When Pride Fell At My Toes - Chapter 60
Only Noblemtl
#60. Stopped Clock
2024.02.29.
Enrico opened the box curtain and came in, sitting on the chair. On the stage with the splendid lights, the ballet performance was already in full swing.
He had not wanted to come. Emilia kept trying to test his patience, which was annoying, and he felt strangely unfamiliar with himself for constantly reacting to her words, so he wanted to distance himself. However, this worry had been repeated countless times before.
He couldn’t remember exactly when it started. At some point, his eyes kept lingering on her, and unlike his previous thoughts that spending time with others was a waste of time, he started to seek her out first and spend time with her.
‘If the Duke ever finds someone precious to him, he will definitely understand then.’
The first impulse he had upon hearing those words was curiosity about what Emilia’s upright affection was. And what was the precious person she was talking about?
Finding someone precious to him. He thought that would be harder to have than dying and being reborn. So he tried to shake her little by little, hoping to feel it indirectly.
The more I did that, the more strangely I was shaken, and at first, I just wanted her tears, which I found interesting, to flow for me, and later I wished she wouldn’t cry. I
couldn’t have thought this without going crazy. I thought maybe she just didn’t want to see me cry. The cycle of acceptance and denial continued.
‘… … So don’t get hurt.’
My beautiful but foolish Emilia. Like an animal that keeps approaching a hunter who keeps trying to keep his distance, those words that worried her so much unexpectedly made my heart heavy.
A person who genuinely cares about me, not in a pretense. How unfamiliar she was.
Watching Emilia gradually opening up to him without even realizing that she was tying her own ankles, Enrico gradually reduced the conflict between acceptance and denial toward her. However, that denial suddenly lost its power at an absurd moment.
Enrico was always alone, and although he was used to that, he didn’t like the creepy silence.
The moment the surrounding noise stopped, I felt strangely more alone, even though no one had ever stayed by my side. Being alone was something I was used to, but why did I feel empty?
He had started to wear a wristwatch compulsively because of the feeling that made him feel dirty.
But he impulsively took it off with his own hands. In the house of a woman he had visited without permission, for the sole reason that he wanted to hear her breathing more clearly while she was asleep.
The time without the sound of the clock’s second hand was filled with only the sound of warm, rustling breathing. Enrico felt that he had to acknowledge his change, as her presence made him feel dense without any sense of emptiness. The
attending physician straightened his back with a relieved expression. He recalled Enrico’s unfamiliar appearance a moment ago, when he had been urging him to treat the woman lying down, and spoke more cautiously than usual.
“Your wound has been treated successfully. For the time being, it would be best for you not to use your arm, and you should be careful not to let it get wet. “You have to apply the medicine every hour.”
“I understand.”
“And I took measures to reduce the swelling in your ankle for now, but I think it would be better to get it checked later.”
Enrico blankly looked down at Emilia lying on the bed, ignoring the words of the attending physician explaining the precautions to Zaveta.
He was afraid that Emilia would disappear with the flames as multiple lights exploded. Yes, that was scary. The moment he had worried that Emilia would get hurt in Barcorta was incomparable to the thrill of squeezing his heart, and it still terrified him.
She was the one who should be by his side no matter what happened. How could she leave him for something so unexpected?
It felt like he had realized something he had never known before.
Enrico slowly placed his fingertips on Emilia’s cheek, who was quietly sleeping. The soft cheek that touched the back of his fingers was hot from the wound.
Enrico slowly and gently stroked her cheek. As if soothing her, Emilia did not wake up from her sleep despite the gentle touch.
“… … You are the one who should not get hurt.”
A low, locked voice filled the room. At his ominous mood, Zaveta and the attending physician had already left the room, and the room was filled with silence, leaving only Emilia and Enrico asleep.
His fingers, which had been resting on Emilia’s cheek, moved to the tip of her nose. She was so anxious that she didn’t move at all, that she unconsciously tried to take a weak breath. His hardened face might relax even with the breath that brushed his fingers.
Even with this weak breath, his heart was pounding, and he didn’t seem to have anything more to worry about her. No, maybe he had already expected it, but he had tried to ignore it. That day when he jumped in to save Emilia in Barcorta, his actions had already proven everything.
He would sacrifice his body for others. He said that he protected her because she was weak. Since when did he take care of the virtues of a gentleman and that he was a person who put chivalry first in ancient times? He covered his eyes and shut his mouth in disgust.
He finally shut his eyes tightly in unbearable confusion. Her afterimages kept flowing into his darkened vision.
Her noble dancing, her confidently meeting his eyes, her blushing cheeks in humiliation, and her pitiful crying as if the world had collapsed. Enrico let out a deep sigh at the images that quickly passed by.
‘Sacrifice… … .’ Is
this a sacrifice? He didn’t really have any more doubts.
But was this really the precious person she spoke of?
The affection she showed her family was warm and close to feelings that only cared for them, while his own was not such a noble thing, but rather a feeling based on desire that only he could see.
It was a thicker, stickier feeling, as if he wanted to tie the wings of a flying bird to his side even if it meant breaking them.
Enrico looked down at Emilia with mixed emotions and sunken eyes. His hands, slowly stroking her hair, were still affectionate.
There was a small knock. There was no word to come in, but the door opened quietly and Fabio entered through it.
“As a result of the investigation into the cause of the accident, we found evidence of intentional circumstances. There were traces of half-cutting each string connecting the small lights, and we are currently investigating those who approached the ceiling from the inside.”
Fabio stood behind Enrico and whispered softly, glancing at him. Enrico listened without moving.
However, even with that lack of response, Fabio felt a strange desire to leave this room. He felt a strange chill that did not seem to be the weather before summer gathering at the tips of his feet.
“Are you targeting Emilia?”
A strange heat different from usual was embedded in Enrico’s voice. Fabio bowed his head more carefully, not missing the change.
“I’m checking that part closely for now. Even if the light string was half-cut, it had to match the timing of Emilia going up on stage, so I’m also checking to see if there were any signs that she had taken something right before the accident.”
“Tell the chief to have Inspector Reid take charge of the case.”
“Understood.”
There was silence for a moment. Fabio took it as a signal to leave and sensibly left the room. As soon as he closed the door, the breath that had been choking from tension burst out.
It was true that Enrico had been acting a bit strangely compared to before, but he had never shown himself like this before. How
could he look so angry? If he hadn’t had to treat Emilia, who had collapsed, he could have made a mess of the theater.
How much he had pleaded with Enrico, who was about to rush out onto the stage. As soon as he told her that he would bring her to the duke’s house, and that Emilia wouldn’t want it, he stopped running wild.
Seeing Enrico swallowing his burning anger, Fabio quickly called a doctor and went to the back of the stage, telling everyone that he had finished emergency treatment and would take him to the hospital, and brought him to the duke’s residence. People were out of their minds, so they could have let it go like this, but if they had asked who it was, it would have been a headache
. Ever since he met Emilia, Enrico seemed to have become strange, and he was worried. Was this really a good thing? Or was it a bad thing? Since it was a change that he couldn’t come to a definite conclusion about at the moment, Fabio just trembled with anxiety.
***
When he opened his eyes, a faint light came into his field of vision. Emilia barely moved her heavy eyelids and checked her surroundings. A gorgeous ceiling painting that she had seen before appeared, and when she rolled her eyes slightly to the side, the afterimage of a faintly burning candle appeared in her field of vision.
Her whole body throbbed. As she squinted her eyes and tried to lower her throbbing arm, she felt a hand gently grab her wrist.
“Don’t move yet. It’s better to lie down for a while.”
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