CH 131

Astonished by the confession, my hand involuntarily tapped a leaf, and the fireflies that were eating the dew flew away.

Pretty lights that illuminated the black night.

Hot breaths.

And, the words of confession that seem to dig out one’s heart and bear it.

“Sislin.”

I felt his heart clearly for the first time.

“…….”

It’s weird.

Upon hearing that confession, my fear disappeared.

Because it was an ambiguous and unknown future, fear came alongside excitement and wonder.

On a night when even the waaning moon held its breath, the moonlight shone softly on the two.

And from a pillar under a silver aspen tree where fireflies flew leisurely, there was another person who saw this scene.

His eyes contorted painfully.

As if standing on the edge of the world’s precipice, his precarious breath shattered white into the air.

Heinrich slowly turned and walked out of the garden.

He couldn’t say anything.

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━

“You have to stop it. You must stop it.”

Number 19 cried out bitterly.

For him, who came to El Dorado after a long time due to helping at the bakery, he received a late update of ‘Master’s Love Circumstances’.

After hearing all the situations (especially the serious current state in which Sislin often called Annette over saying he was sick), Number 19 suddenly felt things were dire.

Kyle frowned and asked, looking quizzically at Number 19, who had eaten a lot of bread and gained 3kg.

“What do you want me to stop?”

“Where will you lie down if you’re sick? Won’t you lie down in bed? What would happen if the two of them met over and over again? The atmosphere will surely get weird.”

‘That’s not good?’

Kyle’s eyebrows rose at the odd expression.

Number 19 said, clenching his fists.

“…His Highness the Crown Prince and Annette, they’re going to grow even closer!!!”

Chubby, listening seriously, nodded his head.

“Well, I also had a woman I loved.”

“…….”

“…….”

It was something that no one ever wondered about. However, he continued speaking, steadfast.

“I had my first kiss with her, when she took care of me while I was sick.”

“……!”

“……!”

Everyone was surprised.

They were not surprised that she kissed a sick man while caring for him.

They were surprised to find that there was a kind-hearted woman who kissed his ugly face with a messy beard.

“Are you sure it wasn’t a dream?”

Number 19 rolled his eyes and commented.

Anyway, the words of Chubby sounded unreliable, but if the person was the crown prince, it was a possible story. Since he was quite handsome.

One of the surrounding vicious-looking men muttered with a serious nod.

“If that really happened…”

“It’s a big deal.”

“You have to stop it, yes, you have to stop it.”

Another member of Larva, one who was particularly imaginative, exclaimed with a shocked face.

“How can those two kiss each other!”

―It was already done in his imagination.

At that moment, bang! There was the sound of something heavy hitting the table, crushing the overheated atmosphere.

Kyle calmed everyone down with a simple order.

“Everyone, shut up.”

“Yes.”

“Y-Yes.”

He said, smoothing his chin.

“It’s her choice to go care for the sick prince. Don’t be childish.”

“…But they…”

The guy that had imagined the kiss flinched, his stomach burning. 

Kyle looked at each of his men’s faces, stating,

“Even if anything happens between the two of them, it’s not my concern at all.”

“…….”

“The important thing is her ‘heart’.”

Larva, who had been rolling around like uncooked fish cakes, had to keep their mouths shut and admit to the correct conclusion of this mature man.

That’s right. If everyone fell in love and got married because they were drunk on the atmosphere, they wouldn’t be anyone single by now.

“Her heart has not been decided yet.”

Kyle was looking right at Annette.

He was the most attentive, closely observing her mind more than anyone else.

As long as her heart was still with her, Kyle would just try.

To allow her to choose for herself, to be silent and respectful, doing what he could do for her.

This was Kyle’s way.

‘It would be better to finish the request first.’

The next day.

Kyle asked Annette to meet.

Annette, as usual, looked a little tired, but gladly accepted the meeting.

After everyone left the drawing room, Kyle finally parted his lips.

“Owner, we have found the informant.”

Dalgak—

Annette set the teacup down on the saucer. Surprise was evident on her face.

“…Is that for real?”

“Yes. I recently found the informant and he confessed everything.”

Who was it?

The one who made Gerard move. That was all, but a lot of things happened thanks to the butterfly effect.

The chasers came to the peaceful island of Bayonaire, and it was messed up. After returning to El Dorado, instead of spending time with her mother, she had to prepare her funeral.

Annette wanted to find out the cause.

She thought everything would become clear if the twisted thread was unwound from there.

Kyle contemplated for a moment, looking into Annette’s desperate eyes.

‘I hope you don’t get hurt too much.’

‘You’re strong.’

“The culprit is Grand Duke Heinrich. The ‘informer’ was his aide, Duncan, and he did it on the orders of his master.”

“……!!!”

—Heinrich?

Annette’s eyes darkened.

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━

“Are you unable to contact Grand Duke Hyacinth?”

“It’s been a while since His Excellency came to us. Regrettably, we are also waiting for a call from His Excellency.”

“…If you get in touch, tell him that the Duchess of Valienne has been here.”

“Yes, Duchess.”

—Heinrich disappeared.

I tried contacting the mansion as well as the Magic Tower, but everyone just shook their heads.

He wasn’t even in the laboratory where he usually hid in for research. Literally ‘evaporated’.

‘How could this be?’

‘You’re so irresponsible, Heinri.’

He suddenly disappeared?

He let Gerard know where I was, committing such a bad thing.

Disappearing so we couldn’t even meet and talk.

I felt betrayed.

“As you can guess, he didn’t do it for bad purposes.”

“…….”

“It was a stupid mistake.”

Kyle explained why Heinrich did it.

It was to get me.

But whatever the purpose was, the resulting situation had already occured, and nothing changed.

As I wandered aimlessly, refusing escorts, I thought of a place where Heinrich might be.

And, after a very long time…

I visited it after almost 10 years.

—It was the Forest.

Where we first met. The lakeside in the Forest where I often went with Heinrich.

Even when I headed there, I hoped that he wasn’t there.

Because it was the lakeside where there were only good memories of us.

“The Forest building has really disappeared…”

On the way to the lakeside, I suddenly stopped by the Forest.

The Forest was closed, and the old buildings looked very dated. It felt strange.

Eventually, I went past it and finally reached the shore of the lake.

“……!”

My eyes traveled down and saw a silver head crouching down.

‘Heinri…’

The man, who was looking at the lake with a blank face, had the same expression as when I first saw him as a child.

I slowly walked towards him.

“…….”

Heinrich felt nothing, and didn’t react as if he was conscious of nothing.

Let’s stand in front of him—

It literally felt like my heart was going to explode.

“…What are you doing here?”

Silver hair fluttered in the wind. Like a doll, Heinrich didn’t answer.

My stomach slowly heated up. My eyes too.

“Heinrich, you told Gerard where I was?”

“…….”

“Right? it’s you?”

‘Say something with your mouth, Heinri.’

I bit my lips at Heinrich’s attitude; refusing to answer and not even making eye contact.

‘How could you do that?’

‘How I truly loved you.’

‘To me, who prayed for only your happiness.’

“What you did put the people of Bayonaire in danger!”

“…….”

“I haven’t spoken a word with my mother. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know. Maybe I could have saved my mother.”

I could feel my voice sharpening as I spoke.

“Say something! Henri…”

At that moment, Heinrich’s dry, cracked lips moved slowly.

He replied very softly.

“Right. It’s me.”

Heinrich slowly got up from his seat. It was then that I saw his face– his pale, skinny face. The silver-haired man boldly confessed.

“I did it.”

“…How could you do such a bad thing?”

Heinrich’s eyes narrowed. He laughed viciously.

“You didn’t know? I’m always bad. Stupid sister, always going ‘good Heinrich, my Heinrich.’ I’ve never been good.”

“…….”

“Stupid Annette, you’ve been deceived by me.”

I silently looked at Heinrich, not moving an inch.

Just by receiving that cold gaze, Heinrich felt like his heart was being ripped to pieces.

Heinrich, at this moment, thought of what had happened on the shores of this lake.

A reckless but kind girl fell into the lake after being deceived by his mischief.

“…Wow, is Heinrich good at swimming? That’s great. Cool. Keuk!”

‘I shouldn’t have loved you back then.’

“Sister, why are you being so nice to me?”

“That’s because I love you, Heinri. I like you the best in the world!”

‘I shouldn’t have believed that.’

Tuk, tuk.

Hot tears flowed from Heinrich’s eyes.

“That’s me. I was a terribly bad bastard from the start.”

‘Only the naive you didn’t know’

“…….”

“So—”

He grabbed Annette’s arms with trembling hands.

He cried as he collapsed with eyes full of despair.

“If you don’t love me the most, I’d rather you hate me the most…”

Ame: My mind is tired, and my heart is sore. Someone, wake me up from this nightmare. Putting that aside, I can’t and won’t condone Heinrich’s actions, but I really just can’t hate him.

I guess I just find him really pitiful. All his life, nothing ever just comes easily for him… add on a twisted perception of life (no thanks to sperm donor)… ah, no wonder he’s like this. It’s easy to go “you snitched on annette, you bad”, but it’s more complex than that, isn’t it?

Tassie: I completely agree with Ame, it’s very easy to hate him but Annette is the only person in his life to show him love. Yes what he did was wrong, but I find him more pitiful than hateful. I’m hoping there’ll be a redemption arc for him tho ;-; I hope we also get a happy ending for everyone ;-;;;;;;