69. Mikhail
“What? You want me to go back from here?”
Katya asked her husband with round eyes.
The couple was now at the inn where Boris and the knights were staying.
Everyone had left to give the couple privacy for their conversation.
The originally planned honeymoon was for 3 nights and 4 days.
They had already lost the first night to a murder case, and now he suggested giving up the remaining 3 days altogether.
Katya doubted her ears for a moment, wondering if this proposal really came from Nikolai’s mouth.
Wasn’t he the one most excited about this honeymoon?
“I overlooked how dangerous it is outside. Something like yesterday could happen again anytime. Too many dangers lurk in the world.”
“Are you really saying such obvious things now?”
“Even the obvious isn’t obvious when it comes to you. I don’t want even the smallest risk to affect you.”
“Getting involved in a murder case is actually a very rare occurrence in life.”
“Some people attract murder cases wherever they go.”
The protagonists in detective novels had to solve cases, so incidents inevitably followed them wherever they went.
That’s why they often jokingly earned the nickname ‘Angel of Death’.
“You mean me? Are you treating me like a grim reaper just because I did a little detective work?”
Katya, who was merely an aspiring detective, expressed her grievance.
“I never said that. Anyway, I want you to be in the safest place possible until the palace entry.”
“Isn’t the safest place right beside you, Grand Duke?”
“Beside me where assassination threats pour in from all directions?”
“You’ll protect me no matter what happens, right?”
“What kind of talk is that.”
Nikolai murmured while firmly holding his wife’s small hand on the table.
“Of course I would throw away my life to save you.”
“We both need to survive! Anyway, if that’s your resolve, why are you sending me away?”
“Right now, we should prepare for the one-in-a-million chance that becomes impossible.”
“Is it that difficult to stay for three more days?”
He unconsciously sighed as she looked up at him intently with clear, bright eyes like a rabbit’s.
Come to think of it, he had never been apart from her for even a day until now.
It made sense since he had stayed at Duke Smirnov’s residence to fulfill his dream of living with his in-laws, and then they had the wedding and came here.
He truly couldn’t imagine how to live without Katya anymore.
Nikolai continued speaking while rubbing his face with one hand.
“I’m the one most heartbroken about canceling the schedule. It was a moment I really anticipated and waited for.”
“Yet you’re throwing it away like this? You said we’d have even fewer chances to travel together after entering the palace.”
“Your safety is more important than my dreams.”
“It was even a dream?”
Katya asked with a slight smile.
“Of course. I always dreamed of this moment, eagerly waiting. Going to famous restaurants in Vasnetsov to eat delicious food with you, listening to performances, seeing exhibitions. Getting off the carriage to take a walk, strolling the streets together, and naturally holding hands while making excuses about passing carriages being dangerous.”
It was a simple yet special dream.
Though it seemed ordinary, it was special because it was in Vasnetsov, special because it was their honeymoon, and special because it was with Katya.
Indeed, Nikolai was the most disappointed.
“Are you just revealing all those secret plans in advance?”
“Since it won’t happen, I’m voluntarily confessing and paying my dues, that’s all.”
“We haven’t done any of those things yet.”
“That shows how much I worry about you. I’m sending you away while clutching my breaking heart.”
A breaking heart? Who says such things out loud?
Though her husband’s face was quite serious, Katya couldn’t help but let laughter escape her lips.
But the blatant expression made it easier to understand how he felt.
“I understand what you mean. Then I’ll go ahead and wait.”
Katya finally decided to follow his suggestion.
How could she stop someone sending away their loved one with such heartache?
When Katya, who he thought would resist more, quietly agreed to do as he wished, Nikolai felt even more regretful.
But he had no choice. He had to send her away before his fickle heart made him cling to her and tell her not to go.
“Boris!”
At the Grand Duke’s call, Boris who had been waiting in the hallway opened the door and entered.
“You called?”
“The Grand Duchess has agreed to leave now. Prepare knights who can safely escort her to the Duke’s residence.”
“We have already made all preparations for departure.”
The knights behind Boris bowed to the Grand Duchess.
Katya left the room with a dazed expression.
In the hallway, she briefly turned back to see Nikolai smiling and nodding goodbye before the door closed in front of him.
Boris had closed the door to make his report.
Following the knights down the stairs, Katya felt the disappointment in her heart multiplying with each step she descended.
She had thought Nikolai would at least see her off to the carriage.
She had expected at least a farewell embrace between husband and wife would be allowed, but he sent her away so ruthlessly.
‘Is his heart really breaking from sending me ahead?’
Did she expect him to cling to her with tears streaming down his face?
When she imagined it, that picture didn’t suit him.
Actually, Katya had expected a different scene.
‘Though there’s no guarantee this kind of situation won’t happen again, don’t worry. Anyone who dares touch even a hair on you will die by my hands.’
She had thought he would say he would eliminate all threats even if it meant creating a sea of blood.
Katya, who didn’t yet know love, didn’t understand that having something to protect makes one fearful.
As she was boarding the carriage, looking back wistfully at the second floor of the inn, Katya suddenly stopped at a thought.
“Um…”
Though she only said that much, the sharp-eared knights immediately responded.
“Please give us any orders.”
“I have something to ask.”
“Yes. Please speak, Your Highness.”
“What happened to the assassin who caused the carriage accident that day?”
The last she had seen was Boris and the knights leaving after dropping the two of them at the hotel.
At those words, the knights silently exchanged meaningful glances.
They seemed to be passing the burden of answering back and forth.
“Well…”
“Tell me honestly. Strictly speaking, I caught the criminal so I think I have enough right to know how things are progressing.”
“They died last night, Your Highness.”
“…What?”
Katya stepped down from the carriage step with a shocked face.
“What do you mean they died?”
“We proposed two choices. Either become a double agent, or be released on the condition of never targeting Your Highnesses’ lives again. After long persuasion, they seemed inclined to choose the latter. So we removed their gag to let them eat, but suddenly they bit their tongue and…”
It was the same this time too.
Like the assassin who attacked Nikolai at the lake, they had taken their own life.
“Even though we already knew who was behind it and there was no more information to get, why did they die?”
“In these cases, they usually have their family or close ones’ lives held hostage. They probably had conditions from the start to kill themselves if caught. Otherwise, their family and relatives would suffer.”
For those who had resolved to commit murder for hire, there was no hope except doing a successful assassination.
Even if they returned to their families, they knew that someday, when those who ordered the hit learned they had been captured by the Grand Duke’s side and survived, they would suspect betrayal and harm their families.
Before that could happen, completely severing ties with their loved ones was the best choice.
Standing there biting her lower lip, Katya opened her mouth.
“What… did you do with the body?”
The knights took her to where they had buried the assassin.
Katya placed the flower bouquet she had bought on the way in front of the grave.
She pitied these fates driven to the edge despite knowing they were attempting something nearly impossible to succeed at.
Outside the battlefield, boyars never got blood on their own hands.
They left dirty work to commoners and serfs, and even when committing crimes, they always cleverly escaped the law.
Whether dying from their involvement in a boyar’s crimes or being hit by stones thrown out of curiosity, all damage fell entirely on the lowest class.
They had no power to protect themselves from the boyars.
Even taking revenge like Judith meant serving time, and most chose to end their own lives like her friend.
The assassin’s crime was certainly grave, and Katya wasn’t benevolent enough to forgive someone who tried to kill her.
Not everyone in dire circumstances committed crimes.
‘But if they had been born as boyars…’
At least in judging and deciding right from wrong, livelihood concerns wouldn’t have been a factor.
If their starting points had been different, their futures would have been significantly different.
Without improving the discrimination from the class system, such incidents would repeat.
The corruption of boyars is eating away at the Grand Duchy of Hersen.
That was precisely why Nikolai had originally gone undercover in the South to root it out.
Katya realized that unless they stopped Oksana and her forces who were the source of all evil, such tragedies would not end.
Meanwhile, after sending Katya away, Boris was reporting to Nikolai about his investigation of Molnitsky Girls’ Academy.
Everything matched what Judith had said, including how Principal Viscountess Borodin had operated a network arranging meetings between graduating students who had come of age and nobles.
The demand was explosive for cultured commoner lovers who could be easily discarded despite speaking the same language.
It was entertainment centered around the current and former members of the Despot Club at Hersen National Academy.
“Despot Club…”
Nikolai laughed bitterly after pronouncing the name.
Despot meant tyrant in the Hersen language.
“The real tyrant is right here, yet they had the nerve to create such a thing?”
“His Highness Mikhail was also from there.”
At those words, Nikolai’s expression instantly hardened.
Mikhail de Vasily.
Oksana’s son and Nikolai’s half-brother.
