Episode 79
“Where on earth did she go?”
Lionel took a deep breath in and out as he strode into the square.
Even in the chilly midwinter air, fine beads of sweat had formed on his forehead.
The snow continued to fall, covering the streets, and the wheelchair tracks had already been buried by the footsteps of people, leaving no trace behind.
Lionel swept his fierce gaze over the surroundings, cutting through the crowd.
His expression remained cool and composed as always, but his senses were sharpened to the limit.
Just then, a scene caught his eye: someone was holding onto a guard and having an argument.
“I’m telling you the truth! Suspicious men were following the Duchess!”
The Duchess.
That one phrase led Lionel’s steps toward the guards.
The person stomping her feet while holding a young child’s hand was the servant who had been kicked out of the mansion not long ago.
The guards looked over Jessie’s shabby attire and spoke mockingly.
“Hey now! How could someone like you even recognize the Duchess’s face?”
“Why won’t you believe me! It’s true!”
“If that’s true, go tell the Duke’s knights.”
“Please. Something really terrible might happen at this rate!”
“Good grief, stop bothering us and get lost! We have more than enough work as it is, and then someone like you shows up. Tsk!”
One of the guards was about to push Jessie’s shoulder but stopped, his mouth hanging open.
It was because he recognized Lionel approaching him.
“I, I greet the Duke!”
As the guards hurriedly bowed their heads, Jessie also quickly bent her waist.
“Suspicious men are following Agnes. What does that mean?”
“Ah, that is, well—,”
As the guards hesitated, Jessie quickly stepped forward.
She spoke in a trembling voice.
“I happened to see Lady Agnes a moment ago, and men wearing robes were secretly following her. But I lost sight of Lady Agnes while I was distracted for a moment, so I was asking for help.”
“Where was the last place you saw Agnes.”
“Over there! Towards the path lined with decorated trees!”
Jessie pointed in the direction she had come from.
Lionel kept his mouth firmly shut and watched that direction, then shifted his gaze to the guards.
“What are your units and names?”
“Are, are you talking to us?”
The guards, exchanging glances, stood up straight with both hands pressed to their legs and announced their units.
“I am Goul Laston, Unit 1 of the Inner Castle Guard!”
“Unit 1…… Khan Lotus!”
Lionel’s eyes sank even more coldly.
“Inner Castle Guard. I shall remember that.”
“It is an honor that you would remember us!”
Whether they couldn’t grasp the situation or were just dim-witted.
At the guards’ reaction, which even seemed somewhat proud, Lionel’s head tilted askew.
“It won’t be an honor.”
“Pardon?”
“You all better hope nothing happens to my wife. If you wish to keep wearing those uniforms, that is.”
Only then did the guards, realizing that Lionel was rebuking them for ignoring Jessie’s words, swallow hard.
Leaving them behind, Lionel turned. Toward the direction Jessie had pointed.
‘Damn it. I should have stopped her from coming out today after all.’
A large hand nervously brushed through his jet-black hair.
Rebelt. Why on earth were they following Agnes?
An ominous foreboding surged as if piercing the back of his brain.
However, just as he was about to step away, Jessie blocked Lionel’s path.
“Du, Duke! I, I have something to tell you. Just a moment, it will only take a very short moment. I felt like it had to be now…… please forgive my rudeness.”
Jessie rubbed her trembling hands together anxiously.
Jessie’s younger sister was clutching her coat tightly as she bent her waist so low she was almost prostrate on the ground.
Seeing that small hand, Jessie secretly clenched her fist.
She didn’t want to be an adult her sister would be ashamed of. This time, she would tell the truth.
Having made that resolve, Jessie closed her eyes tight and shouted toward Lionel, who was trying to pass her by.
“The Duchess has been…… treated unfairly at the mansion!”
Lionel’s body froze on the spot.
As if making a confession, Jessie poured out her words toward Lionel’s back.
All the mockery and pressure Nora had inflicted upon Agnes.
How Agnes had feared and suffered through Andrew’s harsh treatments.
The words she had kept hidden came pouring out.
Once the floodgates were opened, what followed was not difficult.
“Are you telling me to believe the words of someone who almost drove her master into a death trap.”
Lionel’s tone was cold, but his voice was low and cracked, unlike before.
“I also understand that I am not trustworthy because of what I did. But, the one who hid the note back then was also the Head Maid!”
Jessie took a trembling breath and gripped her sister’s hand firmly.
And she finally spat out the words she should have said long ago.
“So please believe me. Please help Lady Agnes, Duke……!”
***
Even as he pushed through the crowds, Lionel’s head was tangled as if threads had been forced into it.
Jessie Dorance was saying.
That the mansion, which he thought was the safest fence, was a prison suffocating Agnes.
And that Agnes was slowly withering away inside it.
“Ha.”
A breath like a denial escaped from between his bright red lips.
Agnes was more brilliant than anyone.
To the point of solving even complex calculations at once without error. To the point of rebuilding a ruined merchant group in less than two months.
Yet, such a person was swayed by a mere Head Maid?
If so…….
Could it be that the commotion on Cedric’s birthday was also not actually caused by Agnes?
Lionel clicked his tongue and shook his head.
It made no sense logically.
“Even if it were true, if only she had told me at least—,”
The brow of Lionel, who was muttering unconsciously, crumpled wretchedly.
Now that he thought about it, Agnes had asked him for help exactly once. Saying that Andrew’s treatment was difficult.
But at that time, he had treated Agnes’s words as insignificant.
Is that why Agnes didn’t speak to him?
Because the words she managed to bring out were treated as the whining of a spoiled child?
“Even so, she should have said something.”
Lionel’s rough palm swiped hard down his face. Then, he discovered a familiar wheelchair.
“……!”
It was Agnes.
But she was not alone. In front of her stood two men wearing robes.
Sensing danger, Lionel’s muscles tightened instantly. His mouth reacted even faster than his body.
“Agnes! Get away!”
However, Agnes did not budge.
She must have heard his shout, yet she was merely staring at the approaching Rebelt.
Without any attempt to flee, without any sign of resistance.
Over the figure of Agnes, who looked like someone who had given up on everything, the image of Agnes withdrawing her hand as if resigned under the collapsing Grand Theater overlapped.
Back then, he didn’t know the reason why Agnes didn’t ask to be saved.
But now, he felt like he knew.
Lionel’s breath broke raggedly.
Then and now. Agnes was not expecting anything. Not even a little bit that he would save her.
A low murmur flowed from Lionel’s mouth.
“……It was me.”
A sensation as if a bolt of lightning was piercing his crown struck Lionel intensely.
It wasn’t that Agnes didn’t speak about the unfair treatment she received from the servants, but that she couldn’t.
Because no one listened to her words.
And at the center of it all stood himself.
A cold thrill began to rise from his fingertips.
The headache that had been quiet began to stir again.
A giant trap created by his own arrogance was creeping up Lionel’s ankles.
The one who killed Agnes’s expectations was no one else but Lionel himself.
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