Chapter 88
Where did it start going wrong.
Was it from the moment I met you again.
Or, was it from that time when I turned away from the truth you were handing to me.
Why was I so resentful. What was I so busy with that I never once looked at you properly.
Just once. If only I had turned back calmly just once.
I would not have broken you to this extent.
Lionel stood frozen blankly while holding Agnes.
A body temperature that was more than just hot, like a ball of fire, was burning his arm, but his hand had turned as cold as a sheet of ice instead.
This was not right.
Only now had he come to know everything. Only now had he come to see you properly.
He had not even paid the price for his arrogance yet.
This kind of thing was not right.
It felt as though Agnes’s hyperventilation had transferred to him. It felt as though he had forgotten how to inhale and exhale.
When Lionel’s breathing was about to become increasingly disrupted. Kalt awakened his mind.
“Colonel. How about moving Lady Agnes first so she can receive treatment.”
“…… Ah.”
Only then did Lionel realize how long he had been frozen.
Pretending not to see Lionel, who was still hugging Agnes tightly like a child afraid of losing her, Kalt subsequently asked.
“Shall we take her to the hospital?”
A strange light gradually returned to Lionel’s eyes.
“No.”
If they went to the hospital, reporters would surely swarm.
They would snap pictures, and they would consume Agnes’s condition as gossip yet again.
He would absolutely never tolerate Agnes being brought up as someone’s joke anymore.
Now that he knew the whole truth, absolutely never again.
Lionel firmly held Agnes up in his arms again.
“We are going to the Duke’s mansion.”
His casual voice seemed to have regained composure again, but the trembling of his hand supporting Agnes did not stop in the end.
☆☆☆
The sound of combat boots echoing from the entrance of the sewer clearly reached the ears of the Rebelt members who were hiding their bodies far off behind the bushes.
It was a narrow margin.
Because the knights swarmed around the sewer as soon as they came out.
Nick glared at the troops blocking the waterway with wide-strained eyes.
At that moment, breaking through that gap, Lionel walked out holding Agnes.
The bloodshot eyes of Nick shook greatly.
“……Damn it!”
Nick leaned his body forward as if about to leap out, but someone grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
“If you go out now, you die.”
It was Raul, who had escaped through the passageway that led to a side road.
Nick reflexively turned toward that side and growled lowly.
“Raul!”
Lest the Imperial Army might hear, Nick suppressed his voice, but the rage contained within it could not be hidden.
“What on earth happened! Did I not clearly tell you to protect the Duchess properly! Don’t tell me you—,”
Nick’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.
“Don’t tell me you dragged Valheim’s unit to this side?”
Raul lowered his eyes for a moment, then looked at Nick slowly.
“That is not it. But half of the thought you are having is right.”
Watching Nick’s eyes turn increasingly fierce, Raul continued calmly.
“I did not stop Colonel Valheim from taking his wife.”
“Why!”
Nick’s shout poured down over Raul’s head.
“Did I not tell you. We are not terrorists. Do not sacrifice innocent people any longer.”
“What if I cannot do that?”
“Then we can no longer be together.”
The jaw muscles of Nick twitched violently.
He felt like striking Raul’s face right this moment.
However, he also knew poignantly well that he could not cast Raul out now.
All of Rebelt’s movements and plans were coming out of Raul’s head.
Losing Raul was equivalent to losing half of Rebelt.
In the end, unable to do anything to Raul right away, Nick just glared as if he would strike him dead, then abruptly turned his body.
“We will settle today’s matter later, let us evade first.”
At Nick’s words, the members scattered like shadows in an instant and hid their bodies in the bushes.
But even after the presence of Rebelt vanished, the gaze watching the sewer entrance did not turn off.
From a place not far away, two pairs of eyes were watching all of this.
The owners of the gaze were none other than the Emperor and Jerome.
The Emperor let out a low exclamation, without hiding his interest.
“Ho. To think that Raul Herben Guten is truly alive.”
The Emperor stroked his beard with a satisfied expression.
“So what you mean is that Raul is the biological father of that lowly merchant wench?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
At Jerome’s answer, the Emperor’s eyes took on a more certain light of joy.
“And that Lionel is completely infatuated with that wench I attached to him?”
This time, the Emperor did not bother to hear Jerome’s answer.
Because just looking at Lionel running away frantically while holding Agnes over there was already no different from having heard the answer.
“Yes. Looking at that state, there is no mistake.”
The Emperor had been tolerating Lionel stirring up the entire capital since right after the eve of the festival.
Whatever it was, he was extremely pleased that Lionel’s attention was diverted elsewhere.
But in return for that tolerance, he had gained a truly good hand. Two of them, at that.
“What will you do, Your Majesty.”
At Jerome’s question, the Emperor’s eyes curled into an arc. The wrinkles spreading out like a fan from the corners of his eyes were even grotesque at a glance.
“Leave them be for now. Since he has realized a belated first love, how distracted must he be. Leaving him to be drunk on that sweet emotion for the time being is not bad either.”
The Emperor’s truly satisfied gaze looked at Raul and Agnes respectively.
And lastly, it landed on Lionel.
“As long as Lionel is distracted by his wife, it is a peerlessly good thing for us, after all.”
☆☆☆
Without even a moment to notice that the Emperor was watching him.
The carriage Lionel boarded dashed straight toward the Duke’s mansion.
The carriage stopped.
While brushing off the hands of Simon and the servants who came rushing out in surprise, and moving Agnes to his room.
Lionel did not separate Agnes from his embrace for even a single moment.
Only after the previous primary physician, who was called in place of the confined Andrew, showed reluctance and begged him to lay Agnes down for an examination.
Lionel could barely loosen the strength in his hand that was holding onto Agnes.
However, even after that, the trembling of his hand did not stop, so Lionel had to suppress his hand strongly with his other hand.
“She has symptoms of pneumonia. It seems the high fever has already persisted for several days, and seeing that even blood is mixed in her cough, it is not a condition to be taken lightly.”
At the old doctor’s diagnosis, the face of Simon, who was receiving a wet towel from a maid to move it, turned haggard.
“Lady Agnes had a slight touch of pneumonia after she collapsed from being hit by the rain in the garden the other day. Is it because of that?”
“That is correct. To her weakened respiratory system, the foul air of the sewer would have been fatal.”
At those words, Lionel felt a sensation of being dragged down to a bottomless floor.
It was because of him.
Even though he knew that if it were Agnes, she would wait for him until the very end even if he did not come foolishly.
Blinded by petty anger, he had abandoned Agnes in the rain.
“Aside from the pneumonia symptoms, symptoms of dehydration due to the high fever and traces of not being able to eat properly for a few days are also visible.”
Every time the doctor’s calm explanation continued, Lionel’s mood plunged endlessly into the mire.
“Also, I heard she suffered a seizure due to hyperventilation…….”
The old doctor furrowed his brow seriously.
“It seems the severity has become worse than before. Has she by any chance been continuously exposed to stimuli related to her trauma in the meantime?”
Lionel immediately thought of the radio at those words.
The thing that had been placed near Agnes. Could it be that she had been exposed to the sound of the radio the entire time in the meantime.
However, sensing the ominous expression, he intuitively knew that it was not all.
“Simon.”
Lionel’s voice sank lowly.
“Is there more that you have not reported to me.”
Simon wiped the cold sweat with the back of his hand and bowed his head deeply.
“I understand that in the meantime, under the pretext of treating the trauma, Andrew exposed Lady Agnes to the sound of a walkie-talkie and the smell of gunpowder.”
Lionel reflexively clenched his fist.
The old doctor nodded calmly.
“I did hear that such a treatment method is newly in fashion. It is not an incorrect method, but I wonder if the degree was excessive for Lady Agnes.”
The doctor’s words were no longer in Lionel’s mind.
In Andrew’s treatment log, it was written that he used a treatment method to offset fear.
But that was all, and no further specific method was written. Therefore, he did not know. That it would be to this extent.
No, could it really be explained by saying that he did not know.
Again.
It was a result derived due to him yet again.
Instead of just settling it with words, he should have checked whether Andrew was observing the proper degree of treatment.
If he disliked that, he should have at least asked Agnes if it was hard for her.
He should have done at least that much.
And yet, what was so difficult about that.
Unable to suppress the anger toward himself, Lionel felt the rims of his eyes heat up burning hot.
But. The sins he had committed did not end here.
Beneath the slightly lifted blanket, Agnes’s right leg flashed into his view.
“……!”
In an instant, a fire ignited within Lionel’s deep blue irises.
Pushing Simon aside and approaching the bedside, Lionel rolled up Agnes’s skirt hem with a trembling hand.
And soon, his vision was stained red with fury.
From Agnes’s knee to her ankle.
Around the long scar, new wounds had increased.
Round burn marks.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
