OIAR - Chapter 107

Startled by the sudden commotion, Harriet burst into loud tears.

"Oh my goodness, my young master. It is all right. Here is Martha."

After holding Harriet tightly in a hug and comforting him, Martha laid him down on the bed and stood in front of Etienne.

"Answer the question."

Etienne whispered ominously while staring intently at the baby's face lying in the bed.

Martha bit her lip as if in a difficult situation, then cautiously lifted her head.

"Young Master Harriet is Master Eli's son."

Just as Martha said, Eli was clearly visible in the baby's face. Etienne, grinding his teeth, questioned him.

"Not Shioana's son?"

"Who would I tell a lie to, my lord?"

Etienne, exploding with anger, kicked the wall and shouted.

"Didn't Shioana marry Count Noah? Why isn't Harriet Count Noah's son? Tell me right now before I lose my mind!"

Shioana, who abandoned him, was a woman who married another man and even had a child.

Harriet's existence was the reason he could hate and despise her to his heart's content.

Martha let out a groan as she watched the Duke acting like a madman.

"Our young lady has never married Count Noah. This is the proof."

Martha handed over two documents she had carefully hidden under the bed.

“What is this?”

Etienne snatched the document and hurriedly read it.

There were two marriage certificates there.

One was the marriage certificate of Eli Evgenia and Elizabeth Demory, and the other was his and Shioana's.

Martha spoke up while holding back her tears.

"If the young lady had married Count Noah, there is no way this certificate would exist."

To remarry, the original marriage certificate had to be destroyed. Therefore, there was clearly nothing wrong with what Martha said.

"...But Shioana said that Harriet was her son."

"There were some circumstances involved."

As Etienne heard Martha’s brief explanation that followed, all the color drained from his face.

Eli used the daughter of the Marquis of Demory, and she told Shioana that if Eli found out about the child's existence, he would definitely do something foolish. 

"...Ah."

Etienne let out a sigh and staggered.

He leaned against the wall to avoid collapsing and lifted his bloodshot eyes.

"Why didn't she tell me this?"

He wanted to shift the blame for the terrible and miserable feeling he was experiencing onto someone. When Etienne questioned her, Martha pressed her sleeve tightly against her eyes.

"How could a humble servant like me possibly know? Oh dear! Where on earth has my young lady gone? I wonder how much hardship she must be enduring in this unfamiliar and treacherous place."

As Martha choked up, Etienne clenched his fist again. Even if he was clearly mistaken about the child, it was a fact that she had sold him out.

"But Shioana sold me for the compensation."

At his words, Martha rolled up her sleeves and flew into a rage.

"Good heavens! Sir, our young lady thought the Duke had passed away and tried to run into the barn where the fire hadn't even gone out."

Even now, Martha feels dizzy when she thinks about that time.

"If I hadn't stopped her then, the young lady would have been dead by now."

Etienne vividly remembered her from the day she showed him this document.

'I swear I didn't do this. How much I-'

At that time, Shioana was on the verge of tears.

'What did I say to her again?'

It seemed like he poured out a lot of praise, saying it was a pretty good performance.

'...Damn it.'

Etienne had been obsessed with revenge for a long time, so he could not hear the sincerity Shioana conveyed.

Since he was not a trustworthy man, Shioana probably wouldn't have been able to reveal the whole truth.

No, because he didn't listen to her story.

'She had never changed even once...'

Shioana was as kind as the sunshine of Regbell, just like the first time.

Even while facing such a strange misunderstanding, she insisted until the end that he was her son in order to prevent Eli from finding him.

He suddenly remembered the first time he met Shioana.

She seemed afraid of and disliked Etienne, but she showed him kindness out of fear that he might get beaten by Eli.

He thought he knew her better than anyone in the world, but he might have been wrong.

'Who have I been hating all this time?'

Even though misunderstandings were so tangled up that they led to the current situation.

It was entirely his fault that she was lost.

'Ah, Shioana.'

Her clear blue eyes, which had never even held any resentment, seemed to mercilessly pierce his heart. Etienne, clutching his chest, collapsed forward.

"Your Excellency! Your Excellency! Snap out of it!"

Cedric rushed toward the fallen man.

***

Shioana could not recover her strength for long.

"You have to eat all of this to get better."

Raul restlessly offered Shioana something to eat. However, Shioana kept her mouth tightly shut and just stared far out the window.

It wasn't that she refused treatment like this from the beginning. She was clearly glad to see him and had been actively participating in the treatment. However, ever since the day the doctor visited, she has been acting so stubbornly.

"Are you saying you’re going to starve yourself to death? You have to think about Martha and Harriet. Thompson and Murphy are here, and I’m here too. What are we supposed to do with this?"

He tried to coax and soothe her, but Shioana was adamant.

She could not eat well, only drinking a little water. On Shioana's already thin face, her large eyes were bulging.

"Shioana, they said you'll be fine if you get treatment."

At first, only simple fractures and abrasions were treated, but more serious problems soon emerged.

'It seems the Madam is addicted.'

'Not just broken bones, but addicted?'

Not only Raul but also Shioana were greatly shocked by those words.

'I will go back first, look into it in detail, and let you know again.'

The doctor summoned by Raul was not from Urcheka, but was someone who had once served as the personal doctor to the Empress of the Pasa Empire. 

"You know, Zero. I'm telling you, he's a really competent doctor."

"..."

Shioana stared at Raul with an expressionless face. 

"Look, Secretary. You might as well just let out your anger. If you keep holding it all in like that, you'll get sick from the inside." 

Raul had never seen anyone who suppressed their sadness and anger like this.

'You damned bastard! If I hadn't given birth to you, things wouldn't have turned out like this!'

His mother hurled insults and screamed at him when he was young. Since everyone around Raul did the same, he thought it was only natural.

"I'm looking for Martha and Harriet's place, so please wait a little while."

Raul trembled his tightly clenched fist and tried hard to act nonchalant.

Actually, he was afraid of what would happen if something went wrong with Shioana like this.

***

Etienne stood before a large mansion on the outskirts of District 8, his face pale beyond measure. They said that Shioana, whom he could not find even after searching every nook and cranny of the Tabria district, was here.

Etienne could not hide his annoyance as he looked up at Raul's house, which was insignificant compared to Bernhard's mansion.

'I suspected this guy from the start.'

However, the place they had checked was not Raul's real residence, and naturally, Shioana was not there.

"...Shit!"

"Your Excellency, the priority is to ensure the Duchess is safe first."

Cedric tried to calm the Duke down at his agitated appearance.

'It's a really big deal.'

The Duke had been in a constant state of instability ever since he heard that the Duchess had disappeared. He would fly into a rage, then become lethargic, and then rage again.

'At this rate, they're going to wrongly accuse an innocent person...'

Just as he was starting to worry, he received a letter from Raul saying that he was attending to the Duchess.

As the two entered the mansion, the butler came out and greeted them politely.

"Please wait a moment, and I will bring the master soon."

Etienne, unable to even sit on the drawing-room sofa, paced back and forth. However, no matter how long he waited, Raul did not reveal himself, and Etienne, having run out of patience, stopped in his tracks.

"Cedric, I think I'll have to go up there myself."

"...Your, Your Excellency..."

Just as Cedric was about to stop him, Raul appeared in the drawing room.

"It is an honor that such a noble gentleman has visited this humble place."

Unlike the relaxed Raul, Etienne looked terrible. His under-eyes were sunken, and his eyes were bloodshot with sharp veins.

"Shioana. Is the Duchess alright? Instead of doing this, I will meet her in person and talk to her."

As soon as Etienne saw Raul, he lunged at him roughly. Raul took a step back at the sight and replied coldly.

"I apologize, but I think that would be difficult."

"Raul, by what right do you think you can stop me from seeing my wife?"

The Duke, enraged at being prevented from meeting Shioana, spat out a rough voice.

"I'm saying this because she's my friend."

"Stop talking nonsense about friends and escort her to the room where she is."

"Sir, I didn't contact you to ask you to cause such a ruckus."

"...What do you mean by a ruckus!"

When Raul mocked the Duke's behavior, Etienne acted as if he were about to punch him. At that, Cedric quickly stepped in to mediate.

"I appreciate you conveying the news about the Duchess, but this is a serious matter."

"Listen carefully, my lords."

Raul sat down in the chair and spoke seriously.

"The Duchess must rest absolutely at this moment."

"I will take her to see the doctor."

"Is your only concern right now your own thoughts, and do you have absolutely no regard for the Duchess's position?"

"Raul! Duke Bernhard is not someone you can treat so disrespectfully!"

"Of course. Who wouldn't know that?"

The corners of Raul's lips curled up crookedly.

With the fall of the Marquis Calix's family, the Bernhard family held the highest position in Urcheka.

'Right, I don't envy a single thing like that.'

He had never envied others' things in the first place.

'No matter how much I coveted the happy family next door, my mother never changed.'

He realized in his childhood that there was nothing as futile as that.

But right now, Raul was madly envious that the red-eyed man in front of him was someone's husband.

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