Chapter 96
“Only fragments remain. As for the people who were aboard, aside from a few pieces of flesh, we can find no trace of them.”
“……
You mean they can’t even be identified?”
“Regrettably, yes. It would be best if you gave up……”
The investigator nodded heavily and reached out toward Rowina as she was about to collapse to the ground. But before he could lift her up, an arm extended first, supporting her slender waist a step ahead of him.
“Rowina.”
“Let go of me.”
“This is already the fifth day. You should get some sleep……”
“I said let go!”
Rowina shoved Killian away weakly, as if struggling, and escaped from his arms. It had already been five days since she had properly eaten or slept. At first, she had denied it, insisting that the news must be mistaken, but when she arrived at the scene in person, the shattered remains of the ship and the evidence strewn miserably across the harbor made her mind go blank.
Her body gradually grew heavy as waterlogged cotton, and even as her eyelids kept falling as if someone were tugging them down from below, Rowina struggled to remain clearly awake.
Even when she returned to the mansion briefly to wash and change clothes, as soon as she was finished, she headed straight back to the harbor.
The firm belief that Cedric and Damian had not been aboard the ship that exploded, that they must have taken shelter somewhere else before the accident, was shaken day after day, like a peaceful sandy shore overturned by raging waves.
When she closed her eyes, she saw Damian smiling brightly. Her one and only son, who had been tossed about by the circumstances of adults. Her lovely son, who had somehow grown up so much and supported her. She bitterly regretted having let him go so readily, thinking he would return soon, when he said he would board the ship with Cedric.
Even when she reached out toward his retreating figure, even in her dreams, Damian stood far away from her. Beside him was Cedric, just as he had been when he had married her.
When she woke drenched in sweat, she was either inside a carriage or in the temporary lodging prepared near the harbor. Beside her, there was always a man with a shadowed face.
“There’s no way they were there.”
Without even realizing that she had spoken Damian’s name along with Cedric’s, Rowina muttered.
“They must be hiding somewhere. They just can’t contact us because of some unavoidable circumstances.”
Instead of answering her desperate soliloquy, Killian brushed her disheveled hair behind her ear. Her pale, bloodless face, hollow cheeks, and haggard eyes. The dark circles beneath her eyes made her look as though she might collapse at any moment.
“What should I tell Lauren……”
Lost in thought, paying no mind to Killian cupping her cheek, Rowina lifted her bowed head at the sudden thought. Fortunately, thanks to the medicine Cedric had sent ahead through a messenger, Lauren’s condition had improved considerably.
What if she began to wonder about her younger brother, who had sent only medicine without showing his face even once?
She had not contacted Rowina separately yet, but it was only a matter of time before she asked about Cedric.
“I’ll send someone to tell her he’s left the capital for a while.”
“……”
“That should do, shouldn’t it?”
Killian spoke softly, as if coaxing her, and then lifted Rowina, who was swaying again, into his arms like a princess.
“Put me down.”
“You need to sleep.”
“I said I’m fine!”
Rowina shouted and tried to push against his broad shoulder, but she could not even put any strength into her arms. Paying no heed to her struggling, Killian strode toward the waiting carriage and sat down with her in his arms.
“If you collapse too, who will search for them?”
“That’s……”
“Close your eyes, even if it’s only for a few hours. I’ll search for them in the meantime.”
At his calm whisper, the strength left Rowina’s body. Killian pressed his hand down over Rowina’s quieted eyelids.
“I can’t……
I can’t.”
“Shh.”
With his other hand, Killian patted her shoulder as if soothing a child, comforting Rowina as she lay limply against him.
“It’s time to sleep.”
At those words, drowsiness poured over her with terrifying force, as if demanding payment for a long-overdue debt.
As the sound of Rowina’s breathing gradually settled into deep sleep, Killian drew her a little closer into his arms and instructed the coachman to depart.
* * *
For five days, Rowina had endured on willpower alone, sleeping only in snatches, but she had stopped just short of her limit.
When she opened her eyes again, she was on the soft bed in the mansion.
“Water……”
Her throat was so dry it felt as if it were burning. As she murmured through cracked lips, someone poured water into a glass on the bedside table and handed it to her.
“Drink.”
“……
Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Cecilia, who had been sitting at her bedside for who knew how long, shrugged.
Barely managing to raise her upper body, Rowina drank the water in great gulps like a person who had found a spring in the desert. Only after emptying the glass full of water could she breathe properly again.
Taking the glass back, Cecilia abruptly asked,
“What are you going to do now?”
“Pardon?”
“You can’t go on like this forever.”
“Ah……”
Rowina, momentarily stunned by the sudden question, read the meaning hidden within it and lowered her eyes.
Right now, she had no room to pay attention to anything else because of Cedric and Damian, but this was Cecilia’s mansion. Even if Killian was paying a certain amount in rent, from Cecilia’s position, it could not be pleasant to have a stranger in her house.
“I’ll look for a house.”
She could not imagine what expression Killian would make if she said she was leaving this place. Even if she vanished from before his eyes without a trace, she was certain she would be caught before long, and above all else, until she found the two of them, she could not leave this country, this capital.
“That’s not what I meant. Don’t make me out to be such a heartless person.”
Waving her hands in denial, Cecilia took Rowina’s hand.
“Then……?”
“We have to investigate the accident.”
“The investigator already—”
Before she had fallen asleep as if fainting, the investigator’s words telling her to give up came back to her, and nausea rose from her empty stomach. Cecilia, who had been rubbing Rowina’s back, cautiously brought up the subject once Rowina finished retching.
“Actually, there’s something I need to tell you. I don’t know if I should say this……”
At her hesitant tone, Rowina turned her head and looked at Cecilia, who had subtly averted her gaze.
“What is it?”
“I was worried too, so I actually sent someone to look into a few things. You know the bomb they said was used on the ship? They say it was an extremely rare homemade bomb.”
“A homemade…… bomb?”
Since they were in the middle of an armistice, manufacturing or possessing bombs as a private individual, aside from military purposes, was strictly forbidden. Rowina’s eyes flew open at a factor she had not been able to think about over the past few days, during which she had been half out of her mind.
“But the rarest ingredient that went into it……”
“The ingredient?”
When Rowina echoed the end of her sentence, Cecilia looked around for a moment, lowered her voice, bent at the waist, and whispered softly in her ear.
“I happened to see Father’s ledger, and it was among the items His Highness has been dealing in recently.”
“……”
“Of course, His Highness and the bomb must have nothing to do with each other. Someone who was lucky enough to get their hands on it must have…… Miss Philone?”
Before Cecilia could finish speaking, Rowina threw off the blanket and set her feet on the floor in her nightgown. Forcing strength into her legs, she moved while holding on to the wall. Startled, Cecilia blocked her way.
“You need to rest a little longer.”
“I’m fine. More importantly, could you please bring me something to change into? Anything from the dressing room next door.”
“A-All right.”
Cowed by her firm gaze that would accept no refusal, Cecilia opened the door connected to the dressing room.
Left alone in the bedroom, Rowina leaned against the wall and slowly sank down.
“It can’t be……”
Her head ached as if it would split from the fact she had suddenly learned. A homemade bomb. A rare ingredient. Killian. As she considered the connection, a single question filled her mind.
By coincidence, the accident had happened after she accepted Killian as her lover for a fixed term.
There was only one person who would gain the most from Cedric’s death.
And just a short while ago, it had also been him who had forcibly put Rowina into the carriage and made her sleep when she struggled, saying she would not leave the scene.
His attitude and response had been almost coldly composed. Once suspicion had coiled itself in her mind, it spread wider and wider like cracks in glass.
“First, I have to ask him directly.”
Drawing in a trembling breath, Rowina reached a conclusion and slowly rose to her feet. Just then, someone knocked on the door. No sooner had permission to enter been given than the one who opened the door was a maid.
“They say traces of the person you were searching for have been found. They say you must go at once.”
Thought was a luxury. Rowina’s eyes flew open, and without waiting for Cecilia, she merely threw on a coat and followed the maid out.
* * *
The evidence discovered was none other than Cedric’s necklace. A one-of-a-kind locket necklace containing the hair of his late mother.
Facing Rowina, whose hands were trembling, the investigator continued his explanation with a pained expression.
“We searched everywhere, but this was all. Aside from this, they were probably……”
He meant that they had likely been shattered to pieces and scattered into the sea. Rowina sank down and clutched the necklace to her chest. Her mind went pure white, and she could see nothing.
“Madam.”
Refusing the investigator’s hand as he reached out to help her up, Rowina moved her lips with a face gone deathly pale.
“W-Were there perhaps any belongings of a child, or anything like that……”
Though she could no longer deny it before the evidence already laid out, she still wanted to grasp even a thread of hope. Perhaps reading her desperation, the investigator replied quietly with a grave expression.