112.
“Why won’t you reveal it?”
“…….”
“Why would you appear before her, then not say a single word to her?”
At my question, Gary Yus stared at me for a while as if he couldn’t understand.
At length, his eyes narrowed, as though gauging something.
“Why are you asking such a question?”
I did not bother to answer.
“Bella….”
“…….”
“Did Bella ask you to do this?”
The trace of uncertainty remaining in his voice gradually turned into conviction as he continued.
“Your circumstances are none of my concern, but…”
I turned back to him and spoke.
“I don’t think you really don’t know what Bella truly wants.”
“But….”
“Did you ask Bella yourself? Did you hear her say so herself? Why….”
It was then. The door flew open, and two people burst into the room.
The one in front was Jaka.
And the one who entered behind him was Bella.
Upon seeing Bella, Gary Yus froze in place, his head half turned, unable to move a muscle.
“Karl.”
But the moment Bella called him, he sprang up from his seat.
His hands were trembling uncontrollably.
“…I am Gary Yus.”
“Just once is enough. In front of me, Karl, can’t you say that it’s you?”
Bella staggered forward.
Reading the room, I quietly stepped back. Jaka came to stand beside me as naturally as if he had been drawn there.
Apparently, he had succeeded in eavesdropping on my conversation with Gary Yus from the terrace of the next room.
And here I’d been worried whether he could secretly climb over the mansion wall with an unwell woman and sneak in without being caught.
‘Did you really have to go this far?’
‘In any case, it’s best if the two of them settle it themselves.’
We had just begun whispering to each other.
“I have no idea how you came to have such a misunderstanding, but, my lady, you would do well to steel yourself and stop indulging in vain delusions!”
Unfortunately, even though Bella had heard our entire conversation, that man seemed to have no intention of being honest.
“Vain delusions? Are you saying the person I’m looking at right now isn’t you?”
“That’s right! I am not Karl Paraton!”
Bella’s body was trembling faintly. At first, I thought it was because of her heightened emotions, but considering the illness she usually suffered from….
When I tried to take a step forward, Jaka caught my arm.
I looked back, and he slowly shook his head. He was telling me not to interfere.
Bella bit her lip hard, as if trying to hold back tears.
“But.”
“How in the world do I look like that man? Can’t you see that I look more than ten years older than him?”
Even as the conversation continued, the trembling in Bella’s body grew worse and worse.
“But, Karl. None of that matters.”
“…….”
“Why don’t you understand? None of that….”
It was then.
With a surge, something forced its way to her lips. Bella hurriedly covered her mouth and staggered backward.
“What’s wrong….”
“…….”
Her arm, shaking like an aspen leaf, wavered and braced against the back of the sofa, then Bella collapsed to the floor.
“Bella!”
Gary Yus wrapped his arms around Bella’s shoulders and sank down with her as if collapsing.
“What’s wrong? Bella? Bella!”
Blood flowed from the corner of her mouth beneath her palm, running down her chin and soaking her dress.
Bella seemed to be trying to say something, but in her dazed state, all she could do was move her lips.
“Frederick! Frederick! Bring a physician at once! Bring one this instant!”
The butler who came running hurriedly disappeared to call a physician, and those bloodshot eyes turned to us this time.
“What is going on? Why is Bella….”
Gary Yus flinched and turned his head again. It was because he had felt Bella reaching to take his hand.
Their eyes met.
“It will… be all right….”
Bella spoke as if whispering.
“Karl.”
With reddened eyes, Gary Yus did not let go of the hand the two of them held together.
“…Yes.”
* * *
Gary Yus remembered.
What he had said to Bella before he left.
‘It will be all right.’
But in the end, it had not been all right.
The truth revealed along with the death of his devoutly religious father.
‘Viscount Paraton has thrown in his lot with heresy.’
The heretics wanted his son, Karl, to cooperate with them as well.
If he did not, they said, this ugly truth would be exposed.
Karl refused.
But though he alone had not known it, the mansion had already turned into a den of heretics.
The servant who had greeted him with a smile, the longtime stable keeper, the gardener.
Even a considerable number of Viscount Paraton’s private soldiers belonged to the heretics.
The moment he realized that horrifying secret experiments had already been carried out deep within the mansion and parts of the estate, Karl judged that he had to inform the outside world of this matter no matter what.
Using the secret passage handed down through his family for generations, Karl attempted to escape the estate.
But at the end of the exit, he was attacked by those waiting for him and lost consciousness.
And then….
He was dragged somewhere.
There, very, very horrific… experiments were taking place.
After countless nights worse than death passed,
he finally realized that he had already lost even his own body.
They had transferred one person’s memories into another’s body, or so they said….
If those words were true, then he was no longer “Karl Paraton.”
“Karl Paraton” was dead. Leaving behind only his memories.
“He” believed at least his memories remained intact, but in truth, even if those memories had already become part of the experiment as well, there was no way for him to know.
The feeling of losing himself was even more frightening and hollow than he had imagined.
At some point, Karl began thinking of Bella every night. Even when he opened his eyes the next day, he thought of Bella. That alone was the sole proof that he was still himself, and his only breath of air.
‘I’m not mad.’
He remembered his childhood.
As if it had been fate, he had grown up by her side. Before he knew it, he had come to love her, and there had been a night when they swore eternity to each other.
That alone was his own memory, and wholly his own love.
It was after the war broke out that he was able to escape.
The war over the past several years had dealt the heretics several irreversible blows, and seizing that opening, he succeeded in breaking free from them.
He knew, in truth, that it was because he was a work scheduled for disposal.
A failed creation already branded with heresy.
It was obvious that no matter where he went, he would never be able to live freely.
Perhaps starting over somewhere no one knew him would not have been so bad.
Taking advantage of the final days of the war, he had earned a fair amount of money as well.
But when he had acquired a suitable name and wealth,
he returned to his hometown.
Dressed in his finest clothes, waiting inside the carriage for her to come outside,
he drew a deep breath as he listened to his heart pounding wildly.
He smoothed the brim of his hat with his fingertips again and again.
What if, the moment their eyes met, he could not hold back and ended up saying it?
‘I’m back. I’ve come back, Bella. Do you still remember me? I’m sorry I made you wait so long. But even so, like this… I’ve come back to see you like this….’
But the moment he opened the carriage door, his left leg did not move as he wanted it to.
A body exposed to long years of experiments was little better than scrap.
Clenching his teeth, he moved the uncooperative leg and stepped down onto the ground.
The sunlight was dazzling.
He saw someone standing tall in the center of the yard.
Compared to the figure in his memories, she seemed a little thinner.
But it was still her.
‘Bella. I’m here.’
He took off his hat and greeted her.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, my lady.”
* * *
“Where is Karl?”
As soon as she opened her eyes, Bella looked for that man first. I pulled the blanket up over her and answered.
“He was beside you until just a moment ago, but he’s stepped out for a bit to speak with the physician.”
“…….”
A look of resignation appeared in Bella’s eyes.
“Then he will know now.”
“Well, yes. You weren’t planning to hide it until the very end, were you?”
“If I could have, I would have liked to….”
Bella smiled faintly. Her eyes still seemed to be both crying and smiling.
“Take good care of yourself from now on.”
Those were the only words I could say.
I rose to give her space so she could rest comfortably, but Bella caught my sleeve.
“Do you need something? Should I bring you some water?”
“No, that’s not it.”
“…….”
“I think it’s my turn to keep my promise now.”
I sat back down.
“If that man tries to pretend he doesn’t know again, tell me anytime. I’ll smack him on the back and give him a proper scolding.”
When I deliberately spoke brightly into the brief silence, Bella smiled without a word.
“First, though it’s a little late, thank you for that day—for saving me. If other people had found me, it would have been hard to endure.”
“May I ask you just one thing too?”
“Of course.”
“Why did you tell us the truth and ask us for help? We were practically strangers from out of town.”
The conversation we had that day had taken the form of a transaction, but the impression I received had actually been a little different.
“I trusted you because you wanted to make an antidote.”
“What does that have to do with it?”
Bella smiled again, then moved on without answering.
“Merinis’s heart is in the Paraton family mansion.”
“In the mansion? You mean… the place we’re staying now?”
“Yes. There’s a hidden secret passage there.”
“…….”
“I’ll tell you how to enter it now. I checked the way in from outside the mansion before, but it had already been blocked.”
I helped Bella sit up so she could lean back at an angle.
“All right. Tell me.”