I Tried To Escape Through Death

It was a cold voice that made me flinch.

‘I don’t think this is just acting.’ 

“I apologize for being rude. I didn’t know whether there was a high-ranking person here or not, but I’ll just be coming in to prove your identity and then I’ll be off..” 

“It’s Calix Axel Hertrio of Hertrio. This is all you would need to see to confirm my identity.” 

Calix interrupted the investigator, tossing him the gold button from his coat. The investigator, who reflexively caught the button and inspected it, jerked back in surprise.

“I greet Your Grace, the Duke!” 

It appears that the Hertrio family crest was engraved on that button. 

I lowered my head and gathered my thoughts. Judging from the investigator’s reaction, his attitude and claim of not knowing the person he was investigating was Duke Hertrio was true and genuine. Due to that, he must have been dispatched in a hurry because he was in the area. 

Perhaps, if that was the case, the investigators were just decoys. The real thing would be the gaze from outside the window. 

“My apologies, but who is the lady next to you…?” 

“My lover I’m bringing to my estate.” 

In the meantime, Calix had blocked the investigator from inquiring about me. He continued talking as he touched my ear with a blatant hand gesture. 

“I hope you don’t mean to question the lover of Duke Hertrio for her identity. I will vouch for this woman’s status under my name. If you have any questions, you can ask His Majesty, the Emperor.” 

“No! Thank you for your cooperation. I will be leaving now.”

It was clear that the investigator was eager to get out of this difficult and uncomfortable position as soon as possible. The investigator hurriedly bowed and left the special class compartment. 

It was only after I heard the door close that I peeked over Calix’s shoulder.

“……Are they gone?”

“They’re gone.”

I was thinking of asking about what to do with the wizard watching us from the window.

“Ah, then… Eup!” 

The words disappeared into Calix’s mouth, who unexpectedly began kissing me again. 

As soon as the investigator left, Calix, who had lowered his head again, gently licked my lips and made a spot for himself in between them. I pressed against his shoulder and tried to lift my head, but my efforts ended in vain.

“Calix, this is not the time for us… Uhm… No.”

As soon as I opened my mouth, Calix’s tongue made its way in. It was a deep kiss, one that the other kiss couldn’t be compared to. I tried to end the kiss by twisting my head here and there, but he persistently followed my head movements and continued to kiss me. 

I felt a large hand being placed on my cheek and neck. His other hand embraced me, tightening its grip around my waist and pulling me closer to him. His mouth was moving and sucking frantically, and I could feel myself quickly running out of oxygen. 

“Calix, please calm down.”

I held my breath and clenched my hands that were around his neck into fists. Just like that, I began hitting him on the shoulder. 

“……Get up!”

His lips parted. Calix looked at me with half-lidded eyes. 

“Ah…….”

In front of me was a face that seemed to have not yet grasped the situation. In a horse voice, he gave a suggestion. 

“Should I ask the investigator to come back?”

His voice was wickedly low, with the afterglow of the kiss laced in it. 

He hadn’t come to his senses yet. I buried my face in his shoulder and whispered, out of sight from the view from outside the window. 

“What are you going to do with the outside surveillance? Do you have any guesses as to who it could be?” 

He took me in his arms and answered my question in a small voice, directly into my ear. A sigh followed. 

“I have a guess.”

“……His Majesty?”

“Mhm.”

I thought for a moment and asked him.

“His Majesty must be in the imperial palace right now, right?”

“I’d assume so.”

I calculated the distance from the capital, which was where the imperial palace was located, to here. When I was satisfied with my calculation, I opened my mouth again. 

“Can I get rid of it?”

Calix was delighted at my question.

“Can you get rid of it?”

“Yes. It wouldn’t be difficult to distort the magic at this distance…”

To be precise, I was referring to cutting off the wizard’s connection to the magic. 

“Then get rid of it.”

As soon as Calix gave me permission, I made an invisible gesture outside. With my eyes closed, I searched for the magic in the air and read its coordinates. 

Once I was able to pinpoint its location, I clenched my hand into a fist and ripped off the magical link. It was a bit of a drastic method, but it worked well. For a moment, I felt the twisting and distortion of the airflow. 

After I had confirmed that the magic connection had been disconnected, I got up and checked out the window. The emperor couldn’t directly spy on us with his own magic, so he had to think of using a medium for the wizards to use magic through. 

The source of the gaze watching us was a bird sitting on a sign at the station. The bird, which had lost its connection with the wizard and returned to being a regular bird, tilted its head and flew away. 

‘When did you see it?’

I thought about the timing of everything. As soon as I held Calix’s hand, I felt magic flowing. If so, he probably noticed when we started kissing. 

‘That’s fine.’

According to the investigator’s testimony, I must have seemed like Calix’s promiscuous lover. Neither the investigator nor the wizard saw my face. 

“…….It’s okay.”

Talking to myself, I carefully drew the curtains closed and turned around. All of a sudden, the hand that I used to distort the flow of magic suddenly began tingling and going numb. I squeezed and unclenched my hand, meeting Calix’s eyes. 

After checking the doorway to make sure no one else was there, I opened my mouth.

“Is it common for the emperor to spy on you?”

“Well. It’s not common, but it’s also not rare. Simply put, it’s not surprising.”

He stretched out his arm and called me over. I obediently sat in the seat next to him. Calix grabbed my waist and pulled me into a familiar embrace. 

“The story of my taking a woman must have reached the emperor’s ears already. I’m sorry, this was due to my negligence.” 

“……”

I didn’t respond to Calix’s apology and thought about it.

I can roughly guess where Calix and I were seen. It was probably at Pensir Station. 

More importantly, the emperor’s attitude towards us. If it’s true that the wizard was sent by the emperor to try to spy on us…

Only one hypothesis ran through my mind. 

“Is the emperor still looking for me…?”

It was not a common occurrence for an emperor to pay so much attention a mere duke’s scandal. 

Calix’s arm, which was embracing me, tightened. It seemed that he was thinking the same thing as I was. He whispered as he kissed my hair. 

“I will never let anything happen to you. I swear.”

“That’s not something you can decide by yourself.”

After I answered bluntly, I recieved a series of kisses laced with anxiety from Calix. 

While being wrapped in his arms, I sorted out my complicated thoughts. 

‘What the hell is the emperor looking for?’

Was it simply to find those belonging to the bloodline of the traitor?

“What are you thinking about?” 

“……No. Nothing.”

I had an ominous feeling that one day I would have to go to the capital and face the emperor.

***

“It has been cut off.”

Inside the ornately decorated office. 

The wizard, whose eyes were closed, raised his head. 

“……”Cut off”? I thought you said that there would be no problems if it was a stopped train, even from this distance. ” 

Next to him was a middle-aged woman pressing her temples.

“I’m sorry, but using living things as a medium comes at the cost of a lot of variables…” 

“Okay. Tell me what you saw.”

The wizard swallowed, proceeding to tell the woman what he had seen. 

In the special compartment of a train, a man and a woman sitting on seats covered in red velvet. The bewilderment of the investigator who had entered that compartment. And…

“……You said he was kissing her?”

“Yes. As soon as the magic was connected, I saw it”. 

The middle-aged woman, surprised, raised her head. There was a gleam of interest in her eyes. The wizard lowered his head, not knowing what to do.

“Calix Hertrio was kissing a woman…” 

The woman tapped the arm of the chair she was sitting in, lost in her thoughts. 

“Isn’t that funny? There were rumours that he couldn’t do his job because he kept looking at women like they were stones.” 

“Yes, yes…”

The wizard bowed his head, sweating. 

“Is it possible that he noticed your magic and put on an act?” 

“That wouldn’t be a possibility. As soon as I connected the magic, I immediately saw them kissing. In this case, they would have started doing so before then…”  

“Did you see her face?” 

“No. It was not visible.”

The woman raised her eyebrows. As if she had suddenly remembered something, she asked the wizard with a rather impatient attitude. 

“How about her hair?”

“……Yes?”

“Did she have pink hair?”

“Yes? Yes, no. She had black hair.” 

“Black hair…”

The woman rubbed her temples in a circular motion, bowing her head down. After a moment’s thought, she gestured impatiently at the wizard. 

“I see. You may leave now, sir.” 

“Yes, Your Majesty! May God bless you!”  

After politely bowing, the wizard left the room, and the emperor, who was left alone, stood up and looked out the window. 

“Where are you? That kid…”

The emperor’s words echoed throughout the office.

***

After the stormy special inspection passed, the train ride continued without any incidents. Since we had a late departure, it quickly became night. As soon as we finished dinner, Calix led me to a bed in the special class compartment.

“We will be arriving tomorrow morning. Until then, get some sleep.” 

“I can’t sleep now because earlier, in the carriage, I had already slept too much.”

“If you lie down and close your eyes for a bit, you will become sleepy.”

With the tone of a parent putting their mischievous child to sleep, Calix forced me to sit down on the bed. I did as he asked and sat down on the corner of the bed, watching Calix draw the curtains. 

Sensing my gaze, Calix turned his head and smiled at me.

“Do you like looking at me because I’m so handsome? You want to take care of your husband, don’t you?” 

Without answering, I patted the bed, calling for Calix. 

“You come here too.”

“Rena, if you’re already acting like this right now, what are you going to do later…”

“Shut up and come here.”

“Yes.”

As soon as Calix sat down next to me, I grabbed him so he couldn’t escape. It was finally time to talk to him.

How long will we be continuing this ridiculous play? In addition, if he’s planning on taking me as a wizard to his estate, what were his plans?

I made eye contact with him and asked seriously.

“Isn’t there something you want to say to me?”

“Want to say?”

“You should know better.”

***

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