Chapter 81
As they walked slowly, Roseline recounted the events of that day in detail—how she had seen the doctor’s acquaintance visiting the infirmary just before everything went wrong, and how she suspected they were the ones who had opened the cage door.
She added that while capturing them might reveal the full story, the chances of them still being alive were slim.
“There are exactly two things I don’t understand,” she said. “The basement was bizarrely clean—yet they left the bats there. That’s strange, and so is the fact that the doctor’s acquaintance showed interest in them. If the bats had always been in the basement, why would they suddenly come to see them? That would mean they moved the bats specifically to show me—but why?”
“A scheme to implicate you in the experiment, no doubt.”
“Me?”
They hadn’t even taken a few more steps before they had to stop again, the barracks now right in front of them. Roseline let go of his hand and turned to face him fully. Valen glanced at the nearby barracks, then down at her, as if debating whether to take her inside or end the conversation here. But reading the stubbornness in her serious expression, he pulled her closer, guiding her to a spot more sheltered from the wind.
“You were affiliated with the infirmary, and you’d already learned about the bats. If things went south and the experiment came to light, you—implicated in it—would make excellent leverage against me.”
The answer hit her like a punch to the gut. Worse yet, half the scheme had already succeeded. One way or another, Roseline had seen the bats, and now she was cornered, surviving only by sheer luck. Gods. How utterly vile.
‘Do be wary of suspicion.’
‘Suspicion carries responsibility, but you lack the strength for it. So if you grow suspicious, running might be best. As far away as possible.’
Looking back, that warning had been a deception. Like a cat toying with a mouse. They’d already entangled her, yet they pretended to care by urging her to flee.
“Then why not show me from the first day?”
“To lower your guard. They waited until your curiosity outweighed your caution. If they’d shown you immediately, wouldn’t you have run right away?”
“But he told me to run.”
“What nonsense.”
Valen scoffed, as if the idea was absurd. The wind blew past him, scattering his black hair. Through the swaying strands, his composed brow came into view.
“Roseline. A fortnight is a very long time.”
“……”
“Do you understand?”
“…Yes.”
She understood perfectly—down to the fact that the Marquis had been a thoroughly vile bastard. For a moment, she thought of the professor who had recommended her for this position, but she quickly shook it off. She reminded herself not to fall into the habit of blaming others.
Valen wrapped an arm around Roseline’s shoulders, guiding her toward the barracks as he calmly added his own theory about the doctor. He speculated that the doctor, realizing the experiment would be indefinitely halted as long as Roseline was around, had planned to secretly hand the bats over to smugglers—without the Marquis’ knowledge.
“Then what happens to me now? You found the Marquis, after all.”
“What do you think?”
“Unless he’s alive to confess, what good is a corpse? Still, it’s better than nothing… but things are going to get messy.”
“In the capital, yes.”
In the capital. The implication was clear: but not in the duchy. Valen answered indifferently before stopping in his tracks. They had reached the barracks.
“Leave everything you can’t handle to me.”
“……”
“That’s all you need to do.”
He lifted the tent flap and led her inside. It was ironic—coming from a man as unmanageable as her tangled life—but strangely, it comforted her. The world denied her, her fate was cruel, but at least this man, however unhinged, was on her side.
◇◇◇
Even if he wasn’t in his right mind, there were limits.
How did it end up like this again?
“Hng…!”
Roseline muffled her helpless moans into the pillow, her face buried deep.
“Shh. You can’t make noise.”
“Hup—”
“You’ll suffocate. Turn your head.”
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