“Countess!”
Just then, Hanna, covered in soot to the point of being almost unrecognizable, ran towards me. Thankfully, aside from being coated in ash, she didn’t appear to have suffered any serious harm.
“Are you alright? Are you injured, and how is Valery?”
“I’m fine, Hanna. Are you hurt? Valery is with the knight.”
“I’m relieved you’re not hurt. I was so worried.”
Even after I assured her I was fine, Hanna meticulously examined me from head to toe.
“Countess, you’re not alright! There’s blood!”
She then noticed blood on the hem of my dress and screamed in shock.
“It’s not my blood. It’s from Duke Albrecht…”
Carl’s shoulder, then my dress hem – Hanna kept alternating her gaze between the two, finally calming down a bit. After checking my skirt and confirming that I was unharmed down to my toes, she turned her attention to Valery.
Valery was crying, her face red, likely startled by the loud noise. Fortunately, she didn’t seem injured. Hanna brushed off the ash that had settled on Valery’s head and face.
“The floor collapsed, tilting a pillar on the side, and the debris that fell on top seems to have acted as a shield. Had it not been for that, things could have been much worse, Your Grace.”
The reason no one was seriously injured despite the floor collapsing was due to a large wooden pillar that first fell, creating a gap between the people and the pile of wood, as Clovis, the knight, reported.
While listening to Clovis’s report, I looked around the spot where the cabin once stood.
What caused this sudden explosion? Initially, I thought it was an unexpected earthquake.
But the loud explosion heard just before the house collapsed wasn’t a sound caused by a natural disaster. It was clearly the sound of a chemical reaction from artificially created explosives.
Could someone have planted a bomb in my cabin? Otherwise, how could a place so peaceful turn into a disaster zone in an instant?
After pondering various possibilities, my thoughts landed on the magic stones hidden beneath the living room floor.
“It was supposed to be just a trap to tie up our feet.”
Could tying up our feet have meant collapsing the house and making us unable to use our legs at all?
A chill ran down my spine at this realization. It seemed too far-fetched, but considering the explosions began immediately after I recited the magic stone’s activation spell…
I couldn’t believe I’d buried such a dangerous object under the floor and walked over it. It was also hard to believe that such a disastrous event occurred without anyone being seriously injured.
Carl and the knights exchanged a few more words, then discussed possible locations for unexploded bombs and evacuation plans.
“I guess it’s not my time to die yet.”
“What did you say, Celeste?”
“Oh, nothing.”
When the last explosion happened, I thought I would definitely meet my end here. But fortunately, it seems my time hasn’t come yet.
As I exchanged a few words with Carl, leaning on him, I gradually regained the ability to move my feet.
The knights advised quick evacuation in case of another explosion, which sounded like an urgent call to start moving. Just as I tried to force my legs to move,
Thud.
I stumbled upon something.
“This is…”
It was the detective’s potion bottle, into which only Valery’s blood had been dropped. It had fallen to the floor during the collapse, with one corner broken and the contents leaking out.
One, two, three. Exactly two more broken bottles lay next to it. A shame, really.
And not far from it, the potion containing a mixture of the detective and Valery’s blood lay shattered as well. Even though several minutes had passed since the explosion, the red hue remained, resembling bloodstains. It was a predictable outcome, considering the detective being Celeste’s lover was an impossibility.
“Well, of course.”
“What did you say?”
“Oh, nothing. Just a bit of pain in my leg, just talking to myself.”
“Is your leg hurting? Where exactly?”
My attempt to divert Carl’s attention only seemed to draw more of it. He leaned down to check my leg, prompting me to quickly grab my skirt and cover it.
“First, you should tend to your wound. You’re clearly the one in a more serious condition.”
Blood continued to flow from his shoulder. The sight of blood dripping from his shoulder to the floor was somewhat eerie.
But what twist of fate was this?
The blood that had splashed onto the floor from Carl had coincidentally mixed with the potion from another broken bottle nearby.
Wasn’t that the potion containing only Valery’s blood?
As I watched the faces of Valery and Carl, wondering if it could be true, the transparent liquid that had absorbed the blood suddenly turned red.
Please, let it not be true!
“There’s a carriage nearby. It’s not much, but Countess Louizet, you should use it. It’s best to evacuate to the Urentum police station as soon as possible.”
Ignoring my insistence that he get his wound treated, Carl wrapped one arm around my back and slipped the other under my legs, lifting me up.
Why She Is Still Unmoved (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: He uses various methods to seek her affection, but she remains unmoved.
Synopsis:
Si Qingyu is a doctor who has saved countless lives and enjoys tranquility.
Luo Shaoxuan is ruthless, deeply scheming, and the top young master in the capital. He admires Si Qingyu.
Luo Shaoxuan: I want to be the only one in your eyes and heart.
Features a cold and calm female lead vs A noble and scheming male lead.
There will be both sweetness and torture towards the male after their marriage.
