When Pride Fell At My Toes - Chapter 48



Only Krnovel

#48. Assault
2024.02.17.

Emilia felt as expected at the soft voice. She was a little puzzled by his excessive protection, but his standards were firm.

‘I guess he still thinks I’m valuable and worth saving.’

Her ankle, which had been fine, was throbbing for some reason.

The moment he found out, she would fall to the bottom without any value, and he wouldn’t even look at her. The soft light in her eyes, which had been quietly looking up at him, disappeared as if it were being obscured by a curtain.

“Can I go down to the basement today?” Even though it

was his mansion, she felt like she had to ask him. Emilia waited for his answer with a calm face.

“The things in the basement will be moved to the duke’s house. You don’t have to go down.”

“To the duke’s house? Why…?”

Emilia trailed off as she questioned him.

In the first place, these were things that my father had hidden in the basement, making them hard to find. I still don’t know who did it, and if I took them home, the worst case scenario would be that the criminals would target them.

It was important to find out who the criminal was, but he wouldn’t have asked his subordinates to come in person, so there seemed to be no need to take a risk.

“… … Then I’ll ask you.”

He looked down at her, who quickly nodded and greeted her, and slowly opened his mouth.

“The circumstances point to the Count of Vallemont, but there’s no evidence. And it’s certain that Giorgio is involved.”

“I suspect that too.”

“I looked into Giorgio’s whereabouts before he came to visit as a viscount, and it was so clean that it seemed like someone had intentionally erased it.”

He casually unraveled the information and continued walking. She quickly followed him, afraid that he might act capriciously and shut his mouth.

“Ah… … But is it possible that he’s not from my family? They said that it was verified by the administrative office.”

From Emilia’s perspective, who had suddenly lost her family at a young age, there wasn’t much to find out. All she could do was ask the administrative office, and since they had proven that she was a distant relative, they would simply take legal action to pass the position to her.

“Well. In a case where there is no trace to this extent, it’s suspicious.”

“Even though the administrative office confirmed it?”

“Either the documents were perfect, or it was the order of a powerful person who had no choice but to turn a blind eye to the forged documents.”

“… … Ha.”

Emilia let out a breath as if she was dumbfounded and touched her forehead. She was so naive. No matter what, she had assumed that it was her uncle since the country had proven it, but now that she was hearing the story, she thought that maybe he wasn’t really her blood relative.

Enrico made a gesture. Seeing that, he ordered Zaveta, who had come closer, to bring him something to drink, and sat down on the living room sofa.

“I’m looking for the person in charge at the time, so wait.”

“… … You’re looking for him? Isn’t he at the administrative office?”

“Yeah. “He applied for retirement and suddenly disappeared.”

How, how could he have lived without suspecting this? She felt someone grabbing her hand as she stood there blankly, blaming herself. She looked up, her eyes staring at the floor, and he was leading her hand toward the sofa.

Just then, Zaveta placed a crystal glass filled with water on the table.

“Drink. Standing like that won’t solve anything.”

Emilia’s eyes trembled. He took out a cigarette and lit it, and gestured to the crystal glass. She sat down with a confused expression, holding the glass of water in her hand for the time being, but just stared blankly down at the table.

“And I’ll warn you… … .”

Enrico took a drag on his cigarette, making his cheek slightly sunken, and slowly let it flow out between his lips. The white smoke slowly dissipated as if to obscure his expression.

“Be careful of Alessandro Treano.”

Emilia’s eyes widened in confusion. Alessandro had warned her before, but this time Enrico had said the same thing.

“Valemont and that guy were seen together since they were little.”

“… … But why did you tell me about Count Valemon? Even if they were together, didn’t they not seem close?”

“Not at all. Count Valemon would take care of things that Alessandro couldn’t do on the surface, so that’s impossible.”

“Ah… … .”

“That’s why I’m telling you to be careful. He approaches you while doing that.” As

the smoke cleared, sparkling purple eyes were revealed. Their gazes met in the air and didn’t leave each other for a long time.

***

I have to go to Deshiro tomorrow already. I don’t know where the time has passed.

Emilia, who was lying on the bed, blankly staring at the ceiling shimmering in the moonlight, suddenly sat up as if she was frustrated. She folded her knees and brought them in front of her chest. Emilia’s cheek, which was resting her head on her round knees, was gently pressed.

‘I don’t think he’s lying.’

At first, after hearing Alessandro’s warning, Enrico suspected that maybe he had something to do with this. However, judging from the contents of the letter, the closest person to this family was the Count of Vallemont, and the Count of Vallemont seemed to be close to Alessandro, so for some reason the crown prince did not completely trust him.

On the other hand, Enrico gave him information and helped him, so it was not easy to suspect him. He even asked all the servants who used to work at this mansion and found out where his parents had left for in the past.

‘I heard them talking about how long it would take to get to Leviso.’

‘Where is Leviso?’

‘North. Near Michele’s estate.’

The problem was that the place his parents said they were going was close to his estate.

Anyway, he wondered why he was telling him so much today, including Alessandro’s warning and information about his parents that he didn’t know about, but he had to accept it even though he was suspicious.

At the time, the butler thought no one would know because his parents didn’t tell him exactly where he was going, but fortunately, the child who was managing the horse happened to hear about it and he was able to find out.

‘… … I got a lot of information at once.’

Normally, he would dance three times and get one piece of information. But when he came to Barco, he unintentionally got various pieces of information.

After coming here and watching, it seemed like there was no need to doubt the information he was giving. It was just that his capricious attitude kept bothering him, and he wanted to completely trust him, but sometimes he wanted to keep his distance.

No, maybe it was because he was confused because he was caught up in strange impulses and his mind wavered in a way that was not typical of him.

He could have just trusted his information cleanly, but why did he keep trying to accept it as it was?

‘It’s really fast. Even though I’m treated like an object… … .’

Emilia laughed self-deprecatingly and put her feet under the bed. Her complicated mind didn’t seem to be getting any better.

It was just the last night, so should I just take a walk under the moonlight? She hesitated for a moment and walked toward the window.

But then.

Knock! A sound of someone hitting the wall was heard from afar. Emilia thought she had misheard for a moment, stood still and held her breath. Knock, it was smaller than before, but she heard it again. It sounded more like something hitting something than hitting something. Hesitating,

Emilia put on the gown she had hung up and carefully opened the door. The hallway was so quiet that it felt cold.

‘I felt like I heard it from far away, but where is it? Is it on the other side?’

She stopped and looked around, then turned her back to go back into the room. Knock, there was another sound.

‘… This is the Duke’s room.’

Emilia blinked her eyes quickly. It was an irregular sound to say something was happening, and if it was a well-insulated room, if it could be heard from outside, it meant that it was very noisy inside. She bit her lower lip and soon walked slowly with a determined face.

As she got closer to the door, she could clearly hear something hitting something. She put the hand she had raised to knock on the doorknob and opened the door.

“Ugh… !”

Emilia covered her mouth with one hand. The room was a mess. Furniture was lying on the floor, and the bed had been torn apart, with the cotton flapping in the air.

She hurried into the room. The first thing she saw were the black masked men lying on the floor, and Enrico’s back in front of them. Enrico was dealing with the black masked man standing against the left corner wall.

“What is this, what is this… …”

Enrico turned around at the dumbfounded muttering. His relaxed-looking face instantly hardened, as if he didn’t know that it was her who had come in.

“Get out!”

But before Emilia could react to that shout, the black masked man quickly approached her. He had moved while Enrico was still behind him.

Enrico’s face distorted. He also quickly followed the black masked man, and she screamed in surprise at the black masked man who suddenly approached her.

Gyaaaa- The lights in the mansion turned on in an instant at the loud scream that seemed to pierce the sky.

“Huk… …”

Emilia screamed and pushed the chair next to her, and Enrico took advantage of the gap the masked man avoided to dive in. The sword he was holding swung at Emilia, but Enrico blocked it, and the tip of the sword grazed his forearm.