Chapter 26

Railin Mosley was a stunning man whose age was unknown. He was one of the great hands supporting Deltium. Railin’s secret guild, ‘Secret‘ was not limited only to smuggling. He had a number of organizations that ran illegal ‘errands‘, including Information Guilds.

Because of this, Railin had to walk tightropes quite often. Contrary to his fine looks, he was a very daring and observant person. He could  accurately grasp a person’s character just by listening to the way they spoke. In Railin’s view, Annette was not an easy bet.

Her tone was elegant and calm, and she didn’t show any sign of excitement while talking about smuggling. She was like a person who had foreseen the misfortunes of the future and was looking for a way out. In a word, it didn’t seem like a careless attempt made by an immature Lady to run away.

‘You look like a lady from a noble family, what’s making you suffer so much?’

Railin was very interested in her. Even though he was involved in the Underworld, he was very picky with his tastes. He liked elegant and noble things, just like Annette who was sitting in front of him. Her breathing pattern, her sitting posture and her every hand gesture was full of grace.

In exchange for not revealing her identity, Annette paid a huge advance. When Railin received it, she was sure he could find her a good job with that. However, Railin didn’t want their relationship to end there. Anyway, Railin’s ‘business’ dealt with a wide range of things, so if he was lucky, they would continue to meet in future. Railin concluded the consultation by keeping his personal curiosity aside.

“I understand. I’ll send you reports of some of the Osland’s livable villages and jobs in as much detail as possible. If you change your mind or have more questions, you can always use this ring to contact me.”

Railin, with a bright business-like smile, held out a ring. The ring with a large amethyst set in it, was engraved with the ‘S’ logo in gold. It was the symbol of the Secret Guild ran by Railin .

Annette happily picked up the ring. If she was going to be smuggled out of the country, she needed to lay the groundwork in advance. In Deltium, ‘Annette Bavaria Carnesis’ needed to be at least missing, or in some cases, needed to be disguised, as meeting  with an accident. That way, the pursuit would not follow Annette in the future.

‘No, I don’t think I need to worry about someone tracking me.’

A bitter smile appeared on the face covered with a veil. There was no way the family who had abandoned her would wonder about her life and death. It was pointless to even think about it. At least her brother Arjen and her new sister-in-law Claire would be worried. She was going to somehow tell them the news separately.

‘And Rafael…’

Annette, who remembered her husband, was heartbroken. It was because she remembered the appearance of the drunk Rafael who said he hated her. He didn’t look very happy. Maybe it was because he married her.

There were many things she felt sorry for Rafael, and there were many things she wanted to improve in this deteriorating relationship. For this reason, Annette tried to get along with him, but what was impossible was.. simply impossible.

Annette bit her lips and gripped the amethyst ring in her hand tightly. If Rafael hated her so much, the only thing Annette could do for him now was to disappear from his sight. If she disappeared, she knew Rafael would be unable to sleep at night. But still he would be fine. At least his worries would disappear.

* * *

Even after returning to the mansion, Annette could not sleep easily. Her fingertips skimmed over the gold foil on the headboard of the luxurious bed. Since she was born into the Bavarian family, she naturally got used to these high-end goods and luxuries. So she was afraid of being alone, which was something that was going to begin now.

In fact, she did think about going to the Chapelle Empire, where her brother and his wife lived. However if Annette’s smuggling were to be known, they would be harmed as well. Arjen and Claire held high office positions, so she didn’t want them to get penalized because of her.

It was for this reason, Annette boldly decided to choose the kingdom of Osland. She thoughtlessly looked out of the window, contemplating how to make detailed plans for the future. Then she was surprised to see the position of the moon.

“Oh, it’s already time.”

Accustomed to her regular life, Annette lay down on the bed and went to sleep. But she couldn’t sleep because she had a lot of thoughts plaguing her mind. She would have to prepare thoroughly for at least a few months to leave Deltium.

The night was so quiet today that she could even hear her own heartbeats. Annette lay on the bed dazed, blinking her eyes, and suddenly she pricked up her ears. It seemed like something was coming from outside and was right in front of her bedroom.

‘The sound of human footsteps?’

The mysterious footsteps were wandering from front of her bedroom to between the hallways. Carefully approaching the front of her bedroom, Annette put her ears to the door and closed her eyes. It wasn’t an illusion, but the sound of footsteps was really coming from outside the door.

‘Oh my god, it’s not a ghost, is it?’

Annette trembled in fear. At first, she thought it was a maid, but at this time, no maid would disturb the hostess’ sleep by cleaning the hallway in front of her bedroom. Above all, the sound of footsteps was too heavy for a woman. Annette asked, trying to calm down her fear.

“Who’s out there?”

Of course no one answered back. Rather, the sound of footsteps stopped suddenly and there was an unsettling silence. She couldn’t breathe. She was scared that whatever was outside the bedroom would barge inside. Fortunately, as she was about to shout for someone, a faint murmur came from outside the door.

“No….. I didn’t really mean to abandon you…  That was the only way then.”

The murmurs from the outside sounded dull and confused. But the low voice was something that Annette knew very well.

“Rafael?”

After knowing who was outside the door, Annette’s fear disappeared and was replaced by worry. Of course, she was sad and angry when she thought of Rafael being cold to her. But apart from that, she was worried about Rafael’s condition. He seemed to be wandering in another terrible nightmare.

Annette carefully pushed open the bedroom door slowly. The faint light of the lamp, leaking from the inside lit up the man’s sculpted face. Rafael was half-naked and his pants hung dangerously low on his hips. Maybe he just came out of bed, because he barely walked in his pants. With his eyes tightly closed, he was sweating profusely, as if he was being tormented.

“I wanted to save you too, Robert…. The enemies over the moat…. I shouldn’t have abandoned you. I’m sorry.”

Words flowed out between his rough breaths, and soon disappeared, as if buried in the stillness of the night. He was beating himself up. Behind his closed eyelids she could see his eyes moving.

“Rafael, are you okay?”

Annette quickly approached him and spoke in a soft voice. However, her voice went unheard as Rafael was trapped in the depths of his dream. Rafael stood facing the wall of the cold corridor, frowning his beautiful eyebrows. Then, he began to pound his forehead against the wall.

“I’m cowardly,…weak…..I deserve to die.”

The intensity of Rafael hitting his forehead against the wall grew stronger and stronger as he continued to deprecate himself. The trauma was so severe that despite the impact on his forehead, Rafael showed no sign of waking up. At this rate, his forehead was sure to bruise if he went on like this.

“Rafael, what’s wrong? Stop!!”

Surprised, Annette jumped up quickly and wrapped his forehead with her hand. This prevented Rafael’s forehead from bruising, but instead her little hand was crushed quite forcefully against the wall. Annette almost screamed in pain, but she bit her lips tightly and held it in.

As she hugged Rafael, the coldness from his naked torso permeated her skin. It seemed that he had been wandering outside for quite a while. Feeling sorry for him, Annette did her best to distance him from the wall.

“Come here, Rafael. Come on. It’s too cold and dark in here, isn’t it?”

Annette hastily brought him into her bedroom before he began to hurt himself again. Her bedroom was filled with a gentle glow of light, and scent of herb potpourri, which helped her to sleep well. Maybe he felt it when he was unconscious, but Rafael’s painfully distorted expression became much better.

Annette, who managed to lay Rafael on her bed, quickly looked down at her hand, thinking that her hand that struck the wall while shielding Rafael’s forehead wasn’t so badly injured. However, her fingers were now numb as if electricity were flowing through them, and the third and fourth fingers began to swell.

‘I hope it’s not a fracture.’

Annette looked down at her hand with an anxious gaze. Rafael, still confused and trapped in his nightmare, groaned from behind.

“I wanted to… save you, Robert,”

“I’d appreciate it if you could save my fingers first,” Annette thought.