?”
It was a dry tone.
He looked down at Agnes for a moment and added.
“I was planning on heading in today anyway.”
At those words, Agnes’s gaze wavered.
She knew.
That Lionel had no need or reason to report his schedule to her.
Still, a petty wish pierced through her heart: that it wouldn’t have been so difficult to let her know through someone that he had arrived safely in the capital.
Facing Lionel’s face, Agnes realized.
That she had missed Lionel more than she thought.
Even with such coldness, facing his blunt black hair and cool blue eyes actually made her feel relieved.
And so she felt more sorrowful. That she felt relief because of him.
“……Aren’t you curious why I came here?”
At Agnes’s question, Lionel raised one eyebrow.
“Not particularly. Didn’t you come here to reverse the contract termination at most?”
Lionel reacted as if he already knew.
Indeed, if he had been entrusted with the full authority of the trading company, he would have grasped the contract status first. It was impossible not to know.
‘I know nothing about Lionel, but Lionel knows everything.’
So there would be nothing to be curious about. No reason to be impatient. No need to endure a wait with no deadline.
It would have been fine if she hadn’t been made to realize even this. The difference between him and her felt stark.
As if Agnes’s feelings were not even a consideration, Lionel lit a new cigar.
“You can discuss the contract with me, so come this way.”
Lionel spoke while taking out documents prepared by the military.
“The military’s opinion is to withdraw the contract termination requested by the previous head of the trading company, so let’s sign a new one.”
Lionel pointed to a specific item in the document.
At a glance, it seemed like a clause favorable to the Bardo trading company.
However, hidden within were dense clauses that left the trading company with no choice but to be placed under the control of the Imperial Army.
Agnes signed without adding a word.
After all, she wasn’t doing this to truly rescue the Bardo trading company.
Furthermore, if she didn’t speak up, her father wouldn’t be able to grasp the hidden intent of this contract.
And so.
The feeling that kept sinking gloomily was not because of this unreasonable contract.
Rather, it was…….
“I don’t know why you’re making that face.”
Lionel expressed doubt as he took the documents.
“Even if you can’t be happy since the contract issue is resolved, isn’t it unnecessary to have such a miserable look?”
Agnes said nothing.
He was right. Everything was settled cleanly, and the loss wasn’t great.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t explain why her heart felt as if it had plummeted.
Even meeting him after a long time, Lionel was still perfectly composed and cold. He seemed not to have changed at all, just like when he left.
And so her waiting felt even more trivial.
Agnes slowly lowered her head.
Just then, the ash from the dropped cigar caught her eye.
A heap of grey ash rolling around with the dust.
A worthless fragment that would be
fine if someone indifferently stepped on it and passed by.
Agnes realized.
‘To Lionel, I must be that kind of existence.’
But just as Agnes was newly recognizing her situation, Lionel’s low voice tickled her ear.
“Are you going back to the trading company? If not, let’s go home together.”
As Agnes raised her head, he added nonchalantly.
“If you aren’t tired, it would be good to
go for that walk we promised today.”
It was a tone filled with the certainty that she naturally wouldn’t refuse.
Agnes was lost for words for a moment.
Even while Lionel kept a cold distance, every time he crossed the line so abruptly like this, her heart was shaken.
Lionel’s judgment was accurate.
She was anxious about Chloe’s last appearance and desperately wanted to return to the trading company, but she couldn’t bring herself to refuse.
If not today, there might not be another chance.
Because his fickle kindness always arrived without warning like this, and then disappeared without warning.
“……Okay.”
Agnes raised the corners of her mouth very slightly, as naturally as possible.
It was a smile drawn perfectly, like the etiquette she had learned from Mrs.
Nora.
However, the moment that artificial curve met Lionel’s eyes, his eyebrows
moved minutely.
“Let’s go, home.”
“……Home.”
Lionel, repeating the word as if he had heard an unfamiliar term, slowly raised his large body.
At that moment, a tapestry hanging behind his back
Fluttered lightly in the wind.
Between the faded threads, a faint daisy pattern flickered past.
It was the same shape as the pattern carved on the bottom of the chest of drawers, but Agnes did not see it.
Because she had her head lowered, as the smile she had managed to draw was about to fade.
“Yes, let’s go. Home.”
To jump to the conclusion, the walk could not happen.
It was because all the flower petals had fallen onto the ground, which had become muddy from the rain that poured at dawn today.
“Dear me.”
Lionel leaned his head at an angle with his arms crossed.
“It’ll be difficult to go for a walk today.”
After indifferently scanning the withered petals, he turned his gaze back.
“We’ll walk when the garden is restored, and since it’s been a tiring day, let’s each go in and rest.”
However, Agnes’s wheelchair stood still and did not move.
Seen from the entrance of the garden,
the Duke’s mansion looked exceptionally elegant today.
The grey-brown outer walls, the well-polished windows, and the neatly draped curtains.
That flawless appearance actually made it hard to breathe.
Once she went inside, there would be the crooked gazes that would soon pour out, and the shadows of Mrs. Nora and Andrew who would unfailingly knock on the door when night came.
All those thoughts bunched together and stuck in the pit of her stomach.
She hadn’t eaten properly today, yet her stomach felt bloated.
Agnes placed her hand on the pit of her stomach.
“…….”
She had vowed to endure and hold on.
Was it because Lionel was by her side?
The words she had been suppressing finally leaked out.
“Is it…… possible to receive treatment from a different doctor?”
Lionel turned his head.
“The reason.”
“The treatment is a bit…… difficult.”
Lionel didn’t even blink.
A heavy gaze quietly pressed down on Agnes.
She couldn’t read the texture of his emotions at all, wondering what he was thinking within that gaze.
Presently, Lionel let out a long sigh.
Pressing his temples with two fingers, he spoke in a sluggish tone, like someone listening to a bothersome report.
“If it were something that could be fixed easily, professional treatment wouldn’t have been necessary from the start. You must have been prepared for it to be difficult.”
Agnes’s fingertips trembled minutely.
“That is…… because it is a bit different from my expectations.”
Lionel’s expression was still full of annoyance.
“You aren’t a child, haven’t you passed the age for whining?”
“It’s not whining—,”
‘—at all,’ Agnes tried to say, but her lips froze.
The large man she had to tilt her head back to look up at was firm and resolute.
So much so that not a single needle could pierce him.
Perhaps because of the backlight, his already expressionless, beautiful face looked dark.
“If it becomes difficult enough to die, tell me then. Don’t start laying out complaints without the will to endure.”
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