Chapter 76

Chapter 76

“What’s this?”

Marie was eventually able to come into the garden half hugged by Kentrail. She stumbled once, and he grabbed her.

Embarrassed if others were to see, she struggled, though it was of no use as he firmly supported her.

“Isn’t it rare if we act like we don’t know each other now?”

“Yes…?”

She gazed at him in surprise. Even though she kept it a secret, in her eyes, it was as if he had talked about it.

“I didn’t even say it, it’s just that they’d known our atmosphere.”

“….”

“You don’t want it?”

Asked Kentrail, who had Marie sit on a bench in the garden and knelt in front of her.

“…No, it’s just sudden, and I don’t know what other people think.”

Sudden rise in status of the fallen noble nanny. That would be a title beyond comparison.

“What would they think? It would be said that the Count, who had been rude, met a woman with a warm heart and became a human.”

At that, Marie laughed when she saw him describing himself as rude. He seemed to know the expression from the queen himself.

“I think our relationship is serious. I don’t mean to force it, but if you don’t hate me, I want you to live with me.”

He avoided her eyes as if he was not confident.

“Where I was, there were a lot of people who broke up after dating, and there were a lot of people who got married and then broke up.”

Kentrail’s heart pounded at those words.

“….”

His heart was beating like crazy, and his hands were sweating. At the same time, his head was busy thinking of the alternatives to convince her if she told him to stop or if she only wanted to date.

“…My mother and father had no choice but to get married.”

When Marie started talking again, he knew that she was talking about her parents.

“After I grew up a bit, they always said that they would divorce after having me. The cruelest thing was when they would take me away when they got a divorce.”

He never knew there was such a sad past behind her bright face.

“Every time that happens, I make up my mind to leave before they can leave me when I grow up quickly. However, it failed. Since I was seventeen, the two of them rarely come home…”

Kentrail was more saddened by her not shedding tears. His chest swelled.

“So, I decided that I wouldn’t do anything like love and that marriage is not something I would ever see in my life.”

He hugged her as she spoke. He couldn’t bear to leave her alone, who would have swallowed her loneliness.

“…But, I came here and met the Count. I know what it feels like to love. Nonetheless, I’m still a little afraid of getting married… Can I be with the Count like this?”

“Of course.”

He lifted Marie’s face to meet her eyes.

“As you know, my family is not perfect. I’m also a person who lacks a lot, but you filled me when you came here. I want to be that kind of person to you, too.”

Hearing his sincere words, Marie first pulled his face and kissed him.

“…Thank you.”

“It should be me who had to say that.”

Their lips touched again. They could only hear each other breathing, and nothing else mattered.

***

Marie went to see the kitchen maid who stabbed her with Kentrail.

“The smell will play a role. And, the stairs are still too dark for you to go down.”

He was talking about what he was so worried about, holding Marie at the entrance of the prison. Kentrail spoke again before she could even take a step.

“…No way. I’ll just hold you and go downstairs.”

“I’m really fine. If you’re so worried, please hold my hand.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist tightly, though what was so terrifying was that he treated her like a baby.

“Slowly, step by step, okay?”

“Yes.”

Behind her, she felt the knights looking at them, frowning, although Marie tried to pretend she didn’t know.

The first path she took in the dark, she walked holding hands with him, and it was fine. The disgusting smells were tolerable.

“It’s flat now.”

His soft voice resounded, and she took her steps little by little. As she walked, Marie could see a face that had made her tremble in fear. She could feel Kentrail glancing at her worriedly, fearing that she might have been frightened or terrified.

“I’m fine.”

Marie spoke to him, and she took a step forward and walked up to the maid. Then, the maid turned her head to look at her.

“I’m here to ask you something.”

The maid raised one corner of her mouth and smiled. Her face, who couldn’t eat properly, made her expression even more bizarre.

“Where did you get this brooch?”

“You know better than I do.”

Again, her mouth, which had been tightly shut in front of the knights, opened.

“Are there any more people like you here?”

“Why are you pretending not to know?”

She asked, gesturing to Kentrail.

“Oh, it’s because of the handsome chancellor? But then, shouldn’t he also know? That you tried to kill the handsome Young Master of this house.”

The maid, of course, assumed that Kentrail didn’t know, and she stared at him with a look of anticipation on his shocked expression. However, it was her who made a shocked face when the expression she had expected did not come out.

“What…? Did you know? Did you just let her go?”

“Who gave you this medicine. Is it Jaz?”

Marie persisted when she heard that Jaz was a distributor of this drug.

“I see. You knew it well.”

As expected, confirming that Jaz was also of the same organization, Marie grabbed her pounding heart and asked.

“Why? Why are you aiming here…? I haven’t heard of a reason.”

She then turned her stature as she spoke as if she was a member of the organization.

“Ha, you think I’ll tell the traitor about that?”

“Why can’t you tell me? Because that’s the goal of the organization? If it’s a personal grudge, it’s more difficult to say.”

At Marie’s word, the maid stared at her.

“What do you think you know? Do you know how it feels like your whole family is dead?”

“Are you trying to avenge the death of your family? Still, if I were you, I would hate it terribly… to turn other families into monsters because of you.”

“Ah, I didn’t think you would understand anything like that. Rather, it’s so bad that you leave your younger siblings for money.”

She seemed to know the real Marie in detail.

“Not now.”

“Recently, I’ve seen you’re mimicking angels, although your nature isn’t going anywhere.”

As she kept getting out of the way of her questions, Marie frowned.

“You keep making excuses, but it’s two different things that you tried to kill the Young Master and that I was commissioned like that. Don’t try to rationalize your own crimes through other people’s actions.”

Perhaps, angry at Marie’s words, she raised her body as if to run at her. However, she couldn’t reach her because Kentrail hid Marie behind him.

“Haha, that’s absurd. Why do you have any sympathy for someone who had tried to kill your own nephew? You pity her? Or, did you fall in love with her? Huh…?”

He stared at her with cold eyes without saying anything.

“I wish you could have shown that compassion to my family. To my family…! It’s because of you! My whole family is dead!”

“Was your family involved in my parents’ case?”

He gave his first words to the maid.

“Involved…? Unfairly involved with someone related to you?”

She ran as though wanting to choke his neck, but Kentrail, too, easily subdued her with one hand.

“Even though I think you’re right, my parents are victims of that. They haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Yes, because of those noble people… my parents died with their sins on their behalf. Huh?”

Marie gazed at her with a shocked face.

She was somehow firmly misunderstood, and there was such resentment all her life.

“You seem to have a grudge against my brother as well. Still, that was something he had corrected. Originally, it wasn’t something our family did at all.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I can still see how happy my family was when your family didn’t charge our family with the sin.”

Her eyes were gradually tinged with madness.

It didn’t seem like the words would work anymore. Kentrail, who hit her in the back of the head, knocking her out, shoved her back through the bars inside the prison. Then, he wrapped Marie around and walked out from there.

***

“Are you all right?”

Kentrail asked Marie, who seemed shocked.

“Yes, I’m fine. How about the Count? You’re more surprised than me.”

“It’s okay for me. I just think that the day when I was happy to get rid of my implications and regain my rightful authority for my family was a day when I could hold grudges like that for some people.”

“Still, the Count is not the one to frame people.”

“That’s right. From what I’ve investigated again, we did the right thing.”

“If you can’t accept that, you will not be able to live, so you have to believe.”

“Yes.”

“What if there are no results?”

“You knew Jaz had something to do with the organization.”

“It is, but… perhaps, there’s another infiltrator here?”

“I ordered the maid to bring the employee’s identity. I’ll look at it again.”

“Okay.”

“By the way, can you move like this already?”

Worried about Marie, he laid her down on the bed and asked.

“This is fine.”

“Yes, there’s something I want to show you when things get a little better. So, don’t move as much as possible and just focus on your recovery a little more.”

It was like soothing a child with a gift.

“Can I look forward to it?”

As if in return, Marie asked with an excited tone.

“Of course. I hope you like it.”

It was when he pulled the blanket up to her neck and approached her face again.

“Uncle!”

Brielle opened the door and went to both of them.

“Brielle.”

The two people, in bewilderment, glanced at Briel without properly fixing their faces.

“What is with you?”

Brielle had an angry face, so Kentrail was nervous. At last, he thought his nephew knew the relationship between the two.

“Aren’t you going to check my homework…?!”

…However, what came out was something else.

“Huh…?”

“How hard I’ve worked. What if you still haven’t checked it?”

Brielle was so upset that he even clenched his two fists.

“Did I?”

“Yes! Me and Ellie stayed up all night to do it all…! Come and check it out soon.”

Taking Kentrail’s hand, he pulled him out.

“I will be back.”

Marie, who watched the scene, waved her hand and said goodbye.

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