"Drain the water from the lake. Is that hard for you to say?"
All the servants were speechless and fell silent at the sarcastic question. They were looking at each other and not knowing what to do, so a gray-haired elder of the collateral faction stepped forward.
"It's farming season now. It might be different after the fall and the harvest."
As expected of Temnes. In times like this, the only thing they could trust was their blood relatives.
Everyone looked at the elder who spoke for them with fervent eyes.
"How can you do that when we're in the middle of filling the canal with water?"
"Can't you do it?"
Kaian tilted one corner of his mouth up, but his eyes were completely empty of warmth, not a smiling face but an instinctive fear.
"Really? You dare to ask me to hold my wife's funeral without even that much guts?"
The aura Kaian gave off was so terrifying that the servants' legs trembled under the table they were sitting at.
"I, I'm sorry. Madam, she wasn’t alone.”
“Yes. It must be because there aren’t even traces of a woman’s body...”
The words ‘Claudel must be dead’ should have followed, but no one dared to say that in front of Kaian. There had already been many people who had said that in the past few months and been dragged out half-conscious.
There was no need to experience Temnes’s bravery by putting their own body on the line, so they just passed the buck to each other, giving each other hints as if telling each other to speak.
“It’s all my fault?”
Kaian sneered coldly.
“You’re saying that I created this mess because I couldn’t even keep my house in order and couldn’t take care of a pregnant woman.”
“My lord! Absolutely not!”
“That’s not what we meant.”
“That’s why I’m seriously thinking about what you asked me to do.”
They should have just not said it. They didn’t want to know what the lord, who was not in his right mind, was seriously thinking. They just want to walk out of this place alive, not be carried out as a blood clot.
“If you drain the lake and come find her, then I will do as you wish.”
Every time Kaian’s voice echoed in the hall where they were sitting, it seemed like the pungent smell of blood was wafting from somewhere.
“We will hold a funeral and welcome a new mistress.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“The head of Temnes cannot hold a funeral with an empty coffin. Right?”
In the end, those who had said the words that had angered Kaian had no choice but to retreat without recovering their original purpose.
Kaian watched them leave the conference room, struggling to escape his cold, until the very end.
However, he felt a little dizzy as he got up from his seat.
“My lord.”
The butler quickly supported him.
“Get up slowly.”
“It’s okay. Don’t make a fuss.”
Kaian shook him off and headed to Claudel’s room.
The room was dark with the curtains drawn.
Kaian had not used his bedroom since he got sick.
Because he couldn’t breathe if it weren’t for this place where regret and foolishness filled the room like air.
Kaian went to the round table by the window where Claudel always sat.
On the table were tiny socks that she had embroidered with Margaret flowers.
Kaian put his fingers inside the socks.
They were so small that his long and thick index finger barely fits two joints.
‘Are baby feet really this small?’
Kaian knew that he might not have the chance to check it out. However, he didn’t want to be urged by his servants to quickly welcome a new mistress.
Kaian put the baby socks on his index and middle fingers and moved his fingers as if he were walking on the table with his chin resting on his hand. The socks moved around right and left as if they were alive.
Kaian, who was blankly watching this with unfocused eyes, called out to the butler.
“Butler. Bring me some alcohol.”
“...My lord.”
“I don’t need anything else. Bring me something strong.”
Kaian, who was looking for alcohol while playing with baby socks with his large body, looked out of his mind.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not crazy yet.”
“Your body is hurting. It hasn’t been long since you recovered.”
“Mt lack of energy is because I haven’t trained my body. So bring me some alcohol.”
Kaian said in a lower voice, seeming to be offended.
“Unless you want to see me go crazy.”
In the end, the butler withdrew with a face full of things to say and returned with a bottle of alcohol and a glass.
Kaian drank the glass full of water.
“You should drink slowly.”
“No. Then I won’t get drunk.”
“If you drain the lake and come find her, then I will do as you wish.”
Every time Kaian’s voice echoed in the hall where they were sitting, it seemed like the pungent smell of blood was wafting from somewhere.
“We will hold a funeral and welcome a new mistress.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“The head of Temnes cannot hold a funeral with an empty coffin. Right?”
In the end, those who had said the words that had angered Kaian had no choice but to retreat without recovering their original purpose.
Kaian watched them leave the conference room, struggling to escape his cold, until the very end.
However, he felt a little dizzy as he got up from his seat.
“My lord.”
The butler quickly supported him.
“Get up slowly.”
“It’s okay. Don’t make a fuss.”
Kaian shook him off and headed to Claudel’s room.
The room was dark with the curtains drawn.
Kaian had not used his bedroom since he got sick.
Because he couldn’t breathe if it weren’t for this place where regret and foolishness filled the room like air.
Kaian went to the round table by the window where Claudel always sat.
On the table were tiny socks that she had embroidered with Margaret flowers.
Kaian put his fingers inside the socks.
They were so small that his long and thick index finger barely fits two joints.
‘Are baby feet really this small?’
Kaian knew that he might not have the chance to check it out. However, he didn’t want to be urged by his servants to quickly welcome a new mistress.
Kaian put the baby socks on his index and middle fingers and moved his fingers as if he were walking on the table with his chin resting on his hand. The socks moved around right and left as if they were alive.
Kaian, who was blankly watching this with unfocused eyes, called out to the butler.
“Butler. Bring me some alcohol.”
“...My lord.”
“I don’t need anything else. Bring me something strong.”
Kaian, who was looking for alcohol while playing with baby socks with his large body, looked out of his mind.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not crazy yet.”
“Your body is hurting. It hasn’t been long since you recovered.”
“Mt lack of energy is because I haven’t trained my body. So bring me some alcohol.”
Kaian said in a lower voice, seeming to be offended.
“Unless you want to see me go crazy.”
In the end, the butler withdrew with a face full of things to say and returned with a bottle of alcohol and a glass.
Kaian drank the glass full of water.
“You should drink slowly.”
“No. Then I won’t get drunk.”
After drinking three glasses in a hurry, Kaian gasped for a moment and then slumped down.
“Yes, This should be enough.”
“...”
“Then I don’t think I’ll go crazy. I’m... I miss Claudel so much”
Kaian muttered like a madman.
“I saw it clearly. I saw her fall deep into the lake. I couldn’t catch her.”
“...”
“I miss her so much. If I drain the lake and find something, I’ll come to my senses.”
Baron Colon felt gloomy. The man who was his pride and honor was falling apart uncontrollably. Watching it vividly, the butler didn’t know what to do. The difficult thing about life was that everything came suddenly. Blocking the rough path that the young lord thought he would face was his job for the young master who he had served for generations in place of his friend who had left too early.
But what could he do about something so unexpected?
What was certain was that just a year ago at this time, Kaian had been shouting with a fierce voice that he would destroy Vermont like a sharpened sword.
Only a year had passed. It was unimaginable that marrying Vermont would push Kaian to such a cliff. That’s why the butler understood Kaian. Everything was under control. Even doing the work that the madam should have done was like helping the master. Even the experienced butler believed in the illusion that everything was going smoothly.
“...Claudel.”
When the Master, who couldn’t control his body and was lying down on the table, fell asleep from drunkenness, the butler took the crumpled baby socks out of his hands, shook them out, and put them on the table side by side. It would be heartbreaking for Kaian, who had gotten over his drunkenness, to see the socks that were all messed up and worn.
“How long will this go on?”
The butler’s sighs grew heavier and heavier as the days went by, and Kaian’s sadness seemed to have no end.
***
It was midnight when they arrived in Rowen. Irena took a moment to catch her breath on a hill near Rowen’s estate and gave her horse water.
Purrrrrr.
As the horse hurriedly drank the water, she sat down on the road for a moment and stretched her legs. Thanks to the bright full moon, the road was quite easy to drive.
From the capital to Rowen, if you stayed at the gateway city, it would take a week to ten days by carriage, and at least six days on a fine horse.
'The Duke of Temnes can run in five days, right?'
If Kaian could do it, then why couldn't I?
Irena gritted her teeth and slept only three times at the inn, and had arrived in Rowen after five full days on horseback.
A wide lake bathed in moonlight could be seen beyond the forest spread out below the hill in the distance. Lights were moving around the lakeside, scurrying around like cicadas in the darkness. It seemed that a search party with torches was circling around.
"Claudel."
When she realized that they were still looking for her, who had fallen into the lake, Irena couldn't hold it back and burst into tears. Her face stung every time tears flowed down her cheeks, which had turned red from the cold wind while she was forced to ride. But it couldn’t be as heartbreaking as that.
“Why would you...?”
She couldn’t believe the Duke of Vermont.
‘My father must have misunderstood something.’
Because the Duke of Vermont had never seen how close they were. What could her father know about them when he had never even seen Kaian sitting next to Claudel, having only stayed at the Castle de Valmonde for two hours?
Irena had been locked in her room for nearly three months. Once, she had tried to bribe the maid who brought her food to escape, but immediately after that, the door to her room had been modified so that only food could be pushed in.
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