Shioana wanted to get up, but she couldn't move easily because of the bandages wrapped around her arms and legs.
"Stay still; the wound could get infected."
"...But."
Raul let out a sigh as he looked at her frustrated face.
"I'm the one who wants to ask what's going on. You have no idea how surprised I was when you suddenly jumped into my carriage."
Raul made a disgusted face, as if the thought of it made him dizzy again.
"Me in the boss's carriage?"
As Shioana blinked as if she couldn't remember, Raul shrugged his shoulders.
"Otherwise, I'm not a wizard, so how would I have managed to save you and get you treated? Besides, you're not my employee anymore. Just call me Raul."
"...Ah."
She had only tried to cross the road after spotting Martha, but she was clearly hallucinating. Shioana hesitated, not knowing how to explain it.
“Thank you.”
"You don't need to thank me. This is all for employee benefits. I would have done the same for Thompson or Murphy if they had been injured."
It seems he forgot that he just told her to call him by his name since she's no longer an employee.
" You've lost some weight since I last saw you.'
Raul's face looked sharp as he carefully covered Shioana with the blanket.
"And..."
Shioana tried to say something more, but Raul shook his head to stop her.
"We'll talk about it later. You haven't fully recovered yet, so if you need anything, ring this bell and a child will come to attend to you."
And soon, he stepped aside so that Shioana could rest.
"One must not be negligent in looking after the Duchess."
After giving the maid a stern order, Raul returned to his office. It was a place where, until not long ago, liquor bottles had been rolling around.
Raul slumped onto the long sofa and spoke roughly.
"Damn it! My legs are giving out."
He was the one who had nursed Shioana for three days and nights. He had no idea how anxious he was, fearing she might not open her eyes.
Although it was a first love that ended without even a confession, Raul prayed that Shioana would be happy.
"I never wanted to show up in that state..."
She lay collapsed on the cold floor with a face even more wretched than when she had last seen him. Raul wondered if it was fate that he had passed by that place that day.
"It’s definitely not a place I visit often."
The well-maintained streets and fancy buildings of District 1 did not suit his taste at all. He liked this place, which was moderately chaotic and noisy.
The day she met Shioana, she had stopped by there after receiving a message from Marquis Calix.
'His Excellency the Marquis is in critical condition, so please come immediately.'
However, upon actually arriving at Calix Manor, the Marquis was far from breathless; far from being frail, he was excessively vigorous. It turned out that Raul had been lured in by such lies because he had completely ignored the Marquis's recent messages.
'Sign this document.'
The document the Marquis handed over stated that Raul was recognized as a member of the Calix family. Raul returned the document to the Marquis and smiled wryly. He had once dreamed of a moment like this, but not anymore.
'Marquis, I respectfully decline.'
Marquis Calix flared up in anger, as if he had never imagined that Raul would refuse.
'How dare a lowly fellow like you refuse my offer?'
'I mean, I'm a lowly fellow; I’ll just keep acting like a king in that filthy, low-class District 8.'
As he stormed out, he spotted Shioana. And he soon realized why the Marquis had made such a proposal.
'You weasel bastard.'
The Calix family's conspiracy of treason was recognized, their entire fortune was confiscated, and the family fell into ruin in an instant.
If he had succumbed to the Marquis's sweet whispers and signed, it might have been Raul, not Marquis Calix, who ended up in prison, becoming an heir in name only.
'He is a man who has never been a father for even a single moment.'
He rubbed his eyes with his thick hands, but only a faint laugh escaped him. Then, as he let out a sigh, the image of Shioana with a pale face came to mind.
"Even carrying her on your back wouldn't be enough, yet you've turned her into that state? What?"
His face turned bright red with anger toward Duke Bernhard.
***
As Diana disappeared, the silence that had been waiting all along returned.
Overwhelmed by fatigue, Etienne looked up at the sky with empty eyes.
"I feel strange."
Even though she had taken the revenge she had been waiting for, strangely, she didn't feel relieved.
'Etienne, revenge begets revenge.'
He ruminated on the words his father had told him when he was alive.
"...Ha."
He wanted her to pay for her crimes justly without getting his hands dirty, but it felt as if sticky blood was already on his hands.
He was rubbing his hands on his pants in an unpleasant mood when someone came running across the garden.
"...Your Excellency!"
Etienne's eyebrows twitched at Cedric's hurried voice, as he rarely seemed flustered.
“What’s going on?”
"Your Excellency, something terrible has happened."
Seeing the tension on Cedric's face, Etienne also tensed up.
"Did something go wrong with the plan?"
It was a question directed at Katrina. At this, Cedric shook his head and cautiously opened his mouth.
"Ah. No, not at all. Things are proceeding smoothly. It is not that; it concerns the Duchess."
"Why is Shioana..."
“I’m sorry.”
From the moment Shioana's name was mentioned, Etienne's nerves became taut as if they were about to snap.
“Tell me now!”
Cedric, who had been watching the Duke's reaction, took a deep breath and spoke loudly.
"The Duchess has disappeared."
Etienne repeated Cedric's words because he could not quite understand them even after hearing them.
"How could she disappear?"
Didn't he even assign a dedicated bodyguard in case Katrina harmed Shioana?
"Your Excellency, please calm down."
As a startled Etienne ran up the stairs like a madman, Cedric, who was following behind, tried to calm him down. However, no voices reached Etienne's ears at that moment. For he could not believe anything until he had seen Shioana's blue eyes.
"Shioana! Shioana!"
He flung open the bedroom door in an angry voice, finding an ownerless bed lying in the middle of the room. Approaching it and hugging a pillow, he spoke in a faint voice.
"Aren't you past the age for hide-and-seek? Come out quickly!"
After checking under the bed and the closet, Etienne opened the bathroom door as if to smash it down. But Shioana was nowhere to be found in the bedroom.
"Cedric, you're going to have to report this in detail."
As Etienne, breathing heavily, ran his hands through his hair, the tense Cedric spoke up.
"The Madam has not come out even once since yesterday afternoon. The only one who has come and gone from here is that maid over there. They say the guards have not left their posts even once."
The young maid, dragged over and forced to her knees, trembled.
"Sir, please spare my life."
A strange aura settled over Etienne's face as he looked at the maid who had suddenly been begging to be spared while crying.
"Make sure to earn the truth."
"I really didn't expect it to turn out this way."
The maid said that not long ago, the Duchess had asked her to get her a maid's uniform. She also said that whenever she had time, she asked to be shown the way out through the servants' passage.
"So you're saying she was getting ready to run away from me?"
The maid shook her head vigorously at Etienne's cold voice.
“It’s not like that..."
"Whatever I know, I must all be wise!"
As the terrified maid hesitated, Cedric pressed her. Clutching her apron tightly, the maid opened her mouth very quietly.
"The madam has left this place."
"...What is the difference between running away and leaving?"
A red madness began to well up in Etienne's eyes.
The young maid, trembling, decided to muster up the courage. It was for the sake of the mistress, who had always treated her kindly.
"Because Miss Vale is pregnant with His Excellency's child and was preparing for her wedding to His Excellency along with the Grand Madam."
"...Ah."
Etienne's eyes, which had been burning with anger, wavered for a moment.
'Are you really that clueless? I am asking if you cannot see or hear anything happening in this mansion.'
The image of her leaving the bedroom was superimposed on the image of him mocking Sina.
"It's not that she ran away..."
It was practically the same as him driving her away.
"Your Excellency, the Duchess left this behind."
Etienne crumpled the divorce papers Cedric handed him with one hand and stuffed them into his bosom.
His head was spinning, but he had to find Shioana immediately. Filled with rage, Etienne gripped his sword scabbard tightly.
"Cedric, go to where the doctor is."
"Your Excellency, however, the doctor does not know the whereabouts of the Duchess."
However, there was no one who could stop the reckless Duke.
At the sudden visit, the doctor said that the Duchess had never stopped by here.
"...Then where is she?"
"Your Excellency, I am currently making inquiries throughout Tabria, so there will be news soon."
"I need to see her right now."
Despite the dissuasion of the doctor and Cedric, Etienne ransacked the entire doctor's office and examination room.
And finally, he stopped in his tracks at the sound of Martha's voice coming from the gap in the open door.
"My young master, how could you be so handsome, just like Master Eli?"
At those words, Etienne's eyes turned fierce.
'...Eli!!'
A trivial suspicion rising in his mind made Etienne's heart beat wildly.
A trivial suspicion rising in his mind made Etienne's heart beat wildly.
"Who is that child's father?"
Etienne burst through the door, his eyes gleaming like a hellish bird.
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