You Said You Wanted Us to Break Up - Chapter 72

Luke explained the reason.

“It’s a policy to unconditionally keep the records of anyone who has been investigated.”

“…”

“Recently, I had reason to dig through those records on His Excellency’s order, and the attendant written there was someone who neither indulged in tobacco nor alcohol nor gambling.”

Yet, the alcohol the woman kept refilling her glass with was a strong liquor popular only in the North.

Unless she had simply ordered what she saw most people drinking around her, she was quite a heavy drinker for someone from the South.

The woman, who had just finished another glass of a liquor that even he didn’t drink an entire bottle of, twisted one corner of her mouth.

“You don’t believe a person wouldn’t change just because two years have passed, do you?”

“People are harder to carve than rock, I tell you.”

Matching her pace, Luke emptied his third glass and ordered a side dish. Drinking on an empty stomach makes you drunk quickly.

Receiving his fourth glass from Melvin, he added an explanation.

“It’s a Northern proverb: ‘Even the rock is carved by the white wind, but a person is not.'”

“There was such a saying?”

“…”

“I thought people changed the fastest in the North.”

The sarcasm was palpable.

Luke, recognizing that she was mocking the recently changed attitude of her superior, furrowed his brow and swirled the glass in his hand.

If one were to be precise, the fact that Apple Leta bought her identity to become a lady-in-waiting was a problem from the start. It was naturally something that bothered them, and the person in question had even been involved in a crime. Keeping her inside the castle was more against common sense.

It was revealed after the rebellion, through the cooperation of the Rowen side and a massive investigation, that Apple had been framed. However, the woman already had sufficient reason to be expelled from the castle simply for concealing her original identity.

However, dwelling on such things endlessly was pointless. Luke said, without losing his smile,

“Miss Maid, the past punishments were carried out without personal ill will.”

The woman silently received a glass from Melvin. Luke counted the number of glasses she had emptied so far. Four.

The number marked on the slate behind Melvin was exactly that many. It meant the woman had started drinking the moment he walked in. Next to it, under his name, three tally marks were drawn.

Bars in this town often encouraged competition in this manner.

“Wouldn’t it be more convenient for both you and me if our respective masters were closer?”

One corner of the woman’s mouth twisted further. The glass was emptied and refilled once more.

Five.

It was a provocation that, if he had been a little younger, he would have fallen for.

Since it was a stimulus he wasn’t completely immune to even now, Luke finally emptied his fourth glass. By this point, his head was throbbing.

While he was subtly frowning, Melvin placed a side dish down and refilled his fifth glass.

The woman, who gave him a quick, unconcealed look of antipathy, said,

“The back of Duke Raslet is probably unblemished.”

The implication was likely a dare not to associate him with her mistress. Luke let out a dry laugh.

“As His Excellency’s physician, I can assure you, he has not lived a life so smooth that his back would be clean without a single scar.”

He was treated less like the sole heir and more like a dissident who would start a rebellion if not corrected in time.

Though not intending to defend his superior, Luke somehow couldn’t resist stating that fact. He had a hunch that if he let one word slide, this tense tug-of-war would end in his defeat.

The woman openly scoffed at his words.

“Even so, that’s not my concern.”

Clink. The sound of the glass hitting the bottom rang out. Luke, blinking his eyes, which were sluggish from his hasty drinking, instinctively counted the number inwardly. Six. He heard the sound of Melvin drawing chalk on the slate.

“Nor is it something my lady should consider.”

Apple stood up from the stool.

“You pay for the drinks. My salary is given to me by my lady, and I don’t want to use the money I received from her to pay for drinks I had with you.”

As soon as the woman completely walked past him, Luke leaned his body onto the table. He watched the back of his opponent, who was leaving the bar without looking back.

When the bar door finally closed again with a gust of cold wind, Luke spoke in admiration.

“Incredible.”

From start to finish, the woman had nothing in front of her except the glass. It meant she had drunk all that strong liquor without any food.

It was a reckless act that someone drinking for the first time today might do if they weren’t an extremely heavy drinker.

However, the possibility that the woman, who hadn’t touched anything addictive two years ago, had suddenly become an alcoholic was not very high.

“…And she’s smart too.”

Nathan had said he witnessed Apple Leta entering the bar, but now it seemed the sequence of events was the opposite. The woman had seen him first, and that’s why she entered the bar. To conceal the real reason for coming outside the castle.

Luke had indeed headed straight for the bar after hearing Nathan’s report. Realizing belatedly that he had acted exactly according to her intention, Luke let out a dry laugh.

Whatever or whomever she met, whatever she did, the evidence would have disappeared while they were talking. Luke tossed the remaining drink into his mouth and pulled out his wallet. A belated wave of intoxication rushed to his face.

Apple Leta had drunk exactly one more glass than him.

Recalling the steady gait of the woman who had remained composed until the end, his lips curled up. Given this situation, a skewed persistence rose in him to thoroughly uncover what her scheme was.

* * *

Apple returned shortly after I received Sioden’s letter. Thankfully, the sun hadn’t set yet.

She had a redder face than usual and smelled of a bitter, somewhat unfamiliar scent—one that didn’t seem to have clung to her just from being outside. Apple, who had returned looking noticeably different than when she left, stumbled toward me as soon as she closed the bedroom door.

I rushed over to her.

“Apple!”

“…My lady.”

When I grabbed her by the shoulders, Apple called my name with a slurred pronunciation.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

Instead of answering my question, Apple only blinked. I helped her take off her coat and, as a quick measure, led her to sit on my bed. Apple meekly allowed herself to be pulled along and murmured,

“I shouldn’t sit here. Your ladyship’s bed will smell of alcohol…”

“You drank alcohol?”

At my question, Apple propped her elbows on her knees and covered her forehead with her hands. I heard a low grinding sound of her teeth.

“I ran into that unlucky bastard of a doctor…”

It was the first time Apple had used such coarse language. As I blinked in surprise, Apple abruptly raised her head. She reached out a hand to cover my ear. It was a limp, swaying hand, unlike her usual self.

She mumbled with a heavily twisted pronunciation.

“I apologize for using foul language in front of you, my lady…”

“It’s alright. More importantly, what happened? What did Luke do to you?”

Luke was the only person Apple would refer to as ‘the doctor.’ The Luke I had seen so far didn’t seem like the kind of person who would harm Apple. But one can’t judge a person by their appearance alone.

Apple, who was clearly drunk, spoke a different sentence.

“My lady, don’t call that bastard, no, that scoundrel… Ah, I apologize. Don’t call him by that doctor’s name.”

In any case, it seemed certain that she had met Luke.

Soon, Apple tried to explain what had happened to me, even with her slurred pronunciation.

“I ran into trouble while disposing of the jewel… I went into the bar to avoid being noticed… but sure enough, that doctor bastard followed me in…”

She let out a deep sigh. Apple covered her forehead again, propping her elbows on her knees.

“I should have distracted him… but I couldn’t think of a proper way.”

This seemed to mean she had resorted to drinking. I nodded to let Apple know I understood the situation to some extent.

“I understand.”

Apple looked up at me, who was standing in front of her trying to do something. Her hazel eyes were wetter than usual.

“Don’t worry,”

Apple hiccupped.

“We’ll go to Emerta no matter what. I won’t let my lady be in a place like this…”

My lady will definitely be happy. After this final murmur, Apple dropped her head. Soon, her body followed suit and slumped over.

I laid Apple down on my bed and covered her with a blanket. Apple made a small pained groan but did not open her eyes again. I looked down at her from the chair beside the bed where Apple sat every day to attend to me.

This was the first time I had seen Apple like this. But come to think of it, everything that had happened recently must have been unfamiliar to Apple as well.

The reason Apple had acted so composed was obvious: to reassure me even a little. The fact that the journey to Emerta was a huge gamble for Apple, too, began to hit me much harder than before.

Apple had put her own life on the line for me. Yet, all I did was wait for her in the room.

Facing reality and reflecting on myself, I felt incredibly pathetic and stifled. I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. Even if it wasn’t as much as Apple was doing for me, I had to do something.

But what could I do? Right now, I couldn’t even leave the room as I pleased. If I just set foot outside the room, Sioden would find out everything.

I quickly averted my eyes before tears could well up in my heated eyes. A letter envelope placed on the side table came into view. It was Sioden’s letter, which I had set aside when Apple returned.

“His Excellency asked you to feel free to mention anything you desire.”

Luke’s words suddenly flashed into my mind.

I swallowed dryly and reached out for the envelope.

Maybe… there might be something I could do for Apple too.