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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: The Rest of the Story
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There was always something in his gaze that made me feel ashamed and annoyed.
The kind of gaze that made you feel he would help if you just shared the deepest stories of your heart, the kind that made you want to tell him everything. A look only those who were born good, and whose goodness was accepted unconditionally, could possess.
I avoided his gaze.
“What are you going to do about it? You don’t want to get tangled up with my family either, do you? So let’s just be strangers, clean and simple. If you want, I can grab some random guy and take a few pictures of us kissing for you.”
Eric, his expression now one of horror, made the sign of the cross. Only after reciting a short prayer did he seem to regain his composure, belatedly continuing.
“Why are you trying to stop your mother’s wedding? Why now?”
“Because…”
I bit my lip.
Though days had passed, I could still picture it vividly in my mind’s eye.
The bodies of my mother and Philip.
The only people in my life who had loved me, and whom I had loved.
The people who had accepted me unconditionally in this wretched world.
‘Do you want to be my daughter, too?’
My mother’s voice rang clearly in my ears.
‘Geez, you idiot. What are you doing? If you think someone’s about to hit you, you throw the first punch. Like this!’
Philip’s voice, too.
Even if this whole plan fails, I will absolutely not run away alone this time either.
‘For better or for worse, a family sticks together. In death and in life.’
I thought as I looked at Eric.
Would Eric think the same way? That for better or for worse, family is family?
Even if his father is a psycho? Even if that psycho killed his mother?
But my mother said family isn’t something you’re born into, but something you build. Something you build and protect.
And if I were Eric, I would never choose a psycho father like that.
“Because your father is a psycho.”
At my words, the tension in Eric’s expression vanished in an instant, as if he’d been deflated.
I looked at him resolutely, but Eric just shook his head as if his energy had drained away.
“Imeline Wedgwood. You’re mistaken about something. Even if my father sided with Prince Robert, that’s not a reason to doubt his character.”
“Looking at the goods purchased for twenty million gold, it’s more than enough to be considered preparation for treason.”
I pointed to the cost of purchasing priestly weapons on the document. But Eric easily dismissed my words.
“Whether it’s preparation for treason or not is for the royal family to investigate. An amount like this wouldn’t be strange if it were for the private soldiers stationed in duchies across the continent.”
Eric’s response was textbook. To argue such conventional points in front of an accounting ledger written in suspicious, secret ink. Should I call this naive… or stupid?
What did I have to say to get this sheltered young master to understand me?
I picked up the document and said.
“What if this isn’t the whole document, but there are more pages? And what if those pages contain documents that prove the Duke of Orleans is a psycho? If those fell into the hands of the princess or the royal family, the Ducal House of Orleans would be utterly ruined…”
“There were no other documents in the study.”
“Then why is there a half-seal stamped at the end of this document, clearly indicating there’s another page?”
I pointed to the back of the document.
On the back of the paper, marked by a crease where it had been folded in half, was the half-seal that had appeared yesterday when I brought a flame to it, stamped with the same translucent ink.
Eric clenched his fists. It seemed he, too, had already noticed that this document wasn’t the end. He had just been trying to deny it.
The restraints clicked as if about to burst. Even though they were supposedly expensive and impossible to break with human strength.
I quickly rose from my seat.
“I can’t give you much time. The deadline is one day. If you don’t stop my mother’s wedding by tomorrow, this document goes to the princess…”
I took the film out of the safe.
“And this film goes to the newspapers. Then the Ducal House of Orleans will have its engagement broken in disgrace. It would be better for you to let me take the blame when I’m offering to do so.”
Eric, noticing I was now perched on the windowsill, furrowed his brow.
“Where are you going? The door is over there. Imeline Wedgwood. This isn’t the second floor, it’s the fifth!”
I scoffed. Was he worried about me now?
“So what?”
*Thump!*
The moment I gathered the document and film and threw myself out the window, Eric’s restraints snapped with a sharp crack.
*Clang.*
‘…That was expensive!’
I threw myself onto the steel staircase attached to the hotel’s outer wall. By the time I managed to regain my balance on the swaying metal steps, Eric was already leaning out the window.
Eric let out a sigh of relief when our eyes met.
The noble lords who live comfortably in hotels might not know, but tall buildings like this need to be periodically painted and cleaned. Without stairs like these, were the cleaners and painters supposed to fly?
Anyway, was he really an Aura Swordsman? Don’t tell me he’s going to catch me.
I gritted my teeth, staring at the broken restraints dangling from Eric’s wrist.
Were those restraints useless from the start? Could he have broken them easily all along?
I entertained the rational suspicion, then quickly shook my head. Nah, no way.
Thinking what I pleased, I gripped the hem of my dress and prepared to descend. I was afraid Eric might leap down to catch me at any moment.
Then, Eric spoke softly.
“Don’t jump. I won’t follow.”
I, who had been looking down for a place to jump, lifted my head to look at Eric again.
Did he just tell me not to jump?
I stared at him, dumbfounded.
“Why?”
“Because it’s dangerous.”
Eric’s red eyes gazed at me calmly.
In that moment, I tightened my grip on the steel railing.
Was it because I was touching the railing, heated by the sun? Or was it because I’d seen those damn kind eyes of Eric’s?
My body began to heat up. From embarrassment. Or… or?
I endured my burning body temperature and said.
“Shall I give you a piece of advice? Don’t try to know too much.”
Like the other pages of that document.
What I saw in my dream was the complete document. The following pages not only held the secret of the coastal land, but also explained why the Duchess of Orleans had died.
“Why is that?”
I gave the puzzled-looking Eric a playful smile.
“If all the good people turn to the dark side, who will protect love and justice?”
Having said my piece, I followed Eric’s advice and descended the stairs safely.
The steel staircase swayed, making a sound as if it would crumble at any moment.
Only after I had climbed all the way down did I realize I had left my glass slipper by the window.
✵ ✵ ✵
As Eric stood in the empty hotel room looking out the window, a black shadow fell behind him.
Eric turned around.
“Young Lord.”
It was Lily.
“You heard all that, I presume?”
Lily nodded.
Eric had been conscious since dawn. He had made contact with Lily when Imeline briefly stepped out to buy something, and Lily had been waiting for his instructions, hidden in the next room.
The reason Eric had pretended to be compliantly tied up was simple.
It was to find out what else Imeline knew. There was a high probability that Imeline, who knew the secret of the ink that Eric, Lily, and Ella were all unaware of, knew something more.
And Eric’s ruse had been a great success.
Eric recalled the writing on the paper Imeline had taken with her.
Robert von Dennique. 20,000,000 gold.
That was undoubtedly Prince Robert’s signature.
Eric looked at Lily with a calm expression and asked.
“Have you reported to the princess?”
“Not yet. I stayed by your side all night in case something happened…”
As proof, Lily’s eyes were bloodshot.
Eric asked.
“Are you going to report it now?”
Lily flinched at Eric’s words.
The words Lily had heard today contained secrets that were a threat to the Ducal House of Orleans. For instance—
‘Looking at the goods purchased for twenty million gold, it’s more than enough to be considered preparation for treason.’
A word like ‘treason.’
Eric read the hesitation in Lily’s expression.
“‘I will report it.’ You should have said that at once.”
“But…”
“The well-being of my house is my own matter to handle. And you, Sir Lily, swore an oath of loyalty to the princess, not to me.”
It was a very Eric-like thing to say. But that was precisely why Lily felt so frustrated.
If he became the son of a traitor, Eric’s social standing wouldn’t just fall. It would be obliterated.
Princess Ella was a person who valued loyalty, but she was not one to easily trust those around her. That was why she had ordered Lily to doubt and even surveil a loyal subject like Eric.
But what if a seed of rebellion was growing within Eric’s family?
Would Ella truly trust Eric? And even if she did, would she go so far as to protect him?
No matter how much she valued loyalty, Princess Ella was, undeniably, an heir prepared to abandon everything for the throne.
Even Eric.
