North x Northwest

Previous

“Seeing your reaction, I get the feeling that you’re a light sleeper, did you witness anything adverse happening here tonight?”

“What? What kind of crazy situation is this?!”

“…Sir Edgar!…”

Guards approached from a distance, probably sent by Linhardt. It was only when the man saw the men in uniform that he bowed down.

“Y-yeah, something happened. It looked like an incident ending in a kidnapping…”

The man hesitated and looked at Ed.

“I don’t plan on blaming you for not reporting it, so tell me the whole story.”

“Well, the sounds of wagons and people shouting were so loud that I looked outside. But when I did, the two wagons had already disappeared toward the port. It seemed that only one person stayed behind to confront the other two. Then four more came and surrounded the one who stayed. In the end he had to kneel down… It was as if he surrendered… They spoke for a while before they tied his hands, put a sack on his head, and took him away…”

The feelings Ed had when it was still part of his imagination and the feelings he had now when he realised it had become reality were drastically different. Ed tried to calm his stumbling body, which appeared to be falling somewhere. With him losing his balance, his horse neighed lightly, causing Ed to come to his senses and pick up the reins.

‘We closely monitored all possible movements of the Duke. And as Roahn is my territory, I know that he has no way to go through undetected. Does this mean that the Duke really wasn’t the kidnapper? If not, who else would want to take Liloa…’

At that moment, a memory passed through his mind in a flash.

‘An unidentified person has leased Villa Somemei long-term… When the royal family or any other family of the highest ranks visits Roahn, they mostly stay in that villa… And he could do it. He also has a clear reason to seek out Liloa…’

“The Prince Regent of Obernyu… Venua Obernyu…”

‘It’s amazing how I never considered Venua at all… How come he never occurred to me? Perhaps Venua’s pressure was the reason the Duke endured so much humiliation and asked someone like me to find Liloa. Funny enough, no matter how much I tried to forget the day the Duke requested me, I can still clearly remember his overly patient face. Now that I think about it, I should’ve suspected how he managed to appear so excessively patient.’

“We’re heading to Villa Somemei. Contact the nearby guards and surround the villa without the residents noticing. And tell the platoon guards in Cluet…”

“But he’s alive, right? That person…”

Ed, who was getting on his horse while giving out orders, looked down at the man. Because the man’s gaze wasn’t directed towards Ed but somewhere else, it took Ed a moment to understand what the man was saying.

“Why are you… asking me such a thing?”

Because of Ed’s question, the man shivered.

“They… strangled him before putting the bag over his head… So, to cover someone’s head like that…”

“…Sir Edgar!”

It wasn’t until a few seconds after a horse ran down the road that the guards noticed what was going on. Meanwhile, Ed had already disappeared into the alley. His men were too stunned to realise it at first but soon began to hastily follow their leader…

***

Lil slowly came to her senses. She felt faint and had trouble piecing her mind together.

The sound of water could be heard from somewhere. With a splash, warm water poured over her shoulders, followed by the sensation of someone touching her body…

Startled by this sudden realisation, Lil’s consciousness came back at once and she reflexively looked down at her body before grabbing the hand that was indeed touching her.

“Kyaaa!”

The woman screamed. The shriek made Lil’s head pound and she had to cover her ears.

‘What am I doing in water without a single piece of clothing on?’

Lil looked around frantically. The other surprised women, whose sleeves were all rolled up, began screaming as well till the oldest of them tried to calm them down.

“Keep quiet, everyone. You’ll only scare her more.”

The commotion died down immediately. Lil, still clutching her head, looked to her side as she caught her breath. The sound of someone opening the door was heard and Maxwell’s voice came from far beyond the partition.

“If you want me to intrude, go on, keep causing trouble.”

“..!”

‘Now, I see… I’m bathing. No, it’s more accurate to say that others are bathing me as they please.’

Lil warily looked at the maids gathered around her bathtub. Soon after, a middle-aged woman placed her hand on the back of Lil’s hand, which was holding onto the bathtub.

“What happened to you, my lady? You have a lot of small wounds on your body and your clothes were very dirty, so we had to wash you.”

Lil took her hand from the woman’s grasp and wrapped it around her body.

“Why?”

“This is what the Master ordered us to do.”

“Master? Who are you talking about?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question.”

However, Lil already knew who it was even if she didn’t ask. Her eyes wandered up at the dazzling chandelier in the bathroom, then moved to the walls and furniture. Still, she couldn’t find what she was looking for.

“What time is it?”

“I… can’t answer that question.”

“Then just tell me how much time has passed.”

“I apologise my lady, but I can’t answer that either. Please, just let us do what we were ordered to do.”

‘Since I don’t know the time, I’m left with no other choice. I have to stall for time as much as possible and get past midnight. Ed and I agreed that the job would be completed by midnight, no matter the circumstances.’

In the end, Lil nodded her head and the maids started working again. Lil even offered her arm to the maid who held out her hand. At the same time, she scanned the headdresses lined up, to see if the pins belonging to them were sharp enough.

‘One, two. I can take at least two.’

After the bath, Lil was put in a dress that didn’t fit her well. It also wasn’t the kind of women’s clothing one could see outside nowadays, but the quality was nonetheless excellent.

‘Perhaps this is a rental mansion, and these clothes were left behind by someone who stayed here before. Who would’ve thought he would go to the trouble of renting a place with the sole purpose of observing my movements? I was expecting the Duke to show up in Roahn, but instead, it’s actually Venua who appeared…’

Lil tried to understand Venua’s motives somehow.

‘For what purpose is Venua involved, or rather, could he be the reason why the Duke looked for me in the first place?’

Lil had to leave the bathroom with the assistance of the maids. She had snatched a few headpins while the maids were busy decorating her hair, but she was anxious about whether these would be enough. Meanwhile, the Royal Guards, including Maxwell, were waiting for her outside. As Lil walked down the hallway under their strict surveillance, she tried to look outside. But unfortunately for Lil, the windows she passed were on the moonless side.

Maxwell noticed Lil’s attempts to look out the window and walked next to her.

“Just look ahead.”

Maxwell tugged Lil’s arm and dragged her while she deliberately acted weak. With each step she took, water dripped from her hair. Thanks to that, it allowed her to pretend to shiver from the cold. Lil couldn’t afford to simply keep her gaze fixed forward and looked at the security situation. Every time they passed through the halls’ wide open doors, there were always at least two soldiers standing on either side.

‘The Royal Guards are seasoned soldiers. Their skills are beyond doubt.’

Lil’s whole body ached from tension.

‘Will I even be able to escape at this rate? I’m getting sceptical…’

The two guards waiting in front of the inner room at the end of the hallway opened the door.

“Sir Venua. Liloa has arrived.”

After Maxwell brought Lil inside and closed the door behind her, the latter stood quietly in the doorway and looked around the interior. Various escape plans ran through Lil’s mind, including whether or not she could make use of the decorative sword that was stuck to the wall or if she could jump from the third floor.

‘If I don’t think otherwise or distract myself, this body of mine, that had been dragged here, will surely bury itself in the past again.’

Lil struggled to remember her current self now that she was standing in front of Venua.contemporary romance

Venua, who had been drinking on the sofa, put down his empty glass. He filled his glass again and tapped his cigarette. His face, suffering from a long-standing illness, looked even paler under the bright chandelier. Only then did Lil recall that his health hadn’t been good. To make matters worse, his alcohol consumption was damaging his body even further, but Venua never left his glass empty for even a moment.

His cigarette pointed at her like a finger.

“You were so dirty that I couldn’t bear to look at you without you being washed first.”

“…”

His fingertips trembled and ash from the end of his cigarette fell to the ground.

“Even a drowned rat looked better than you.”

Glaring at Lil disapprovingly, Venua clicked his tongue and rose from his seat. He then stepped forward and circled her as though he were judging.

Lil similarly looked up at Venua.

‘Weird, Venua always appeared much taller in my childhood memories, but now he seems much shorter than he was back then. Why? Is it perhaps due to his emaciated appearance?’

Sweat-soaked hair stuck to his pale face and there were dark circles under his eyes. His illness was evident.

TN:

Hi guys!

We’ve got some exciting news! Well… It’s exciting for us but requires a little bit of patience from you guys.

To explain the news to you we first need to tell you something about ourselves. Of course, you probably know by now that we, Pru and Formidable, are translating and editing this story together. Fun fact is that we met online on the spoiler forum of NovelUpdates while each living on the other side of the world. Making it, especially in the beginning, sometimes difficult to communicate seeing how our time zones are 6-7 hours apart. You see, Pru is from the Philippines while Formidable is from the Netherlands.

Coincidentally, IRL Pru works for a Dutch company and due to an upcoming company event is coming to the Netherlands next week! So after working together on this novel for almost 2 years, we finally have a chance to meet! How cool is that?

As we will be touring the Netherlands next week and need some additional time to return to our day-to-day lives after, we will be taking a 2-week break from translating. So you can expect chapter 238 between the 30^th and 31^st of October! (depending on your time zone)

We thank you for your patience and hope to see you back at the end of the month! 😊

Happy reading!

Love,

Pru and Formidable

done.co