Anything But Study - Chapter 71

***

“Should we throw everything away?”

“Yes, you can just throw away everything that is out there.”

Melia was busy talking with the workers moving in and out of the house.

Today was moving day.

In truth, it was something she’d planned in advance in preparation for Ervan’s discharge from the hospital.

Unfortunately, with Ervan in such a state and everything in chaos, it was difficult to worry about moving as well.

Still, starting over in a new place was actually better for her current situation.

Melia looked around the inside of the house, now emptied of most of its furniture and belongings.

‘So this old house is goodbye too.’

Her room, the narrow kitchen, even the plain living room.

But why was it?

Since when had she stopped disliking this house so much?

Every day in this old house, where rainwater dripped steadily on rainy days, used to feel suffocating just by being inside.

…Things changed after she met him.

Melia slowly closed her eyes.

It felt like if she opened them, the traces of the moments she spent with Hailon would linger all around this house.

Those brief memories were stained too deeply.

‘Let’s get out of here quickly.’

So she wouldn’t have to think like this anymore. I’m going to a new house.

Just as Melia was about to leave the house, now roughly cleared out….

“What should we do with this?”

A worker’s voice broke through her thoughts.

“Ah, that….”

Melia trailed off.

What the worker was asking about was Melia’s dress that Hailon had given her at the seasonal party.

Since it had been left as it was instead of being sorted separately like the other moving items, he must have asked about it.

For a moment, a brief hesitation crossed Melia’s mind.

She should throw it away. She would never have a reason to wear such a splendid dress again, and her connection with Hailon was over as well. She had to erase all traces of him.

From the beginning, she left it unorganized because she planned to throw it away.

But unlike her reason, the answer that came out of her mouth was the opposite.

“I’ll take it. Please pack it with the others.”

“Let’s do that. It looks quite expensive. I should’ve just packed it right away instead of asking. Haha.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Melia forced a bitter smile.

She told herself that, just as the worker said, it was too valuable to simply throw away. That she couldn’t disregard Madame Charlette’s effort.

Behind those excuses, Melia hid the truth that she couldn’t throw away the last trace of him.

***

The vast Alfred ducal residence was quiet.

The servants even stepped carefully, hiding their presence as much as possible like silent mice.

That was understandable, since the atmosphere in the ducal residence was worse than usual.

The heir of this place, Hailon, was walking down the middle of the wide corridor of the ducal residence.

When he reached the stairs leading to the second floor, Hailon finally asked Calix, who was following behind him.

“How bad is it?”

“He is in very critical condition.”

Even at the grave answer, Hailon let out a cynical laugh and slowly climbed the stairs.

The place he was heading to was his father, Duke Alfred’s bedroom.

Today, Hailon had returned to the estate before his academy classes were even finished.

Because of the news Calix had suddenly brought him.

“Young Duke.”

“What is it?”

Calix’s expression was serious. Because of that, Hailon’s first thought was worry that something might have happened to Melia.

He’d recently ordered him to watch over Melia, who had stopped attending the academy and was staying only by her younger brother Ervan’s side.

“The Duke has lost consciousness.”

“What?”

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠However, the news he heard was completely different from what he expected.

Duke Alfred had suddenly collapsed.

Hailon had already reached the front of his bedroom and flung the door open.

With the owner of this place unconscious, there was no need to bother knocking.

The air in the room was heavy.

Thud, thud.

Only the sound of Hailon’s footsteps echoed as he walked toward his father lying on the bed.

The attending physician who spotted him bowed his waist in greeting.

“You’ve arrived, Young Duke.”

Stopping beside the bed, Hailon’s gaze turned to his father lying there like a corpse.

“Did it suddenly become like this?”

Hailon tossed the question toward the physician.

“He recently showed symptoms of trembling fingertips and anxiety, but….”

The physician’s words trailed off.

Hailon did not ask further.

Instead, his sharp gaze slowly swept over the sickly face.

The face of Duke Alfred, his father with his eyes closed, was pale.

Moreover, near his neck was a faint dark bluish mark that looked almost like a bruise.

Hailon knew what this was.

“Calix.”

“Yes, Young Duke.”

“You noticed it too.”

“…The symptoms are similar to the Marquis.”

Judging from the information the two of them learned while investigating Cheskan, this was clearly….

“Yes, Ribelline’s doing.”

Ribelline had already been wiped out.

He knew Alfred was the next target, but he never expected that a move had already been made on the Duke.

“It seems he cleverly designed the drug so the effects would appear much later for the sake of an alibi.”

At Calix’s words, Hailon gave a short nod.

“Yes. The Marquis was like this too.”

The late Marquis Ribelline must have intended to kill Duke Alfred this way and then seize Alfred through Anastasia, who had become the Duchess.

It meant they were firmly caught in that trap.

“The treatment? Can it be done?”

This time, the question demanded an answer from the physician, not Calix.

The physician slowly shook his head with a gloomy face. “I have searched for a way, but at present there is none. At this rate, perhaps in a few days, the Duke will….”

“He might die. Is that it?”

“…I have no excuse.”

The physician’s head dropped downward.

The Duke looked completely hopeless. Even in the physician’s lifetime, he had never seen symptoms like this.

“I thought so.”

From the beginning, Hailon did not expect a positive answer to come from the physician.

The pharmaceutical technology of the Principality of Morain was superior to anywhere else.

A drug developed over several years in Morain with the purpose of poisoning someone.

There was no way they could immediately discover a cure.

Perhaps if there were time, but the Duke’s condition was far too bad for that.

‘At this rate, we might have to prepare for the funeral in a few days.’

It was shockingly calm for a son thinking about his father’s funeral.

Yet the face of the person who should be here was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is the Duchess?”

Hailon did not call her mother. She was not his mother, and there was no reason to call her that.

“She is in the Lys region.”

“As expected. She probably went to some party.”

It takes more than a week to travel from Lys to the capital.

By the time the news reached her and the Duchess arrived here, it would already be far too late.

Looking down at his father, Hailon let out a sneer.

The face filled with sickness seemed to say that all the power he had built up until now was meaningless.

‘Is this the end of the power you wanted?’

Wasn’t the end of someone who abandoned his wife and even sold his own child to maintain power far too shabby?

Not even a moment of pity appeared on Hailon’s face as he looked at him.

What exactly was at the end of excessive greed?

Funnily enough, he didn’t feel even the slightest sadness.

“It’s going to get busy soon.”

That short reflection was the end of it.

A few days later.

News of Duke Alfred’s death spread throughout the empire.

***

Rosha Bailin looked gloomy these days. She hadn’t seen the face of her close friend Melia for several days.

‘Sigh, is she okay?’

She heard the news that Ervan had collapsed.

Since she knew how much Melia cherished her younger brother, it made her even more worried.

On top of that, shocking news spread throughout the empire.

That Duke Alfred had died.

Perhaps because of that, Hailon also hadn’t appeared at the academy recently.

In truth, it was only natural.

With his father Duke Alfred’s death, he had inherited the ducal title. There was no way he had time to come to the academy.

Rosha, who still had no idea about what happened between Melia and Hailon, could only feel sorry for both of them.

“What on earth suddenly happened?”

Ah, Rosha let out a deep sigh.

Right now, Rosha was in the library.

Someone like her, who usually kept her distance from books, hadn’t come to read, and was sitting at the desk.

It had already been two weeks since Rosha started doing the library work in Melia’s place.

Naturally, it was neither annoying nor difficult.

If there was something upsetting, it was the fact that two weeks had already passed since she last saw Melia.

And there was one more thing she was worried about.

Next week was the final regular exam for the third years.

‘Melia is the top student. What if she doesn’t attend the exam too?’

Then her grades would plummet.

Just as Rosha sat at the library desk, unable to hide the worry on her face and letting out a long sigh, she sensed someone’s presence in front of her.

“Where is… where is Melia?”