The Villain's End Is Pregnancy - c52
Ryan blinked blankly. He didn’t immediately understand what he had just heard.
“Say that again. What did you do?”
“I woke up and you were gone. When I asked the attendant, he said you had left. To think you did that while I was sleeping, no matter how I think about it, it seems intentional.”
Hendrick sighed. Ryan also swallowed a small breath. Because that was true. However, hearing those words directly from the other person made him feel a bit guilty.
“I wondered why you did that. But I couldn’t figure it out at all. So I judged that instead of agonizing over it alone like this, it would be better to ask you directly, and I was on my way to the ducal residence.”
Then he said he saw Ryan getting on the carriage that was just leaving.
‘Huh? But…’
Then something was strange. Ryan immediately found the oddity. If Hendrick had followed him as he said, why did he only reveal himself now after a night had passed?
There had been plenty of opportunities. When they were checking identities at the city wall, when the coachman left his seat to find a place to stay.
Even the moment he had just entered the hotel. But Ryan hadn’t sensed at all that someone had been following him.
“Then you also knew I was staying here last night?”
He first asked what he was most curious about.
“Yes.”
“Then did you also stay here?”
When the coachman arranged accommodations, he had explained that this was the most luxurious hotel in the city. So Ryan assumed Hendrick would naturally have stayed here too.
However, Hendrick shook his head.
“No? Where did you stay then?”
Asking out of pure curiosity, he realized that what was important now wasn’t where Hendrick had stayed, so he quickly changed the question.
“Then why did you go out of your way to follow me here and want to see me?”
“That’s…”
Hendrick, who had started to speak, stopped for a moment and looked around. Then his gaze fell on the coachman who was trembling.
Seeing that, Ryan realized a subtle fact again.
‘I thought the coachman had informed Catherine that I was here, and Hendrick heard that and followed, but that wasn’t the case.’
Thinking about it, that didn’t make sense. Even if the coachman had rushed to the ducal residence to deliver the news as quickly as possible, it would have taken quite some time for Hendrick to hear it.
‘Considering that, it doesn’t make sense for me to run into him like this now.’
The question was resolved by hearing the whole story from Hendrick. What remained was the coachman’s attitude.
“And?”
“I happened to meet that coachman yesterday, and he said something interesting. He said he saw you stop by somewhere before coming to the ducal residence yesterday.”
Why did he flinch at that moment? Was it because Hendrick was making an unusually complicated and troubled face?
Or was it just the thief startled by his own footsteps? Whatever it was, a sense of crisis filled his mind that he mustn’t waste any more time here.
Ryan began to take hesitant steps back. The back door leading outside wasn’t far. If he turned around and ran like this, it would lead to the busy streets and he would somehow manage.
“The place he said he saw you was where your family doctor lives. Of course, you must have gone for an examination. Because I tired you out a bit.”
“Right! Are you a beast? H-how could you do that all night?!”
Ryan, choked up by those words, forgot about running away and shouted. The more he thought about it, the more he felt like he had been deceived.
“I… I even shamefully got examined by the family doctor because of that!”
“So you ran away this far?”
The resentful words were swallowed up by the calm question.
“I didn’t run away!”
He shouted his innocence even louder than that. Of course, it wasn’t as threatening as a frightened cat meowing shrilly, but…
Hendrick must have felt the same way, because for a moment his smooth lips twitched. Fortunately, Ryan didn’t see that.
“Then why did you come here?”
“I was in the middle of going on a trip to clear my head!”
“Because I was so frustrated by you that I couldn’t stand still! So I was going to go out for a few days to get some fresh air.”
“Aha.”
Even with a face that clearly didn’t believe it, Hendrick nodded as if saying is that so. He probably didn’t know that made people even more irritated.
In the midst of his stomach boiling.
“That’s good then.”
“What is?”
“I also wanted to take a breather.”
What the. Why was he saying such ominous things? Ryan clenched his fists, wondering if he was serious, and waited for Hendrick to continue.
But he just stared at him for a long time again.
“What, why again?”
Did he know how much it made his heart ache every time he did that? He asked sullenly for no reason, but what returned was a beaming face.
And it was so beautiful.
“Wow…”
“My, he really is so cool too.”
But apparently it wasn’t just him here who thought that. Ryan came to his senses at the cheers erupting here and there at the same time.
Only then did he realize that it wasn’t just the two of them here. His face suddenly flushed with heat.
‘Of all things, to show an arguing scene in a crowded place like this!’
Fortunately, they didn’t know who he was. This was the last chance to escape. Ryan gave a disdainful look at Hendrick who had embarrassed him and swiftly turned around.
He tried to run away like that. But he couldn’t, because once again, a single sentence caught his ankle.
“Let’s do it together. The trip.”
But why did it have to be those words that reached his ears? If it hadn’t been, he would have just ignored it and ran away. Ryan’s body turned back again.
“Are you crazy? Why would I? Hey! I told you I came here to clear my head because of you! Because I don’t want to see you!”
He shouted, then discovered the startled people around him.
‘Ah, dammit.’
Why did he make another mistake after realizing it wasn’t just the two of them? The saying that regret is always too late no matter how fast seemed to be true.
At this rate, wasn’t he just like the immature youngest son of the ducal family in the original story?
“Don’t say such nonsense!”
Ryan suddenly shouted and quickly went out the back door. The hotel was directly connected to the bustling streets.
What entered his sight as he looked around here and there to see where to go was a tea house. Judging that he needed a place to sort out his thoughts for now, he moved his steps there.
But he had been feeling someone following him from behind for a while now.
“Why are you following me?”
He asked sullenly, feeling like he knew who it was without even turning around. There was no answer. Ryan also walked with big strides, feeling petty. As expected, the footsteps continued.
‘Hmph.’
He snorted and entered the tea house. He received the greetings of the owner wearing a white apron and sat in a suitable seat. He ordered tea and snacks and casually looked around, but didn’t see the face he expected.
Feeling puzzled, Ryan looked out the window and flinched for a moment. Because the person there wasn’t Hendrick but Elena.
His gaze naturally turned to the hotel. But Hendrick was nowhere to be seen.
“Huh?”
Was this punk ignoring him? In other words, he didn’t care whether Ryan came here or not. Realizing that, thorny thorns sprouted in his heart.
“Your ordered drinks are here. Please let me know if you need anything else.”
The friendly owner set down the tea and desserts in front with a broad smile. Ryan stared at them for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Is there another exit here?”
“Pardon?”
“I asked if there is a passageway on the opposite side of where I just entered.”
The owner made a momentarily flustered expression, then when Ryan gestured with his eyes toward Elena outside, he finally seemed to understand and let out a short “Ah.”
“There isn’t a place directly connected. But there is a door we use to carry supplies to the kitchen…”
When his eyes asked if that was okay too, Ryan took out two silver coins from his pocket. It included the cost of the tea he was drinking now and the fee for the kindness.
“Gasp! Th-thank you.”
The owner, who understood the meaning, swiftly accepted it and said to call for him anytime, then returned to his seat. Seeing him still not taking his eyes off Ryan, it was well reflected that he would move whenever Ryan wanted.
Ryan drank the tea and looked at Elena once, then the hotel once. Just then, Hendrick was seen approaching this way.
Naturally, it seemed Elena also noticed that, as her gaze also turned elsewhere.
‘Alright, now’s the time.’
Ryan put down the empty teacup and gestured to the owner. As if he had been waiting only for this moment, the owner sprang up and walked to the kitchen.
Ryan, who checked the situation outside again, also got up as if it was nothing.
It was the start of his second escape attempt.