If You Leave Without a Word - Chapter 154
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
read more chapters on luna kofi
For someone like Christian, who valued family honor above all else, both John Calvino and Stella Calvino must have been his greatest concerns.
If Stella, his mother, couldn’t be dealt with, then Christian would have definitely taken matters into his own hands and punished John Calvino himself, had John defied the Emperor’s orders and fled from his labor duty.
Having returned to the capital, Cain immediately went to the mansion.
“You’ve arrived, Your Grace.”
“I’m heading to the palace. Prepare immediately.”
“Yes? You’re going straight to the palace as soon as you arrive? Won’t you rest for a moment?”
“There’s no time to rest. Hurry up and prepare.”
The face of his master, whom he had not seen for two days, looked even more haggard than before. As Havel mentally calculated the distance between the capital and Gulem, he almost asked if Cain had returned without even sleeping for a moment, but he kept quiet.
Cain, with such a look in his eyes, would not listen to anyone. Havel could tell from the years of experience serving him closely.
Even as Cain moved to change his clothes, his mind didn’t stop.
“Was there anything unusual in the last two days?”
“Oh, now that you mention it, I did hear something that’s been bothering me today. I debated whether to report it to you, but since you’re here, I should tell you. Did you know that Madam appointed a new butler for the Duke’s residence?”
“I know about that. They say he used to serve the late Duke.”
“Yes, but apparently this man has been asking around to confirm whether it’s true that you bought the Calvino family’s debts.”
“…Who told you that?”
“I heard it from a merchant who brings us food supplies. He also does business with the Duchy. Apparently, the butler visited him every morning, asking about the situation at the mansion. He must have had a reason for asking, right? Perhaps Madam ordered him to look into it, or maybe the quick-thinking butler was trying to verify the rumors before reporting back to her.”
“Hmm.”
“And… there’s more. The last time Administrator Calvino visited the mansion, Madam apparently saw him leaving in a carriage.”
“What? Why are you telling me this now?”
“I only found out yesterday. A maid happened to witness the scene through the window, but didn’t think much of it, so she didn’t report it. She forgot about it until Madam left the mansion, and then she remembered….”
Cain learned that Agatha knew about him buying Calvino’s debts. John Calvino had secretly contacted Agatha, and Christian had even been seen visiting the mansion.
These events might seem insignificant on their own, but when connected, they could easily lead to a misunderstanding.
That is, it looked like he had allied with the Calvino family.
“…So, she thought she had to run away from me.”
Cain could have understood, at least for the sake of argument, that Agatha might have felt hurt or simply decided she didn’t want to be with him anymore, leading her to demand a divorce.
However, no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand why Agatha would throw the divorce papers at him and then disappear without a word.
If, as he suspected, Agatha had misunderstood something, she might have concluded that he would no longer protect her, and that possibility seemed more likely than not.
He had purchased the Calvino family’s debts to recover the many assets and documents that Stella had stolen from while holding the Duchy’s seal. Most of the records left by the Duke were kept safe at the Duke’s residence. But documents related to the conquest wars were difficult to find.
To track those down, he had bought the debts, but he had never expected it to lead to such a misunderstanding.
The fact that John Calvino had been able to contact Agatha was because, at her birthday celebration, Agatha had opened the doors of the mansion wide, wanting to be congratulated by as many people as possible.
Had he known that John Calvino would take advantage of that lapse in caution, he would never have insisted on holding the birthday party.
Now, there was no point in regretting it. Cain could only blame himself silently for being so foolish.
What good was regret at this late stage?
Once she had left without a word, there was no turning back.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
Cain’s return and Ethan’s assumption of responsibility had turned Gulem upside down.
He had searched every corner, leaving no stone unturned, and there wasn’t a single merchant or business in the area untouched by his investigations. Yet, despite all this, no substantial results had come from the effort, and time continued to pass uselessly.
Merchants started to grumble. Even halting cart operations for a single day meant the loss of hundreds of transactions. After being detained by the knights for ten days, many merchants, facing starvation, couldn’t hold back their complaints any longer.
“This is… troublesome.”
However, with no solid clues, there was no way to lift the blockade, despite Cain’s orders. Following his superior’s commands would ruin the livelihoods of countless merchants, but aiding them would mean going against the orders given.
Caught in this dilemma, just as the frustration mounted, a message arrived urgently from Arta to Gulem. It bore a white seal with a red stamp.
It was from Esther.
