Chapter 6

Wanting to Escape (5)

As soon as Ian arrived at the downtown bar, Hibiscus, a waiter approached with a smile.

“Good evening, Ian Wade. I’ll guide you to your usual place.”

It was a completely remote area.

Ian always sat in the same seat whenever he met someone at Hibiscus.

Although he was kind of like a celebrity, he was also a person who wanted to have nothing to do with being noticed.

He came a little early, so his appointment had not yet arrived.

While waiting, he was completely immersed in Annabelle’s words and frowned.

It was then.

Bang!Ian jumped and ducked inside.

The western outer wall collapsed and hit the spot where he was sitting.

All kinds of bricks and ornaments poured onto the table that turned into a mess.

That side of Hibiscus was in complete shambles.

“Are you all right, sir?”

Fortunately, Ian was the only one on the wall, so no one else was hurt. Ian was also spared thanks to his incredible speed.

But it didn’t matter since he was fine.

“It’s alright.”

Ian responded half-heartedly to the crowd of waiters and ran out through the collapsed outer walls.

At this rate of the collapse, he would have avoided it well without Annabelle’s warning, but that was not important now.

He wanted to meet her right away and ask for the whole story.

He then realized that he didn’t even know Annabelle’s whereabouts as he was trying to cross the city to find her.

Maybe… she said she lives with her half brother.

He didn’t even know the name of that brother.

Ian had no choice but to grab a random person and ask them where the Nadit mansion was.

“Looking for me?”

Then came a slow voice.

Finally, he found Annabelle sitting with her arms folded over the branches of the zelkova tree with her head up.

“I told you not to go, you dumb blonde, why can’t you understand when I warned you. Can’t you keep your brain cells fresh?”

Light purple hair fluttered behind her back while she sat nonchalantly.

“You…”

But Annabel seemed unwilling to talk to him for a long time.

“I hope you hit your toe so hard that your toenail pops off! Then every time you put on your socks, you’ll only scream!”

Without even listening to his response, Annabelle uttered the same harsh language as if saying a goodbye.

Then, she jumped up and disappeared into the darkness.

Ian immediately tried to follow Annabelle, for he wanted to hear right away how this happened.

It wasn’t that hard for him to catch her. As he was about to run away from the cluttered bar, someone grabbed his arm.

“Ian, are you okay?”

It was the person he was supposed to meet.

“I think it was someone’s deliberate plan. They found an explosive.”

The man draped in a dark gray robe flashed his green eyes in the dark.

Ian gave him a brief courtesy and said:

“I’m fine, my lord.”

Ian’s appointment was with the prince, Robert.

After leaving the military where they were close for a long time, they often met at the Hibiscus bar to catch up.

It was a form of blunt Ian accepting Robert’s talk.

It wasn’t a secret that Ian went to the Hibiscus regularly, but since Robert was the prince, he always kept security around.

“I moved secretly, but I think I got exposed.”

Robert, of course, assumed that the attack was aimed at him.

Ian Wade had not yet received any political action from the duke.

Since Robert was a prince, he inevitably had to be different from himself, who had many enemies.

Besides, Robert was a little different from other princes.

He openly opposed the Crown Prince, because he himself had ambitions for the throne.

The Crown Prince and Empress could not let this ambition stand still, and they had already been exposed to these risks.

“Fortunately…”

Ian frowned and said hard.

“…Someone warned me of the danger.”

“To you?”

Robert tilted his head. Then he clapped his hands once and said with a smile.

“Can you tell me who that grateful person is?”

Grateful person…

The swear words have changed a bit lately, but he had been receiving insults from Anabelle everyday ever since he was 14 years old.

There was a lot of really offensive and vulgar language among them, so Ian had to spend some time linking the term ‘grateful person’ with Annabelle.

“I think it was right to tip you off because it’s probably hard to reach me.”

“Hmmm. Terrorism aimed at me?”

“Who dares to target you, who is first in the swordsmanship contest, with such a frivolous attack? Besides, you don’t have any enemies, do you?”

Robert asked and shrugged his shoulders.

Then, he looked at Ian, who didn’t say anything, and added as if it were funny.

“Oh, there is one person.”

“…”

“The 2nd place girl that rushes to you every day… Wasn’t her name Annabelle? Isn’t she the only one who can terrorize you?”

Ian touched his forehead without realizing it.

It would’ve been better if it was just bad luck.

In the past, no matter how many times he heard her insults, he only felt bad at that instant but would later forget about it.

But now that he kept getting tangled up like this and thought about it over and over again, it bothered him like crazy.

If this was Annabelle’s big picture, then it was very successful.

“It was Annabelle Nadit who gave me the warning.”

“Oh yeah?”

As Ian said that, anger flashed across Robert’s face.

“I know roughly what happened.”

“Yes?”

“Isn’t the Marquis of Abedes part of the Crown Prince faction?”

Robert calmly explained to Ian, who still had a shaky expression on his face.

“How could I not have overheard such information from the Marquis? My brother is always anxious to kill me, so planning such a terrorist attack is still sufficient.”

The ‘brother’ Robert referred to here was, of course, the Crown Prince.

Robert is fairly involved politically, and has a quick mind in reading these situations.

Ian then asked slowly.

“Anabelle wants to be recognized as a legitimate child by the marquis. Why would she dare tell me about the terrorist plan against the prince?”

“Do you know how the Marquis of Abedes treats Annabelle?”

Robert crossed his arms and said.

“You don’t really know much about Annabelle because you’re not interested in social life.”

Ian couldn’t answer anything.

He had never been particularly interested in the social world except for swordsmanship. Moreover, he paid no more attention to Annabelle as it was.

For him, Annabel was just a mean opponent, a person who took 2nd place, and an annoying rival.

He didn’t even know where she lived nor the name of her one and only family member.

They had been seeing each other almost every day for eight years.

“When Annabelle was born, she didn’t care about anything other than trying to give her mother money. It didn’t matter how well known she was as someone who took 2nd place in the swordsmanship contest. It’s the same with her father…”

Robert shook his head.

“He couldn’t deal with her mother’s lust, so when he saw her as an illegitimate child, he threw some money at her mother, and it was over. In fact, all that money was intercepted by her brother.”

“Is that so?”

“If I were Annabelle, I would resent Marquis Abedes. He didn’t take proper responsibility when she was born. Besides, she wasn’t someone who could just be given away, and she’s living a hard life. Do you think you could handle all that?”

“…”

“Anyways.”

Looking at Ian’s somewhat stiff expression, Robert continued.

“Thank you for giving me this warning. If I had come a little earlier, it would’ve been unlucky.”

As Robert spoke calmly, Ian’s suspicions were rising.

Of course, he couldn’t deny that Robert’s reasoning was unreasonable. But the Annabelle he had seen was never the kind of woman who would be that complicated.

Did she intervene in the affairs of the imperial family while moving politically like that?

She didn’t seem interested in anything other than the obsession to beat Ian somehow.

Even if by chance she had learned about today’s attack from Marquis Abedes, there was no way she could tell him.

Rather, he didn’t know if she was quietly cheering for the terrorist from afar, hoping that he would get hurt even a little bit.

To say that there was a sudden change of heart, it might as well as be another great curse at the end.

“But she is still a woman who throws curses at me. Do I need to…”

Robert cut him off softly.

“Well, she can curse you. After all, it’s not you, it’s me who she wanted to save.”

No matter how much Ian thought about it, he didn’t think that was the case, but there was nothing to object to.

Ian really didn’t know anything about Annabelle.

Even though he met her every day, he didn’t know her more than the prince who only passed by her now and then.

“So, at the next meeting.”

Ian’s thoughts could not be continued.

“It would be nice to see Miss Annabelle with the two of us.”

Because Robert’s words felt like he just dropped a bomb.

“I want to avoid the eyes of others and secretly say thank you.”

Robert’s green eyes shined glamorously. In a soft, friendly tone, he continued.“Her situation is pitiful, and I don’t know if there is anything I can do to help.”

At just the right time, it started to rain as if Aaron’s rain prayer worked.

Annabelle’s words floated up again in every puddle of rain water on the side of the road.

“Since you see her often, please make arrangements for me.”

“We don’t see each other often, we just keep getting entangled.”Despite Ian’s blunt answer, Robert did not back down.

“That’s what I meant. Be sure to reserve a seat before the swordsmanship contest.”

Watching the pouring rain reminded Ian of her past curse.

So, Ian couldn’t think deeper about the displeasure that filled his heart.