Chapter 83. The Empty Bed
2023.11.22.
"If that's not the case, it seems premature to talk about ending the contract."
"But... there's nothing more I can help with. Everything I remember is all there."
"Have you forgotten? You are the sole survivor and witness to that incident. Your testimony at the trial could serve as powerful evidence to clear the unjust death of Her Majesty the Empress."
After thinking and thinking again, the method she came up with was...
"If you truly cared for Her Majesty the Empress, and if you feel even a shred of guilt for your mother's sins."
To deliberately prod at her guilt—her guilt that made her feel responsible even for pointless things—and bring her to her knees.
And just as he had expected, Blair showed herself to be helplessly shaken by that single remark.
Herdin felt a strange sense of relief at that pitiful sight and drove the wedge in deeper.
"I believe you'll show at least that much sense of responsibility."
"……."
"Let's discuss ending the contract later."
Herdin announced as much and looked at Blair.
Blair, who had been gazing at him with wavering eyes for a moment, eventually lowered her gaze as if in resignation and opened her mouth.
"……Alright. But we must hurry as much as possible."
The relief at her compliant answer was brief; the words that followed rubbed Herdin the wrong way.
Instead of answering his naïve wife's words, he immediately pressed his lips against hers. At the same time, his large body naturally climbed over and covered hers.
Before the startled Blair could even try to stop him, the blanket covering them both heaved violently once.
"Ah..."
Blair then frowned and drew in a sharp breath. Thanks to the traces he had already filled throughout the night, there was no pain, but it was still too much for her.
Herdin pulled her in even deeper against himself and glanced at the bedside table.
There sat Blair's medicine bottle, which hadn't been opened for the past few days—no, which he hadn't given any chance to be opened in the first place.
He lowered his gaze to look at her, gazing up at him with a pitiful face, then overlapped his lips again.
A belated answer came in the fleeting moment when their lips briefly parted.
"Yes, as quickly as possible."
By whatever means necessary.
* * *
Having finished the noon prayer and returned to his room in the annex, Gerard halted as soon as he opened the door.
A small note lay at his feet.
Calmly stepping inside and closing the door, he picked up the note and unfolded it.
[Our tail has been caught.]
The content of the letter, with no recipient, no sender, and no subject, was just that.
Gerard's expression, having read the brief note, crumpled into something entirely unlike his usual gentle face.
"Tch, what a bunch of idiots."
As soon as he finished reading, the magic placed on the note activated, burning the paper without a trace.
The original plan was to help Katrina use black magic to completely erase Blair's accident memories, but at this rate, there was a crisis of having his identity discovered by the Delmarque Duke in return.
'Then I should cut the tail off around here.'
The Empress Dowager was a useful card to play, but he had no intention of foolishly clinging to it and ruining the grand plan.
And above all...
'It's a card that's served its purpose now.'
Because his grand design was already in its final stages.
So now it was time to clean up the surroundings and quietly wait for the picture to complete itself.
Gerard took a pocket watch from his breast pocket.
3 o'clock.
Around this time today, his faithful child would likely be offering a prayer at the chapel.
Gerard left the annex and came to the small chapel on the east side of the temple.
This small chapel was where the children from the temple orphanage gathered weekly for worship, and occasionally, those who had come of age and left the orphanage would return for prayers.
Stepping inside the chapel, a familiar back view in prayer came into sight.
Gerard approached from behind with a cold smile.
"You certainly are diligent about coming to pray every time, Caligo."
Then Caligo, who had been praying, turned to look at him as if he had already noticed his presence, and grinned.
"That's because I made a promise with Your Holiness, didn't I?"
"That was already over ten years ago, so you could have quietly slipped away pretending to have forgotten by now."
"Who knows, if I betray God's faithful servant, I might fall into hell? I want to go to heaven."
At Caligo's banter, Gerard chuckled and lightly patted his sturdy shoulder.
"Even God would be moved by your faithfulness."
"I'd appreciate it if He noticed."
"Anyway, I recall you saying you were busy with a task you recently took on, but you somehow managed to find the time. Has the work been resolved well?"
"No, not yet. I'm keeping an eye on it day and night, but I can't find an opening."
Caligo gave a vague answer, unable to speak in detail about the confidential mission he had received from Herdin.
Gerard was the benefactor who had taken him in, but he was as benevolent to Katrina as he was to everyone else, and Caligo served Herdin, who stood against such Katrina, as his lord.
It was in the next moment that the look in Gerard's eyes, which had been watching Caligo with gentle eyes, changed.
"Then, shall I help you a bit?"
"Pardon? How would Your Holiness help?"
Gerard took a step closer to Caligo, who was looking at him with bewildered eyes, and opened his mouth.
"Caligo, my faithful child."
Gerard's pupils turned red, and a bizarre voice that didn't seem human flowed from his lips.
Then a black magic circle appeared on the back of Caligo's neck, and the focus disappeared from his eyes.
Gerard whispered into Caligo's ear with a chilling voice.
"Go to the Delmarque Duke and deliver the evidence."
"……."
"Evidence that the Empress Dowager Katrina killed the Deposed Empress Esmeralda."
His whispering eyes held an eerie gleam.
* * *
"So you're saying this is the token Marina Florang received in exchange for the assassination of Her Majesty the Empress?"
That night, Herdin brought Caligo, who had urgently come looking for him, into his office.
What Caligo had brought as evidence of the fire incident from ten years ago was a coin engraved with an unusual pattern.
Caligo nodded.
"Yes. When I took it to the pawnshop, they recognized it immediately. They said they had been told to pay out the money to anyone who brought this coin."
"Who was set to make the payment?"
"It was under Viscount Vernon, the younger brother of Countess Magrid."
Marina Florang was one of the maids of the Empress's palace who had been under Esmeralda at the time of the incident. She was also the maid found dead right next to Esmeralda.
At the time, they had guessed that she had tried to stop Esmeralda from killing Blair, but Blair, who had regained her memory, claimed differently.
Marina Florang killed Esmeralda without knowing that Blair was there.
It meant that the original purpose was to assassinate Esmeralda.
'She probably planned to assassinate Her Majesty the Empress and flee right away. After taking this coin to the pawnshop and receiving the promised payment.'
However, she ended up being struck by Blair's surprise attack and died from a head injury, causing the plan to fail in vain.
Thus Marina Florang died, and a soldier who came to sort out the fire scene first found this coin in her possession and collected it.
The soldier, unaware of the coin's purpose, had tried to sell it to a junk dealer to earn some drinking money, but then realized it was an important clue to the incident.
Fearing that he would be charged with concealing crucial evidence of the case if he disposed of it, he had hidden it for ten years...
That was the account Caligo had conveyed.
'If it were me, I would have thrown the coin into the river the moment I learned that fact.'
It was questionable why he had kept it for over ten years out of fear, but regardless, since the person paying for the coin was connected to Katrina, this coin would serve as compelling evidence.
The younger brother of a lady-in-waiting who was a close aide to the Empress Dowager, no less.
However, Herdin's expression was dark as he looked at the coin glinting in the reflection of the candlelight.
"……You've worked hard. Go back and rest for today, and tomorrow find the person who minted this coin and secure their testimony."
At the same time, a black magic circle floated up on the back of Caligo's neck, then faded away. His unfocused eyes then became clear.
"Uh... Pardon?"
The memories from just before remained intact, but it felt like they weren't his own, as if he had experienced them in a dream.
Herdin, looking questioningly at Caligo who repeated with a bewildered expression, spoke once more.
"I said go and rest."
"Ah... Yes. Then have a good night, Your Grace."
Caligo scratched the back of his neck and bowed before leaving the office.
Left alone in the office, Herdin stared blankly at the coin in his hand.
Once the testimony was secured, Esmeralda's false charges could be cleared. That was what he had desperately wished and hoped for throughout the past ten years.
The moment to fulfill the wish he had so earnestly yearned for was right before his eyes, yet here he was hesitating over mere personal feelings.
As Herdin was being self-deprecating about his own state, the sound of a grandfather clock rang faintly through the quiet mansion.
Suddenly, he remembered that before Caligo had come to find him, he had left Blair in the room today as well, having fallen asleep as if fainting after being tormented by him from morning till night.
Her face sleeping peacefully with her long eyelashes draped delicately, damp with tears, her tiny lips reddened from being sucked and bitten all day, the soft feminine body that had burrowed back into his arms—the very arms of the person who had tormented her so relentlessly.
The moment he thought of her sleeping defenselessly alone in the bedroom, his body reacted instinctively.
"……Ha."
Even at this moment, after holding her ceaselessly like that, not growing tired, he desired her again—he was dumbfounded by himself.
Feeling his lower abdomen grow taut, Herdin placed the coin in his drawer, locked it with a key, and hurriedly left the office.
But what awaited him upon returning to the bedroom was...
"……Blair?"
An empty bed.