Chapter 78
“Young Lord Bartorio!”
Though Einar, who spotted him first, shouted out, it was already too late—the blade of the dagger gripped by the young lord had stabbed Lione.
The young lord’s nauseating voice rang through the prayer room as he stabbed him.
“If I can’t have you after all this effort, then no one can.”
Immediately after, as he pulled out the sword and raised it again, the young lord’s face became blurred and Lione lost consciousness.
Two days after the tumultuous engagement ceremony, though he wasn’t even a party to it.
Contrary to rumors that he had fallen into a coma, Lione was waiting for Riina in the Bolshevik estate’s reception room.
-Click.
At the sound of the door opening without a knock, Lione jumped to his feet.
Riina, whose eyes met his as he turned around, spoke with a tired expression.
“Let’s skip the cumbersome greetings. Neither you nor I have energy to spare.”
She gestured toward the sofa, and Lione nodded as he sat back down.
“Yes. Of course.”
No sooner had he sat down than Lione bowed his head.
“Thank you for meeting me despite such a sudden request.”
In truth, since he had come without any prior arrangement, he had already prepared himself to wait all day or perhaps return without meeting her at all.
“It just happened that I had time, so don’t worry about it.”
Though Riina brushed it off as nothing, Lione, who knew well how difficult it was to receive any of her ‘spare’ time, simply bowed his head deeply.
“So, Young Lord, may I hear the purpose of your visit?”
To Riina, who cut straight to the point without any preamble, Lione also jumped straight to the main topic.
“Please accept me as your servant.”
Riina’s brow furrowed sharply for a moment.
Though she had heard his words clearly, she could neither understand nor accept them at all.
Silence flowed between them for a while.
And strangely enough, that silence was neither uncomfortable like sitting on a bed of nails, nor did it constrict their breathing.
Of course, it wasn’t so comfortable that they could sigh and doze off, but considering they had no particular relationship, it was an oddly comfortable silence.
Eventually, Riina was the first to speak.
“Young Lord, did I hear correctly?”
Though she checked just in case, Lione nodded without wavering.
“Yes. I want to become your servant, Miss.”
“I refuse.”
Though he was naturally and immediately rejected without a moment’s pause, Lione didn’t give up.
If he had intended to give up this easily, he wouldn’t have brought up such words in the first place.
“Haven’t you already saved me several times? Especially this recent incident—I owe you an indescribable debt. I absolutely want to repay this kindness!”
When the words ‘this recent incident’ came from Lione’s mouth, Riina’s eyebrows shot up.
‘That’s right, that friend or whatever of Lione choked my throat.’
Recalling that moment, Riina made no attempt to hide that she was in a very bad mood.
The sensation of having her breathing completely blocked was disgusting no matter when she experienced it.
Though it had been necessary, the old saying that madmen are strong was absolutely true.
The man who had gone crazy over Lione didn’t look at Riina properly and thought she was his fiancée until the end, which resulted in her throat being choked with tremendous force.
If Einar had been even a little late in breaking that bastard’s wrist…
‘Riina, Riina, Riina. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I should have protected you, my you.’
Holding the gasping, coughing Riina in his arms, Einar whispered as if he were dying.
Without realizing it, she rubbed not her throat but her chest.
It hadn’t been Einar’s fault.
Who could have known what crazy thing a madman would do when even the madman himself couldn’t know, that he would choke her throat?
Moreover, wasn’t it Riina’s own decision to jump into this situation?
Besides, if Einar hadn’t been there, it wouldn’t have been just choking but completely…
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Riina spoke.
“Where did you say he went?”
“To a place without a proper name.”
The end for the man who had threatened her by choking her throat and stabbed Lione was naturally not very good.
He had been appointed as a special envoy to a very remote region of a kingdom far from the empire and left.
To put it nicely, it was secluded; to speak plainly, it was a place close to barren wasteland where hardly anyone lived.
So ultimately, though it was called a special envoy position, it was no different from demotion or exile.
His family hadn’t even requested leniency.
Having choked the throat of that Miss Bolshevik and put the young lord of the Bartorio family into a coma, they couldn’t even dare to defend him.
“That’s fortunate. He’ll never have an occasion to face you again in his lifetime.”
“Yes. That’s why I absolutely want to repay this kindness.”
Though Lione earnestly expressed his desire to become her servant, not missing the opportunity, Riina changed the subject.
“Come to think of it, Young Lord, I heard you suffered serious injuries severe enough to fall into a coma.”
Though she had been present at the time, even when Lione was stabbed, Riina had been gasping and coughing while rubbing her choked throat.
All she remembered was the pool of blood spreading across the floor.
“You did lose a lot of blood too.”
Riina narrowed her eyes and tilted her head.
“You don’t look like someone who suffered such severe injuries.”
At her words, Lione readily nodded.
“Because it wasn’t that kind of injury.”
If he hadn’t twisted his body at the moment his crazed friend stabbed the sword, it would have left an irreparable wound as reported.
But Lione had instinctively, without knowing how he did it, avoided the fatal injury.
“That’s fortunate.”
At her words, plain but containing only pure sincerity, Lione smiled.
He soon hardened his expression and asked with utmost courtesy.
“May I ask if you are well?”
It was a question he had postponed because just asking might evoke painful memories, but it was something he couldn’t not ask.
“My throat is fine. It’s just that my mood is foul.”
At her harsh language, unbecoming of a noble lady, Lione’s head dropped endlessly low.
Watching him, Riina swallowed a light sigh.
Even a passing monkey could see he had a good nature.
It wasn’t he who had choked her throat but that madman, and it had been Riina’s idea to create such a situation.
Yet Lione was truly feeling responsibility and guilt, unable to even lift his face.
But that was that, and accepting him as a servant…
“Young Lord, you’re getting married soon. So being a servant would be impossible.”
Though it was obvious, servants could also start families.
However, the kind of servant Lione was volunteering to be wasn’t one employed by a family, but one who served only Riina as his ‘master.’
Such a servant couldn’t start a family without the master’s permission.
Naturally, Riina didn’t want to make such a major decision that would control someone’s lifelong important matter of marriage.
But no sooner had Riina closed her mouth than Lione shook his head.
“I broke off the engagement.”
“Don’t tell me the reason you said it was shameless on the day of the engagement ceremony was…”
“Yes. It felt like I was using the baron’s daughter, when her feelings for me were so obviously apparent. I had planned to bring up the matter of breaking the engagement immediately after that affair was over.”
A few minutes before Lione went to find Riina after the main ceremony ended.
Lione brought up the story he had intended to tell his prospective fiancée after the affair was over.
‘…You want to break off the engagement?’
‘Yes.’
Though his fiancée was too shocked and had a blank expression, Lione spoke clearly once more.
‘Since we haven’t even held an engagement ceremony yet, strictly speaking it’s not even breaking an engagement. However, since there have been discussions, I thought it was right to tell you directly like this.’
When he closed his mouth, his fiancée—no, the baron’s daughter—urgently cried out.
‘Me!’
But with her throat blocked, she couldn’t easily continue.
Eventually, though tears seemed about to burst forth, she held them back, caught her breath, and spoke.
‘I know you don’t love me. But marriage isn’t necessarily based only on love, is it? Even if you don’t love me, I’m fine with that. So please, don’t break the engagement…’
Though the young lady spoke desperately with both hands clasped together, Lione’s wish was no less desperate than hers.
‘No. That’s not the issue.’
After finishing that story, Lione paused once before calmly adding.
“I want to become free. That’s why I broke the engagement and left my family.”
To Lione, who casually mentioned being disowned by his family, Riina said nothing.
If someone heard his words, they would laugh hollowly.
Volunteering to be a servant serving a master while talking about freedom—wasn’t that nonsensical?
Yet Riina didn’t ask.
She knew the reason he volunteered to be her servant while yearning for freedom.
“You’d be free from the duties Young Lord Bartorio carries.”
“Yes.”
“Becoming my servant would also allow you to escape to some degree from others’ approaches and the incomprehensible emotions they pour out.”
At her unvarnished words, Lione smiled awkwardly.
“There is that aspect. But my desire to repay the kindness I received from you is sincere.”
‘Yes. That sincerity is what makes it more problematic.’
Riina pressed down the words that had rushed to the tip of her tongue and asked.
“I understand your sincerity, Young Lord. But there must be other reasons as well. Why did you come to me specifically?”
