Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 168
Too much time had already been wasted on treatments. He had no business with his half-brother’s wounded right side or the dragon’s head.
‘I need to join the search myself, immediately.’
Who knew what that bastard might be doing with Freesia?
No matter how hard he tried to push the thought away, only the most despairing scenarios came to mind. Especially since it was likely that when Freesia had her episode and called out to that man, they had recognized each other.
In a far too familiar way.
“…Ha.”
But this wasn’t the time to be caught up in jealousy.
Freesia’s love was for him, and there was nothing to worry about there. The only things he needed to worry about were her safety and the relentless ticking of time.
‘I’ll check on the remaining staff at the estate and the ducal castle.’
Though there were already people searching for Freesia, they needed to increase their manpower.
However, as soon as he arrived at the estate, the head servant approached hesitantly, visibly intimidated by Izar’s dark mood.
“Master, there’s something I must report. If this is a good time…”
“What is it? If it’s not urgent, deal with it later.”
“Ah, well… it’s just that Thea, the Madam’s maid, insists she has something important to tell you. What would you like me to do?”
* * *
The number on the back of the button had changed to 170.
‘It’s been a month since I was abducted.’
Freesia touched her necklace, looking out the window.
She wasn’t sure, as she’d never traveled extensively across the empire, but given the warmth despite the autumn season, it was likely the southern region.
It was a remote island, surrounded by the sea on all sides.
‘How far from the capital could this be?’
Considering the amount of time she’d been unconscious, she doubted she’d been taken outside the empire, but that was as much as she could guess.
‘They might have deliberately kept my view limited, though.’
When she first realized she’d been kidnapped, Freesia thought her entire world would be turned upside down.
She expected that they would exploit her still-unfamiliar abilities for their own purposes, and if that didn’t work…
For a woman like her, the worst-case scenarios were bottomless.
But Canopus’s subordinates had shown no such intentions. In fact, they treated her with such exaggerated kindness that it seemed suspicious, as if they were trying to lower her guard.
“Miss, are you coughing?”
“Did you sleep comfortably through the night?”
“If you’re hungry, shall we prepare freshly steamed sea bass?”
Not only Kara, who was assigned to watch her, but everyone around the castle looked at her with an odd reverence.
She had noticed increased respect toward her by the servants of the ducal household even after her wedding night, but this was of a different nature altogether.
It felt like… watching a god walk upon the earth.
These people seemed to believe that Canopus, who commanded monsters, was some kind of ‘divine retributor’, and thus they revered Freesia, who had the power to ward off monsters, as a special figure.
‘Perhaps it’s fortunate they’re calling me ‘Miss’.’
But despite all this excessive warmth, Freesia hadn’t smiled even once.
How could she?
‘Everything I once believed in turned out to be a lie.’
Izar’s promises, the moments she’d trusted she was his one and only wife.
The moments when she’d felt happy, thinking he might truly want a child with her.
‘Even in death, I deceived myself.’
Wanting to die with beautiful feelings, she had erased from her memory just how much she’d resented him when she ended her life.
Every day, she found herself staring blankly at the deep blue horizon from the garden, consumed by one persistent thought.
‘What should I do now?’
Now that the only goal she keeping her together had crumbled…
But at that moment, as a shawl gently wrapped around her shoulders, she heard the familiar, almost affectionate voice of a man.
“Freesia, are you feeling restless?”
“……”
“If you wish, I could take you to the shore.”
Freesia looked up at Canopus with cold, sunken eyes.
Contrary to her initial fears, Canopus had been nothing but warm and attentive since the day he’d thrown her into despair, as if he were her only family, her friend, and, in a way…
“Would you like to take my arm and head down?”
…like a most courteous ‘fiancé’.
But no matter how different the curve of his left lip, no matter how sweetly he smiled, he still reminded her of him.
Izar. Her husband.
The betrayer who had deceived both his wife and child.
Freesia turned her head away but accepted his offer. She had things to discuss with him, and it would be best to clear her mind on the way.
“…Fine.”
“You may find it difficult to walk for long… if you prefer, I can carry you.”
“Don’t play games with me.”
Freesia muttered reproachfully. Though he had once been a peer she’d admired, he was now just another deceiver to her.
“If you so much as lay a finger on me, I’ll bite it off.”
“Oh my. I don’t mind, but I hope you don’t hurt your mouth.”
Canopus grinned, watching her sternly turned head.
A trophy wrested from Izar.
A person chosen by the divine, just like him.
‘Even without all that, this woman is truly remarkable.’
His initial goal of killing the Imperial Grandson might have failed, but bringing this woman here and driving his half-brother to madness had become a satisfying alternative.
And as he watched her walking deliberately ahead of him, he found that simply having her here was fulfilling in its own way.
She was a woman whose silent despair, whose quiet collapse, made her all the more captivating.
Meanwhile, Freesia gently rubbed her lower abdomen beneath the shawl Canopus had wrapped around her.
It had been about a month since she left the palace.
During that time, she hadn’t had her cycle.
