Chapter 61
“Young Lady……?”
“I forgive you.”
Rowina, who had taken her hand and helped her to her feet, continued with an expressionless face.
“You must have your reasons too. No one acts without reason. You were never that bad a child.”
“Ah, Young Lady……”
Melissa, finding a faint hope, sobbed.
“Then……”
“So I will hate you according to my own reasons. Separate from having forgiven you. Because this is my emotion.”
Relief washed over her, yet at the same time, she was exhausted. She no longer wanted to understand, forgive, or accept anyone. Not taking Melissa to the sea and showing her everything had been a final consideration for the girl, who was still an unwed young lady. Melissa would probably suffer from guilt for a long time after tonight, but that was none of her concern.
“Do not follow me. Do not call my name. Do not show yourself before my eyes, Melissa Brown.”
With a face as pale as a blank sheet, Rowina turned her back.
As the carriage door closed, the coachman immediately cracked his whip. Melissa, bereft of her senses, collapsed onto the dirt path.
The carriage soon arrived at its destination. When they reached the white sand beach, a servant who had been contacted guided them to the boat. Jeremy, who had been waiting, boarded first in place of the boatman and helped Damian and Rowina on. Watching this somehow with an anxious heart, the painter abruptly asked:
“May I board as well?”
“No. The promise was for you to come this far.”
Rowina refused his request outright and had the boat set off. Two servants pushed the boat, and it slowly drifted away along the current.
“Lady Rowina!”
Just when he thought her face was no longer visible, the painter shouted toward the boat.
“Please turn this way and smile just once!”
Along with the request, Rowina slowly turned her head toward the beach.
The moment their eyes met beneath the faint moonlight, the painter gasped deeply. Electricity tingled from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. At the same time, inspiration that had been blocked burst forth like a flood, burning hot through the veins of his entire body.
The excited painter urged the servant standing beside him.
“Canvas! Bring my canvas from the carriage at once!”
The wind, which had been calm until they came here, was gradually growing stronger. Normally, he would have noticed the unusual air with his keen instincts, but with inspiration overflowing like a burst dam, the painter grasped his brush instead of calling for people.
* * *
Tommy calmed his trembling breath before the large bedroom door. The note in his hand had long been soaked with sweat.
“Just give this to His Excellency. When the bell strikes nine-thirty.”
“At night……?”
To the questioning Tommy, Rowina had merely smiled.
“Just give it to him. He’ll understand.”
Hesitant, Tommy slowly knocked on the door. When there was no response, he was about to turn away thinking the occupant was asleep, when the door slid open soundlessly, and a man with haggard eyes looked down at the boy.
“What is it?”
The lights had clearly been off, but his face was not that of someone who had just woken up—it was the face of someone who had not slept for a long time. With gaunt cheeks and sharp eyes, he looked down at Tommy ominously in the darkness, like a beast that had been hibernating in a cave. Tommy felt like a rabbit standing before a predator. He was struck anew by the realization that the man before him was a being worshipped and revered like a god by the islanders, including his own father, who had nothing left to envy in the world.
While Tommy stood frozen, unable to move beneath the suffocating pressure, Killian narrowed his brow and noticed the note clutched in the small hand. Only then did Tommy come to his senses and stammer while shifting nervously.
“Th-this, Lady Rowina told me to g-give this to you……”
Bending his waist as if it might break, he held out the note with both hands. Killian snatched the note and swept back his disheveled bangs as he unfolded it. The contents were short and clear.
I wish I could turn back time.
And from the very first line, it trampled him.
The instant the note was ruthlessly crumpled, Melissa came running with a scream.
“Your Excellency! Lady Rowina! The Young Master!”
* * *
“The sea swallowed the boat in an instant. I was waving from afar, ah……! Why did they board so quickly…… If only they had waited until I came…… No, if only I had stopped them……!”
Countess Rachel collapsed onto the beach, wailing. Two maids clung to the lady’s side as she gasped, her face flushed red, almost unable to breathe. Though they tried to support her, the Countess shook her head and grasped the hem of Killian’s trousers as he glared at the sea with a dark expression.
“Rowina is alive, isn’t she? If we send out searchers……”
“Countess.”
A bride-to-be swallowed by the sea just one day before her engagement. The guests and islanders filling the beach bowed their heads with anguished faces.
It was a situation where they wanted to send people out but could not. As if it had never been sunny, the wind turned fierce and the weather grew foul around the time Rowina had sailed far away.
The waves surged violently as if they would swallow the island at any moment. The rain that began to fall was accompanied by thunder, heightening the tragedy. Jenok, who had swallowed a groan, intervened, unable to bear it any longer.
“For now, I think everyone should go inside. It is a situation where you cannot guarantee your lives if caught in it.”
It was a gale strong enough that standing upright was difficult. While the regent had servants guide people one by one to the villa, starting with the Countess, Killian turned around. Jenok, seeing where he was heading, threw himself forward to block the path.
“You cannot!”
“Move aside.”
It was a voice that sent chills down one’s spine. But he could not back down here.
“Please calm yourself! If you go out now, even Your Excellency will be in great danger!”
“Did you not hear me say move aside?”
Killian narrowed his eyes and rarely warned a second time. There would not be a third. Even knowing this, when Jenok did not budge, he clicked his tongue and drew his gun. Even in the moment the barrel was aimed at his forehead, Jenok did not move.
“You absolutely cannot. Shoot me if you must, but go.”
“…….”
“The moment the weather calms even slightly, I will dispatch servants immediately. Jumping into the sea in this state is no different from suicide!”
The wind and rain were growing ever worse. The desperately pleading voice echoed vaguely like sea fog. Insubordination. Killian, soaked through from head to toe, slowly pulled the trigger.
It was then.
“I see a boat!”
A servant who had been searching along the ridge of the beach just in case cried out urgently. No sooner had the overjoyed Jenok turned around than Killian brushed past him.
He was a man who had not run even in the countless moments when his life had been in danger while unifying the harbor organizations. Watching his back as he ran like a madman, Jenok hurriedly followed him a beat too late.
* * *
The boat discovered that day was found empty. Rowina and Damian were ultimately not found. The engagement was canceled due to the tragic accident, and the guests returned with somber faces.
Time passed indifferently, and the seasons changed twice. Summer passed, autumn came, and while winter settled in, the island was peaceful, as if the storms that had raged and the threatening waves had never existed.
Contrary to the warmly shining weather, the entire island was shrouded in a funereal atmosphere.
All that remained after the incident were the bleak atmosphere of the island and the precarious air of the villa, which felt as if it might shatter at any moment. Every day at dawn, Killian cut through the sea fog to board a boat and continued the search until sunset. Wandering the vast ocean as if he could not feel fatigue at all, his appearance was madness itself.
Unable to bear watching him grow more emaciated by the day, Jenok spoke with a heavy voice.
“I believe it is time for you to return to the mainland, Your Excellency.”
Instead of an answer, a fierce gaze fixed upon him. Meeting those flickering, deep blue eyes, Jenok felt as though he had come face to face with a beast licking its wounds in a deep, dark cave.
A chilling fear seeped through his skin. But now, he could hesitate no longer. Swallowing dryly, Jenok mustered every ounce of courage he possessed and moved his lips.
“It has already been half a year. You have been away too long. Until now, I have somehow managed affairs by traveling back and forth to the mainland, but matters requiring Your Excellency’s direct attention are increasing. Furthermore, there are movements of rebellion abroad as well……”
As Jenok continued speaking, he covered his nose at the thick stench of alcohol. He had become somewhat immune to all manner of smells, yet a foul odor of liquor permeated every corner of the office, enough to make him frown. Yet despite having downed three bottles of strong scotch alone through the night, Killian’s face was clear. An unexpected question flew toward Jenok, who had been bracing for a reprimand.
“What about the possibility that she ran away?”
“Your Excellency?”
“No body has been found yet. Neither has the man who boarded with her.”
With a somber face, Jenok squeezed his eyes shut. He had to repeat words he had said countless times.