I Became a Slave to the Man I Abandoned Novel (Completed) - Chapter 144

Meanwhile, the two men were in the middle of the garden, the same spot where Khalid had once courteously interacted with a lady. Nox was now finally regaining his composure, lost in thought. Despite the Imperial Palace having little direct connection to him, it held an abundance of memories linked to Khalid.

“Duke Via!”

“What is it?”

“His Majesty wishes Duke Rainerio to see the healer…”

“Ah.” Khalid’s face was somehow pale. He looked down at the ground for a moment, as if he hadn’t considered that. Nox, feeling his condition improving, pushed Khalid’s shoulder away. Khalid, immediately understanding his meaning, allowed Nox to stand on his own.

“The healer isn’t necessary. But where is His Imperial Majesty?”

“He’s probably heading to the treatment room.”

Regardless, I have to see a healer. Nox clucked his tongue and exhaled deeply a few times. The breaths that were so difficult to take underground now came slowly. He gave a bitter laugh. He hadn’t realized that blood was still oozing from a wound he hadn’t known about.

He seemed to understand why Khalid Via looked so pale.

“Don’t concern yourself.” Khalid looked up. “This is something I’ll overcome.”

Nox drew a firm line. Even if it’s a wound you gave me, and even if you saved me, I have no desire to lean on you now.

Khalid remained silent, and Nox turned away, as if to say he’d handle it himself. Beneath his short back hair, the light revealed traces of cold sweat. Khalid clenched his fist.

Nox walked without looking back. Khalid slowly followed him. The path to the treatment room wasn’t far, meaning the time they walked in such silence wasn’t long either.

Creak—.

Nox opened the treatment room door without knocking. He saw Feltion, along with the healer who had once cared for Nox for a long time. Feltion greeted Nox with a strangely bright smile.

“Where were you, Duke Rainerio? I was worried.”

“I needed some time to calm down.”

“Still, just in case, you should receive treatment.”

Nox quietly looked down at him, then shook his head. His attitude suggested he wanted nothing Feltion offered, even if that wasn’t Nox’s true intention, it was how Feltion perceived it. Feltion nodded amiably, his smile unwavering.

“Very well then.”

Creak.

When Khalid also entered the treatment room, Feltion smiled as if he were a forcibly fitted puzzle piece. Nox narrowed his eyes at that look, but he couldn’t decipher his true intentions.

“Duke Rainerio, I apologize. The meeting ran long when it was ‘always’ supposed to be a quick return.”

“…It is quite unpleasant.”

Nox didn’t say he was fine. He wasn’t, in fact. Whether this was done knowingly or not, it was equally outrageous. At Nox’s cold words, Feltion smiled faintly and spoke softly, as if it were a peaceful moment.

“Let’s have a meal, the three of us.”

Nox and Khalid frowned. A dinner invitation in this atmosphere? But the Emperor naturally had a servant begin preparing a late meal. It was well past noon due to the meeting.

“You can wait a moment in the reception room.”

There was a subtle pressure in his words. It felt more like a command than a request. Nox sensed something amiss in Feltion’s actions, but he couldn’t pinpoint it exactly.

His reaction had been too sudden.

Did he realize I was colluding with Khalid?

For such a thing, he was remarkably calm. Nox began to process the entire situation within the limits of what he could comprehend.

Firstly, Nox Rainerio had deliberately shown Khalid the kiss with Feltion. And he used that to draw Khalid to him. To provoke and draw Khalid in that way…

‘He must have thought that Feltion reacted sensitively to Khalid’s and my contact as well.’

However, his contact with Khalid this time was almost instinctual. In such a situation, he couldn’t have calculated and sought out someone to embrace.

In that place, Nox was a drowning man, a fish out of water. Seeking out the person who had pushed him in and then pulled him out was, damn it, unavoidable. Nox sighed inwardly for a moment before replying, “A brief moment might be possible.”

He felt he needed to observe Feltion’s state a little longer. When Nox accepted, Khalid, who had been standing by, also nodded.

When the Emperor briefly left the room, the two men followed a palace attendant’s guidance and sat in the reception room. Neither of them mentioned the recent situation.

For Nox, the memory wasn’t pleasant, and for Khalid, it only served to remind him of his guilt. And only Nox could speak about this matter.

It was Khalid who had created such a deeply burned memory for him. He couldn’t open his mouth about it until Nox allowed him to.

“Khalid.”

“Yes.”

In the reception room, now that they were alone, Nox called him. Khalid raised his bowed head and replied to his summons.

“Have you done anything to invite suspicion?”

“Not in my judgment.”

Nox nodded. Yet, the Emperor’s state was still quite strange. Instinctively, he thought Feltion felt jealous of his instinctive search for Khalid, but the direction of his actions was utterly unpredictable.

‘What does he want to do?’

As Nox was lost in thought, someone knocked. It was the attendant’s announcement that dinner was ready. Nox slowly rose from the sofa and followed the attendant’s lead.

‘Even if he’s planning something, it won’t be right now.’

Feltion was a man who had lived suppressed until he became Emperor. Nox’s judgment was that even if he was displeased or annoyed now, he wouldn’t reveal it so directly. And

Nox glanced at Khalid.

If he were going to do something, he would have had a private confrontation, excluding Khalid Via. Lost in such thoughts, he walked, and soon they were in front of the dining hall.

As the double doors opened, they revealed a lavish dining room, and the Emperor was already seated at the head of the table. Nox and Khalid’s places were set on either side of the Emperor, with two empty spaces between them.

Feltion greeted the two with a relaxed expression. He didn’t look like he had anything ulterior in mind, but Nox knew very well how cruel he could be, even with that seemingly benevolent face.

Nox and Khalid each took their seats on opposite sides. As they sat, water was poured into their glasses, and dishes began to be served in sequence. Nox was the first to speak.

“To summon a noble as a murder suspect and then share a meal with him…”

It was a kind of taunt, implying that the Emperor’s people would surely be pleased. Yet Feltion, who surely understood, simply smiled gently and replied, “We all know you’re just going to use your immunity to get out anyway.”

“So, you took it out on me?” Nox asked, referring to the incident where he was forcibly thrown into the damp dungeon. The Emperor let out an awkward laugh.

“I apologize, but I truly didn’t know that. The meeting just ran long… No, no. That all sounds like an excuse.”

“Yes, Your Majesty doesn’t need to make excuses to me. It was, after all, a procedure I was bound to endure.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“Yes.”

This wasn’t understanding; it was closer to indifference. The three of them began their meal. Nox ate very little, and Feltion and Khalid also finished about half their food before having their plates cleared.

As the next course was served, Feltion asked, “There’s something I’d like to ask, Nox.”

“What is it?”

Feltion asked in a casual tone, as light as asking if he had gone for a walk today. “Does using your immunity mean you admit to all the recent murders?”

At that, Nox momentarily set down his utensils and looked at the Emperor. Nox stared directly into his eyes for a moment without expression, then tilted his head. “Well, now.”

“You’re playing word games.”

“Isn’t everything like this just a word game anyway?”

A subtle battle of wits unfolded between the two. Feltion was the first to look away. He turned his head, looked down at his food, and gripped his fork and knife.

“Remember that immunity won’t last forever.”

“Surely you don’t think I’m unaware of that.”

Nox didn’t feel much like eating but forced himself to cut a piece and swallow it. He then took a sip of water, feeling as though something was caught in his throat.

“Ah, and Duke Khalid Via,” Feltion added.

“…Yes,” Khalid replied quietly.

“I understand the debt you feel towards Duke Nox Rainerio, but you must mind what others see.”

“…Understood,” Khalid replied quietly.

Nox looked at both men in turn. In his eyes, they were both just fools. Their tendency to be emotionally swayed, blindly focused on a man’s body, was exactly that.

Suddenly, something clicked in Nox’s mind, and he briefly looked straight ahead.

Yes, Feltion was clearly someone who had lived in hiding, holding his breath, before becoming Emperor. Nox had thought that whatever emotions or desires he felt for Khalid Via or himself, he would suppress them. But this was a kind of prejudice.

Come to think of it, he was the man who, out of desire for Nox, for his body, accepted a stake in the diamond mines, and in one night, blinded by desire, spoke of three-tenths of the output. The man who killed everyone to ascend to the throne. Feltion.

If that’s the case, then Feltion’s timing to make a move…

Clang!

Khalid Via’s cup fell to the floor. The sound of shattering glass echoed.