Nightmare Came to The Place I Escaped - Chapter 79

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Rachel opened the door carefully.

 

“My Lady? Do you need anything?”

 

Hana, who was standing outside the door, opened her mouth in surprise at Rachel leaving the room.

 

“No, I can’t sleep. I’m going to go for a walk for a while.”

“Wait, I’ll hurry up and get ready.”

“No, stay here. I want to walk alone.”

“But it’s too dark”

“I’m just going to take a walk in the garden for a while. Besides, all the duke’s people are there, right?”

 

Hana seemed to ponder for a moment, then nodded in understanding.

 

“All right, My Lady. Then I will follow you up to the front door.”

 

Hana was worried about Rachel, but handed the lamp to her at the front door after she looked at Rachel’s somewhat tired face.

 

“Have a safe walk, I will be waiting for you.”

“Okay, thank you.”

 

Rachel nodded, thinking that she would make it a short walk, then come back.

 

“Hmm? Rachel?”

“Oh, Father. You’re not asleep yet?”

“Work went later than I expected. Where are you going….”

 

The Duke alternately looked at Hana, then to Rachel holding the lamp.

 

“I couldn’t sleep, so I’m going to get some fresh air for a while.”

“Hmm, then can’t I walk with you? I’ve been sitting for a long time, so I want to walk for a little.”

 

At the Duke’s words, Rachel pondered for a while, then sent Hana up.

 

Hana turned away, finally reassured that she was going to be walking with the Duke.

 

“I’ll listen to you, so hand that here.”

 

The Duke took the lamp from Rachel.

 

“I didn’t expect you to be awake so late.”

 

The cold winter wind brushed past her cheeks.

 

Rachel felt like she could breathe a little bit when she was exposed to the cold wind.

 

“You must have a lot on your mind.”

“I don’t want to think about it. I try not to think about it, but it never works.”

“Sometimes you can feel at ease when you tell everything to someone else.”

 

Rachel looked up at the Duke’s words.

 

Come to think of it, the Duke had no idea what went wrong with Ian and her. So, the current situation might be frustrating for him.

 

Nevertheless, the Duke didn’t rush her and waited silently.

 

He didn’t want to put pressure on her. So, Rachel’s time with the Duke wasn’t difficult or uncomfortable because of his consideration.

 

Of course, she couldn’t tell him everything like he’d asked, but she felt some comfort from the Duke’s words.

 

She felt like there would always be someone who would listen to her.

 

“Father.”

“Yes?”

“I think my father and brother are very strange.”

 

At Rachel’s words, the Duke frowned slightly.

 

“We’re strange? I’ve never heard that before.”

“Really? I’ve never heard of people like my father and brother.”

“Hmm, what’s strange about us?”

“Why did you accept me?”

 

At Rachel’s sudden question, the Duke blinked slowly as if he was contemplating an appropriate answer.

 

“I actually thought it was because of His Majesty. Otherwise, there’s no good reason to even think about it. When I heard that I was registered in a ducal family, I thought Father accepted it because it was the Emperor’s order, just like I did.”

 

When she’d been thinking about it alone, Rachel never thought there would be a day when she would tell this story to the Duke herself.

 

“Actually, I thought Father was forced to accept me, the same way I was. Whether it was because of the Emperor’s order or because of the benefits that may come from following the Emperor’s words.”

 

Maybe it was just easier to be honest in the silence of the late evening.

 

“So, the first time you treated me kindly, I was a little surprised. I was grateful for that alone. Since you treated me warmly without being harsh.”

 

Or maybe it was because she was so disturbed that she couldn’t say it any of the other times.

 

“I liked it, so I didn’t want to mess up what I had with His Majesty. In any case, I thought that it would be over with my father and my brother if I broke up with His Majesty.”

 

She didn’t know exactly why she was telling the Duke what was in her heart, but one thing was for sure, she believed in the Duke a lot.

 

“So it was strange when my brother asked me to go to the Oates estate with him, and when my father told me not to worry. I didn’t understand.”

 

Rachel stopped walking slowly as the Duke stopped walking.

 

“Why did you do that?”

“You’re my daughter.”

“…We’re a real family.”

 

Rachel, who was looking at the Duke for a while, burst out in laughter.

 

The Duke, who’d been looking sad, relaxed at the laughter and smiled slowly.

 

“I really liked you even before I met you.”

“Pfft, how is that possible?”

 

How could he like her when he couldn’t even meet her or see her even once? Rachel still thought he was a strange man, but calmly waited for the Duke to speak.

 

“The Emperor, who was the Crown Prince at that time, visited me every day. He wanted you to be enrolled into my family.”

“…His Majesty?”

“When I asked him how I could accept a child that I didn’t even know as a family, he told me about his memories with you. At first, I thought the young prince was being unreasonable. Funnily, I was getting attached to you because of the prince’s stories, even though I didn’t even know your face.”

 

At the Duke’s words, Rachel’s heart sank again.

 

“I didn’t enroll you into the family because of His Majesty’s orders. I just came to love you, whom the Crown Prince loved, and I wanted to be a support for you as he’d asked.”

 

As expected, Ian was a mysterious person who she couldn’t understand.

 

“Thanks to that, I have a lovely daughter.”

“….”

 

Rachel was glad that it was a dark evening, and that the light from the lamp wasn’t that bright.

 

“I know. I’m very grateful.”

 

Apart from her heart that was breaking once again, she was really grateful, as she’d told the Duke.

 

“His Majesty, at that time…”

 

What was he thinking?

 

Rachel struggled to swallow the question she couldn’t say.

 

“He seemed to be worried about you.”

“… did His Majesty like me back then?”

“Well, it couldn’t have been easy for him to come such a long way.”

 

Rachel bowed her head in frustration .

 

“Father, what should I do? Now I don’t know.”

 

She hated Ian so much. Why was she still being swayed by him?

 

Rachel was frustrated with herself. Why was she afraid of the many meanings in one of his actions when she should’ve just ignored it?

 

At Rachel’s low voice, the Duke carefully held her in his arms.

 

“No one is urging you to come up with an answer right away. So, think about it for a long time until your mind is clear. No matter what you choose, no one will blame you.”

 

Rachel slowly shook her head at the low, kind words of the Duke.

 

She was relieved that the Duke would be by her side no matter what choice she made.

 

She still hated Ian, but she was really grateful for this one thing. Thanks to him, she got to know the Duke and Mike.

 

***

 

Late in the evening, the door to the emperor’s office opened without a knock.

 

Ian didn’t raise his head even though he heard the sound.

 

The emperor’s office, there was only one person who was rude enough to visit like this.

 

Scratch Scratch

 

Ian turned over the paper without saying a word. Roosevelt, who seemed tired of waiting after 10 minutes, opened his mouth impatiently.

 

“Hey, Ian.”

 

Roosevelt tilted his head slightly, unhappy with the idea that Ian was ignoring him.

 

“Are you going to ignore me like this?”

 

Scratch

 

Ian did not raise his head toward him, even when the prophet’s voice contained a lot of sadness. He just looked at the documents without the slightest confusion like he did during his first appearance.

 

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that day. To be honest, it’s true that I did it out of my own interest.”

 

Roosevelt then apologized for the past.

 

That day when Ian asked if Roosevelt was bored.

 

“Come to think of it, I was wrong. So, look at me.”

 

Only then did Ian raise his head, and look at the man as he apologized.

 

“But are you really going to die like this?”

 

Roosevelt asked with a slight frown.

 

“Is this the end of your relationship with that child?”

“….”

“Why? Why did you make that choice? I turned back time because you regretted it. So, why?”

 

Roosevelt tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand.

 

“I told you, you really don’t have much time left. Do you think that’s a lie? Was that a joke to you, too?”

 

Even if Roosevelt told him about his future, he couldn’t understand Ian, who was looking at him calmly.

 

Even if he figured out how to live, that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to go to Rachel and ask for forgiveness.

 

Roosevelt couldn’t figure out what Ian was thinking.

 

“Do you think the child that you leave behind will be able to live well if you die?”

“Roosevelt, you told me you were sorry, didn’t you?”

“What?”

 

Roosevelt was displeased with Ian for suddenly changing the topic, but soon nodded.

 

“If you’re really sorry, do me a favor.”

 

Roosevelt frowned slightly at Ian’s words, but eventually nodded.

 

“A request?”

 

Ian nodded.

 

“What is it? I can’t listen to everything either. Especially when it comes to your life, I can’t help with that.”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what?”

 

However Ian didn’t open his mouth easily as he looked at Roosevelt quietly.

 

“Okay, I understand. I’ll listen.”

 

At the quiet urging, Roosevelt nodded roughly and opened his mouth.

 

“When I die, please erase Rachel’s memory.”

“What?”

 

Roosevelt frowned deeply.

 

Was this what he was going for from the start?

 

“What…”

 

Roosevelt didn’t like this at all. Ian said he liked Rachel, he said he loved her, but he gave up so easily.

 

This wasn’t why he went to check on Ian.

 

He just wanted Ian to visit Rachel, and tell her everything. And, Rachel. He wondered if that child would forgive Ian. Or pretend not to know.

 

He wanted to see that.

 

But he couldn’t believe he was just giving up.

 

“That would be the best thing for Rachel, too. She doesn’t have to suffer because of me. Even if I die, if she forgets everything about me, she doesn’t have to struggle for nothing.”

 

This was not the situation that Roosevelt wanted.

 

“Did you mean to ask me to do this from the beginning?”

 

Come to think of it, Ian was planning this from the get go.

 

He was just going to die alone.

 

He thought Ian wouldn’t be able to die and leave Rachel alone. Somehow, he didn’t seem to have much regrets about his own death.

 

That was weird from the start.

 

“You want me to erase her memory?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

 

***