Chapter 77

Chapter 77

He asked for a maid to attend to her, but he didn’t know that woman would be there. It was the person who sold Tessa’s jewelry.

Putting the two together in this situation was nothing more than giving them time to conspire. Maybe he didn’t know. That woman may be the spy that was planted on Tessa by Missus Vellodem.

“That is… The Marchioness said that if possible, a maid she’s familiar with would be better…”

As Hert asked ferociously, the nearby knight looked at him and spoke.

“Is the Marchioness your superior?”

“…I apologize.”

“Drag her out. Lock up that woman in prison.”

Hert gave the order and the knights began to forcibly pull Mani out. Ma, Mani! Tessa desperately reached out and gripped Mani’s clothes as she was dragged in front of her, just like Janet. Because of this, the knights looked troubled and looked at Hert and Tessa at the same time.

“You better let her go when I’m still merciful.”

Hert said with a cold, stiff face. Why was she still protecting her maid in this situation? Tessa’s slender hand holding Mani tight as if he would not let Mani go made him feel even worse. It felt as if his stomach had been twisted into knots.

“You, you don’t have to… drag her out like this…”

“Or do you want to see something worse? Do not anger me.”

From Hert’s point of view, he was still being gentlemanly enough. He did not even cut off Mani’s arm or even kill her? He just ordered to have Mani dragged out and put in prison. On the contrary, when Tessa treated him like this, his patience seemed to explode at any moment.

“Please, Her…”

Tessa looked up at Hert with a pathetic face. Perhaps, she had already cried once, the tears were still pooling in her eyes. Hert responded by barely erasing the impulsive thought of wiping those tears away.

“What?”

“Listen to me…”

“So we don’t even need that maid between us. Right?”

Hert gazed at the hesitating knights and shot back again.

“What are you doing, drag her out quickly.”

“Mani…!”

Unable to overcome the knights’ strength, Tessa slipped and lost Mani. Ma, Madam. Help, help me, please! Seeing Mani being dragged away, Tessa hurriedly called Hert. Her!

She was afraid that Mani would get hurt like this. She was also worried about Janet, who was suddenly separated from her, but still Janet was a lady and Mani was a servant. She knew that the two’s treatment of the two would be markedly different.

Tessa said in a trembling voice.

“Don’t do anything to Mani… Tell me you won’t Please, Her…”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“That…”

Hert looked down at Tessa for a moment. Her two little hands were trembling. It wasn’t just that. Now that he sees it, Tessa was a mess. Perhaps she had rolled somewhere, her hair was messed up, and the hem of her dress was dirty with grass and dirt. Her pale complexion made her look as sickly as before, and there were pale scratches on her exposed wrists and shoulders.

‘Sh*t, what the hell happened to you outside?’

Hert swallowed the curse and let out a sigh instead. Damn it… His heart shouldn’t be weakened, but he kept his eyes on Tessa. He wanted to heal those wounds right away and gently brush away the tears welling around her eyes. He wanted to calm his heart that was beating wildly.

He couldn’t stop his heart, even though she had betrayed him twice like this. At this point, it was clear that he was the problem. Hert clenched and opened his hand, and said to himself.

‘You idiot…’

Soon after the knights disappeared and the door closed, Hert slowly walked over to Tessa and knelt down in front of her to meet her gaze. Then he began to gently stroke the corners of her tear-filled eyes.

“…Don’t cry. It was just something I had to say.”

“…Really…?”

“But don’t even think I’ll let it go. I can’t stand it this time. You’re going to have to explain everything to me.”

Tessa slowly nodded her head at Hert’s cold reply. He got Tessa up and put her on the bed, and he folded his arms and stood in front of her. Then he waited for Tessa to speak.

Meanwhile, Tessa inhaled her breath for a moment, then exhaled. Let’s calm down, you can do it. Don’t be afraid, if you speak slowly……. It will be fine. If you tell the truth, I’m sure Hert will understand. It’s not that difficult to explain it all in proper order. As Tessa comforted herself, she began to recall past memories to explain to Hert.

‘Mani led me out… I was kidnapped… With Mani’s help, I managed to escape. Yes, let’s emphasize this. Then I’ll at least be able to prove that Mani wasn’t trying to hurt me.’

Above all, Mani could be a witness that an intruder had entered the castle. Maybe he can catch the intruder quickly with her help. Tessa nodded her head, coated her throat with her saliva, preparing to speak. And she was just about to open her mouth.

“Are you not going to tell me again?”

Hert, who had misunderstood Tessa’s recollection of her past as keeping her mouth shut, spoke coldly. From his point of view, he thought she had come up with a lie to get out of this situation. He asked impatiently.

“Why did you run away?”

“I never… I never tried to run away…!”

Tessa hurriedly shook her head to Hert, but he was still convinced that she had run away. She strengthened her voice, even shouting low. It was because he was unfairly framed as running away.

“Then, what about your trinkets and Missus Vellodem? Also explain why you were there at that time.”

“That is… Mani, no, Janet, ah, no, that’s…”

It was difficult for her to speak because her words were getting all twisted up on her tongue, perhaps because she was in a hurry to resolve the misunderstanding. It felt like the words she had put together in her head were scattered into the air in an instant. Still, Tessa tried her best to get Tessa back into her head, trying to get her words back together.

‘For now, I will explain from the beginning…’

But this time, Hert asked first.

“What is your relationship with Missus Vellodem?”

“What…? What relationship… The Madam and I… are friends.”

She thought the question was odd, but Tessa was able to answer Tessa in a calmer voice than before. It was proof that she was slowly finding composure in spite of Hert’s surprising question. But Hert sneered as if Tessa’s answer was funny.

“So it seems like your friend was trying to hit me in the back of the head.”

“I didn’t… do that…! I swear, Her. Really… I met the Madam there… It was a coincidence…!”

“Then why did you go there? How would you explain that?”

“I was kidnapped… I ran away and she was there!”

Tessa, without realizing it, shouted again in the rush. Hert frowned. It was because from Tessa’s mouth came a strange word.

“Kidnapped?”

“That … I followed Mani out, and I got… kidnapped. So I ran away. Only with Mani’s help… Then I met Janet. If Janet hadn’t helped… I’d be caught again. And then—”

Hert raised his hand to stop Tessa. He was looking at Tessa in disbelief. It was as if Tessa was saying something out of the ordinary.

“So, you mean you went out following the maid and got kidnapped…? Tessa, do you think that makes sense? Where are the knights escorting you in the first place? Rather, I told you to stay inside. Until I come back.”

“She said… you were hurt. I was so confused too… Please believe me, Her. I really… was not running away… I was really going to stay in the room until you came back. I really didn’t mean to run away…”

Tessa’s voice was getting smaller. Hert said it was nonsense, and he seemed to believe it, so she wondered if she had spoken for nothing. All the more because she thought Hert would believe her if she spoke properly. Yet, even though Tessa told the truth, Hert’s face hardened instead.

The two were silent for a moment. After a while, it was Hert who broke the silence first. He spoke with a short sigh.

“Tessa, if everything you said was really true, so you had no intention of leaving, that the maid said I was hurt and she lured you out to get you kidnapped? Then, on the way, with the maid’s help, you managed to escape and run away, where you happened to meet Missus Vellodem. And I also saw it by accident and misunderstood it.”

“…Right!”

Tessa nodded her head quickly. It seemed that the order was jumbled up and the answers were gibberish, but Hert understood everything she said and finished the story. So now he’ll believe her…

But Hert’s blue eyes grew cold. Tessa shuddered.

At that moment, Hert spat out.

“Do you think this is a joke?”

“…That…”

“Are you telling me to believe this obvious lie now?”

Hert was dumbfounded. It was all lies to anyone who heard it. He wanted to believe in Tessa, but he couldn’t.

Anyway, even if it’s all true, how would she explain the letter she left? It was obviously a farewell letter to say goodbye.

Why was she lying so openly about that important piece of evidence?

She was making excuses that didn’t make sense because she was caught while running away… He couldn’t wrap his head around it… Hert suppressed the anger that was about to explode at any moment. In fact, he had no idea how he would treat Tessa when the anger erupted.

“Why don’t you just say that you want to run away? Say that you don’t want to be here anymore because it’s so terrible… I’d rather you do that. Rather than your absurd lies.”

“No, Her , I’m not lying… Really, really I…”

“It’s not a lie? Oh, there were witnesses. Tessa, if you say so, won’t the woman and the maid prove your innocence? Because everyone tends to be honest when their lives are at stake.”

Tessa’s eyes widened hearing Hert’s voice. What was he saying… Tessa barely managed to get the words out of her mouth in a trembling voice.

“Her, Her… Don’t do that. The two of them… Were the ones who helped me! I beg you, please don’t hurt them… promise me you’re not going to do anything. Please… You said you would believe me. Please believe me…”

“You…”

“Please, Her…”

Tessa trembled with the rising anxiety and tried to cling to Hert. Hert opened his mouth with an exasperated laugh.

“…You make people laugh until the very end. Is that all you have to say?”

“…Her?”

Tessa stared at Hert stiffly. Hert was looking down at Tessa with a more subdued face than before.

“Damn, what you had to tell me now…”

The man leaned over and reached out to Tessa. Her slender shoulders that he grabbed were trembling.

“Rather than continuously protecting the maid…”

Murderous energy once again rose in his blue eyes.

“You should ask for my forgiveness first.”

—