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Chapter 8
“Thank you very much for saying that.”
Corner lowered his head politely.
Even as he did, my eyes were drawn to his trembling hands.
At the same time, Lucas’s despairing voice resurfaced in my mind.
“I feel like nothing I do will help.”
I quickly shook my head and repeated to myself:
Don’t get involved in unnecessary matters here. Right now, surviving and handling your own problems comes first.
“W-Well then, I should get going now.”
Hearing that, Lucas rose completely from the bed and walked toward the door.
“Thank you for accompanying me this far. I’ll have a carriage from my family prepared for you.”
“No, it’s fine. I can just take a hired carriage. I have somewhere else to go anyway.”
It wasn’t a lie.
I had planned to visit another guild nearby to look for work.
But perhaps my excuse didn’t sound convincing, because Lucas looked at me with dissatisfaction.
“I can’t treat a guest who came all this way like that.”
“All right. Then I’ll return by carriage.”
In the end, I returned in a carriage bearing the Boventin family crest.
Partly because there wasn’t another carriage stand nearby, and partly because Lucas had been so stubborn about it.
“My lady, what on earth happened?”
“That’s what I’d like to ask, Elisha! Why do you keep running into that man lately?!”
Belle and Baron Adrian both interrogated me, but I kept insisting I didn’t know anything and escaped into my room.
Fortunately, I was faster at fleeing into the room than they were at stopping me.
The two only whispered outside and didn’t come in.
“I’m exhausted.”
I collapsed onto the bed.
Maybe because too much had happened, my whole body felt drained.
* * *
Exactly one week passed as I wandered from guild to guild, and anxiety began creeping in.
I had been naïve to think finding work would be easy.
Once I realized no one would entrust work to some clueless noble lady with neither recommendations nor experience, all I could do was sigh.
“My lady, don’t you think it would be better to stop looking for work? If the Baron found out about this, he’d be heartbroken.”
As I changed clothes to head out to the guilds again today, Belle cautiously approached and spoke up.
But I couldn’t simply agree with her.
If I wanted to survive, I had to earn money somehow.
“Let’s go, Belle.”
Belle, who had been persistently trying to persuade me, finally sighed and threw on her cloak.
She probably realized by now that I wasn’t going to give up easily.
But the moment we stepped out of the last guild we visited that day, I could no longer suppress my frustration.
“How can there seriously be no jobs at all?!”
If I visited guilds this often, shouldn’t at least one position be available?
Thinking that, I glared at the guild door we had just exited.
But staring at the door wasn’t going to magically create a job.
As I rubbed my cold hands together, Belle looked at me worriedly.
“Are you okay? Should we stop for today and head home?”
“No. Just in case, let’s check the first place we visited one more time before we leave.”
The moment I finished speaking, I immediately turned into the familiar alleyway.
If I didn’t move quickly, Belle would obviously start trying to persuade me again.
“M-My lady!”
Sure enough, I heard Belle calling after me.
Pretending not to hear her, I continued walking.
“My lady!”
But Belle called out once more instead of giving up.
Eventually, I stopped and turned around, intending to convince her that we would visit just one more place.
“Belle?”
But something felt wrong.
Belle’s eyes were shaking violently, and she fidgeted anxiously like someone who didn’t know what to do.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ugh!”
Just as I stepped toward Belle, a rough groan echoed from somewhere nearby.
Only then did I notice Belle’s gaze repeatedly darting toward the alley beside her.
“What happened, Belle?”
Worried something terrible had happened, I quickly approached and grabbed her slender shoulders.
Belle, who had been staring into the alley, suddenly turned to look at me.
“What is it? Hm?”
“M-My lady, there’s someone collapsed in that alley.”
“What?”
Judging by Belle’s pale face, she clearly wasn’t lying.
I immediately strode into the alley.
Behind me, I could hear Belle following close behind.
After walking a little farther in, I really did see a man slumped against the wall.
It was too dark to see clearly, but judging from his ragged breathing, his condition didn’t look good.
“Are you okay?”
As I knelt in front of him and asked, the man slowly lifted his head.
The moment I recognized the familiar face I had seen a week ago, the name escaped my lips before I realized it.
“Your Grace?”
“…It seems you always find me like this. I’ll be fine soon, so you should go.”
Lucas spoke weakly before lowering his head again.
Soon, just like before, he began breathing harshly once more.
I quickly checked whether he had any injuries, but no matter how closely I looked, I couldn’t find any wounds.
If so, there was only one reason for his suffering.
“The symptoms again… Where’s Corner?”
“I sent him on an errand for a moment. Though I didn’t expect this to happen in the meantime.”
After answering weakly, he slowly leaned his head back against the wall.
Watching him, Belle spoke anxiously.
“My lady, what should we do? Should I call a physician?”
“No. But if you see the man who usually accompanies His Grace nearby, could you bring him here? Where did you send him?”
“To the weapon shop. He should return soon. So just…”
“You heard him, Belle? The weapon shop. Please hurry.”
“A-All right!”
After hesitating briefly, Belle quickly ran off.
Watching her leave, Lucas let out a deep sigh.
“It feels like I’m always indebted to you.”
As he spoke, he gently touched the locket in his hand.
Recognizing it as the necklace I had picked up for him before, I carefully sat down beside him.
“Are the people in the picture your family?”
“So you saw inside it. Yes. They’re my family.”
But when I visited the estate before, I hadn’t seen anyone besides Lucas and the servants.
Tilting my head in confusion, I listened as he slowly continued.
“My entire family died, except for me. Monsters killed them. It’s a rather famous story. Haven’t you heard? The tale of the mad warmonger obsessed with revenge.”
“That’s…”
“So you didn’t know. Yes. My family all died in a monster attack.”
“I’m truly sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up painful memories.”
“It’s fine. You didn’t ask knowing that. Besides, I was the one who mentioned it first.”
Lucas muttered while exhaling shakily.
It seemed he was trying to keep me from feeling guilty.
Contrary to the titles cold-blooded and warmonger, he was actually quite kind and polite.
After hesitating for a moment, I finally made up my mind.
“Could you tell me more about what happened?”
Maybe it was just a lingering occupational habit from my previous life.
Or perhaps simple nosiness.
But I couldn’t ignore someone suffering so badly that he could barely live a normal life.
“I know it’s difficult. And I know it must be hard to tell someone you’ve only met twice about pain you experienced long ago.”
Lucas looked at me as though he didn’t understand what I was trying to say.
Holding his still faintly trembling hand, I continued,
“I might be able to help ease your symptoms.”
At my words, Lucas’s body stiffened instantly.
After hesitating for a moment and releasing a shaky breath, he slowly opened his mouth.
“You really think I can escape this pain?”
“What?”
Lucas’s face was twisted painfully.
Just looking at him made it clear how long he had suffered.
“Yes. If I understand the situation in detail, I think I may be able to help you.”
“……”
“Your Grace?”
“Do I even deserve that?”
Lucas’s voice trembled faintly.
Understanding what he meant by that question, I quietly fell silent.
Right now, this wasn’t the time to answer carelessly.
It was time to listen.
“When I was young, it was only sleepless nights and occasional hallucinations. It got worse after the final monster subjugation.”
“The last monster subjugation before you returned to the Empire?”
Lucas nodded and stared at the ground.
“There was a subordinate I couldn’t save back then. I still can’t forget the words he said while looking at me.”
