Chapter 114: Chapter 114 Don’t come to Wendy’s house (8)
But today he did not come here simply by following his desire to see her, he recalled a message from Sir Sociere during the day.
It was the first urgent report Sociere, a junior knight he assigned to check Francis’s movement, had made.
According to him, Francis visited Wendy’s flower shop the other day and talked with her for a while. He said he didn’t know what they talked about, but Lard felt it was not a big deal because Sir Dorwain didn’t report anything unusual to him after Francis’s visit.
But this was no more than his own comfort. Lard felt nervous while he was working in the Imperial Palace today. As soon as he received the message from Sociere, he was eager to go and see Wendy, but as captain of the 1st Imperial Knights, he couldn’t because he had to resolve some important cases.
It was for this reason that he hurried to Wendy’s house, although he knew it was difficult to see Wendy this early morning.
He saw her house at a distance. He just felt relieved by just seeing her house shrouded with the bluish light of dawn. He hurriedly walked toward her house, while casting a quick glance at his house next to hers.
He didn’t see Sir Martin Bishop who was supposed to stand by the yard on the first floor. Usually Martin spent most of his time on a bench hidden behind the tall potted tree.
As the door leading to the house was wide open, Lard felt he was away briefly.
This time he turned to Wendy’s house again. He felt something eerie for no reason.
Bang, bang!
At that moment he heard a dull and unpleasant noise coming from her house. It was like something rolling on the wooden floor. The noise was terrible and long.
His gray eyes turned cold instantly. Without any hesitation he ran to her house and kicked hard at the door. He broke the latch on the door and opened the door.
“Captain!”
Martin, who heard the disturbances next door, popped out of the parlor of Lard’s house and called his boss. He went straight into her house without even looking at him.
“What the heck…” Martin, with drowsy eyes, turned white, as if he anticipated his boss’s punishment.
He had no idea why he fell asleep a little while ago. He just earnestly wished Wendy would emerge safely. With a pale look, he followed his boss and ran to her house.
When he entered the house, a masked man and his boss were already confronting each other.
As soon as he entered the house, Lard was full of intense anger over the miserable situation he had never experienced before. Wendy Waltz was on the floor. The moment he saw her, he couldn’t control his surging anger. The wild outburst of his anger turned into deep hatred of the masked man. He thought about how to inflict pain on the man while using his sword.
Her weak body burned his vision. When he thought about the terrible things the intruder had and could have done to this innocent woman, he felt it would be meaningless to live and breathe unless he repaid the man in the most painful way.
He immediately cut the man’s shoulder without any hesitation. It was almost a fatal blow. Then, he easily overpowered him and knelt him down. Then, he chose the man’s dagger as a tool to make him suffer.
‘This weapon you handled will break your muscles and tear up your flesh.’
Lard stabbed the dagger firmly in the man’s forearm until only its handle was visible. With the man’s terrible scream, blood oozed out of the deep cut. When he twisted the dagger, the man screamed even louder. His punishment continued for a while.
With a dry and murderous look, Lard kicked him so he rolled down the stairs, shivering with pain, stricken with horror.
Watching the man’s body rolling like a meatball down the stairs didn’t interest Lard at all. His punishment was not enough to satisfy Lard’s revenge and hatred. He could be more cruel.
“Captain!”
When Lard was about to behead him, Martin called out to him. Lard would not stop it at Martin’s shouting, but when he noticed Wendy’s miserable expression, he stopped it.
Her green eyes were trembling like withered grass. Lard could feel her pain entirely.
He couldn’t add to her pain by beheading the man before her eyes.
Putting the sword back into the sheath, Lard slowly turned his head toward her. Something hot and heavy surging from his heart made him more tired. He couldn’t look straight into her eyes.
Sir Martin approached the masked man and tied up his hands.
He said with a subdued voice when Martin was frisking the man, “Take that guy to the Investa building. With the help of the investigators there, transfer him to the underground prison of the Imperial Palace. Put him under intense surveillance, so he will not commit suicide. Let me trust you, Martin.”
He saluted his boss at his order. Lard would certainly punish him for neglecting his duty later, but he could not do without his boss’s lingering trust in him. When he dragged the man roughly out of the house, Lard approached Wendy.
He felt so sorry now. He felt so ashamed of himself that he was at a loss about how to comfort her. He felt a strong sense of guilt that he didn’t protect her.
“I am fine… As you came here timely, you saved my life. ”
She tried to comfort him first, even though she was injured. He again felt guilty.
“I know you’re not okay. I knew all along that you had never been okay, and that you endured it all the time.
“… ”
I have not protected you…So, don’t say you’re okay. Just express your feelings to me. Get angry with me, cry, or tell me you are scared. You can do that to me. You can show me the feelings that you couldn’t reveal or put up with. I want to share them with you.”
It was painful for him to see her saying that she was okay, even though she could collapse anytime from her painful wounds.
“You don’t have to struggle before me… Please tell me you’re not okay, ” he said earnestly.
He hugged her before her tears welled up and dropped. She trembled against him, striking a strong emotional chord in his heart. Sadness soaked his whole body like a broken wave.
“… I’m not okay… I’ve never been okay…” she said, crying in his arms.
There was sorrow in her hot breathing. She was choked with sorrow for a long time.
“Why did you come here only now? I was so scared. I was really scared… Why should I go through this? Why weren’t you by my side? Why…”
The river of her emotions broke its dam and overflowed. As if she resented his late arrival, as if she regretted that he didn’t share this crucial moment with her, and as if she resented her belated reunion with him, she shed the tears that she had been holding back. He touched her back when she was sobbing.
“I just… I just tried to live my own life. Why is it sinful? … If I have a sin, it’s because I just had a last name called Hazlet. Why should I pay a hefty price for it? Why?”
He wiped her weary eyes. She was exhausted from heartbreak and anxiety. He was so heartbroken when she kept shedding tears even after he wiped them.
Witnessing her deep-seated sorrow, he speculated who was behind the terrible things today.
He instantly recalled the intelligence tip that Francis visited her shop during the day. He painfully regretted it. If he had taken some preventive measures when he was briefed about it, he could have prevented her terrible suffering today.
“I’m so sorry I was late… Don’t forgive me who came to you so late. ”
It was not important to him whether it was a member of the Hazlet family or Duke Engre that was responsible for today’s horrible results. What really mattered to him was that she hurt.
He felt the strong urge to get even with whoever they were. It was an intense hatred that he had never felt before.
“You are innocent. Nobody should blame you…”
He hugged and wrapped her body as he felt she was so pitiful. He just wanted to keep her in his arms forever.
She cried for a long time. It took quite a while for her overflowing emotions to subside.
“I will do it.”
Wendy’s hands trembled with embarrassment. She grimaced as if she felt pain even with a small movement. Lard quietly pulled her hand.
“Please stay still.”
Not caring about her reaction, he applied ointment on her wounds.
Whenever he touched her skin, she felt strange feelings, but she didn’t resist any more and held her breath while he worked. She looked around the parlor and finally fixed her eyes on the creamy wallpaper. She was a bit nervous because he was too close.
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