My Sweet Deceiver - Chapter 88

“Oh, where… Now, where, is she alive…?”

Sentences that were not properly formed jumped out arbitrarily. An indescribable expression appeared on his face, which had been as lethargic as a barely alive man just a moment ago.

Confusion and anticipation, frustration and relief…

It seemed as if waves of unspoken emotions were swirling.

“Lady Tehez is doing fine. In the capital.”

Still in bewilderment, Dennis looked at Olivier with a puzzled expression as he calmly delivered the answer. He appeared both angry and surprised.

“In the capital? In Lubern?”

Dennis asked as if he were a child just learning to speak. Olivier saw the look of shock on his pale friend’s face and continued speaking.

“I couldn’t hear the exact location, but I’m sure she’s in the capital. That’s what the Little Marquis said.”

[T/N: I believe Little Marquis is Richard.]

“Oh…”

Dennis ran his hand through his hair. And he was holding his head as if something was uncomfortable. He was relieved at the news of his wife, but his expression didn’t look good, as if he didn’t like something.

“How did you meet the Little Marquis?”

“He’s an official in my ministry. Ministry officials can go anywhere due to the New Year’s banquet preparations.”

But he said he would send her to the Ingeliger Marquisate.”

“What?”

In response to Olivier’s question, Dennis replied with a troubled expression.

“He said he would send my wife to the estate of Marquis Ingeliger. Clearly. By the way, why the hell is she in the capital?”

Olivier added as if making excuses.

“The Little Marquis said that on the way to the train station, Lady Tehez asked to turn around.”

“Why? What could be the reason?”

“I don’t know the reason…”

Even Olivier wasn’t aware of why Tehez hadn’t left the capital. He only remembered the expression on the face of Richard, the Little Marquis, who delivered the message, didn’t look particularly good.

“There are family members, including the Marquis, in the capital, so maybe that’s why? It might be a bit awkward for her to leave alone…”

Olivier said carefully the reasons he had guessed. However, Dennis frowned as if he didn’t like the guess.

“Family to my wife? Hah. That’s the worst combination in the world.”

“…”

Olivier closed his mouth. Now that he thought about it, he realised he hadn’t seen Lady Tehez and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Little Marquis, and Marquis Ingeliger standing side by side. There was once a rumour about the eccentricity of the Marquis who sent her daughter to the First Prince, his political opposite. It didn’t seem like a very good relationship.

Dennis muttered like he was talking to himself.

“Why on earth is that woman so stubborn?”

“…”

“She doesn’t even hear when someone is worried about her.”

Olivier turned his head away, pretending not to hear anything. It was a matter he could neither agree nor disagree with. He didn’t even want to get in between the husband and wife.

On the one hand, Olivier thought Dennis was being unusual. The Prince sitting before him didn’t seem to notice any other problems. He seemed only to be displeased with the fact that his wife had not gone down to the estate.

Of course, he understood it was dangerous, but if it was that dangerous, wouldn’t it be the right thing to do if everyone in the capital evacuated outside the capital?

“Your gaze tells me you find me strange.”

Stung by the remark, Olivier nodded absentmindedly.

“Well, I did think that way.”

“It seems you didn’t hear anything. What if the rebels capture my wife?”

“What? They would capture Lady Tehez and kill her?”

Olivier responded with a tone of disbelief. However, Dennis replied with his usual expression.

“That’s what they say.”

Olivier was at a loss for words. He was even more surprised than before. The fact that Lady Tehez didn’t run away when her life was in danger…

“…She has great courage.”

Dennis, sitting helplessly the whole time, got up from her chair and went to the window. The garden was visible through the window between the curtains Olivier had drawn back. The garden of the Royal Palace, which lost its vitality in the winter, was just a bleak landscape. In the midst of such scenery, Dennis was blankly fixating his eyes on the distant place.

Olivier turned his face towards the direction Dennis was looking. Only bare branches could be seen from where he stood.

“You can’t see it from here.”

Olivier raised an eyebrow, as if asking what he meant.

“My wife’s garden. You can see it from the office. But not from here…”

That seemed to bother him.

With a frustrated expression, he continued to gaze at the barely visible garden. Even though he knew the owner of the garden was absent. As if something might come into view if he stood there long enough, he stood nailed to the ground.

“I wish I could see it…”

The words slipped out like a sigh, and Olivier remained silent. He patiently waited while looking at Dennis’ turned back. Somehow, it seemed as if sadness or tenderness emanated from his shadow.

Quietly turning around, Dennis faced Olivier again, his expression revealing nothing. It seemed as if he had pushed back the surging emotions inside him. He spoke to Olivier in a calm tone.

“Okay. If she’s alive, that’s enough. If we meet again later, Olivier, can you please tell her not to get hurt… and that we’ll meet again?”

Of course, it was a wish that might never come true. Despite knowing that, Denis looked at Olivier and said, Seeing his desperate expression, Olivier could only nod his head patiently.

* * *

Giselle was trembling with anxiety after hearing the news of an unidentified person’s death from Anghel. Because her only shield had disappeared. At the same time, she recalled Anghel’s disrespectful attitude and was seething with anger.

The servants of the mansion, noticing that the atmosphere of the guests was not good, only rolled their eyes at her as they noticed her. Giselle looked at the object on her desk. It was the picture Anghel gave her. A picture of someone who has already passed away.

The first night after coming down to Riyol, Anghel handed her a bunch of photos. Giselle could not forget that moment. Her teeth were still trembling.

Without courtesy or greetings, he invaded her mealtime and took out an envelope from his coat pocket to hand it to her. The thick envelope seemed to contain a lot. Giselle put down the utensils and took the envelope to see what was inside. It was photos.

She couldn’t hide her surprise at the first photo she saw. It was a black-and-white photo, but it wasn’t enough to conceal the horrors captured in the photo.

In the picture was a man, and judging by his state, he was likely already dead. Because his face was so mutilated that it couldn’t be recognised. The only reason she suspected it was a man was that the person in the picture was wearing a shirt and trousers. The man was clutching both fists tightly. Was it a firm determination to do something?

But that didn’t seem right. Something, something… was strange.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the photo and stared at it intently. As if fixated on the photo, she looked at it for a while before revising her initial judgment. The man wasn’t clenching his fist. He simply had no fingers, that was all.

Giselle swallowed a scream silently. Anghel noticed where she was looking and let out a sinister smile. It seemed like he deliberately brought the photo to see her shocked expression.

Giselle trembled as she flipped through the photos with slightly shaking fingertips. There was no option to avoid looking at them. It felt like some powerful force was urging her to examine the photos.

The chaotic floor, the man’s belongings, and small pebbles were gradually laid out. Giselle asked Anghel what these pieces had to do with the person in the photo. In response, Anghel gestured for her to turn the page.

Giselle turned to the next photo as if possessed by that gesture and saw the man’s mouth wide open, fixed with some apparatus. Inside the man’s mouth, strangely, there was nothing. The man’s gums, now fully exposed, had nothing attached to them. In the end, she screamed and threw the photo away.

That’s right. The small pieces she thought were pebbles were actually teeth that had fallen out of the man’s gums.

Anghel looked at Giselle with a sneering smile. Giselle tried to suppress her rising anger and ordered Anghel to kneel. But Anghel merely apologised and didn’t kneel.

She had lost control. It was humiliating. She gritted her teeth and ordered Anghel to hand her the whipping tool.

But even then, Anghel only responded with a smile. However, he too said, “I left it behind to come to Riyol, Lady.”

Giselle had no choice but to command him again.

“Quickly, go find the Prince. I won’t believe such a lowly prank-like photo.”

She saw a photo of a tie that Fabrice often wore at functions, but she pretended not to notice. Although she knew he only wore ties made of very expensive fabrics and knew that such a tie pattern was uncommon, she pretended not to see it.

In the end, Giselle left all of her steak for dinner that night. She blamed it on her appetite dropping after seeing the picture. She said the blood oozing from the steak looked precisely like the one in the picture.

She returned her gaze to the picture she had tossed on the desk. She believed that the man’s face, whose features were so disfigured that it was difficult to recognise, was not the Prince, but a passing tramp.

The quality-looking shirt was already torn, exposing the skin, and blood was oozing out of the exposed skin. The shirt, which should have been light in colour, was darkened by the man’s blood. Giselle still recalled it all too vividly.

Giselle buried her head in her hands. It felt like death was chasing her.

With a mix of anguish and fear, Giselle’s hands trembled violently. If Fabrice had died so miserably…

She shook her head.

There was no way a nation’s Prince would die in vain like that. He was the King’s beloved son. It couldn’t be like this.

Giselle tried to dispel her creeping feelings of foreboding. In her anxiety, she stroked her belly as a habit.

She was on her way, leaving her father detained at the police station. There must be results. Otherwise, her father might end up spending the rest of his life in prison.

If her father ended up like that, would she be safe? The position as the Prince’s betrothed, which she had prepared for, would also be lost forever. It might not be the position that’s the problem, but perhaps her life would be in danger.

Giselle tried to dispel the looming negative thoughts.

‘Such negative thoughts were not allowed during such a situation. Right?’

Gently caressing her stomach, Giselle spoke as if talking to someone. No one was listening. But it felt as if someone was responding to her caress, like there was a child inside her.

Giselle’s heart felt at ease.

(To be continued in the next episode)

***