Try Begging - Chapter 146.2
Leon was trying to deny it when he remembered a vague memory from his past. It was after he graduated from the military academy and returned to his mansion.
“What should we do with this?”
The maid had asked, holding up a dolphin doll while they were clearing out his childhood items in the storage room. He hadn’t even remembered owning it. At that time, it had only been a trigger for unpleasant memories, yet instead of asking to throw it away, he found himself saying to keep it in storage.
Why do we choose not to completely forget?
Whoosh. Bang.
With the straw hat in hand, Leon was pulled back to the present by the sound of fireworks. He looked out the window as fireworks began to color the night sky, celebrating the new year.
Champagne, kisses, parties, and fireworks brought another night to mind.
…The night of his engagement party, which had been a turning point leading him here.
Bang.
The woman who was terrified into paleness that night for mocking exploding fireworks as gunshots. And he had mocked her.
His face reflected in the window beyond the illusion was twisted and joyless.
Leon closed his eyes tightly.
He had believed, at the moment he decided to walk this path, that if he could just impregnate her and break her brainwashing, everything would fall into place. How foolish he had been just two seasons ago.
“May the next year bring more hope than this one. That futile hope is all you have left.”
Whose words were those, really?
Bang.
As everyone wished for luck at the stroke of midnight, Leon silently wished for a happy misfortune. He hoped that the sound he heard was a bullet hitting him.
And this time, it would be her turn to mock.
Right in front of him.
Clank, clank, clank.
As Leon listened to the rhythmic clatter of the train wheels on the tracks, other sounds began to blend in, prompting him to open his eyes. The setting sun was obscured by thick raindrops striking the window, trailing down in diagonal lines.
He watched the rain idly, a deflated laugh escaping him.
Miserable.
As the train slowed, the familiar skyline of a city set against a sky tinged with gray and red came into view.
He was back in Winsford.
It was exactly one month since the woman had disappeared—without him. Leon scribbled on a napkin on the table with his fountain pen:
— One month.
— 31 days.
— 744 hours.
— 44,640 minutes.
Converted to seconds, it was 2,678,400 seconds.
He knew it was meaningless and would only add to the pain, yet he couldn’t stop himself. 2,678,401 seconds. 2,678,402 seconds.
2,678,403 seconds…
“Ha…”
He set the pen down, the sound echoing sharply in the empty first-class compartment with his sigh.
He had considered all scenarios but never truly anticipated returning alone. All his plans had been about preventing him from returning without her. Yet, he couldn’t just wait indefinitely in the place where she had vanished. There was no reason to.
Knowing this, he had lingered in the north under the guise of conducting prisoner interrogations and investigations, only leaving as the ceremony for his title conferment approached.
The royal event schedule was usually planned meticulously at least six months in advance. Yet, surprisingly, within less than a month of announcing a title conferment during the New Year’s address, the royal household notified him that the ceremony was to be held.
It was evident that they intended to use Leon to soothe some recent negative public opinion towards the monarchy.
At the end of last year, just before the operation, a rumor had circulated in financial circles and eventually made its way into the tabloids, claiming that the king was the actual owner of a joint venture that had won the mining rights to the Bria Diamond Mine.
Naturally, this rumor, strategically spread by Leon under the assumption that the woman would be by his side at this critical time, coincided perfectly with his plans.
Public opinion about the royal family’s covert investments was understandably unfavorable. If the monarchy directly denied these allegations, it could validate the rumors, turning them from whispers in the dark to accepted facts in the light.
Thus, the royal family countered this by deploying ‘anonymous royal sources’ to the media to dismiss these as baseless rumors while manipulating public opinion through more devious means.
And just when these issues were brewing, Leon’s successful suppression of the rebels captured public attention. It likely earned him gratitude from the king, who might have seen him as rescuing him, while not knowing he was the one who had drowned him in the first place.
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