Chapter 27
Karpel ran away from home.
In the mansion, it was only his secret aide, Stein, who knew that he did.
Karpel ran away from the Krenberia estate and lay on the sofa inside a room at the top floor of a hotel on main street.
On the surface, Count Nitreu owned the hotel, but Karpel was the true owner.
He lay on the sofa for a long time despite the documents on the table in front of him, which was brimming with papers that there wasn’t any room left on its surface.
But Karpel pressed down on his throbbing forehead without giving them a look.
While recalling her warmth that night, Karpel held out somehow.
However, as soon as Inaila woke up the next day, saying that the cookie’s name was Yakgwa and that it was a dessert used as a marriage offering… He couldn’t stay still in his room and rushed out.
In the early days of the Empire, there was a custom of bringing food and liquor from the wedding ceremony to a shrine on the first night.
So the Yakgwa and liquor that Inaila brought to him couldn’t be seen with pure intentions.
Inaila couldn’t remember what happened that night and she told Karpel that she didn’t mean any of it, but the more she denied it, the more Karpel thought about it.
‘I don’t even know what’s happening anymore. I don’t know.’
Karpel was sure she didn’t know what the Yakgwa and liquor implied, but there were times that he thought maybe she did, and so he felt a sense of shame.
Instead of cooling his head in that room as the Duke said, he seemed to be burning just knowing who it was staying next door.
So he ran away.
Stein, who had to cover for Karpel’s absence from the mansion, would suffer for this, but Karpel desperately needed time alone.
But now that he was alone, he felt uneasy about being away from Inaila.
It occurred to him that the handmade Yakgwa might perhaps be the last gift he’d receive from her, and she was now talking to the Duke about breaking off their engagement.
Every time he had that thought, he got nervous. He thought he’d go back to the mansion that second to see what Inaila was doing.
That’s why he’d been standing up and sitting down again and again for more than a dozen times.
“Milord!”
It was Count Nitreu, who was managing the hotel.
The young Count of the Nitreu family was usually astute and calculating, but now he was frazzled with confusion.
“What’s going on?”
“Lady Krenberia has entered the underground waterways!”
Immediately, Krenberia jumped up from his seat, put on a hooded robe and went down to the underground waterways through a secret passage.
The wide waterways in the southern part of the capital were now used as the main transport channels of the uprising.
It was largely thanks to this underground space that gathering forces and recruiting the radical group members became easier even as Karpel himself was shackled to the Krenberia estate.
He once went out of the mansion with Inaila through the waterways, but he didn’t think that she’d still remember it.
The watchmen guarding the waterways were hidden in the shadows.
They wouldn’t hurt the Krenberia Duchy’s forbidden jade, but she wouldn’t be welcomed by the radical group either.
The former Duke of Krenberia, Inaila’s grandfather, contributed the most to elevating the current Emperor to the throne, while the current Empress was from the Krenberia family as well.
So he didn’t know.
Karpel had been cold to Inaila for a long time.
It was only a few close aides, including Stein, who knew that he truly treasured her.
He didn’t know if she would be safe here.
‘Why the hell is she in the waterways…’
Karpel hastily rushed towards the direction of the Krenberia estate, and everyone who saw him in the shadows bowed as he passed.
When he arrived at the estate, Inaila had already gone in a different direction.
The watchmen pointed him towards the way she went.
As he went there, Karpel soon saw her small figure before his eyes.
And two watchmen were creeping up behind her.
Inaila continued to walk diligently, not knowing who was following her.
The waterways had the warehouses and conference rooms of the rebels. Most of the entrances had been extended to allow more areas for them to move, designed to make them more difficult to find.
However, if she discovered one accidentally, Inaila could be in danger.
‘I have to take her back. I need to let the Duke know that she travelled through the underground waterways.’
That would make it impossible for Karpel to continue using the waterways, but it was better than exposing Inaila to more dangers.
Karpel signaled for the watchmen to return, and as they went back, Karpel approached Inaila.
She was moving carefully, stepping along the illuminated parts in the dark.
Since that path looked bright, she walked on it, but there were more places where there was no light because it didn’t reach either end of the waterways.
Inaila walked carefully, but then stopped and looked behind her—only to see Karpel, who was about to call her. At least, he tried to, but when he was caught there, Karpel didn’t know what to say.
Inaila, flustered and frozen in place, stared at him with a scared face, then shuddered and began to hurry away.
‘She ignored me…?’
Karpel realized that a hood was over his head, so he flipped it over to clear up his vision.
The gray robe was camouflaged in the dark, so as Inaila stood on the illuminated spot, she wouldn’t be able to see him.
Karpel chased after Inaila. His body moved on its own without hesitation, as though it was natural to him.
It looked like Inaila sneaked out often. It didn’t seem like this was her first time going out like this.
Being confined in the Krenberia mansion as he did, Karpel would only receive a limited number of reports.
If Inaila had gone out and returned without causing any troubles, that incident would have been left out in the final sorting of the reports that would reach him.
‘I have to tell Stein to report everything about Inaila to me.’
He had to catch up to Inaila now and send her back, but now he was hesitating.
‘Where is she going? Is it downtown?’
But when she was nearing the exit, she slipped.
“Ah!”
With his heart pounding like crazy, Karpel reached out.
There was a staircase in front of her. She outstretched her hands to catch her own fall, and this happened before Karpel could catch her.
Her reflexes were good.
Then, straightening up her limbs and slowly pulling her hands off the floor, she stood up.
Karpel also retracted his arms and stepped away again from her side.
She stood up straight and shook her hands as though nothing had happened.
Until now, even as she was right by the stairs leading to the exit, Karpel couldn’t help but smile.
Walking alone in the dark must have been scary for her.
And she was so cute that Karpel pressed down on his lips to keep from bursting out in laughter.
Now out of the underground, Inaila stood tall at the entrance of the alley, looking at the square for a long time.
The owner of the fruit stand widened his eyes as he glanced at Inaila, then made eye contact with Karpel and nodded as a greeting. He’s the one who watches the waterway entrance during the day.
Looking back at the square, it seemed like her goal was to go out freely.
Karpel decided to send her back to the mansion, but the moment he was about to speak, Inaila muttered.
“Shabelle, that nasty girl.”
“…”
Karpel was startled. He knew who she had mentioned.
Shabelle Float.
Karpel once met her along the streets and dropped her off at home.
There might be a misunderstanding with his relationship with Shabelle.
But that sounded unreasonable. Shabelle was a little over twelve years old.
Inaila was only one year apart from Shabelle, so Karpel didn’t know if the little girl looked like a lady to anyone else, but to Karpel, she looked small and too young.
‘I’m not such a piece of trash.’
No matter how far off the assumptions were, he never wanted to be misunderstood with having any relations with such a child.
While Karpel hesitated, Inaila stopped a passerby and asked where the bookstore was.
Then, one by one she looked around the food stalls and stores.
‘You don’t want to eat that, do you?’
Karpel felt nervous. The stores here weren’t exactly sanitary. He wouldn’t allow any of that cheap food reach Inaila’s lips.
Fortunately, she didn’t buy any street food and headed straight to the bookstore.
Karpel was relieved.
After staring at the meat patty being grilled at the stalls, of which he wasn’t even sure from what animal it came from, he continued to follow Inaila.