Chapter 43
Noah Weber’s face twisted in disbelief as he looked at Johannes, who spoke as if talking about someone else.
I was just as taken aback.
Johannes, however, paid no attention to our reactions and continued speaking.
“And I found evidence that you leaked military secrets to the enemy. Was money really that important to you?”
Noah Weber stumbled backward in a panic. But due to the pain in his arm, he didn’t get far before collapsing.
Clutching his shoulder, he screamed out desperately.
“Do you even know who’s behind me?!”
“I do. Your money supplier, right? But since you’re spilling so easily, I can only be thankful.”
“Hiiik.” Noah gasped in shock.
“I hope you’re just as cooperative during the interrogation. It’ll be very helpful.”
His face, once full of rage and pain, now showed a flicker of fear.
Johannes leaned in and whispered something in his ear. Noah’s jaw dropped open in shock, as if he’d lost his mind.
Johannes left him trembling like a leaf and came toward me.
He extended a hand.
When I took it and stood up, his blue eyes scanned me up and down.
“You’re bleeding.”
His brows furrowed as he reached out toward my forehead. It must’ve reopened from when I was hit by the gun earlier.
“Are you all right?” he asked, in a much softer voice than he’d used with Noah Weber.
I hadn’t even realized the pain until he asked. The fear of possibly dying had dulled everything. But now that he mentioned it, the pain throbbed sharply.
I instinctively winced, and the ache in my head intensified.
“…I don’t think I’m okay.”
I really wasn’t. Seeing this, Johannes took my hand and placed a pistol in it.
I looked up at him, puzzled.
“I’ll let you decide what to do with him. Shoot him wherever you like—just for practice if you want—or kill him in one shot.”
His words were chilling, yet I didn’t feel afraid. Surely, he didn’t actually expect me to shoot.
Wiping the blood from the corner of my eye, I asked playfully, “Am I really allowed to?”
Of course not. I expected him to take the gun back.
But Johannes simply nodded. He didn’t reclaim the weapon or try to stop me—he even stepped aside to clear the way.
Was he serious?
Apparently, Noah Weber hadn’t expected it either.
“W-What are you doing?!” he screamed in a pitiful voice. His tiny eyes were wide with fear. Just moments ago, he had tried to kill me with such bravado. Now he looked absolutely pathetic.
What a worthless man.
Stripped of everything, he looked like a drowned rat.
His pistol had rolled down the stairs, and his shoulder was seriously injured.
His ankle also seemed twisted—he couldn’t even stand.
All he could do now was scream at me.
“This is illegal!”
Noah shouted, but Johannes calmly corrected him.
“You should stop pretending to know things you don’t.”
“What do you mean…?”
“The Duke of Schultz family’s summary execution rights were abolished. But if a noble is harmed, they still retain the right to execute the attacker on the spot.”
“…What?”
“Unlucky for you, my wife is a noble. That right belongs to her.”
Noah Weber’s face turned ghostly pale.
“Ha… Hahaha!”
He laughed like a madman. Whether he’d snapped or just decided to go down swinging, I wasn’t sure.
“If you can shoot, go ahead! You’re just a lowly commoner woman—do you even know how to use that thing?!”
Even with Johannes right there, he hurled insults at me like it was nothing.
I sighed softly. How simpleminded could he be?
“Sorry to disappoint you, but my father taught me how to shoot when he was on leave.”
When I aimed directly at his head, Noah Weber’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
“He loved me very much.”
He clenched his wounded arm tighter. His clothes were all wrinkled and twisted from the grip.
His lips trembled, barely holding back his fury. Then suddenly, he began slamming his head against the floor.
He had screamed about honor before—yet now he couldn’t accept the idea of dying at the hands of a mere commoner woman.
I didn’t want to dirty my hands by killing someone like him. In the end, I couldn’t pull the trigger. I returned the gun to Johannes.
“No matter what, I can’t kill someone.”
Johannes respected my decision. He seemed to have known I wouldn’t go through with it.
He tied up the unconscious Noah Weber, shoved him into a corner, and came back to me.
But then his figure began to blur. My vision suddenly became hazy, and a sharp pain struck my head. My eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
“Madam.”
“…”
“Madam!”
The last thing I saw was Johannes’ pale, shocked face.
Wow. So he could make a face like that.
As my vision flashed white, his voice, full of worry, drifted far away.
I slowly opened my eyes, comforted by the warmth that lightly wrapped around my body.
My head still throbbed like it would split open. It hadn’t hurt this badly just a moment ago.
Why now?
“Ugh…” I groaned softly, and someone quickly approached.
“My lady, you’re awake?”
“…Ahin?”
Ahin looked absolutely devastated.
When I called her name, relief washed over her worried face.
“I’m so sorry, my lady. I should’ve anticipated something like this…”
“No, how could this be your fault?”
“Still, I should’ve served you better. When the fire broke out, I panicked too much…”
“Don’t worry so much.”
Seeing her shoulders slump, I reached out and lightly patted her arm.
Ahin slowly lifted her head, but her expression twisted again as she glanced at the bandages wrapped around my head.
“Really, it’s not your fault. I’m alive, aren’t I?”
“…No, it is your fault.”
Before Sir Fret could respond, a sharp voice interrupted from the doorway.
It was Johannes.
“They said luckily there’s no fracture. But you should still drink this.”
He turned to Ahin with a cold glare.
Ahin immediately bowed her head.
“I have no excuse. It was my failure.”
“Indeed.”
“I’m sorry, Master.”
“You think just saying sorry is enough?” Johannes scoffed.
“Because of your negligence, your mistress’s life was put in danger—and yet you show your face so shamelessly.”
“I…”
“I told you not to show yourself for a while. Did you think I was joking?”
It looked like Ahin would burst into tears, so I quickly changed the subject.
“Let’s not argue in front of the patient. What happened to that man? I’m curious.”
Apparently, Johannes agreed not to fight in front of me. He said nothing more to Ahin.
According to him, the navy arrived later and took Noah Weber into custody.
Noah had many accomplices, but Johannes didn’t say what happened to them. Judging by his expression, he likely handled them on the spot.
“By the way, didn’t he get mad at you?”
Johannes looked at me with a confused face.
I let out a hollow laugh.
So in the end, even with a death sentence looming, he said nothing to Johannes.
Yet he hurled all kinds of abuse and violence at me.
Truly, a pathetic man.
