Chapter 120

Chapter 120: Chapter 119

His whole body ache through the pain of his back wounds made him long for something rather than fall into despair.

He recalled the doctor’s rebuking voice that wasn’t too pushy, his body temperature when he was raised up, and the man’s buttoning and making the knots.

“Please tell me you don’t want to listen to me. That’s better than your sophistry,” Oustashu grumbled, not knowing Eckart’s situation. Eckart sneered at himself by laughing.

Obviously, what he said sounded like sophistry when others heard him, but it sounded like Bible passages in his ears.

“Anyway, you don’t have to worry, Oustashu.”

“I’m sorry but my job is to worry about your safety all the time.”

“It looks like you have time on your hands. If you really do, compile another medical book.”

“In fact, I wrote more books than others for the past 10 years. Of course, I will continue to write, but I can do so only after I treat you completely. I don’t think I can’t for the time being as I’ll be busy taking care of you.”

Oustashu stood up, picking up his medical instruments.

“Please go to bed before it’s too late. I will come back tomorrow.”

Eckart nodded at him as bowed out politely.

A little later, the door of the emperor’s bedroom was closed. Silence prevailed in the room that was too large for him to fall asleep alone.

He erected his body, though he felt uncomfortable. Beginning with the candlesticks on the table by the bed, the lamps and candles from various parts of the room were turned off one by one. There was a reason he did it by himself instead of calling the servants for the job.

“Come in.”

The window, which was closed, was pushed up at his order.

“Your Majesty!”

It was Curtis who broke into the half-open window.

He came into the room stealthily as a shadow, sliding down the window sill behind him.

The cold air from outside was all over his slender body.

Eckart walked back the bed with his back against Curtis. When he flopped down, he felt a sharp pain in his spine.

“I have found out something at your order, Your Majesty.”

“Report to me now.”

“Ober returned to his mansion after leaving the palace, but he did not move. Instead, Mrs. Chester visited Duke Hubble’s mansion and then left a little while ago.”

“Did she visit him alone?”

“I think so.”

It wasn’t unusual or strange that Mrs. Chester met Duke Hubble.

“The man Mrs. Chester met yesterday was Baronet Artroom.”

However, if she met somebody else, that was something unusual, which the emperor should pay attention to.

“Baronet Artroom?”

Eckart quickly traced his memory with a slight frown.

“Giyom’s father?”

“Yes, you’re right. I hear that he recently returned from Faisal and visited her with some foreign trade goods.”

Marianne feared the two during the eve of the recent ball so much that Eckart couldn’t treat it lightly. Since that day, Eckart instructed Curtis to closely watch Ober and Giyom’s deeds and actions and report back to him.

Specifically, Curtis had been ordered to keep an eye on people who were related to the two by kinship, their frequent places and even their short meetings. Curtis gathered all kinds of tips about them and reported them to Eckart.

“Place some more moles to closely monitor them.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Curtis answered politely.

Eckart hesitated for a moment and opened his mouth again, “… What about Lady Marianne?”

In contrast to the emperor’s cautious question, Curtis continued to brief him mechanically.

“After returning to the Elior Mansion, she enjoyed a brief walk with Duke Kling and visited Countess Renault when the duke returned to the palace. She didn’t stay longer than I thought, so she went back before sunset.”

“Anybody accompany her?”

“Knight Schmidt didn’t accompany her as he was off today. When she left for the countess’s mansion, she was accompanied by Viscount Klein’s daughter, and when she came back, she moved with the three, including Countess Renault.”

“… What did she do with Ober?”

“I hear she met him in the central garden and talked for a little while. One of the servants on duty saw them, but he didn’t hear exactly what they were talking about because they were far away, but…”

Curtis, who replied as if he had read the report in an indifferent manner, spoke evasively.

His eyes slowly blinked, clearly indicating he was hesitating.

Eckart ordered with his eyes instead of words. His dim blue eyes pressed over Curtis’ head.

“… Lady Marianne begged Ober, trying to tempt him. Ober seemed to threaten her, but he seemed to whisper sweet-nothings on the other hand. The servant heard her telling him, “I held the engagement ceremony to keep my promise to you!”

“…”

“… That’s what I heard from the servant and others,” said Curtis.

After he was done, Curtis bowed to him deeply. Eckart clenched his fists, with his mouth closed tightly.

On the way back from Roshan, Marianne whispered to Eckart that she had thought of some excuses in case Ober doubted her. She boasted to Eckart that she would persuade Ober that the reason she was trying to maneuver until then was because she wanted to return to him.

In that respect, Curtis’s briefing about her was one of the excuses that she concocted back then.

Therefore, what the servants observed after watching her meeting with Ober were her feigned actions. No matter what she did or what she said before Ober, that was not true, and she had no sincere or affectionate feelings toward him.

Eckart knew it all, but at the same time, he felt displeased with her.

He had this same feeling before. It was when he met her after the ball was over. At the time, she begged him to use her as a hostage. Back then, he didn’t know the reason why, and he felt like he shouldn’t know it. The discomfort he felt on that day overwhelmed him at this moment.

But his anxiety today was a little different from what he felt at that time. Back then she did not hide anything from him, but today she was obviously hiding something.

Previously, he tried not to appreciate her love, but today he tried not to appreciate her betrayal.

“… Got it. Keep an eye on her. Always plant three moles just in case, and I allow you to take action without my approval in contingencies. The first and foremost priority is to protect Lady Marianne’s safety. So, you don’t have to consider anything else.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Go back and take a rest.”

Curtis bowed to him instead of answering and stood up. Eckart knew Curtis would go against his order to take a rest and stay up all night. But he lay on the bed instead of stopping and blaming him.

Curtis snuck out of the room just like how he got in. There was a whitish moonlight in his place.

“Don’t worry. I’m better at pulling the wool over someone’s eyes than you think.”

Subsequently, her sweet but awkward voice hallucinated in his ears and wandered through his whole body. He vividly recalled her trembling green eyes, along with her naive and affectionate confession that she couldn’t hide any lie from him alone.

Eckart crouched with his eyes closed. Instead of longing for her warmth, he suddenly felt a painful pain.

***

Puck.

A dull outcry came out.

“Kuhuk…! ”

A man kicked hard by someone’s heels fell and rolled on the floor, making a suppressed moan. Sprawled on the floor like a piece of torn paper, he quickly crawled back to his position.

Although his face was normal, his legs and arms convulsed.

He barely lay face down on the cold marble floor.

“You guys should have been killed a long time ago, but I’ve saved you to pay your debt to me, but you didn’t do anything…”

Puck.

The soles of his expensive cowhide shoes were pushed over the man’s shoulders, knocking him down.

“Even if you can’t make a contribution, you should at least do your job to get paid, right?”

Ober looked down at the man annoyingly, who was crawling under his feet again, wheezing like an injured dog.

“I’ve planted as many as twenty moles in the Elior Mansion, but you didn’t find out anything until now. Do you think that makes sense? Do you think I’m paying you for doing nothing?”

“I’m so sorry, sir. If only you can save my life …”

“Your life? Can’t you come to your senses yet?” Ober’s annoying tone became even sharper.

In the middle of the day, when the weather was scorching, warm sunshine poured in from the window without curtains.

“Your life was already gone when I wiped out your real ID anyway. I can burn away your fake ID easily if I make up my mind. Why are you begging for your life when it’s not worthwhile at all?”

With the bright sunlight against him, Ober elegantly tilted his glass.

While kicking and trampling on the man, Ober casually enjoyed the taste of wine.

“If you really want to beg me for your life, you should beg for something else. Well, let me think your life is still worth saving at this point.”