Revenge Costs Interest [EN]: Chapter 115

Revenge Has Interest 115

115. Aching Realization

November 23, 2023

Grace glared coldly at Terrence.

‘Who exactly did Terrence love? If it wasn’t fake love, he shouldn’t change, no matter what Grace is like.’

‘I haven’t changed.’

‘No. Terrence only tries to take what he wants. Love without understanding or sacrifice is nothing.’

So, who was the Grace he loved?

Terrence asked himself. He had said he would love her no matter what she looked like.

Yet, when such a thing actually happened, he tried to avoid it without giving himself any room for understanding.

‘Terrence, what if Grace disappears forever?’

‘What?’

Terrence was breathless at Grace’s words. What if she disappeared from this world altogether?

He wouldn’t be able to see Grace anymore, talk to her, or feel her warmth.

Only then did a pitch-black despair engulf him.

‘Whatever is inside Grace, nothing changes.’

She looked at Terrence with a sad face and said. Then, her form slowly blurred.

Terrence realized as he watched Grace disappear before his eyes.

That if he lost her, nothing would be left for him.

In the end, the woman he loved was Leah Hamilton.

No matter what she looked like or whose soul she had, she was always there, and he was the one who started the love.

‘Terrence, it’s too late. Leah, who was supporting Grace’s body, will disappear.’

‘No! That can’t happen!’

Even with Terrence’s cry, Grace made a pitiful expression and disappeared completely.

At that moment, an uncontrollable sadness washed over Terrence’s heart like a wave.

He had a feeling that he might not be able to see Leah again.

Only raindrops were falling where Grace had been standing just a moment ago.

‘Leah, will I never see you again?’

His heart ached as he spat out the bitter words.

The spruce forest disappeared, and he was in the middle of a battlefield surrounded by corpses.

He never wanted to return to the lonely and bleak past, but his short-lived happiness ended like this.

To think he would realize his true feelings for her in a field of corpses.

‘I love you. I don’t care who you are or what you look like. You’re just the woman I love.’

Just as it wasn’t a love he started knowing from the beginning, his feelings hadn’t changed.

He had only fallen into confusion for a moment.

But why did he wander? Grace had already told him the answer and left.

[Terrence only tries to take what he wants. Love without understanding or sacrifice is nothing.]

He should have understood before wandering. Instead of trembling with unfamiliar fear, he shouldn’t have doubted himself, who loved her as she was.

‘You foolish bastard.’

Pouting when he was blessed, and trembling with fear if Leah wasn’t there.

Leah didn’t calculate, protect herself, or love cautiously. She came all the way to that distant forest and saved him without fearing death.

‘Did you forget that already?’

A cowardly human who not only treated such a woman like a monster but even ran away here.

‘Terrence, your love is petty.’

So Grace said he wasn’t qualified to love.

He was only intoxicated with his own feelings and couldn’t truly embrace her pain.

The sense of alienation that had lingered in Terrence’s heart disappeared without a trace. His emotions were clearly visible, as if he had woken up from being intoxicated with drugs for a while.

He didn’t even remember when he had doubts and struggled with repulsion. Now, he felt nothing. Rather, he missed Leah dearly.

“Huff……!”

Terrence woke up from his sleep and jumped out of bed.

Rumble, crash—! A roar echoed, and the outside of the window flashed. The thunder and lightning seemed to be putting an end to his wandering.

He ran out of the bedroom and shouted.

“Luke!”

How loudly did he shout that the officers sleeping in the barracks opened their doors one by one and came out.

Luke ran to Terrence in his pajamas and barefoot.

“Y-You called, Duke?”

“Let’s go back.”

“Yes? Now?”

“Yes.”

“There’s thunder and lightning and heavy rain outside.”

“So what?”

“Let’s go tomorrow.”

Luke persuaded Terrence with elaborate words.

‘He’s finally come to his senses.’

He was glad to see him regain his old self, but at the same time, he wasn’t very happy with his stubbornness.

Luke took Terrence to his bedroom.

“Duke, just wait a few hours, or at least until the rain stops. Let’s have a drink together in the meantime.”

Thanks to Luke’s coaxing, he barely calmed down.

Luke sat Terrence on the sofa and handed him a glass of brandy.

“Why did your mind suddenly change?”

Terrence’s face was visible for a moment in the flashing lightning. It was a peaceful face, like a sage who had been in deep agony and had attained enlightenment.

Even though it was noisy outside, he seemed to have finally found peace.

“My mind has never changed. But……”

“But?”

“I was immature.”

“Yes?”

‘What the hell is he talking about?’

“I don’t want to admit it, but men are beings who only realize after experiencing it.”

“That is correct.”

Only then did Luke understand the meaning of what Terrence was saying.

He confided his feelings to Terrence for the first time.

How much he had worried and wandered before deciding to marry Chenelle. But he realized when Grand Duke Vincent coveted her.

Maybe Chenelle would never be his woman.

“I love Chenelle, but my repulsion was just as great. Because of my parents’ reaction, people’s eyes, and my belief in my feelings. Then I thought about why I loved Chenelle.”

Terrence took a sip of brandy at Luke’s confession.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been going on and on about my personal story.”

“No! It’s okay. I want to hear more, so keep talking.”

The moment Terrence heard Luke’s story, he knew that his worries were no different from his own.

There was definitely a realistic concern proportional to the feeling of love.

“I thought about it…… I’ve said this far.”

“Well, in the end, I loved Chenelle, who was less mature. If Chenelle suddenly became normal, I don’t think I would like her as much as I do now. Only after acknowledging the feeling that I just love Chenelle as a woman did my fear disappear.”

Terrence’s heart stung. It was as if Luke had hit his mark.

In addition, he felt that his words were exactly representing his feelings.

“Then love will become stronger, right?”

Terrence’s eyes lit up at Luke’s words.

“Ah, that’s right. It was a process of love becoming stronger……”

Terrence smiled with a hollow face.

* * *

The shadow of death hanging over the Duke’s residence. Sarah and Pauline worked tirelessly to stop the bleeding, changing cloths countless times.

Fortunately, the bleeding had barely stopped.

But Leah’s body was still cold, and her body temperature had not returned to normal.

“The bleeding was too severe.”

Dr. Wilson kept repeating that he would watch while giving injections.

Chenelle, who was watching the situation, said something very unexpected.

“You can do a blood transfusion!”

When Leah was stabbed in the side by Terrence’s knife, there was considerable bleeding. At that time, Vivian said that they could transfuse blood between people with the same blood type.

Chenelle kept shouting blood transfusions in Dr. Wilson’s ear, but he only sighed and avoided her, not even answering.

Chenelle was frustrated and said to James.

“Please ask the Empress to help, okay?”

“To the Empress?”

“Otherwise, Grace will die!”

James was momentarily embarrassed, but he judged that Chenelle’s words were not entirely unreasonable.

If he asked the Empress for help, the palace doctors would come forward, so they could use treatments that Dr. Wilson couldn’t.

He sent a message to the Imperial Palace. Now, all he had to do was wait for a reply from the Empress.

The problem was how quickly he could save Grace.

“I’m such an idiot!”

Chenelle sobbed as she looked at Pauline.

“Why are you crying again?”

“I knew Grace had a baby, but I forgot.”

It was a disaster that she had forgotten for a while because her head was full of thoughts of Luke.

“What? You knew?”

As Pauline’s voice grew louder, Chenelle cried with her face covered in tears and snot.

“It’s not your fault!”

No matter how much Pauline comforted Chenelle, she didn’t stop crying.

“In the past, my heart for Grace was this big, but Luke came in and kept eating my heart. So I forgot.”

“I know, so stop crying. Please! My head is about to explode, Chenelle.”

About an hour later, several carriages arrived at the Duke’s residence.

James recognized the imperial crest at once. Finally, the door of the white carriage opened.

“How is the Lady?”

Empress Vivian got out of the carriage and asked James.

“She is not well.”

“Like frustrating humans, you should have contacted me sooner!”

James lowered his head as Vivian became angry.

When Vivian clapped her hands, men in white clothes quickly ran into the Duke’s residence from the carriage.

“Don’t worry, I’m here.”

Vivian said only what she had to say and headed to Grace’s bedroom.

After a while, Leah’s bedroom door closed.

Vivian and the doctors she brought went inside and sent everyone out.

Even Dr. Wilson was kicked out.

Only then did Chenelle run around the hallway, happy.

“The Empress will fix Grace!”

Everyone looked at Chenelle with puzzled faces. Well, the doctors the Empress brought were unusual.

It was like they weren’t from this era.

A very unfamiliar medicinal smell was wafting from them. There was a medicinal smell even when you went to the hospital, but it was completely different.

Sarah, Pauline, and Sonia couldn’t move a step in the hallway.

They kept looking at the bedroom door, waiting for it to open.

“It’s already been two hours.”

Pauline muttered, glancing at the wall clock.

Just in time, Grace’s bedroom door opened slightly, and Vivian appeared.

“The crisis is over.”

Everyone collapsed on the spot at her words.