Micheela Cor (3)
Though my voice couldn’t have fully reached him, the Duke seemed to understand the entire situation. I too found myself smiling naturally in relief at having saved him.
It was when I grasped his hand without hesitation. The Duke’s body lurched violently once.
At the same time, the neat smile vanished from his face in an instant, and the pupils of his jet-black eyes dilated sharply.
“Your Grace…?”
Once again, with a thud, his body shook violently and the Duke’s hand gripping mine tightened with more force. Suddenly, great confusion erupted on the ship. People running toward Duke Rochester entered my vision in slow motion.
Then I felt the large ship, which had seemed stationary, surge forward in the fierce wind. Without my realizing it, the ship had turned direction, and the fluttering sail had reversed as well.
But it was already too late.
“Protect the Duke!”
Someone’s shout brought me back to reality, but I still couldn’t believe the tragic scene unfolding before my eyes. An arrow was embedded lengthwise in the Duke’s back.
“Aaaaah!”
While I screamed, still gripping his hand, Walter protected me while looking around frantically.
In an instant, everything surrounding me became a vacuum. I felt nothing—not the cold rainwater that had been making my body tremble, nor the noise of people shouting and running about.
Only the gaze of Duke Rochester firmly gripping my hand and his warm smile remained vivid.
“Lienne, my child.”
My heart sank at the Duke’s gaze that foretold the end. With rain pouring down violently, it was hard to tell whether I was crying or not.
[The one who will kill his father and become the sun of the heavens.]
God had finally invoked that so-called oracle and thrust an arrow into Ricardo’s father’s back right before my very eyes. As if to make me realize what a terrible wrong it was to defy God’s will.
The Duke collapsed right there, sinking to his knees.
“My child, you came all this way… I’m sorry to send you back empty-handed.”
I couldn’t say anything and just clenched my teeth. Bottomless resentment and anger toward the heavens filled me completely.
“Ricardo, my son… I entrust him to you. And my wife… tell Paula I loved her.”
With those words, the Duke collapsed onto my shoulder. Blood that welled up from his mouth soaked my entire body.
Then Walter approached closely to my side. He looked at me briefly, then extended his hand.
“There seem to be no more attacks, but we must take cover for now. Take my hand.”
I stared at his hand with vacant eyes. If I took this hand, could I escape from this hell-like place right away?
[You have a chance.]
At that very moment, a groan-like voice I’d heard over a decade ago rang in my ears again. On that day of thunder and lightning, I thought I’d lived forgetting that voice that had pushed me away from death, but I was completely wrong.
Hearing that voice, even the cold and hunger of that day came back vividly.
[There’s a chance.]
I’d clearly heard it even in that moment when I was dying in the fire. This terrible voice saying there was a chance.
‘A chance? What chance? A chance to watch Ricardo’s father die before my eyes?’
Then I suddenly realized something.
I still didn’t know who owned the voice or what chance they were talking about, but one thing was certain. Every time I heard that voice, a vivid memory remained with me.
Shaking off the eerily laughing sound from my head, I straightened my body. I raised my head, which wouldn’t move from being soaked in rain, and looked at the hand Walter had extended. Instead of taking his hand, I stretched my arm out and grabbed his collar.
“Go to His Highness the Crown Prince immediately.”
“What?”
“Go to His Highness the Crown Prince right now and ask him to turn back time—not 1 minute, no, just 2 minutes. Yes, just 2 minutes.”
The price Stuart had to pay to turn back time was his life, so even 2 minutes was long. Even knowing it was a request that would eat away at his life, I had no choice but to make it in my current state.
“Please…”
“Lienne, I understand what you’re thinking, but I’ll lose my memory the moment I go there. Moreover, you won’t even realize that time has been reversed, so how do you think you can prevent this?”
As Walter rapidly poured out his words urgently, the ship lurched violently once more, and I barely supported the Duke’s body and mine by pressing my palm to the floor. The Duke’s blood that had flowed down my shoulder was spreading to the floor through my arm. Watching the blood being swept away by the rain, I met Walter’s eyes again.
“No, I can remember.”
Walter’s brow furrowed deeply. He clearly thought it was absolutely impossible, but I didn’t back down. That I would remember this moment was a belief close to certainty.
Though my hands were trembling, I grabbed one side of his jacket without hesitation and pulled it back, revealing Walter’s white shirt soaked in rainwater.
With my blood-stained fingertips, I wrote “2 minutes” in large letters on his white shirt. Hoping that the Crown Prince and Walter would understand the meaning of “2 minutes” written in the Duke’s blood.
Walter looked down briefly at the large red letters written on his shoulder. His turquoise eyes, which turned back to me, shook greatly. Just for a moment, then he disappeared like smoke right before my eyes.
The trembling fingertips that had touched Walter’s shoulder were still stained with the Duke’s blood.
After a moment that felt like eternity, as I slowly closed and opened my eyes, I realized I was being held not by the Duke but by Walter.
“Be careful.”
There was a voice overlapping with Walter’s solemn voice.
[You have a chance.]
“Ah…”
Walter succeeded in turning back time.
[There’s a chance.]
With the eerie voice I heard again, I knew that what I’d just experienced wasn’t a dream. Though it remained only as an afterimage like a painting, the scene of Duke Rochester being struck by an arrow and bleeding unfolded before my eyes.
Though I didn’t want to admit it, that voice was telling me the truth. I had been given a chance to save Duke Rochester.
“My brave daughter-in-law came to save me.”
Before I could finish organizing my thoughts, the affectionate voice came once more. Just like before, I felt the sensation of my skirt hem weighing me down, but I escaped from Walter’s embrace and ran toward the Duke with all my might.
That brief moment of running toward the Duke unfolded slowly in my vision. In the distance, pitch-black clouds scattered rain all over the sea. As the Duke’s face, resembling Ricardo and smiling just like him, was colored with shock, a dull impact sound rang out, and this time it wasn’t the Duke but my pupils that dilated sharply.
“Lienne!”
Just like before, watching the great confusion arise on the ship, I lifted the corners of my mouth.
‘I did it.’
[Are you not afraid?]
I seemed to hear Ricardo’s angry voice reproaching me from below the cliff, but somehow I didn’t feel regret. People ran toward the Duke and me, and the ship that had stopped to change direction moved slightly forward.
This time too, the sail changed direction without me realizing it and moved away from land, but this time it was definitely not too late.
“You, what on earth have you done?”
The voice of Duke Rochester, thick with tears, faded distantly.
“Father.”
“Yes, Lienne. Whatever you want to say is fine, so speak.”
“I, absolutely, absolutely cannot watch Ricardo lose to the fate of the oracle.”
Then, my hand was grasped by a warm hand, and I was immediately enveloped in pure white light.
****
Walter had no choice but to stand facing the Crown Prince, who was startled looking at him without understanding why. Walter, soaked with water, didn’t understand either.
“What on earth happened to you?”
Stuart finally thought Walter had gone mad. It would have been stranger not to be surprised when Walter, who seemed like he would have been born in a perfect suit and cried “Wah” just once very politely, appeared looking like a drowned rat.
Moreover, one shoulder had his jacket removed and was stained with blood.
“What happened, I’m asking?”
“I… don’t remember.”
“It’s fortunate I was alone. Is it okay to use your family’s power so recklessly? How far is your family from the palace?”
Stuart pushed his wheelchair to approach Walter closely and could confirm that the bloodstain, so crushed it was hard to recognize its form, was the number “2.”
“This is a number. 2? What’s the next one?”
He asked again, but Walter only blinked his turquoise eyes and couldn’t say anything.
“Hey, Walter. Pull yourself together. Do you know what letters these are?”
“That’s… I don’t remember anything.”
“Come sit down for now.”
Stuart sighed and led him. But Walter didn’t obediently comply.
“No.”
“What?”
“No, it’s not that, I have to go now…”
“Where are you going?”
“Well, I don’t know where it is, but…”
Only then did Stuart check Walter’s condition once more with his eyes. Then he suddenly recalled that the Duchess Rochester had been dragged to the imperial palace.
Moreover, it wasn’t raining in the capital right now.