Chapter 11.3

What was that?

Thinking he’d misheard, Derrick snapped his eyes open and strained his ears. Since being locked up here, it was the first time he’d heard anyone’s voice.

“Call me…again, I really won’t…”

“…if?”

“I’ll get angry. I’ll avoid you…for a week.”

He couldn’t hear the content well, but it was a man and a woman’s voice. Derrick quickly raised his head and crawled on his knees to the door.

He pressed his ear to the door and heard clear conversation.

“Oh, that’s pretty specific. Just imagining it breaks my heart.”

“Don’t laugh. I’m serious right now….”

Thud!

Derrick mustered all his strength and slammed his shoulder against the door.

‘Please, please.’

‘Just help me once.’

“Ugh… ugh…”

He wanted to say it, but his voice, unused for so long, only produced strange noises.

Thud! Thud!

Derrick, unable to help it, banged his shoulder and head against the door repeatedly. His shoulder felt like it had cracked from the impact, but the mental agony outweighed the physical pain.

And finally.

“…Derrick Harrington?”

At the very moment he slammed his head again, the door opened. Derrick tumbled out onto the floor, groaning loudly.

“Ugh, ugh…”

Tears streamed down Derrick’s cheeks. ‘Thank you, thank you.’ Derrick muttered unintelligible words with unclear pronunciation as a woman’s footsteps approached him.

“My goodness! Derrick, get a hold of yourself. What on earth happened to you?”

But Derrick, so overwhelmed by the fact that he’d escaped that hellish prison, could hear nothing. Not his name, nor the familiar voice.

“It’s over, it’s all over now…”

Panting and muttering, Derrick lost consciousness.

* * *

“Teacher! Teacher Erdin!”

At that moment.

A young boy’s voice rang out loudly as he crossed the vegetable garden behind the Seints mansion. The boy stopped in front of the garden, panting, and handed over a letter envelope with his small hand.

“There’s a letter for you, Teacher. I thought I’d deliver it since I was passing by.”

“That’s very kind of you.”

The man working in the garden took off his gloves and patted the boy’s head. As he stood up, his loose shirt fluttered, carrying the scent of earth.

“Oh, but Teacher, you’ve got dirt on your face.”

The boy bounced on his feet and reached out to the man. The man picked up the boy with one arm and smiled gently.

“I’m fine, so let’s go inside. Isn’t today the day Baron Seints is visiting?”

“That’s right…”

The boy looked down, sulking, and clung tightly to the man’s neck as if he didn’t want to let go.

“But I want to stay with you longer, Teacher Erdin! Teacher, why don’t you join us for a meal? I heard from mother that you could…”

Looking into the boy’s bright eyes, the man smiled and shook his head.

“No home tutor eats with the host family. And I have a lot of work piled up. I’ll eat alone in my room. You should change clothes, Young Master, it’s almost time.”

“Aw…”

Patting the boy’s back, the man walked into the mansion as if used to it. After escorting the young master to his room, he walked to his own room, assigned to the resident tutor.

But.

Once he closed the door and turned around, the gentle smile he’d shown the young master was gone.

Erdin—returning to his real name, Kaiden, from that gentle alias—wiped the dirt from his face with his usual, blunt expression.

It had been several weeks since he became a home tutor.

The youngest son of the Seints Barony, recuperating in the countryside, had liked Kaiden from the first day. The Baroness checked his teacher certificate, and immediately gave him a room. The job of resident tutor matched Kaiden’s requirements.

Of course, teaching and caring for a child wasn’t what he considered his ideal work, but recalling his own first tutor, it wasn’t all that difficult.

Recall, rehearse, imitate.

Excelling at anything was a basic ability inherited from the Bannon bloodline.

Sometimes he felt guilty for deceiving the innocent child and the lady, but he truly did have a teacher’s certificate, so technically it wasn’t a scam.

He’d only borrowed the name Erdin.

Nothing else was different; just by removing the “Bannon” stain from his name, so much had changed.

Why hadn’t he done something so simple sooner?

Perhaps now, everything was finally falling into place. His daily life flowed calmly like a river, and the blade he was sharpening to strike his father was getting ready to be even sharper.

Everything was going smoothly.

Except for the fact that Brienne Ford had been completely cut out of his life.

‘…….’

He had thought he might be able to change his fate. But now he realized that was just arrogant wishful thinking.

Kaiden gave a bitter smile and sat on the bed, recalling memories from a few weeks ago. It was the day he took the Baron’s son to the capital to deliver documents.

While writing his name on the visitor log at the medical center, Kaiden discovered Brienne Ford’s name on the previous day’s list.

Was it that the wound she’d gotten back then hadn’t healed yet?

Or had she been injured in the Academy accident?

Tracing those familiar letters with a worried face, Kaiden couldn’t help but ask the nurse. But the nurse’s answer was simply that Brienne had visited as a guest.

He found it laughable that he’d worried about her for nothing.

Recalling that unpleasant memory, Kaiden let out a hollow laugh and picked up the medicine case from the nightstand. Swallowing the pills without water, his face showed fatigue.

Today was over, so he would sleep deeply.

Because in sleep, he could meet Brienne.

Kaiden smiled faintly and ran his fingertips over the cover of the book on his bed. But before that, there was something he needed to check.

He took the letter from his shirt pocket.

Herace Belif.

The sender wasn’t written, but only one person knew he was staying here.

He was supposed to meet Herace next week anyway, so it was probably about that.

Kaiden opened the letter at a steady pace.

But as he read, his eyebrows furrowed instantly.

‘…Melosi Bailey.’

That unwelcome name, wanting to meet him, had appeared in the peaceful life he’d barely managed to secure.

* * *

‘…Where am I?’

Blinking up at the ceiling, Derrick suddenly sat up.

A faint smell of alcohol lingered at the tip of his nose. White bed sheets, a dusty window. Looking around in a panic, he saw a cracked, white hospital room.

“My goodness…”

So it wasn’t a dream.

Blinking blankly, Derrick stroked his cheek in awe.

Normally, he’d have grabbed the collar of whoever brought him to such a shabby place and shaken them. But after being locked up in the engine room storeroom for so long, even this worn-out hospital room looked like heaven to Derrick.

It was even a private room.

A satisfied smile crept onto Derrick’s lips as he looked around. He was truly grateful for his reality here. Whoever had saved him and brought him to the hospital deserved thanks.

If only he could return home, he’d gladly give a hefty reward to the one who saved his life.

Having gone through such a harsh time, Derrick felt more generous than usual and made up his mind.

Creak.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

Of course, that was only until he saw Brienne Ford enter through the hospital room door.

“You, you…”

Derrick’s eyes widened at the face he’d never expected to see. Was it a hallucination? Rubbing his eyes as Brienne approached, Derrick raised his hand to block her.

“W-wait. Brienne Ford? Why are you here?”

“Good question.”

Brienne shrugged lightly and gestured to Derrick’s bandaged leg.

“Right now, I think you owe me a thank you.”

“W-what…?”

Derrick frowned as if he couldn’t understand. But at that moment, the woman’s voice he’d heard before losing consciousness flashed through his mind.

<My goodness! Derrick, get a hold of yourself.>  

<What on earth happened?>

That calm and elegant voice echoing in the dark engine room.

‘Yes, that voice was definitely…’

“…No way! So the person who saved me was you, Brienne Ford?”

Only then did Derrick realize the unbelievable truth, and he raised his voice in shock. But Brienne just smiled and handed him the paper she was holding.

“You catch on faster than I expected.”

“What is this…?”

“It’s the bill. To explain kindly since you’re a patient, you’re at Seints Medical Center.”

“…Seints?”

He’d never heard that name before. As Derrick took the bill with a suspicious look, Brienne added a word.

“It’s in the Holy Kingdom of Roeta.”

“What?”

Derrick’s eyes widened as he stammered.

“W-wait. Holy Kingdom of Roeta? So I’m in Roeta right now?”

“That’s right. We found you on that ship this morning after you’d been missing for weeks. So, are you ready to thank me now?”

“……”

‘A thank you?’

Derrick stared blankly at Brienne, his expression crumpling.

She wanted him to thank her?

Harrington, thanking Ford?

He knew perfectly well the relationship between the Fords and the Harringtons. Ford was the family that received help. Harrington was the family that gave help.

In fact, without the help of his father, Earl Harrington, the Ford family would have remained nothing more than a side character, unable to join either the noble or imperial factions.

And yet, that Ford dared, without knowing her place…