Not Knowing The Betrayal Of That Day

Chapter 50

“…So please do me a favor.”

“Oh, Sir. Whether or not there’s a way, we will try to find out as much as possible.”

A man kept his head down. Cold sweat was running down the man’s forehead. Eventually, when the elderly gentleman who took the top seat said he would take care of it, the man who was left alone ripped off his thumb with his teeth in an anxious mind.

‘Damn, that killer was the one who was sold to me back then!’

The man hurriedly called his subordinate to call someone. After a while, a woman who was wearing pointed shoes entered in a very annoyed manner.

“Don’t you know that I am so busy checking the quantity and finishing today? What are you doing, suddenly calling me like this? If it’s not important, then just—”

“We’re doomed!”

The man bellowed at her woman.

“What is it, did you get hit in the head by Ans? Is that bastard not working anymore?”

“This crazy… That’s not it! Do you remember seven years ago?”

“Seven… When?”

“That orphanage!”

The woman shook her head at the man’s cry. When it comes to the orphanage, it’s clear that he was referring to the Fitzgerald Orphanage, where she was once the director. But why the orphanage? The orphanage had completely disappeared seven years ago, according to the will of the higher ups.

“Do you remember that boy? The boy who used to hang out with the red-haired girl all the time!”

“No, do you think there are only one or two kids in the orphanage? So then… Ah, are you talking about the one who was sold on behalf of the Baron’s young daughter? The boy was sold as a gladiator slave…”

“Yes, yes! Them! We sold them together!”

“What about them?”

“That boy is now that crazy marquis’s dog!”

For a moment, silence crashed down on the room. The woman blinked her eyes in incredulity. What did he just… But the man shouted once more before the woman could even open her mouth.

“We’re doomed, I tell you!”

The man was desperate. He has been working here for half his life, but it’s the first time he has ever been so unlucky. How could this happen?

He heard that the boy used some swords, but he was only a seventeen-year-old boy at the time. So while he was filling out the papers selling the boy as a gladiator slave on the order of the higher ups, he felt sorry for the boy, saying that the boy was likely to die soon. Usually, those who were sold to the arena in that way did not survive for a year at most and died just like that.

‘Does it make sense to say that in the first place, a kid like that survived the arena and became the marquis’ dog? There’s something seriously wrong with this!’

The man bit his thumb. It was not revealed that he had handled the work, thanks to the sudden death of his then-client Baron Settebien. However, it was only a matter of time before the man who became the marquis’ dog would make up his mind and start digging up the matter at any time, then his crimes would be revealed. And if that’s really the case…

“We will die at the hands of that kid…”

“Don’t be absurd!”

The woman scolded the man’s murmuring. Don’t you know that words have power? But even as she said that, the woman was equally anxious. Dear God, how could this happen? Thinking the same as the man, the woman stomped on the floor with her pointed shoe.

Then she said hurriedly, as if she had remembered.

“It is still too early to judge. If the marquis’ dog really is the boy we sold… There’s a good chance he didn’t know that we did it. Otherwise, we can’t be fine right now.”

“Then what to do? It is only a matter of time before he finds out!”

The man paced to and fro once again.

The person who had visited him earlier was gathering information about Hert Shine as someone’s agent. Knowing that Hert Shine was a gladiator-slave, he seemed to have come this far. Because the man was now in the business of illegally distributing and disposing of slaves. Some of the slaves that passed through his hands were gladiator slaves.

“Be quiet.”

As if the woman was distraught, she waved her hand towards the man.

“Can you think of any good ways?”

“Wait. I’m thinking about it now… How did we sell him back then?”

“I made it look like the girl left as well betrayed him.”

The woman’s eyes twinkled at the man’s words.

“Yes, that girl! Where was she sold to?”

“Went under Baron Settebien… Instead of the Baron’s daughter, she went in as the secondary wife of a great noble.”

“That’s it. We need to find that girl, before he finds her. That’s how we can live.”

“What do you mean?”

The woman kicked the man’s shin. You idiot! Is your head just for show? Seeing the man jumping on the spot in pain, the woman crossed her arms and said,

“We shouldn’t be the first to find and deal with that girl before she blows it all up.”

“What? Are you even going to kill her?”

The man rubbed his shin and widened his eyes. The woman resolutely responded to the man.

“Then what else could we do?”

* * *

‘Your Excellency… The Madam is in a state of atrophy both physically and mentally due to long neglect and repeated abuse. That’s why I emphasized the need for absolute stability and rest the other day.’

Hert took Tessa to her room and made his way to the doctor. He needed advice. Detailed opinions of experts on Tessa’s current state.

‘I don’t know all about what happened between the two of you, but I, as a third party, would say you have to wait and see if there is anything you want from the Madam. Pushing her out right now would only backfire. As a result, her current condition is quite unstable. To put it bluntly, it’s like sticking back the pieces of glass shards that you can barely hold.’

When asked about Tessa’s abuse, the doctor gave him stern advice, as if warning him. Never force her, never rush her. Hert seemed to be out of breath at those words.

In the past few days, he had been vaguely realizing that Tessa’s condition had gone beyond normal, but he had no idea that she had been so broken. Before he knew she had been abused in the first place, he thought she was doing it to her on purpose.

‘When you have time, please keep an eye on Madam. Soon her problem will be revealed. So, as the Madam’s doctor, I ask you earnestly. Please be a little considerate of Madam. Even from now on, if she continues treatment and rest, she can get better.’

Hert struggled to open his lips and asked the doctor.

‘…How long.’

‘Yes?’

‘How long until she gets better?’

‘That… I can’t give you a definite answer just yet. For a serious illness caused by psychological factors, the treatment period varies depending on the person’s will, and the deeper the wound, the longer it takes. So, early treatment is important. We need to provide a comfortable environment for patients to actively engage in treatment.’

The doctor’s words seemed to say that first steps were important. Because of this, Hert felt his eyes dizzy for a moment. How was his reunion with Tessa? He grabbed her hair and forcibly tore her clothes…

‘Again, over the past few years, Madam has been subjected to constant abuse. If you want to treat Madam, you have to be patient with her.’

Damn it.

Hert grabbed his throbbing head. He had no way of knowing how it happened. Everything had gotten twisted. He never wanted a situation like this. It’s just that he thought everything would be alright once he saw Tessa again, and he came this far alive…

Abuse. Treatment.

How can he treat someone as if he was a lunatic?

Hert also recalled what he had done to Tessa so far. He grabbed, dragged, threatened her… All of them were actions that stimulated Tessa and didn’t consider her at all. Damn it. Hert muttered a curse and clenched his hands into fists. The pain in his chest that had started before was getting worse and worse.

‘But what do you want me to do? What should I have done in that situation?’

Should he have noticed from the moment Tessa shut her mouth and offered to pay for her sins with her own body? Should he have somehow tried to maintain his rationality to analyze the attitude of the traitor he met again after seven years?

‘Sh*t, what is this? I’m a victim, too. Why should I…’

Anger and resentment surged at the same time. He had never wished for a situation like this. He just wanted an explanation from the beginning. No, if she had said the words straight in the first place, things wouldn’t have gotten this far. So all of this…

Hert thought about that and hit his own cheek as hard as he could.

‘You went around killing people, and now you can’t even think straight.’

Who was he blaming now?

She has been constantly abused for years. Wasn’t that enough? If someone couldn’t resist and was left to be abused, he knew even their spirit could be broken. It was understandable.

And now, she made a promise to him.

She had promised that she would never betray him again. That’s enough. If she were to start over from now on…

‘Then what about him?’

Who would understand and compensate for what happened in his past?

Hert was troubled by that question, and bowed his head in anguish. Then, he remembered the days when he was half-living while rolling in the mud.

Gone were the days when he was a mere gladiator slave, when he killed the arena owner, when became a prisoner of the infamous Bastechen prison, and when became a target of arrows on the battlefield. Every moment in the past was inferno.

It had felt like he wasn’t even alive. Every day, wherever he touched, death lurked. Death waited for the right time, coiling around his legs as if it would devour his neck at any time. Then it ate the people around him one by one. You’re next. Death seemed to say so.

And at some point, he saw himself killing people without emotion.

The cruel slayer people said he was, was right there.