Chapter 48
Episode 48.
“I’ll kill you as you wished.”
Agatha, barely managing to steady her throbbing body as she sat up, looked up.
She saw the intruder raising their sword high, but she had no thought of resisting.
The moment she let the hand holding the dagger fall loosely and closed her eyes.
Swoosh-
Along with a tearing sound, something hot splattered onto her face.
By the time Agatha opened her eyes, the dark bedroom had long since been brightly lit by the moonlight beyond the torn curtains and the wide-open terrace door.
Behind the collapsing body of the intruder stood a figure a span taller and thicker than them.
Disheveled short blue hair and cold, hardened gray eyes.
Enoch, holding a blood-stained longsword, stood gritting his teeth.
He then stomped on the neck of the collapsed figure and, his breath ragged, wiped her blood-soaked cheek with his own.
“K-kill me!”
Enoch turned around. The man who had overwhelmingly crushed six intruders, cutting off their heads with a single stroke, returned and stomped on the collapsed figure’s neck again.
“Why did you do that?”
Snap……!
At the sound of bones breaking, Agatha finally jolted, snapping back to her senses.
He wore a look she had never seen before as she gazed up at him blankly.
“Why did you provoke this person? You surely knew it would be better to accept their demands moderately and wait for support.”
“……What business is it of yours? Don’t interfere in my affairs.”
The man’s breath hitched again the moment she managed to speak.
“Originally, I intended to wait until you felt better. Because I was wrong, I was going to endure it somehow and wait…….”
“…….”
“This is not acceptable. Do you think I would just stand by and watch you die?”
The man’s voice, teeth clenched, was raspy, as if scraped by claws.
Agatha couldn’t tear her eyes away from Enoch’s contorted face.
Why now?
“……Say that to your lover. I don’t need it.”
“Lover? I told you I was different from your ex-husbands.”
“Or do you still need me? Because I am ‘Nobilis’?”
His sharp gray eyes pierced her as if they could see through her.
Agatha found herself scrutinizing him as if entranced. The man she faced properly for the first time in a long while looked much more worn down than his strong appearance suggested.
His jaw had become sharp enough to slice, and his cheeks were gaunt.
The moment she tightened her grip on the dagger to avoid the throbbing pain in her chest, he tightly closed and opened his mouth.
“I like you.”
“……!”
“You were the only woman I ever gave my heart to in my life.”
Agatha, startled, stared up at him blankly.
“What did you just say…….”
“…….”
The man, who had been silently looking down at her, touched the corners of his dry eyes.
“……I don’t know if I have the right to say this now, but I will take this opportunity to eliminate your relatives. So.”
Clang, the man carelessly threw his sword aside and extended his hand to Agatha.
“Put down that dagger and come here, Agatha.”
Don’t drive me crazy.
The rough words, which sounded like the wind at the end, brushed against her eardrums.
Agatha stared blankly up at him, then staggered to her feet.
What did he just say?
Her eyes, a mixture of hope, expectation, doubt, and confusion, trembled.
Agatha let go of the dagger in her hand. Clink, the sound of the dagger bouncing away echoed, and he simply waited with his hand extended until she voluntarily moved from the wet, red floor.
As if she had to come on her own.
As she approached, Enoch wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her into his embrace. The hands that had mercilessly cut down the intruders trembled faintly.
“Did I hurt you that much? Enough to make you want to die?”
“……I just didn’t want to humor the intruder. Please continue with what you were saying.”
Agatha lowered her gaze. The military uniform jacket in front of her and the fabric her hands touched were slightly torn.
Even if it was blood, why were the decorations and clothes of the man who had so easily subdued the intruders worn?
It was when Agatha’s gaze drifted to the open terrace.
“Esther was a woman sent by my relatives to claim my succession.”
“……!”
“They must have thought it wouldn’t do if I kept surviving for three years without dying.”
It was a common occurrence. Weren’t there plenty of people who tried to kidnap Agatha to claim her succession?
Agatha reflexively looked at Enoch. The man, who had buried his face in her shoulder at some point, didn’t easily show his face.
“……Enoch.”
“I was an orphan from a fallen noble family with nowhere to go. They sent a woman who wouldn’t matter if she died…….”
“Enoch.”
“Seeing a woman desperately begging to stay by my side, to be liked, I thought, ‘Yes, what fault is yours?’ and allowed her to be on the battlefield. I didn’t like her, but I intended to take responsibility.”
Perhaps he thought adding one more life to the one that could end at any moment didn’t matter.
It was a large-scale occupation war that had lasted for a full 10 years.
Agatha felt a sense of dizziness as his situation unfolded before her eyes, but the man remained unmoved.
“Enoch!”
“Are you finally calling my name?”
It had been almost days since she had properly uttered his name.
Enoch let out a choked breath and laughed self-deprecatingly.
“I’m sorry for confusing you with that woman. When you told me you liked me, what came to mind first wasn’t your confession, but her betrayal.”
“……Did that woman harm you?”
“When the tide of war turned against us, she poisoned me and fled. My relatives’ reward was a better choice than a successor who was about to die.”
The man slowly turned his head and murmured softly.
And then she appeared before him again.
Agatha felt her head spin with sudden rage.
“Why didn’t you say anything!”
“I intended to. After meeting Esther again, I realized what a foolish thing I was doing.”
The man chuckled lowly and whispered that he couldn’t bring himself to talk about the past before. Agatha clenched her fists.
“What did that woman say?”
“Are you curious?”
“How could you even ask that…!”
As Agatha snapped her head up, Enoch pulled her tightly into his embrace and pressed his lips to her hair.
“I’ve mostly sorted things out now. I’ve dealt with the relatives who orchestrated the events of seven years ago and the current situation, and that woman will soon receive the punishment for her actions.”
“Ngh.”
“So don’t be angry.”
It seemed the Aratus Knights’ movements a few days ago were because of this.
Would she have known if she had paid closer attention?
‘But. I didn’t have the leeway then…….’
Even as she thought that, her throat felt strangely tight.
Agatha felt a desire to help now, even if it was just a little.
She couldn’t let the people who shamelessly planned this, on top of what happened seven years ago, and the remaining relatives, get away with it.
“I’ll be tidying up the family from within this time.”
“As the lady of the Aratus family, no one can say anything about whatever you do.”
It was when Agatha quietly burrowed into Enoch’s embrace.
CRASH!
The inner chamber door, far away, was violently flung open. Agatha, startled, clung tightly to Enoch.
“My Lady. Are you alright!”
Those who poured in were the First Commander, Leon Takran, and the Aratus Knights.
“Sir Leon.”
Leon, relieved to see Agatha unharmed, soon wore a peculiar expression.
Agatha suddenly realized her current appearance. She tried to quickly break free from Enoch’s embrace, but he didn’t budge.
“Report.”
Leon, hesitating, focused on his task as if he hadn’t seen anything.
This can’t be.
Agatha felt a slight sense of betrayal.
“Half of the 150 intruders are dead, and the other half have been captured. We’ve also apprehended the one who was directing from outside……”
Leon glanced at the ransacked bedroom. There were no survivors among the intruders who had entered the bedroom.
“The prisoners?”
“They’ve been confined to the underground prison for now.”
“Are they in a state to be interrogated?”
The gentle Second Commander smiled with an unfamiliar look.
“If we let them go, they could probably cross the empire.”
“That’s fortunate. Good work, Leon.”
A lengthy interrogation would be necessary to make them reveal the mastermind.
Live prisoners were the most helpful asset in this situation.
As Agatha squirmed in his embrace, Leon, giving orders for the surrounding area to be cleaned up, asked,
“By the way, may I ask where Huber is, my Lord? I thought Huber had climbed up the wall like you, my Lord, but I don’t see him.”
“What?”
Agatha, surprised, looked up at Enoch.
The honeymoon mansion had been repaired to have no balconies or terraces near the fourth floor, nor any footholds on the walls, to defend against potential intruders.
“You climbed the wall?”
Dangerously?
“Um……”
As he slightly avoided her gaze, looking somewhat troubled.
A figure slowly appeared from the wide-open terrace.
It was Hubert Karwen, the Second Commander of the Aratus Knights, and his knights.
“I, I’m here, Leon.”
