Chapter 59
The proposal that followed did not feel strange or unnatural to Robert at all. On the contrary, he was grateful. It was as good as saying that not only would his daughter not be held accountable for her crimes, but she would be granted permanent protection under the aegis of the royal family.
As if to drive the final nail into Robert’s resolve, Catherine spoke.
「On that day, Viscount Beaton’s daughter died in the place where your daughter should have been.」
「……!」
「Grief-stricken over the loss of his young daughter, Viscount Beaton is still searching for the culprit with bloodshot eyes.」
It was a low voice, perfectly calculated to trigger the other person’s anxiety and guilt.
「Wouldn’t you have done the same in his position? To Viscount Beaton, she was his precious only daughter, just as yours is to you.」
As Count Icks withdrew from the room, Frostis, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation from the side room, slipped out behind him.
He marveled as he replayed the conversation between Her Majesty and Count Icks in his mind.
Her Majesty’s skill in subtly pressuring the opponent into confessing the truth himself was nothing short of magnificent. Thanks to that, the Count—who couldn’t even begin to match Her Majesty’s wit—had spilled everything. He revealed that the deposed prince was alive and that he was planning to marry the Count’s daughter soon.
‘So that rumor really was true.’
Frostis had assumed Her Majesty would immediately detain Count Icks and send soldiers to arrest the deposed prince at his hiding place.
He thought she would publicly announce that the deposed prince, believed dead, was actually alive and had faked his death to threaten the stability of the royal house. That would be the only way to clear Her Majesty of the suspicion that she had assassinated the deposed prince.
‘But…… instead of doing that, Her Majesty ordered Count Icks to eliminate the deposed prince himself. Claiming she feared the chaos would spread.’
However, Frostis, who had served Her Majesty for a long time, found that hard to accept.
Her Majesty was not someone who prioritized social stability above all else, and more importantly, if she wanted to eliminate the deposed prince, she was the type of person who would handle every single detail herself.
‘Is there really some reason, as Delinda said, why Her Majesty cannot lay a hand on the deposed prince directly?’
Frostis’s suspicions didn’t stop there. His memory now reached the point where Her Majesty proposed the royal marriage to Count Icks.
‘Proposing a marriage with His Highness the Crown Prince to the girl who hid the deposed prince and Tom Philson? Instead of punishing her?’
She claimed it was to keep the girl under constant surveillance by marrying her to the Crown Prince, lest Count Icks’s daughter fall into another wicked scheme and commit more crimes.
Count Icks seemed to have accepted it without suspicion, simply grateful that his daughter was being forgiven, but Frostis was different. Seeds of doubt regarding the royal family and House Icks had already taken root within him.
‘Is there some immense benefit to be gained from a marriage with that family……?’
Frostis clicked his tongue, recalling what Delinda had said.
It was just as he was leaving the castle and boarding his carriage that a forgotten name suddenly came to mind.
‘Is that……?’
Seeing a figure draped in a thick robe through the window, Frostis instinctively fixed his gaze on them.
Though it soon turned out not to be the person he thought, the sight allowed Frostis to consider a possibility he hadn’t thought of before.
‘Could it be…… that person gave Her Majesty advice regarding His Highness the Crown Prince’s marriage?’
‘That person’ was the Queen’s Advisor, known to only a very few within the palace.
In fact, since Her Majesty the Queen was the only one who had ever met that person face-to-face, Frostis knew almost nothing about them. Only a name, a highly suspicious method of summoning, and the fact that they always wore a robe.
‘There’s one more thing. After that person visits, the problems plaguing Her Majesty are resolved cleanly.’
Come to think of it, Her Majesty had summoned that person recently as well. Her Majesty, who had been extremely high-strung, became strangely at ease immediately after that person’s visit. It was from that point on that she stopped paying much attention to news of the deposed prince.
‘If the advice to marry His Highness the Crown Prince to Count Icks’s daughter also came from that person…….’
Frostis felt an involuntary chill run down his spine. He had only seen the person’s back a few times during private audiences with Her Majesty, but the eerie aura he felt from them even once was still vivid.
If that person had indeed given the advice, it wouldn’t be for a simple reason.
Frostis looked out the window, feeling half-certain.
Standing and looking out the window, her father remained silent for a long while.
Lottie sat perched on the edge of the long sofa, stealing glances at him. Though it had only happened a few times in her life, whenever her father was about to scold her severely, he always maintained this heavy silence.
「There must have been an urgent matter in the council. Since they said you left for the capital in a hurry……」
Lottie broke the silence first. She spoke in a deliberately bright tone, but she found it hard to keep her hands still.
As she clasped and unclasped her hands, her father slowly turned his head. When her quiet green eyes met his behind his glasses, her gaze instinctively darted away.
Creak.
While she was pointlessly tracing the grain of the wooden table with her eyes, the sofa opposite her let out a groan.
Her father’s study, reflecting his character, had nothing luxurious about it, so the sofa invariably let out a pained sound whenever someone sat on it.
「Lottie.」
At her father’s quiet call as he sat across from her, Lottie slowly lifted her chin.
Her father was looking at her with the same expression he’d had while staring out the window.
「Do you have nothing to say to your father?」
Though he tried his best to maintain a stoic face, Lottie could tell instantly. Deep disappointment, anxiety, and fear were all mingled in the green eyes looking at her.
‘He heard something. From Her Majesty the Queen.’
「Father. I’ll explain everything. First, please believe me when I say I didn’t deceive you with bad intentions.」
At Lottie’s urgent words, Robert’s heart crumbled once more.
He would have preferred it if she had played dumb and said she didn’t know what he was talking about. Then he could have comforted himself with the thought that his daughter was simply too innocent and had been misled by a wicked scheme.
The way she spoke and looked at him, as if she knew exactly what he was suspecting, turned Robert’s doubts into certainty.
His daughter had known everything from the beginning. She had deceived even her only father just to help that devilish deposed prince.
「No. I believe I’ve heard enough explanation already.」
「Father……」
「I’ve already ordered Hanson to bring Tom Philson here. As soon as he arrives, I will hand him over to Her Majesty.」
No way. While Lottie was weighing the implications, her father continued with a cold face.
「Before long, that man too……」
Stopping there, Robert swallowed his words. There was no need to mention that he had received orders from Her Majesty to eliminate that man without a trace.
「Her Majesty has not only covered up your crimes, but has also granted you the great grace of marriage to His Highness the Crown Prince for your safety.」
「Father!」
「Your roleplay is over now, Lottie. If you intend to take his side before your father until the end, give it up.」
Her father concluded in a firm tone. As Lottie glared with wide eyes, suppressing her emotions, her father spoke in a slightly softened voice.
「Right now, you are so infatuated with that man that you are turning away from the truth. Shall I tell you what I think?」
「……」
「At the palace ball last spring, the deposed prince saw for the first time how His Highness the Crown Prince adored you. He decided it would be beneficial for many reasons to steal you away from the Crown Prince. That’s why he approached you. Not because he wanted you, but because he was targeting the Crown Prince, who wanted you.」
Her father spoke in a calm voice. Since this part was undeniably true, Lottie could not refute it.
「As the rivalry between him and the Crown Prince intensified, the capital’s attention was entirely focused on you and those two men. In the meantime, the deposed prince began to move. At the ball where the main figures of the scandal were gathered, the assassination plot targeting the heir of the kingdom began.」
「……! Father. That’s—」
「He probably thought it would be fine even if he failed. Since he had a place of refuge prepared for the worst-case scenario.」
The word ‘refuge’ reached Lottie along with her father’s steady gaze.
「He doesn’t truly love you. He only used you as a shield for his own safety.」
Ha. A held breath escaped Lottie’s lips.
To think that her father, who was always so rational, firmly believed that his daughter had simply been used by a charming and dangerous man.
It was absurd. But on the other hand, she understood.
‘It’s true that I not only helped Tom Philson escape but also released that man from Roy-John Prison……’
And now she had even vouched for the identity of the exiled prince under the name of House Icks.
To someone who didn’t know the inner workings of the case, these were circumstances enough to judge that she, in her naivety, was being used by Calyx Valdea. But.
‘I wasn’t used. I chose that man of my own will, for my own needs. And he did the same.’
Therefore, her father’s assumption that he didn’t truly love her was wrong. Calyx had never loved her in the first place. Since there could be nothing between him and her that could be called love, there was nothing to change.
「Father, you always taught me not to let go of the last thread of possibility before making a decision.」
Lottie said, steadying the tremble in her voice.
「Before deciding that I was merely used by him, what was the thread of possibility you couldn’t let go of until the end?」
Her father looked at Lottie without answering. Lottie opened her mouth with a flat expression so that her words wouldn’t sound like a bad joke.
「Was it not the possibility that there might be a hidden story behind the Crown Prince’s assassination attempt?」
「Lottie!」
「Father. I confirmed for myself that the Crown Prince staged a dangerous farce involving my life. I simply followed that truth. Not by anyone’s instigation or scheme, but by my own choice.」
「I cannot understand a word you’re saying. The Crown Prince staged his own assassination? And you confirmed it yourself? How?」
Watching her father’s face contort, Lottie bit her lip.
To fully convince her father, she would have to go back to a story from quite a long time ago. From the first time she recognized Tom Philson to the moment she persuaded him by telling him what would happen in the future.
However, she lacked the confidence to explain it all clearly, nor the certainty that her father would easily believe those stories.
「Then…… why do you think Her Majesty wants to marry me, a traitor, to His Highness the Crown Prince?」
