Chapter 48

Episode 48: Crazy Bastard

“It would be a good thing to not get involved.”

Raymond sighed slowly and muttered.

“For you and for me.”

He tried to turn away.

Chloe Garnet, the woman who will lead Raymond Del Astaroth to his death.

No matter how crazy he was in love, he didn’t want to experience another vain death.

However, Raymond could not turn a blind eye to her afterimage.

“Send the carriage,”

This was for confirmation. He wondered if she still exists in this time, whether she lives and breathes as he remembered her, and whether she will be happier by not being involved with him.

It was just to confirm.

“To the Ludwigs.”

It was much earlier than in the past timeline and unlike then, the carriage he sent came back without picking her up.

“The Grand Duke of Ludwig sent the carriage back.”

“What?” asked Raymond, bewildered.

At the sound of the emperor’s sad voice, the chieftain hesitated and looked at his eyes.

“Well… …Lady Garnet says she’s not feeling well and can’t go out.”

“She’s not feeling well!”

His expression suddenly contorted.  According to Daria and the chieftain, she had stayed here until the morning just two days ago and returned.

Without needing to fumble through his memory he remembered, a long, long time ago, when she spent her first night, she never showed signs of ill health. He thought that the small and slender body was exceptionally hot, but he dismissed it as just because of the heat.

Perhaps she was sick even when she was sleeping with him. Kailos Ludwig, his fucking half-brother might have forced her to go to the New Year’s ball. And Raymond, foolish and wicked, hurt her even more…….

“No, no, no.….”

Raymond couldn’t come to his senses at the thoughts that gradually ran to extremes in his head. He just wanted to check a few things, but his body moved first.

“I will go directly to the Duchy of Ludwig, be prepared.”

“Your Majesty, it’s too late.”

Had the valet not carefully grabbed his lapels, he would have almost gone to find her at this late hour in the Duchy.

He thought he wouldn’t get involved with her anymore in this timeline, but when it came to her, his body still moved before his head could register.

“…Tomorrow morning, when the sun comes up, get ready to set off right away.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,”

Raymond struggled to control his impatience and waited for the night to go by.

He opened his eyes as soon as day broke and immediately ran towards the castle of Ludwig.

The slow-moving carriage was frustrating, he calmed down his desire to drive it himself by prodding the coachman.

He didn’t want to repeat the foolishness of falling in love with her again. For all that remained at the end of the love was the destruction, for Raymond and her.

So Raymond made a firm commitment. He would never show his heart in front of the woman he would meet again, and that his love for her would never flow as much as the stain of his fingernails.

But when he met her again, she had a pale face as if she were really sick, and a little younger than his last memory, he looked at her, who was crying silently.

It was just heartbreaking. All those confused feelings that had been wandering in his head before he met her disappeared.

Chloe is crying. Why is she crying again?

I have to caress her red eyes. I have to pat her small, lovely shoulder that shrank.

His body moved faster than his head. When he came to his senses, he was hugging her shoulders and comforting her. He felt the front of his clothes become wet.

You are crying so bitterly, Chloe. Raymond groaned softly as he watched her weeping.

In fact, he was a little afraid to see her again. The memories with her in the past timeline remained as a beautiful wreckage, and he was afraid that he would hate her if he saw her again. He was afraid he’d lose all his poor innocence.

But even after one death, his feelings for her remained the same. No, rather, he felt sorry for her, who had been involved in a dispute between him and his half-brother over the throne. He still wanted to comfort her, who was crying with a face that wasn’t happy at all.

Chloe Garnet was still that kind of person to Raymond.

‘Crazy bastard’

Raymond called himself a man crazy about love.

Chloe Garnet, in the first place, she was a woman who was raised by his half-brother with impure intentions to suit Raymond’s taste.

As a result, he became interested in her and eventually fell in love. It was a fact that could not be denied. Therefore, even though he deserved to hate her, he soothed her crying instead of hating her.

Raymond knows.

Chloe was a pitiful woman who was forced to eat food to gain weight and vomited out at dawn, and a foolish woman who, despite her allergies, ate white fish and stayed ill all day.

Raymond also knows she pretended to hate cheesecake, but in fact, she was the most lovely woman with clenched lips when she ate cheesecake. She enjoyed playing the piano, but was even more lovely with sparkling eyes when she occasionally played a string instrument.

So, in fact, to Raymond, Chloe Garnet was a more lovely woman than anyone else, even if she didn’t do anything like that. Regardless of his taste, she was a lovely woman just the way she was.

As soon as he realized it, Raymond soothed her with a more friendly face and a sweet voice than ever before.

Don’t let her be frightened by my ugly face. Don’t let her cry because she’s sick with my fierce voice.

“I don’t want you to cry.”

He had hoped so much, even at the moment when he was about to die, “I want you to be happy.”

But you don’t look happy at all. Don’t let me get away from you.

Raymond laughed bitterly and thought,

They had to be separated from each other, they can’t get involved anymore. He was so easily shaken by the tears she shed when she said she was sick.

Like a fool.

* * *

The next morning Chloe didn’t show up at the dining table. Raymond stared at his unusually pale half-brother, with as little emotion as possible.

A man who took advantage of her to become emperor. The man who trampled on her body and mind…….

“Let’s eat first, I’m afraid Chloe won’t come.”

Raymond spoke in a delicate voice, and first he took up his spoon. Kailos also stared at Raymond, sighed, and began to eat.

Raymond’s gaze glanced at his half-brother’s hand holding the spoon. The hand that gently scooped the soup was the same hand that had cut through her skin.

“You must have had a bad night’s sleep.”

The thoughtless flow of words made Kailos frown, with his spoon standing still.

“What do you mean?”

Regardless, Raymond continued to spoon leisurely.

“Your face is full of anxiety.”

“…it’s a misunderstanding. What do you mean, anxiety? That’s impossible.”

“I don’t think so.”

Raymond cut off his opponent’s words and put down his spoon.

“The bait that should have seduced me is sick…….”

His fiery red eyes glared at his half-brother.

“Isn’t that a big deal, brother?”

There was a chilly silence at the sharp remark that was thrown without notice.

“What are you talking about….”

His half-brother, who put down his spoon, blurred the end of his words, and hid his hands under the table.

“I don’t understand,”

His half-brother’s face, with an awkward smile over his mouth, was so brazen that if a stranger had seen it, he would have been deceived.

“Then stay unaware.”

Raymond grinned and put a piece of bread into his mouth.

He chewed bread in front of Kailos, who had stopped eating as if he didn’t have an appetite anymore.  Raymond wiped his mouth with a napkin and stared at his opponent.

“By the way, brother, this is what I’m worried about.”

His tone was as plain as discussing the taste of the soup served at breakfast this morning.

“I mean, why did someone who wouldn’t care if she was sick send the carriage back?”

A slight wrinkle was caught over the forehead of his half-brother who was listening silently.

“Your Majesty? Do you mean Chloe? As you know, Chloe was really sick. It is still necessary to recover. How can you…….”

“Because you’re not that kind of person.”

Raymond cut off Kailos’ excuse, unable to hide his embarrassment.

“Kailos Ludwig, whom I know, would be more than capable of putting a sick child in the carriage and shoving her into the Emperor’s bedroom.”

“…that’s too much to say.”

Raymond quickly recognized the wrath of his speech. How hard it must have been for him to hide his true feelings.

For such a poor half-brother, Raymond was going to help him reveal his true feelings.

“Chloe is a very precious child to me, too. Although His Majesty was with the child……  Even if you share your feelings. She is a child whom I cherish more than my family. Such a child was ill, and of course, I didn’t let her go because I was worried.”

Raymond leaned back slowly and stared at his half-brother. They were only a year apart, but they were always considered grown-ups.

‘I had no idea you were hiding such a mean side.’

After learning the truth, there were many things that he saw belatedly. For example, the wrinkles around the eyes that pretend to be relaxed but are hardened.

Raymond, who had been silently observing his half brother for a moment, raised the corners of his mouth and glared at his opponent.

“If you had been worried about her pain, then you wouldn’t have put that sword in her neck like that.”

Unlike his smiling lips, his voice was so cold.

“Don’t you think so, Grand Duke Ludwig?”

“…….”

Kailos froze instead of answering.  The handful of leeway that remained on his face was scattered.

His eyes, which had always been soft, turned sharp. The mask, which pretended to be kind, was broken, and only the ugly appearance of the disastrously distorted man remained to reveal his true self.