If You Leave Without a Word - Chapter 145
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
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What should he do now? Cain thought.
Countess Calvino, who had taken over all the powers of the Kristin family, showed no interest in managing the Knights. Now that the Duke’s seal was in her hands, the Knights would inevitably decline under her control.
Was it even okay for him to stay here? Even though the Duke was dead, Cain had remained with the Kristin Knights in hopes of finding clues about his mother and sister.
The Duke was gone, but surely he had left some trace somewhere. Until he found it, Cain couldn’t leave Kristin’s side.
Cain endured for two more years. During that time, he led the Knights, who were stumbling after losing their leader. It was when Cain began winning battle after battle, gaining recognition from the imperial family, that the name “Cain, the Knight” started to be known in the capital.
“Join the imperial knights.”
The enemy of his family and country. When Cain first faced Vlahova, the emperor of Nikephos, he struggled to conceal the fury boiling inside him.
You killed my father. You burned my country. He had to restrain himself from slashing his sword at the emperor’s neck on the spot.
Not yet. As a mere knight, there was nothing he could do. For now, he needed to gain power until he could find his mother and sister. Cain kept his head down, obeying Vlahova’s orders.
As a member of the imperial knights, Cain achieved a great victory by resolving the long-standing conflict with the northern foreign forces after a year of battles. By the time he came of age, he had gained the Emperor’s trust and was granted a peerage title.
This was the moment he had worked so hard for—the power he had sought so desperately. Using that power, he began searching for his mother’s whereabouts.
Another year passed. While secretly investigating the tragedy of the Amasril Kingdom, Cain heard an unexpected name: Nikephos’s Brunhild. Vlahova’s only sibling, Grand Duke Norfolk.
The more Cain investigated the downfall of Amasril and the disappearance of his family, the more he realized the necessity of power. With only the peerage title of Count, he couldn’t challenge Duke Kristin or Grand Duke Norfolk.
This was not just the Duke’s plot—it was a vast conspiracy that even involved the imperial family. To uncover it, he would need even greater power.
He decided to take control of the Kristin Knights, with the Emperor’s approval, knowing that in order to investigate the Duke’s final actions, he needed to bring his people to his side.
But the older knights, the ones Cain had hoped would help him, left the order, claiming they would only serve the former commander. The core members had all disappeared, leaving Cain with nothing but a group of knights who could offer no assistance.
Cain searched for a way to obtain the records of the Duke’s actions from the Duke’s estate.
However, no matter how much he thought about it, there seemed to be no way for an outsider to take documents that were tied to the family without proper ties.
So, what should he do? Cain thought of the lady. Although she was under the supervision of her guardian for now, once she reached adulthood, she would become the rightful heir to Kristin’s estate.
He calculated that through her, he could gain control of the entire Duke’s legacy, all of it. This was why Cain had remained indifferent to the Emperor’s daughter’s interest in him. From the beginning, he had no intention of getting involved with the daughter of the enemy who had invaded his country.
Of course, strictly speaking, Duke Kristin was one of the invaders of his homeland, but the Duke had merely acted under the Emperor’s absolute command. The true enemy, the one responsible, was the Emperor of Nikephos, Vlahova—one man.
And so, Cain married Agatha Kristin. Though it was a fake marriage with a clear goal, it nonetheless allowed Cain to obtain what he wanted—the full authority over Kristin’s estate.
Once he had obtained Kristin’s seal, everything became easier.
The loyal retainers of the long-departed Duke Kristin came to him, pledging their loyalty as he now held the Duke’s legitimacy. Some of them had even fought alongside the Duke in the conquest of Amasril.
Through them, Cain was able to trace the whereabouts of his missing mother and sister.
And so time passed—Cain and Agatha married, and two years went by.
Cain found his sister.
In Arta, which had once been part of the Amasril kingdom’s territory.
“Esther…”
He finally understood the sense of deja vu he had felt when he first encountered the red-haired gypsy woman. Her face, resembling his mother’s; the characteristic hair color of the Amasril royal family; the childhood nickname he had once used for her; and the scar on her leg.
The gypsy woman he had casually met in Arta was, without a doubt, his lost sister.
It was unbelievable.
The Duke had taken his family from him, but Cain had always held onto the vague belief that his family had been hidden away and treated humanely.
But to find her like this—lost, wandering from place to place without a home or family, becoming nothing more than a street prostitute…
Cain couldn’t say anything upon seeing the many scars that marred his sister Esther’s body.
He was a worthless man, incapable of protecting even his only sister, a useless fool…. The self-reproach came flooding in.
