Chapter 36: CASE 3. The Third Bride (11)

‘Bernard is afraid of horses. Why?’

I needed a moment to process the sudden situation. The others, startled, rushed toward Bernard.

“Uncle! Are you alright?”

“It seems he hasn’t fully recovered yet. I should have asked him to check the carriages later.”

“U-Ugh…. Right. I just woke up from a faint, so I should have been more careful. My enthusiasm seems to have been excessive.”

Supported by his niece, Bernard stood up. His face was still pale, but he didn’t look as terrified as he did a moment ago.

‘… Was it just my imagination?’

Then again, it wasn’t easy to understand why Bernard would suddenly be afraid of horses.

“Well now, it seems this isn’t the time to talk about my ‘darlings.'”

Liman, looking awkward, brushed the horses for no reason.

“In that case, I’ll go tie these guys up where the other horses are. Mr. Bernard, you should go rest and have a glass of warm brandy.”

Always with the brandy.

“Yes. That sounds good. Then, I’ll leave it to you.”

“No, wait a moment.”

I interrupted their conversation with a suggestion.

“Instead of that, why don’t we all go together to tie the horses? Of course, with Mr. Bernard as well.”

“What? Why me?”

“You said all your memories of last night are gone. Perhaps if you go back to the place where you fainted, something might come back to you.”

“Well, that might be true, but…”

“I don’t know why you’re hesitating. Is there a reason you can’t go to where the horses are kept? Or do you simply not want to remember what happened last night?”

I admit it. I was being petty and cornering him.

‘If Bernard really feels terror toward horses, this is a cruel thing to do.’

It was like shoving the object of someone’s fear right in their face. But did I care?

I was desperate for information. An attack had occurred last night, and everyone from the North had become an enemy.

With Bernard acting suspiciously in the midst of all this, I had to be certain whether he was a foe or an ally. For the sake of those I was protecting.

“Tell me, Mr. Bernard. Is there a reason you cannot go with us?”

“There isn’t one! It’s just… just… I don’t feel well!”

Bernard let out a clumsy, fake cough.

“You saw me collapse just now with your own eyes! I want to find my memories more than anyone, but I simply cannot move right now!”

“I’m glad to hear you want to find your memories, Mr. Bernard. Let’s go.”

“Did you not hear a word I said? I am currently— wait, whoa?”

I moved behind Bernard and hoisted him up.

“I will support you and carry you there.”

“Wait, just a minute…!”

As I took a few steps while carrying Bernard, I heard whispering from behind.

“Can that… really be considered ‘supporting’ him?”

“Why? He’s carrying Uncle in a back hug. It’s quite gentlemanly.”

“My Lady. That isn’t a back hug; it’s called a bear hug. It’s a wrestling technique.”

What a rude thing to say.

I was transporting him quite politely.

“Put me down! I’d rather walk on my own two feet!”

“There’s no need to overexert yourself. You aren’t that heavy, so don’t worry about me.”

I replied kindly, like a nurse tending to a troublesome patient.

I never liked Bernard much, but since I was aware that I was dragging a patient against his will, I intended to be as kind as possible.

“Who the hell is worried about you…! Enough, put me down this instant!”

As Bernard struggled, his shirt pulled up. After being subjected to an unwanted visual assault, I set him down as if dropping him.

“Gah!”

“Ah, my apologies. I didn’t mean to do that, but you were struggling so much…”

I couldn’t help it after seeing that plump, hairy belly.

Whether his claim of fainting from a blow to the abdomen was true or not, there was a dark bruise on his stomach that looked painful just to see.

‘But that’s strange. Can a bruise really turn out like that?’

Normally, a larger impact creates a larger bruise. A bruise caused by a human strike is limited in size, but the bruise on Bernard’s stomach looked like he had been in a traffic accident.

‘Regardless, a patient is a patient. That must hurt a lot.’

I felt a bit bad for dropping him so roughly earlier.

“I’m sorry. Shall I help you up?”

“No thank you. Enough, let’s just go!”

Bernard fumed and walked while keeping his distance from me. Fortunately, we didn’t have to walk very far.

Since Bernard’s carriage was at the end of the procession, it wasn’t far from where the horses were tied.

“I’ll tie my darlings up around here.”

Liman skillfully tied the reins of the horses he had brought to a tree trunk.

“Good. Now, let’s head back.”

Bernard shouted in an urgent voice.

“Pardon? But we have to go a bit further in to find the place where you fainted. Shouldn’t we go that far to find your memories?”

“That’s right. If it’s too difficult, I can carry you again.”

“… Fine. If you want to go so badly, let’s go.”

Bernard moved with a look of clear distaste. As we entered the deeper part of the forest, the trees felt very dense.

‘This isn’t the path we took earlier.’

Perhaps the shadow who found the collapsed Bernard had moved him to a slightly more open area.

Thinking back, Bernard’s body had been covered in mud at the time. Those must have been the marks from being dragged along the ground to get him there.

“I was told that just ahead is where you were unconscious, Mr. Bernard.”

The moment Liman finished speaking—

*Snort!*

A black horse tied up ahead whinnied loudly.

“Whoa, Ash! You need to be quiet.”

However, the creature didn’t care and blew out a rough breath of air.

“Ah! This is the horse that was injured yesterday.”

Ruhr let out an exclamation as she recognized the horse.

“Oh dear. I suppose his temperament has become foul because he was hurt.”

“That’s strange. He wasn’t like this when I passed by earlier…”

Liman looked at the horse with a troubled expression.

It was a narrow path. It would be difficult to pass by the agitated horse.

“Once we pass this spot, it’s where Mr. Bernard fell, but we can’t get through.”

“I don’t think we need to go that far.”

“What? But Heis, you were the one who insisted on going in there.”

“I don’t need to go anymore.”

I stared quietly at the horse. With this final piece, all the necessary clues had been gathered.

“Even without going there, I think I know exactly what happened.”

All the incidents clicked together in my mind.

Last night, two incidents occurred simultaneously within this narrow campsite.

The attack on Mari, Ruhr, and me by the Northerners.

And….

“Mr. Bernard.”

I turned to Bernard and spoke softly.

“Why on earth did you attempt to steal?”

“W-What? Are you trying to frame me now?”

However, my eyes told a different story than his words. A pitch-black shadow loomed over Bernard.

‘Three.’

Now, there were only three people here who were innocent and without a shadow.

“Mr. Bernard. From this moment on, I shall reveal your crimes.”

Too many things had been hidden.

Now, it was time to pull back the shadows.

***

“It was a simple story from the beginning. There were still six carriages, after all.”

Before night fell, there were five functional carriages and one broken one. When morning dawned after the night had passed, six functional carriages remained.

“Then, naturally, the carriage that wasn’t functional must have become functional overnight.”

Either it was repaired during the night…

Or it was never broken to begin with.

“Liman. You remember the accident yesterday evening, don’t you?”

“Of course. A wagon suddenly broke down and caused a mess.”

During that accident, I ‘saw’ that Bernard was the culprit who broke the carriage. At the time, I thought he was just being cranky and accidentally broke it, but what if that wasn’t the case?

“Who was the one who checked the carriage axle back then?”

“That was Mr. Bernard, of course. He’s the expert on carriages.”

“Exactly. Everyone believed and followed his word when he said it was impossible to repair.”

For the past few days, Bernard had asserted his authority by scolding the coachmen.

Everyone doubted Bernard’s character, but no one doubted his skill. No one even bothered to verify the truth of his words.

But in fact, contrary to his claims, the carriage’s breakdown probably wasn’t that significant.

“Mr. Bernard. You must have tampered with the carriage in advance to cause a malfunction. A minor one that you could repair yourself.”

And then, he emptied out the seemingly broken carriage and left it further down the road.

“Why would he do such a thing?”

Ruhr asked.

“Did you forget that the abandoned carriage we found was full of luggage?”

“… He was trying to embezzle my dowry.”

Mari spoke coldly.

It was just as she said.

‘Bernard probably took the job as Mari’s guardian with that goal in mind from the start.’

A gambling addict is always desperate for money.

“Most likely, Mr. Bernard’s carriage wasn’t originally that empty.”

It must have been full of items he had already set his sights on stealing.

“He intended to embezzle everything inside. But there was a problem. According to the schedule, he had to accompany us all the way to the North.”

Once they reached the North, he would have to unload all the luggage and return empty-handed.

Since the items he intended to steal weren’t small in volume, Bernard’s theft would inevitably be discovered if he left the North carrying a mountain of goods.

For him, the best option was to hide the stolen goods somewhere secluded and retrieve them on the way back.

“He had to hide the items before we boarded the train for the North. If he used the freight car on the way back, there would be a record of it.”

So, Bernard had to hide the goods today. But finding a place safe enough to hide them wouldn’t have been easy.

A location shielded from the wind and rain, and out of sight from others. It was never an easy task to find such a place while avoiding the eyes of the group.

“After much thought, Mr. Bernard decided to hide the goods along with the carriage itself.”

But it would look suspicious to anyone if a carriage suddenly went missing. He needed a reason for it to disappear. Something like, for example, a breakdown.

Thus, Bernard created an excuse to leave the carriage in a spot on the secluded mountain path that no one would pay attention to.

“Ah, now I see! So Uncle spent the whole night moving the goods from his carriage into that broken one!”

“No. If he had done that, he wouldn’t have bothered repairing the broken carriage. It would have been much better to repair it when returning from the North.”

Furthermore, moving every single item from the carriage was a tedious task. Some items couldn’t get wet, and the sheer volume of goods was considerable.

Bernard likely used an easier method.

“Under the cover of night, Mr. Bernard swapped the carriages.”

Last night was dark, with neither moon nor stars, and the sound of rain echoed throughout. It was the perfect situation to secretly lead the carriage back the way they had come.

“Driving through the rain in the dark wouldn’t have been easy… but he is a former cavalry officer, after all, isn’t he? He must have managed it somehow.”

To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure how he pulled that part off.

But based on the other evidence, it was clear that he had done so.

“Once he found the abandoned carriage, the rest was simple.”

All he had to do was hitch the horses to the other carriage and move the red banner.

For the past few days, Bernard had used a red cloth as a symbol for his carriage. Since all the wagons looked more or less the same, if he simply moved the red cloth, that carriage would look exactly like Bernard’s.

Bernard had probably hung that red cloth on the carriage from the start, aiming for that very effect.

“Everything went according to Mr. Bernard’s plan until he returned to the camp with the carriage full of goods. But two problems arose. One of them, of course, was the attack last night.”

Regarding that attack, Bernard was completely innocent. He likely had no idea such an incident would occur.

That was Bernard’s misfortune.

The events overlapped, and because the search began due to the attack, the carriage Bernard had hidden was discovered.

Had he realized there was an attack and stepped in to clean up, he might have been able to destroy the evidence somehow, but this was impossible for Bernard.

Because he had been unconscious ever since his theft.

“To commit the perfect crime, Bernard tried to return the horses that had pulled the carriage to their original spots.”

Bernard wandered through the dark forest, holding the reins of two horses in one hand and an oil lamp in the other.

This is a guess, but Bernard likely made the careless mistake of shoving the lamp right into the face of a sleeping horse.

Normally, that wouldn’t have been such a huge mistake. Horses are naturally timid and gentle creatures that do not easily attack people.

But this time, it was different.

Because Bernard was Bernard, and that horse was Ash, who had been injured just a few hours prior.

“Horses are intelligent animals. They can remember a person’s face for decades and can uncannily distinguish between those who harbor goodwill toward them and those who do not.”

When Bernard was shouting harsh words at the coachman leading him, the horse was there.

When Bernard was playing malicious pranks on the carriage, the horse was there.

When the horse was severely injured by the sudden carriage breakdown and cried out in pain, Bernard was there.

Secretly rejoicing, celebrating the success of his plan.

“The humans didn’t know, but the horse saw it. And he knew.”

Ash had been startled awake by the sudden light. In front of his eyes was the wicked person who had harmed him, shoving his face close.

“Terrified, or perhaps filled with rage, Ash kicked Bernard violently.”

It was likely a front-leg kick. Had it been a hind leg, there was no way Bernard would be standing so fine.

‘Did a horse’s weight reach about 500 kg?’

*Snort!*

As if to say I was right, the black horse blew out a breath.

At the same time, Ash’s pitch-black body returned to a faint ash-gray.

His blinking black eyes looked so innocent.