Chapter 8 (Part 6)

The archer, hidden on a rooftop, didn’t reveal themselves, but a man dressed in black emerged from the end of the alley and walked toward Therese and the man. Recognizing him, Therese sighed in relief.  

However, the man next to her remained wary. Seeing this, Therese spoke.  

“It’s alright. He’s on our side.”  

“Who said we’re on the same side?”  

The man’s gruff remark was irritating, but escaping the area took priority.  

Since they had killed Imperial soldiers, getting caught would mean grave consequences.  

The three of them boarded the carriage Roshan had prepared, and for a while, no one spoke.  

“My apologies for being late.”  

Roshan bowed his head in apology, and Therese wiped her sweat with her sleeve. Now that she felt safe, the pain she had been suppressing rushed in all at once.  

“Roshan, you have my medicine in the carriage, don’t you?”  

“Here it is.”  

After taking the suppressant, Therese, now feeling light-headed, remembered the man whose face she hadn’t properly seen.  

“Well, since we’ve met like this, why not introduce ourselves?”  

“There’s no need for introductions. Just drop me off anywhere.”  

Despite his sharp tone, Therese smiled.  

‘He’s a bit cute.’  

After all, he had tried so hard to protect her earlier when they were facing the Imperial soldiers.  

Though he wore his hat low, his handsome face couldn’t be entirely hidden.  

“You seem like a student from Oxford Academy. Am I wrong?”  

“You don’t need to know.”  

“Do you even know who you’re speaking to, talking so rudely?”  

As the man continued to snap, Roshan, seated next to Therese, clenched his fist.  

“Roshan, it’s fine.”  

Given his secretive work publishing newspapers, it was natural for him to be cautious.  

“Stop the carriage over there.”  

Though Therese had many questions, she knew he wouldn’t answer them in his current state.  

As the man prepared to disembark, he removed his hat and tidied his messy hair.  

“…?”  

His light blonde hair and blue eyes looked very familiar.  

“…Gabriel Richard?”  

Therese involuntarily murmured his name, and the man’s face instantly tensed with suspicion.  

‘How is this possible?’  

The sheer coincidence left Therese momentarily speechless.  

He was Gabriel Richard, the second son of the Richard family and the only younger brother of Jeremy Richard.  

Therese had only seen Gabriel Richard once before her death.  

Having fallen out of favor with Maria, Gabriel had never returned home.  

‘He didn’t get along with his brother either.’  

So much so that he hadn’t even attended Therese and Duke Richard’s wedding.  

The last time she had seen Gabriel was when he lay in a coffin.  

Seeing Gabriel alive and breathing was a strange feeling.  

‘It’s like looking at myself.’  

After all, she was also someone who had come back from the dead.  

“Let me reintroduce myself.”  

Though the situation was somewhat absurd, Therese couldn’t pretend not to know Gabriel.  

“I am Therese Demori.”  

“…?”  

Hearing her introduction, Gabriel’s hand, which had been gripping the carriage door, flinched.  

“As Duchess Richard, I assure you I’m not a suspicious person.”  

“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re a stranger.”  

“Well, that’s true.”  

Therese nodded as Gabriel, prickly as a hedgehog, continued to act hostile.  

‘Is having a bad temper a family trait?’  

Given that the Imperial Knights were after them, there was no time to ponder Gabriel’s intriguing personality.  

“What you’re doing now is extremely dangerous.”  

If Emperor Morciani caught Gabriel, his life would be in grave danger.

“Don’t worry, I won’t bring disgrace to that prestigious family of yours.”  

Gabriel’s pale hand, clutching the newspaper, trembled slightly.  

“Oh, though I suppose that’s part of my concern too.” 

Therese admitted honestly, prompting Gabriel to lift his head for the first time.  

Under his pale face framed by light blonde hair that reached his shoulders, his green-tinted blue eyes sparkled. He was a striking man with the sharp features characteristic of the Richard family. As she gazed at him, Therese carefully began to speak.  

“I’d like to know more about the article.”  

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  

Despite having read his articles about people disappearing and testimonies of strange sightings, Gabriel feigned ignorance.  

‘Well, I suppose it’s not something easy to talk about with just anyone.’  

Even though she was the Duchess of Richard, this was her first time meeting Gabriel.  

What could she possibly say to make him trust her?  

Therese turned to Roshan and made a request.  

“Roshan, could you take off your shirt?”  

“…?”  

At her command, Roshan silently began to remove his clothes, causing Gabriel’s eyes to widen in shock.  

“Roshan, show him your back.”  

When Roshan slowly exposed his back, it revealed unhealed scars left by the claws of a monster.  

“…Ugh.”  

Gabriel covered his mouth with his hand, horrified by the vivid scars.  

“Thank you, Roshan.”  

Therese draped Roshan’s shirt back over his shoulders.  

“As you can see, Roshan has encountered monsters twice and even sustained these injuries. I’ve also witnessed them once myself, and I nearly lost my subordinates that time.”  

“You’ve seen them with your own eyes?”  

Gabriel’s eyes glimmered with interest at Therese’s words.  

“Could I hear what information you have?”  

The carriage soon entered the marketplace where the guild office was located. The suspicious group that had been following them split into two and then disappeared.  

***

Therese didn’t return to the Richard estate until late at night. It had taken considerable time to hide Gabriel in a secure location after their conversation.  

When she stepped out of the carriage, Sophia, who had been waiting, took her arm.  

“Madam, why are you so late? Skipping dinner will ruin your health.”  

“It’s fine. I ate with Roshan.”  

These days, Roshan acted as though he was training to become a chef. Tonight, she had eaten so much of his special meat pie that her stomach felt ready to burst.  

“Didn’t I tell you not to get too close to that guy?”  

“Why? Because his eyes are red?”  

In the Caspian Empire, red eyes were considered ominous. However, across the sea in Urcana, the royal family’s eyes were red.  

“Superstitions shouldn’t be dismissed so lightly. Did I ever tell you this? When I was young, I opened the window and saw a magpie perched right there.”  

Having heard this story multiple times before, Therese quickly responded.  

“And I told you, you should greet it by saying, ‘Hello, Mr. Magpie.’”  

“Exactly. I was fine because I did that, but the old lady who lived by the windmill on the hill ignored it and got struck by lightning.”  

“Alright, I’ll make sure to greet any magpies I see.”  

Calling a magpie “Mr. Magpie” still felt a bit ridiculous to her.  

As Therese smiled lightly, Sophia grinned along with her.  

“But Madam, if you see three or four magpies, don’t greet them. It’ll scare away your good fortune. Got it?”  

“How do you even remember all these things, Sophia? So, what’s the superstition about three or four magpies?”  

Listening to Sophia’s vast collection of superstitions often left Therese amazed.  

“They say seeing three magpies means you’ll have a daughter, and four means you’ll have a son.”  

Sophia’s playful comment made Therese’s shoulders tense as she ascended the stairs.  

‘…A son, a daughter.’  

If she had had a normal marriage, she might have laughed off the remark. But Therese couldn’t.  

‘I couldn’t even protect my child.’  

The memory was so fleeting that she wasn’t even sure if it had been her dream.  

‘And now…’  

The poison eating away at her life had made it entirely impossible. It was a desire she couldn’t afford to have, and one she shouldn’t have.  

“Are you feeling unwell again?”  

“No, I just had a very busy day.”  

Looking back, the day had been a whirlwind of chasing, sword fights, and all sorts of chaos in the alleys behind Oxford Street.  

“A hot bath should help.”  

Therese headed straight to the bathroom, soaked for a while, and then entered her bedroom. Her hair was still dripping as she stood in front of the mirror and let out a deep sigh.  

“Roshan’s going to scold me again.”  

As she gently dried her hair with a towel, she sensed movement in the dark corner of the room.  

“…Who’s there?”  

“It’s me.”  

“…Oh.”  

So he hadn’t been joking about sharing my bedroom.  

“‘Oh,’ again?”  

Having already bathed and dressed in a robe, the Duke approached the vanity table. Therese wondered who might have helped him bathe, given his condition.  

“Who else would you be thinking about besides me?”  

She hesitated, unable to admit that he had been on her mind. Standing right behind her, the Duke took the towel from her hands.  

“Sit down.”  

“Uh, alright.”  

Therese found herself gently pushed into the chair in front of the vanity table as the Duke began drying her hair.  

“Your arms must hurt. You don’t have to do this.”  

“I want to.”  

“…You could just call a maid.”  

“I don’t want anyone else in our bedroom.”  

‘Our bedroom…’  

This was supposed to be her private space.  

‘He’s always been a troublesome man, but lately, he’s become even more so.’  

She couldn’t understand why he insisted on drying her hair despite his own poor health.  

‘And it’s not like he even knows how to do it properly.’  

The Duke handled her hair as though it were delicate glass, carefully drying each strand, though it didn’t feel like her hair was drying at all.  

Instead, Therese found herself growing increasingly tense.