Chapter 2.4

“You….”

After parting like that, what kind of sentimental reunion was I hoping for…? 

Miguel’s face twisted with deep disappointment. It seemed that Lisael’s cruel business with him was only that one thing. Her attitude towards Miguel had changed completely, but her affection for the village seemed constant.

“Do you know how long it’s been since we’ve talked? And that’s all you have to say to me? No… of course, you care deeply about this village, so I understand. But I want to talk about something else first.”

Miguel gave himself another chance. A chance to cling to the hope he had for Lisael. But Lisael responded indifferently, as if she genuinely didn’t know or didn’t want to know Miguel’s intentions. The bright smile she used to give him had completely disappeared, as if it never existed.

“…That’s all I have to say to you.”

“…Ha! I see. Then I should answer as the Young Earl to the daughter of the former village chief who cherishes the village immensely.”

If you just called my name, or asked how I’ve been… I would have had the confidence to cling to you and restore our relationship to what it once was. 

But the current Lisael was so cold that she didn’t even allow the opportunity for him to cling.

Miguel couldn’t understand why he had to discuss a hard, barren topic that should have been talked about in the Lord’s castle with Lisael whom he met after a year. Her firmly closed heart drew out the pride and youthful bravado of a boy in his stormy adolescence.

With somewhat sharp steps, he approached right in front of Lisael, looking down at her coldly with eyes full of disappointment. Lisael, not backing down, glared back at Miguel. 

When had we grown so much? 

Now the height difference between them was more than a handbreadth.

“I refuse your request. The most important thing in the territory is not the villagers but the assets and budget for running the territory. Villagers were important because they were the driving force for creating those. But now, with cheap and precise machines replacing human labor, why should we spend on wages to employ the residents?”

In front of Lisael, Miguel recited the theory that Earl Dante had repeated to him endlessly. Of course, even he thought that the Earl’s stubbornness was a short-sighted management strategy for a Lord.

But, petty and cowardly as it was, at that moment, he needed to act as if it were his own thought. Whether the act of an evil administrator worked well or not, as soon as Miguel finished speaking, a deep sorrow, as deep as the scratch in his chest, spread across Lisael’s face.

For that moment, a useless pride rose up, wishing that she would be as upset as he was hurt.

“Do you really think that?”

“Yes, you, who stay at home doing embroidery and reading, wouldn’t know anything about economic profit and the complex political interests involved. You’d think everything is fine as long as the residents smile, regardless of whether the territory’s income decreases.”

Miguel later regretted these words over and over. Once twisted, their relationship never recovered after that day, and they became lifelong enemies and adversaries in the South, growling whenever they met, regardless of his intentions.

“…I misjudged you. You were inevitably part of the Dante family.”

“That’s the highest compliment.”

Watching Lisael’s back as she left coldly without looking back, Miguel roughly grabbed his own hair with one hand.

*   *   *

If it were now, I could understand a hundred times whatever you said, it was all because we were young and unripe. You, who poured all your resentment on me who knew nothing, and I, who couldn’t embrace that immature emotion willingly.

Yes, how could Miguel Dante and the Dante family be seen separately? If such a misunderstanding arose now, I could throw away my pride, kneel endlessly, and bow my head, even if words of hatred and contempt towards me poured out like a waterfall from your mouth.

Whether I see you after one year or ten years, even if your first words are dry, business-like talk, I can smile and give you the answer you want. Then I will bring up the topic about us first.

But regrets that come too late are futile, wasting time bound to that past. In reality, they had grown so distant and twisted that they found it uncomfortable to even share the same space.

Miguel threw his soaked fedora to the side and leaned irritably against the chair. At the same time, the recollection of unpleasant past memories vanished like smoke.

His pants hem and shoes were already soaked and uncomfortable from the rain. But what was more uncomfortable was his wife, who had been missing for a full two hours.

Blaming his immature past self now wouldn’t bring back the past. Miguel’s blue eyes, which always let reason take control over emotions, turned as cold as the pouring rain.

‘Think of where Lisa might have gone… where could she go….’

According to his intuition, which once dominated the casino, Matilda surely had a place in mind.

“Um… Young Master.”

‘Where could it be, since I said I’ve already searched most places, it’s not a place that comes to mind easily.’

“Among the places away from the city, there is….”

‘Let’s put myself in Lisa’s shoes… was she feeling suffocated, wanting to go out after being cooped up in the study all the time?’

“There… is a park….”

The butler seemed to be saying something in front of him, but to Miguel, who was already trapped in his own world, the inside of the carriage was no different from a distant space.

‘I am Lisa… I am Lisael Cherlin….’

Troubled by her marriage to the Dante family, she would have wanted to be alone even if it was an outing to relieve her suffocation. Then, naturally, the crowded downtown would be excluded. A place in Grand Town, the largest resort in the South, where there were few people but she could still enjoy the breeze….

…How would I know something like that?

Even after channeling Lisael, Miguel, unable to find an answer, irritably lifted his bowed head. From the start, it was too disadvantageous for an outsider like him to find the missing Lisael.

“Is there a place with a wide pasture and a hill in Grand Town?”

Finally, the butler, sensing Miguel’s willingness to listen, cautiously repeated the words he had mentioned several times.

“There’s no pasture because it’s a coastal city, but there’s a forest park. It’s called Bescheny Park, and it has almost no visitors….”

“…A forest?”

‘A forest, huh, though I don’t understand, Lisa did have a peculiar fondness for forests and grass….’

“Why are you mentioning it only now?”

“I’ve been trying to….”

“Wait. If she’s alone in the forest now… isn’t that too dangerous?”

At Miguel’s cold inquiry, the butler, as if wronged, waved his hands, but Miguel, interrupting even that, grimaced harshly.

“Where is this park?”

“The forest at the entrance to the hunting ground you always visit is that park….”

Finally, the Young Earl listened to his words without interruption for the first time. But as his handsome face, which had been crumpling, turned into a grim expression, the butler grew even more frightened.

“Stop the carriage!”

“Young Earl…?”

The Young Earl, seemingly not in his right mind, opened the carriage door right in the middle of the slope leading up to the villa as soon as the carriage stopped.

Whoosh—.

As soon as the carriage door opened, a torrent of water rushed in with the wind and rain, competing to enter the carriage.

“Young Earl!”

Without giving the butler a chance to stop him, Miguel dismounted the coachman and pulled out a horse, mounting it. Judging by his eyes, the Young Earl seemed slightly unhinged. 

Was he really planning to go to the park alone on horseback?

“Young Master! It’s dangerous to go alone!”

“The carriage is too slow!”

Seeing him already mounted, the butler and coachman waved their arms helplessly in the pouring rain, flustered as if struck by lightning.

Hiya—!

In the meantime, Miguel drove the horse away into the storm, and the butler and coachman exchanged bewildered glances, their mouths agape, oblivious to the rain pouring in. 

What on earth was happening?

They couldn’t imagine that the Young Earl couple, who had been acting separately for days, were in a love of the century so intense that he would personally go out to find her through the torrential rain. The butler stood still for a long time, overloaded by the situation that unfolded and ended in a flash.

Meanwhile, Miguel, who was certain of Lisael’s whereabouts, drove the horse relentlessly like a top jockey at a racetrack. The horse, which had been pulling the carriage slowly, dashed urgently to where he directed, as if struck by lightning at the skilled yet rough handling of the jockey.