try begging
"Fuck...."
Frustration.
The devil buried his face in his hands, his expression clearly showing his pain, and looked frustrated.
Wouldn't it be lucky for the author if the enemy he had trampled on in revenge helped him completely get revenge and disappeared forever?
'But why on earth are you so desperate to find it?'
From the moment the author brought up Grace's story, the absurd suspicions that had been sprouting slowly grew into certainty.
The diary should have been burned after Grace saw it. Jo glared at the back of Winston's head for taking away her mother's belongings under the ridiculous pretext of confiscating evidence.
He was leaning against a black sedan parked on the dirt road while the soldiers finished searching the house. He seemed lost in thought, staring off into the distance into the field. He looked like a lost man.
"I know that too."
Joe suddenly remembered the author's curt remark a moment ago. It wasn't a conventional response to something you don't like to hear. Winston acted as if he knew Grace's childhood.
Joe, who was sitting in a worn-out rocking chair by the front door, took out a cigarette and walked over to Winston.
"Tell me what's going on."
He was loitering around in front of him, smoking a cigarette as if he were watching monkeys at a zoo, when he blurted out something as if he found it annoying. Only then did Joe ask the question that completely changed his suspicion into certainty.
"I guess you met Grace when you were young?"
Winston glared at him for a moment instead of answering, then turned his gaze back to the fields. Not denying something was admitting it.
"I asked about it after I got back from Abington Beach. Where? How? Surely adults wouldn't have had a secret meeting with their children."
"You say disgusting things so casually," Leon replied curtly, narrowing his eyes.
"Back then, that woman didn't know the rules of the outside world. She would come to other people's villas and play on the beach, and she would sit on a tree and steal glances at my face."
"Ah... I guess I have a weakness for blonde guys who look like that guy."
Leon let out a short laugh, finding it funny that he had to belittle it by saying it was 'worth watching'.
"So the person you were chasing after was the son of the target of the conspiracy. Anyway, that guy... "
The woman's older brother muttered to himself and then laughed while putting a bad-smelling, low-quality cigarette in his mouth.
"So, this is your unforgettable first love?"
It was a ridiculous question. As if even I, the one asking the question, thought it was ridiculous.
Why is it so absurd?
Everything about him was extremely unpleasant, from his rude attitude of digging up extremely personal things to his disdainful sneer.
"Ha, I wondered why you were so obsessed with my younger sister, the daughter of your enemy and foe. Then I found out that there was a reason for that. So you ruined your already ruined first love even more with revenge? It's really a shame."
Leon glared at the arrogant man, then closed his eyes tightly and pressed his throbbing temples with his hands.
"You two are really good at getting on my nerves."
Moreover, the siblings were very similar in that they would immediately change their attitude and act cocky as soon as they realized that he could not harm me.
"My first love and all, like I said before, you're none of my business, so to be honest, I want to kill you."
Leon opened his eyes the moment the guy who had been babbling continuously revealed his true feelings. The guy's chin was trembling slightly with anger. Now it was his turn to laugh.
How well done for a fugitive with a dependent family.
"If you want to make your children orphans and your only nephew an illegitimate child without a father, then so be it."
As soon as I smiled leisurely, curling the corners of my eyes, the bastard hit the nail on the head.
"You want to take responsibility, don't you? But Grace would rather be an unmarried mother with an illegitimate child than be the kind of woman you take responsibility for."
"Did you talk like that at the Round Table? This proves the intelligence that the elders hated Jonathan Riddle's son so much."
"Oh, those old people... ."
The bastard spat as if it was too dirty to even put in his mouth.
"Both the rebels and I are at fault for things turning out this way, but your fault is no small part of it."
The girl's older brother frowned at Leon's scolding.
"If you really cared about her, shouldn't you have taken your younger sibling with you when you left?"
The bastard sighed deeply and threw his cigarette butt on the floor, crushing it.
"It may sound like an excuse, but it's not that she didn't do it, it's that she couldn't do it. Grace has a very closed personality."
"Oh, I know that."
"She's smart, but she's a little... no, she's very inflexible. Like most of the older kids in that town, Grace was particularly bad at seeing the world in black and white. As it turned out, that was because the adults raised her that way... ."
"brainwashing."
Joe nodded at Leon's words.
"It was terrible. I tried everything to remove the brainwashing, but nothing worked. That's why I freed him so he could do it himself."
He thought that if he broke the egg and was reborn, he would imprint on him, but the woman spread her folded wings and flew away.
Winston stared at him with a puzzled look as he sneered at someone he didn't know who he was talking about. He thought he was using Grace purely for revenge and promotion, but it didn't seem to be the case. Is it true, or am I already becoming presbyopic?
"By the way, you seem to have quite a bit of money...."
While I was speechless, Winston raised his eyebrows and brought up an unexpected topic.
"When are you going to stop pretending to be a poor laborer?"
Joe was momentarily taken aback by the words that seemed to look straight into his mind.
No. It might just be a guess.
"... A stomach. If that were really the case, damn it."
I pretended to look bitter and lit my cigarette again, but it didn't work.
"Aren't you preparing to immigrate?"
"... ... ."
"This place is full of old 'comrades' and the military that is hell-bent on capturing you, so it's only natural that your normal life is already ruined."
Winston, who had been staring at Joe's face as if observing it, snorted.
"That's right. I'm the one who's been watching you all this time."
"...Why?"
"Why? Isn't it obvious that I can't allow the descendants of the woman who killed my father to live in peace and happiness? I should push them into the pit of hell for generations. You too, and your younger brother, whose identity I didn't know at the time. That's what I was planning to do."
Joe tried hard not to look shocked.
"But now, to do that, you'll have to send your children to hell."
"That's right. Be lucky for you. Be grateful to that child for the rest of your life."
The moment the devil, who had been staring at him with eyes that could not be read while smiling with his mouth twisted, spoke again, Joe was shocked once again.
"Your brother told me where you were going. He said he had a wealthy aunt living in Columbia."
Of course, the woman had never said anything like that. It was just a guess based on what she had seen in her diary and letters, but her brother confirmed it with a very candid expression.
"Mr. Charles Henderson, immigration is on hold."
"... ... ."
"Even if you run away to another country, you'll still be in my hands. Your aunt is also under surveillance by a detective I hired."
As the other person's face turned even paler, Leon smiled with the corners of his eyes widening.
"Don't worry. I'll send it to you someday. But I'll have to move first. To Winsford."
"under...."
Only then did the frozen man laugh.
"That's it. You're going to use the family as hostage to pressure Grace."
"A hostage? I feel bad because I was just protecting you."
"That's funny."
"You have nowhere to go anyway. The army has come, so the farm owner will kick you out right away. It'll be hard to find a new place to live..."
Leon winked at the women and children huddled together on the old sofa in the hallway, watching the soldiers with anxious eyes.
"The world is dangerous, filled with remnants who would try to catch and kill anyone who is a Riddle. The safest place for me is the same for that woman and you."
While the other person was unable to refute, Leon took out the business card and put it in the pocket of his old overalls.
"As the leader, think carefully."
The soldiers who had finished their search began to climb into the military truck without finding anything. Joe, who had been glaring at Winston's swollen face even after it disappeared into the black sedan, couldn't help but approach the car the moment the driver started the engine.
"hey."
When I knocked on the backseat window, Winston rolled down the window, raised an eyebrow, and asked what the matter was.
"I have a favor to ask."
"ask?"
"Jimmy, just beat that son of a bitch up enough that he'll regret being alive."
Winston looked at Joe with a subtle expression that was neither smiling nor displeased.
"Do I look like a thug under you?"
"Why? Isn't that an easy request?"
I laughed slyly, and Winston snorted. Anyway, it wasn't a rejection, so I tapped the roof of the car as if to encourage him and stepped away.
"That woman received an inheritance, gold bars, right?"
How did you figure that out? Winston, who had read Joe's thoughts while he was stunned by the unexpected and accurate remark, gave the answer before he could ask.