Chapter 57
Episode 57. How Long Can I Hate You?
2023.10.27.
Blair cautiously lifted her head and saw Herdin's back as he stood by the fireplace in his robe, apparently having bathed.
He was adding logs to the fireplace. Water droplets glistened on his damp hair, catching the light.
Confirming the flames catching on the wood, Herdin turned toward the bed. Blair quickly closed her eyes, pretending to sleep. It felt like the right thing to do.
The silent footsteps approached the bed and stopped. A shadow fell over her. Soon, a familiar weight settled beside her—the same as every night when he pulled her into his arms.
Blair worried he might wake her, but even after a long while, Herdin remained still.
Cracking her eyes open slightly, she saw his face, lying quietly with eyes closed.
His face felt unfamiliar.
He always embraced her greedily until she passed out like she was fainting, only sleeping afterward and waking before her.
Thus, seeing him lying obediently beside her, sleeping without any gain, solely for her sake, felt utterly novel.
Suddenly, the night she had lit the fireplace herself to prove her innocence came to mind. Even then, he had stayed by her side.
He was always like this.
When she turned away, no longer wanting to be hurt by his indifference, he would stride forward like this and shake her.
At the moments she needed him most, when her heart weakened. He never missed the opening, slipping right in.
Blair realized her trembling body had calmed without her will and mocked herself. She could no longer deny it was thanks to this man guarding her side.
‘A man who might have killed me.’
A man who would leave her again, soon, once more.
I hate your indifferent kindness.
I hate myself for wavering, knowing that kindness is like the spring breeze.
When she had miraculously returned to the past, she had clearly resolved never to love him again. Yet…….
Now, she felt a little anxious.
How long can I keep hating you?
* * *
That evening, as the sun fully set, Wesley slipped out through a side door of the Baldwin Marquisate.
He glanced around repeatedly before stepping onto the main street and hailing a hired carriage. His movements were extremely cautious.
“To the club.”
It was his first outing since the Hunting Tournament.
A few days prior, the tournament had been halted when Blair went missing. Ivan, unaware of the full story, had simply been displeased, thinking his sister had gotten lost.
Herdin had scoured the forest in a frenzy to find Blair, and during that time, Wesley had located and killed the man he had hired for the kidnapping.
Now, there would be no way to prove his involvement.
He had borrowed money from Rachel, but unless she confessed her own role, she couldn't demand it back.
Herdin might suspect him, but mere suspicion wouldn't suffice for punishment.
‘In the end, nothing happened to that wench Blair, and she was rescued safely, so isn't that fine?’
Thus, it had ended as a mere minor incident.
Thinking that way eased his mind.
Having holed up in the marquisate for days, anxiously fearing Herdin might come for him, now felt embarrassing.
Of course, the money spent plotting it was a bit regrettable.
‘If I'd used that as gambling stakes, I might have multiplied it quite a bit…….’
As Wesley licked his lips, the carriage arrived at the club.
‘Whatever, I can just win big tonight and make up for it.’
Standing before the club, an unfounded confidence surged that he would be today's gambling victor.
As always, Wesley entered the club brimming with anticipation.
“Well, well, Wesley Baldwin skips the club for days. What's up with you?”
“Thought you were sick or something, nearly worried.”
His usual crowd snickered and welcomed him.
Exchanging frivolous banter, they naturally gathered and began a card game as always.
Wesley checked his dealt hand. His eyes widened.
‘Good cards……?’
Perhaps he really could be today's winner, not just wishful thinking.
Thump, thump. His heart pounded with excitement. He felt more tense than when holding bad cards.
Wesley anxiously received the final card. The moment he checked it, joy spread across his face.
This was a hand harder to lose than win.
As Wesley calmed his racing heart and moved to reveal his hand—
A sudden shadow fell over him.
“Hello, Wesley.”
Wesley's face paled at Herdin's appearance.
“A dog can quit shitting, but you quitting gambling? Right?”
Terrified, Wesley jumped up to flee, but Herdin wasn't one to let him.
He grabbed Wesley's head and slammed it into the card table.
“Aak!”
Frightened by the brutal momentum, the club members fled in droves.
Herdin slammed Wesley's head into the table a couple more times, and only then did Wesley cease his futile resistance and quiet down.
Herdin leaned toward the groaning Wesley and spoke in a low voice.
“Running the moment you see my face only makes me more suspicious.”
“You're the one who's been threatening me as the culprit since that day!”
His politeness from the Hunting Tournament had long vanished. But to Herdin, this was less laughable than the other.
Better than the kid who once reveled in his misfortune now groveling obsequiously as an adult.
Herdin turned Wesley's head, forcing eye contact.
“You are the culprit.”
Blue flames ignited in his eyes. Wesley flinched instinctively under the edge but recovered in a flash.
“Fuck, got proof it's me?”
Herdin eyed the impudent Wesley oddly.
Wesley thrashed his gripped head and yelled.
“Treating someone who helped out of goodwill like this—”
“Rachel Selden.”
At the familiar name slipping from Herdin's lips, Wesley's resistance halted. Herdin pressed without missing the gap.
“She spilled everything. Said you orchestrated it all.”
Wesley's heart sank upon hearing that. Rage toward the betraying Rachel surged simultaneously.
“Fuck, no! It was all…… yeah, that bitch ordered it all! I just did as told!”
“…….”
“She gave me the money too. Said Blair—no, the Duchess—pissed her off, so she wanted to humiliate her!”
“…….”
“Think about it. Where would I get money to plot something like that?”
Having listened silently, Herdin finally released Wesley's head with a shove and spoke.
“Whether that's truth from start to finish, I'll have to ask the Seldon Marquisate.”
“……What?”
Wesley, desperately pinning blame on Rachel, froze.
Heading to the Seldon Marquisate later meant…….
“You didn't meet Rachel first……?”
Herdin flashed a cold smile at the dumbfounded Wesley staring at him.
“That's why you always lose your stakes.”
Losing reason over an unverified word and spilling everything himself.
And his emotions plain on his face.
“You bastard, lying so well……!”
Herdin easily tripped the lunging Wesley. He tumbled comically with a loud crash.
Herdin looked down coldly at him and said,
“Why? You touched my woman and deceived me, yet only I have to be fair?”
“You……!”
“Don't act so aggrieved.”
He pulled a small vial from his inner pocket and tossed it before Wesley. It shattered on impact, spilling its contents.
A sweet, seductive scent wafted up.
Wesley's eyes wavered upon seeing it.
The vial held what the kidnapper had intended for Blair.
“You never had an escape from the start.”
When searching the ruin with Wesley, he had found the vial dropped amid Blair's traces.
The only new-looking item amid the dilapidated ruin had seemed suspicious at a glance.
Herdin had ordered an investigation into the drug's identity and source, and for Russ—expert in such matters—tracing the buyer had been easy.
Testing Wesley despite knowing his guilt was first to secure a confession, and second—
‘I saw her enter the forest with a knight.’
To solidify Rachel Selden's suspicion for her false testimony of seeing kidnapped Blair with another man.
Wesley Baldwin had played his part perfectly there, so now all he could do was yap.
It would surely be noisy.
“Sleep for now.”
Herdin grabbed the back of Wesley's head—who had fulfilled his role—and slammed it hard into the table once more. Soon, Wesley's body went limp.
Herdin tossed the unconscious Wesley to the waiting knights like luggage and turned.
“Load him into the carriage.”
Now, time to catch the other mastermind.
