Obviously, It’s My Child - Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Translator: Effe

Editor: Yonnee

—

Louisa blinked, then jumped to her feet in astonishment.

“E-Erich collapsed? Is he okay?”

Louisa asked, her face going so pale that she was blue. Claire stared at her face.

It seemed like she really didn’t know.

“He’s still in a coma, however the doctor says he has passed the critical stage.”

What she said was a bit of an exaggeration, but it wasn’t entirely false. For one moment last night, she thought something really big was about to happen.

Erich seemed dead rather than asleep. Even if she shaken and disturbed someone who has stayed up all night for a week, they would want to wake up. For Erich, he did not even show any movements that a normal unconscious person would do.

His body temperature gradually dropped, and his heart rate and breathing also slowed down. Claire knew for the first time that human skin could become so cold.

She wondered if touching a corpse would feel this way.

Since the cause remained unknown, it was impossible to treat him. Even if they were going to do symptomatic treatment, there was no artificial respirator in this era.

For the first time in this world, Claire lamented why she hadn’t been a doctor in her previous life.

But even if she had been a doctor, she would not have been able to perform medical treatment empty-handed and beyond the level of this era. Still, she must have been able to know which of the available medicines she could use.

No, at least she could understand what was going on.

By dawn, his body temperature and breathing returned to normal. A stroke on his cheek gave a natural response.

He passed the tall hurdle ahead of him. But that was something that Erich’s strong condition had endured on its own.

She didn’t do anything.

Claire raised her gaze and looked at Louisa.

“Tell me what you put in that drink. We need to know what the problem is so the doctor will be able to do something about it.”

“It’s, it’s not me.”

“Erich wasn’t one you wanted to harm from the start, right?”

“Haa, ha, haa!”

Louisa grabbed her chest like someone suffocating.

“I never did anything like that. Nora, call Nora! It’s not me! It’s not!”

“I’m afraid I can’t call Miss Hoffman. She has been missing since yesterday.”

Claire responded to Louisa’s appeal in a cold voice.

It was then. Bang, the door hurriedly opened after a loud knock.

“Nora Hoffman’s body has been found!”

It was a security guard who ran inside.

* * *

Nora’s body was covered with a white cloth.

Claire covered her mouth with her hand and stood silent for a long time. She held the funeral of her parents, so this was not the first time she experienced death.

However, the sight of the body she faced without the sadness of parting with a family was too raw. She felt that her heart was getting cold. There was a painful sensation as if something like a wind mixed with blades filled her inside.

Claire took a deep breath.

It was like there were death cells mixed in the air, but that’s probably part of accepting too.

“Let’s go out. I’ll report to you outside.”

Maximilian offered. Claire bit her lip and shook her head.

“Please report.”

“Are you all right?”

“I’m alright.”

Maximilian looked at her pale face with eyes full of sympathy.

However, he did not show such feelings outwardly and reported in a proper voice.

“The cause of death is a stab wound. She was stabbed from behind with a dagger about an inch wide. She is believed to have died in an instant.”

“…That’s a relief.”

Because she didn’t suffer for long.

Whatever she had done, it was unjust to be killed only for the sake of being silenced like this.

“Given the disheveled clothes, it suggests that they were probably searching for something. There was a silver coin in her mouth. She was found in an alley about two blocks from her house.”

“I heard there was a fire at Miss Hoffman’s house yesterday?”

“Yes. Fortunately, it was extinguished before it spread to the neighbors. Nora Hoffman lived alone, so she had no family.”

“Then they must have destroyed the evidence.”

Her body was in an alley, and her empty house was set on fire.

Perhaps whoever it was was afraid that Nora had left something in her house as evidence.

“It’s definitely not the Elder Madam.”

Claire muttered to herself.

Although Claire thought that she was the likely suspect. She purposely went to the living room to check Louisa’s behavior.

Louisa seemed completely oblivious to the situation. Her shock and concern after hearing that Erich had collapsed looked sincere.

Maximilian said cautiously.

“The Elder Madam is not someone who can tell lies very well. And she’s somewhat… Although she goes against her duty, it is also true that she values House Klausener and His Grace the Duke.”

“Yes. I just thought there was a possibility that it was an accident that she didn’t intend or that plans had gotten twisted.”

Louisa does not have the ability to devise an elaborate conspiracy to get out of being a suspect by being the first to be suspected and then get away with it.

She showed no determination to destroy the evidence by killing a lackey once and for all like this. Firstly, she had no henchmen around her to take care of things for her, even if she was willing to do so.

Louisa could hardly remember the name of the maid who had served her for so long. She has been Duchess Klausener for more than ten years, and she had been the household’s elder matriarch for seven years, but she had not even earned the loyalty of the maids.

But to do this by secretly gathering people under her? It’s unlikely for Louisa to have been capable of that.

‘From the beginning, the Elder Madam wouldn’t plan such a big deal.

People do evil in their own ways. In that sense, it was quite plausible that Louisa would hook Claire up with a man and try to drive her away.

It is not because of her morality that values human life. For Louisa, a scandal involving a tryst with a man is a closer hell to than death, which was something abstract and conceptual.

Marquis Belf was not much different. He didn’t have the capacity to gather people to do his dirty business for him. But if there were such people, the Marquis would have ordered them to attack her on the road at night.

‘Someone found out about this plan and dipped their toes in the conspiracy. If I had taken that drink last night, the Elder Madam would have taken the fall.’

In fact, all that was coming out of the testimony now was that the drink that had been given under the Elder Madam’s order.

Perhaps the only person who knew the real culprit was Nora Hoffman.

‘It’s someone who likes hiding in the shadows.’

Who was it?

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