The inside of the shelter was filled with a damp smell.
The breath of people who had been unable to wash for a long time and the musty odor exuding from wet blankets were intermingled.
Raul sat leaning against the wall with his body curled up.
In order to avoid standing out, he had a worn-out jacket that was no different from a rag wrapped around his body.
The situation was not different for Nick and the other crew members either.
There was one who had smeared charcoal on his face, and there were those who bent their backs on purpose to mimic vagrants.
The remnants of Rebelt had snuck in among the homeless people stretched out in the shelter in that manner. To look at them at a glance, they too merely appeared to be nothing more than one among the ordinary wanderers.
This was all because of the montage that had spread across the entire capital.
Because of that goddamned montage, let alone near the gateways, it was a level where they could by no means walk around the outside itself.
They were uniquely nothing other than rats caught in a trap.
“Goddamit!”
Nick bit his molars tightly and spat a low curse.
Raul spoke without raising his head.
“Be quiet, Nick. We will get caught at this rate.”
Nick turned his body with a snap, unable to hide his displeased air at those words.
The gulf of emotion that had arisen between Nick and Raul was not hidden, and that subtle discord was spreading among the crew members following them as well.
With things having turned out this way, there was the side that suggested collecting all the hidden bombs to cause a large-scale terror attack and perish together with the Empire’s ones.
And the side that followed Raul, saying that unnecessary sacrifice and violence must not be, and that they should escape for now and plan for the future afterward.
Rebelt was already dividing into two factions with Raul and Nick at the forefront.
It was amidst the situation where both sides were keeping each other in check in that manner.
A man who was moving his footsteps totteringly stopped before Raul.
The man, with a slightly bent back and his few remaining hairs roughly pulled and tied together, kicked the blanket Raul was sitting on with the tip of his foot and spoke.
“Go away. This is my spot.”
Every time he spoke, a terrible smell of alcohol wafted out.
Because there was nothing to be gained by colliding for nothing, Raul pulled down the rag covering his face deeper and stood up from his spot.
“Ah, I am sorry.”
Then, the man tottered and laughed.
“Well, it seems it hasn’t been many days since you came here? Be careful from next time. Since this is the spot of this Lord Hunts Lockwood.”
Hunts pointed his finger toward Raul and cackled with a crooked tongue, with his fingertips trembling severely from withdrawal symptoms.
“Do you know how great of a person I am? I am a knight who escorted the master of the trading company for over twenty years at that famous Bardo trading company, I am.”
Although he did not ask, Hunts listed his own boasts in succession.
Toward such a Hunts, a bowl flew. It was thrown by the homeless person on the opposite side.
“What do you mean, escorting the master of the trading company, tsk. You must have guarded the stable. Do not make a ruckus and go to sleep quickly!”
As words mixed with ridicule flew in, Hunts, with a face thoroughly drunk on the effects of alcohol, huffed and argued back.
“It is real, you know? I am talking about the initial master of the Bardo trading company! Uh? I have a history of having done the escort of that Elena Bardo!”
Hunts listed while exaggerating the matter of having been selected and worked as additional personnel to escort Elena for a large-scale event just once.
“Oh my, sure. We will count it as such, so let us shut our mouths!”
“Counting it as such! I am saying it is real! I was not planning to say even this kind of word though……”
Even so, when the reaction was not very good, Hunts lowered his voice as if telling a secret story that only he knew.
While bringing even his index finger to attach to his thick lips.
“You know, everyone knows that the former master of the trading company was attacked and killed by some robber guy, right? That is all not true. It is because it is me that I know it—,”
Unable to overcome the effects of alcohol, his face plummeted forward below, then Hunts mumbled with indistinct pronunciation.
“Actually, she did not die at that time. It is correct that she was injured, but there was also a story that she lived and gave birth to a child……”
The mumbling soon blurred out like talking in one’s sleep.
In the surroundings, the sounds of grumbling that it was nonsense again were heard, and the homeless people turned their backs one by one and went to bed.
However, Raul alone could not do so.
Raul shook and woke Hunts, who was between sleep and waking.
“Look here.”
“Mmm? What is it, are you going to give me alcohol? Or are you going to give me at least the price for alcohol?”
Raul slid a copper coin into Hunts’s hand.
“It is not alcohol, but I will give you this. So could you tell me in more detail regarding the words you just said? That the former master of the trading company gave birth to a child. What kind of word is that?”
Hunts looked down at the copper coin with blurry eyes, then smirked.
“Words? Ah, you were curious. I do not know in detail either. I merely overheard that human Adrian babbling while drunk. What…… it was a daughter, or something like that.”
With those words as the end, Hunts plummeted down again.
Clutching the copper coin, while slouching and cackling that he would be able to go to the gambling house, he soon fell into a deep sleep.
“A child……. Elena gave birth to a child……?”
Raul could not leave from before Hunts for a while.
His lover, and his child who withered away without even seeing the light of the world.
He had merely thought he lost them both, yet a child might have been born.
The shocked Raul merely repeated and repeated the words Hunts said like a broken clockwork doll.
In one corner of the shelter, Nick was watching that spectacle with his body curled up.
Nick’s gaze, which was by no means pleasant, was fixed toward Raul for a long time.
☆☆☆
“Right. You are saying that a few high-ranking officials of Sercadia went missing?”
The Emperor’s enraged voice echoed inside the hall.
“And that it is the deed of the Duke of Valheim?”
Jerome, who finished the report, nodded his head.
“I had thought he would be distracted with reclaiming his wife at most.”
The corners of the Emperor’s lips, unable to contain his wrath, trembled faintly.
“Even amidst that, he was digging into the truth of the war. Truly tenacious.”
Even though he had felt reassured that he had diverted Lionel’s nerves to another side at most, it was not so.
Lionel was still thrusting a sword beneath the neck of the Imperial Family and narrowing the distance moment by moment.
“There would be no connection between that rebel force called Rebelt and the captured officials, right?”
“The individual who was the Commander-in-Chief of the 5th Brigade has been confirmed as the leader of Rebelt. It is difficult to view it as entirely unrelated.”
A silence flowed for a moment.
Soon, the Emperor burst into laughter.
“Haha. If we arrest them this time, the Duke’s contribution will be revealed to the world once more.”
Is it merely that.
Through the mouth of Rebelt, he might obtain the clue into his hands that the Imperial Family instigated the war.
“It amounts to having attached wings to Valheim with my own hands.”
Even so, it was a matter where he could not retrieve the investigation authority regarding Rebelt again either. Since his own appearance would become utterly ridiculous.
The Emperor’s face contorted like a demon.
“Even worse, it is said that these days, foolish ones are highly revereing Lionel?”
The space between the Emperor’s brows folded deeply.
Beyond talking about him as a war hero and idolizing him, now even the kidnapping incident of the Duchess was being glorified.
That Lionel rescued his wife while risking danger, that he takes care of the reclaimed wife with utmost devotion, worrying lest she break like a piece of glass art.
Exactly as if they were lovers inside a classic novel, the appearances of them talking while being moved by Lionel’s human aspect caught his eyes disagreeably to a great extent.
“It is my error. So that there would be no future trouble, I should have cut off that child’s breath early on together with his parents.”
How could he have known that Lionel would stubbornly return alive from the war zone and chase him right up to beneath his chin in this manner.
“If it is a dog that will bite its master’s neck, even if it is now, its breath must be cut off.”
The Emperor’s eyes narrowed. Now was the time to use the card he held in his hand.
“Make it leak that Raul Herben Guten is alive.”
“I understand. I will leak the point that he is a member of Rebelt, and up to the point that he was a lover with Elena Bardo together.”
“Ho, for once you are rolling your brain, you bastard?”
Upon the mouth of the Emperor, who was satisfied with Jerome’s answer, a crooked smile hung.
If it turned out this way, Lionel, of course, and those troublemakers called Rebelt would likewise divide internally on their own.
The Emperor’s pupils shone faintly.
Why were the former Duke and Duchess of Valheim framed for the crime of treason.
Humans are, by nature, selfish and despicable existences.
If only a situation that would stimulate that nature was created, it was a rule that they would rush to the worst by themselves at any time.
There was no reason for it to be different this time either.
“To think I should have done this early on. I was too benevolent.”
If it were an existence that would oppose his authority, all its sprouts must be cut off.
Lionel Edmund Valheim will face the same end as his parents.
The Emperor burst into laughter, contorting the bridge of his nose.
“My, my. Is it not a demise fitting for a hero?”
He was truly looking forward to it.
How miserably that arrogant face of Lionel’s would contort.
☆☆☆
“……What is Agnes doing?”
In the ashtray placed before Lionel, who was sitting astride the chair, half-burnt cigars were piled up in a disorganized manner.
Kalt examined such a Lionel worriedly.
Despite having found Agnes, his master was not improving at all. Rather, it also seemed that his condition had become worse than before.
“It is said that after finishing her meal a short while ago, she took her medicine and fell asleep.”
“She did not…… look for me?”
“……No.”
As the answer dropped, Lionel tilted his head back.
“Who am I to hate the Duke. How dare I.”
The voice in which no resentment or expectation whatsoever was loaded.
Because it was calm and clear, Agnes’s voice, which was rather firm, rang in his ears all day long.
Lionel could not turn Agnes’s head, which did not look at him, in the end.
Because he did not dare have the right to do so.
The thing that was a relief at least was the point that there was no occurrence of Agnes throwing up her food again. Her diet was being strictly adjusted according to her bodily condition.
Her coughing had also become less frequent compared to when she first returned to the Duke’s mansion. Albeit, even if the window was opened for just a moment for ventilation, she would cough immediately.
Since there was at least one thing that had improved, should he take this as a consolation.
Lionel closed his eyes strongly and opened them.
“Make sure to adjust everything to her so that Agnes is not uncomfortable. Tell them to also examine well whether there is any problem in eating food.”
“I will firmly instruct the servants.”
Right now at this moment, he had no choice but to admit the fact that Agnes did not welcome him.
So Lionel decided to take a step back.
Not to enforce, and not to take her to task.
To give Agnes time to compose her breath.
However, even if it were so, he did not intend to be folding his hands without doing anything.
Clearly, the fact that Agnes injured her leg was connected to himself. His instinct was saying so.
And Lionel intended not to turn away from that instinct any longer.
As Lionel stood up and picked up his outer garment, Kalt prepared to follow him straight away.
“We will go to the Belair townhouse.”
“I will escort you.”
Lionel’s stride naturally widened.
The thought that he must return before Agnes woke from sleep hastened his steps.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
