Episode 66
Ezekiel did not even let out a hollow laugh.
“What utter nonsense.”
“You think I don’t know? I saw the letters you exchanged! You and Father conspired to pull the wool over my eyes, ngh, hrrk…….”
The moment he mentioned eyes, the eye that had been struck by the bullet throbbed several times harder. His stomach churned, and bile rose in his throat. Akenaus retched.
But Ezekiel did not give the slightest heed to Akenaus’s desperate struggle.
“I must have written letters remarkably well for someone who couldn’t even see.”
“There was a woman, wasn’t there! The woman wrote the letters and sent them, urgh…….”
“A woman?”
The finger that had been idly tapping the trigger suddenly stilled. Ezekiel stared down at his brother with indifferent, lowered eyes.
Akenaus’s protest was far too desperate to dismiss as a trick to buy time.
And besides, something did come to mind. Had there not been one woman by his side who had written letters for him?
Rose.
That dearly missed name struck his chest roughly. For the first time, Ezekiel listened to Akenaus’s words.
“Say that again. Clearly.”
“I said…… ugh!”
Akenaus spat out the salty blood that had run down his cheek and between his lips.
It was the first time in his life he had ever been shot. It hurt this much, he was bleeding this much, he was this disoriented, and yet even in the middle of it all, he found it remarkable and strange that he was somehow keeping his wits about him while observing Ezekiel’s reaction.
In any case, this was his chance. By any means necessary, he had to pique Ezekiel’s interest. He did not know what part had caught his attention, but the mere fact that Ezekiel, who had seemed only half-listening, had demanded he repeat himself was already a great step forward.
“The letter said your surgery had succeeded, and that this would likely be the last report sent…….”
“And.”
“It didn’t say what kind of promise it was, but it also said she would fulfill the promise…….”
“Promise?”
“Just a promise, it only said promise…….”
“What else.”
“Ah, right! The handwriting was very pretty, so I thought it was a well-educated woman!”
It was an explanation that evaporated even the very last trace of doubt. It was certainly Rose. Dr. Briman, who had received letters from her several times, had also been especially impressed by Rose’s handwriting.
“You have an intelligent employee. I was surprised by how beautiful the handwriting in the letter was.”
“Rose has good handwriting too?”
“Yes, very good. Enough to make one marvel.”
But Rose had been in contact with the main house?
It was the first he had heard of it. It could not have been something Madam Serva had instructed her to do. Madam Serva was someone who could read and write letters herself. Moreover, he had never sensed any such sign from Rose. Of course, if Rose had made up her mind to hide it, there would have been no way for Ezekiel to know.
But was there any reason for her to do that? For what purpose?
His heart beat irregularly. No matter how he thought about it, the person who had written the letter seemed to be Rose, but he could not understand how Rose and the main house had become involved.
He needed to grasp the circumstances a little more precisely. In a sunken voice, Ezekiel pressed him again.
“The name? I mean the person who sent the letter.”
“I don’t know. It was signed only with initials, so it was practically anonymous……. But that much meant letters had already gone back and forth several times, enough that Father knew who sent it even without a name…….”
As Akenaus rummaged through his memories to answer, he furtively rolled his one remaining left eye. Judging by the mood, what he had just said was not the answer Ezekiel wanted. Moreover, because Ezekiel’s rifle was still aimed at his left eye without the slightest tremor, cold sweat kept breaking out over him.
At this rate, he might really end up blind in both eyes.
Having experienced Ezekiel’s merciless hand, Akenaus was desperate too. Since he had no idea which part of that letter had tempted Ezekiel, for now he had to throw out anything that came to mind.
“The letter, I kept that letter separately!”
He remembered the day he had searched his father’s study, when he had read the letter and absentmindedly crumpled it up, envelope and all, before roughly stuffing it into the pocket of his outer coat. As it happened, he was wearing that very coat now.
“If I don’t tell you, you’ll never find where it is.”
He had to avoid revealing the letter’s location and buy time somehow. Akenaus’s mind worked rapidly.
He did not know how impressive a single paltry letter could be, but if it could make Ezekiel lower that gun, he had to find a way to use it to the fullest.
The news written in the letter had been astonishing only to Akenaus, who had been excluded from the information. To Ezekiel, the person concerned, it was in truth nothing particularly remarkable. Still, if he inflated it well somehow, there seemed to be a chance Ezekiel might take the bait.
He was just wondering what excuse to make.
“You asked me to spare your life, didn’t you?”
“……What?”
“I’ll spare you.”
Before he could even attempt to bargain, an answer came back without the slightest hesitation. Inwardly surprised, Akenaus looked at Ezekiel.
“If you hand that letter over to me, I’m saying I’ll spare your life for now.”
It was unexpected. From Ezekiel’s expression, which until now had been consistently cold, Akenaus sensed a strange emotion.
It seemed like an urgent, anxious, desperate longing, and also like the agony of forcibly suppressing a heart on the verge of madness.
Whichever it was, it was an atmosphere he had never seen before. Even to his family, Ezekiel so rarely revealed his emotions that it felt almost repulsive. That was why he was all the more uncomfortable and detestable. Because despite being younger, he looked down on people so haughtily. Because he behaved as if he alone were superior.
Akenaus glanced at Ezekiel’s utterly unfamiliar face.
So it wasn’t the contents of the letter that mattered? It was the woman who sent it?
Something suddenly came to mind. Come to think of it, he had been baffled for quite some time when the place that ultimately won the red diamond at the auction was listed as the Valdemaera estate in Derosa.
At the time, he had thought the financially astute Madam Serva had competed with him. After all, rare jewels were bound to rise in price the longer they were kept. He had guessed that she must have taken up her old skills after so long to prepare for the future of her former master, now a blind cripple. But if the truth was that there had been another reason…….
Don’t tell me he wasn’t holed up in the countryside dying alone, but was there with a woman?
But he was blind. He kept a woman whose face he didn’t even know by his side? What on earth did he trust?
He wasn’t the kind of man to easily let others in…….
It was astonishing and bizarre. Besides, with that hopelessly rigid personality of his, if he had gone so far as to search through an auction house to deliberately acquire a gem as symbolic as a diamond, there was no way it could have an ordinary meaning.
What kind of woman was she, to have bewitched him to that extent?
If his body had been even a little better, and if the situation had allowed even a little leeway, he would have dug into it more deeply. But his instinct for survival sounded the alarm first.
He absolutely must not test that patience right now. If he tried to probe him with the letter, the result would be worse than if he had never mentioned it at all. First, it was urgent to figure out how to save his life. Only if he escaped from here alive could he plan for what came next.
“It isn’t difficult to hand over the letter, but…….”
Akenaus pressed his palm against his injured eyelid to stanch the bleeding and clung to his dizzying consciousness.
“You’re holding a gun. How can I trust that you won’t take the letter and shoot me dead?”
After saying it, he remembered hearing a similar question somewhere before.
After a long time, Akenaus thought of that woman. The woman who had knelt before him, begging him to save her parents, whose face alone had been quite to his taste even though her clothes had been completely disheveled from how desperately she must have run.
“……How can I believe this promise will be kept?”
When he had thrown her poison and told her to use her own talents to find a way for her family to survive, that was the question the woman, who had been trembling for a long time, had barely managed to ask.
Now that he was on the receiving end, he understood a little. That woman must have felt fucking awful too.
If there had been a way, she probably would have wanted to kill him. Just as he now felt toward Ezekiel.
“Fine.”
At Akenaus’s suspicion, Ezekiel threw the rifle behind him without hesitation.
Only then did Akenaus breathe deeply. Once the gun aimed at his eye disappeared, he felt as if he could breathe a little easier. But he still could not trust Ezekiel. Having been disarmed and severely injured, he would be nothing for that man to subdue with his bare hands. That must be why he had thrown the rifle away so casually.
Akenaus glanced sideways at Ezekiel and added a condition.
“Don’t move from that spot until I leave through the gate.”
For now, it was important to secure a safe distance from Ezekiel.
“The letter.”
“The letter is…… in my possession. I’ll throw it over there as I go out the gate. Until then, don’t move a single step. If you come closer, I’ll crumple it up and chew it immediately.”
A single paltry letter had opened a path for him to survive, so there was no reason not to hand it over. Akenaus planned to put enough distance between them in advance, then run away while Ezekiel picked up the letter.
Ezekiel gave a faint scoff at the sight of Akenaus struggling to guarantee his own safety.
“Do that.”
As soon as agreement fell, Akenaus slowly crossed the garden while stepping backward. In case Ezekiel broke his promise and moved his feet, he kept his eyes fixed the entire time on his younger brother’s two legs, which remained planted firmly in place.
Little by little, he widened the distance until he drew close to the front gate. Meanwhile, Ezekiel’s figure had grown distant. He had been so tense that his back had become damp before he knew it, and a chill ran through him.
Stopping for a moment in front of the gate, Akenaus rummaged through the pocket of his outer coat with his blood-soaked hand. Ezekiel was still watching him without moving, his atmosphere chilling.
Akenaus pulled out the crumpled wad of paper and threw it toward Ezekiel with all his strength. Then he immediately turned and fled.
Ezekiel cast a cold glance at Akenaus’s back as he hurriedly ran away, then strode over and picked up the letter rolling on the ground.
“……And yet she didn’t leave even a single letter for me.”
He had never imagined he would obtain a letter written by Rose from the main house.
He opened the envelope and took out the letter paper.