CH 102

From outside the door, Raymond listened in on what one doctor and the baron were talking about.

“It’s dangerous, Baron. We don’t know what’s causing these fevers, but the number of patients has increased rapidly in other parts of the country as well.”

The baron grew troubled by the doctor’s words. When the baron asked back, Raymond was unfamiliar with how troubled his voice was. It’s something he had never heard before.

“Is there a way?”

“Nothing’s certain for now. But the first thing we need to do is immediately isolate the others. It’s dangerous, so it would be better to send the children and the elderly elsewhere.”

And so, Raymond was then sent to the local parish, entrusted to an old priest who was a relative. Raymond knelt before the altar and prayed. However, he did not feel nervous.

“Ray, are you doing alright? I know how difficult it must be, but let’s pray together.”

“I’m okay, Reverend.”

Raymond held the hand of the priest, who seemed to be more anxious than him.

“Reverend. Mom can’t die, you know. People who have faith don’t need to feel nervous. That’s what you taught me.”

Baroness Saytes was a good person. Raymond was not anxious because he was full of faith and conviction that his mother would not die. The baroness had fallen sick only because she was exhausted from the usual volunteering she did for the poor. Even if she was sick with a contagious disease, God would take pity on her and take away her illness.

His mother was a good person, and it was impossible for a good person to die while doing something good. Raymond’s world was built upon that notion. Good people would be blessed, bad people would be punished.

When the old priest glanced down at him without saying anything, Raymond did not know what this meant. Just how worried he was.

【 Mother and Father passed away. 】

His parents, who loved him, died. The young Raymond could not return home for a long time after he received that telegram. It was a priest who gave him that telegram.

Raymond stared at the piece of paper for a very long while. This was something that children usually would not be able to comprehend. The priest expected to hear him screaming or wailing, but Raymond remained silent for a long time before he finally asked.

“I can’t see my parents?”

What he meant was that, couldn’t he see even their bodies? However, Raymond couldn’t utter the words. He couldn’t understand the sorrow and despair he was feeling at that time. Because it didn’t feel real.

The priest thought that Raymond’s reaction was like this because he was mature or well-behaved, but Raymond himself later found out that he had the same reaction as many other children who lost their parents.

Grief was not an immediate thing because it just did not feel real.

Above all, Raymond just wanted to see his parents again.

“I want to say goodbye before they’re in their caskets.”

The priest answered Raymond cautiously.

“It’ll be difficult to do that. They passed away from the plague, so they will look quite… different.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Raymond replied defiantly.

“It doesn’t matter to me. Reverend, please allow me some time to see my parents.”

“You cannot.”

“Is it because I’m still young?”

“Because of the plague. You’ll be at risk of getting infected.”

It was only after the baron and the baroness had been buried six feet under that Raymond was able to return home. In the meantime, Raymond’s brother became the new baron.

Before the priest sent Raymond back, he told the child,

“The Baron has changed. Don’t be too surprised.”

“Yes.”

And as Raymond returned home, his older brother, Baron Saytes, welcomed him with a new face.

“You’re back, Raymond.”

“…It’s been too long, Brother.”

What the priest said was an understatement.

Raymond had mentally prepared himself for this, but he could not find his brother in this new baron’s face.

The baron was a young man in his prime and he did not perish from the plague, but traces of his hardships remained on his countenance. His skin became mottled, his nose was now deformed, and his body was blotted with skin resembling a mountain range. The previous bright figure of the young man was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m so happy that you’re alive, Brother.”

Through small slits through his swollen eyes, the baron looked down at his younger brother. Then, he responded with a hoarse voice.

“Go to your room.”

His voice sounded like a beast’s groans. Raymond went up to his room without saying anything back. No words of comfort or sympathy were exchanged between the two brothers who lost their parents. It was too fast, too much. They couldn’t cope just yet.

“The elder young master… I mean, His Lordship will get better soon.”

Said one attendant who accompanied Raymond upstairs while carrying his luggage. Raymond looked up at him.

“Okay.”

“His Lordship is having a hard time, too. At times like this, it will definitely be better if brothers can help each other out.”

Creeeak.

Staring into his empty room, Raymond wondered for a moment if he opened the wrong door. However, without having to step back outside and check if it really was the right one, it was definitely his room.

“My things aren’t here?”

“It’s been ordered that they must be burned because of the plague.”

“…Okay.”

Raymond lay on the unfamiliar bed. It was covered with rough cloth, and the bedframe was coarse, as if it had been made in a hurry. Even so, he could bear this.

“I think Brother disappeared.”

Raymond tossed and turned all night while thinking about his brother’s face. He recalled the old stories he heard that had monsters, but across those many stories, he thought about the one that had a good monster.

“Brother isn’t going to change. The important thing is his heart.”

However, Raymond was too young.

It would take a miracle for a sick man to retain a good heart.

* * *

【 I don’t think we are meant to be. 】

It was a short note. But it was enough.

Baron Saytes’ fiancée broke their engagement with a single line. No reason, no pretense and no excuses in that one sentence. She was not afraid about getting criticized for being rude.

“Not once before have I received such an honest letter from that woman.”

The baron ruffled his hair, which resembled Raymond’s. Now, all that Raymond could recognize from his brother was his hair. Even his voice had changed. His ex-fiancée would have thought the same thing. Just like Raymond.

So, Raymond thought it was only natural, but he was not the recipient of that letter. The baron picked up the letter and waved it at Raymond. He let out a raspy chuckle that went, hiik, hiik. His shoulders were trembling, almost as though he was twitching.

“She always used to send letters full of formalities, each three pages long.”

“Brother.”

“Isn’t it laughable?”

There was no need for her to beat around the bush. She didn’t even have to be cautious about what she said anymore.

“I’m the same, but my surroundings have changed.”

No. You’ve changed, Baron.

Just one look at the mirror would make this obvious. But apart from that, even the way he walked and the way he breathed was different.

And it wasn’t just his outward appearance. His appearance was the beginning of that change. Surely, the baron himself knew this as well. There’s no way he couldn’t know.

But Raymond could not say this. Both brothers lost their parents, but it was only one brother whose health deteriorated. Raymond had not changed.

“Brother, let’s think about recovering your health first.”

“She must be clinging to some other guy right about now. Did she throw the ring I gave her? Funny. Why didn’t she send it along with the letter? Does she know how much that ring is…”

Seeing the baron mutter these things to himself brought Raymond pain. But that’s not what’s important here.

“It’s just a ring, Brother. There’s something else that matters.”

Please stop His Lordship, Young Master.

“The sheep are giving birth to stillborns. The ratio is getting too high. I believe we need to do a major investigation on this.”

“What matters here is how that wench abandoned me just because I fell ill. That woman is a whore. A whore. She clung to me for my money, and she left when she couldn’t get any. No, she’s even worse than a whore. An engagement is a promise that’s made to be kept. She promised, so…”

Brother, what you lost is not just money. Your body has changed, your personality has changed, the territory has changed. The last one is the most serious one. Not just the attendants, but the butler and the aides’ expressions became more and more grim because of it.