Chapter 47
Goodbye, Louise
The priests began a prayer for eternal rest.
The Deposed Emperor and his wife quietly paid their respects, listening to their prayers.
"I thought it would be best if you decided what to write on the tombstone," Klaud whispered very quietly amidst the prayers.
Yuan nodded several times.
Looking at the blank white tombstone, Yuan thought quietly.
'Louise.'
"...and so, we pray for the eternal rest of Louise Pellieresse."
'Goodbye.'
Klaud's large hand wrapped around her trembling shoulders. It was a comfort that was neither cold nor hot.
Yuan quietly lowered her head.
'Goodbye, Louise.'
Words of apology or gratitude all felt useless.
'Don't feel sorry for me anymore. Not for our parents' deaths, not for your illness. You don't have to try to take care of me or worry about me.'
I will become this person's real family.
I will work hard to protect our new home this time.
So, rest assured and go to a better place.
To a place where you don't have to try to take responsibility for me anymore.
I will do my best here.
Enough to make you proud of me.
'Wait just one year. Within a year, I will call you no matter what. I will come to get you.'
From this place you brought me to.
After the simple funeral.
Klaud entrusted Yuan to Mazarin and moved to another part of the vast cemetery. It seemed he had other tombstones to look at while he was there.
"It seems he's going to the late Emperor and Empress," Mazarin said bitterly, casting a wistful gaze in the direction Klaud had disappeared.
"They are here too."
Yuan flinched slightly and scanned the snow-covered cemetery beyond the open carriage door.
It was well-maintained, but somehow looked lonely.
To think that the late Emperor and Empress were in such a place...
"They should have been buried in the Imperial Cemetery originally..."
The late Emperor and Empress always wanted to be buried in the Red Brick Mansion.
They always wished to be buried in the small family cemetery past the maze-like garden in the backyard of the Mansion, and to be with the Mansion forever.
However, it was difficult to be buried in such a private place due to their status as royalty, and after being buried in the Imperial Cemetery, they were later moved to this family cemetery of the Marquis Lev family, the Empress's family, due to pressure from Emperor Igor.
Yuan listened to Mazarin's voice, which was tinged with the passage of time, and imagined Klaud's feelings.
Even if the bodies of the late Emperor and Empress could be moved back to the backyard of the Black Manor, would Klaud really do it?
Could a man who didn't want to experience any more death there endure it?
While she was lost in useless thoughts, Klaud boarded the carriage after quite a long time, carrying the cold air with him.
The carriage departed without delay, and neither Yuan nor Klaud spoke to each other.
Yuan kept looking down at the floor, then for the first time, she raised her head slightly and looked at Klaud, who was sitting across from her.
He was resting his chin on his hand and staring silently out the window.
It was the first time he had come this far since he went to the hunting grounds near the Mansion with Emperor Igor's party a while ago, but was he alright?
The warm sunlight caressed his half-mask and beautiful face as it passed by.
While the sunlight caught and escaped from his long eyelashes, his crystal-like eyes flickered with an indifferent light, as if he were looking at a road he passed every day.
The sight was so peaceful that Yuan stared at him for a long time.
It was peaceful, but somehow a depressing sight.
"I'm sorry."
The sparkling, indifferent gaze turned to her.
She felt that she shouldn't just let it go like this just because he didn't ask anything.
Above all, she wanted to share this subtle feeling with him.
Yuan looked at his lightly closed lips and said.
"About my sister... not telling you."
Yuan apologized for hiding Louise's existence from him.
"I'm sorry. Yesterday and in many ways, I've really... only caused trouble."
And about other things as well.
The things she did to justify her place in the Mansion, as if holding Louise's death responsible.
The things that Klaud had to go through because Emperor Igor Euphris came to the Black Manor because of her lies.
Whether it was something she had already apologized for, something she hadn't been able to, or a truth she would never be able to tell.
Yuan apologized sincerely for everything.
The words she managed to squeeze out after compressing and compressing so many things.
"I'm really sorry."
That was all she could say.
She didn't want to shed tears and beg for sympathy.
Yuan stubbornly forced her eyes to hold back, trying not to shed tears.
And she shifted her gaze from his tightly closed lips back to his eyes.
He wasn't looking at Yuan.
The eyes that had been shining on their own were now mixed in with the scenery outside.
However, his lips.
"Don't worry about it."
He ended all her anxiety with a single, insignificant word.
It was the driest and most affectionate answer in the world.
The floor of the carriage running on the well-maintained stone road seemed to be undulating.
Yuan continued to stare at Klaud, who still looked peaceful, as if she were possessed.
'Being like this really feels like family.'
Going to the cemetery where family is buried together in broad daylight.
An everyday life where they don't ask each other anything even when there are awkward things.
That time, which was everyday for others, felt like a miracle to Yuan.
Two hours later, the Deposed Emperor and his wife arrived at the Black Manor.
Butler Gustav had the servants lined up on the steps in front of the entrance.
As the carriage carrying its master easily passed through the Iron fence and crossed the garden, finally arriving in front of the entrance, the servants shouted as if they had been waiting.
"Welcome back, Master!"
Klaud got out of the carriage without a word and scanned them one by one.
Yuan also got out of the carriage with the help of the butler and looked back and forth between them and Klaud with teary eyes.
The servants glanced at him with bewildered faces, as if they couldn't believe that Klaud had left the Mansion on his own two feet in broad daylight and returned.
Klaud waved his hand roughly without any reaction and dismissed the servants.
Yuan stuck close to him and followed behind. And just before passing through the entrance that the butler had opened, Klaud suddenly stopped walking.
"About the West Annex."
Yuan flinched.
"What the hell are you doing that I keep hearing strange noises?"
Henna, who was preparing to receive his coat nearby, Butler Gustav, and Yuan's eyes met.
Klaud, narrowing his eyes, examined them and then stepped back again.
It looked like he was about to go to the West Annex right away since the topic came up.
"W-wait a minute!"
Yuan blocked his broad back with both hands and slowly pushed him.
Klaud snorted in disbelief.
"Are you pushing me right now?"
"Just give me a week!"
"What?"
Klaud, who had relaxed his body, frowned as he took off his coat with the butler's assistance.
"Please take a walk with me to the West Annex in a week!"
Klaud, who had swept back his hair, laughed coldly and refused immediately.
"What are you plotting?"
"I'm not plotting anything!"
"Move."
"I-it's a gift!"
Klaud's steps, which had escaped from Yuan's grasp, stopped.
Yuan, not missing the opportunity, quickly added.
"It's a gift. A surprise gift! So please, look at it in a week."
"A gift?"
It was as if he was saying, 'What kind of gift can you give me?'
Yuan's pride was a little hurt, but she desperately answered because she didn't want to show him the West Annex, which was not yet clean.
"Yes. So please, just look at it."
Yuan put her hands together and pleaded earnestly.
"Everyone's keeping their mouths shut as if they made a promise."
"......"
"Without any fear."
"The Madam said it's a gift-"
"So the mistress is also the master, is that it?"
Klaud laughed dryly and leaned back in the rocking chair.
His wife, who had asked for a week, was so busy that she hadn't even shown her face for three days.
Compared to the past, when she used to prepare and bring him at least one of the three meals herself, and even serve him, she had changed too much.
"The servants follow the Madam a lot. They are all trying their best to serve her as the mistress."
"But they keep their mouths shut to the master."
"Let's just say they are cooperating with the Madam in the hope that His Highness will be happier."
Another dry snort returned to Gustav. It was accompanied by a cynical reaction, "Happiness is a ridiculous thing."
"What time is it?"
"You asked five minutes ago, so it's probably around 3:35 now."
Klaud gave a dissatisfied look at Butler Gustav's pointed answer.
The old butler smiled innocently and skillfully added.
"Shall I tell the Madam to have dinner with you?"
"......Why?"
"It seems like she's just waiting for the sun to set."
"Waiting?"
Klaud, who had been glaring at the outside, where there was not even a hint of darkness, shifted his sharp gaze to Butler Gustav.
Seeing his faintly smiling face, he suddenly felt sick to his stomach.
"Why would I wait?"
Eventually, he got up.
Butler Gustav, who had been maintaining his smile as he headed for the bedroom door, was not surprised to see Klaud trying to go outside.
"Are you going for a walk?"
He simply opened the door quietly.
The smoothly polished men's leather slippers paused for a moment in front of the open door.
Outside the door that the butler had opened wide, a hazy sunlight, as if gold powder had been rubbed on it, was pouring onto the mahogany floor.
Klaud soon swept back his blonde hair, which was more sparkling than the sunlight. His disheveled hair was instantly neatly arranged.
Soon.
He strode out of the bedroom.
The servants, who were still stunned and whispering about the incident where the Deposed Emperor, who had been confined for 10 years, had recently gone out, now gaped and rolled their eyes.
In broad daylight.
Without even wearing a mask.
It was because they saw the master of this Black Manor coming down the stairs on the second floor as leisurely as a leopard stalking a small animal.
