Chapter 34. Decisions Are Made Quickly

The image of Rasiel falling limply was clearly etched in Rapellian’s eyes.

“Rasiel!!”

At his erupting cry, the instrumental music filling the banquet hall ceased.

The murmuring people also fell silent, and only the sound of footsteps echoed through the hall.

But not long after, the footsteps that had been resonating on the marble stopped.

“……”

Rapellian stared at the collapsed Rasiel with an indescribable expression.

He knew he should rush over and pick her up, but his legs wouldn’t move. His feet were firmly planted to the floor as if nailed down, making him unable to do anything.

While he was immersed in thought, several sets of footsteps with different weights quickly pattered past him.

“Miss, please wake up. Miss.”

Jane had caught Rasiel as she collapsed to the floor, fortunately preventing her from hitting her head.

Still, since Rasiel couldn’t regain consciousness, Jane’s voice calling her name was pitiful.

At Jane’s trembling voice, the halted whispers rose again, and people’s attention was drawn.

Michaela, who had rushed through the crowd, took Rasiel from Jane and held her as if hiding her in her arms.

She checked Rasiel’s breathing and pulse, then gently shook her shoulders.

“Rasiel. Rasiel.”

“What, what’s wrong. Rasiel.”

Riello, sitting beside Michaela, tightly held Rasiel’s cold hand with an anxious, tearful expression.

Curious gazes clung thickly over the worried calls. Noticing this, Briel took off his jacket and spread it out to block people’s views. He growled lowly, his eyes gleaming fiercely.

Though still young, his fairly weighty threatening pheromones made people clear their throats and begin to turn their gazes away one by one.

Only then did Rapellian move.

“Briel, hide your pheromones. Don’t.”

“What?”

Rapellian ran over and placed his hand on Briel’s shoulder, shaking his head.

Confused by his strangely pale expression, Briel tilted his head but gathered back the pheromones he had been releasing.

“Sister, I’ll move her.”

“Yes, take her away for now. I need to manage things here.”

“Yes.”

Rapellian answered briefly, took off his jacket, and wrapped it around Rasiel.

As if not wanting to show her to anyone, he bundled her up tightly, took a small breath, sighed, and then picked her up.

Feeling her light weight in his arms, Rapellian grimaced bitterly, clenched his molars, and left the banquet hall.

“Sister, we too……”

“Go follow them. But you must stay quiet. Your brother’s mind won’t be at ease.”

Michaela stroked the worried twins’ faces and gently pushed their backs.

As soon as they received permission, Briel and Riello hurriedly ran outside.

Michaela stared blankly at her departing siblings’ backs, then closed her eyes gently and took a deep breath.

Her expression looked quite exhausted.

‘Of all times.’

She had thought there would be some time to prepare.

As the adult of the family, she felt bitter that she couldn’t protect anyone.

She was also burning with worry that they might have reached a state where nothing could be done.

However, since Michaela couldn’t leave her place with guests present, she turned around while suppressing her complicated feelings.

As if she had never worn such an expression, she transformed into a dignified duchess and opened her mouth.

“The late predecessor used to say this: See clearly what is most important at this moment. If you fail to grasp the blind spot at this point, you may miss what truly needs to be done.”

Michaela scanned the audience as she crossed the center of the banquet hall.

Moving with elegant steps, she stood at the head table with a composed face and continued.

“Do not forget our purpose, and focus on this moment. Forget the momentary trivial matters. I thank all of you who have gathered for the memorial of our predecessor. Please enjoy your time.”

This was essentially a warning that what they had just witnessed was not their concern, and they should completely forget it and not mention it.

Michaela raised her wine glass with a slight nod.

Then Ian, who had been sitting in a chair at the head table, rose and approached her side, adding a word.

“A very wise statement.”

Ian clinked his glass against Michaela’s with a clear sound.

Simultaneously, the music that had stopped began to play again, and people cautiously raised their wine glasses while checking the atmosphere.

With both the Duchess Michaela and the Emperor joining in, those gathered in the banquet hall were forced to erase what had just happened from their memories.

The briefly subdued atmosphere heated up again, and Michaela took a large sip of wine while quietly sighing in relief.

“Edeline.”

Ian stood close to her, calling Michaela by her middle name.

“Please don’t call me by my nickname just anywhere, Your Majesty.”

“Is your home just anywhere?”

“You really……”

Michaela stuck out her tongue as if she couldn’t handle him.

“There’s something I’m curious about.”

“I get scared whenever you say you’re curious about something.”

“There are times when you’re afraid of me?”

“Anyway, what are you curious about?”

“Rasiel, that child. You had a separate reason for bringing her into your family, right?”

Michaela’s head, which had been staring straight ahead despite Ian standing beside her, finally turned toward him.

As her deep blue eyes smoothly turned to him, Ian curved his eyes elegantly and smiled slyly.

“What are you trying to say?”

“No, it seems too much to be just a sense of responsibility……”

Ian deliberately dragged out the end of his sentence and raised the corner of his mouth meaningfully.

Rapellian’s reaction earlier was somewhat different from his usual responsible demeanor. He seemed unaware of it himself, but the movement of his pheromones was unusual.

“……”

Michaela remained silent, turning her gaze back to the front.

Ian, with an extremely intrigued face, chuckled and whispered in Michaela’s ear.

“I hope he gets properly hooked. Then you’ll fully come to my side, won’t you?”

“You have big dreams, Your Majesty.”

“Dreams are meant to be dreamed big, they say.”

Ian countered like a sly snake and kissed the back of her hand.

⁕⁕⁕

Rapellian leaned against the corridor wall, staring only at the room where Rasiel was.

Through the door, he could hear the family physician busily doing various things.

He wanted to watch over her, but he couldn’t.

Though he had gathered his pheromones as much as possible, he couldn’t muster the courage to go inside.

“Haah.”

His sigh was long. It was a strange feeling.

It felt like a sense of loss, emptiness, and somewhat helplessness.

He hadn’t lived thinking he was omnipotent, but there was nothing he couldn’t achieve, and nothing had ever gone against his will. Yet when it came to Rasiel, he kept feeling that something was going wrong.

Not just going wrong, but taking her life away.

“Huu.”

Once again, a bitter sigh burst from deep within his lungs.

Even then, his chest still felt unbearably stuffy.

In place of his constricted insides, Rapellian roughly pulled at the cravat choking his neck and threw it away.

This caused the veins on the back of his hand to bulge from the force.

He moved his delicate fingertips to undo a couple of buttons, loosening his shirt as well.

His neck, half-hidden by the shirt, was now fully exposed, far from his usual neat appearance.

Just then, click, Rasiel’s door opened.

The twins, who had pleaded to be by Rasiel’s side despite being told not to enter, came out of the room.

Briel repeatedly blinked his eyes as he called out to Rapellian.

“Brother.”

“Ah. Yes.”

At the small call, Rapellian, who had been leaning his back against the wall, straightened his posture.

Briel, scanning Rapellian’s appearance, swallowed dryly with slight embarrassment.

Riello, who followed out, also widened his eyes momentarily before scratching his head vigorously.

His hair quickly became so disheveled that even a magpie would find it insufficient for a nest.

Riello didn’t even think about fixing his hair and carefully opened his mouth.

“Brother, you know.”

However, the words that passed through his painfully parted lips ended with just that.

Riello’s eyes reddened as he hesitated, wondering how to convey what the family physician had told them.

Riello eventually nudged Briel’s side.

It meant that since Briel was born a few minutes earlier, he should act like the older brother.

But Briel, looking not much different from Riello, just bit his lips anxiously. He couldn’t readily put into words what they had heard from the doctor, fearing that speaking it aloud would make it real.

“……Thank you for watching over Rasiel in my place. Go back to your room.”

“Yes.”

Seeing his siblings’ unusual reactions, Rapellian looked at them alternately before lifting his heavy feet from the floor.

He hurriedly entered the room and faced the family physician.

“Melson.”

“Young Master.”

The family physician shook his head with a deeply gloomy expression.

To Rapellian, it felt like a sentence declaring there was no hope, making him feel as if his heart, which he had been desperately holding onto, had dropped to his feet.

“You shouldn’t be like this.”

“I’m sorry. Clearly, during the last examination, she wasn’t like this…… I must have missed something significant. I can’t guarantee when she’ll wake up……”

“……”

Melson, not knowing where to put himself, hunched his shoulders and bowed deeply.

Rapellian’s coldly frozen eyes turned away from Melson.

Rasiel’s complexion, lying on the bed, was beyond pale—not a trace of blood remained.

It was an unimaginable face compared to when they had met in front of the shrine.

‘What have I been doing?’

Rapellian had no energy left to think or do anything else.

He thought there was no time to waste. The choice was quick and much easier than expected.

Rapellian turned around and went outside.

He passed his siblings, who were still restlessly waiting in the corridor, and went down the stairs.

Just as he stepped onto the end of the central staircase, he saw Michaela and Ian, who had left after controlling the people gathered in the banquet hall.

“Rapel.”

“I’m going to the capital.”

Rapellian, who had walked up to them with wide strides, declared as if announcing his decision.

As if there would be no reversal of his decision, there was not a hint of wavering in his eyes.

Faced with his straightforward gaze, Michaela momentarily closed her mouth.

“I will accompany Your Majesty when you leave.”

From Rapellian’s decision, Michaela guessed that Rasiel’s condition was more serious than expected.

Perhaps she had already known this would happen the moment Rasiel collapsed.

Since Michaela also didn’t like the idea of sending Rasiel, who had just begun to adapt to the ducal residence, to a completely unfamiliar place, she had no intention of adding anything more to Rapellian’s judgment and decision.

“……If that is your decision, I won’t stop you.”

Michaela, who had maintained silence, stepped forward and placed her hand on Rapellian’s shoulder.

She moved her patting hand down to grasp Rapellian’s hand.

Ian, who had been watching them quietly with his hands behind his back, tossed out a remark before going upstairs.

“A new wind will blow in the capital.”