13.
Eliza instinctively felt the weighty pocket.
After confirming the presence of the items inside, she moistened her lips with her tongue.
“Marchioness, I was just about to leave.”
“Oh, already? Why don’t you stay and have a little talk with Leopold?”
“It’s just that Leopold’s condition…”
Vanessa slowly approached and widened her eyes when she saw Leopold.
Her soft, small hand was placed on his shoulder.
“My, Leopold. Are you all right?”
Leopold could not answer because he was swallowing back the blood rising in his throat.
It was a prohibition whose origin he could not even determine.
The price for breaking it was the pain of having his internal organs torn to shreds.
As he clenched his fists and waited for his condition to return to normal, a gentle voice rang out.
“Leopold doesn’t seem to be doing well. I’m sorry, Eliza, but you should return now.”
“Ah…. Yes, I suppose I should. But Leopold…”
“You, kh—!”
Leopold, who had been about to say something, hurriedly clenched his jaw again as he felt his stomach turn over.
Eliza unconsciously placed a worried hand on his shoulder as he bent forward.
Vanessa was staring intently at the back of Eliza’s hand.
“Are you all right? Why all of a sudden…”
Leopold’s shoulders rose and fell roughly.
Startled by the sudden situation, Eliza flinched when she saw the shadow cast over his face.
Perhaps because he had held back his coughing for too long, the veins bulging across his face made him look frightening.
Leopold hurriedly covered his lower face with his hand.
Even if he was in pain, could veins really bulge that thickly across someone’s face?
A warm touch settled over Eliza’s hand.
“Don’t worry, Eliza. I’ll take care of Leopold.”
Vanessa gently wrapped her hand around Eliza’s and pulled it away.
Then she naturally stepped in front of Leopold, blocking him from view.
Eliza nodded for the moment, but she could not easily bring herself to leave.
It was the first time she had seen Leopold in so much pain, and the heavy concern kept her feet rooted to the spot.
‘Being the one who gets hurt was supposed to be my role, and you were supposed to be the one who came to visit me when I was sick.’
The rough voice of the man behind Vanessa pushed her hesitant back forward.
From behind Vanessa, Leopold covered his face and barely managed to say,
“Go.”
After a brief stretch of labored breathing, a voice weighed down by a sigh followed.
“I have something to discuss with Mother…… Whew. So go.”
The blood vessels in the eyes Eliza could not see burst.
His entire body, filled with tension as he endured the pain, seemed ready to burst.
As though his insides were being seared with a branding iron, even swallowing his breath felt hot and painful.
Yet even amid the scorching sensation crawling across his skin, Leopold did not forget.
Eliza must not discover the source of this pain.
Because she must not become entangled in Hagen’s schemes.
“Go.”
Eliza, dazed by her complicated thoughts, suddenly flinched.
Blinking her startled eyes, she finally hurried away as though fleeing.
Only after Eliza disappeared from his sight did Leopold bend over and cough violently.
“How touching.”
“Haaah……. What on earth did you do to me—”
“Shh. Your carelessness is your biggest flaw. You’ve been like that since you were young.”
Vanessa patted his shoulder several times before taking a pouch from within her clothes.
When she opened it, a scent rose from inside.
Leopold openly twisted his face and slapped her hand away.
Vanessa covered the back of her hand despite the dull pain, but her voice remained calm.
“If you truly care about Eliza, you shouldn’t do this. If this is discovered, both that child and you will die.”
“Who’s going to die, ugh!”
Vanessa then muttered a strange incantation.
Leopold’s eyes immediately became hazy.
The skin on the back of his neck rippled, and black down sprouted from within.
In an instant, they grew to the size of feathers and covered his neck.
Vanessa seized them in her hand and firmly tore them out.
“You acting like this is only making Ricardo rush things.”
“Kraaagh-!”
“Let’s go. Everything is ready.”
Vanessa took a bell from within her clothes and rang it.
Then, people who had appeared from somewhere placed a noose around the suffering Leopold.
Leopold struggled as he was dragged away.
However, there was no sign of anyone else in the east wing besides them.
The ropes created by sorcery constricted both his body and mind, and amid his increasingly clouded thoughts, Leopold desperately clung to Eliza’s face.
‘Was the reason you were acting strangely because of my parents?’
She must have discovered something she should never have known.
But she had to stop there.
Otherwise, Hagen might reach out to her as well.
“What are you thinking so deeply about?”
By then, they had reached the top of the Marquis’s residence.
Vanessa knocked on a door with no handle as she spoke.
“You have to go inside, Leopold.”
The door slid open on its own, revealing the space inside.
The room, with not a single window in sight, gaped open in pitch-black darkness.
Leopold was pushed inside as though he were being thrown in.
Vanessa gave her waiting husband a kindly smile and closed the door.
***
Eliza hid the evidence she had brought from the Hagen residence and contacted the Crown Prince.
And while she was anxiously waiting for a response, an unwelcome guest arrived.
“A guest looking for me?”
“They’re lying down right in front of the estate and refusing to budge. We tried to drive him away, but he wouldn’t leave even after we kicked him……. What should we do?”
Listening to Nancy, the only maid in the estate who was on Eliza’s side, Eliza pressed her temple firmly.
As if she didn’t already have enough on her mind, what was this now?
“Did word happen to reach Father?”
“No. Sir Brandon found the guards struggling with him and came himself.”
“Brandon? Don’t tell me he’s still outside?”
“He got angry and told them to deal with it quickly before leaving.”
“Good. I didn’t want to see that face anyway.”
Brandon had been appointed as Eliza’s escort knight since she was young.
Her family had assigned him to her to complete the appearance of being the daughter of a count, but in reality, he had hardly ever stayed by Eliza’s side.
“He probably went off to flirt with another maid. You must never fall for a man like that, Nancy. Understood?”
“Of course. Then what should we do about the guest?”
“What do you mean? I have to go. He says he’s my guest.”
When Eliza stood up, Nancy followed closely beside her.
Nancy stopped Eliza from simply going outside, picked up the shawl draped over the chair, and wrapped it around her.
“Do you really have to go yourself? Such a suspicious person…”
“If this commotion drags on and Mother finds out, I’ll be the one in trouble. It’s better to deal with it quickly. Show me the way.”
With no other choice, Nancy led Eliza there, but stood beside her with her eyes wide open as though guarding her.
When Eliza arrived before the unwelcome guest, she kept her distance from the man causing a disturbance and examined him.
Sticky dirt was tangled in his hair, and his face was covered in soot, making it impossible to tell who he was.
“Lady Waluer!”
The man who spotted Eliza immediately knelt and prostrated himself on the dirt.
The guards stepped aside and asked,
“Miss, do you know him?”
“No…… I don’t.”
Seeing Eliza’s troubled expression, Nancy whispered quietly.
“Should I bury this bastard, Miss?”
“Where did you learn to say things like that?”
The man looked up at Eliza, who laughed incredulously, and rubbed his palms together desperately.
“Please help me. Save me!”
“Even if you say that, who are you…”
“I, I’m sure you’ve seen me before! There!”
“There?”
Eliza’s eyes narrowed.
The man trembled as he opened and closed his split lips.
“Th-that place…… I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say……”
“If you don’t know him, we’ll have him removed.”
“N-no! Please, save me! Lady!”
The man lay on his back on the ground and kicked his feet into the air, refusing to be pushed away by the guards.
Hearing his cries for
help, Eliza felt as though she almost remembered.
The last time she had seen someone in such a wretched state was…
‘The servant who was being dragged away by Leopold.’
Why did he come looking for me?
Eliza hurriedly approached him.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
