Time of the Blind Beast - Special Side Story 2

***

“…Heinz?”

Who the hell is this bastard?

Ezekiel glared at the neatly pink-dyed envelope. Among the letters that had arrived in Lisanne’s name, he picked up the most out-of-place one, only to find a strange name written as the addressee.

At first, he thought it had just gotten mixed in by mistake. His tender-hearted Lisanne often sent out letters and gifts on behalf of students when couriers arrived at the school.

But no matter how he looked at it, this was Lisanne’s seal. Without a doubt. His eyes, which had received more letters from her than anyone else, could guarantee it.

But who the hell was this man receiving a letter from his wife?

Searching desperately for any clue he might have overlooked, Ezekiel turned his mind inside out. But no matter how hard he thought, it was a name and an address he had never once heard from Lisanne. If his wife had ever spoken a man’s name, there was no way he would not have remembered.

Even knowing that breaking the seal would leave a mark, he had no choice. Ezekiel tore it open in one motion and read the contents of the letter. And became even more disturbed.

Why the hell was this bastard receiving such an earnest love letter from Lisanne?

And Lisanne had even signed it with the name Rose. That was the alias she had once used while tending to him at the Derosa mansion. It was the name she gave only when she could not reveal her true self.

Ezekiel retraced the path of his wife’s life as he knew it. Just as Lisanne had been his first woman, he had been her first man. Though neither had said so outright, they had both realized it—how clumsily, roughly, and desperately they had fallen into the first ecstasy of their lives. Ezekiel still vividly remembered that moment when a new world had opened. They had been awkward, rough, and yet all the more passionate.

And Lisanne had never been in an environment where there could have been another man. Milena Girls’ School was deep in the mountains, with little to no outside contact.

So it couldn’t have been someone from that time.

At the Valdemaira mansion in Derosa, she had been too busy caring for him. True, she had secretly reported his condition to the Claris household through Merlot, but that had only been possible because of her ally. If she had been corresponding privately with someone, Madam Serva would surely have heard of it.

And after she left him behind for a time, following his eye surgery, only for him to search the entire nation to find her again…

Ezekiel clenched his teeth.

Even now, he hated to recall that period. The wounds he had inflicted on Lisanne, not recognizing who she was, had been too deep. That winter had been harsh and cruel, a time of dreadful darkness. Lisanne had shown no will to live, robbed of her words, staggering under shock and pain. That she had eventually returned to him at all was nothing short of a miracle.

Since then, he had never left her side again. Even during the brief times when her recovery required them to be apart, he constantly sent couriers to check on her. Lisanne, too, had written countless letters every day, sharing the tiniest details of her daily life. If she had turned her heart to someone else during that time, there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed.

In other words, he could say with confidence that he knew every corner of her past like the palm of his hand…

No. Wait.

Ezekiel froze.

Could he really say he knew every part of Lisanne’s past?

When Lisanne had disappeared after leaving the Derosa mansion, he had never asked how she had hidden herself, nor had he thought to. But surely she had used the alias Rose during that time. Back then, as now, she was not the sort to think only of herself. Even when she was ready to end her own life by swallowing poison, she still secured an escape for her family. That gap in her life was a blank space Ezekiel knew nothing about. And during that time, she must have crossed paths with others, even received help from someone now and then.

The realization hit him like a shock. Lisanne’s blank past, and the alias she had once used, all came together in his mind and burned it white.

Could she have formed a bond with another man back then? When she was captured and cut off, could there have been some reason she crossed paths with him again later? After marrying her, Ezekiel had taken her across the land, showing her as much of the world as he could. Even now, they continued to travel. If, during that time, she had run into him again and exchanged addresses, it wouldn’t have been impossible. Lisanne was someone any man would covet, so surely this Heinz had been the one to develop feelings first. A letter here, a letter there, back and forth under the guise of friendship…

And all at once, Ezekiel realized something instinctively.

He could never bring himself to ask Lisanne about this Heinz. He didn’t have the courage. He didn’t want to put her in a difficult position. Better to live blind forever than to do that.

But what if Lisanne confessed it herself? What if she admitted to another man’s existence… and asked to part ways?

Would he be able to let her go calmly?

The very thought made the world collapse. Light vanished, sound faded.

Suddenly, life had no meaning.

From the moment Lisanne had appeared at the winter mansion, through the dark times he never wanted to return to, until now, Ezekiel’s life had been inseparable from hers.

If he lost her, there would be no reason left to live.

“…Of course. Then I’d have no reason to live.”

The reason he continued serving in the army, guarding Astrie, was because she was in this country.

“Because you saved me.”

Heaven and hell were both in one person.

Ezekiel tilted his head back and looked up at the sky. Even now, as the fierce north wind lashed his cheeks, the only face he saw before his eyes was his wife’s. He longed to see Lisanne.

Even the road to see her wasn’t so difficult. Lisanne had followed him and was staying at Lisanne Girls’ School in Cielsa, waiting only for his winter training to end. But if he met her now with this storm raging inside him, he could not be sure he would be able to hide it naturally.

He would probably cry.

And he would be afraid she might leave him again.

In truth, in front of Lisanne, he could live forever with eyes closed and ears covered as if nothing were wrong. Even if he had to pretend not to know for the rest of his life, it didn’t matter as long as she was by his side.

But he had no reason to be gentlemanly toward that man. Ezekiel had lived his whole life as a soldier. Soldiers remove any obstacle in their path. By his very nature, he first needed to confirm with his own eyes who this Heinz was.

“An urgent matter has come up. I’ll be leaving the training ground. Until I return, the rest of the training will be delegated to Montcalm.”

“What? All of a sudden, sir?”

“Where are you going?”

He slung only a rifle over his shoulder, mounted his horse, and rode off toward the southern town written as the recipient’s address on the letter, leaving his bewildered subordinates in the harsh training grounds.

***

Without even leaving word for Lisanne, he had rushed off to the south. His beloved wife surely still believed he was simply busy with military training and that she would not hear from him for a while. So he had to kill the man quickly and return.

Arriving at his destination, Ezekiel compared the address on the letter with the small one-story house before his eyes. The tiny garden out front was free of weeds, and everything was neatly arranged, giving the impression of being well kept, but that was all. Heinz’s house was an ordinary, ordinary home.

He pounded on the door with his fist.

“Is no one home?”

“Yes, who is it?”

The sound of quick footsteps came, and the door swung open. Standing there was a boy of about fifteen years old. The appearance of the young boy, so completely against his expectations, startled Ezekiel inwardly, though he did not show it.

Family, maybe. A much younger brother standing in for an absent older sibling.

Surely not a son?

Ezekiel gripped the strap of the rifle slung over his shoulder.

If the man already had a wife and child, and yet had seduced Lisanne, then he would not live to see another day.

His head was about to burst from the flood of thoughts, but trained as he was in controlling his expression, he masked his face with practiced indifference.

“On my way to the training grounds, I was asked to deliver a letter, so I came. Who is Heinz?”

Having rushed here with the sole purpose of facing Heinz as quickly as possible, Ezekiel’s expression had grown far sharper and more threatening than usual. Confronted with his piercing glare, the boy flinched and answered with a puzzled face.

“Heinz? That’s me.”

…This boy is Heinz?