I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration - Chapter 124

“I appreciate your kind words. Then let me ask you a favor.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“C- can you please take that hot-water bottle Lizé brought me? I’m so cold……”

Perhaps because I was so moved that my eyes filled with tears, now my nose is running.

Killian seemed to have finally realized my condition.

“Take off your coat! No matter how much you try to disguise yourself, where did you get something like this from……!”

Killian made me take off my coat, then took off his own fur coat.

He put it on me and grabbed my forearm to steady me as I stumbled.

“Ow!”

I let out an involuntary scream. It was where Sophia had whipped me, and it hurt the most.

I was panting with pain that was making me break out in a cold sweat, and I could tell Killian’s complexion was worse than mine.

“Call the doctor now! Hurry up!”

At his shout, what appeared to be the youngest of the knights standing in the distance rushed outside.

He turned to see Lizé, her face stained with tears, staring at Killian in disbelief.

Lizé, tears streaming down her face, stared at Killian in disbelief.

Sure, she slashed her own arm, but Killian already saw that it was bleeding.

“Lizé, you should go see the doctor.”

Cliff put his arm around her and spoke soothingly, but Lizé’s devastated expression didn’t improve.

Suddenly, my vision flipped and I felt dizzy.

Thankfully Killian held me in his arms.

“How badly are you hurt……”

That was all I could hear, unable to tell if he was complaining or worried.

Because my whole body felt like it was dropping to the floor, and then I blacked out again.

But unlike before, I felt a sense of relief.

I knew that Killian would protect me while I blacked out.

I relaxed myself and drifted into a deep sleep.

***

The whole time he was carrying the collapsed Edith out of the cell and into his room, Killian was plagued by a terrible feeling of regret and self-blame.

‘I am so stupid. The stupidest person in this Ludwig family!’

I am so angry at myself for being so ignorant of Edith’s situation that I want to punch myself in the face.

I am also angry at Lizé.

I don’t understand why Lizé wanted to frame Edith, but if I hadn’t been able to clear Edith’s name right then, she might have been dragged back to the execution ground.

No, if Cliff believed that Edith had almost caused something terrible to happen to Lizé, he would have done anything to cut her head off.

As Killian stared at Edith’s pale face, lost in his own horrible thoughts, one of the knights who had captured Edith came in with a cheap leather bag.

“This is the bag Lady Edith was carrying when we found her at the carriage station.”

“Did someone rummage through it?”

“No, I brought it with me.”

“Very well. Leave it there.”

The knight bowed and left, and the room fell silent again.

Killian glanced at Edith, then cautiously opened the bag.

When he saw what was inside, he gasped.

“Oh, my God……!”

He couldn’t hold back the tears.

Three small, cold potatoes, wrapped in paper, are in the upper part of the bag.

Even Killian, who doesn’t know much about the lives of commoners, knows that these are the kind of potatoes they sell for snacks at the carriage station.

“You packed this for a meal? Something like this……?”

Killian’s heart sank.

Here is a woman who has been mercilessly beaten, cold, and hasn’t had a proper meal because she’s too worried about getting caught.

To think of her holding a paper bag of cheap potatoes, the kind that beggars can eat, and warming her hands with its warmth, made Killian’s breath catch in his throat.

“Fuck……!”

Killian’s heart sank further as he examined the contents of her bag.

It contains the rough clothing of a commoner–probably because she tried not to stand out–and traveling tools like a portable lantern, flint, and utility knife.

Each item was flimsy, and Edith would have suffered indescribably hardship if she had to rely on them to start a long journey.

‘What went through Edith’s mind when she packed this?’

I feel like I’ve figured it out without having to think about it for long. Perhaps, she was so lonely that she wanted to die.

She was already at the long-distance carriage station but chose to return here to die.

Killian squeezed his chest tightly as he imagined Edith’s lonely, heartbroken heart.

My heart ached.

‘There wasn’t a soul in the world who stood up for her. Her own family wanted her dead, and I, her husband, pushed her and took the other woman’s side at every turn…….’

I have nothing to blame the Riegelhoffs for. The Ludwigs have done worse to her.

They had never once treated their daughter-in-law, Edith, with more respect than Lizé, and I was busy suspecting everything.

There were reports that even the servants of the mansion were distancing themselves from Edith because of the way the Ludwigs treated her.

At the time, I thought it was all her own doing. How foolish of me……

Suddenly, Anna came to mind.

“……in the meantime, Young Master Cliff had interrogated all the occupants of the mansion, and the atmosphere was so murderous that everybody either said what he wanted to hear or said they didn’t know. There was only one, Miss Anna, Lady Edith’s maid, who stood by her to the end.”

According to the report of the warder who had brought Edith out of the dungeon, Anna had been interrogated for several days as Edith’s maid, but had stood by her to the end; she had been faithfully carrying out the orders Killian had given her before he left for the territorial war.

“Call Anna.”

Killian ordered urgently to the servant waiting outside.

Anna had been brought here and there for days for questioning, and had been placed on probation for not testifying against Edith.

I wanted to give her a break, but Anna was the only one I could entrust with Edith’s care right now.

A few moments later, Anna came running in, neatly dressed as always in her maid’s uniform.

“Young master.”

She may have been acting casual, but her sunken cheeks spoke volumes about the hardship she’d been through.

“I’m sorry for calling you so suddenly, but once again, there’s something I can only entrust to you.”

“Give me your orders, young master.”

“Edith……”

Anna’s head snapped up at the name ‘Edith’.

“Miss Edith? Has Miss Edith come?”

The longing and anxiety in Anna’s eyes made Killian once again sure he could trust her.

“Yes. She needs to see a doctor soon, but she’s very banged up. I need to clean her body and change her clothes……”

“I’ll have them ready in a moment, but first, may I see Miss Edith……. for a moment?”

Killian nodded, allowing Anna to come closer to the bed.

Anna approached nervously and covered her mouth with her hand as she sucked in a breath at the sight of Edith’s bruised, lean, sleeping form.

“That bitch Sophia tried to kill Edith. I should have crippled her instead of just kicking her out then……”

Killian muttered with regret, and Anna clenched her molars to stifle her surging emotions.

“I’ll get a change of clothes and a towel to clean her up.”

“Please.”

Anna stepped out of the room, and Killian gently stroked Edith’s cheek.

She was so cold he wanted to rub her limbs, but judging by her reaction when he’d grabbed her forearm, he suspected she had a lot of bruises all over her body, so he didn’t dare.

And that prediction was unfortunately correct.

As he and Anna undressed Edith, his and Anna’s eyes widened at the same time.

“I should have torn her to death! I should have torn her to pieces, not cut off her head!”

Purple bruises spread across Edith’s forearms and thighs.

Her forearms, where the whipping had been particularly severe, were still raw and blistered from the cold. Her feet, feet, which had been walking in uncomfortable shoes for a long time, had two purple toenails.

“How could this happen…… miss……!”

Anna, who had a reputation for being the most unemotional maid in the mansion, could not control the tears that streamed down her cheeks.

Killian was losing it, too.

It was as if he could see the weight of life that Edith’s slender body was carrying.

I don’t know why everything seems so clear to me now, why only now……!

‘I drove her to hell, and I didn’t even bother to find out more about her because she appeared to be okay, so it’s no wonder she didn’t lean on me!’

Killian’s heart ached as if it were being crushed.

He had failed to fulfill his responsibilities as a husband and had hurt Edith by judging her based on what he could see.

He arrogantly thought he knew everything and was smarter than her.

‘I’m disgusted with myself, I’m horrible!’

Killian kept cursing himself as he and Anna cleaned Edith’s body.

They were extremely careful, as if they were cleaning a newborn baby, for fear that the slightest touch would cause Edith pain.

They had barely gotten Edith dressed when they heard the news that the doctor had arrived.

“Bring him over here now. If Cliff tries to take him away first, tell him I’ll kill him.”

With Killian in a more murderous mood than ever before, the servants rushed out to fetch the doctor.

And as soon as the doctor saw Edith’s condition, he looked at Killian in horror.