Chapter 9
9. Choice
“Do you feel relieved?”
The people had all retreated, leaving a silent hallway.
Shed, who had stopped walking, asked.
Liana slowly raised her head.
Shed, who had been walking ahead, had already turned around and was looking down at her.
The constantly cloudy weather had suddenly cleared, and light was streaming in through the window. Because of this, the contours of his face were more prominent, and the fact that he was angry was also clearer.
As the light was intense, so was the shadow distinct, and unlike the side that shone white, the opposite side of his face was deeply submerged in darkness.
Even his violet eyes seemed to be different colors on each side. One side sparkled as if it contained light and was about to cry, while the other side had a dark and fierce light as if it would kill someone at any moment.
Liana took in his face and parted her lips.
“I’m not going to Ideana County.”
Each time she moved her mouth, the corners of her lips and both cheeks tingled, and her jaw felt stiff. But she pronounced the sentence accurately.
Then, an even darker shadow fell over Shed’s face.
“You can’t defy my orders.”
He warned in a low voice.
“I haven’t even agreed to be a maid in the Duke’s household yet, ugh…!”
The moment Liana tried to retort, Shed pushed her against the wall.
Her back throbbed from hitting the wall.
“Don’t delude yourself into thinking you’re some noble lady.”
Shed’s face, with his back to the window, was completely submerged in shadow.
Therefore, only seething anger remained in his eyes.
“I haven’t deluded myself. I just have a choice, too.”
“A choice…?”
As if the word ‘choice’ was some forcibly contrived humor, he raised the corner of his mouth unpleasantly.
“Did the lower orders ever have such a thing?”
The hand holding Liana’s shoulder tightened.
Her shoulder ached as if it would break.
“I’m asking if I had such a choice, Luise Ideana.”
An overbearing whisper, as if completely erasing his past as a slave, pressed down on her.
Her eyelids, which had been resisting until just now, trembled.
“In entering and leaving Ideana County, was my will reflected even a little? Huh?”
His question flew like a dagger and pierced her heart.
Faced with the memories of the past that he had dragged out, Liana could not make any excuses or claims.
Only her green eyes trembled uneasily like leaves swaying in a gentle breeze.
“It seems you finally understand.”
The strength drained from the large hand holding her shoulder.
Shed slowly took a step back.
“If you know your place, follow quietly. After all, you’re going back to your hometown, aren’t you?”
Liana’s expression wavered at the casually uttered words.
He was mocking Liana, knowing what Ideana meant to her.
The place where the Ideana family, who had committed the treason of heresy, was destroyed.
Her fallen land.
Liana’s small shoulders trembled slightly, but Shed opened his mouth heartlessly.
“So, be happy.”
For returning home after many years.
Liana bit her lip tightly at the short words.
Shed turned away from Liana like that.
He strode away with large steps and disappeared.
Left alone in the silent hallway, Liana leaned against the wall and collapsed to the floor.
The hand clutching the black skirt was trembling.
“You’re going straight to Ideana County?”
Eclaus’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.
But there was no answer.
Shed Lester had been staring at the light and shadow reflected on the table for a while now.
The light that had passed through the glass flowed down in a distorted direction, shimmering.
Ideana. Shed had been thinking about that name all along.
A word that was both the name of the land and the name of that woman.
The more he savored the name, the sweeter it was.
Whether it was the land or the woman, it was now in his hands. Having lost its former glory and been defiled.
Shed recalled her crouching and trembling like a bird with broken wings.
‘Luise Ideana.’
She was small before, but she had become even smaller in the past few years. She was emaciated and a mess. Buried in the mud, she was dirty and insignificant.
Just like Shed Lupus eight years ago, she seemed very easy to manipulate.
When he reached that thought, he felt a slight annoyance, but also satisfaction.
‘I’m going back to Ideana County. Taking her with me.’
Just the thought of that made Shed Lester’s blood vessels throb.
Even when he received the Ideana territory from the Emperor, he was not happy with the land. It was a land that only left disgusting memories.
But the moment he found Luise Ideana, he sensed fate.
The Ideana territory was the perfect stage for revenge.
Shed wondered what kind of expression Luise Ideana would make when she arrived in that land.
Would she tremble again with a frightened face? Or would she cry with tears? Would she kneel down and beg for forgiveness? Or would she get angry shamelessly, turning the tables on him?
Shed couldn’t imagine her face.
Many things had changed in eight years, and so had Luise Ideana.
“Duke Shed Lester. Are you listening to me?”
Only after Eclaus called out once more in a clear voice did Shed’s eyelids slowly lift.
Eclaus’s brow was furrowed, displeased that the Duke was lost in thought in front of him.
“…I sent the important messages through Hedrick, so it doesn’t matter if it’s a few months late.”
Shed parted his lips in a monotonous voice.
From early on, he had often left Münher Castle for war or Demon Beast hunting. There were many capable staff and vassals who could replace his absence.
Besides…
Shed glanced at Eclaus.
‘There’s also a watchful eye.’
He thought, looking at the suspiciously shining red eyes.
Then, the red eyes that met Shed’s narrowed unhappily.
“But everyone must be preparing to welcome you in Münher.”
Eclaus recalled the news that the lark had brought yesterday.
“A week ago, the Marlehein’s carriage crossed the border. It even had the holy symbol, so it must be the High Priest.”
The carriage of the Marquess Marlehein family had gone to Münher Castle.
The Marlehein family was one of the Elector Families holding the right to elect the Emperor.
Among the people of that family, there was only one person who could display the holy symbol, divinity. The person in that carriage that crossed the border must be Giselle Marlehein, the High Priest.
The important thing was that Giselle was Shed Lester’s fiancée.
She must have come a long way to hear Shed’s victory and congratulate him.
But Shed was going to stand up his precious fiancée who had come a long way and change his destination to Ideana County.
It was a decision that no one with a sane mind could ever make.
But Shed, as if it didn’t matter, rested his chin on his hand and reached for the wine glass listlessly.
“The victory ceremony was already noisy, so there’s no need to have another welcoming ceremony to make things complicated.”
“I don’t want to interfere, but standing up your fiancée is not good in many ways. Especially if it’s the High Priest of Marlehein.”
At Eclaus’s advice, Shed’s fingertips, which were about to pick up the glass, stopped.
Shed recalled the woman he had made an engagement vow with for political reasons several years ago.
So, that woman who signed next to his name…
Well, what did she look like? He would recognize her if he saw her, but when he actually tried to think about it, he couldn’t even remember what color her hair was.
All he remembered was that she was a woman with quite a bit of ambition.
But at the same time, was she quite righteous?
Shed slowly stroked his chin and thought.
Ambition and righteousness. They were incompatible words.
You can’t pursue justice for ambition, and you can’t achieve ambition if you want to protect justice, so maybe one of them is wrong.
Whichever one he had misjudged, it was clear that she was a woman who was born well, grew up well, and was still doing well now.
She was busy greeting and chatting with other great nobles at the engagement ceremony. There were many people who revered her as one of the few High Priests in the Empire.
There were so many people around her that Giselle Marlehein in his memory was just a mass of people.
Shed brought the glass to his lips again, thinking of his fiancée.
“The merciful High Priest will understand with her great generosity.”
Shed pushed his fiancée to the back of his mind and carelessly drank the wine.
Liana curled up on the small, old bed like a coffin and closed her eyes.
Ideana. People once called that land paradise. Beautiful and fertile, it was a land that could be prosperous even though it was far from the imperial territory and alienated from the center.
The blue sea surrounding the small peninsula, the lemon trees blooming with white flowers, and the wheat fields spread along the hills were more lovely than any other land.
To the north, the Prunig Mountains, high enough to have permanent snow, stretched out, and to the south, there was an emerald sea and a white sandy beach.
Luise Ideana was born in such a land blessed by God.
But the beautiful Ideana she remembers does not exist.
It was devastated by the heresy of Black Magic and was torn to shreds by the charge of treason.
It was Luise Ideana herself who made that land that way.
“Luise, you will now live forever.”
Liana curled up even smaller.
Disgusting memories rose like a swamp, pulling her down.
‘How did I escape, why did I have to leave…’
Liana recalled the reason why she had left Ideana.
She couldn’t go back there. No, she shouldn’t go back.
For herself, for the abandoned land, and for Shed Lester.
When she reached the end of her worries, she made a resolution.
Liana got up from the bed.
The sun had completely set, but outside, people were still busy preparing for tomorrow’s departure.
Since she didn’t have any luggage with her, there was nothing to pack.
All she picked up was an old, yellowed skirt given to her by the head maid, some money to use for travel expenses, and a small pocket knife she had kept in her bosom in case of emergency.
Liana waited for the people to disperse, then draped the gray hood hanging next to her over her shoulders.
Old shoes that made a limping footprint left the room.
