CH 84

It was morning when he came to his senses.

The seething pain also disappeared. Only traces of struggle in pain remained like debris.

Argen neatly organized his appearance.

He removed all traces of his surroundings as if he had never been sick. 

When Arsen saw how neat he looked, he laughed at himself.

<The Marquis’ successor is under a curse. Everyone in the world will think you’re terrible.>

<Shame of the Marquis.>

<But don’t worry. It’s not a shame if you don’t get caught.>

A bad memory came to mind. 

Argen looked at himself coldly in the mirror while obsessively straightening his clothes, which were already neat.

He must never get caught. 

He should be flawless. 

Every time he made a promise, it raised a question. 

He wonders why he let that arrogant maid know his weakness. 

Argen is usually a generous master, but he turns like a tyrant in a sensitive area.

Anyway, the maid disappeared while knowing his weakness. 

It would be better to stop thinking useless thought for now. 

Knock knock. 

Then he heard a knock outside the room.

“Come in.”

When the permission was granted, the knight who entered the room bowed to Argen.

“What’s the matter?” 

“…The investigation into Rosie, as ordered earlier, is over.”

“….” 

Before Rosie escaped, Argen had told him to investigate Rosie. 

“So what happened?”

If Rosie’s investigation is over, he might have a clue to finding her whereabouts.

Argen thought so.

However, words came unexpectedly from her knight.

“…The person the Marquis asked to find out, Rosie, doesn’t exist.”

Argen was frozen at the knight’s words. 

“What?”

It was an unexpected story.

Rosie has never said anything wrong to him. 

He sometimes wondered if she was lying to him, but he could see the truth when he looked into her eyes.

So he was complacent. He thought the maid was in his grasp.

—It can’t be, Rosie is deceiving everyone in this place? 

“It seems that she hides her identity to approach the Marquis.”

“Why do you think so?”

“…We are still trying to figure it out.”

Argen let out a sigh mixed with annoyance.

“Did you find out about the monster and Rosie’s whereabouts?”

“We haven’t been able to find the whereabouts of the monster, but we have found something suspicious about Rosie.”

“What is it?”

The knight looked at Argen’s eyes and carefully handed over the data.

“This is from Rosie’s room.”

Argen looked at the material the servant had given him. 

It was a map showing the route.

“What is this?”

“We found this while researching in Rosie’s room.”

The servant continued to speak.

“Rosie seems to have been planning an escape before. And there’s another suspicious person, do you  remember the maid named Marie who was put in prison before?”

“I remember.” 

The monster caught the maid trying to add something strange to the monster’s food, she was put directly in prison.

“Then the same fruit that the maid was trying to feed the monster came out of Rosie’s room. Isn’t something weird?”

The knight didn’t stop and recounted the strange behavior Rosie had been doing.

“It’s not just that. The monster went on a rampage before the maid disappeared. At that time, the maid said something strange: ‘The Marquis told me to lock the monster in the punishment room if it caused trouble’.”

Argen didn’t understand at all.

Why did Rosie say that?

“I never gave Rosie such an order.”

“Yeah, that’s what’s weird. Maybe Rosie was even trying to help the monster escape.”

After that, the knight continued to talk about what they had found about Rosie. 

Argen, who had a serious face, gave a congratulatory order when the knight’s report was over.

Argen, who was left alone, fell into thoughts.

<I come from a village at the edge of the Empire. And it was because people in my hometown didn’t know about this.>

<There is no way that the villagers will know the patterns they see for the first time, and there is no money to call a doctor. That’s why they got it while applying various herbs that are good for my skin.> 

For some reason, Rosie’s voice echoed in his ears.

Even though he knows now that everything she said was a lie.

Argen clenched his teeth.

He was an arrogant aristocrat by birth.

He doesn’t let someone deceive him. 

Even more so if someone dares to enter Marquis with a fake identity and learn about his weakness.  

“Find Rosie by all means.”

At that moment, there was a burning pain in the neck area.

It is the pain caused by the damn curse.

Argen, who gritted his teeth, looked at the herbs that Rosie had collected directly from the mountain behind.

“Ha…” 

The pain doesn’t subside as much as the moment Rosie did.

He couldn’t figure out why the pain had completely disappeared when Rosie did it.

So he had to find more Rosie.

And find out what she did. 

Argen struggled with pain for a long time.

Rumors of the missing Rosie spread throughout the mansion.

The current situation entangled with the escape of the monster was nothing short of a tie for the servants.

Now that the monster has escaped, Argen will most likely not let those who fail to stop his escape.

So, if he could put all of this on Rosie’s fault—.

People who spread rumors about Rosie soon made the mansion a hostile place for her because they felt it was a threat to their own safety.

“Rosie was a little cheap, actually.”

Everyone agreed with that.

The servants who got along with Rosie said that was not true, but the stinging look made them shut up.

“By the way. Why isn’t she here?”

“She? Who?” 

“There it is. blonde…The one who followed Rosie…”

“Ah, Emily?” 

Rosie knew all of the people who lived in the mansion very well, but no one was as close to her as Emily.

“What’s wrong with Emily?” 

“Why can’t I see her these days?”

Rosie is gone, and Emily is gone.

One of the servants who felt something odd was questioned.

“She went on vacation. She must be one of the kids who took a vacation for the festival?”

“She went on vacation? But shouldn’t she have returned by now?”

“…Is that so?” 

—The situation was going strangely.

However, when the news broke, the story of Rosie vanished.

“…Is that true? That Herthas’ successor might change?”

Rumors spread that Dylan Herthas was seriously injured and that perhaps his successor position might be replaced by Yurtha.

From Dylan Herthas to Yurtha Herthas.

Thus, the Marquis became a hot topic.

* * *

After the summer festival ended, a long shower began.

Slowly, dark clouds moved in, making the blue sky look like they were being eaten away. Soon, they covered the sky over the capital city.

Yurtha looked out his window at the rain falling and then looked at Dylan, who was bound and on his knees.

The bloody blood that gnaws at my flesh.

“So why are you bothering me like that?”

“….” 

“If you knew the subject and didn’t interfere, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Dylan and Yurtha.

The two men were full of wounds.

They both had small, deep wounds that showed when they looked at each other.

But there were differences.

Yurtha’s clothes were neat, and Dylan wore the same clothes he had at the time of the fight.

The winner was Yurtha.

As always.

“Still, there is a brotherly bond, and I don’t want to act like this.”

“….” 

“Where is Nunim?” 

Yurtha looked at Dylan, whose mouth was covered with a cloth, then turned his head and glanced at the man around him.

When they figured out what Yurtha meant, they quickly approached Dylan.

“…Hmph!” 

They removed the gag from Dylan’s mouth.

Dylan glared at Yurtha with fierce eyes.

But Yurtha laughed at the gaze as if it were ridiculous.

“I ask you. Where is Nunim?” 

“…I told you I don’t know, you bastard.” 

“Are you telling me to believe that?”

“Then what to do?” 

Dylan raised his chin up as if he couldn’t do anything.

The old Dylan Yurtha remembered was a coward.

How the hell did Rose change that coward?

“This is your last chance, Hyung-nim.” 

“What a nonsense.” 

To the subject of being chained and forced to kneel without being able to control his body because he was given drugs that made him unable to move.

Dylan laughed at Yurtha.

“Ha!” 

Yurtha burst out laughing. It wasn’t really funny.

“But isn’t it a little funny?”

“What do you mean?”

“To find Rose from me.”

“….” 

“Even if I knew where Rose was, I wouldn’t even tell you, you damn brother.” 

Dylan raised the corners of his lips.

“Because you are destined to never be with Rose for the rest of your life.”

It was ridiculous.

Who is brave enough to talk about whose fate, even if he loses to him and begs for his life?

Who is brave enough to talk about whose fate, even if he loses to him and begs for his life to be enough?

The string of reason that was barely holding on to it was broken.

“Hyung-nim, do you know what one of the ways people die painfully?”

Yurtha approached Dylan at a slow pace.

“Ugh!” 

And without hesitation, he kicked Dylan’s head with his feet.

Dylan broke down with a groan.

“I think it’s best to end your life by crawling badly.”

Yurtha looked at Dylan with pity.

“I certainly gave him a chance, but it was you who missed it.”

“Crazy bastard.”

Yurtha laughed at Dylan’s swear words and drew his sword.

“I can give you another chance.”

“Get out of here.”

“Well, then.”

Yurtha smiled and swung his sword without hesitation.