Ryan Wilgrave’s death.

At those words, silence immediately enveloped the gathering hall. Then, moments later, everyone gasped in shock.

Had there been any news more sudden and shocking than this recently? The hall erupted as if a bomb had dropped.

Then someone stepped forward and shouted loudly.

“Impossible! Why would our hero suddenly leave this world! It must be false information!”

His gestures and voice were so exaggerated that he might have been mistaken for the lead in a play, yet they only served to heighten the emotions of the already excited crowd.

Women throughout the room pulled out handkerchiefs to dab at their eyes, while men voiced their anger in rough tones.

As the atmosphere of mourning and grief intensified, another woman suddenly raised her voice.

“Tears are wasted on such a coward. He has finally met a fitting end!”

“What are you saying!”

The man who had first stepped forward glared at the woman with wide eyes. But she showed no sign of intimidation and raised her voice even louder.

“Is there anyone here who doesn’t know about Colonel Ryan Wilgrave’s cunning? He may have once been celebrated as a national hero, but in the end, he was nothing but a traitor who betrayed other units to save his own life! Wasn’t this thoroughly revealed in the Disciplinary Committee’s investigation? Especially when Earl Wallace exposed his cowardice in detail!”

At the mention of the Disciplinary Committee, the expression of the man defending Ryan distorted.

“Not everything from the Committee’s investigation is correct!”

“Are you now denying an institution recognized by the royal family?”

As the two argued, the murmuring of the crowd grew louder.

Until spring, whenever people in the capital’s social circles gathered, everyone had been talking about Colonel Wilgrave.

At first, many supported him, but when the Disciplinary Committee presented anonymous testimonies as evidence, the atmosphere gradually changed.

Hadn’t the number of critics increased, especially due to Earl Wallace, who vehemently criticized Colonel Wilgrave and brought new evidence and accusations daily?

Then summer came, the Committee temporarily halted its activities, and somehow Colonel Wilgrave’s case faded away.

Now, with this sudden news of his death, it was natural that people’s opinions were divided to extremes.

At that moment, an older gentleman came from the back and stopped the argument between the man and woman.

“That’s enough, both of you. It’s inappropriate to speak so carelessly when we don’t even know if this news is true.”

The older man asked the messenger who had brought the breaking news.

“Tell us more details. Where did you hear this news? Where did the Colonel die?”

The man who had been loudly announcing the news stammered.

“Well, I… I just heard people talking about it in the street… Ah, people were also saying this! That Colonel Ryan died in Gilia! That he died during a mission…!”

Gilia.

At those words, people began murmuring again. Just then, the sound of a glass breaking came from a corner.

But with all the noise and people starting to find their friends to discuss the news, the sound was quickly buried.

* * *

Click.

After closing the door, Eloise collapsed onto the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Staring blankly out the dark window, she felt something wet on her fingertips and looked down.

Even in the dark room, she could see dark red marks on her palm and clothes.

‘Why?’

‘Why is this here? Where did I get hurt?’

“Ah…”

The moment she heard that Colonel Ryan had died during a mission in Gilia, she had unconsciously gripped her glass tightly. Then she had staggered, hit the wall, and the glass had broken.

Normally, people nearby would have been startled and helped her, calling for a doctor, but just now everyone had been too busy reacting to the news to pay attention to Eloise’s injury.

And the same was true for Eloise herself.

Even seeing the broken glass fragments being crushed under people’s feet on the floor, she felt nothing.

Her hand stung a little, but all her mind and nerves were focused elsewhere.

‘Ryan is dead?’

If she had only heard that Colonel Wilgrave had died, she wouldn’t have been this shocked.

In fact, during the war, news of Ryan’s death had appeared in newspapers several times. And those articles had always been proven false.

So when she first heard that Colonel Wilgrave had died, she had only hesitated briefly, managing to maintain her composure.

But she couldn’t do the same when told he had died during a mission in Gilia.

That information was top secret. That’s why Richard had been reluctant to share too many details.

Yet the rumor accurately revealed where he had gone and what he had been doing.

Eloise clenched her fist and curled up.

‘Ryan is dead!’

No tears came. Her mind just went blank.

It still didn’t feel real. Honestly, she hadn’t even fully accepted that he was Ryan Wilgrave yet.

In Eloise’s heart, Ryan Wilgrave was still the blond, blue-eyed man, while her lover was Ryan Thornton, a bad-tempered soldier with black hair and blue eyes who often made irritating remarks.

Perhaps that’s why she couldn’t believe that her Ryan was dead.

After staying curled up for a long time, Eloise got up and staggered toward her desk.

Rumors are just rumors. She needed to contact Richard to confirm.

Without even thinking to turn on the light, Eloise fumbled across the desk searching for paper and pen. Though these items were always kept in the same place and should have been easy to find, her fumbling hands couldn’t locate the pen and kept touching the wrong places.

After several attempts, Eloise finally grabbed paper and pen, then bent over to look at the paper while standing beside the desk.

‘What should I ask?’

Is Ryan really dead? Did he really die during a mission in Gilia?

He had promised to return before the first snow, but now, like someone who didn’t remember such a promise…

Drip.

At that moment, a droplet fell onto the bloodstained paper.

Drip. Drip.

Tears that had rolled down her cheeks continued to fall onto the paper. They created even more of a mess on top of the bloodstains until the paper became completely unusable.

Eloise couldn’t write a single word.

Not a single word about his death.

* * *

A ship that had departed from Gilia was entering the harbor, cutting through the dawn mist.

As the ship docked and lowered its gangway, harbor office staff quickly boarded.

They immediately spoke to the captain who was waiting.

“Be careful. The atmosphere won’t be good for a few days. You’re from Albion, but your ship is Gilian, so there might be people coming to set it on fire at night.”

“Fire? What are you talking about?”

“Hasn’t the news reached Gilia yet? Word has spread that Colonel Wilgrave died during a mission in Gilia.”

“Colonel Wilgrave is dead?”

“Shh! Don’t speak so loudly. Anyway, the harbor atmosphere won’t be good for a while. How many passengers do you have on board?”

“About 150 in total. I think there are around 30 Gilians… D*mn. I’d better tell them to disembark quickly.”

The captain considered himself fortunate to have arrived at dawn.

If he had arrived during the day after the rumor had spread further, angry citizens might have thrown stones at the ship from Gilia and tried to set it on fire.

“Please process us quickly. I’ll give you the passenger list here.”

Understanding the captain’s urgency, the harbor staff quickly gathered the passengers preparing to disembark and hurried them along.

Among them, two men with pulled-down hats carrying light luggage were the first to come down the gangway.

“What’s your name?”

When the harbor staff member holding the passenger list asked, the first man to disembark answered.

“Ryan Thornton.”