You! Don’t Press that Button! - Chap 112
Clack-clack-clack. The sound of hooves striking the ground rang out clearly. The ornate carriage adorned with gold trimmings easily captured everyone’s attention as it cut through the small town.
Inside the carriage that drew countless gazes, Karhan gazed at the vast sky through the slightly parted curtains. The three days of Atlena were approaching. He narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on the letter in his hand.
When he closed his eyes, Seol’s peacefully sleeping figure flickered in the darkness. These past few days, he had often been in a half-asleep state from exhaustion, and he frequently heard his sleep-talking. Watching his eat as if he couldn’t tell whether he was using his mouth or nose was both adorable and pitiful.
Late evening.
Lairas’s letter stated he had urgent matters to discuss regarding the three days of Atlena and requested a visit to his mansion. It probably concerned Seol. Since he hadn’t written about it in the letter, Karhan figured it must be important enough to discuss face-to-face, so he left Seol sleeping.
Karhan, who had been quietly resting with his eyes closed until arrival, loosened his constricting necktie as he felt the carriage gradually slowing. He slipped his fingers between the curtains that had shown him only a narrow view of the world and spread them apart. The sky that had been covered in a red blanket had already begun to darken.
As the sound of hooves faded, the rapidly passing scenery came to a halt. Claude, who had been sitting at the front of the carriage, got down and slowly opened the door, revealing Karhan sitting relaxed inside.
He stepped out of the carriage while slowly surveying the expansive mansion. As he walked towards the main entrance, he saw Lairas’s servants looking extremely flustered. Unlike usual, they weren’t prepared to receive guests, and their disheveled state made Karhan’s eyebrows furrow slightly.
The servants at the main entrance were busy whispering among themselves. Watching this, Claude clicked his tongue quietly and gave them a meaningful look. Only then did one of them, who had been just staring at each other’s faces, step forward and bow.
“We welcome Your Grace, Duke Barthes.”
“I’m here to see Lord Lairas. Guide me to the reception room.”
At Karhan’s command, the bowing servant hesitated momentarily before carefully speaking.
“Lord Lairas is currently away on an important research trip. We apologize, but we will contact the Barthes duchy when he returns.”
“What do you mean?”
“He has been away for several days, saying he had something to investigate.”
The servant answered with another bow, their expression showing no trace of deception. As no response came even after they finished speaking, beads of sweat began forming on the servant’s forehead.
Karhan slightly crumpled the letter in his hand and asked with narrowed eyes:
“Then what is this letter?”
His silver-gray eyes, cold as frost, pierced the servant’s face. Unable to keep up with the suddenly changed atmosphere, the servant’s eyes darted around before carefully reaching for the letter Karhan held out. They carefully unfolded the now heavily creased paper and read it. Then, tilting their head slightly, they hesitantly spoke.
“This is indeed Lord Lairas’s handwriting… but he wouldn’t have written asking for a visit.”
As they stammered through their words, Karhan’s expression grew increasingly cold. Though they had done nothing wrong, the servant bowed even deeper and continued.
“A servant came more than ten days ago delivering a letter… Perhaps you didn’t receive that one?”
“Servant?”
“Yes. They said they were from the Barthes duchy. At that time… Lord Lairas immediately wrote a reply to someone named Sir Seol’s letter. I believe he entrusted a letter for Your Grace along with it…”
As the servant’s words continued, unease rippled through Karhan’s heart. Speaking of letters, he had only received this one, so what letter were they talking about? The letter in Karhan’s hand clearly contained Lairas’s handwriting requesting a visit to discuss Atlena.
The servant, also sensing something strange about the situation, looked at Karhan questioningly. Karhan stood still for a moment to organize his thoughts before asking in a monotone voice:
“Are you certain?”
“Pardon?”
“I asked if you’re certain Lord Lairas sent a letter to me as well.”
“Y-yes… I’m absolutely certain there were two letters.”
The servant’s words seemed to come from impossibly far away. Claude, standing beside him, called out to Karhan in a low voice.
“Your Grace. Perhaps this letter…”
“Yes.”
This letter had been forged to lure Karhan here. Lure? No, not lure. A powerful certainty rose from his toes instinctively. This letter wasn’t meant to lure him.
It was meant to send him far away from the Barthes mansion.
A murderous aura never before seen swirled in Karhan’s slowly opening eyes. As dark shadows gathered beneath his eyelids, a cold light flashed.
Thump. Thump. Though his heart pumped fiercely with burning heat, his head grew cold as if doused with ice water.
For what purpose? Who had summoned him to Lairas’s mansion? A thief after the duchy’s treasures? Someone seeking revenge against House Barthes? Or…
The flood of thoughts didn’t last long. Damn it all, the letter in his hand contained detailed information that only someone who knew Seol well would know.
Whoever had tricked Karhan this way knew that Seol needed Asmil’s blood on the third day of Atlena. And those who knew this fact could be counted on one hand.
Karhan quickly boarded the carriage, his face expressionless.
“Claude. To the mansion.”
Understanding the situation, Claude bowed and accepted the order.
They passed through town much faster than when heading to Lairas’s mansion. People let out short screams and cleared the way for the fiercely charging carriage. Though some fell in shock, their screams didn’t register in Karhan’s mind.
In his anxious state, Karhan merely gripped the windowsill tighter. His whitened knuckles and protruding veins revealed his fury.
By now, the sunset barely clung to the edge of the world. Stars and moon peeked out, reflecting in his piercing silver-gray eyes. Karhan closed his slowly blinking eyelids completely and sharpened his senses.
With his vision blocked, everything aligned in the darkness – the rapidly running horses, the grass rushing past too quickly to see.
He thought the darkening sky matched his heart. Slowly but surely, an enormous darkness devoured everything from the ground up.
“You must be safe.”
He voiced his desperate wish. He fervently prayed that this small, lowly being’s whisper would reach the ears of the great Atlena gods. He prayed and prayed again, as desperately as when his mother passed away in his childhood.
The carriage stopped before the ornate main gates of the Barthes mansion. Before Claude could get down and grab the door handle, the door burst open with a loud sound.
He didn’t notice the servants’ bewildered gazes. Karhan rushed to his room with urgent steps. Turning the corner, he found Seol’s personal servants and knights prostrated on the floor to greet him.
His hurried steps slowed before coming to a complete stop. Karhan took in the sight of those unable to raise their heads while exhaling an empty breath. His rigid lips parted slightly.
“Why are you prostrating yourselves?”
“We apologize, Your Grace. We will accept any punishment.”
“I asked why you are prostrating yourselves.”
When Karhan’s frost-like cold voice descended, the servant couldn’t say anything. Finally, seeing the servant waiting for rebuke with tightly closed lips, Karhan turned to look at the door.
He slowly reached out and carefully stroked the hard door. As if awakening him to reality, no sound came from inside the room. The child who had been by his side until just before he left the mansion couldn’t be sensed. No tiny heart beating rapidly, no sound of busy running feet.
Karhan pushed the door with force in his fingertips. Creeak, the door revealed Seol’s room with a chilling scream.
He stepped into the room one slow step at a time. Perhaps because the child who always showed bright smiles had vanished, the room was unbearably cold. It felt as if the cold air had become chains, piercing his skin and constricting his heart.
“…Where.”
Karhan muttered to himself, standing in the middle of the room. This space, once the most peaceful in the mansion, was in chaos. The large mirror had fallen and shattered into pieces on the floor, while the cabinet and table lay strewn about ungracefully.
As Karhan took in each detail of the scene so different from usual, he quietly suppressed his agitated breathing. His trembling breath, filled with rage, echoed through the quiet room.
It felt as if all the blood in his body had dispersed into the air. The sensation of complete emptiness, of having nothing inside, wrapped around him completely from toe to head.
It was clearly different from his previous kidnapping, noticeably worse at first glance. He crouched down and reached for the floor. Soon his eyelids lowered, hiding his cold colorless eyes.
As he struggled to grasp the shimmer of mana flowing through his fingertips, something unusual interfered, disrupting the memory of objects. All he could see were intermittent glimpses of Seol; the perpetrator remained invisible.
A bitter laugh escaped his lips at this calculated action.
