Circumstances of a Fallen Lord

ehind him.
You don’t seem very surprised? I was utterly shocked to discover Ruger was a spy.” After he had escaped the situation and came to a safe place, the emotions he had temporarily delayed came roaring in like waves and overwhelmed Luisen’s head.
His heart ached with a sense of betrayal and shock.

     “I’m not too surprised; he seemed like someone who could do such things.”

     “Ruger seemed like that to you? To me, he was a faithful servant.”

     “My duke, you seemed particularly comfortable with him, but I can’t say he was loyal.
Hasn’t he always disappeared from time to time? Even when you were left behind in the village, he deliberately provoked others.”

    “…..Ah.”

     Come to think of it, when he was abandoned in the village and got caught up in the riots, a knife flew at his blind spot.
Was Ruger also the culprit of that?

     In retrospect, that wasn’t the only suspicious occurrence.
After Luisen surrendered to Carlton, Ruger often disappeared when significant incidents passed by.

     “Actually, I don’t know what the duke believed and saw in him,” Carlton said.

     Luisen shut his mouth abruptly.
‘For my sake, Ruger was caught and killed by you.’

     So, the young lord ignored his suspicions and buried them away.
He didn’t doubt despite the suspicious happenings; Ruger proved his loyalty with his death.

     But Ruger spoke as if Luisen’s midnight escape would also function to secure his own safety, and because the young lord surrendered and did not run away, the attendant had to reveal himself.

     If that was the case, did Ruger truly die in the previous timeline? Was getting captured on behalf of his master all part of a plan? Luisen did not see Ruger’s body and only strongly believed in his death due to the circumstances.

     “I suppose.
I was a fool.”  Luisen lowered his head into both hands in distress.

     The lord’s face was as pale as a corpse, and his half-dried hair hung limply.
His gaze wandered anxiously through the air.
Perhaps that was why Carlton felt even more sorry for him; the mercenary’s hand flinched.

      Usually, Carlton would have laughed at him for believing in that kind of bastard like a fool, but instead he just felt sorry for Luisen.
Would he have trusted Ruger if he was suffering alone, lonely? He thought that no matter how vigilant he was to those with ulterior motives around him, he was bound to have been deceived.

     That was too much.
Carlton tried to wrack his brains to say something to comfort the young lord.
However, he had nothing to say, since he was more familiar with sarcasm than consolation.

     “Duke, are you alright?” This was all he managed to squeeze out.

     Luisen looked up, started.
“I’m sorry.
I was lost in thought for a moment.
First of all, thank you for saving me.”

     “It was nothing.
Since I’ve been ordered to safely escort the duke to the capital…it should be me that’s apologizing.”

     ‘Can’t I sound more friendly?’ Carlton’s usual dry tone tugged at his own heart.

     In the meantime, Luisen tried to steel himself and look determined.
He didn’t want to seem pathetic to Carlton anymore.
“You must have met the first prince’s messenger.
Are you alone? What about all your men?”

     “It seemed urgent…so I took off first.
There must be a lot of distance between us and them, so the men don’t yet know of all that had happened.”

     “Is that so…..”

     “But don’t worry.
I’ll take you, my duke, safely to the duchy.”

     “To the duchy??” Luisen blinked his eyes.

     “Are you not returning to the duchy?” the mercenary asked.

     “No, I’m thinking of going to the capital like this.”

     “You’re going to the capital right now?”

     “That’s right.”

     Carlton shook his head with a frown.
“It would be better to stop by the duchy and gather a proper team before setting out.
There are suspicious men after your life, and I am the only one with you right now.
It would be hard to reach the capital like this.”

     Carlton had a point, but Luisen had another idea.
“Ruger will be waiting on the road back to the duchy.
Going back now would be like walking into his grasp.”

     “Since I’m with you, going back to the duchy will be no problem.”

     Though Carlton was confident, Luisen shook his head.
“It’ll be a problem even after we return to the duchy.
I need to reach the capital as soon as possible, but the duchy doesn’t have that sort of manpower.”

“”

     The number of people who were in Luisen’s party when he first set out for the capital was the optimal amount of manpower that could be removed from the duchy and the castle.
As the lives and deaths of those personnel were unknown, it was unlikely the situation would change if they regrouped at the castle.

     “Why not stay at the duchy for a while?” Carlton asked.

     “I can’t do that.”

     “The prince will understand if you were attacked.
I’ll relay your situation to him personally.”

     “I have an obligation to go as one of the great lords.
At the risk of my life, I have to go to the throne, to his majesty’s side.”

     Carlton was not obtuse; he immediately realized the underlying meaning behind Luisen’s words.

TL: So sorry for the late updates you guys.
I’ve been so frazzled with the new academic year onboarding process T_T There’s so much to do.