Time of the Blind Beast - Chapter 67

At first glance, Dr. Brehman’s admiration was understandable. Rose’s handwriting was extremely orderly and elegant. It was a script that resembled her nature exactly. Ezekiel read the calm sentences that Rose had written. The letter was very brief.

I am writing from Derosa with news about Mr. Ezekiel. The surgery was successful. However, it is said that we will only know how much his eyesight has recovered after the surgical site has healed. Thus, it seems this letter will be the final report I send.

As he still needs help from those around him, I will stay here for a few more days and, before Mr. Ezekiel opens his eyes, fulfill the promise I made earlier. I will not be going to Claris, so there is no need to worry about the future. I politely decline the compensation you offered through the errand boy.

At the end of the formal sentences was Rose’s initial. There was no longer any room for doubt. Ezekiel scanned her signature with his eyes, then fixed his gaze once more on the final paragraph.

“Errand boy?”

He had always found it strange. Why did Rose have to disappear?

Now he understood. Someone from the main house had contacted Rose through an errand boy.

There wasn’t a single person in Derosa unaware of his relationship with Rose. Ezekiel had never tried to hide it. She was the woman he planned to live with for life—what reason did he have to be cautious in front of the servants?

However, if his father had been keeping an eye on news from Derosa and had learned about Rose in the process, there was no way he would have approved of their relationship.

He could easily imagine the pressure placed on a woman already intimidated by the Valdemaira family.

His jaw twitched involuntarily. Ezekiel clenched his teeth and walked into the mansion.

“You intend to spill your brother’s blood after all?”

That was his father’s first question upon facing Ezekiel.

In the tense atmosphere that rang sharp and brittle, only Ezekiel remained composed. The servants silently went about cleaning up the wrecked mansion, their faces pale as if they might faint at any moment.

Ezekiel answered calmly without so much as raising an eyebrow, “I already have.”

His father, returning late, saw the pitiful state of the Valdemaira estate with its shattered windows and seemed to roughly guess who had returned and that the two brothers who should not have met had crossed paths and caused an incident. However, perhaps due to the darkness, he hadn’t yet noticed the occasional drops of Akenaus’s blood on the ground.

“What did you do the moment you came back?!” his father shouted in shock.

“I only returned what needed to be returned.”

Even that, he had not yet fully paid back.

The river between him and Akenaus had already been crossed. That man had ordered a woman to commission a murder, and after they had pointed rifles at each other, all ties of blood were cut.

“Did you kill him?”

“Not yet.”

Perhaps at a loss for words due to Ezekiel’s cold response, his father closed his eyes deeply, wrinkles forming between his brows.

“…Where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you really not know?”

His father stared at the expressionless Ezekiel.

“…Even after regaining your sight, you didn’t return home right away. Do you think I don’t know why you were late?”

Ezekiel calmly met his gaze.

His father wasn’t surprised to see him return with his sight restored. Moreover, he already knew Ezekiel had left Derosa earlier than expected.

“You’re returning to the main house? When?”

“Today, immediately.”

Just as he had informed Madam Serva. Ezekiel, who always followed through once he spoke, did not delay. Instead, his destination changed. Before returning to Claris, there were people he needed to meet.

“Wow, it really seems like you’ve lived without any light at all. Your skin is whiter than that of newly enlisted boys, Major.”

They were soldiers of the 37th Regiment.

The subordinates who had stormed the Valdemaira estate and carried the blinded Ezekiel to Madam Serva were overjoyed to see their superior officer return in perfect form.

Feder was the first to joke, showing off his deeply tanned skin. Montcalm also grinned.

“We always believed you would return safely, Major.”

Facing Montcam, Ezekiel swallowed down the bitter regret that rose up. It pained him to recall his petty jealousy that had led him to refuse Montcalm’s visit simply because he didn’t want his subordinates to see Rose first.

He shouldn’t have done that.

He should have told Montcalm, told his subordinates about Rose.

So that when they traveled across the country, if they saw Rose, they could bring her back to him.

“There’s a matter to discuss. We’ve been waiting for your return, Major. It seems spies from Davis have crossed the border.”

Thanks to having exchanged regular updates and instructions via mail, the subordinates accepted Ezekiel’s return naturally. After briefly sharing the joy of reunion, Ezekiel immediately entered a meeting to make up for the gap in time.

“It’s obvious who they’d prioritize for surveillance after crossing the border. Probably those who earned merits in the war, like the Major.”

“They must be watching the ‘King’s Army’ closely.”

“Honestly, I think they were most actively probing the Major’s whereabouts. There were so many rumors at one point.”

After hearing the remaining news that couldn’t be conveyed by post and learning upon returning to Claris that Akenaus had gathered a security unit, he suspected that spies might have approached Akenaus.

Ezekiel secretly summoned some of his subordinates and ordered them to monitor Akenaus. That was why he had no choice but to appear at the main house later than expected.

Letting Akenaus live and go free was also part of that plan. Akenaus might believe he survived thanks to luck, but Ezekiel never intended to kill him that day. Once he could be certain that no suspicious figures were circling Akenaus, and once all public matters had been dealt with, then and only then would he carry out his private revenge.

He still had one more eye to take in return.

Dr. Brehman and Paulina had told Ezekiel that it was only because the damage to his eye was from poison that detoxification had worked. If he had been shot or harmed physically, they said, they would have had to remove the eyeball, and there would have been no hope at all.

That was why he deliberately shot him.

So that one failure would lead to another.

So that the man could never again dream of hope for the rest of his life.

So that he would live in terror, never knowing when the remaining eye would be taken from him.

The greater worry had lain elsewhere. If his father denied the existence of the errand boy who had been watching Derosa—if he claimed not to know Rose—it could have led to a long, exhausting psychological battle. In that case, Ezekiel was prepared to track down the errand boy by combing through every connection related to Valdemaira.

But his father had brought up Ezekiel’s actions first. Along with the suspicion that someone with command authority over a company would never simply let Akenaus go, it was also a warning: as long as Valdemaira blood ran in his veins, he was still within his father’s grasp.

That was a relief.

Ezekiel grasped the clue his father had let slip.

“Thank you for letting me know that someone had been sent to monitor me. It makes things quicker.”

Now, what mattered most was Rose, who must have endured a lonely time in a place out of his reach.

The one who seemed to have many worries ahead of her surgery.

The one who had begun to speak less and sink into her own thoughts.

“You must know Rose.”

He didn’t ask indirectly.

“What did you do to Rose?”

“There was no need to do anything.”

His father didn’t deny it.

“The girl said herself that she had no intention of staying by your side. She was quite aware of her place.”

“Did you just say, ‘aware of her place’?”

The word his father chose seemed to ignite a spark.

Ezekiel calmed his breath. Rose was not someone who could be belittled with a phrase like ‘aware of her place.’

“What place does Rose need to be aware of?”

“I said it as a compliment. She was smart in grasping her position and behaved accordingly. She didn’t want to remain by your side.”

“It’s not that Rose didn’t want to stay. You drove the situation to make her leave.”

“You seem to believe I drove her off with authority or threats, but I actually made her an offer. As the head of the Valdemaira family, I was willing to pay an appropriate price.”

And the result of that offer, Ezekiel had already read in the letter.

I politely decline the compensation you offered through the errand boy.

Rose had cared for him without any greed, only to retreat before the wall that was Valdemaira.

“Just because you made an offer doesn’t mean you didn’t drive her away. In the end, didn’t you use some method to compel her to leave?”

“Ezekiel,”

His father called his name in a low voice.

“You question me now about that girl’s wellbeing, but when I think about what you did to your brother, who I don’t even know how you got rid of, it makes me sick. You’re both my sons, Ezekiel and Akenaus… he, too, carries the Valdemaira name. Don’t you even worry about your mother, who’s been sent off to convalesce after suffering neurosis because of the two of you?”

“I just learned now that Mother went for convalescence.”

Ezekiel gave a cold, scornful smile.

“No one ever told me such things. Thank you for reminding me just how ignored I’ve been in this household. I’d forgotten.”