Try Begging

Chapter 90

“You didn’t investigate?”

“The investigation or fabrication has already been done from above, and they told me to just do the interrogation.”

“To get a false confession.”

“Yes…”

“By using the most vicious torture technician in the kingdom, no… world.”

“…Tell me something I don’t know.”

Was that what was considered to be revenge? The woman laughed.

“Dirty. No, dirty is not enough.”

Unfortunately, Leon was forced to agree with the rebels.

“Anyway, can you tell me about this?”

“Why would I?”

“It’s because if one day the revolution succeeds, the whole world will know what you told me today.”

“It’s a revolution trapped under the ground. Are you trying to start an ant revolution?”

Grace asked, glaring at the sneering man.

“So, what’s the matter?”

The Leon Winston she knew how to deal with such dirty work as easily as if he was catching a revolutionary army. Though to be reluctant…

A monster wore a human mask. It wasn’t even funny.

“Yes, what’s the matter…”

The man sighed, and he put his hand across the table. Knowing what he wanted with just a gesture, Grace took out a cigar case from the inside pocket and handed it over, shaking the medal dangling from the jacket proudly.

“When you’re a blood-crazed devil.”

“Even a blood-crazed devil has its own philosophy.”

The man put the tip of the cigar to his mouth and lit it by turning the wheel of the golden lighter, sucking on the cigar to keep the flame burning for a long time before letting out a whitish smoke.

“I became a soldier to catch rebels, not civilians.”

He had no taste in torturing innocent people. Besides, he hated it when others used his hobby of torturing guilty people for personal gain.

“And will this really serve my interests in the long run?”

Leon couldn’t shake the thought that the king was making a very dangerous move.

“There will be short-term profits by conspiring, but…”

“No secret lasts forever.”

He tapped the cigar with his index finger, brushing off the ashes, and nodded his head.

“Before I was a royalist, Iwas a human being named Leon Winston, and I didn’t like anything to the harm my personal interests.”

“Private interests come first, so the royalists are right.”

A grin escaped his lips at the woman’s sharp point.

“Phew… thank God. My heart skipped a beat when I thought you had suddenly found your conscience.”

The woman laughed, curling her eyes sarcastically. Leon laughed along and put a cigar in his mouth.

“Found my conscience…”

Winston was born with greed, where conscience should be.

He had no conscience to find. Still, for some reason, he felt uncomfortable in his stomach the whole time he was facing Geoffrey Sinclair today. He felt no different from the mother of the woman he hated, trying to lure an innocent into a trap.

…So, was this a personal interest rather than a conscience?

º º º

It was the first time in his life that a lively jazz melody sounded so bloody. Geoffrey stared blankly at the man sitting across the table with his legs crossed.

Leon Winston.

The moment the man revealed his name here yesterday, Geoffrey had a premonition of his fate.

He was dead now.

Captain Winston’s fame and notoriety, far from the military and the upper echelons of society, had been familiar to him. Contrary to his notoriety of being a genius and, therefore the most brutal torture technician, the person persistently asked questions until late last night.

Geoffrey, who thought it was the first step in the interrogation, actively denied all charges against him and tried to convince the captain.

Although yesterday passed safely like that, today he thought the man would show that notoriety.

Captain Winston, who entered the interrogation room late in the morning, brought a gramophone and played the music loudly. Thinking it was a tactic to keep the screams from leaking out, he despaired. However, the Captain smoked a cigar all morning and just stared at the gray wall.

Could this also be some form of torture?

When he was quietly gulping his saliva, the Captain checked his watch and stood up. Geoffrey trembled at the sound of the metal chair scraping the floor.

“It’s lunchtime.”

Leon narrowed his eyes as he heard the sound of breathing that had been endured behind him as he grabbed the doorknob. Since he didn’t do anything, it was difficult to understand why Geoffrey was nervous.

“Give him a meal.”

Ordering the soldiers waiting outside, he then left the interrogation room. As he climbed the stairs to the office of the Domestic Intelligence Division, Leon inadvertently recalled the thoughts he had been thinking all morning.

His jacket was too big for the woman.

Her shoulder, which was exposed over the jacket, had marks due to her rough struggle. The woman gasped for breath as she spread her legs wide open on top of the black jacket, spread out like a tablecloth, revealing the appetizing fruit.

After last night’s affair, the woman with whom he was exchanging kisses muttered.

“You’re a bit weird today.”

He knew… He also felt weird about last night’s him.

The woman was like a fountain of curses that made him thirsty no matter how much he drank. Last night, when tension had accumulated in his mind and body, he thought his thirst would only increase. He thought he wouldn’t let go of her until the sun came up though he was wrong.

For once, he felt liberated, as if he had thrown off all the burdens of his mind and body.

What was different about yesterday?

Leon already knew the answer. He just didn’t want to admit it.

…A candid conversation, and unexpected sympathy.

‘Sympathy…’

The moment he entered his office, laughing at himself—

“Captain.”

—Campbell stood up, approached him, and held out a piece of paper.

[ 12:30, the restaurant the other day. ]

Upon seeing the message, Leon wrinkled his brow. Thanks to this person, he was so busy that he didn’t have time to eat lunch. While he thought of rejecting it, he immediately gave up. He knew that if he refused, he would end up meeting this person one way or another.

The waiter led him to the same private room as last time.

When the door opened, the Grand Duke, who was sitting in front of the table, raised his hand. Amber liquid flowed from the crystal glass in his hand.

Sitting across from him, Leon pretended to be busy checking his watch. The time was 12:50. He was deliberately delaying.

“I have no time to eat. I have to go back right away, so tell me about your business.”

“I didn’t invite you to eat either.”

The Grand Duke pushed the dessert box in front of him to Leon.

“I called to give you a present.”

“….”

“To your unnamed mistress.”

Leon opened the box in front of the Grand Duke, who had a sneering smile. When the swan-shaped profiterole he had packed the other day appeared, the Grand Duke raised his glass condescendingly.

“To fall in love while chasing a rebel. It’s like a movie.”

“Love…”

The Captain twisted his lips and laughed at his words.

“You should try to become a novelist.”

“….”

The blue-eyed young guy acted fearlessly and arrogantly. Even though the Grand Duke glared at him fiercely, the Captain snorted as he took out his cigar.

The unexpected behavior did not stop there.

The swan became full of ashes as he used an expensive dessert as an ashtray, blatantly mocking the provocation given in the name of a ‘present.’ The expectation that the Captain would be taken aback was disastrously shattered, and instead, the Grand Duke started to panic.

Leon smiled at the Grand Duke, who couldn’t hide the embarrassment from his face.

He knew that the Grand Duke had a tip-off that Captain Leon Winston had imprisoned a rebel in the torture chamber and made her his mistress. The female officer the Grand Duke bribed has already been tracked down and eliminated.

‘…To threaten.’

Which card should he draw? The scandal would be good.

“For you to tell me this, I have proof that one of your daughters is cheating.”

The embarrassment on the Grand Duke’s face became even more obvious.

“A few pictures, taped phone transcripts, letters, underwear left in the lover’s car… things like that.”

The infidelity of Rosalind Aldrich and his own brother, but he did not name it. As soon as the Grand Duke found out whether they broke up or eloped, they would cause an accident that would not help Leon.

“The proof, you probably don’t want to see it. The Royal Family of Constance will not want to see it even more.”

Rosalind Aldrich’s older sister, the Grand Duke’s third daughter, was in the midst of marriage talks with the prince of the Kingdom of Constance, which meant the scandal would be more fatal for the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke couldn’t even question whether it was a false threat or not. Even if it were a fabricated scandal, it would deal a great blow to his family nonetheless.