Chapter 89

Chapter 89: Chapter 89

Cordelli searched for only one person.

A woman with chocolate hair and innocent green eyes like buds. Her one and only lady who survived from death.

“Lady Marianne!”

Her exclamation, which was close to a scream came out. Everybody paid attention to her.

Not caring at all, she ran toward the woman she was looking for.

She instantly ran to Marianne with her tearful eyes, dressed more simply than she.

The closer she came to Marianne, the more she began to cry.

“Cordelli!”

Marianne hugged Cordelli who came running to her like the wind.

“Lady…boohoo…Lady…”

Cordelli had a lot to say when she met Marianne again, but she just wrapped her arms around her back, bursting into tears. She felt Marianne was more slender as if she lost weight.

“Cordelli. Don’t cry. Were you hurt? You must have been surprised.”

“I’m fine. I was not injured. How is your condition? Oh my god, your face looks terrible. It must have hurt a lot. You shouldn’t have scars there. Your nails were broken too. You know I trimmed them. Were you injured anywhere else? Are you sure the priests here have treated you properly?”

Cordelli made a big fuss while touching her body carefully while crying.

Marianne was very happy that she was the same as before. One of the sensations that brought her back to reality was the warmth in her arms like this.

“I’m alright. It doesn’t hurt very much. The priests here are kind, and Her Eminence Cardinal cares for me a lot. There are lots of things I want to ask you …”

Marianne properly left space for her, letting go of her as smoothly as possible so that she couldn’t feel sorry.

“First of all, there are lots of people here I have to see. Okay?”

“Oops! I’m sorry.”

Cordelli stepped back behind her, wiping her tears.

Marianne did not blame her. Instead, she approached the cardinal and grand duke, the two noblewomen, and Beatrice.

“I’m honored to see Your Eminence Cardinal.”

Her rosy rustic dress swelled slightly like petals and then shrunk. She then gently bowed to the two wives behind her and made eye contact with Beatrice.

“My maid has grown up with me like my sister. Please forgive for her rudeness by showing your mercy.”

“Well, compassion doesn’t know blood or knightship. People here care about you as much as your maid.”

Helena stepped in and elegantly accepted her apology. As if they agreed with her, they replied with a gentle smile.

Only Mrs. Chester narrowed her eyebrows, but she soon tried to hide it by feigning a smile. “Lady Marianne, it’s so fortunate that you are safe.”

“I am so glad that all of you are safe. I heard that all the wagons behind me were in an accident. I’m looking at you up close now, and I think you were wounded a bit…”

Marianne noticed the wounds on Duchess Lamont’s forehead.

“I hear that there won’t be any scars if you are treated well. They say Biche’s legs will be alright if she gets a good rest for two weeks.”

Mariane looked down at Beatrice’s legs. As they were hidden beneath the dress, she could not know how badly injured she was. When she lifted her eyes anxiously, Beatrice smiled as if to make her feel at ease and said, “Well, there are people who might have scars if they are not lucky.”

Duchess Lamont cast a glance at Mrs. Chester with ridicule and contempt.

Marianne looked at the white gauze wrapped around Mrs. Chester. There was something reddish between the woven fabric. It was evidence of her pain that was veiled by that.

She recalled one more pain in the marquise’s wound, which was more veiled than that.

That made her heart beat, which she didn’t feel at all when she saw Mrs. Chester’s wound.

It seemed Chester’s pain had passed on to her.

“Did the emperor wake up?”

In the meantime, Grand Duke Christopher turned his head to Marianne, as if he read her mind.

“Pardon? Oh, he woke up a little while ago… ” Marianne muttered.

Christopher’s party hadn’t yet met the emperor who came back alive. Of course, they wanted to confirm his condition themselves.

But Eckart just fell asleep in the morning after he suffered from a high fever and insomnia all night. He fell asleep for several hours and woke up, but he looked faint because of the effect of the medicine. He didn’t even have a sip of water or a piece of bread yet.

She thought to herself, ‘Can you give him a little more rest? You can meet him anytime today. If I make some excuses to put off their request for meeting the emperor, can they blame me? I’m not going to block you from seeing him anyway. I hope they can put off seeing him by an hour or half an hour…’

Marianne did not immediately answer. Their gaze on her was intense now.

“The emperor is…”

“The emperor is already ready to meet you.”

At that moment, Kloud greeted them. She didn’t even realize that he had followed her. Marianne stepped back, biting her lip. Her eyes turned to the window of the annex where the emperor was staying. She felt like they had read her intention.

“I was told to escort you to the annex immediately. Let me guide you.”

Kloud respectfully pointed to the annex building.

Soon, Cardinal Helena and Grand Duke Christopher moved their feet. Kloud began to guide the two men by walking ahead of them. Duchess Lamont, Marquise Chester and Beatrice followed them.

But Beatrice lagged behind a bit as her legs hurt. Naturally, the group slowed down a bit.

While watching them disappearing, she quickly helped Beatrice. While rubbing her wet eyes, Cordelli quickly noticed them and grabbed Beatrice’s arm from the other side.

“I’m alright, Lady Marianne.”

“No, you are not. Were you hurt a lot? Are they saying you’ll be alright after two weeks?”

“Yeah. I heard I would feel better if I rest well because my sprain was not severe. It’s just a bit inconvenient because they supported my ankle with a padded splint. There are people who are more injured than me, so take care of them first. Right now, Kloud walking ahead of us had as many as three ribs broken.”

She frowned a lot at that.

“Three ribs broken?”

“Yeah. Exactly speaking, he had cracks in three ribs. Didn’t Kloud tell you about that? I heard that he shouldn’t move much because he had to wait for them to fuse back together naturally…”

“No. I didn’t know at all.”

Marianne looked at Kloud who was walking way ahead. She now began to think about his actions up to now.

Certainly he made casual expressions, but his left arm was stuck to his body as if he had wrapped it around his right side. At first glance it looked like he was trying to be polite, so she didn’t think he acted like that because he was wounded.

Come to think of it, however, he sometimes put his elbows near the ribs, or talked while crouching slightly.

‘…Oh my god…He did that to hide his wounds.”

Marian blamed herself for having failed to notice it at all.

***

At first, her attention was focused on only one person. So, even if she felt suspicious sooner, she would have thought Kloud was trying to bend his waist to talk to Eckart at eye level.

Beatrice said, “It looks like he hid it because he didn’t want to worry the emperor and Lady Marianne. Besides, he is very reluctant to show others his pain by nature. In that respect, he and the emperor have something in common. That’s why the emperor trusts him.”

“You bet! Of course, I don’t think it is necessarily good to take after somebody 100%.”

Marianne replied with a sigh.

Beatrice burst into laughter at that, but changed her facial expression in no time and said, “Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you spoke so candidly…”

“It’s alright. That’s true. I just wonder how those around the emperor are all like him. Don’t you think their preferences are so unique?”

“Really? Well, he has a pretty unique discerning eye.”

Beatrice didn’t hide her smile. She wanted to point out that Marianne was included among those around him, but she didn’t, deliberately pretending not to know.

In the meantime, Marianne thought seriously about the faces of the emperor and his entourage. She recalled Colin, Jed, Kloud and then Curtis finally.

Come to think of it, Curtis might act normally when in fact he was injured. It was obvious that he didn’t even take a nap while Eckart was sleeping.

‘Oh my god…how come they are all stubborn?’

She was complaining deep inside.

At that moment, Beatrice asked, “By the way, Cordelli, didn’t you tell Lady Marianne?”

“Pardon? About what?”

Cordelli, looking around her belatedly, asked back with a puzzled expression.

“You passed out for half a day because your head was injured when you hit it against something. The healing priest told you to take a break, but as soon as you woke up, you went to Lady Marianne’s room. My heart was broken when you cried a lot, worrying about Lady Marianne.”

“Oh, Lady Biche!”