I Became a Slave to the Man I Abandoned Novel (Completed) - Chapter 149

Esterion moved Nox to a bedroom and immediately called for a healer. A quick glance inside Nox’s shirt revealed teeth marks, scabbed over, and bruises.

This wasn’t Khalid Via’s doing…

If so, there was only one person capable of or willing to do such a thing.

The Emperor.

Esterion clenched his jaw. The healer soon arrived. Esterion told the healer not to remove Nox’s clothes or examine the wounds, but simply to cast healing magic.

The healer, sensing the gravity of the situation, readily nodded and left after casting only the requested healing magic.

Esterion, finally letting out a sigh of relief, asked a servant, “Duke Khalid Via?”

“Ah, we’ve escorted him to the guest room for now. Come to think of it, I heard he also has injuries.”

“Injuries?”

“Yes, blood from both arms…”

Esterion frowned. He couldn’t fathom what had transpired at the Imperial Palace.

Both Esterion and the nobles observing the palace had expected Nox to be released quickly. However, for some reason, for one full day, no news emerged.

All communication regarding Duke Rainerio, Duke Via, and even the Emperor himself was completely cut off that night.

But as dawn broke, the Via and Rainerio family carriages each left the palace gates as if nothing had happened. Esterion thought, It’s clear something terrible happened to him. But why were they released so readily?

The immunity writ. It must be because of the immunity writ.

It would be unthinkable for the Emperor not to properly return a noble who had used an immunity writ. If the Emperor himself denied the powerful immunity writ he had bestowed, it would be akin to denying his own authority.

If another noble murder occurs, he’ll somehow pin the blame on Duke Rainerio.

And after making him exhaust all his immunity writs…

Esterion furrowed his brow. Just then, a faint groan was heard. Esterion turned to the bed.

Nox slowly opened his eyes.

“Duke…!”

His eyes were incredibly dark, but nothing was reflected within them, like a room where the lights had completely gone out.

Esterion’s heart plummeted. He urgently called out to him, “Duke, it’s me. Esterion.”

Nox stared at the ceiling for a long time. His open eyes were unfocused, and his trembling lips were completely dry.

Nox Rainerio tried to speak but realized no sound would come out. He slowly sat up, then mumbled without looking at anything in particular, “Sword.”

“…Duke?”

“Bring me a sword.”

The voice was like that of someone drowned in the deep sea. It barely sounded like proper words, more like a sound made entirely of emotion, a raw feeling crawling out. All sorts of emotions flickered in his wide, dark eyes.

Esterion suddenly felt an impulse to remove every sword in the mansion. He had a strong sense that no blade should be placed in Nox’s hand right now. Esterion shook his head.

“Just, just a moment. I’ll bring it later.”

“Immediately… Now.”

Nox clutched his own throat tightly. Then he gasped like someone unable to breathe and bowed his head. His ragged breaths spilled onto the sheets.

Esterion, startled by Nox’s sudden action, grabbed his shoulders, leaned him against his chest, and tilted his chin back.

“Duke, Duke!”

Nox, gasping and unable to breathe, kept searching for something. Esterion gritted his teeth, pretending not to know what it was, and called a servant. For now, he had to calm Nox down.

“Ha, ah, ahahaha…!”

Still unable to breathe properly, Nox, who was in Esterion’s arms, suddenly burst into laughter.

Nox Rainerio, feeling again the sensation of being utterly crushed by Feltion, dug his nails into his own shoulders, frantically scratching.

That forcibly aroused sensation. His limp body. Every touch that had penetrated him was excessively vivid. His white shirt began to stain with blood. Esterion desperately grabbed both his arms.

“Duke, calm, calm down…!”

Esterion’s mind could only focus on stopping Nox from harming himself. “Duke!” The servants began to move frantically at Nox’s seizure. The commotion reached the first floor.

“Ah, you shouldn’t just come in…!”

“The Duke is currently…!”

“Duke Via!”

Hearing the commotion, Khalid burst out of the guest room and urgently opened Nox’s door.

The moment he saw Nox in Esterion’s arms, his eyes burned black, Khalid’s hands trembled. He ran and knelt by the bed. And with piteous eyes, he looked up at Nox Rainerio.

Khalid’s hands were pressed to the floor. His pale blonde hair was disheveled. And he pleaded like a slave.

“Young Master, Young Master. It’s all my fault. I, I made a mistake. I was careless…”

Khalid desperately tried to take the blame. The moment Nox Rainerio blamed himself for this, his breath might stop.

How could the Emperor so easily… assert that he wouldn’t die? How could he do that?

Khalid felt like he was going to die from fear right now.

“Because of you?”

“Because of you?” Nox asked, his eyes hollow. Esterion slowly soothed him, coaxing him to breathe, trying to calm him down.

“…Yes, yes, I, it is my sin.” Khalid blamed himself like a desperate, frantic man. Nox’s dark eyes, swirling with countless emotions, looked down at him. Khalid’s jaw tightened. What he saw in those eyes was none other than…

“Whose fault it is, does it change that it happened?”

It was hatred, stained pitch black.

“Please, Young Master. I. I will do anything.”

Khalid extended his hands, daring to grasp Nox’s. His hands were damp with cold sweat, and wet with blood from the wounds on his arms.

And Nox replied to his words, “You’ll do anything?”

Nox Rainerio scoffed.

“You couldn’t do anything.”

You couldn’t protect me, nor could you protect yourself. Nox gritted his teeth and replied. Khalid was speechless. Nox gripped the sheets as if to tear them.

“I’m no longer a slave.”

His gaze drifted somewhere, but no one could tell where he was looking.

“And I belong to no one.”

He started gasping for breath again.

“Why, why did I come all this way, why!” Nox spoke as if he couldn’t comprehend. “Why must I suffer this miserable fate?”

Nox’s voice was hoarse.

Nox’s eyes, filled with hatred and rage, surged like dark waves.

They looked like ashes, burned utterly black by the flames. Nox Rainerio couldn’t hide the surging fury and dug his nails into his own body.

While Esterion desperately tried to stop him, Khalid remained on his knees, watching dumbfounded.

Feltion, he didn’t want to know why he made such a choice. For him, only Nox, right before his eyes, mattered now.

Nox Rainerio was biting his lips until they bled.

Nox, he had eyes that were burned utterly black.

Young Master, my Young Master, he uttered the word “miserable” as if choked.

My…?

It was as if the mind of the man named Khalid Via cracked at that moment. Perhaps it was more accurate to say that what was precariously held together barely managed to cling on.

“…I’ll kill him,” Nox muttered. His dark eyes stared into empty space, muttering like a madman. I’ll kill him. How dare he, to me. I’m no longer a slave or anything else. It was hard to suppress the urge to immediately grab a sword and thrust it into his body. Kill him, and then I’ll die too. Yes, that’s what it should be. Kill everyone who tries to stop me. And then…

Snap.

“He knew I couldn’t do it.”

Feltion, that bastard. He knew I couldn’t do it. Because I have responsibilities. Something to protect. Ultimately, to protect my honor, I had no choice but to bury that incident as if it never happened. That’s why he clearly did such a thing.

Though he was undeniably freed from the shame of slavery, he was in a situation where he couldn’t even freely express his rage. Nox Rainerio found all of it utterly miserable. Enough to want to die, and enough to want to kill.

“Huh…”

He let out a hollow laugh, then started laughing like a madman. The two men watched him with uneasy eyes. Khalid began to think about what he could do for Nox.

Khalid Via, he desired Nox Rainerio’s peace.

And he wished Nox would no longer suffer.

He wished Nox would no longer be hurt.

What was it that hurt him?

His thoughts abruptly cut off.

And at the same time, the one method Khalid Via had been avoiding seeped into the cracked glass of his mind.

A way for Nox Rainerio to suffer no more. A way for him to be hurt no longer. There was a way Khalid Via could achieve very easily.

Khalid Via realized then that he had not yet abandoned his greed.

He felt as though he had been struck in the head. Yes, even after all this, I was still being greedy. He let out a hollow laugh.

How dare I, yes. How dare I.

He had actually thought that he might be able to exist and live in the same world as Nox.

Nox Rainerio’s peace was all but impossible as long as the two men existed.

And so, as his thoughts twisted and turned, reaching their ultimate conclusion, only one remained.

“…I will kill you.”