Stigma Effect

A different scene unfolded in the Mogris Estate.

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The road, which had been covered with white snow, became muddy.
It was because the knights in military boots roamed the streets.

“Yuriel? Are the knights looking for Yuriel now?”

“Why are they looking for her?”

“She disappeared overnight.
Did she do something and run away?”

“That kid?”

“Originally, you don’t know people just by looking at their faces.
How do you know whether she was thinking harshly with an innocent face?”

“Well….
It was strange that she went into the castle when she was young.”

“Since she was young, she was smart enough to enter the castle… .”

The knights who visited the inn for outsiders marched towards Mogris Castle.
The tour of the inn and the estate seemed like an insignificant ceremonial procedure.

In order to not go against the intentions of the Mogris family, it was a move to make excuses for wanting to investigate the castle because Yuriel could not be found even after exploring the surrounding areas.

In the center of the knights, the High Priest, who was moving in a carriage, could not sit still with his buttocks on the chair.
With his body fussing, he opened the window on the carriage and was scolding the knights.

“The inquiry is enough, now let’s go to the castle!”

The wheels of the carriage rolled over the muddy ground.
The white ground became dark all over, and the knights’ boots and the hem of their pants were all messed up.

“They’re going to the castle to catch Yuriel!”

“Is that kid hiding in the castle?”

The onlookers’ clothes were also messed up, but no one cared about their clothes.

They were frantic to see the cause of the noise of the quiet estate.

Only the young children could not adapt to the noisy street atmosphere, hiding behind their parents and rolling their innocent eyes.

Yuriel climbed up to the high floor of the building and watched anxiously at the noisy castle.

The knights guarding Mogris Castle were rushing to the front door.
The soldiers who climbed the wall to hold out the outside of the castle were holding firearms that were rarely used.

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It felt like the sharp atmosphere before a battle.

The grand duchess, who had answered Yuriel arrogantly, also showed signs of insecurity and headed for the castle gate quickly.
The Grand Duke was seen riding his horse towards the main gate.

Yuriel saw them moving from inside the building.

“Yuriel.”

Among the knights heading towards the main gate, Yuriel, who was looking for Raphlet’s appearance, was called.
Raphlet was wearing the uniform of Albraka, which he had not worn since coming to the Mogris estate.

With the exception of the epaulets adorned with gold, the all-black uniform looked like it was made for Raphlet.

Whether he was a monster or a saint, for Yuriel, he was always her center.

Looking at his clothes neatly wrapped around his large build, Yuriel held her breath.

“The knights were sent from Albraka.
It is dangerous to be here.”

Raphlet approached Yuriel and said.
As he thought of the armed knights approaching the mansion, he had a numb expression.

Come to think of it, Raphlet has always been like that.
He was always calm when it wasn’t about Yuriel, and he was more reliable than anyone else.

Yuriel received a lot from such a Raphlet from an early age, and she wanted to give back what she had received from him.

Thinking of what he had given her, Yuriel touched the stomach with the child that had begun to grow little by little.
She hoped that there would be more days where joy would shine on his indifferent face when they had a child, and lived together.

Raphlet would not be able to bear it without loving his child.
He will be a more reliable father to a child than anyone Yuriel knows….

Raphlet’s expression was slightly distorted as he looked at Yuriel’s hand that touched her stomach.

A look of displeasure and anger was reflected in his brief glance.

Yuriel, who was absorbed in Raphlet’s face, understood his feelings.

Unbelievably, Raphlet wasn’t happy with her pregnancy.

Raphlet said quickly, unaware that Yuriel was shocked.

“It will be easy to say that the High Priest has come.
Stay in your room because I can’t send him back right away.
Don’t look out the window as much as possible.
They can see inside from outside….”

It looked like the purpose of him wearing the uniform was to have a conversation with the High Priest.

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Yuriel took his outstretched hand, listening to his careful voice.

She has something to ask him.

It was an ominous question that she never had after listening to Helio and Shudmuel.

“Master.”

Raphlet, who was pulling Yuriel, stiffened.
Knowing Raplet’s dislike of the word ‘master’, Yuriel tended to refrain from using the word ‘master’ to him.

It was rare to refer to him as the Master unless it was an unconscious exclamation or call.

Calling him with a serious face like now meant that she had something serious to say to Raphlet.

Just like when she answered with an obedient face in front of Raphlet, who had previously urged her to leave Albraka.

It was also a way of expressing obedience and respect.

Raphlet had a foreboding that she would yield to his own orders no matter what she said or asked any questions.

Yuriel looked up at Raphlet’s face, who was frozen.
Yuriel, who looked carefully at his face, asked him.

“You don’t want to have children?”

“… Yuriel.”

Yuriel’s long eyelashes trembled thinly.
He seemed to have suppressed his emotions, but his weakly trembling eyelashes and fingers were sad.

After spitting out the question, Yuriel, who looked down as if afraid to see Raphlet’s expression, raised her gaze.

Green eyes filled with water.
The tears that welled up were not even falling.

Yuriel, who saw Raphlet’s troubled face, spoke with a trembling voice.

“So, when I said it was dangerous, you did it ….
like that….”

Ever since he found out about her pregnancy, Raphlet’s movements during s*x had always been fierce.
Like a movement to express anger, not just a movement to pursue pleasure.

Raphlet didn’t answer, keeping his mouth shut.
He looked like that when he did not want to lie to Yuriel.

He had never lied to her, and his demeanor had never been as sad as now.

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His silence was proof that Yuriel’s question was true.

Yuriel looked at Raphlet’s face, who was looking at her clearly.
He affirmed without answering.

“I see….”

Yuriel murmured as if sighing.

The reason she decided to leave Raphlet was something he didn’t want in the first place.

As Shudmuel said, if she had erased the child, she would have no reason to return to Mogris, fearing that she would become the alchemist’s subject.

Yuriel wiped away the tears, blaming her stupidity for not asking Raphlet’s opinion.
Tears were dripping down the back of her hand.

Raphlet, still silent, grabbed Yuriel’s back tightly.
He led Yuriel, wiping the wet back of her hand with a clumsy and friendly gesture.

“… Go to your room.”

“Yes.”

Yuriel did not resist and accepted his orders.

As soon as she stepped down the stairs to the room, Raphlet caught Yuriel’s staggering body as she stumbled on her foot.

“Look out.”

“Yes.”

Yuriel, who answered without a sign of surprise, nodded in his arms.

After Raphlet didn’t answer, Yuriel seemed to have lost something.

It seemed to be an emotion, something important that had supported Yuriel.

Something positive related to vibrancy and vitality.

Unlike Raphlet, Yuriel’s face, which was full of human vitality, darkened.

The way back to the room was short.
They reached their destination before Raphlet could even speak a word of concern to Yuriel.

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To be precise, it was Raphlet’s destination.

Raphlet said to Yuriel’s back as he obediently entered the room.

“… I’ll be back soon.
Let’s talk again when we come back.”

Yuriel’s feet stopped walking towards the center of the room.
At the moment when her slender shoulders were slightly lifted, Yuriel turned her head.

Yuriel looked at Raphlet and licked her lips.
Just as her lips were about to open, a loud noise of gunfire rang out from outside the building.

Yuriel’s expression became puzzled as if she had faced the fireworks exploding right in front of her eyes.
Seeing the surprised face, Raphlet wrinkled his brow and said.

“Never go out.”

Raphlet closed the door without waiting for Yuriel’s reply.

Since Yuriel, who has always responded with a short answer, didn’t answer, it bothered him.

He’ll have to send the knights back and talk to Yuriel.

Raphlet made that decision.
It was difficult for him to accept, too, but not as much as Yuriel.

It was his role to support her since the child Yuriel was pregnant with was his.

＊＊＊

Yuriel couldn’t remember how she got to the room.
There was only a slight warmth in the hand that Raphlet had touched.

Yuriel stopped in the center of the large room and bowed her head.

The sound of shells exploding intermittently continued, as if submerged in water.

It was difficult to keep the center of her body as if the immovable floor was shaking.

Yuriel’s body, which had stood still in the middle of the room for a while, staggered.

Someone caught Yuriel’s body as she fell to the floor without even feeling herself falling.
The man’s voice turned towards Yuriel.

“… Are you sick?”

It was Baraha.