The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 69
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Chapter 69】
Rianel’s destination was the Mart Orphanage.
Starting with Vanessa’s case, the Mart Orphanage kept being mentioned, so it seemed like she should visit it at least once.
‘Anyway, if I want to uncover the truth, I need to conduct a field investigation.’
Of course, she couldn’t stir up the orphanage using a fire incident that had been closed decades ago as an excuse, so she planned to find another justification.
‘No matter how much it’s private property, illegally dumping waste is against the law.’
Using that as a pretext to investigate the orphanage, and then raiding the temple behind it was her ultimate goal.
‘Has it been a long time since I came here?’
The fire-scorched building had lost its former glory and fallen into ruin.
Still, the building’s structure remained, so she could extract the scenery from her memories from the ruins before her eyes.
The wall where ivy used to climb.
The armchair where the director often sat.
The puddle that would form whenever it rained…
The space she thought she had forgotten became clearer the more she traced her memories.
‘Yes, this is how it looked.’
Because she thought she was the only survivor.
Because she didn’t want to feel the helplessness of not being able to do anything, she deliberately covered it up and didn’t look back.
She was afraid to look back as much as the time she had turned away.
But the orphanage she actually arrived at was more desolate than she had thought…
‘How filthy.’
Trash was scattered all the way to the fence entrance.
She picked up a piece of paper that had fallen nearby.
Judging by what appeared to be an authentication certificate from some unknown trading company, it seemed to be trash that Jacob had dumped.
As Rianel put the certificate down on the ground, she caught a scent floating in the air.
It was too sweet, unpleasant, and familiar to be the smell of rotting garbage.
When she slightly lifted one of the sacks placed nearby with her toe, she saw empty bottles.
Residual liquid was sloshing around inside them, and they looked like medicine bottles that had contained sacred flowers.
‘I need to be careful not to touch them.’
Rianel gently pushed the sacks aside and went inside.
There was trash scattered around the orphanage, but it actually decreased as she got closer to the building.
Rianel looked at the open field placed in front of the orphanage building.
The place where dead weeds were sparsely planted was actually a vegetable garden that the orphans used to tend.
On the soil, signs with the orphans’ names were sparsely stuck in.
Other names had been erased, unable to withstand the wind, rain, and years, but one person’s name could be read, albeit faintly.
-Ban.
A memory she didn’t even know existed came back along with the name.
[Did you get hurt again?]
[I’m always clumsy, you know.]
The boy, now eight years old, showed his bandaged arm and grinned.
[At least you’re fine.]
[You cough a lot though.]
[Yeah, my cold won’t go away easily. But I got medicine from the director, so I’ll get better soon.]
[What about ■■■?]
[His leg still hasn’t healed.]
[That’s strange. The books in the director’s office said that children in their growth period recover quickly.]
[What’s a growth period?]
[It means immature humans whose development isn’t finished yet.]
[What’s immature?]
[…I made a mistake. It means people like you and me.]
[You’re really smart, aren’t you?]
[You’re just stupid.]
Finishing her recollection, Rianel stared at the vegetable garden.
A place where wind had swept through and years had broken away.
The boy who used to smile showing his gap-toothed gums was nowhere to be found.
‘Come to think of it.’
As Rianel traced her past memories, she discovered a point of doubt.
‘Weren’t most of them children with physical disabilities?’
This was also the reason why there were almost no survivors among the orphans during the fire incident.
Because they all couldn’t move their bodies and were trapped by the flames.
‘Did they deliberately gather such children?’
Since the arson was said to be intentional, even the smallest details seemed suspicious.
‘I wonder if there’s an orphan registry left inside.’
If documents recording the orphans’ names and conditions remained, she might be able to confirm the facts.
Of course, the possibility was slim. Paper documents couldn’t have survived a fire intact.
Still, with a glimmer of hope, Rianel peered inside from the entrance.
‘It’s in better condition than I thought?’
Though it was close to ruins, the building’s framework remained and the household items were still there.
Rianel entered the director’s office with slight hope.
‘If my memory is correct, here should be… Oh no, is it not here?’
Fortunately, the director’s office seemed not to have burned, but the orphan registry and other documents had completely disappeared.
‘Well, it has been decades… Hmm?’
Then Rianel, who caught the smell of burning floating in the air, hesitated.
No matter how much it was an accident site, it wasn’t natural for such a smell to come from a place where outside air had been circulating and the burnt smell should have dissipated.
Rianel followed the source.
“Who are you!”
The man in the night duty room reacted sharply upon seeing Rianel.
The tall, lean man was in the process of setting fire to document files.
‘No wonder the entrance wasn’t blocked.’
It seemed there was someone coming and going.
Rianel instinctively realized she needed to secure those documents.
“Incinerating waste in an unauthorized facility is illegal.”
The man also seemed not to have expected Rianel to come, standing frozen in confusion before letting out a snicker.
“What, are you a civil servant?”
“Put out the fire.”
“Hmph. Why should I listen to that?”
If he was going to comply obediently, he wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of hiding in such a remote place!
“Put it out.”
Rianel placed her foot on a pillar that seemed ready to collapse.
As if she would kick it down if necessary.
“How dare you threaten me?!”
“It’s persuasion.”
“Who would think that’s persuasion?!”
“Persuasion means the process of leading the other party to voluntarily accept an opinion. Therefore, limiting persuasion to only verbal coaxing is an excessively narrow way of thinking.”
Even in the midst of all this, she was spouting some kind of sophistry!
“Ridiculous!”
The man put down the document files and pulled out a crossbow.
Rianel immediately pretended to step back but lunged forward, reaching for the man’s document files.
“!”
The startled man dropped his crossbow, and the arrow pierced through a pillar.
“Damn it…”
The already precarious building began to vibrate and shake. It was a sign that it would collapse soon.
“You coward!”
She had clearly lured him into bringing down the building to pin all the blame on him!
‘She’s trying to make me earn the upper management’s hatred.’
Even though Rianel couldn’t possibly know his origins, the situation was so absurd that such thoughts crossed his mind momentarily.
“Cowardice refers to the act of avoiding responsibilities one should bear or shifting them onto others. The act of securing evidence is indispensable for clarifying the truth and has nothing to do with cowardice.”
‘Does she want to say such things even in this situation!’
At the same time, he felt a sense of déjà vu.
Strangely, Rianel’s way of speaking felt familiar.
‘I’ve met her before… Oh no!’
The man paid dearly for his momentary distraction.
The evidence that was being destroyed had somehow ended up in Rianel’s hands.
‘I have no choice.’
He had to earn the religious order’s trust.
To do that, he had to kill this woman who was proof of his failure.
The man raised his crossbow and aimed at the ceiling structure.
Thwack-!
“!”
‘Farewell.’
Rianel gauged the falling speed of the structure, and when she realized she couldn’t escape, she curled up to at least preserve the evidence.
‘If I’m lucky, I might survive.’
The moment she endured the impact and tightly closed her eyes.
“Are you trying to leave me behind and go alone again.”
An arm reaching from behind led Rianel to safety. The man’s labored breathing touched her ear.
“You’re always so heartlessly cruel.”
Rianel’s head turned instinctively upon detecting the familiar scent and voice.
“Asil?”
Though he wore a hood to hide his face, it didn’t conceal his identity.
“Damn it, did he have a companion!”
How Asil had come here was a mystery to Rianel as well.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. You’ll both die here anyway!”
The man, thinking everything had gone wrong, began firing his crossbow indiscriminately.
Instead of confronting the man, Asil moved to the adjacent room while holding Rianel in his arms.
Rumble-
“How dare these rat bastards!”
However, as the building shook with a thunderous roar, the man cursed and fled through the window.
“This way.”
Asil pointed to the left wall. There was a large hole in the outer wall. It was the entrance Asil had used.
Shortly after the two people left the building, it completely collapsed.
‘That was close. If we had delayed just a little longer, that place would have become our tomb.’
Only when the unconfined outside air entered deep into her lungs did she truly realize it.
That she was alive.
That she was here with Asil at this moment.
“But how did you get here…”
“We caught him!”
“Argh, you crazy bastards, let go of this…!”
The sound of something falling was heard along with the knights’ voices.
It seemed they had caught that man from earlier.
Seeing that he had brought knights at such perfect timing…
“Did you follow me?”
“You’re jumping to conclusions.”
Asil shrugged his shoulders.
“I just had a feeling you’d come here.”
Rianel understood.
She had mentioned being troubled about the orphanage twice. There was no way the perceptive Asil wouldn’t have noticed.
Anyway, the man had been captured, and the ducal knights were cleaning up the site.
As Rianel put strength in her toes to stand up, Asil asked.
“Will you go back again?”
“There’s no longer any reason to stay here.”
“Then will you return?”
Rianel hesitated as a voice she had heard long ago echoed in her ears.
[If I wait, will you come? You will come, right?]
“Even if you’re leaving, please stay a little longer for now.”
The next moment.
Asil groaned and slumped to the ground.
“…!”
“I can’t walk.”
Rianel hurriedly lowered her gaze to examine Asil’s leg.
Red blood was spreading around his calf where an arrow was embedded.
It seemed he had taken the hit when the crossbow bolt flew.
‘How foolish.’
Rianel wasn’t cold-hearted enough to abandon someone who had been injured because of her.
“Put your arm around my shoulder. I’ll support you.”
Roberts coldly barked while subduing the struggling man.
“Stay still, Holy Knight.”
“&%#!”
The man with his mouth gagged struggled desperately, but it was meaningless.
Among all the places he could have chosen, coming to an abandoned orphanage connected to the temple to dispose of documents itself revealed his origins.
Moreover, being one of the more sharp-minded knights, Roberts had harbored suspicions even upon seeing Asil.
His lord, who had been agile since childhood, that man who had gained enough skill to toy with the entire knight order in less than a year after learning the Ducal Secret Swordsmanship.
It was suspicious that he had been hit by a crossbow in a dilapidated building full of concealment, and specifically in the leg, which would leave fewer aftereffects but restrict movement.
Even in the midst of all this, Asil was adjusting so that less weight would be placed on Rianel…
‘Surely, he didn’t get hit on purpose?’
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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