If You Leave Without a Word - Chapter 136
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
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Though she said she was fine, Agatha knew she wasn’t. Recently, even the slightest movement made her feel exhausted. She thought it might be due to the emotional toll of everything happening around her, but she couldn’t ignore how strange her body had been feeling.
“Don’t push yourself. I’ll have the coach stop for a moment.”
“No, there’s no need.”
“We still have a long way to go. At this rate, it’s not safe.”
“No, I’m fine.”
The tense back-and-forth continued. Agatha knew Karon was only worried about her, but she didn’t want to trouble anyone, so she stubbornly rejected his suggestion.
Clunk.
Had the coachman overheard their conversation? The carriage, which had been speeding along without slowing down, suddenly came to an abrupt stop.
Agatha was about to insist that there was no need to stop for her, but she bit her lip when she heard the coachman’s awkward voice from the other side of the door.
“I’m sorry. It seems one of the wheels is stuck in the mud. I need to check it, so please step down for a moment.”
It was a mixed blessing. At least it wasn’t because of her that the carriage had stopped, but the fact that the wheel had gotten stuck in the mud was worrisome.
Agatha and the two elderly knights carefully opened the carriage door and stepped out. The coachman grabbed a lantern from one of the hooks on either side of the carriage. He bent down, shining the light on the wheels to figure out which one was causing the trouble.
Karon and Rubens followed, both wearing serious expressions as they inspected the wheel.
Stepping down from the constantly shaking carriage, Agatha felt a little bit of relief. The cool night air made her body shiver slightly, but she was grateful for the fresh air.
“Is it serious?”
“Ah… This one’s the problem.”
The coachman pointed to the wheel, which was bent at an angle and half-buried in a deep mud.
Even Agatha, who wasn’t familiar with such things, could tell this wasn’t going to be an easy fix.
“What should we do?”
“Well… we could try pushing from the back and pulling from the front.”
“It’s not just stuck. The joint’s loosened, and the axle’s bent. If we try to push it like this, the wheel will come off entirely.”
“So, what should we do then?”
“I’m not sure…”
The coachman, who had spent the last 30 years driving on mountain roads, seemed just as stumped by this problem. He tilted his head with a serious expression, clearly having trouble coming up with a solution.
Karon and Rubens huddled together, examining the wheel from every angle.
Agatha anxiously looked back. It was probably well past midnight. The lantern illuminated the area around them, but only a few steps ahead were visible in the dim light, leaving the rest of the surroundings cloaked in darkness.
In such an unprotected situation, if a group of bandits were to appear… Agatha shook her head. She didn’t want to let such bad thoughts take root, especially since it would be disastrous if they turned into reality.
The carriage behind them slowly came to a halt. Two hunters, the coachman, and five knights all got down in a line and hurried toward them.
“This is going to need a lot of hands.”
The coachman muttered, holding a long wooden stick and poking under the wheel. Unlike the clear skies of the capital, the western region had experienced rain all day, making the already rough mountain road muddy and treacherous.
If the ground on the other side had been solid, they could have used it as a support to easily dislodge the wheel stuck in the mud, but if they weren’t careful, the other wheel could easily get buried in the earth too.
“Your Grace, please go sit in the other carriage.”
It wasn’t just Agatha who was worried about the possibility of bandits showing up; everyone else had also been cautious. As they were all focused on inspecting the carriage, Rubens led Agatha to the other carriage at the rear.
Agatha had initially wanted to stay and help, feeling that she couldn’t just sit back while everyone else was working. But as she realized her presence outside might actually be more of a burden, she relented and followed him without protest.
Eventually, after several hours and just before dawn, they managed to free the wheel from the mud. It was a result of everyone working together. Although it took far longer than expected, they were fortunate that no bandits or wild animals appeared, which Agatha had feared.
The rising daylight allowed them to move more quickly now.
The original joint was completely destroyed and unusable, so the coachman carved a temporary new joint from a piece of wood with a knife and fitted it onto the wheel.
Though it wouldn’t hold for long, the coachman explained that it should last long enough to get them to the nearby village.
It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t bad either. Once they reached Arta, they planned to reorganize the procession anyway, so Agatha decided to think of this as simply moving the schedule up a bit.
Clop, clop.
The sound of hooves and the creaking of the wheels became more stable than before. When it was dark, she had felt isolated, almost abandoned in her fear. But now, with the sun rising and the light warming the carriage, she felt strangely calm.
The surroundings hadn’t changed, but the mood felt entirely different.
It reminded her of her father’s teachings: how a person’s perspective and ability to make decisions could shift according to their mindset and emotions, and how careful one should be when making decisions.
That piece of advice, which had been given more than ten years ago, suddenly came to her mind. She wasn’t sure why it was resurfacing now.
