Chapter 109.1

Will another war break out?

Lia looked around as the surroundings suddenly became chaotic, clutching the paper in her hand tightly. It was a note she intended to send to Pauline.

Luan told her not to worry, but there was no way Claude would send a note to anyone other than Luan. She was certain of that.

Lia entered the empty study once again. And there he was, perched on the mantelpiece, munching on his food—Pauline. Whether he was trying to inflate his belly before returning to Del Casa or if he simply enjoyed eating, he spread his wings wide when he saw Lia.

“Pauline.”

Closing the door, Lia approached Pauline with measured steps. Pauline, in turn, seemed to recognize her and chirped affectionately, nuzzling her beak against her hand.

After gently petting his head, Lia tied the note to one of his legs.

“Hurry back to Del Casa. Give it to the Duke. Got it?”

Chirp, chirp.

Could he possibly understand her words?

Having satisfied his appetite, she let Pauline fly away. It was when the magnificent wingspan of the bird stretched towards the azure sky.

Bang!

A gunshot echoed from somewhere.

The bullet grazed the tip of Pauline’s wing before disappearing.

“Pauline!”

Startled, Lia instinctively leaned her body in the direction where the bullet came from. And there stood Luan, holding a rifle, wearing a grim expression as he looked up at her.

“This is madness…”

Lia screamed at him, her voice filled with horror.

“Luan!”

Luan undoubtedly aimed for Pauline. Even knowing that Pauline was Claude’s companion!

Lia, consumed by rage, couldn’t hold back her rage and yelled,

“What are you doing?”

Luan, who had been silently looking down at Lia, handed the gun to his subordinate and leaped onto a nearby tree in one swift motion. Like a skilled acrobat, he reached the second-floor windowsill and grabbed her hand.

“Luan, what on earth are you doing!”

Lia exerted all her strength to resist being dragged along.

“Did you send the note?”

“Pauline is Claude’s bird. Of course, I can send a message!”

“I didn’t give you permission.”

“Ugh, why are you like this? Just tell me why you’re acting like this all of a sudden. Huh?”

She wanted to ask why he had changed like this, but Lia bit her lip, holding back the question.

Leaning against the windowsill, he glared at Pauline flying away in the distance and called out to the figure below.

“Don’t let the guest leave the room until I come back.”

Lia doubted her ears. It was an order that the previous Luan would never have given.

Quickly pushing Luan’s hand away, she ran towards the exit without looking back. However, Luan, who had descended from the windowsill, easily subdued Lia and pulled her into his arms.

“Let go! Did you invite me here for this? Was it all an excuse? Calling yourself my friend!”

Luan’s mouth twisted as he looked down at her, whose face had turned pale-blue. Canellia heard the sound of a lock being turned from outside the door.

This can’t be true…

“I’m not trying to imprison you. I’ll come back within four days. So… I hope you can stay here quietly until then.”

“Where on earth are you going? What’s happening all of a sudden? Does it have to be like this?”

“If anything happens to your Duke, there’s no one else but me to protect you.”

“Luan, what are you talking about?”

“The Duke of Ihar is trapped in the mines. and I’m going to save your man right now.”

“Trapped in the mines?”

In an instant, everything blurred before her eyes, and the strength in her legs gave way. She wanted to sink to the floor, but Luan wouldn’t allow even that. Lia’s green eyes, clinging to him as if pleading, trembled noticeably.

“So, don’t take a single step out of this room.”

*****

He blindly followed the faint light. His vision blurred as blood streamed down his forehead, but he couldn’t stop walking.

In the face of life and death, nothing mattered. Only the face that had been the sole meaning of his existence flickered before his eyes.

As the bomb exploded, the only sound he heard through his damaged ears was a low, rumbling noise.

“How long have I been lying here?”

It was after rescuing the trapped survivors and bringing them outside. After sending out the last injured ones and sighing with relief, another explosion occurred.

Claude stumbled forward, stepping on dirt and rocks, searching for a place with enough oxygen. The presence of light indicated a connection to the outside.

Moving towards thinner walls increased the chances of escaping from this place. The exhausted rescue team, which had exerted all their strength for two days, would be too physically depleted to carry out another rescue operation.

Losing his balance and falling to his knees on the floor, Claude gasped for breath and clenched his fist. Sensation seemed to fade away as if it were not his own body. Something was clearly broken.

But he had to get up and keep walking.

He stole a glance at the blood flowing down his hand and gazed at the elusive light that never seemed to draw closer. It felt like he could reach it with his outstretched hand, yet it remained out of reach.

“Surely, I’ve reached it,” he thought for a moment.

Suddenly, dirt began to rain down onto his body. Soft soil poured down, pressing him down. He couldn’t even move a finger.

In his final moment, Claude lifted his head.

A faint light seeped through his frozen eyelids.

****

‘The Duke will be rescued soon. They’ve dispatched rescue teams from Geore, so there’s a high chance he’ll come out alive. That’s why it has to be you.’

‘When you see him, you stab with this. You seek revenge for my master, and you seek revenge for your parents. That’s when everything will come to an end.’

A voice echoed as Marilyn stared disdainfully at the jackknife wrapped in leather and put it in her pocket.

Due to the dry weather, the surroundings were filled with dusty air, and the tent, filled with injured people, smelled of antiseptics.

“Could he really be dead? With that level of explosion, he can’t possibly be alive, right?”

Marilyn would have preferred it if he had lost his life inside the mine. The doctor had told her to end his life with her own hands, but she couldn’t bring herself to stab Claude.

She pressed her cloak even tighter and covered her mouth with a thin cloth.

The knife in her pocket felt unusually heavy.