I Ran Away And The Reverse Harem Started Chapter 133

“What do you mean……?”

Yvette’s brows furrowed deeply. She looked at Deborah as though unable to understand. Mother, sitting beside her, also frowned.

“What do you mean by that? Are you certain? You’re saying Rumiz is terminally ill?”

“……Yes. She said it while coughing up blood right in front of me. Because of tuberculosis, she has at most half a year, or as little as three months, left to live.”

A shadow fell across Deborah’s face. Yvette and Mother stared at her in shock. The rest of us frowned as we struggled to grasp it.

Then Lucas asked,

“……So you mean, no matter what sentence she gets, she’ll die soon anyway?”

“……”

“Even if she’s given twenty years, she could serve just three months and then die—escaping comfortably, all on her own? Without ever paying the full price for her crimes?”

“……Yes. That’s right.”

Deborah reluctantly nodded. Anger flashed in Lucas’s blue eyes.

“Why are you only telling us this now?!”

Lucas shot to his feet, but Daniel quickly pulled him back down. Daniel’s face, too, was tight with dismay. Yet he steadied himself and asked,

“When did you learn of this?”

“……After the four of you left for Holis. I wanted to tell you immediately, but since you were traveling, it felt wrong to send a telegram.”

“……”

“Besides, Lord Bullosen, Lady Bullosen, and Miss Yvette were all so busy. The Bullosen family was consumed with catching the culprit and punishing Rumiz. I just couldn’t bring myself to say it. I feared telling the viscount would shock him and worsen his health.”

“Even so, you should have told us earlier. At least given me a hint.”

“I’m sorry……”

“……No, perhaps I was too busy to give you the chance.”

Deborah’s face had gone ashen. Yvette blamed herself as well, recalling how she often returned home late at night from questioning and trial preparations.

Still, the situation was no less frustrating. Until now, everyone had been focused on punishing Rumiz and Kazan Louis, thrilled at the chance to finally bring them to justice. But now Rumiz might die of illness before ever serving her sentence.

The first thing that came to my mind was how my parents and the Bullosen family would feel. Of all people, they would be the most resentful and heartbroken by this news.

I could understand why Deborah had hesitated to tell us. Even I felt an overwhelming helplessness that left me momentarily speechless.

They had endured over twenty years of heartache, yet the perpetrator, Rumiz, might serve only three months before leaving this world.

“So that’s why. That’s why, when the guild caught Rumiz, she cooperated so willingly. She had nothing to lose—confessing now costs her nothing.”

Bitterness filled my mouth. How could someone be like that? How could anyone think only of themselves this way?

“She must have already spent the money she got from the baron. With only months left to live, she probably thought accepting punishment would ease her conscience. Isn’t that right?”

At my question, Deborah nodded with a pained face. At last, I understood. The real reason Rumiz had agreed to cooperate with us.

We had been deceived until the very end.

“Ah, my head.”

Mother pressed her forehead with a groan. Lucas’s face flushed with rage, as though he might explode. His blue eyes brimmed with tears.

“How can this be? Rosieta only just found her family, and yet before the culprit can even be punished, she gets to escape in peace? Why is it always the bad people who get off easily?”

“Lucas……”

He grimaced, hurting as though it were his own pain. I pulled him into my arms and patted his back.

Yvette let out a bitter laugh.

“God is truly cruel. After twenty years, the kidnapper finally appears, and I wanted her to receive the maximum sentence. I wanted her remaining years to be miserable. I wanted her life to be many times more painful than what our family endured. And now…… terminal illness?”

“Yvette……”

Mother laid her hand over Yvette’s clenched fist. Yvette’s face, which had softened since learning I was her real sister, once again hardened sharply.

“So what you’re saying is, even if Rumiz is sentenced to death, it won’t matter to her. She’s dying anyway. Dying three months early won’t change anything for her. In fact, she’ll probably console herself, thinking that since she confessed, she’ll go to heaven.”

“……”

“Disgusting…… She abandoned Irene to buy fine clothes and warm meals for her own children. And now she thinks she can flee into death with peace of mind? Revolting.”

Deborah said nothing, only looking at Yvette with worry.

Kazan Louis, who had ordered the kidnapping, would not escape the maximum sentence—there was overwhelming evidence. But Rumiz? She would slip away like a loach.

Even though our family had suffered for more than twenty years because of her.

Tears finally welled in Yvette’s shadowed eyes.

I quietly slipped from Lucas’s arms and sat beside her. The moment I moved closer, Yvette lifted her gaze to meet mine.

Her face disheveled, she looked at me for a moment, then leaned into me. I wrapped my arms around her.

Not a single one of them could be allowed to escape this trial. Baron Louis, who had ordered the kidnapping. Rumiz, who had abandoned me at the orphanage. And even the temple, which had brought suffering to my family.

I held the despairing Yvette close and sank into thought.

How could I give Rumiz the same deep, endless pain that our family had endured?

I could not stand the thought of her finding peace alone. Yvette was so overcome she could hardly think straight, and Deborah’s face was clouded with helplessness.

At times like this, someone had to remain rational.

A way to keep her from escaping into peaceful rest. That’s what I need.

……But how? What could I do?

 

****

 

 

 

From that day on, I began to rack my brain over how Rumiz could be made to pay the full price for her crimes.

First of all, I needed to check whether I had missed any records during the past five days. I went through the testimonies and confiscated evidence that Yvette had received from the investigators, along with the files prepared by our prosecutor and by Baron Louis’s defense lawyer.

Fortunately, Baron Louis’s crimes were so well-documented and undeniable that even his lawyer seemed half ready to give up.

Apparently, during interrogation, he had shown up drunk out of his mind, behaved with blatant insincerity, and nearly assaulted the prosecutor in a fit of temper.

I clicked my tongue as I read the meticulously recorded statements of Baron Louis.

“How could Deborah have been born under such a man?”

No matter how much Baron Louis insisted on his innocence, we had evidence to crush each of his claims.

“So the only remaining obstacle is Rumiz.”

I started reviewing the materials after an early dinner, and even by nightfall I wasn’t finished. Relying on candlelight, I leafed through the thick documents.

“If Rumiz has only three months left to live, then even the maximum sentence is meaningless. Should we try to forcibly extend her life?”

But the thought of begging skilled doctors to keep that wretched kidnapper alive longer disgusted me. She herself had no will to go on living either.

Of course, Rumiz’s wishes were irrelevant. Still, I couldn’t bear the idea of our family appearing desperate to prolong a criminal’s life. Why should we abase ourselves before the kidnapper?

No matter how I looked at it, Rumiz’s fate was death.

In the end, she would leave this world with ease, and it would be our family alone who bore the scars. I could not stand to watch such injustice play out.

So I buried myself in the records, combing them in detail, word by word, hoping something new might reveal itself.

That was when I heard a knock, and Roan entered. I had expected the maid, since I had asked her for something earlier.

“I saw the light spilling out under the door.”

In his hand was the chilled tea I had asked the maid to bring.

“What’s this? You brought it yourself? Now it feels like I’m making the master of the house serve me.”

My frown from studying the Rumiz case melted, and I grinned at the familiar sight of him. Roan let out a short laugh and stepped inside.

“So you do realize I’m the master of the house. With all the people you’ve been inviting and coming and going, I almost thought someone else had taken over.”

“Oh, please! You know I’m always grateful.”

It was unavoidable—since all the major events happened in the capital, I had been using his house as my base of operations. Unable to argue back, I hesitated, and Roan set the tea on my desk.

“Well, I also had something to give you, Miss Jensen.”

“To me?”

From behind his back, Roan pulled out a stack of thick documents. The flickering crimson candlelight stretched long shadows across the white paper as he laid them on the desk.

“This is……”

“Records from the Holis orphanage fire.”

“Why… why do you have this?”

Startled, I asked again. Roan folded his arms and let out a long sigh.

“Daniel asked me. Long before you all went to the royal ball, Daniel suspected the orphanage fire was arson.”

“Ah……”

“He probably doubted himself too. He was just chasing after your trail and happened to suspect the fire along the way…… but to actually find this.”

I quickly snatched the files from him, flipping through the pages. As I skimmed, Roan continued,

“There was a lot of evidence. I gathered what I could and told Daniel that someone had set the fire deliberately.”

“……”

“But I didn’t tell him the most important part.”

“The most important part?”

Roan narrowed his eyes at me, then flipped to the final page. It contained a villager’s testimony from that time.

“A witness said he saw a nobleman that day. A large man, dressed in fine clothes. But he reeked of alcohol.”

“Then……”

My face tightened instinctively.

“Silver hair, violet eyes, and the stench of alcohol even in broad daylight—there’s only one man I know who fits that description.”

“Why didn’t you tell Daniel immediately? That Baron Louis himself set fire to the orphanage?”

“Because I didn’t want him digging deeper into this.”

“……”

“I hated watching him waste his time and resources on something that brings no money. I couldn’t understand why he was clinging to a wretched orphanage.”

His tone was dry as he glanced down at me.

“You know this well—I despise getting involved with the royal family, the temple, or the petty power struggles of nobles. And yet now Daniel has been thrown right into the middle of it. He’s barely become a count, with no backing at all.”

“……”

“I had a duty to protect him. I’ve watched him since the days he picked pockets in the back alleys, and I believed he could grow into something greater. I still believe that.”

I stayed silent, running my fingers over the rough texture of the papers he had handed me. Finally, I lifted my gaze and asked quietly,

“……Then by giving this to me now, you mean to say you’ll stand on my side?”