Chapter 39
The order did not seem simple, and Marco looked troubled.
Being the emperor’s representative meant that the person going should be someone suitable for the next emperor’s position. If the crown prince, whose health was seriously poor, could not go, then naturally the next legitimate bloodline, the Third Prince, should go.
Even if the influence of the Elder Council was strong, it did not seem easy to create a reason to send the Duke of Zenkish instead of the Third Prince.
Ricardo slowly lowered his arms and turned to look at Marco. He smiled faintly and spoke to the troubled old man.
“Why are you speaking weakly? I know better than anyone how powerful the Elder Council’s influence is. Isn’t that great Elder Council the place that can even crush the will of the Empress Dowager?”
Ricardo knew very well that giving the duke title to Zenkish and sending him out of the imperial palace was also a scheme by Marco and the Elder Council. It was a shallow plan to eliminate future threats in advance.
Ricardo grabbed Marco’s shoulder and erased his smile.
“You seem to be mistaken. This is not a request. It is an order. Do whatever it takes and make it possible for me to go.”
Seeing his blue, sharpened blade-like eyes, Marco could only nod. Instinctively, he knew that the word “impossible” did not work on this man.
Ricardo’s tightly hardened lips relaxed, and he lightly patted Marco’s shoulder.
But at that moment, Ricardo’s gaze shifted slightly and looked past Marco’s shoulder, staring at somewhere far away.
It was the red riverbank where the sun was setting.
“You can leave now.”
When Marco left after the dry command, Ricardo slowly walked to the railing of the bell tower.
He stared intently at somewhere. No, at someone.
In his blue eyes was a woman wearing a purple dress.
She stood up from a small swaying boat, grabbed the hand of the boatman standing outside, and jumped lightly onto the ground.
Next to her was a maid who always followed her. The two of them linked arms like friends, laughing innocently like children who had come out to see the strange outside world.
He wondered why that woman was there now, but then he realized while looking at the many small boats floating on the river and the people holding flowers.
Today was that day.
As his thoughts reached that point, the people walking around the river and the colorful decorations on every building, as well as the street stalls lining the riverside, gradually entered his sight.
Unlike the slowly flowing river, the town was excited.
The scenery that had just looked colorless to him changed into bright and dynamic shapes.
Since he had never been interested in such festivals, the scene felt somewhat unfamiliar.
For a moment, Ricardo’s gaze returned to searching for one person.
The intense gaze focused only on one target.
When he found someone, everything else became blurred.
Only the violet-flower-like woman came into focus.
The woman who looked like a single flower blooming alone in a field let her dress sway as she walked along the street.
The ribbon tied behind her small round head swayed whenever she moved, looking as if it were dancing in the air.
She smelled flowers by burying her nose in a flower basket placed at a street stall, and tasted street food handed by a merchant with curious eyes.
When she discovered something interesting, she grabbed the maid’s hand and ran onto the bridge.
She looked like an excited young girl rather than a duchess.
She stared happily for a long time at the various flowers floating on the river as if they were something mysterious.
Ricardo stood still, as if the unfamiliar scene had captured him.
“Your Grace…”
Gary, who was approaching Ricardo from behind, stopped speaking.
Ricardo’s gaze was so captured by something that he did not even notice someone approaching.
Seeing that the person he was watching was a familiar face, Gary thought quietly.
‘Why is the madam there?’
Although he was curious, he did not want to disturb his lord, so he slowly stepped back down the stairs, leaving Ricardo alone.
As he walked down the stairs, Gary thought seriously.
It was a face he had never seen when his lord met the young lady of the marquis family he had long been connected with.
It was the first time he saw his lord so immersed in watching someone.
‘He used to despise this marriage so much. Has something changed in his mind?’
One thing was certain.
Since the duchess came to the mansion, the atmosphere of the mansion had been slowly changing.
Unlike his initial concerns, the marriage between the two was strangely moving in a different direction.
Unlike the gloomy legend of the Poga River, the festival was lively.
Tempted by the suggestion to dress up nicely and go out, I also tried my best to look good.
There was no one to show it to, but wearing a slightly burdensome dress and new shoes made me feel better.
As Ena said, the noble ladies who came out to enjoy the festival were dressed quite extravagantly, so I even looked plain compared to them.
So I could walk around freely.
But the problem was that I had walked too excitedly after a long time.
My calves felt like they were going to break, and my heels were bleeding from the new shoes.
“Ena, I think we should go back. I guess I pushed myself too hard.”
I sat on the bench, took off my shoes, and massaged my legs. Ena looked at my feet worriedly.
“Your feet are very swollen. We have to walk more to reach where the carriage is waiting… What should we do?”
Ena looked around anxiously.
Today, carriage traffic was banned, and the carriages the noble ladies rode in were parked in designated areas.
They had to walk there.
After sunset, people filled the streets while waiting for the fireworks on the river.
“It’s okay. I can walk to the carriage.”
When I tried to put my shoes back on and stand up, Ena sat me down again as if she had thought of something good.
“I will go buy some ointment quickly. There is a pharmacy nearby. If you apply medicine and wrap a thin cloth, it will feel much better. So please wait here for a moment.”
Before I could stop her, Ena ran into the crowd, saying she would be back soon.
“It’s fine.”
I smiled lightly and decided to wait for Ena.
While resting, my feet swelled more, and I thought I really should do something about it.
How much time had passed?
Like a child waiting for his mother, I looked around, waiting for Ena.
Then I saw someone whose back looked almost exactly like hers entering a certain house.
Although I couldn’t see the front, the light blue skirt, body shape, and hairstyle were so similar from behind that I could only think it was Ena.
“Ena?”
The building she entered was a ruined two-story wooden house that I heard used to be a brewery.
After the old couple with no children died, it was just abandoned.
That was what Ena told me while walking around the town earlier.
This town was where she was born, and there were childhood memories everywhere.
That ruined house was one of them.
‘Did she want to look inside?’
The thought was only for a moment.
The moment I saw a certain scene next to the ruin, I was so shocked that I dropped the shoe I was holding to the ground.
Two boys looked around, then approached the explosives piled beside the ruin and lit a fire.
“Hey! Hey!”
Before I could stop them, the children giggled and struck flint stones to light the fuse.
The twisted fuse was lying long on the ground, but it began burning rapidly.
The children ran away quickly.
“Ena!”
Thinking that I had to make Ena come outside, I ran while calling her loudly.
It looked like fireworks prepared for the festival, but since they were piled together like that, it was clearly dangerous if they exploded.
“Ena!”
When I opened the door, a musty mold smell mixed with dust blocked my vision.
The inside was dark, with old furniture scattered on the floor.
For a moment, I thought I might be mistaken.
There was not a single ant there.
No matter how old memories might have come back, Ena would not have made me wait and entered a place like this.
‘I need to get out quickly…’
Just as I turned my body to leave, a wooden board hanging from the ceiling fell to the ground.
“Ah!”
When I turned my body to dodge it, something from the other side made a cracking sound and fell toward me.
I instinctively shrank my body.
Someone grabbed my hand and pulled me very quickly.
I barely avoided the falling object.
A large, sharply torn board crashed into the ground with a loud thud.
Relief came, but my mind shook because the door I entered through was blocked.
The person who saved me grabbed my shoulder as if telling me to stay calm.
“Ah!”
