Interlude: An End To Bell
They seriously don"t know how to handle things.
Eimer looked outside, fed up with the pain of his b.u.t.t from the carriage"s shaking.
Sometimes the indigo-blue sea of Bell peeked in between the s.p.a.ces of the white buildings. Unfortunately, with the cloudy weather, it was regrettable seeing that everywhere looked dull.
It"s said that during summer, enough light reflects off the buildings" white walls to the extent that it could hurt one"s eyes and made the far horizon look beautiful.
His biggest failure was allowing Elmenhilde to escape from the residence by accident.
The lady who had been carefully brought up inside a cage was such a tomboy to do so.
He knew that she ran away to the Rietberg territory. Even though Elmenhilde has the courage to flee, it doesn"t seem like she"s all that intelligent about it.
After all, Rietberg"s status is much higher than his. He can"t just poorly interfere. But he heard that on top of Marquis Rietberg distancing himself from political matters, his daughter"s fiancé, Duke Brunsmeier, had died just recently. They wouldn"t have the courtesy to hide Elmenhilde.
With that in mind, he hired men to watch over them, but surprisingly, Rietberg had misled them by disguising a maid and employed a strong escort to accompany Elmenhilde. He"s sure that that girl bought the Marquis" sympathy by mixing facts and fiction.
It only spurred on the hired men, but on the contrary, the end result was that they were beaten up instead. Furthermore, they ran into a problem: losing their tracks after that.
Since it"s turned out like this, he had no choice but to take command on his own and proceed to Bell.
He couldn"t help but wholly doubt others.
Just at the right moment, when he thought it would be useless to return the money, the angry Eimer received unexpectedly good news.
His friend, Viscount Bormann, had captured a girl who looked like Elmenhilde in his own territory.
It was perfect seeing as he was on his way to Bell, so Eimer changed his route towards the Bormann territory to confirm the news.
And when they finally arrived at Bormann"s residence last night, horses were running around in front of his residence, and Bormann could only incoherently mutter about an angel with a violin, with Elmenhilde nowhere to be seen.
That"s right! Elmenhilde escaped once again!
Furthermore, when Eimer told him that he should cooperate since he let her escape, he said that he couldn"t do that either!
It looks like there"s nothing that Eimer could do seeing as he might be a little crazy right now due to being hit really hard by the violin. He also said things Eimer that didn"t understand, like how from now on, he"s going to live his life repenting. He had already become a senile old man—no, even less than that.
It"s completely irritating.
“Dammit!”
That"s Duke Hestria"s purest blood daughter, a direct descendant.
Eimer found out completely by chance, but now that he thought about it, his luck may have completely changed from there on out.
If he gets that, Eimer, who had resigned himself to just being part of the branch family, would get the support of the Duke and become a part of the Hausknecht"s main family.
Despite that, the girl was arrested by her lonesome, but why couldn"t anyone do this one thing right?
And at the beginning of one night.
Eimer pa.s.sed through the Bormann territory while grinding his teeth and was notified that the hired men finally found Elmenhilde near Bell.
He couldn"t help but stand up right on the spot, even though it was disgraceful to do so, and stepped on it.
They said they were planning on threatening the coachman of the carriage Elmenhilde was hiding in, replacing him, and locking up the carriage in a warehouse.
He thought that they weren"t that dependable, but why were they able to do this so easily? Are they the type to do an amazing job at the very last moment?
And just like that, Eimer arrived at Bell.
The carriage that Eimer was on quietly stopped in front of the arranged warehouse.
He wondered what he should do to that disagreeable girl.
Eimer thought of vulgar things as his stomach churned heavily, and then he alighted from the carriage.
When he said the secret pa.s.sword to confirm his ident.i.ty to the warehouse keeper, the seedy keeper grinned at him disgustingly and let him through. The indecent man angered Eimer, but his mind immediately turned towards what was held inside the place he was heading towards.
Well, whatever. This whole thing has finally ended.
After this, he"ll forcefully have her sign a marriage registration.
Come to think of it, this whole thing cost him a lot of money. He definitely has to get back the money for this debt….
Well, it"s not like that"s going to be difficult once he obtains Elmenhilde. He"ll use the secret of her birth to blackmail her parents. Just like the former head did.
The inside of the warehouse was dusty, and despite the fact that there was no wind coming in, it was extremely cold. The s.p.a.cious inside was flooded with many towers of miscellaneous boxes piled on top of each other.
And in the middle of the warehouse was the carriage, surrounded by other luggages.
Elmenhilde is most likely shaking behind that canopy. When he thought of how her really haughty and egoistical face was twisted in fear, he felt exhilarated.
“Ah, I wanted to meet you.”
Eimer put his hands on the canopy entrance as he said that with a sing-song voice.
Then he forcefully pulled them opened, expecting a second, emotional meeting with Elmenhilde.
“Oh?”
There was no one inside.
There were only multiple stacked boxes.
I see, so you thought to hide yourself inside this in a last, vain attempt.
s.h.i.t! An annoying woman to the end!
And just when he put one leg inside the back—
“Don"t move!”
Something sharp was thrown at him from behind and Eimer stopped his movements.
When he turned around with his brows wrinkled together, there was a large crowd of people inside the warehouse that had been empty earlier except for him. Moreover, every one of them removed their swords from their waists and surrounded the carriage.
That uniform … Don"t tell me, the navy garrison?
“You"re Viscount Eimer, correct?”
“…Indeed.”
What"s with this situation?
Although Eimer didn"t quite understand what was happening, he calmed himself and lowered the foot that was on the carriage. He wouldn"t be able to handle it if they started getting violent with him, so to show that he wasn"t resisting, he raised his arms up and faced them.
Each and everyone of the garrison guards held their swords and glared at him so that he wouldn"t escape.
What the… Why are they doing this…?
The man standing in front, probably the leader, spread open the letter he was holding and looked at Eimer.
“Viscount Eimer. You are arrested under the suspicion of smuggling.”
And then, Eimer understood.
He was framed.
Thank you for always reading this.
The minor performer (Elmenhilde) stayed around longer than I thought, but from the next chapter, it"ll finally be Lizia and Bern"s love part.
LOVE PART!!!!!!!!! Y"all, I"m excited for the next few chapters. G.o.d. I"ve been WAITING!
E/N (celes): Sorry for my disappearance. Also, I wonder what Lizzy would think of the fate of the man she whacked with a violin.