The man’s lips, which had been quirking up at a crooked angle, slowly lowered. Just as he narrowed his eyes and was about to open his mouth to say something, the door leading to the corridor opened softly, shattering the sharp atmosphere in the room.
Walter and the man turned their heads at the same time.
“…….”
Round pupils like fresh grapes widened slightly, before soon turning calm. From that small change alone, Walter could be certain that the man before him was the one Grace had called for.
Grace’s gaze turned toward the man. A small laugh was heard from Jessie, who was beside her.
The man who had been confronting Walter turned his body toward Grace and approached quickly. The closer he came, the more Grace’s expression changed.
“Eric.”
When she called him in a voice tinged with laughter, Eric stopped one step away and grinned.
“My lady.”
At that honey-sweet summons, Joseph’s eyebrows shot up.
Why are there so many people who change their tune as easily as flipping their palms?
Grace gave Eric a light look, then approached Walter.
“I should have told you beforehand before leaving; I’m sorry. This is Viscount Eric Napier. He is a retainer of House Taylor, and is currently running a merchant company while hiding his identity.”
At her introduction, Eric bowed his head politely, as if he had never acted otherwise.
“Hello. I am Eric Napier. Please forgive my rudeness from before.”
Of course, Walter did not think that Eric had been unaware of his presence.
“I too committed rudeness, so let us forgive each other. It was an unexpected presence.”
“Rudeness? Not at all.”
Even though he had looked like he wanted to tear me apart. That was it.
Walter let out a hollow laugh and, stopping himself from turning away, asked Grace,
“How did it go?”
It was a question that cut out all context, but Grace understood and answered immediately.
“I met Lady Isaac, and she said she would help. The Duchess will wake up soon.”
Walter tried to ask something more but stopped. Right now, it was right to step aside. Grace did not call out to him as he passed through the door either.
When Walter, who had entered the Duke’s room, looked back, he saw Eric through the closing door pressing his lips to the back of Grace’s hand.
Grace was smiling brightly. When she smiled like that, a shallow dimple formed at the right corner of her mouth.
The door closed, and Walter clicked his tongue lowly. Having stood looking around the room blankly, he did not sit anywhere and went straight out to the corridor. When Joseph quickly followed him, Walter spoke.
“Wait and help him leave without being detected by anyone.”
“Ah... yes sir!”
Leaving Joseph behind, Walter strode away.
Before he knew it, the sun was lying low in the sky.
Walter hated this time of day. He felt suffocated by the primary colors churning in layers of air.
He lengthened his stride. After walking for a while facing the red-burning sunlight, a forlorn building appeared before him like a corner of a ruined kingdom.
The place where he had hidden himself for three years after that incident. To Walter, this place was like a prison. Not because he had been confined, but because here, he had been a sinner.
A sinner who had survived in place of Richmond’s heir.
And not content with that, a sinner who had stolen even that name.
* * *
The reason his chest felt tight at the sight of twilight was that the suffocatingly deep colors recalled memories that were just as suffocating.
The deep red light coming through the corridor window felt sticky, like thick paint.
Lady Isaac, who had rushed over, bowed her head respectfully to Walter.
“You have come.”
“…It has been a long time.”
The two faced each other.
In the ten-year gap, their eye levels had changed. Walter, who had stood like that for a moment, passed by her, and Lady Isaac quickly turned her body as well.
No guide was needed.
With each step up the stairs, he felt the illusion of stepping deeper and deeper into the sea.
‘Walter...! How hot it was, how much. Walter…’
The day he heard Eliza’s suppressed sobs, he realized that breathing and being alive could be a sin.
‘Your Highness the Crown Prince, you must survive. Save His Majesty, and return to your rightful place.’
He resented the former Duke who had saved him, leaving behind those words.
Walter stood before a massive door worn like an old tree.
When he opened the door, the cold smell of death rushed in. The furniture in the room was exactly as it had been ten years ago. Even their positions.
On the massive bed placed in the center of the room was a withered mound that looked as if it would soon disappear. Witnessing that sight, the blood flowing through his veins felt like boiling oil.
Lady Isaac quickly rushed to the bed.
“Duchess.”
“…….”
“Duchess, His Grace has come.”
“…….”
“Duch—”
“Enough.”
At Walter’s intervention, Lady Isaac hesitated then stepped back.
Walter approached Eliza. Feeling as if a deep swamp were pulling at his ankles, he sank his heavy body into the sofa at the bedside. Then, resting his head against the back of the sofa, he looked up at the ceiling. It was a far cry from how he had maintained an impeccable posture until now, even on the battlefield.
From him, sprawled out in a manner that would seem negligent, the mask engraved with leisure and laughter was stripped away.
“!”
The moment that mask was removed, Lady Isaac unconsciously took a step back.
The reason Walter alone had appeared relaxed among the venom-filled Richmond knights was that he had thoroughly hidden his true self. In the place where the mask disappeared, a dense and rough aura filled the space, incomparable even to the knights.
Lady Isaac’s lips trembled thinly. Her husband and three sons were all knights. She knew the aura of survivors.
Venom, killing intent?
No.
That was... madness accumulated layer by layer like geological strata over a very long time.
“I have returned.”
“…….”
“Just what are you doing lying like this? While you have been like this, mice have been swarming Richmond Ducal Castle. To the point where there’s no room to step.”
He, who had been murmuring languidly, smiled sharply. Cold sweat ran down Lady Isaac’s back.
“I tried to clean up as soon as I arrived. Just as they had done, I planned to cut off the heads first.”
If he had not met Grace, he would have actually done so. By now, the smell of blood would have been thick in Richmond Ducal Castle.
As a result of Eliza never rising again, Count Rinko had seized everything of Richmond. Since there was no way to easily penetrate a tower of power hardened like stone, he had made plans to smash the tower entirely.
Richmond would be stained with blood, but he had thought there was no other way.
Whose neck to cut first. How to cut it.
Perhaps because he had been thinking such thoughts all along, he knew the madness inside him was growing uncontrollably. Even now, when he saw the mice pretending to be masters, intense killing intent welled up.
Walter closed his eyes and clenched and unclenched his fist.
Then, a gentle voice pierced through his brain seething with violent impulses.
‘You must not stain Richmond with blood. Only then can you use that power.’
Walter slowly opened his eyes and lifted his back from where it had rested. Silvery white hair was spread chaotically between the blankets. It seemed her once pitch-black hair had all seeped away. It felt as if someone were gripping his throat tightly.
“Rise.”
“…….”
“If you do not rise, the land of Richmond will not be stained with blood. Should it not be you, not I, who punishes Richmond’s vassals?”
“…….”
Eliza gave no answer in the end.
Indeed. To her, was not the person she most wanted to punish herself, rather than Count and Countess Rinko?
Walter rose from his seat, thinking that if he stayed here any longer, he would suffocate and die.
* * *
Countess Rinko, having skipped her afternoon tea, mulled over and over the information she had drawn from her conversation with the Duke.
“A commoner without even a family name…”
Since blind faith was dangerous, she had placed secret requests with information brokers. But the answer that returned was disappointing.
“‘Red Moon’ says it will take three months to find that woman’s exact personal information.”
“Three months? Too long.”
She could not simply stand idle for the three months until the woman’s information arrived. Her instincts were shouting that now was the time to seize the initiative.
“Yes. But that person added that since even commoners have family names, the fact that she deliberately does not use one likely means her parents are probably criminals.”
“Her parents are criminals. They say there is a village of fugitives near the Wall of Death, do they not?”
“Yes.”
A meeting between a fugitive from a village near the Wall of Death and a Duke who was on campaign there.
“Hmm. It all fits.”