Revenge Costs Interest [EN]: Chapter 193

Extracurricular 13: An Imperfect Life

February 9, 2024

Terran was startled to see police cars rushing towards the department store.

Opening the car window, he saw the sky near Fantasia [likely the name of the department store] covered in black smoke.

“Fire! There’s a fire at Fantasia!”

Passersby stopped in their tracks, watching the fire. The road was blocked with slow-moving cars, and people poured out of buildings to watch.

“Luke, let’s get out.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Terran abandoned the car and ran towards the department store with Luke.

Fire trucks were arriving from all over the city to put out the fire, but the area in front of the department store was chaotic with evacuating people.

The sight of black smoke engulfing the glamorous department store was reminiscent of a once-shining party hall turned black by a dark wizard. It felt like a shattered illusion, and Terran’s heart sank.

He had argued with Leia that morning and felt uneasy even after going to work.

He thought they should resolve things by seeing each other, so he headed to the department store, only to find this.

“What happened?”

Terran shouted to Tom as he entered the department store.

“The fire broke out in the east wing warehouse!”

Just then, male employees rushed towards the east wing.

“Anyone hurt?”

“Thankfully, no one. But the warehouse door seems to be stuck!”

In that instant, Terran felt a sense of foreboding. He remembered what Leia had told him that morning.

[Terran, what should we do? We haven’t been able to renovate the first floor of Fantasia’s east wing because we’re using it as a warehouse. It’s not a place where people pay much attention, so we’re mostly using it for storage.]

He had barely listened to her words because he was furious about the letter from the Emperor, but he hadn’t forgotten them entirely.

“Where is Grace?”

“She’s trapped in the warehouse. The paramedics and employees are…!”

Before Tom could finish, Terran ran towards the east wing.

Bang, bang! The sound of tools breaking down the door echoed loudly, as if it were his own heart beating.

Terran rushed over, and the employees turned pale.

“Grace!”

“She was making noise until just a moment ago.”

“Get out of the way!”

Terran grabbed a bronze sculpture standing in the hallway and smashed the doorknob with it.

The door was made of steel, and the lock seemed faulty.

Clang! As the doorknob fell off, the employees quickly pried open the door.

At the same time, acrid smoke billowed out like a sandstorm. Everyone coughed and covered their noses.

“The fire is already out,” Luke shouted from outside the warehouse window. So, the problem was the smoke.

Without hesitation, Terran ran into the warehouse and soon found Leia collapsed on the floor. He quickly scooped her up and carried her outside.

“Call a doctor!”

Fortunately, she wasn’t burned or seriously injured, but she had inhaled a lot of smoke and didn’t respond even when he shook her.

For the first time in a long time, Terran experienced the terror of his heart sinking.

Amidst the chaos that seemed to be collapsing the department store, Terran could only see Leia. His vision blurred, his ears rang, and he felt a coldness as if all the blood was draining from his body.

‘She’s not breathing.’

Terran laid Leia on the ground and was about to perform CPR [Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation].

At that moment, Leia coughed, expelling her breath like a thunderbolt.

Cough, cough! At the sound of her cough, Terran felt as if a curtain had been drawn back from his eyes, and a ray of light was shining down on him.

Just then, a doctor rushed over and quickly examined Leia.

The doctor placed a mask he hadn’t seen before over Leia’s mouth and nose and repeatedly squeezed a round ball. It looked like he was injecting air into her airway.

At that moment, Leia regained consciousness, and her eyes met Terran’s.

Leia opened her arms to Terran. They embraced each other tightly, overwhelmed.

For a while, they tried to regain their composure, silently feeling each other’s ragged breaths and rapid heartbeats.

“I was scared,” Terran said, his voice trembling. He was holding the fragile Leia in his arms, his massive chest heaving, and his teeth were chattering.

“I’m okay.”

When was the last time he had been so terrified? Leia searched her memory and finally recalled the moment she saw herself in a wheelchair in Graymon [likely a place].

At that time, Terran was so shocked that he couldn’t even breathe properly.

Leia remembered that moment and stroked Terran’s back repeatedly.

She vividly remembered what Dr. Karen had told her, and she followed the method she had been taught on how to deal with Terran when he was struggling with hyperventilation.

“Terran, let’s breathe together. One!”

“One.”

“Good, two.”

“Two.”

Leia looked up at Terran, made eye contact, and counted numbers together.

She had to show him that she was okay so that he wouldn’t collapse.

The moment Leia saw him alternating between fear and relief, she completely understood Terran’s heart.

She understood why he was so invested in the children and competing with the Emperor.

She never dreamed she would gain such an understanding in this situation. Furthermore, she realized that she was thinking the same thing as him.

‘Someone more precious than my own life.’

Leia had forgotten for a moment because she thought it was too obvious, but Terran wanted to protect and beautifully cultivate the family that his wife had built with her life.

His wife and children were everything to him. What was wealth and fame compared to that? Without each other, nothing would be left.

“If something happens to you, I think I’ll die.”

His voice was thick with emotion. It was a side effect of excessive love, a burst of feeling that came out without him realizing it because he was too happy, but she hadn’t noticed it sooner.

That man was always trying to be happy.

“Nothing will happen to me, never.”

Only after hearing Leia’s words did Terran’s heartbeat gradually stabilize.

Throughout their married life, he had been as anxious as he was happy. Vigilance and a touch of melancholy were habits, so he couldn’t easily shake them off.

He was constantly worried that someone would take his beloved family away from him or that the castle he had painstakingly built would collapse.

He knew it was an overreaction and perhaps a bit paranoid, but because of past deprivations, the anxiety in his heart kept bubbling up.

On the other hand, Emperor Carl and Vivian were different.

They seemed to think that happiness was their birthright. He felt frustrated with the reality that he couldn’t fully enjoy it.

Unlike them, who had seemingly achieved everything effortlessly, he and Leia had overcome trials and tribulations to get to where they were. That’s why he compared everything.

In the end, this compensation mentality affected the children.

He only wanted his children to enjoy life as if it were a given.

‘They weren’t the main characters in my life anyway; I was foolish.’

At that moment, Leia cupped Terran’s face with both hands and kissed him. She felt a sense of apology in her kiss.

“I’m sorry for saying you were petty. You’re not petty at all.”

“No, it’s okay. If a person is too perfect, they lack humanity. It was rather endearing.”

“Huh? It was good?”

“Yeah, no one is perfect. Neither is Grace. She gets sulky and runs away at the drop of a hat.”

“That’s all because there’s a reason…”

Terran pressed his finger against her lips to stop her from saying more.

“Life wouldn’t be fun if it was always smooth, right? Let’s think that way now.”

He covered Leia’s lips with his own again, silencing her grumbling.

* * *

The arsonists were quickly caught, but the damage to the department store was significant.

The high-end goods in the warehouse were all reduced to ashes. But a problem arose.

“The boy who instigated the arson is twelve years old. They will all go to juvenile detention after a trial.”

Leia felt uneasy at the words of the police chief.

Even though the department store suffered great damage and she almost died, she was reluctant to punish the immature children without guidance.

“What was the reason for throwing the Molotov cocktail [a crude incendiary device]?”

Terran’s voice was also hesitant.

If it had been him in the past, he would have been furious and demanded they be thrown in jail immediately, but not anymore.

Perhaps because he had children of that age, he couldn’t just be outraged.

“He harbored resentment, believing that his father’s bakery went bankrupt because of the department store.”

“His father ran a bakery?”

Leia asked with a puzzled look.

Was there a bakery in the east wing of the department store? She didn’t pay much attention to that side, so she hadn’t noticed.

“What does the bakery have to do with the department store?”

Leia didn’t understand at all.

“It seems that it’s because the bread at the department store restaurant in the annex became famous.”

“Our department store restaurant doesn’t have a separate bakery. The bread served with the food is all there is.”

The comparison itself was a stretch. She thought it was a bit far-fetched.

But Terran nodded.

“Grace, it’s possible. Before the department store was built, that was the only bakery near the station. But because of the department store, many different restaurants opened nearby, and they lost their competitiveness. Most of the wealthy would have invested in the commercial district, so small business owners would have been harmed.”

After hearing Terran’s words, Leia felt even more conflicted. Then James announced that a guest had arrived.

“Who is it? This late in the evening?”

As expected, it was the bakery owner.

A plump middle-aged man holding a worn-out hat.

As soon as he saw Terran, he fell to his knees and repeatedly bowed his head.

“Your Grace! Please forgive my son!”

He dropped the hat he was holding and rubbed his hands together, begging for forgiveness.