If You Leave Without a Word - Chapter 63
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
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“Liana.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“Follow Sir Ethan discreetly and listen in on any conversations he has with the other knights.”
“Discreetly?”
Agatha nodded. She knew Ethan, a knight of unyielding character, wouldn’t share any information without Cain’s permission. All she could do was instruct her maid, Liana, to eavesdrop on the knights’ conversations.
“Understood, Miss. I’ll be quick.”
Liana said, heading in the direction Ethan had gone, seemingly a bit excited about the task.
After Liana disappeared, Agatha picked up her teacup she had set aside while reading the letter. She stirred the lukewarm tea with a spoon, calmly waiting for Liana’s return.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
“The commander has sustained a serious injury to his shoulder and is having difficulty moving around on his own.”
Liana reported back. Agatha recalled the words relayed by Liana. The commander referred to Cain. It made sense now why Ethan had hastily left the room—it was due to a problem concerning Cain’s well-being.
If his mobility was impaired, it indicated a severe injury. An instinctive fear that she might lose another person close to her welled up inside Agatha, causing her fingers to tremble slightly with anxiety.
“Madam, are you alright?” asked Lindsay, who was refilling her teacup and noticed Agatha’s pale complexion.
“You haven’t looked well since Liana returned.”
“I’m fine.”
The fact that Ethan in the capital was informed about Cain’s condition suggested that the situation at the front was serious, potentially beyond what they could handle alone. Was Cain’s injury that grave?
Agatha tried to stay composed, organizing her thoughts about Cain’s letter and Ethan’s subsequent actions. Although Cain had left knights behind under the pretext of guarding her, the situation might have changed, requiring more manpower at the front.
Perhaps Cain had sent a letter instructing Ethan, his deputy commander, to return to the front due to his injury. Keeping her thoughts rational, Agatha felt she might vaguely understand the instructions Cain had given to Ethan.
Considering this, Agatha pondered what she should do if Ethan decided to go to Cain, as she suspected.
“Lindsay, where is Sir Ethan now?”
“Sir Ethan? He might be at the training grounds…”
Agatha set down her teacup and stood up. There was no point in pondering alone—it wouldn’t help. It was better to ask directly than to keep doubting and suffering in silence.
“Madam, where are you going?”
“To Sir Ethan.”
After all, Cain was her husband. Asking about his well-being was the least she could do, thought Agatha.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
The sudden news of Cain’s injury sent a wave of tension through the knights in the capital, far from the battlefield.
Unlike the letters sent to his wife Agatha, the correspondence Ethan received from Cain painted a stark picture of the situation at the front. Written in a code decipherable only by members of the Vernate Knight Order, the letters revealed that Cain had temporarily left the northern front due to an unexpected injury.
Ethan learned from Cain’s letters that the situation at the northern border was vastly different from what was reported to the capital. The so-called pirates the Empire was fighting against were actually remnants of the now-vanished Amasril Kingdom that was driven to desperation.
The knights, dispatched to eliminate pirates as per imperial orders, faced a reality far different from what they had been told. The people they were fighting had lost their nation overnight and were wandering as refugees, attacking homesteads simply to survive.
Cain reported this situation in a relatively composed manner, yet Ethan could sense the underlying despair.
Gradually, the Vernat Knights shifted their focus from combat to helping restore the lives of the devastated Imperial citizens and assisting in the resettlement of the refugees labeled as pirates.
If Emperor Blahova had known, such actions could have been condemned as treason. However, it was not easy for him, far away in the capital, to fully grasp the situation at the northern border. The Vernat family, commanding the north, made efforts to spread news of continuous victories against the pirates, appeasing the Emperor’s expectations.
With the imperial spies scattered everywhere, news of the Vernat Knights aiding in the post-war restoration of imperial citizens couldn’t be entirely concealed. Consequently, supplies from the capital had recently begun to dwindle.
The northern region, with its harsh terrain and weather, couldn’t produce its own food, relying entirely on supplies delivered from the capital. A reduction in supplies would hamper the reconstruction efforts, especially since they needed to care for the Amasril refugees as well, doubling the usual demand for resources.
There was even a concern that Cain might have to dip into his personal funds to assist them.
In any case, given the current efforts to help the refugees and Imperial citizens, there was hardly any chance for Cain to be injured. His role wasn’t in combat, so the risk of sustaining injuries should have been minimal.
