Episode 108
“Aaaack!”
The place where the bullet lodged was none other than the thigh of an unfamiliar woman. With a scream, the woman collapsed and wrapped her profusely bleeding thigh with both hands.
Rowina turned her head away from the woman before her. The moment she slowly shifted her gaze toward the gun barrel, time seemed to slow.
“……
Killian.”
A gun was in his hand. His face was drenched in sweat, as if he had barely managed to rise. The moment their eyes met, an inexplicable sense of disharmony surged through her simultaneously. While she was trying to figure out its nature, people who had heard the commotion from behind rushed over and flung the door wide open.
“My goodness!”
“Here! Someone come here, please!”
A nurse collapsed, covered in blood, and Killian had awakened. The gun he held in his hand. Those who witnessed the three scenes alternately turned pale as a sheet.* * *The woman shot by the gun committed suicide by biting her tongue the moment she was transported to the operating room. Because of that, it took time to uncover her identity, but she was indeed confirmed to be a nurse working at the hospital.
According to Jenok’s conjecture, this failed assassination was the work of an organization that owed an enormous debt to the Glitterus Company. The conclusion was that they had deliberately given a nurse an enormous sum of money in order to slip through the heavily guarded hospital without leaving a trail.
Situations changed frantically without rest. Caught in the raging currents of the rapidly changing surroundings, Rowina was tossed about this way and that.
“……
My lady.”
“…….”
“Lady Rowina?”
Rowina, who had been sitting half out of her mind on a chair in the hospital corridor, belatedly raised her head.
“Mr. Jenok.”
“Did you hear what I said?”
“……
No. I’m sorry.”
She shook her head like a rusty hinge squeaking, then looked down at her two hands. They had definitely been splattered red with blood, but now they were clean, as if it had never happened.
“It’s fine. You must be out of your mind.”
Jenok smiled faintly and calmly opened his mouth again.
“To cut to the chase, His Highness’s physical condition is fine. I just heard it from the doctor.”
At the positive conclusion, a sigh of relief burst from Rowina’s mouth. At the same time, her body, which had been extremely tense, went limp. It felt as though all the accumulated fatigue and tension were completely melting away. Having wiped her face, Rowina gave thanks to God.
“What a relief.”
“Yes.”
He nodded, but somehow Jenok’s complexion was dark. With a serious problem having been resolved, he should have been pleased, yet his shadowed face was strange. Stopping mid-rise, Rowina halted.
“Is there some problem?”
“That’s…….”
Gulping, Jenok hesitated and wavered in answering.
“He said to go back for today and come again tomorrow.”
Heavy air settled over the hospital corridor. The words *Why* rose to the tip of her throat, but Rowina swallowed them down. It was a situation that had occurred after about a fortnight. He might be so confused that he didn’t want to see anyone.
“Alright. I’ll come in the morning with Demian.”
“If you would do that, I would be grateful. The carriage has been prepared in advance, so you may return.”
“Will he be safe now?”
“We have doubled the guards and investigated all hospital personnel, so you need not worry.”
Only after confirming several times did Rowina leave the hospital. Jenok, who had escorted her to the front of the carriage, opened the hospital room door again.
“Your Highness.”
At the presence, Killian, who had been reading through the documents he had put off one by one, raised his head.
“Where is Rowina?”
“She just left.”
“Good work.”
Their eyes met for only a brief moment before Killian turned his gaze back to the documents. After reading a few more lines, he suddenly crumpled the paper. At the motion of throwing it straight to the floor, Jenok hurriedly approached him.
“Are you alright?”
“No.”
A dry voice immediately denied the question. Killian spat out a curse and clenched his fist tight.
“Even with glasses on, I can’t read.”
“Didn’t the doctor say it could be a temporary phenomenon?”
“It might be permanent.”
The attending physician was quite a renowned doctor in the capital, yet he could not determine whether the cause was damage to the optic nerve or psychological.
However, in the latter case, he reported that it would heal naturally with time, and in the former case, if it was partial damage to the optic nerve rather than complete damage, it could be fully cured through continuous treatment.
“It won’t be.”
Jenok spoke firmly and carefully added.
“Besides, it’s not as if you cannot see at all.”
The first thing he had seen the moment he regained consciousness was none other than Rowina’s blurry figure. A nurse had been rushing at her. He had judged it to be quite a dangerous situation.
Jokingly, the fact that Jenok had hidden a gun under the pillow had been the ace in the hole. He immediately drew it and aimed the barrel. And without hesitation, he pulled the trigger, but what was meant to be a shot at the heart went slightly awry and struck her thigh. In the middle of the chaos, Rowina looked at him. He felt her head turn toward him, but that was all.
Fortunately, before she could notice, people flooded in and the whole situation was temporarily settled.
“Gather the reporters loitering around here tomorrow.”
It was to quell the swirling rumors and make known that he was alive and well. Jenok, who had read Killian’s intentions, silently nodded.
“What shall we do about the ‘aftermath’?”
“They sent a gift from their side, so we must return the courtesy.”
Killian, having removed his glasses, habitually groped at his chest.
“An eyeball should suffice, I think.”
“Understood. Ah, shall I get you a cigarette?”
At the suddenly asked question, Killian closed his lips for a moment. The hesitation did not last long.
“Just one.”
Jenok placed a cigarette between his lips and lit the filter. As smoke rose in a long trail, Jenok, who had been pausing, stealthily opened his mouth.
“What about Lady Rowina and Young Master Demian?”
At the dagger-like question, Killian clenched his jaw. Though he had been unconscious, he remembered the voices that had faintly come through during the past fortnight. Rowina’s quiet, gentle voice and Demian’s chirping voice like a bird. He wanted to hold them in his arms right away. He wanted to tightly embrace the bodies he had nearly lost forever before his eyes and reassure them that everything was alright. But his own physical condition was not good enough to do so.
“Your Highness.”
“Tomorrow.”
The moment Jenok, who had been waiting for an answer, couldn’t help but move his lips again, Killian cut him off.
“Tomorrow evening.”* * *The tearful reunion was only achieved the next day at sunset. According to Jenok, Killian had been so busy settling the urgent matters he had put off and quelling rumors that he had no time to recover his body.
She understood with her head, but while waiting, Rowina felt as though her throat were parched. The waiting ended when he, having completed his discharge procedures, opened the front door of the house where they were.
“Dad!”
Demian, smiling brightly, recognized Killian and immediately ran over. Rowina, who had just gotten up and worried it might be too strenuous, tried to stop him, but seeing the loosely relaxed corners of his mouth, she lowered her outstretched hand.
“I missed you.”
Though he momentarily halted at the unfamiliar address, a large hand stroked the head of the son nestled in his embrace. Demian, accepting the touch like an innocent puppy, suddenly raised his head.
“I waited, you know. Why are you only coming now?”
“…….”
“Didn’t you miss me a lot?”
Unable to answer the successive questions one by one, Killian knelt down to meet the child’s eye level.
“Of course I missed you.”
To see his son’s face even a little more clearly, both hands gently swept over the soft cheeks, forehead, nose, and lips. Demian burst into giggling laughter.
“It tickles!”
The movement to push him away stopped the next moment. A trembling hand wrapped around the small shoulder and pulled him into a deep hug.
“Dad?”
Surprised, Demian awkwardly glanced around. The hug that seemed like it would go on forever ended the moment a *growl* was heard.
“……Ah.”
He had stubbornly insisted he would eat with his dad, so he had been fasting all this time. Demian laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. Rowina, who had been quietly watching the father-son reunion, slipped in.
“I’ve prepared dinner.”
“…….”
“Let’s eat together. Before it gets cold.”
It was a modest and simple meal no different from any ordinary household.
Demian, who had finally sat facing his mother and father at the table, looked more excited and happy than ever. This very moment was the image of a family he had dreamed of.
The child poured out an endless stream of things he wanted to say and questions he wanted to ask, and Killian calmly listened to and answered his son’s words.
While listening to the two of them talk, Rowina watched several times as Killian’s hands clumsily handled the utensils. Whether it was an aftereffect, they remained elegant but somehow looked awkward. The fact that he rarely made eye contact was also somehow strange.
She would have understood if it was to focus his full attention on the child, but even when their hands occasionally bumped, Killian ultimately would not meet her eyes.
The smooth father-son conversation that had continued throughout the meal was cut off by one question.
“So are we going to live together now?”
At the question that struck like lightning, neither of them could readily open their mouths. Just before Demian could sense something was off, Rowina rose from her seat and improvised.
“Demian. I think we need to clear the table now. Would you like to go to the living room with Dad?”
“Now?”
“Yes. You said you were going to ask Dad to read you a fairy tale.”
“Right!”
Demian’s eyes sparkled and he nodded.
“Dad, let’s go!”
At the force of the hand pulling him, Killian silently stood up and followed, but stopped briefly.
“Rowina.”
A low voice called out to her for the first time. Stiffening, Rowina slowly raised her head. With an expressionless face, Killian moved his lips.
“I have something to tell you.”