Chapter 225: The Missing Draft
As the leader, the most important thing is to stay calm.
Armand had always been that kind of person. No matter what happened, he always smiled and acted easygoing. Even though he seemed unreliable, he could always come up with a reasonable plan with Carle. Even the doctor once told him, if you want to be healthy, the first thing is to have a good mood.
But this time, he panicked.
Maybe Carle could tell that Armand needed some time to think, so he didn’t let him ride a horse, worried that he might get hurt in his current state of panic. Instead, he and the butler quickly arranged for the fastest carriage. Carle grabbed a coat and followed along.
On the way, Armand didn’t say a single word. He kept his hands pressed together in front of his mouth. Carle didn’t want to make him even more nervous by talking too much, so he just quietly tied up his long hair, which he hadn’t had time to fix.
But with a snap, the hair tie broke when Carle pulled it too hard, maybe he was also worried about his old friend’s “special someone.” Sighing, he stuffed the broken tie into his pocket.
Even though Carle’s house was far from the “crime scene,” the carriage was the fastest they had. So after some bumpy travel, they quickly arrived at their destination.
“Armand, we’re here.”
“—”
Armand didn’t even notice the carriage had stopped until Carle called out to him. He jolted back to reality and stood up, only to hit his head hard against the roof of the carriage with a loud thunk.
…Stay calm.
Armand rubbed his head and stepped down from the carriage, his steps a bit unsteady.
Carle watched him with concern.
…Stay calm…
He told himself that again and again.
Because he was the Captain of the Knight Order. No matter what happened, he couldn’t show weakness.
…Stay calm…!
That’s why he didn’t want to have any weaknesses.
He didn’t want to get married.
He didn’t want a family.
He had only one real friend, Carle.
Because he never wanted to find himself like this. So desperate and messy, as if he would crawl to get there faster if he had to.
He had responsibilities to carry. So he couldn’t—
He was still fighting inside his mind, trying to keep himself calm, but the moment he saw where Carle’s assistant was standing, his barely held-together calm snapped like a string pulled too tight.
It was Evelia’s clothing.
He could clearly see a piece of torn fabric, with a familiar pattern.
In that instant, it felt like his mind just stopped working.
Most of Evelia’s clothes were custom-made at Anna’s shop. She and Anna often spent time together trying to figure out what kind of clothes Armand liked, and every time Evelia got a new outfit, she would wear it to show Armand, hoping to find one that would truly impress him.
And every time, Armand acted like one of those boyfriends dragged around shopping. No matter what Evelia wore, he would just nod and say it looked good, then take out his wallet and say, ‘Let’s buy it.’
Anna even once said he was being way too casual and just going through the motions like most men. She was determined to study his tastes and design something that would really match him. She looked so fired up about it.
But actually, Armand just didn’t know how to say all those fancy compliments. When he said “It’s good,” he really meant it. That was his way of showing he liked it.
Evelia could make anything look amazing, she was practically born to wear beautiful clothes. So of course Armand would nod every time and say it looked good. That’s just the kind of straightforward man he was. He never held back his praise, but he didn’t use many words either.
And as for “like it, so buy it”, wasn’t that obvious?
Anna designed Evelia’s clothes almost for free. Armand felt that, no matter what, he should at least pay her something.
Even if Anna didn’t really need the money, Armand was the kind of person who hated owing anyone anything, even if it was just a friendly gift.
Armand didn’t just like the clothes Anna designed for Evelia. He even secretly remembered what styles Evelia liked best. Even though he couldn’t make clothes himself, he believed that learning someone’s preferences was never a bad thing.
So, right now, Armand could clearly tell. This torn piece of cloth was from Evelia’s outfit. He could even name exactly which design it was, which number outfit Anna had made for her.
Looking at Armand, who was holding the cloth tightly and staying silent, the knights nearby didn’t dare say a word.
They were all people Armand trusted, which was why they were part of this search-and-rescue mission. Also, they had all been at the last ballroom. They knew very well just how important Miss Evelia was to their captain.
Some of them had even wanted to quietly call the vice-captain first, so he could prepare Armand mentally…
But they didn’t expect the captain to rush over himself.
They glanced at each other, no one said anything.
"......"
Armand held the cloth in both hands, lowered his head, and walked forward.
Step by step, he followed the trail of blood…
…deeper into the darkness.
And then… he saw it.
Just as the assistant had reported. It was a woman’s body, in terrible condition.
The alley was dark. The body was lying there quietly, not moving.
Maybe to keep the scene from looking even more awful, they had placed the light-giving magic stones far away. But still, the light was enough to reveal the long pink hair.
That pink… was too bright. Too obvious.
…It shouldn’t be like this…
Armand looked at the broken, ruined corpse and opened his mouth.
But no words came out.
…It shouldn’t be like this…!
He had long since gotten used to death. As a soldier, how could he be afraid of it?
He’d seen it many times. Sometimes, the friend joking with you one moment would be dead the next, run through by a spear.
…But not like this… not like this…!!
He had even thought about his own death. He could calmly accept the idea of dying himself.
But he had never once imagined Evelia would be the one to go.
Even though, maybe, deep down, he had always known it was possible.
Because this body… This was clearly how the House of Nightingales got rid of someone.
The face was completely gone. Maybe it had been destroyed with chemicals, or maybe it had been cut off. Or maybe they had used the stray cats and dogs.
That was something they often did. They’d cover the body in sauce or food to attract animals to bite and tear it apart. If the body wasn’t found in time, sometimes only bones and rotting meat were left in some trash pile. No way to identify the victim.
The woman’s insides had been completely torn out by stray dogs. Organs were scattered all over the ground. There were clear bite marks. Bloody footprints covered the floor. There were even piles of animal waste here and there.
He could smell the awful stench of the body. He could hear the buzzing of flies.
…So that’s how it is…
Inside his head, Armand kept lying to himself, telling himself this was just a misunderstanding, or that this was just a bad dream, that maybe he had fallen asleep without noticing, and soon he would wake up.
He didn’t want to be so pessimistic. But the problem was he knew too much.
If he knew nothing, maybe he would doubt what he was seeing now. He might wonder, Why would the House of Nightingales kill a simple maid in this way? But the sad thing was he knew.
Being silenced by the House of Nightingales…
In a way, it actually made sense.
Evelia was a spy from the very beginning. To the House of Nightingales and the Second Prince, getting rid of someone who was no longer useful was completely normal.
So everything in front of Armand… started to make a twisted kind of sense.
That broken body, those scattered organs, the blood, the bones. All of it now seemed “reasonable.”
"Cough…"
Because of everything related to Evelia, Armand had been under constant stress. He hadn’t eaten or slept all day. He looked extremely exhausted. And now that autumn was arriving and the air was getting colder, his health had started to get worse too.
Right now, it felt like the shock was hitting him all at once, like fire rushing straight to the heart.
He tasted blood in his throat. At first, he tried to swallow it like he always did. But then, a hot stream suddenly rushed out of his nose.
Drip.
His nosebleed landed right on the torn piece of Evelia’s clothing in his hand.
Without thinking, he rubbed at the stain with his thumb. But more drops of blood followed, falling on the back of his hand, and on the cloth, turning everything red.
"Cough… cough cough cough—!"
The discomfort in his throat became unbearable. He turned his back to the knights and leaned against the wall. Then he started coughing up fresh blood.
The blood from his nose and the blood from his mouth mixed together, making it hard to breathe. Both of his breathing paths were blocked. He kept coughing hard, trying to gasp for air in the middle of that choking feeling.
Carle rushed over. After moving the other people away, he came straight to Armand’s side and began patting his back to help him breathe easier.
"Cough—kgh… haa…"
Armand finally managed to breathe, but the smell around him was awful. He took the handkerchief that Carle handed him and wiped the blood from his nose and mouth. But clearly, he was still too overwhelmed to calm down, and the bleeding didn’t stop.
With the red blood making such a strong contrast, Armand’s face now looked even more pale.
"…Carle."
He leaned weakly against the wall. His voice was hoarse and hard to hear.
"Tell me… what can I do?"
Carle held his shoulder to keep him from sliding down the wall.
"…Just like we said before, I’m going to head out… and you stay here… and keep things running."
Armand said that, then coughed again and spat out more blood from his throat.
"You still want to go like this?"
Carle didn’t know that Armand had been poisoned. Like the other knights, he thought Armand just had a bad stomach illness. But after seeing him now, it was clearly much worse than that.
"I have to go."
"......"
Carle paused. It looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he swallowed his words.
He felt like he should stop Armand from pushing himself like this. But he also knew… if Armand didn’t go now, he would regret it for the rest of his life.
"Alright. I understand."
So he nodded.
"I’ll take care of the Knight Order during this time. But you’re still the Captain… so you’d better come back in one piece."
"Of course."
Armand stood up, still looking a little unsteady.
"…Don’t underestimate me. I’ll be fine, trust me."