Finding Rodrick was not as easy as I thought.
Strangely, he was absent every time I visited his room.
Still, I thought that if I kept visiting, I would meet him someday, but I was complacent.
For a week, I didn't see a single shadow of him.
'I think you're really avoiding me.'
He wouldn't come to me first, Hertha had told me.
Looking at it now. It seemed that he was not just not coming first, but was avoiding me very actively.
Viscount Gottlieff's commission had been completed safely, so he wouldn't be too busy, but it didn't make sense to be away like this every time.
Thinking that this would not be the case, I prepared a small trap to lure him.
"You broke your ankle while getting out of bed!?"
As expected, the trap worked successfully.
Rodrick, who had heard the false news through Hertha, came to my bedroom in search of me.
He seemed to realize that he had been deceived only when he saw my ankles, which looked fine.
Looking at his face full of embarrassment, I simply apologized.
"I'm sorry. I thought it would be hard to meet you if I didn't do this."
"Hah... It was kind of strange. I've never heard of a person who broke his ankle while getting out of bed. Surely you weren't hurt?"
"Yes. I don't have time to get hurt. Kishian said she was worried about me and followed me everywhere."
In the past, Kishian used to be a little overprotective of me, but lately the symptoms have gotten worse.
He would seriously argue that he would feed me because I injured my arm, or that he would pick me up and carry me himself because I might faint while walking.
So I wanted to return to the Grand Duke as soon as possible.
I couldn't bear to show the mercenaries how he treated me as if I were a baby.
Somehow, Rodrick had fallen into the trap I had prepared for him and was running frantically, and he seemed quite embarrassed.
He glanced at the door as if he wanted to run away
"Then I'll... enough."
"Rodrick."
"..."
"Give me a minute, I don't want to leave without saying goodbye to you."
Say goodbye. At that, Rodrick stopped moving his outstretched hand to open the door.
I walked over to him and turned his shoulders toward me.
With no more escape, he met my eyes.
Thank you so much. Words can't express it, but I'm deeply grateful to you. You said you were saved because of me. Actually, I had to say that first. Without your help, I would still be unhappy
He was the one whom I sent to the subjugation site for my concern for the Kishian.
He was also the one who rushed to me as soon as I asked for help.
If he hadn't come running, I wouldn't have been able to get out of the palace.
If he hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to come here, I wouldn't have been able to uncover the truth of the cube, and I wouldn't have been able to stop Letie's evil deeds.
And... There would have been no dramatic reconciliation with Kishian.
Of course, even if I hadn't disappeared from the Grand Duke's residence, I think he would have realized the truth and apologized to me in the end.
Anyway, Rodrick helped me to be where I am today.
His help was not light.
So I thought I should settle the relationship more firmly.
Rodrick looked at me with a bitter smile.
"What a farewell, I didn't want to hear you say goodbye, so I kept running away..."
His body, which looked very tense, leaned against the door helplessly
After that, words of resignation flowed from him.
"It seems that you have already decided to leave, so I know it's useless for me to struggle... But I ended up running away. I wonder if you will change your mind if I buy time, because of such a ridiculous expectation..."
"..."
"But in the end..."
He raised his hand and covered the corner of his eye.
His turquoise eyes, which had always sparkled with vitality, were hidden under his large palms.
"I know if I am so sloppy, I will run out of everything, even though I prepared myself mentally, but you... patient."
"Have you prepared your mind?"
"From the day you were scratched and knocked down."
After I was injured by Letie, I recalled the time I met Rodrick.
I had asked him to help me with Kishian, who was worried about his condition.
"That's what you said back then. Go and help him when you're sitting next to him."
"I didn't say that..."
"Anyway, I knew from then on. Your heart is leaning toward him."
Rodrick lowered his hand from the corner of his eye.
When I saw them again, their turquoise eyes didn't sparkle as brightly as they used to.
Rather, he has been looking at me with deeper feelings.
"You were as pale as if you were going to die at that time... Even at that moment, you were worried about him."
I was silent. In the affirmative sense of his words.
It was Kishian who came to mind when I was about to die.
He hurt me a lot, but strangely, I only remembered the good things at the time.
He hugged me in front of people on my wedding day, gave me a greenhouse, and so on.
As Rodrick said, I had been inclined to the Kishian for a long time.
"I won't ask you if you're really going. If I ask you more, I think you'll have a hard time."
"You..."
"I just have to struggle, well, who doesn't have a hard time after being dumped?"
He didn't take away the sunshine-like kindness that he always cast on me until the last moment.
I didn't know what to say.
I felt a mixture of gratitude and sorrow, and it seemed to block my throat.
I was choosing what to say with my head bowed, and he called out to me.
Then he took something rustling from his pocket and put it in my hand.
"Take all of this. If I had it, I would cry watching it every night."
What he handed me was the candy we had exchanged.
I only gave him one candy.
But he squeezed it so much that my hand was full.
"I gave back many times what I received, so at least I won't regret doing better for you. That's enough."
"..."
I wrapped my hands around the candy he gave me so that I wouldn't drop it.
There were quite a lot of them. As much as the feelings he must have had for me for a long time.
Therefore, even though I have opened my hands wide and supported it, they have filled me as if they are overflowing.
***
Everything was sorted out.
There was no reason to stay any longer.
The mercenaries began preparations to descend south, and Elona and Kishian were packing their bags to leave for the day.
The carriage and escort knights who had contacted the North the other day had just arrived.
Elona had insisted that she only needed to buy two horses without having to make any grandiose preparations, but Kishian didn't listen.
To him, Elona was a patient who would not be surprised if she collapsed right away.
He claimed that the wound on her arm was deep and that the affected area might burst while riding the horse, so he called the carriage and escort knights.
While the workers loaded Elona's load into the wagon, Kishian ran into Rodrick.
Before, they had been pointing their swords at each other and threatening each other's lives, but now that Elona has made her intentions clear, there is no reason to do so.
Rodrick, who was leaning against the outer wall of the building and lighting the tobacco candle, asked innuendously.
"You're not going to tell her about that?"
"What?"
"The Princess. In fact, you could have saved her."
Kishian had told Elona that Letie had committed suicide.
He couldn't help it because she did it alone without any time to help.
But in fact, it was not the truth.
Letie had committed suicide, but Kishian was able to prevent it.
The method was also very simple.
It would have been enough for Letie's hands to be together.
However, even though he knew that Letie was tainted, he untied her hands and threw the dagger to her.
Therefore, Letie hurt herself with it, and the wound deepened, and she died.
In fact, it was tantamount to aiding and abetting suicide.
Kishian asked, a little mischievous smile.
"If I refuse to speak, will you go to Elona and tell her? The Grand Duke killed her sister?"
Comments
Post a Comment