NTBYRI 09

Chapter 09

He wouldn’t call out to her so desperately.

He was a man who only ever spoke coldly, telling her to live unhappily.

Even their marriage hadn’t been sincere in the end.

So the owner of that voice couldn’t possibly be Kaiden.

As the water covered her ears and receded, over and over, her hearing grew duller.

It must have been a hallucination in her waterlogged ears.

That’s why Elsie didn’t stop.

“Elsie Gray!”

His voice reached her again.

And that was the last of it. A terrifyingly surging wave completely engulfed Elsie.

—

Kaiden couldn’t bring himself to grab her, and simply followed quietly behind.

He thought Elsie had run away childishly, unable to bear her stifling life.

With that thought in mind, Elsie stepped onto the beach and behaved no differently from the other tourists.

Strolling along the sand, picking up shells.

But what came next made Kaiden freeze in terror.

Taking off her shoes,

Setting down her bag,

Walking toward the waves,

And then, straight into the sea.

“Elsie Gray!”

The moment Elsie’s red hair was swallowed by the waves.

Kaiden ran like a madman. He couldn’t let the sea devour her.

Even when he’d faced enemies at gunpoint on the battlefield, his eyes had never shaken like this.

Though the waves crashed as if they would shatter her fragile body, Elsie didn’t stop.

In the end, she was completely swallowed by the waves.

“……!”

Kaiden’s body reacted instinctively.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he threw himself into the sea.

He reached out to grab Elsie. But someone moved faster than he did.

A brown-haired man scooped Elsie up and pulled her out of the water.

Kaiden’s feet stopped uselessly in the water.

He was certain he’d seen somewhere before, the man holding Elsie carefully as if she were a precious treasure.

The man passed by Kaiden, who looked like a drowned rat. Kaiden couldn’t bring himself to stop him.

All that happened to drift to his side was the leather bag Elsie had been carrying.

He reached out and picked up the waterlogged bag.

As if to say that was all he could hold onto—how empty.

—

Her body was heavy as a waterlogged cotton ball.

Even so, she felt alive. She’d been certain she would end her life right there in the water.

Elsie barely lifted her heavy eyelids.

“Ah, you’re awake.”

An unfamiliar man’s voice reached her. She managed to sit up and turned her head toward the sound.

A man with a soft impression and slightly long brown hair sat in a wooden chair.

“I’m glad you’re awake. It was nearly a disaster.”

He said with a smile.

“This is……”

“Ah, I’ve been rude not to introduce myself. I’m Ryan Brünn. This is my estate here in Ernest.”

Ryan Brünn. A name she’d never heard before.

“You… saved me.”

Elsie answered haltingly, with difficulty.

“Yes, well, I suppose you could put it that way.”

Ryan scratched his cheek with the tip of his index finger, looking embarrassed.

Suddenly, something surged up from deep in her chest.

“Why……”

It wasn’t something to say to the person who’d saved her life, but the fear of having returned to that wretched life because of Ryan was terrifyingly real.

“Yes?”

“You should have just left me. Why, why did you save me……?”

She bit down hard on her lower lip as if chewing it.

“I thought I could finally rest in peace……”

Tears began to well in her green eyes.

She had come back. The reality that wouldn’t change no matter how much she struggled already felt unbearable.

I should have died. That would have been right.

Then I wouldn’t have to feel this desolation.

A tearful cry leaked through the gaps between her teeth.

“What kind of……”

He hadn’t expected words of gratitude for saving her life. Still, Elsie’s reaction was so bewildering that Ryan stuttered.

“I jumped into the sea on purpose. But you ruined it.”

Elsie glared at him as she wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

“Then that’s rather fortunate.”

Ryan, quickly erasing his bewilderment, responded to her gaze with a gentle smile.

“I’m honored to have saved you.”

Wondering if he was mocking her, Elsie’s face twisted.

“I don’t know about others, but I believe there’s no one who deserves to die. Everyone has their use.”

“Jumping into the sea was my will. My own decision.”

She was a body that had meant to die anyway. Perhaps that’s why a sharp voice shot out, unlike her usual self.

“Even if it was a choice made by the person themselves, my conviction doesn’t change.”

Unbothered by her somewhat irritable tone, Ryan rose from his seat and brushed off his brown vest to smooth the wrinkles.

“I’ll bring you some warm food. You need to eat something to regain your strength.”

“……I’m fine.”

“Mrs. Gray.”

Ah.

Elsie’s gaze dropped, then returned to Ryan.

“You… no, you knew who I was.”

As she muttered in a dazed voice, Ryan let out a small laugh.

“How could anyone in the New Midland Republic not know you, madam.”

It might be mere conjecture, but the thought crossed her mind that Ryan might have deliberately saved her.

“Anyway, please rest well today, madam.”

Ryan bowed politely. Before Elsie could say anything, he left the room just like that.

—

On the desolate road back to Eldenmarch, clutching only Elsie’s bag.

Kaiden chewed over everything that had happened before he threw himself into the sea to catch Elsie.

—

What awaited him upon returning to the estate after a long time, following the conclusion of meetings in the capital, was a rather baffling tale.

“What?”

“I apologize. Because they were whispering about it in the laundry room, I too was late to confirm. I thought there was no need to tell you……”

“Jasper Robert. Why are you making that judgment yourself?”

Jasper was pouring out pointless excuses. Glaring at him, Kaiden made no effort to hide his discomfort.

“I told you to report everything.”

“I apologize.”

The report he received the moment he returned to his study was “Madam has disappeared.”

What an absurd thing. Elsie, who couldn’t even go out alone to paint a single picture, had vanished from the estate?

And she’d supposedly been ill. They said she’d been bleeding—and with that body, she’d dared to run away.

“They hid the bloodstained bedding in the laundry room. I noticed something was off and called the physician, but he said it was nothing serious, so I didn’t think to investigate further.”

“Call the doctor. I’ll hear it directly.”

Jasper hurried out of the study.

Left alone, Kaiden tapped the surface of his desk with the tip of his index finger.

Honestly, Elsie as she was now was a presence that might as well not exist. In some ways, it might even be better if she didn’t.

Yet strangely, upon hearing she’d disappeared, a irritation close to fury surged up.

A short while later, Jasper brought Elsie’s physician to the study.

“What happened?”

“It was a bout of poor condition.”

Kaiden stared quietly at the physician who snorted as if it were nothing.

“Enough to bleed?”

“Ah…… It’s from accumulated fatigue. It was a bit different from usual, but……”

Watching him hem and haw, Kaiden sensed intuitively that something serious had happened to Elsie.

“Isn’t it your job to report what ‘different from usual’ means?”

“I-I apologize.”

The physician, now finally grasping the situation, stammered and bowed.

“She was probably… pregnant.”

In that instant, Kaiden’s eyes wavered.

“Nothing was found during her regular examinations. She only said she was tired, so I prescribed light medication—it seems that wasn’t it.”

The physician was confessing his own incompetence. At the sight, Kaiden drew a deep breath in anger.

“……Jasper.”

“Yes.”

“Have that man thrown out.”

At Kaiden’s chilling order, the physician’s face turned deathly pale.

“I apologize, Major. But Madam hid so much from me that there was nothing I could do. So……!”

“……Get out.”

There was no more worth in discussing it.

Jasper grabbed the physician’s arm as he braced himself and dragged him out.

Once the study fell silent, Kaiden pressed his narrowed brow firmly with his index finger.

He had been careful to ensure Elsie wouldn’t get pregnant. So that he could discard her without hesitation once the revolution succeeded.

And after the revolution. Since there was no longer any need to make an effort, he hadn’t even bothered to spend evenings with her.

But very occasionally, when Elsie clung to him wanting to return to how things used to be.

They had lain together a few times.

It must have been one of those days.

Damn it.

There was a day in the past when Kaiden had forgotten his parents who collapsed, his brothers scattered and meeting miserable ends.

A time when he’d set all of that aside and indulged in the complacent fantasy that perhaps he could take that innocent, radiant hand.

He had even pictured a lovely child who resembled Elsie.

Madness.

As the memory of that moment suddenly surfaced, an inexplicable anger surged within him.