I Just Needed Someone to Hate - Episode 10.3

The scenery outside the car window changed like a panorama. The dazzling lights of the underworld began to illuminate, followed by dark alleys, industrial zones, and rows of small villas where ordinary people lived.

As the Marquis family’s mansion grew closer in the distance, even the taciturn bodyguard let out a meaningless exclamation.

Perhaps noticing his uncharacteristic admiration, he cleared his throat and said,

“It’s always impressive, no matter how many times I see it. Just like the media says, it has a 300-year history…”

“Rather than a relic, wouldn’t ‘dollhouse’ be a more fitting description?”

People had always associated her with that mansion.

A young lady living in a palace-like home. A woman who must never cross those iron gates.

She believed that living a life that met those expectations would bring her happiness.

She was obsessed with what people thought of her and fixated on how she appeared.

It was only after crossing those sturdy walls that she realized it was all a lie. She had been happier outside than in all the moments of her life combined.

Therefore, everything she had previously considered important became, at some point, a means to meet him. But now, she didn’t know. She didn’t even know what was left of her.

Now that Edmund Colt, the purpose, had likely suffered a similar fate as the people in the photos and disappeared, she didn’t even know what she had become.

“I asked why our Mergoville family, with so much debt, could live like nobles from 200 years ago in this palace, even while being looked down upon by the Lex family.”

A woman who was worthless without the ‘mansion’ component included.

This was her life.

This would be her life.

“Lady?”

The bodyguard glanced at the rearview mirror. Vivianne Mergoville was smiling as usual. But a single tear was streaming down her cheek.

“It’s best not to tell my mother about this.”

And then, a brief, insignificant conversation followed. The young lady held onto the photo tightly until the very end. A faint longing was reflected in her fixed gaze.

With that, he soon lost consciousness.

.

.

.

The next day, the empire was shaken by a car explosion involving a noble family, and the news of the person in the car’s death.

It was an engine problem.

“…It’s 8 a.m. here on Daatro Broadcast. Mark Wagner with the news.”

“Around 7:38 p.m. last night, an explosion occurred near the mansion of Marquis Mergoville in Coleman Street, where many noble townhouses are located. The exploded vehicle was a Langston limousine, and the bodyguard driving the vehicle was killed. It has been confirmed that the person in the car was. ”

Fingers roughened by the continuous cold wave pressed down on the radio’s round knob and slowly turned it. The anchor’s news report gradually faded and then disappeared. It was necessary. Soon, a chilling voice crossed the partition of the Central Metropolitan Police Agency.

“So, you’re saying my child went crazy, crossed the entire empire to install a bomb in a 940,000 Epones car engine, and murdered the driver?”

“As I’ve repeatedly stated, Marquis, we are assuming that this is a possibility.”

Detective Wilson, who was talking to the Marquis, tried to hide his exhaustion as he explained. He then dropped a black-and-white photo onto the desk.

“Do you recognize this? This is a photo of Harvey ‘Cane’ Cole getting into the Lady’s car heading to the hotel. He is the head of the Daatro underworld’s empire branch and a high-ranking action leader. Here is the travel route of the Langston vehicle analyzed by our private investigator. Not a single drop of the Lady’s blood was found in the vehicle. This data shows the Lady’s movements, wandering the streets instead of heading straight to the mansion.”

“Well, if the Prime Minister wants things to be this way, then the truth will be so as well. Don’t you think? If you’re trying to use this as an excuse to lock up my daughter and interrogate her in the way you want, I won’t stand still.”

“Marquis, this is just an investigation.”

“Is that so? It’s too strange for just an investigation. I heard you were trying to demand a statement from a child who would be exhausted from wandering the streets all night, and before the family’s lawyer even arrived.”

“Marquis.”

“It’s only been a year since my daughter left home and miraculously returned. Back then, you tried to run some kind of intelligence operation on her. Since that didn’t work, you’re coming at it this way now?”

“……”

Silence fell after the Marquis’s words. Everyone in the room understood the silence.

A year ago, the person who was with the missing Vivianne Mergoville was indeed a Criminal Intelligence Bureau agent who was after her information. Marquis Mergoville continued with a sneer.

“My daughter, a damn car bombing terrorist! All the comedians in the empire should pack their bags and go back home.”

“Marquis, no one here has said such a thing.”

“If that child said one strange word because she couldn’t handle the pressure, that’s how it would be. Listen carefully, Detective Wilson. You can investigate my child as a suspect or a witness, but not like this.”

“The empire branch leader was captured in the photo, and he was riding with the Lady. The media is constantly reporting that the Lady is a strategist for the empire’s underworld forces…”

“All rumors! Worthless nonsense.”

Silence fell. But it was obvious how things would turn out. In short, the timing was bad. The opposition party didn’t win the election, and Prime Minister Colt was re-elected.

Whether the truth about the Chief of Police’s son’s case was revealed or not, the cops were still rotten if they clung to the Chairman of the House of Lords. But the Chairman couldn’t do anything about the Prime Minister, who was trying to reform the police. So, what could they do?

They caught a case, so they had to catch that woman, extract information, and hand over some underworld thugs to the Prime Minister’s side. Luckily, it was all according to the law.

“We received a report and are simply acting as we see fit, Marquis. Since the family’s lawyer has arrived, we will talk to the Lady. There are many things we want to ask.”

Separated by a wall, the gaze of everyone wearing a police badge was directed at the young lady sitting outside the interrogation room.

Lady Mergoville Survives Terror on Coleman St.

She was too calm for someone about to be investigated as a suspect. Except for the tear stain dried on one cheek, there was no trace of emotion.

Rather, the police officers thought the Marquis family’s lawyer standing next to her looked more anxious, as if he was worried about what would happen if this went wrong.

“Lady, this way.”

A police officer walked out and guided Vivianne inside. Vivianne nodded to her father and moved her feet. As the family’s lawyer followed her, she turned around and said,

“Thank you. But I’m fine going alone.”

“You’ll need me.”

“No.”

Vivianne turned around and walked away as if she wouldn’t listen anymore.

“I’m fine. Really.”

The police officer made eye contact with the lawyer and closed the door behind Vivianne. Vivianne, who had seen her father leave without success, shifted her gaze from the closed door to Detective Wilson.

He was indeed a very sharp-eyed person.

As Vivianne sat down in front of him, he began to speak.

“Good morning, Lady Mergoville. This is the first time we’ve spoken since I saw you with the CID officers, isn’t it?”

“That’s right.”

Vivianne remembered the plainclothes police officers who had arrested her around 5 a.m. this morning while she was walking along the river. She had been taken here by them and had not spoken until now.

When Detective Wilson sent people to pressure her, she calmly bought time by calling her home.

What followed was as Vivianne had expected. Marquis Mergoville rushed over and threatened them, and the lawyer arrived and blocked contact between the police officer and Vivianne. Vivianne, wearing a worn-out coat, finally opened her mouth.

“I needed time to sort things out. As you can see, there were things I needed to discuss with the lawyer in advance. And things I needed to receive.”

“I understand. I’m glad you’re cooperating now. What we want to ask is…”

As Detective Wilson nodded, the police officer standing in the corner placed the phonograph needle on the vinyl. He was about to start recording.

“…Did you know that the Langston limousine was going to explode?”

The vinyl on the phonograph spun around and recorded even the police officer’s nervous swallowing. All this silence seemed to be waiting for Vivianne’s voice.

“No.”

“Then why didn’t you go straight home in that car and got off near the Marquis Mergoville’s residence?”

Vivianne recalled that moment. Yes. Back then.

“It’s always impressive, no matter how many times I see it. Just like the media says, it has a 200-year history…”

“Rather than a relic, wouldn’t ‘dollhouse’ be a more fitting description?”

“Lady?”

Right then, when she flipped over the photo she had been looking at in the car.

There was a handwriting of a man she thought she would never see again.

Meet me.

On the front of the photo, the boss of the Daatro underworld was wearing the cufflinks she had given to the Prime Minister’s fake son as a trophy.

Edmund… no, the agent she had called by that name, she assumed he was dead. If what was written on the back of the photo in his handwriting was ‘Meet me,’ then the intention was simple.

The underworld boss was not only killing the agent but also trying to kill her. He was going to send her to Edmund’s location himself.

Seeing that, she thought it was a good thing.

She got out of the car, thinking that at least the innocent family bodyguard should be spared.

She wandered aimlessly, waiting for the underworld members who would come to kill her. She couldn’t dare to go home because they might harm the people in the mansion, and she couldn’t rest inside a building because she was afraid of hurting innocent people who knew nothing.

In the meantime, dawn broke, and a few hours later, she heard on the radio that the car had exploded.

“I am a CID police officer. Vivianne Rosalie Mergoville. I am arresting you as a suspect in the Coleman Street car bombing.”

The voices of the police officers disappeared with a blink of her eyes. Facing her was Detective Wilson.

“I’ll ask again. Lady Mergoville, why didn’t you go home in that car and got off near the Marquis Mergoville’s residence?”

Vivianne opened her mouth.

“I refuse to answer.”

“Lady. If you are so uncooperative, it will be difficult for us. I heard that there is an engagement announcement party in two weeks, and such a disgraceful event.”

Vivianne smiled inwardly a little.

It was hard to weigh which was more disgraceful, her current situation of being on the verge of indictment because the car that was trying to kill her exploded, or the engagement announcement party with her fiancé who had been playing with the government.

“…Wouldn’t it be difficult if we blocked the Lady?”

Instead of answering, Vivianne slid what she had received from the family’s lawyer this morning onto the desk.

The passport given by the agent, the blood-stained agent ID, and a letter signed by the Prime Minister. Detective Wilson’s expression changed from moment to moment as he picked up the letter. He shifted his gaze and said to the police officer next to the recorder.

“Turn off the recorder.”

As the recorder was turned off and the police officer discreetly left the room, Detective Wilson and Vivianne’s eyes met again. Vivianne’s mouth opened once more.

“From now on, I’ll ask the questions.”

“……”

“This man who approached me a year ago as a substitute for the Prime Minister’s son. Is the Criminal Intelligence Bureau agent still alive?”

Vivianne doesn’t know why her proposal to the underworld boss failed, or why she became a discarded pawn.

Perhaps he was aware that she had been with an agent who was once on the Prime Minister’s side. He may have taken her letter, which revealed a lot, as a threat and offended him.

If so, there was no need to keep a card that had already been exposed.

She wondered if that man was really dead.

Once she concluded that there would be no tomorrow, that was the first thing she thought of.

It seemed less painful to be hurt or go wrong if hope was definitely betrayed, and she was curious about the eyes of the agent after he took off the shell disguised as the Prime Minister’s son.

She wanted to know.

Whether he was somehow alive. Or whether he had left her forever and could not return.

Until now, she had only wished for that, hoping to live just one more hour, more.

Detective Wilson, who had contacted someone, soon brought Vivianne a file.

“This is a photo that was delivered to the Prime Minister through the Director of the Criminal Intelligence Bureau last spring. Is the agent you mentioned the same as the person in this photo?”

Vivianne was silent for a long time.

She couldn’t even look straight at the photo.

Support I Just Needed Someone to Hate