Chapter 76: Chapter 76

“I’m…okay…”

His voice was fainter than that of breathing, and cut off sparingly.

“Did you say you’re okay?”

She raised herself with an unbelievable look. Worry and astonishment, anger and fear, were mixed up in her mind.

“You’re not okay. Your Majesty is not at all okay now! Why did you stick it out until you ended up in this condition? You should have woken me up!”

She shot him a sharp glance and looked at his back. When she looked closer under the moonlight, only a little bit of sticky medicinal herbs were stained on his back. Luckily, it looked like the blood had stopped, but considering the amount of bleeding during the day, he was not in a safe situation.

“Why are you saying you’re okay all the time? You’re human. If you hurt, you bleed, and if you get sick, you have a fever! Why are you so stubborn when nobody is watching you here?”

The more she spoke, the more upset she felt. Without replying at all, he just stared at her blankly. As if he was losing consciousness due to hypothermia, his eyes were half-closed, and his breathing was too slow.

“Can you speak frankly to me? You can do whatever you want after you return home alive. You told me you wouldn’t die. You promised me you wouldn’t do anything that could scare me off…”

His tranquil blue eyes slowly closed and then opened.

She quickly wiped the tears from her cheeks. Apart from being resentful about him, she had to come up with a way to increase his body temperature.

‘… If I could make a fire.’

This kind of wishful thinking made her upset. The clothes she hung were not yet dry, and it was like a suicide to cover him with the wet clothes. She was not sure how much time was left until sunrise.

“Wait a minute. Let me rake in some dry grass…”

She was about to raise herself before flopping down again. Her wrists caught by him felt almost cold.

“I’ll be right back. I’m not running away. How can I run away and leave you behind here?”

While trying to appease him, she twisted her wrists slightly to pull away from his grip. She had no time to argue with him.

But he did not let her go. Even though he was like a dying corpse, he strongly hung on her with all his might that she couldn’t believe at all.

“Don’t…go…”

He feebly but desperately said that, but it was the loudest voice he could make at the moment.

She looked down at him with wet eyes. Of all the countless faces she had ever seen, his was the most helpless and weakest. At the same time, what he said was the most honest and earnest request ever.

“Maria…nne…”

She bit her lip bitterly. Even in this desperate situation, she felt touched when he called her name and her heart throbbed.

“I’m so…cold…”

Having said that, his blue eyes closed completely. And his hands holding her wrists fell down helplessly.

* * *

Knock, knock.

Knocks rang out in the quiet office. Duke Kling, who was burying his head in a pile of papers on the desk, looked up. When he looked at the clock, it was just past midnight.

“Come in.”

Following his answer, the door opened. A large shadow slipped in quickly.

“I’m honored to see your lord.”

“Stand up. I’m sorry to call you so late.”

“Fine. I have been working late at night. By the way, I heard that I have something to pick up.”

“No, I didn’t tell you to pick up…”

Kling turned to the second desk in front of the bookshelf opposite of him.

In between the gap of files piled up like a mountain, Colin’s pink hair could be seen. He was asleep. His periodic breathing sounded like a lullaby.

“It looks like he was really tired. I tried hard to wake him up, but failed.”

“Well, once he falls asleep, it’s really hard to wake him up, sir, even if he is not tired.”

“I guess he overdid himself for the past several days as he was too conscious of my presence. By the way, one of the attendants tells me that Colin’s best friend is Sir Jed, and asks me to consult with you about what to do with Colin.”

“Which bastard spread such rumors? I can tell you clearly that he and I are pretty much rivals against each other.”

It was Jed who visited the Palace Office late at night. He sighed, sweeping his red hair. Though he showed a very unpleasant expression, he didn’t express it because he felt Duke Kling called him for some reason.

Duke Kling smiled happily and added one more word.

“Besides, I hear Euclid’s mansion is right next to Earl Renault…”

“… Well, that’s true,” replied Jed, admitting that they were close anyway.

Jed looked around the messy desk. Then he picked up a coat roughly hung on a chair, presumably Colin’s.

“How’s your mother?”

“Fortunately, there seems to be no major aftereffect. She eats and sleeps well. It seems that she is more naggy than before.”

Mrs. Renault, bitten by a poisonous snake at the recent banquet for the emperor and Marianne, came to her senses three days after the emperor’s party left the capital. Mrs. Charlotte told Duke Kling that she felt great regret that Mrs. Chester replaced her as a counselor for Marianne.

“Good for her. How about Sir Arthur?”

“She is by my mother at the moment. He said he would return to the earl’s residence tomorrow. It seems like he wanted to go back because the mansion was so good,” said Jed, pounding Colin’s shoulders.

“Sir Colin.”

As he was in deep sleep, Colin did not respond.

“His Excellency is looking for…”

Colin stood up like a roly-poly even before Jed was done talking. As he couldn’t sleep well for a few days, even the whites of his eyes looked reddish. As soon as he woke up, he looked around urgently.

Watching the scene, Kling exclaimed at Jed’s cunning method, with his jaw dropping.

He shrugged his shoulders, making an expression on his face that read something like, ‘How come you are surprised by a trick like this? I’ve got much more than this.’

“His Majesty? Where is he now?”

“Where is the emperor? I guess he has arrived at the Roshan Temple by now. By thy way, how come you are so dumb? It looks like he dumped the files into the trash bin when the servants were cleaning up. Or he might have drunk them with wine while having dinner. Why don’t you tell me whether it tasted good or not?”

Laughing ironically, Jed threw his coat to him. Colin shook his head down, dragging his coat over his head.

“… Sir Jed? What business has brought you here?”

“You took it right out of my mouth. As a Treasury official, why the hell am I here to wake you up to send you home?”

“Really? I am not going to go back home…Oh, I was looking for the files that the duke had asked me to take care of a while ago…”

When Colin was about to reach for the stack of paperwork, Jed quickly grabbed his arm and pulled it with a jerk. As he was relatively small, Colin quickly stood up on impulse.

“Duke Kloud asked you to go back home, not to look for the documents. So, you had better…”

Jed’s hands that grabbed his wrists clutched his shoulders more tightly this time.

“Stop being stubborn and go back home, won’t you? You were sleeping here anyway, right? Just go home and sleep there. Why are you sticking around here and annoying your supervisor? I was told you slept in the janitor’s room yesterday, right?”

In the end, Jed frowned, forgetting his manners. Colin made a long face and looked at Duke Kling and Jed.

“But… If I go away, Duke Kling has to take care of all the work…”

“Hey, switch your job with another protocol secretary tomorrow. Why are you trying to monopolize all the work? Do you think the Palace Office won’t work without you? I can tell you this: you’re now taking yourself too seriously. Others are anxious to take vacation leave, which is very normal, but you’re not going home after work and trying to sleep here? Are you crazy? If the emperor returns, you have to be ready to work overtime for at least one month.”

Jed shook his head a bit after reproaching Colin harshly.

“Of course, I think you’re an exception, Duke Kling. Well, the father of this immature official Colin once said, ‘Sincerity is not only an essential virtue of management, but sometimes it is a good aptitude to be excessive. And I agree with that.”

Duke Kling, who had been in the office for several days, laughed a hearty laugh. They were not supposed to make a fuss before the duke, but he was pleased and glad to hear their argument. It felt good to temporarily forget what happened last night.

Jed dragged Colin’s neck, and Colin bowed to him, expressing his apologies.

At that moment, the door opened up all of a sudden.