The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 123
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Alter, who said that, grabbed the hammer-wielding man’s wrist and twisted it before throwing him away.
The man who rolled and crashed into the wall let out a groan, then dropped his head with a thud.
He seemed to have fainted from the shock.
“You, what the hell are you!”
Two people remained.
The man holding the wooden club shouted in rage.
However, that shout was not much different from a frightened animal puffing itself up.
What was reflected in the man’s eyes was fear.
“It would be better if you didn’t know.”
Alter spoke as if spitting out the words.
It was incomparably colder than when he spoke to me, a voice barely containing his anger.
The man with the wooden club who had flinched seemed to think it was do or die.
“Ugh, uaaaah-!”
He rushed at Alter, swinging the nail-studded wooden club.
It was an incredibly quick and fast movement.
However, as if Alter had predicted his actions, the moment the club cut through the air, he grabbed the man’s arm and twisted it.
“Hnngh…!”
The man let out a painful scream and collapsed, but Alter showed no mercy.
Alter’s knee struck the man’s jaw directly. There was the sound of bones breaking.
The man who fell with a thud no longer moved.
As he fell, Alter straightened his body and approached the last remaining man with the crowbar.
“Hiiek!”
The pale man swung the crowbar wildly.
“Don’t, don’t come closer! Stay away!”
With a face that looked like he was having a nightmare beyond fear, he grabbed items from the warehouse and threw them at Alter.
However, none of them reached Alter.
The trembling man seemed to think it was all over now, threw away even the crowbar and tried to run.
However.
“Uaaak!”
Before he could even take a step, Alter grabbed the man’s neck and slammed his face into the wall.
Thud!
With a loud sound, the man’s body crumpled down.
It was when Alter, who had let out a sigh, turned around.
“Don’t move!”
Rough hands touched my neck.
The boss-like man who had been with me had regained consciousness as the door opened and the smoke escaped.
The man put strength into his hands as if he would twist my neck at any moment.
“Kugh, cough…”
“If you move even one step, I’ll snap this girl’s neck right away!”
The force choking my neck was so strong that my vision immediately went white.
Through my blurry vision, I could see Alter’s expression.
His face had become several times more fierce now that I was captured than when the men had rushed at him.
That appearance was truly…
‘Just like the Duke of Alchemiya said, like a god of war.’
“That’s right, that’s it. Stay quiet until I escape from this place!”
As the man dragged me along with the chair while threatening, my eyes met Alter’s.
Was it because his eyes were bloodshot that his pupils looked even more blood-red today, or was it…
Even in my dizziness, I sent him a signal with my lips.
‘Three, two, one.’
And.
I stabbed the glass shard I was holding into the man’s thigh and ducked my head.
At the same time, Alter kicked up a tool that had fallen and threw it at the man with terrifying speed.
“Aaak-!”
Crack—!
The wrench hit the man’s forehead directly.
“Urk!”
As the unconscious man fell backward, the strength in the hands gripping my neck also loosened.
It was when my body, having lost its center, was about to collapse.
“Elisha!”
Alter, who had rushed over, threw his body to catch me.
In the position of being held in his arms, I looked up at Alter.
“…It’s okay. It’s okay, it’s all over now.”
His hands untying the ropes were trembling slightly.
After untying all the knots, Alter sat me in the chair and knelt on one knee to examine me.
It was when he pulled my hand to look at it.
Alter’s brow furrowed sharply as he drew in a breath.
“…”
Without saying anything, he tore his shirt and wrapped it around my hand.
Only then did I realize that my hand was torn and mangled from the glass shard.
I hadn’t known because it didn’t hurt even though blood was dripping.
In fact, even now seeing the wound, it didn’t hurt.
Rather, the person making a pained expression was.
“…I should have come a little faster.”
It was Alter, not me.
His hand, which couldn’t even touch my swollen cheek and hovered in the air, trembled finely.
“I’m sorry.”
Alter’s Adam’s apple bobbed deeply.
I looked at him quietly.
There was no reason at all for him to blame himself.
I wanted to tell him it was okay, that there was no need for that at all.
However, the words that simultaneously rose from my memory gripped my lungs tightly.
“I was sorry about that time.”
“First, let’s go to the hospital first. You need treatment. I’ll handle those bastards separately…”
I gently grasped Alter’s hand as he tried to help me up.
So Alter hesitated.
“What’s wrong.”
Alter, who knelt on one knee again, examined me.
“Are you shocked? Can’t you walk?”
His awkwardly tender tone, eyes filled more with worry than anger.
And.
“…Why do you look like you’re about to cry…”
The warmth of fingertips carefully touching near my eyes.
I didn’t think that could be false.
All of that would be the ‘real’ Alter’s appearance.
However.
[…Duke Tesagh Alister Moro…]
That name also belonged to Alter.
No, that was the real name of the man before my eyes.
The man I thought I knew well, and so… trusted.
The real name of the man to whom I had even told stories about Grandfather that I couldn’t tell anyone else.
‘I’m such a fool.’
“Don’t cry, okay? Don’t cry.”
Alter’s words made me realize I was crying.
The sense of reality that had fled to distant places finally returned.
I could see the clip attached to the end of Alter’s sleeve as he helplessly wiped around my eyes.
The clip with three sparkling gems that had always occupied one corner of his sleeve cuff, even when his clothes changed.
“…Why did you do it?”
I smiled bitterly.
Alter didn’t readily understand my words and asked back.
“Why did I do what?”
“Why…”
Why were you kind to me?
Why did you help me?
Why did you say you were sorry for suspecting me?
I was curious about everything, but what came out of my mouth was a different question.
“Why did you say you trusted me?”
“…Because I know what kind of person you are now. I trust you, Elisha.”
I remember those words sounding better than any other words.
The words that he trusted me because he knew what kind of person I was seemed like he understood me.
It seemed like he might understand even the stories about my second life and Grandfather that I couldn’t tell anyone.
But that must have been my great misunderstanding.
“When you didn’t actually trust me.”
Because Alter had been secretly suspecting and pursuing Grandfather.
Because he had ultimately found even the nursing home where Grandfather was staying.
Because he hadn’t believed my words that Grandfather wouldn’t engage in stolen goods trading.
“When you didn’t believe anything I said…”
I understand with my head.
That recovering Rugenote is more important to Alter than anything else.
So he could suspect Grandfather.
That’s why I couldn’t back down.
‘Right now, Grandfather’s memory isn’t intact. It’s not a situation where his claims of innocence would be accepted.’
Grandfather is not the culprit.
The culprit is someone else. The mage ‘Eivor.’
But as long as I wasn’t certain whether Alter at this point was aware of Eivor’s existence, I couldn’t speak about him.
‘If I say that ‘Eivor’ is the culprit, he might become even more suspicious.’
Because explaining how I know of his existence would be impossible.
In the worst case, suspicion of being an accomplice could solidify.
Not only that.
‘Alter pursued Grandfather persistently. It won’t end with just a simple interrogation.’
This involves the duchy’s greatest treasure.
He won’t show consideration for Grandfather. His condition would definitely worsen during the interrogation process.
And if Grandfather’s illness and whereabouts leaked to Crodil during that process?
‘I can’t take such a risk.’
Just as Rugenote is important to Alter, protecting Grandfather is more important to me than anything else.
‘At least until Grandfather is treated… I absolutely cannot let them meet.’
“What do you mean I don’t trust you?”
Alter asked back with a confused expression.
‘I’m someone who can never give Alter what he wants. …So this is for the best.’
Just as he’s doing his best, I’m also doing my best.
I let out a bitter sigh and raised my hand.
“Thank you for everything, and I’m sorry. Alter.”
And I removed the clip from his sleeve.
“No.”
The tattoo disappears. The scar vanishes.
Watching his red-tinted eyes fall into shock, I offered a belated greeting.
“…Your Grace, Duke Tesagh Alister Moro.”
Alter’s, no, Tesagh’s hand dropped limply.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————