Chapter 22
Chapter 21
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The man’s red lips, which had been tilted upwards, slowly drooped. He narrowed his eyes and was about to say something.
The door to the hallway opened smoothly, breaking the sharp tension in the room.
Walter and the man turned their heads simultaneously.
“…….”
Round eyes, like fresh grapes, widened slightly, then quickly became calm. With just that small change, Walter was certain that the man before him was the Eric that Grace had called.
Grace’s gaze went to the man. Jessie, who was beside her, chuckled softly.
The man who had been confronting Walter turned towards Grace and quickly approached her. As he approached, Grace’s expression changed.
“Eric.”
When she called him with a laughing voice, Eric stopped one step away and grinned.
“My lady.”
Joseph’s eyebrows shot up at the honey-sweet address.
Seriously, why are there so many people who switch gears like flipping their hands?
Grace gave Eric a light nod and then approached Walter.
“I apologize for not informing you beforehand. This is Baron Eric Napier. He is Taylor’s vassal and is currently running a trading company while concealing his identity.”
At her introduction, Eric bowed politely as if nothing had happened.
“Greetings. I am Eric Napier. Please forgive my rudeness earlier.”
Of course, Walter didn’t think Eric wouldn’t know of his existence.
“I, too, committed a discourtesy, so forgive me. It was an unexpected presence.”
“Discourtesy? Not at all.”
And yet, he looked at me like he wanted to tear me apart, huh.
Walter chuckled dryly and turned back to Grace, asking,
“How was it?”
It was a question that cut off the beginning and end, but Grace understood and immediately replied.
“I met Mrs. Isaac, and she said she would help. The Grand Duchess will wake up soon.”
Walter was about to ask something more but stopped. It was right to leave now. Grace also didn’t call him as he crossed the threshold.
When Walter entered the Duke’s room and looked back, he saw Eric kissing the back of Grace’s hand through the closing door.
Grace was smiling brightly. When she smiled like that, a dimple appeared on the right side of her mouth.
The door closed, and Walter clicked his tongue softly. He looked around the room blankly and then went straight out into the hallway without sitting anywhere. As Joseph quickly followed, Walter said,
“Wait and help him leave without being seen by anyone.”
“Ah, …yes!”
Walter left Joseph behind and strode away.
The sun was already lying low.
Walter hated this time. He felt suffocated by the layers of primary colors mixed in the air.
He lengthened his stride. As he walked for a while, facing the burning red sunlight head-on, a lonely building like a fragment of a ruined kingdom appeared before him.
The place where he had hidden for three years after that incident. This place was like a prison to Walter. Not because he was confined, but because he was a sinner here.
A sinner who survived in place of the Richmond heir’s life.
And, to make matters worse, a sinner who stole even that name.
＊ ＊ ＊
The reason why his chest felt heavy whenever he saw the twilight was because the suffocatingly deep colors reminded him of equally suffocating memories.
The red light that came in through the hallway window felt sticky like thick paint.
Mrs. Isaac, who had rushed over, bowed respectfully to Walter.
“You have arrived.”
“…It’s been a while.”
The two looked at each other.
In the 10-year gap, their eye levels had changed. After standing like that for a moment, Walter walked past her, and Mrs. Isaac quickly turned around as well.
No guidance was needed.
With each step he took up the stairs, he felt like he was stepping deeper and deeper into the deep sea.
‘Walter……! How hot it must have been, how much. Walter…….’
On the day he heard Eliza’s stifled sobs, he realized that breathing and being alive could be a sin.
‘Your Highness, you must survive. You must save His Majesty and return to your original place.’
He resented the late Duke, who had saved him, after hearing those words.
Walter stood before the massive door that had become as old as a dead tree.
When he opened the door, the cold smell of death rushed in. The furniture in the room was the same as it had been 10 years ago. Even the positions.
There was a withered mound on the huge bed in the center of the room, as if it would disappear soon. Seeing that sight, the blood flowing through his veins felt like boiling oil.
Mrs. Isaac quickly ran to the bed.
“Grand Duchess.”
“…….”
“Grand Duchess, His Excellency has arrived.”
“…….”
“Grand Duches…….”
“Enough.”
At Walter’s restraint, Mrs. Isaac hesitated and stepped back.
Walter approached Eliza. Feeling like a deep swamp was pulling at his ankles, he sank his heavy body into the sofa at the head of the bed. Then, he leaned his head back against the sofa and looked at the ceiling. It was a very different appearance from how he had always maintained his posture without faltering, even if it was a battlefield.
From him, who was sitting sprawled out as if the room was too big, the mask of composure and laughter was gone.
“!”
The moment that mask was removed, Mrs. Isaac involuntarily took a step back.
The reason why Walter seemed so relaxed among the venomous Richmond knights was because he was thoroughly hiding his true self. In the place where the mask disappeared, there was a thick and rough energy that could not even be compared to the knights.
Mrs. Isaac’s lips trembled slightly. Her husband and three sons were all knights. She knew the energy of those who had survived.
Venom, murderous intent?
No.
That was… madness that had been built up layer upon layer like strata over a long period of time.
“I’m back.”
“…….”
“Why on earth are you doing this? While you’re like this, the Richmond Dukedom is swarming with rats. So much so that there’s no room to step.”
He muttered languidly and then laughed sharply. Cold sweat ran down Mrs. Isaac’s back.
“I was going to clean up as soon as I got here. I was going to cut off their heads first, just like they did.”
If he hadn’t met Grace, he would have actually done so. By now, the Richmond Dukedom would have been filled with the stench of blood.
As a result of Eliza not waking up in the end, Marquis Lincot had seized everything in Richmond. Because it was unlikely that he could easily break through the tower of power that had hardened like stone, he had planned to destroy the tower altogether.
Richmond would be stained with blood, but he thought there was no other way.
Whose neck to cut first. How to cut it.
Perhaps because he had been thinking about such things all along, he knew that the madness within him was growing uncontrollably. In fact, even now, whenever he saw the rats pretending to be the owners, an intense murderous intent surged up.
Walter closed his eyes and clenched and unclenched his fists.
At that moment, a gentle voice pierced through his mind, which was throbbing with violent impulses.
‘You must not stain Richmond with blood. Only then can you use that power.’
Walter slowly opened his eyes and leaned back. Silvery white hair was scattered messily between the blankets. It seemed that all of her once-black hair had turned white. It felt like someone was gripping his neck tightly.
“Please wake up.”
“…….”
“If you wake up, the land of Richmond will not be soaked in blood. Shouldn’t it be you, not me, who punishes the vassals of Richmond?”
“…….”
Eliza had no answer in the end.
Well, perhaps the person she wanted to punish the most was not Marquis and Marquise Lincot, but himself.
Walter got up.
Feeling like he would suffocate to death if he stayed here any longer.
＊ ＊ ＊
Marquise Lincot had dismissed her afternoon tea and was repeatedly mulling over the information she had gleaned from her conversation with the Duke.
“A commoner without a family name…….”
Blind faith was forbidden, so she had secretly commissioned those who handled information. But the answer she received was disappointing.
“‘Red Moon’ said that it would take three months to find out the woman’s exact personal information.”
“Three months? That’s too long.”
She couldn’t just sit idly by for three months while waiting for the woman’s personal information to arrive. Her instincts were screaming that now was the right time to seize the initiative.
“Yes. But he added that since commoners usually have family names, the fact that she doesn’t have one probably means that her parents were criminals.”
“Her parents were criminals. They said there’s a village of runaways at the Wall of Death, right?”
“Yes.”
A meeting between a runaway from a village near the Wall of Death and the Duke who was serving there.
“Hmm. That makes sense.”
