Chesterfield Mansion: The House of the Man Who Hates Me - Chapter 36

A piece of paper fluttered and fell at the feet of the innkeeper who was bowing his head. Do the lords from the capital usually throw letters on the ground after reading them? The innkeeper raised his head, wondering, and his lips quivered.

“My lord?”

The man had already disappeared.

The bewildered innkeeper heard the sound of a horse wailing. The innkeeper thought, as he picked up the discarded paper, that the horse must have gotten upset, perhaps kicked by its owner who had just woken up.

* * *

Rain poured down. The hair of the man riding a horse with just a cloak on became soaking wet.

When a post station appeared, he would leave the horse he was riding and mount a new one. The station masters all looked flustered seeing the increasingly haggard appearance of the man as he passed through multiple stations.

“My lord, I’m sorry, but perhaps you should rest a bit…”

“No need.”

Only after riding for two days and nights did a city with a train station appear.

Even after boarding the means of transport that would take him to Humingham without him having to do anything, his eyes remained wide open. Passengers who saw his bloodshot red eyes flinched, then lowered their heads as they recalled the newspaper article they had seen in the morning.

“……”

Five hours that felt like an eternity passed. As soon as the train stopped, passengers made way for the man who rushed towards the door.

The complexion of the manager who lent horses to guests was no different from those Izer had encountered so far. What was different was the title used by someone who recognized him, befitting a Humingham resident, and the fact that he didn’t give the futile advice to rest.

“Young Duke, I deeply…”

Izer mounted the horse without listening further. The manager didn’t resent the young duke’s behavior of ignoring his words.

Thirty minutes to the destination.

The last horse he borrowed was white. The sight of a man dressed in black clothes riding a white horse and spurring it on looked just like a messenger on a battlefield. With no reason or energy to hide his identity, his pale face with black hair sticking to it was visible under the hood that had slipped down.

Twenty minutes to the destination.

The city streets in the middle of the night were empty. There were few people with business important enough to be out in such heavy rain, approaching midnight. The sound of the white horse’s hooves, thud-thud-thud, and the sound of thick raindrops hitting the ground, pitter-patter, filled the streets that should have been silent.

Ten minutes to the destination.

Dong– The bell tolled announcing midnight. The horse continued galloping in the direction the bell sound came from. A coachman who had been carrying the last customers swerved to avoid the horse that had suddenly intruded.

The man jumped off the horse.

“……”

The doors of the cathedral were firmly closed. They weren’t locked. The interior that opened with a creaking sound had only a few candles lit, its darkness comparable to the outside.

Steps relying on candlelight moved forward. The chairs lined up on both sides did not hinder his path.

Izer kept walking. It was strange. He had been in the cathedral for a while, had walked for a long time — but no matter how much he walked, that wooden box didn’t seem to get any closer.

The man who had been walking for a long time finally realized that he was kneeling. From a place so close he couldn’t get any closer, he stared at the person inside the wooden box.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He could tell who it was without turning his head.

Izer asked in a low voice. His own voice sounded unfamiliar.

“How did she go?”

“…She was peaceful. Owen told me. That she wouldn’t have been in pain…”

The woman’s voice seemed to come from far away. Izer muttered dejectedly.

“How could she not have been in pain when she didn’t see her son?”

“……”

“Why so soon…”

“……”

“Why…”

Renée lived for Izer. For him, she became a bird in a cage. She endured lustful gazes and married a man she didn’t want.

At the end of the woman who dedicated her life to her son, the unworthy son failed to keep his place.

His suppressed sorrow burst out in the form of a shout.

“Why…!”

Just when he could finally uncover the truth about his father’s death, just when he could finally take revenge — because she couldn’t wait those mere three days, the son who left his post to resolve his father’s unjust death committed an unforgivable sin for life.

Black hair was pulled out in his hand. But for a son who failed to be by his mother’s deathbed, such pain was nothing. He tore at his hair, banged his forehead on the floor, and scratched the stone floor with his palm full of wounds from tightening the reins with his gloveless hand.

Even so, the dead do not return. The tears shed by the man and woman seeped into the floor.

* * *

It was three days after Renée’s funeral ended.

The duke’s mansion was still in mourning. The affection of the men in this house towards Renée was a bit deeper than normal, so the heavy sorrow showed no signs of leaving soon.

Harris locked himself in his room. No one knew what he was doing inside. A loyal butler guarded the door to his room.

Izer also disappeared into his room. It was the same that no one knew what he was doing, but his difference from the duke was that no one was guarding the door to his room.

Percy fell asleep crying. Celian, who had been watching over the child’s bedside, stepped out of the room. Her eyes were deeply sunken.

‘This is the last chance.’

Watching Izer wailing in front of Renée’s body, Celian realized. He had fallen to the bottom of the bottom. For Celian to follow Harris’s words was the same as telling Izer to die.

So she had to defy Harris. Celian gritted her teeth.

‘The duke doesn’t have the energy to worry about me right now. If I leave by train tonight, I can reach Porchmen by tomorrow afternoon. I should be able to get Beth out before the duke contacts Porchmen.’

Her mind was racing. Just one step beyond Porchmen is Fairville. Even for a Chesterfield, it wouldn’t be easy to catch someone who had fled to a foreign country.

‘If worst comes to worst, we can escape to another country bordering Fairville…’

The decision was made. She took out the suitcase she had tucked away in the corner of the wardrobe and opened the money box to check the money she had saved. Bills far exceeding her official salary greeted her.

“……”

It was the payment Izer had given her. What else could you call the bills given to a woman he had s*x with, if not payment? It was humiliating money, and that’s why she couldn’t use it.

Celian took out all the money with trembling hands. The thick bills and coins went into the bag without leaving any behind.

All she had to do was leave. What mattered was having money, not its source. No one would be curious about where her money came from.

It was far short of the thousand pounds Harris had promised, but she had managed a household with Beth on even less than this. She could definitely do it.

Celian, picking up the bag, closed her eyes tightly and then opened them.

“……”

The image of the man wailing in front of his mother’s coffin flickered before her eyes.

It was the first time she had seen Izer so distressed. Was he like this when Uncle Ren passed away? The death she learned about belatedly was an accidental death, which meant that Izer hadn’t been able to be by David’s deathbed either.

His frustration likely stemmed from not being able to say a final goodbye to those who made up his life. Celian quietly put down her bag.

‘I’ll just see him once. Think of it as a farewell.’

Recently, Izer had been consistently indifferent to Celian. So he wouldn’t stop her. He would probably just raise his empty eyes and ask if she was leaving, in one word. He didn’t seem likely to be curious about where she was going or with whom.

There wasn’t even a mouse in the second-floor corridor connecting the two rooms. Celian, standing in front of the door, raised her hand and then let it drop.

“……”

This was her last meeting with him. She had thought it would happen someday, but facing it now, her mood sank. It had been three months, and they hadn’t left any good memories for each other, but perhaps the saying about the tenacity of physical attachment applied to her as well.

The woman who had been standing in front of the room for a long time raised her hand.

Knock knock.

“……”

There was no response. It was the same even after knocking several more times. Finally, Celian opened her mouth. The excuse of a final farewell allowed for all courtesies.