Thank you Astarria for editing this chapter.
[This is a city with many foreigners. It was strange at first, but now I’m adjusting well. I’m running out of medicine, so I’m planning to go to the hospital tomorrow.]
Sebelia stretched out after she finished writing a letter to Denisa.
“Ugh.” Her shoulders were stiff from having her head down for too long.
After setting her pen down, she got up to pour herself a glass of water.
“Looks like it’s almost lunchtime.”
Looking out the window, she saw groups of people gathering at the inn. As the ground floor of the inn also served as a restaurant, it was bustling with people during meal times.
“I feel like I’ve really become a normal person here.”
Sebelia, who was appreciating the scenery with a languid smile, soon stiffened her mouth and turned her back. She became pale, as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have seen.
“Oh no, not again…”
After a little while, Sebelia sat down, pressing her forehead. She was deeply frustrated by how easily she lost her composure over trivial matters.
Located at the crossroads leading to the east was the city of Ulshik.
Today marked her fourth day staying here. And it was also the fourth time she had encountered a man who resembled her father.
* * *
Four days ago, Sebelia arrived to the city of Ulshik. She still had four cities to go through before reaching the eastern region, but she decided to take a break here.
With no travel companion and being ill, it would be unwise for her to continue her journey without stopping.
“Welcome to Ulshik. Please come inside.”
“Thank you.”
The identity badge Denisa had arranged proved to be useful. Admiring the nanny’s resourcefulness, Sebelia unpacked her belongings and settled into a lodging with a view of the plaza.
“I’m exhausted.”
She then slept soundly without waking up once until the next morning. And at lunchtime the next day, she went downstairs to browse the menu at the restaurant.
“Ha ha, stop making such silly jokes.”
At the sound of the hearty laugh, Sebelia instinctively turned her head and then she saw him…
“Ah…!”
A man who resembled Sylas, or perhaps it was Sylas.
It was only for a brief moment, but she instinctively moved.
Sebelia held her breath and shrunk her body, trying to hide in the shadows by pressing herself against the wall.
Father, is it him? She thought as cold sweat ran down the back of her neck.
Sebelia clutched her knees tightly with both hands; her frightened demeanor was a stark contrast to her earlier resolve to face her father confidently, as if nothing was wrong.
However, the man did not approach her or speak to her as she had feared.
I must have seen wrong.
Time passed by.
The laughter and chatter of a family at the table next to her lingered around her.
Sebelia slowly lifted her gaze as warmth returned to her hands, which she removed from her knees.
“Ah,” a sigh escaped her lips.
It wasn’t her father after all.
The eyes, hair color, and mouth shape did resemble his, but this man’s eyes were undeniably orange.
“Ha,” another sigh flew out as relief washed over her, followed closely by a wave of embarrassment.
I boasted that the old Sebelia was dead, that I would cut ties with my past life and live boldly…
She felt ashamed of the confident demeanor she had shown in front of Denisa, as she told her not to worry.
Sebelia rubbed her flushed earlobes and sighed again, then she straightened her bent back and held her head high.
“Let’s stay calm,” she told herself.
That man was not her father. And even if he was Marquis Whedon, she still needed to stand proud.
I am no longer Sebelia Whedon.
Therefore, even if she actually encountered him, he could no longer oppress her under the pretense of fatherhood.
“Well then, I should get going.”
When Sebelia finally managed to regain her composure, the man who resembled Sylas stood up.
She quietly watched his back, not because she wanted to follow or stop him.
She simply thought the situation was extremely odd.
To think I’d see someone who resembles my father in the place I’ve fled to.
It felt like she was a character in a fairy tale who had woken up from a nightmare, only to realize that reality was yet another dream.
“Madam.”
Sebelia watched with quiet eyes until the other person opened the door and went out, then turned her head when she heard a voice next to her.
“May I take your order?”
Before she knew it, the waiter was standing next to the table, smiling warmly at her.
* * *
I need to be more resolute.
Sebelia chided herself for freezing up after boldly declaring that her past self was dead.
She tried to shake off her embarrassment as she gathered her coat and wallet to go to the doctor’s office.
Now that lunch time has passed, the doctor’s office should be open. Today was the day she was scheduled to get a new prescription for her medicine that had run out.
My diagnosis will still be the same anyway….. incurable…
However, knowing that Denisa still hadn’t given up hope, Sebelia painfully sighed; It was always painful to deliver news that would crush her friend’s expectations.
* * *
“Explain.”
Dehart spoke quietly as he held Sebelia’s letter.
“Why do you have this, when it was said she died leaving nothing behind?”
His voice echoed ominously throughout the room, prompting Ryan to lift his bowed head.
“Tell me who in Hylend has deceived me again, and insulted my wife’s death.”
His golden eyes, once stained with guilt and remorse, were now filled with a pure light.
Was it anger or a sense of betrayal? Ryan didn’t know. But this was much better than him withering away alone.
Better than throwing everything away, including himself.
Ryan, looking at the golden eyes tinged with white, said,
“The suicide note was found in Mrs. Glen’s room. It was hidden in a jewelry box she had taken out of her burned room.”
At Ryan’s words, Dehart’s eyes narrowed. His grip tightened on the will he held.
“So, it’s my aunt.”
Rustle!
However, the thin paper did not crumple mercilessly in his hands.
“Not surprising,” he muttered, looking down at the will.
He stared at the first line of the letter, biting his lower lip.
[Dehart, to you who were once my hope.]
Once her hope.
He couldn’t even imagine what that momentary hope meant to her.
Dehart swallowed a sigh and slowly closed his eyes.
“……”
As he reached the end of the letter, a cold light flickered over his translucent gold eyes.
Then he lowered his head with a face full of unbearable pain.
Ryan couldn’t bear to watch him like that.
After a long time, Dehart called out to him
“Ryan.”
It was a terrifyingly calm voice.
Ryan felt a shiver run down his spin as if he had heard a call from the dead.
“Yes.”
Nevertheless, he immediately answered and bowed his head.
He could feel it just by the turbulent air; the man who had been wandering around, hallucinating about his dead wife was no more.
Ryan sensed that something solid and cold had settled inside him, and his hunch was correct.
“As soon as day breaks, lock down Hylend Hall. Control access to all areas, including the hunting grounds and the pleasure garden. No one enters or leaves without my permission.”
His unmodulated voice rapidly issued commands.
“And dismiss the knights currently guarding the mansion; place them under confinement for the time being. Simultaneously, call back the knights waiting at the harbor to fill the vacancies.”
Ryan sensed that he had metaphorically drawn his sword. The shut down of Hylend Hall and the confinement of the knights loyal to Mrs. Glen.
Some might call it harsh, however, he knew Dehart had no intention of stopping there. From the moment he chose to go to an apparition of his dead wife in a burning room rather than finding an exit, he was already running to extremes.
“Find evidence that Sebelia’s death might have been a murder.”
“Your Grace.”
“There’s no need to say anything to the servants. Push them into fear and then extract what you want from them.”
Ryan looked up at him in disbelief. However, Dehart did not withdraw his orders.
This decision was clearly going to be poisonous for him as well. But why should that matter?
It’s the price for my arrogance, I suppose; Dehart thought.
He also went down the foolish path of only realizing her value after losing her. So, it would be safe to say that this was not the judgment of a Duke, but a foolish man’s revenge.
Or maybe he was just really going insane.
Dehart laughed at his own mental state as if it were someone else’s.
“My aunt and uncle did all kinds of dirty things to drive a wedge between her and me.”
As he spoke, a fierce look flashed in his eyes and then disappeared.
“Who knows whether such people didn’t lie about the circumstances of her death.”
“But Your Grace, didn’t the doctor confirm that the madam passed away from an overdose of sleeping pills?”
“If this Peter Hansen was also bribed then the story changes.”
Dehart cold gaze stared at Ryan.
“That’s…!”
Ryan’s face hardened; He hadn’t considered that possibility.
“They might have hurriedly driven her to death after realizing that I had caught on to their slanderous schemes.”
It all seemed too suspicious.
Sebelia being banished to an outbuilding out of the public eye, the councilman mysteriously disappearing after examining her body, and….
“Otherwise, why would she have hidden a will with such content?” Dehart continued.
Dehart’s voice trembled as if in agony. He turned his head and placed the will on the table with a pale hand.
[Whedon might have lead me to despair, but it was everyone in Hylend Hall who drove me to death. Glen, Flora, Rash, and you who was once my hope.]
The neat handwriting became increasingly chaotic toward the end.
[I hope my last screams reach your ears.]
It felt as if someone was clutching his heart with both hands.
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