I Became the Substitute for the Runaway Heroine - Chapter 57

“Lady Odette! I’ve found a spring with clean, cool water—not far from here!”

Jacques waved his hand from below the ravine.

“Alright, we’ll come that way.”

When Odette and Emma made their way down, they saw Jacques lifting a rabbit he had caught.

“There are many rabbits near the spring. If we’re lucky, we might even catch a deer coming to drink.”

Suddenly, Emma covered Odette’s eyes.

“How could you show a dead rabbit to the High Saintess? You’ve tainted her sacred and noble gaze.”

Odette understood Emma’s deep piety, but their perspectives differed far too much.

Odette gently pulled Emma’s hand away from her eyes and said,

“I don’t think we need deer. This rabbit is plump enough to make a good meal if we roast it.”

“Y-You’re going to eat that? But… you’re the High Saintess…”

“My mother used to hunt rabbits too. Even a saintess needs to eat to survive.”

“Gallerwin.”

Caesar leaned back in his chair, took a sip of strong liquor, and turned his gaze toward Gallerwin.

Bound hand and foot, kneeling on the floor, Gallerwin clenched his eyes shut under Caesar’s piercing stare.

With a single word slipping from Caesar’s lips, life and death hung in the balance. Pushed to the brink of his mental endurance, Gallerwin was paralyzed by terror.

“I’ll give you a choice: either you live alone and everyone else dies, or you all die together. Choose.”

“Please… spare me. P-Please, at least spare young master Eric…”

“Eric?”

Caesar’s brow arched. He wasn’t begging for his own life but for Eric’s.

“…He is my son.”

“…Hah.”

A low sigh escaped from between Caesar’s lips.

Count Anderson would have never imagined it.

That his entire fortune and legacy, painstakingly amassed over a lifetime, would fall to a servant’s son—all because of an unfaithful wife.

And yet, why did Caesar feel no satisfaction?

Perhaps because Count Anderson still had his head attached.

“You’d do anything to save Eric?”

“I never lived a noble life myself… but watching young master Eric live such a life made me feel as though I had become noble too. If he could become the head of the Count’s house and live happily… I would have no other wish… sob…”

Gallerwin collapsed, sobbing on the ground.

“What ruined the young master… was Katarina and the Count. Their greed knew no bounds… Lady Andrea…”

Caesar drained the last of his drink.

“Keep going.”

Nodding once, he swallowed the bitter liquor.

“…After Lady Andrea’s death, the young master fell into ruin. He reached a point of no return. He drew his own blood… to preserve her corpse… said it would stop it from decaying.”

Gallerwin confessed everything Eric had done to preserve Andrea’s body with black magic.

But he blamed it all on Eric’s mental torment—and laid that blame squarely on the Count and Katarina.

Caesar walked over to the window and threw it open.

“Why do I feel so disgusted?”

He already knew who had killed his beloved sister.

Because the method had been a landslide, and Eric was in the same carriage, intentionality couldn’t be proven.

But now, Caesar finally understood why the Count had triggered the landslide while Eric was also in the carriage.

‘He suspected Eric wasn’t his own son.’

Yet some part of him must have believed Eric was his child.

That would explain why, even after Eric took up black magic and brought disgrace to the family, he wasn’t disowned.

“Why did they kill Andrea?”

Standing with his back to the window, Caesar asked.

His silhouette stretched long, casting a dark shadow over Gallerwin’s face.

Sensing that even one wrong word could cost him his life, Gallerwin turned deathly pale.

To most of the Empire, Caesar was a war hero, but to enemy soldiers, he had another name:

The Mad Dog of the Battlefield.

A bloodthirsty killer without mercy or emotion.

It was said that surrendering to him was worse than death, that drowning oneself was the better choice.

“L-Lady Andrea was investigating the truth of the day the former Count Maïs passed… I heard she had found an eyewitness.”

“You’re saying someone witnessed my father’s murder?”

“Yes, though I don’t know who it was. I merely overheard the Count and Countess speaking about it.”

At that moment, Aden rushed in and whispered into Caesar’s ear.

“Eric Anderson sent a letter via a servant.”

“…Give it here.”

Tearing open the envelope, Caesar quickly read the letter, then looked up at Gallerwin.

“Eric says he’ll testify in court that the Count and Countess murdered my sister.”

“…Let me do it instead. Please, I beg you—don’t let young master Eric get involved. I’m begging you.”

Desperate, Gallerwin began revealing all of the Count’s crimes.

The Count had plotted to kill Andrea, staging it as a landslide. Eric had realized this and dismounted from the lead horse to board the carriage with her.

By the time Gallerwin learned the truth and tried to stop it, it was already too late.

The carriage carrying Andrea and Eric had been crushed beneath falling rocks and earth, plunging off the cliff.

“That was when I realized… the Count had gone mad. He even tried to kill his own son.”

Gallerwin, burning with hatred for the Count, spilled every last detail he knew.

The Count had murdered Caesar’s retainers and sent them to prison, plundered their wealth, and indulged in luxury with stolen fortunes.

‘All that’s left now is finding solid evidence.’

With Gallerwin’s testimony, Caesar could now exact revenge on the Count with almost ridiculous ease.

And yet, why did he feel so unsatisfied?

It was as if he had overlooked something—something very important.

‘What could it be?’

After finishing the interrogation, Caesar, still dazed, headed to the Rivera Hotel along the riverbank that cut through the Hoan District.

As he stepped into the lobby, Caesar came to a sudden halt.

A memory surfaced—Odette pinning a rose to his chest.

“Everyone likely thinks the same as I do. So, don’t be someone they fear—be someone they desire. That way, you’ll get what you want more easily.”

In that moment, there had been a faint yearning in Odette’s eyes when she looked at him.

But… when she fled, her eyes sparkled with a brilliance unlike anything he had ever seen.

“I don’t need a heart that changes with your mood. Just take everything.”

Even though he now had the means to achieve his revenge, instead of feeling relieved, Caesar felt a tightness in his chest that made him frown.

“Lord Caesar Maïs.”

The hotel manager approached and greeted him with a formal bow.

“You kept my suite vacant, didn’t you?”

“Of course, sir. We never accepted other guests, not knowing when you might return.”

The manager continued, offering to personally escort him.

“You must have faced many inconveniences at the Anderson estate. And I notice your beautiful fiancée is not with you.”

The mention of Odette’s absence stabbed at Caesar’s heart once more.

Surely, this pain was nothing but wounded pride.

‘How dare she hurl such cruel words at me?’

Taking a deep breath, Caesar replied,

“Our engagement ceremony is tomorrow, so she’s likely getting her skin treatment done as we speak.”

“She hardly needs any beautifying. Just imagining her radiant presence is enough to make one’s heart race.”

“You talk too much.”

“…Pardon? Ah, yes. Then, have a pleasant night.”

The manager scurried away, flustered, and Caesar entered his room.

“Damn it!”

The suite was filled with pink roses—the same kind Odette had pinned to his chest.

How utterly infuriating the manager’s lack of awareness was.

He strode over to the liquor cabinet, poured himself a stiff drink, and downed it.

Having consumed nothing but alcohol and water all day, the intoxication hit quickly.

“Haa…”

After gulping down half the bottle in one go, the sharp headache that had been throbbing earlier began to dull.

Lying down on the sofa, he gave a dry chuckle at how slowly time seemed to crawl.

‘Everything’s going my way, so why can’t I calm myself?’

With every breath, it felt like there was a tear in his lungs—each inhale brought a growing, stinging pain.

“I… enjoyed myself because of you.”

The words slipped out unintentionally in a quiet murmur.

His colorless life had suddenly been touched by something new—an unknown hue that fell upon it with a quiet thud.

When he reached out, her soft blonde hair would wrap around his fingers. A single word from him would bring a glimmer of moisture to her green eyes.

He had only kissed her to absorb her divine power, yet her cheeks had flushed red like ripened fruit and pressed against the tip of his nose.

‘You were precious to me.’

The words he couldn’t say aloud echoed in his heart, making it ache with a sharp pang.

At some point, a sheen of tears welled up in Caesar’s eyes.

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