Chapter 45
Mikhail did not offer much of a response, but his face was etched with doubt.
He knew exactly where and how to stab a human body to inflict the most agony, but when it came to love, he was utterly illiterate. It was only natural that he couldn’t quite fathom his master’s answer—that one could have feelings but be forced to hide them.
And that wasn’t all.
“That woman said that? That she’s poor at believing in love?”
Mikhail asked Calyx back, his tone genuinely astonished.
When Calyx stared at him as if demanding a more detailed explanation, Mikhail realized he needed to choose his words carefully.
“That woman has a history of smuggling Tom Philson out single-handedly just to save Your Highness. I thought of her only as a thorough, cold-blooded person, so it’s a bit unexpected to hear she has a past of being hurt by love.”
Though he had phrased it as mildly as possible, the true image Mikhail held of Lottie was that of a ‘witch.’ A terrifying witch who saw the future and used it to bewitch and curse people.
Mikhail bit his lip as he recalled the eerie expression Lottie had worn while warning Tom Philson in the meat locker. For a woman like that to say she feared love—it was a story even a passing dog wouldn’t believe.
“Misha, you really seem to dislike her, don’t you?”
“It’s not dislike; it’s suspicion. Because she’s suspicious. ……And please do not call me Misha. It feels like something’s going to fall off when you call a grown man by a name like that.”
As Mikhail grumbled, Calyx let out a low laugh. That laugh vanished within the span of a single footstep.
It was because he remembered the woman whose expression had darkened as if hearing it was uncomfortable the first time he had called her by a pet name.
“In my hometown of Deisnoia, they say there are still witches living there who curse and corrupt people with forbidden sorcery.”
“Are you trying to claim she’s a compatriot of yours?”
“I am imploring you to be careful. Even if she hasn’t harmed Your Highness so far, Your Highness knows well that there are more than a few suspicious points. Entering the secret room in the Grand Banquet Hall at her own whim, what happened at Roy-John Prison……”
“Mikhail Volitair.”
Calyx’s call cut Mikhail off. His voice still carried a hint of laughter, but it was laced with a chilling energy.
Mikhail instinctively straightened his back and focused on his lord’s next words.
“If you’re worried that my ultimate goal might waver because of her, set that concern aside.”
“Does that mean……”
“The plan hasn’t changed. On the appointed day, we will bring down the Great Palace. The objective remains the same.”
At Calyx’s resolute declaration, Mikhail’s face brightened. His golden eyes sparkled with loyalty toward his master.
“By now, the royal family and the capital must be in chaos over my disappearance. While their attention is divided, William will approach Prince Andre. In the meantime, we simply do what we have to do.”
“And what we have to do would be……”
Calyx nodded to Mikhail.
“There is a small village called Hade not far from here. A resident there named Thomas Britt reportedly murdered his wife and then committed suicide. Rumor has it his body was found charred black. There were no signs of anyone breaking in to set him on fire.”
“Could it be……”
“Exactly. It’s the same symptom as an artificially induced madness. They say before Thomas Britt died, his eyes weren’t brown, but a brilliant blue.”
At the point where the forest path ended, two horses were tied to a tree. Mikhail had prepared them.
Mounting his horse with a swift, agile movement, Calyx looked down at Mikhail with an expression devoid of emotion.
It was a composition that evoked a scene from some ancient castle that did not exist in his memories.
“Perhaps I can find a clue to my own symptoms from that dead man.”
“Your Highness……”
“Find it. I cannot move on to the next step without uncovering the truth behind the Late King’s death.”
“Master! Masterrrrr!”
Glaster, the castle of House Count Ix, vibrated with a shrill scream from early morning.
“It’s a disaster, a total disaster!”
Liz, a maid about Lottie’s age, came tumbling down the stairs, clutching her skirts. Robert, who had just finished preparing to go out and was leaving his room, nearly collided forehead-to-forehead with Liz.
“Liz! What is all this racket so early in the morning?”
“Huff, puff……. You, you need to go upstairs right now! The Young Lady, the Young Lady is……!”
At the mention of his only daughter, Robert’s expression hardened instantly.
When Liz couldn’t continue because she was catching her breath, Robert, unable to wait any longer, hurried up to the second floor.
“Lottie!”
Bursting into his daughter’s room without knocking, Robert froze in the doorway.
Following behind him, Liz finally managed to finish her sentence while panting for air.
“I was…… just about to tell you that the Young Lady has been reading a book since dawn, Master……”
Perhaps conscious of her master’s face, which was stiffening in real-time, Liz added in a crawling voice.
“And it’s not just any book—it’s a very difficult and thick one……”
Just as Liz said, Lottie had been sitting by the sun-drenched window since morning, engrossed in a book. It wasn’t a thin, entertainment-focused novel, but geography and history texts with titles that made one’s head ache.
“…….”
Robert watched Lottie with a low groan, then quietly backed out of the room.
His daughter, who had never even been awake at this hour, let alone read, was finally lost in the joy of reading; a father couldn’t possibly disturb that.
However, his daughter’s eccentric behavior didn’t stop there.
“James. Is there such a thing as a plant that makes people go mad? Like, if you eat it, your eye color changes?”
She spent all day following the gardener around, asking about poisonous plants she usually had no interest in.
“No, Father. I have enough dresses. Instead, I want a collection of folk tales. A very, very thick and old one!”
She begged him to buy old, worn-out books she would normally have loathed to touch.
“It’s tea made from boiling willow bark, Father. It’s good for stopping diarrhea, so you should drink it often.”
And occasionally, she would look at her father with such yearning eyes, as if she knew something.
“She’s become strangely mature, I suppose one could say……. It feels like my daughter, who was just a frivolous child, has suddenly grown up after her trip to the capital.”
Isabel, who was sipping tea with him in the drawing room, felt her hand flinch at Robert’s words. Specifically, it was when Robert mentioned the part about ‘right after her trip to the capital.’
“Aunt, you and my daughter were practically inseparable in the capital, so surely you must have some idea. Was there anything that happened during your stay in the capital that might have had a significant impact on her state of mind?”
The moment of reckoning had come. Isabel squeezed her eyes shut.
The reason Robert asked such a question with a face that suggested he had no clue, and the reason Isabel was shaking like a leaf, were the same.
Robert didn’t know what had happened to his daughter during the spring social season. Because Isabel hadn’t told him.
At first, she didn’t want to add more to the plate of her frantically busy nephew. She thought she could take good care of her grandniece on her own, and for a few weeks, she actually did. She felt no particular guilt when she sent letters to Robert saying his daughter was doing perfectly fine.
Secrets piled up like that, and then one headache after another exploded. By the time Robert’s help was desperately needed, the secrets had already grown beyond her control.
She had looked away because she didn’t know where or how to start explaining. And now, that devilish man was coaxing her precious grandniece and using her for his own ends.
“Robert. I, I……”
Finally realizing the weight of her mistake, Isabel set her teacup down with a trembling hand. Following the clatter of the porcelain, Isabel’s reddened eyes turned toward Robert.
Isabel confessed what had happened to Lottie, trying her best to strip away the emotion.
How Lottie had been framed as the protagonist of a scandal at the palace ball; how Crown Prince Patrick and Calyx had vied for Lottie; how Calyx had relentlessly pursued Lottie with a marriage proposal afterward; and how Lottie had been pointed at as a femme fatale after getting caught in the power struggle between the two princes……
Robert was a father who loved his daughter more than anyone.
When he heard that Calyx Valdea had forcibly kissed Lottie at Congressman Bermian’s hunting ground, his veins bulged, and at the part where Lottie had thrown herself into the Contra River to escape the man’s persistent proposal, his heart went cold as if he had witnessed the scene himself.
‘If I had known this sooner, I wouldn’t have just half-heartedly accepted that fellow then.’
When he heard that his daughter had been pointed at as a femme fatale and had filth thrown at her, his blood boiled, and when he thought of his daughter who must have sent him letters pretending nothing was wrong, his eyes grew hot.
When he heard his daughter had almost died after getting caught up in a terrifying incident, he even forgot how to breathe. And then.
“You’re saying Lottie…… went to Roy-John Prison alone?”
“Yes. She went all the way there, to a place she shouldn’t have even heard the name of, in a carriage. And the place she was found wasn’t outside the prison, but at the very top where the solitary cells are located……”
“And the doctor diagnosed the Young Lady’s symptoms as sleepwalking.”
Isabel nodded, pressing a shawl to her eyes to dab away tears.
Sleepwalking……. As he muttered it once more, Robert’s face went deathly pale.
“Robert. Are you…… thinking of May?”
Isabel asked hurriedly, guessing what was on his mind.
May was his long-dead wife and Lottie’s mother.
“No. May passed away because her tuberculosis worsened. It has nothing to do with Lottie’s situation.”
Isabel stated as if making a declaration. Her firm tone was desperate, as if trying to shake off a certain memory.
“For now…… let’s watch.”
Robert opened his lips with a heavy voice.
“The important thing is what that man, the deposed prince, is trying to gain by using Lottie.”
“Can’t you see? That fellow intends to use your house as a shield. He saw early on that you’re a fool for your daughter and made an innocent Lottie his scapegoat.”
Normally, Robert would have protested, saying, ‘Isn’t calling me a fool for my daughter a bit much?’ But he remained silent. It was because a certain word in Isabel’s speech bothered him.
Innocent Lottie.
Did his daughter really know nothing, and protect him even while knowing full well that he was the deposed prince?
“For now, just please watch over her until I make a decision. And be careful, very careful, that this doesn’t leak out.”
