🔊 TTS Settings
Episode 008
Too Many Burdens to Confess
It was strange.
She no longer felt anything for Charles.
He had been the man she loved with everything she had.
And now, after the broken engagement, there was no regret left.
Dorothy smiled faintly at the past, which now seemed vague and distant.
“But… this is strange.”
As she headed home without Charles, she felt a strong sense of leaving something behind.
“Ah, that’s right! The Duke.”
It was only then that she realized she had left Brandon behind.
Breathless, Dorothy turned back.
Fortunately, Charles was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, Brandon was leaning against the wall, waiting for her.
“I’m really sorry, Duke!”
Seeing Dorothy, he spoke with his arms crossed, his voice carrying a hint of mischief.
“I thought you’d leave me behind and never come back.”
“Ah! I’m really sorry!”
Brandon, however, gave her a small, playful smile.
“You’re quite surprising, Dorothy.”
“…Huh? What do you mean?”
“Nothing at all.”
Dorothy tilted her head at his enigmatic expression.
He was just smiling out of habit, but his eyes—usually indifferent—sparkled now.
For some reason, Dorothy felt uneasy under his gaze.
Not knowing why, she carefully handed over the staff.
“Here’s your staff back.”
She accepted it immediately, though she still didn’t understand why he had given it to her in the first place.
‘It’s heavier than I expected… Was it made from a good material?’
Why had he entrusted her with such a treasured staff earlier?
No answer came to her alone.
After thinking for a while, Dorothy finally spoke.
“By the way… why did you give me your staff?”
At her question, Brandon let out a sudden chuckle.
But Dorothy was serious—after all, there could be a special story behind why he carried that staff.
“Hmm… well, Dorothy…”
As he tilted his lips into a crooked smile, Brandon suddenly took out a handkerchief and pressed it to his eyes.
“Actually, my leg does hurt.”
“Huh?!”
Dorothy was shocked at the pitiful expression on his face.
“But… you said earlier your leg wasn’t hurt!”
“I thought I could manage without the staff. Turns out it really did hurt a lot.”
Oh no… What should she do?
Dorothy was instantly filled with sympathy and concern.
“Even so! If it hurt, you should’ve said so earlier! And to give up your staff to me…”
“Sniff… Honestly, it’s really hard to keep balance alone with just one staff.”
Brandon had already become someone she wanted to help.
After Rose, her desire to assist him grew.
‘He probably didn’t want to show that he was in pain.’
Given his status, he likely didn’t want to expose any weakness.
Perhaps that was why he stubbornly insisted on walking without the staff.
‘But it must have been hard without it.’
Her expression softened into a mixture of sadness and compassion.
Brandon, in turn, wore a lonely expression.
“It’ll heal soon. So don’t worry too much.”
“But you can hardly move! Let me help you!”
She immediately ran to Brandon and supported him.
He draped an arm around her shoulder with a grunt.
Dorothy’s expression became even more serious.
In contrast, Brandon’s face brightened.
“How did you hurt your leg, Duke?”
The more compassion there was in her voice, the more Brandon limped.
Even though just moments ago, he seemed fine.
“It’s practically an occupational hazard. When you’re catching bad guys, it’s inevitable to get hurt sometimes.”
“My goodness!”
“Many times, people get injured while protecting others.”
Dorothy grew intensely curious about his job.
A senator whose occupational hazard was breaking doors… it was puzzling to say the least.
But now, all the pieces seemed to fit.
To think there was someone with such a noble mission.
She was deeply moved.
“You risk injury to protect the weak and fight the wicked. That’s incredible.”
“Hmm…”
Hearing her voice filled with admiration, Brandon made a strange expression.
But his contemplation didn’t last long.
“Hmm, I guess you could say that.”
Twisting the staff in his hand, Brandon replied with an innocent smile.
“Please, just give me one more chance. I will never betray the Chairperson again.”
A man knelt before a bottomless pit, begging.
The sacred Gorsaud Council held power even greater than the emperor.
Beneath the council was a prison.
A secret dungeon where those summarily punished by the council were confined.
But there were no iron bars, no shackles.
“Duke Kaishner, I have a family to protect.”
Yet nobles feared this dungeon above all else.
Some even begged for execution instead.
The man glanced nervously at the pit behind him.
This was the infamous entrance to the Gorsaud prison.
Even if one survived the fall, the real danger lay in the maze—there was no escape.
“My wife is close to giving birth, and I have a newborn daughter. Please, just reconsider—agh!”
A story of family that might have evoked sympathy.
But Brandon pushed the man into the pit with his staff.
A muffled crash and a cry followed.
“You damn dog of the Chairperson!”
Even as curses rained from the pit, Brandon remained indifferent.
The waiting guards were pale with fear.
Brandon Kaishner, the law enforcer.
Officially, his duty was to punish those who had fallen from the council’s favor.
Everyone knew, however, that in reality, he was cleaning up anyone who defied the Chairperson.
Hence, people called him the Chairperson’s dog.
Not simply because of loyalty, but for other reasons.
“Is today’s work done?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Good. Then, well done.”
Brandon’s courteous gestures toward ordinary guards belied the harshness of his character.
Once he sinks his teeth into something, he never lets go.
He had ears everywhere; there was no secret he didn’t know.
“Thank you for your work, Law Enforcer.”
“Yes, yes.”
Thanks to such rumors, even nobles avoided facing Duke Kaishner.
Leaving the execution site, he returned to his office in the council.
The staff on the sofa briefly reflected a blade.
It was a weapon he had personally commissioned from a blacksmith.
Twisting it left revealed a hidden rapier.
At that moment, someone knocked and entered the office.
Amidst the overworked staff, it was Brandon’s sole aide.
“Enforcer, here’s the document you requested last time.”
He handed over the papers.
“Ah, the ‘finding the hidden father’ case?”
Brandon unconsciously smiled at the thought of that woman.
“I can give her a gift on the way back.”
He assumed Dorothy would be able to return to Sailbrums with the information she sought.
But an unexpected situation arose.
“No matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find any relevant information.”
“…What?”
When he heard the request to find her father, he assumed it would be easy.
Finding a family should have been a trivial task.
Not finding them was the unexpected part.
“Alexia Bain… and the name Dorothy Bain were likely falsified. Given the timing, it seems Alexia falsified her identity with her daughter.”
Falsifying one’s identity was not something an ordinary person could do.
And it was done so perfectly that even the enforcer could not detect it.
“Then what could it be?”
Judging from her reaction, Dorothy seemed unaware that her identity had been falsified.
“Identity falsification…”
Brandon murmured leisurely.
“At least, it’s not something an ordinary person would do. Right?”
Amused by this unexpected intrigue, he grinned.
