Chapter 67
“As for the mine… I’ll contact you again later.”
Kallion forced his unsteady body upright and left as though in a trance.
Lloyd stared fixedly at his retreating back.
To think that a single word from him was enough to make Kallion suspect Juliana as the culprit.
The fact that Juliana was the wife of a man like that.
The fact that Juliana had willingly stepped into a mire like that.
It filled Lloyd with unbearable rage.
Grinding his teeth, Lloyd lowered his head as his expression twisted painfully.
This is punishment.
For you, who chose a man like that.
And for me, who told a lie out of petty spite.
* * *
It was already late enough that most people should have been in bed.
Without answering a single one of Layla’s many questions, Kallion entered the estate.
The person involved had personally said he received the information from Juliana.
Layla had even reported clear evidence and circumstances.
So why did some corner of his heart still want to believe it wasn’t true?
Rage surged inside him.
She had more than enough motive.
She was the daughter of an enemy house.
Just as he hated her, she hated him.
So she was more than capable of doing such a thing.
As Kallion struggled to suppress his anger, he spotted Kate, Juliana’s personal maid.
Without warning, Kallion blocked Kate’s path with a fierce expression.
Kate jumped in surprise and bowed deeply, and Kallion glared at her as he asked.
“Where is Juliana?”
“M-Madam is waiting in the bedchamber already, since tonight is your designated night together.”
A disbelieving breath escaped him.
Their designated night together.
Even in this situation, that woman was still keeping track of the night they were supposed to sleep together?
Contrary to the way his head went cold, his body seemed to boil with some incomprehensible emotion.
Grinding his teeth, Kallion walked away, leaving Kate and Layla behind.
* * *
I let out a faint sigh as I stared at the moonlit window.
Kate had told me about the incident that had erupted in Baldomer.
Baldomer’s confidential information had been leaked to Silverstel.
Nothing like this had happened during my marriage to him in my previous life.
Or perhaps it had, and I simply hadn’t known.
Back then, I hadn’t possessed enough authority to hear news like this, and Kate hadn’t been by my side either.
Otherwise, perhaps the future was already diverging from what it had been before.
Even so, my goal of meeting Denion hadn’t changed.
Though today clearly didn’t seem to be the right day.
I knew full well that with Baldomer in chaos, sleeping together would be impossible.
Kallion was probably too busy dealing with the aftermath to think about anything else.
He probably needed to spend the entire night meeting with the heads of the vassal houses.
Unlike the frantic atmosphere that had filled the estate all day, I merely watched from the sidelines as though it had nothing to do with me.
I felt no sense of danger or crisis.
After all, I was someone who would leave this estate someday.
Dressed only in a thin chemise, I closed the window and returned to the bed to sleep.
That was when it happened.
The bedroom door flew open.
Startled, I turned toward the door and saw Kallion standing there with a rigid expression.
Surely he hadn’t come to sleep with me even in this situation?
Of course, I did think it was better to get unpleasant things over with quickly.
As I stared at him with wide eyes, he strode toward me with an angry expression.
I had only a moment to wonder why he had stormed in looking so vicious before he threw something down in front of me.
It was a piece of paper, more than half of it burned away.
I picked it up questioningly.
The moment I read what little remained, I froze.
Then I looked up at him in disbelief.
Surely…
He couldn’t be suspecting me…?
Based on nothing more than this?
Seeing me frozen in silence, he apparently interpreted my reaction differently and asked coldly.
“Were you so blinded by a man that you leaked Baldomer’s information?”
No words came out.
No, it would be more accurate to say I was speechless.
I was also baffled as to how he had gotten his hands on a half-burned scrap of paper.
But more than that, the fact that he was accusing me with such certainty was so absurd that I couldn’t speak.
“If you have a mouth, say something, Juliana.”
Before I knew it, a scoffing smile had spread across my lips.
Kallion’s expression twisted even more viciously as he stared at that smile.
“You’re looking at me as though you wouldn’t believe anything I said anyway. If you thought I was someone worth putting your faith in to begin with, you wouldn’t even be suspecting me like this.”
At my indifferent words, he ground his teeth.
“I’ll listen first, so say something. Anything, damn it.”
For someone practically begging, he looked as though he wanted to kill someone.
I looked at that expression with contempt and slowly moved my lips.
“This letter. Did Layla happen to give it to you?”
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