Chapter 52
Debert scanned the small room, freezing everything within it with his imposing presence.
The wooden frames that jutted out irregularly here and there from the ceiling looked like the bones of a rotting animal, and the white bedspreads on the empty bed frames looked like a morgue.
As he lightly touched the sheet, a chill crept up his fingers, cold as the skin of a corpse.
“Hmm,” Debert exhaled a long, humming breath. His expression was calm, revealing nothing of his inner emotions.
He passed by Arthur, who stood motionless, and said, “I apologise for the disturbance, ladies.”
With a slight nod of his head, Debert crossed the room. The nurses, who had gathered around him, quickly parted to let him through.
“Debert!”
Hearing Arthur call out, Debert paused and looked back. His gaze fell upon the empty space near Beth’s bed.
“May I ask one favour?”
“Yes, yes, of course.”
One of the nurses, whose name Debert did not know, hurriedly responded to the Duke’s request.
Debert offered a small smile, so serene that it seemed almost peaceful. But the sharpness in his eyes clashed with the gentle smile, making everyone swallow nervously.
“There was trash next to Ms. Beth Janes’ bed. I would appreciate it if you could throw it away.”
Trash? The unexpected word from the Duke’s mouth drew everyone’s eyes to Beth’s bed. Without waiting for a response, Debert turned and descended the stairs.
“Debert!”
Only after the Duke and the Prince had slammed the now completely broken door shut behind them did the nurses finally release the breaths they had been holding.
A small commotion arose as they wondered what on earth had just happened, but no one had any answers.
“What trash?”
“Wait, those boots?”
“Whose are they?”
A single, unfamiliar pair of men’s boots lay next to Beth’s bed.
“This is strange…”
Ines murmured to herself. Only she sensed that something was terribly amiss.
“Did anyone see Beth this morning?”
Her voice trembled at the end of her question. Uncharacteristically for Ines, her tone was sharp as she repeated the same question.
“Did any of you see Beth Jane?”
* * *
Debert did not return to the hospital. Knowing that Beth wasn’t there made the journey pointless.
In the normally quiet courtyard behind the hospital, military vehicles were already lined up, ready to transport the remaining patients and supplies.
Pushing through the chaotic crowd, Debert continued walking.
He didn’t know where he was heading.
But his body, conditioned by years of war, moved on its own, performing its duties as a commander of the army, a role it had taken on so often.
“Debert! Debert Cliff!”
In the middle of the forest path leading to the barracks, Arthur grabbed Debert’s arm roughly.
“Commander, what on earth are you doing?”
Arthur found himself at a loss for words.
Debert’s expression was genuinely bewildered, as if he truly didn’t understand what Arthur was asking.
“Beth. Aren’t you looking for Beth?”
Only after hearing that question did one of Debert’s eyebrows twitch slightly. But the emotion wasn’t confusion or unease.
If anything, it resembled the detachment of a bystander.
“She’s not here.”
There was no hesitation in Debert’s voice. It was as if he had personally seen Beth vanish, so certain was he in his assertion.
“You’re not going to look for her?”
“You think I wouldn’t?”
Debert replied with a look that said he truly couldn’t understand the question.
Their conversation went around in circles, pointless.
In the end, Arthur asked the question he probably shouldn’t have.
“Could it be, that woman, I mean, Beth Jane…?”
Arthur’s throat bobbed as he swallowed hard.
A cold winter breeze swept between them, causing their hair to flutter slightly.
“Could it be that she… left you? That she left you, Debert?”
At that moment, the few remaining winter birds in the forest fluttered their wings and took flight. The sound of their departure echoed through the quiet woods, along with the rustling of the last remaining leaves.
Debert tilted his chin up slightly, his gaze following the birds as they flew higher into the sky. The birds grew smaller and smaller until they were mere specks.
Those birds were heading to Wayne.
All the winter birds in Nexus flew to Wayne to wait for the warm spring.
Wayne was the warmest place in Nexus, where winters were bitterly long. Even the birds knew this.
Debert watched the clever birds as they left the coldest place behind.
“The humans I’ve encountered are no different from beasts.”
Beasts? Arthur’s golden eyes wavered.
“Everyone has their own instinctual habits, whether good or bad,” Debert remarked, looking down at Arthur, who was slightly shorter than him.
His arrogant gaze made it seem as though he regarded the Imperial Prince as being beneath him.
A vein throbbed in Arthur’s neck, a change that didn’t escape Debert’s notice.
“I don’t intend to clip your wings.”
But that doesn’t mean he can break her stride either.
Debert let out a faint laugh and looked up once more at the grey sky where the snow had stopped.
Just as Beth had vanished, the winter birds had already disappeared as well.
“Quick as ever,” he mused, recalling the sight of Beth hastily throwing on her cloak and slipping out of the barracks at dawn. The image of her retreating back overlapped with the empty sky.
“Not yet,” he murmured to himself.
Just last night, Debert’s hands had caressed Beth as though he would devour her.
Now, those same hands instinctively reached for his chest where a finely crafted brooch should have been, but there was nothing.
“She left a sign that she’d return,” Debert added, lightly patting Arthur on the shoulder, as if in reassurance.
“You’re right; today’s a day full of uncertainties. As a commander, I should be magnanimous enough to overlook a small commotion like this.”
With that, Debert left Arthur standing there and headed towards the barracks.
Arthur, feeling immobilized, could do nothing but watch him go. Once again, he was powerless. The silence that followed was unbearably lonely.
***
Excitement about returning home filled the barracks and the hospital.
The raucous laughter and lively chatter of small groups mingled with the air, bringing a sense of cheer to the desolate outpost.
Ines hurried up the hospital steps, her face filled with unease. The hospital director’s office, usually closed, was wide open today.
“Ines?” Mrs. Molly, who was packing up the last of her belongings inside, recognised her immediately.
Ines started towards her but quickly stopped and bowed upon seeing Mr. Collins sitting on a couch in the corner. Collins smiled kindly and waved her off.
Noticing the troubled look on Ines’s face, Mrs. Molly paused her packing.
“Is something wrong?”
“Beth is missing,” Ines blurted out, unable to hide her anxiety. Her palms were slick with sweat.
While everyone else seemed unconcerned about Beth’s disappearance, Ines had been running frantically around the hospital and barracks.
“Beth is nowhere to be found.”
“What do you mean, she’s nowhere to be found?” Collins interjected, his voice filled with concern.
“Have you looked for her?”
“The last vehicle to take the medical staff is about to leave, but Beth is nowhere to be found,” Ines replied, shaking her head, on the verge of tears. Her shoulders trembled as she bowed her head.
“Ines, look at me,” Mrs. Molly said, gently cupping Ines’s tear-streaked face. The older woman’s eyes sharpened with concern.
“Was she with you last night?”
Ines nodded vigorously.
“Did she say anything about leaving?”
“Nothing unusual at all. Last night, the barracks were so chaotic. This is my fault,” Ines said, breaking down into sobs.
Mrs. Molly exchanged a worried glance with her husband. Even Collins, who was usually unflappable, looked grim.
“She couldn’t have gone to Kovach… could she?” Mrs. Molly asked, fearing the worst.
Collins shook his head firmly. His troubled eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses recalled the conversation he had had with Debert and Arthur a few days earlier.
“It can’t be Kovach. Debert has the place under tighter watch than ever. And besides, Beth is—”
Collins swallowed the rest of his sentence.
His wife hadn’t yet picked up on the subtle relationship between Debert and Beth, but he had noticed it from the first day they arrived.
Debert’s gaze was always on Beth. This was something that had likely spread quietly among the soldiers.
No one would dare lay a hand on Debert’s woman.
“Have you seen Debert today?” Collins asked, trying to gauge the situation.
Ines nodded.
“The Duke was looking for Beth too. It seemed odd that he was searching for her so early in the morning. What if something has happened?”
If even Debert was searching for Beth, the situation was more serious than he had thought.
“This isn’t good,” Collins muttered, scratching his rough beard in frustration.
If Debert himself was looking for her, this might be an independent action on Beth’s part.
How she managed to slip away from the battlefield unnoticed and why she did so remained a mystery.
“Ines! Mr. Collins!” came a shout from below the open window, followed by the sound of a horn.
“Director! You need to come down! The vehicle is here!” a soldier called, urging them to hurry.
“What about Beth?” Ines asked, her voice quivering with worry.
Collins gently patted both his wife’s and Ines’s shoulders.
“You should go ahead with Ines. I’ll stay behind with the remaining staff to look for Beth and catch up on the last vehicle.”
Trying to ease their worry, Collins forced a light-hearted tone.
“Beth may seem mild-mannered, but she’s got a mischievous streak. I’ll find her, I promise, on my honour as a Molly.”
Only then did Mrs. Molly and Ines gather their belongings and leave the director’s office, still glancing back nervously as they went. Collins waved cheerfully until they disappeared from sight.
He could see the remaining nurses boarding the vehicle outside the window. Finally, Collins slowly descended the stairs.
“Debert must still be around here somewhere,” he calculated as he made his way towards the barracks.
“Beth, what on earth were you thinking?” he muttered under his breath, knowing she couldn’t hear him.
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TRANSLATOR:
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