Seeking for Your Forgiveness

ve it wasn’t an accident!”

 

Kristoff hated knobheads.
He hated stubborn people even more.
However, the person he hated the most was someone who was foolish and stubborn.
Maxim is the perfect example of that kind of person.

 

He eyed Marianne.
One of his crooked eyebrows straightened.

 

“What else do you see, Marianne?”

 

“Although the wound is big, the blood smeared on the carpet is less than there should be.
That means……”

 

She looked at Kristoff quietly for a moment, as if organizing her thoughts.

 

“Does that mean she was moved here from somewhere else? Why?”

 

Kristoff was the most surprised in the room despite not showing any sign of it.
Her explanation was logical and reasonable.
Also, it was valid.

 

“I’m not sure.”

 

Kristoff, who looked at the middle-aged woman as if he had already guessed it, remained silent with a calm look on his face.
The next moment, he hunched with one knee bent.

 

And lifted the carpet.
The white floor was exposed.

 

“Dust is piled up under the carpet.
The carpet wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place.
You’re right, Marianne.
The body was moved here with the carpet.
And.”

 

Stretching his back slowly, he threw a serious look at the woman who was standing in front of the kitchen.

 

“If the blood on the victim’s fingernails is not hers, there remains one answer.”

 

“The perpetrator?”

 

She followed Kristoff’s gaze whilst answering nonchalantly.
Then, he noticed who was at the end of it and seemed shocked.

 

Kristoff smiled faintly at the sight and murmured to himself in a low voice.

 

“You don’t know how cruel a good person can be sometimes.”

 

She hoped that she would never know.

 

Marianne looked at the middle-aged woman, her pupils were shaking.
A woman who was the victim’s mother.

 

“Tsk.”

 

Clicking his tongue slowly, Maxim approached her.
Without asking for her consent, he rolled up her arms in a rude manner.
The struggling and rebelling woman was held against her will, for her sleeves to be pushed up.

 

“……”

 

Her arms were clean.

 

“Ha.”

 

Maxim looked at Kristoff with a sneer on his face.
Kristoff’s eyebrows twitched.
At that moment a shady smile slid across Maxim’s lips, a boy stuck his head out of the kitchen.

 

In an instant, Maxim’s expression disappeared from his face.
The middle-aged woman who followed his gaze grasped Maxim’s arm urgently.

 

“I did it, I……! I accidentally hit Mary.
I killed Mary!”

 

His sharp voice sounded like a desperate scream.
The silence that followed her cry was much more serene yet colder than before.

 

He doesn’t live as a police officer with meritorious deeds.
Seven years of using his intuition has pulled him out of his shell.
And in this case, his intuition was right a hundred times out of a hundred.

 

Maxim shook off the woman who grabbed his arm and walked toward the boy.
The boy shrugged his shoulders, as if frightened by Maxim’s body who was approaching him.

 

He grabbed the boy by the arms without saying anything.

 

“KYAA!”

 

The boy screamed as if he was frightened.
Marianne unconsciously approached him.

 

“Maxim! He……!”

 

However, Maxim was one beat faster than her.
He rolled up the boy’s sleeve immediately.

 

“……”

 

Her feet suddenly came to a halt.
There were two reddened lines on his small forearm.
Blood seeped out, sharp marks to be precise.

 

Thud!

 

The middle-aged woman knelt in her place.
Maxim held the body of the violently struggling boy, and he finally burst into tears.

 

“Let’s hear the details at the police station.”

 

Maxim notified in a domineering manner.
The middle-aged woman closed her eyes tightly with a sorrowful expression, meanwhile Marianne stood there and looked at the boy.

 

“Huhu! Mother! Mother!”

 

The little boy was crying in utter terror.

 

“Mother! I’m scared! I don’t want to go! Mother! HUAA!”

 

How could he express this feeling?

 

It was different from resentment.
It was also different from embarrassment.
Even less than compassion…… No, it was a mix of resentment, embarrassment, and compassion.

 

“Marianne.”

 

Kristoff approached her and called her name.
Marianne didn’t know what kind of expression she had to put on her face.

 

Kristoff stared at her with his deeply subdued eyes.
He wanted to hug Marianne by the shoulder.
He wished to hold her in his arms and gave a pat on her back.

 

However, he couldn’t.
At this moment, Kristoff was keenly aware of what he’d lost.

 

He was no longer the man Marianne loved.
He didn’t deserve to embrace her.

 

D*mn it.

 

Quiet curses slipped through Kristoff’s teeth.
He didn’t want to give other men what he didn’t have.
Kristoff stared into the air with icy eyes and clenched his empty fists.

 

It had to be brought back.
Her heart that left him.

 

***

 

“That man, doesn’t he like you?”

 

At that question, Marianne’s eyes followed Kristoff’s.
There was Maxim at the end of his gaze.
Maxim Francke, who seemed to be somewhat furious.

 

Marianne frowned, as if she heard nonsense.
Voice laced with displeasure slipped out through her teeth.

 

“Why on earth do you think so? Didn’t you see that Maxim was dying to slaughter me, Kristoff?”

 

Marianne glanced at him with a look as if saying it was impossible.
Kristoff missed the right timing to answer because he was busy savoring his name that came out through her lips.

 

He wasn’t a fantasizer, but that moment was quite romantic for him.
She made him like that simply by calling his name, Kristoff.

 

Not the successor to Marquis Schneider, nor a high-profile lawyer, but simply Kristoff Schneider.
What should he name this emotion? Too obsequious to be considered possessive, but also too sweet to be considered obsession.