Ch#68
2023.11.07.
Suddenly, words from her childhood came to mind.
"When I grow up, I want to leave the Imperial Palace. I'll leave the Capital Isle and travel the wide world! Across the sea, to the faraway continent too...."
Pondering those words, Herdin looked at Russ, who sat across from him checking schedules and documents.
"Russ."
"Yes."
"What do you think about building a port in Ardel connected to the Eastern Continent?"
The Ardel Empire was located in the western part of the continent, with no ports on its eastern side. To trade with the Eastern Continent, one had to circumnavigate the vast Western Continent.
Though territories like the Delmark Duchy, encompassing the northeast, bordered the eastern coast, they were all mudflats unsuitable for large ships.
The trade with the Eastern Continent that Ivan coveted enough to risk war was something Herdin had long eyed as well.
The problem was there was no way to realize it.
Russ wondered why he was asking such a thing out of the blue but answered his lord earnestly.
"It would be amazing, right? We'd get Eastern Continent goods cheaply without going through other countries, and our exports would yield more profit without middleman fees."
"Indeed."
"It would usher in a golden age. That's why His Majesty is always scheming for any pretext to start a war with Clania. Of course, I think it's utterly mad.... But why bring it up suddenly?"
"I'm thinking of building a port connected to the Eastern Continent in Livren."
Livren was a territory under Delmark bordering the eastern coast.
"How? Livren's seas are all mudflats."
"What if we filled those mudflats all the way to deep waters where large ships can enter?"
"With what?"
Where Ivan considered war, Herdin proposed a solution from a different angle.
"With a tremendous amount of earth and money."
A madder method.
An insane investment only possible for Delmark.
"...Are you serious?"
Reading the sincerity in Herdin's eyes, Russ jumped so high he nearly hit the carriage ceiling, exaggerating a bit.
"Is the money rotting away so much you're planning to dump it into the sea? Instead of that, why not dump it on me?"
But Herdin was confident.
"As you said, a Livren port will bring immense profit to Delmark, and to Ardel as well. Not just material gains, but civilizations and knowledge of even greater value."
If the port were built as he said, it would indeed open an entirely new era.
'No, even so.'
Filling Livren's mudflats to build a port would require astronomical investment costs, even roughly estimated.
'Thinking of filling the sea to make a port. Brilliant or reckless....'
No matter how many times he reconsidered, it was an astonishing idea.
Yet Herdin seemed serious about considering the plan.
"Draw up a budget and bring it to me."
With Herdin like that, Russ had no veto power.
"Yes, sir...."
As their conversation ended, the carriage arrived at the ducal residence. As always, Mason greeted them.
"Welcome back, Your Grace."
"And the Duchess?"
"She went out for a lunch appointment."
About to ask what appointment, Mason spoke first.
"And a guest is waiting."
"A guest?"
As far as he knew, no visitors were scheduled today.
"Who?"
"A priest from the Temple, saying they have urgent business with Your Grace. Their identity checked out, so I showed them to the drawing room."
"A priest...."
Did he know any priest well enough to meet personally?
"Miela Elias, they said."
An unfamiliar name, but hearing it was a woman's made one person come to mind.
"Bring some tea."
Herdin removed his leather gloves as he headed to the drawing room. There waited the person he had expected.
"Ah, hello, Your Grace."
Miela, who had been looking around the drawing room, greeted him with a start. A blush rose on her face upon seeing him, but Herdin's gaze cooled sharply.
"We meet again, Priestess. I didn't expect it to be at my home. I don't recall us being close enough for personal visits."
"I know showing up unannounced is rude, but it was such an important matter that I risked the impropriety."
"What matter?"
At that moment, a maid entered with a knock and set down his tea.
Miela spoke only after the maid left.
"The Duchess...."
At that instant, a throbbing headache struck Herdin's head. Simultaneously, an unfamiliar memory surfaced.
'You must stay away from the Duchess. Being near her might make even you go berserk, Your Grace. Like the previous Duke....'
The scene in the suddenly recalled memory matched the landscape before his eyes now.
But what Miela was actually saying differed entirely from the memory.
"Do you know she's been having secret meetings with another man?"
Only then did the boundary between reality and memory crumble, the memory fading as reality remained.
Herdin, frowning at the memory's afterimage, belatedly registered what the real Miela had said.
Thinking he was interested in her story, Miela continued.
"I just saw the Duchess riding in a carriage with another man. If you follow―"
"I didn't know you had the hobby of meddling in others' affairs, Priestess."
Before she finished, Herdin cut her off coldly and lifted his teacup. His gaze over it was icy.
Miela flinched in panic and made excuses.
"I, I was just worried about Your Grace...!"
"I know the person. I knew about today's appointment too."
He said that, but Miela couldn't shake her lingering doubt.
The Blair from earlier had been in a hired carriage. Noble ladies typically traveled in family carriages escorted by knights.
Unless something was amiss, there was no reason to ride a hired carriage with a strange man.
Yet nowhere on Herdin's face as he set down the teacup could she read the emotions one might expect from a husband learning of his wife's infidelity for the first time.
"I think that concludes our conversation."
As always, a cold, indifferent, dry expression.
Now, even boredom tinged that face.
"I hope there won't be occasions like this in the future."
Herdin rose from his seat.
"Ah. Finish your tea slowly before you go."
He left the drawing room without her. As the door closed, a cold laugh escaped through his teeth.
"...So you really went to meet that bastard."
He had vaguely anticipated it.
To divorce as she wanted, and in a way that caused him no harm as promised, a scandal was the simplest method.
But seeing her recent behavior, he had briefly thought she might abandon the plan.
In the end, it was just his own delusion.
So even while smiling at me and nestling in my arms, that little head of yours was filled only with thoughts of escape.
The moment he realized that afresh.
The anxiety always lurking at his feet fully consumed him as anger.
To the point where he couldn't even recall the sea-filling plan from moments ago.
* * *
"Welcome back, Madam."
Mason greeted Blair descending from the carriage, as always.
Out of habit, Blair asked,
"The Duke?"
"His afternoon schedule changed suddenly, so he returned earlier than planned."
Blair's steps into the residence halted briefly. Originally, Herdin had a dinner appointment and was supposed to return late.
His early return meant he knew of her absence.
Knowing how displeased he had been with her previous meeting with Mihail, the thought of facing him at dinner made her uneasy.
But she had never intended to deceive him. It was something they had to address sooner or later anyway.
As Blair steeled herself and headed to her room, Melli approached from in front of the door.
"Welcome back, Madam."
"Yes. Nothing happened?"
As she casually asked and reached for the door, Melli, watching from behind, spoke cautiously.
"His Grace is waiting inside."
Blair's hand on the doorknob paused.
The expected situation. Though sooner than anticipated.
"...I'll handle changing clothes myself, so you may go."
Melli bowed and stepped away.
Blair took a deep breath and opened the door. Upon entering, her eyes met Herdin's, who sat on the sofa ahead, smoking a cigar.
His blue eyes, backlit by the evening dusk, gleamed coldly.
The moment their gazes met, her heart instinctively sank.
Avoiding his gaze, Blair headed to the dressing room and said,
"I'll just change and come out. Wait a moment."
As Blair entered the dressing room and reached for the wardrobe door.
Thud―
A man's hand from behind closed the wardrobe door. The sound echoed loudly in the quiet stillness.
Blair, staring at the closed wardrobe in the silence, turned her head. At the same moment, Herdin overlapped their lips.
"Ngh...."
The bitter scent of cigar wafted harshly between their joined teeth.
