-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Men, Money, and Metal
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Lily said urgently.
“Isn’t it too soon to know for sure? Duke Orleans may have joined hands with Prince Robert, but it’s too early to call it treason. We also need to verify the authenticity of the evidence. If you give the order, I will go down right now and capture Imeline Wedgwood. We must get our hands on that document first…”
Lily looked as if she was about to throw herself out the window. But Eric shook his head.
“Why not, Young Lord? Surely it’s not because of… that photograph…”
Lily coughed awkwardly as she mentioned the photograph. Eric’s expression twisted.
Eric recalled the wicked smile on Imeline’s face as she straddled him.
*That crazy woman…*
Imeline had bolted with the film of the photograph—a picture of the two of them, who were supposed to become step-siblings in a matter of days, entangled on a bed.
The urge to retrieve that film immediately was overwhelming, but Eric restrained himself.
What was important to Eric wasn’t something like his personal honor.
Eric pictured Imeline, the country bumpkin with brown eyes and red hair.
*This girl… why would she steal this?*
That chilling expression.
Eric thought that perhaps Imeline’s true face was something far more terrifying.
“Don’t capture her, just follow. Imeline will likely head to the estate, so it would be best for you to return there first as well, Sir Lily.”
“Imeline Wedgwood is going back to the estate? After blackmailing you like this, Young Lord?”
Lily looked incredulous, but Eric nodded as if it were obvious.
Eric knew that Imeline cared deeply for her family.
It was a strange thing. Because, according to the background check Eric had run on the Wedgwoods, Imeline Wedgwood was not Helena’s biological daughter.
“Report all of Imeline’s movements for the next twenty-four hours. And… yes. As you said, it would be best to postpone reporting to the Princess until we have conclusive evidence.”
A look of relief washed over Lily’s face. But Eric’s expression remained dark. He looked out the window and said.
“When the time comes, I will be the one to tell her. Whether it is my family’s shame or a bomb that will destroy my house.”
“Yes, Young Lord.”
Lily knelt before Eric, then rose immediately. She then gracefully slipped through the window and scaled down the hotel’s outer wall.
Left alone, Eric felt a sense of confusion.
Because—
*What if this document isn’t all there is, what if there are more pages? And what if those pages contain documents proving that Duke Orleans is a psychopath? If that falls into the hands of the Princess or the royal family, the ducal house will be utterly ruined…*
—Eric knew where the rest of the documents Imeline had mentioned were.
Eric quickly opened the hotel room door and stepped out.
As he walked, trying to leave the hotel, he was overcome by a strange feeling.
If he sent Lily away and left the hotel alone to return to the ducal estate and find the documents—
What if his father’s strange secret really existed there, just as Imeline had said?
Then what about him? What was he planning to do?
What was he planning to do after finding it? Why was he acting alone, without informing Sir Lily of this?
With an anxious expression, Eric stopped abruptly while descending the stairs.
*‘Don’t try to know too much. If all the good people turn to the dark side, who will protect love and justice?’*
Eric felt an ominous premonition, as if the world he had been protecting was about to reveal its true form.
The kind of world where living a good life was rewarded.
Feeling as if he were walking on thin ice, Eric started moving again.
The moment he stepped outside the hotel, Eric would no longer be able to trust anyone.
✵ ✵ ✵
When I climbed through the window and scrambled into my room, Philip was sitting on my bed with hollow eyes.
Startled, I almost fell back out the window I had just managed to climb.
“Ah, you scared me! What are you doing here? I thought you were an undead!”
Philip retorted, looking dumbfounded.
“And whose fault is it that I’m an undead? Huh?”
I hopped down lightly from the windowsill and muttered.
“I thought you’d be asleep by now…”
I was sure I’d seen him pass out after I plied him with plenty of alcohol last night.
Philip asked with his haggard face.
“What’s gotten into you lately?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why have you been so reckless lately! I mean, Mom’s wedding is just around the corner, and you stay out all night? All niiiiight?”
“How did you know I stayed out all night?”
“Because I was guarding this room, that’s how!”
“So why were you guarding the room!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Philip clapped a hand over his mouth as if he were about to be sick.
After a moment, he calmed down and let out a sigh.
“Hah… where did you go yesterday…? Don’t tell me you went to the Rose that Blooms at Night?”
It seemed he remembered me asking about the Rose that Blooms at Night while getting him drunk last night.
I put on an innocent smile and walked toward the wardrobe, pretending to take off my clothes. Not wanting to see me change, Philip quickly turned his head away.
Just as I thought. What sibling in this world would want to watch the other change clothes?
I took the opportunity to quickly pull the film and the document from my clothes and stash them in a drawer with my underwear.
“I’m going to be a young lady of the ducal house in a couple of days, you know? I wanted to learn about the capital’s nightlife before I have to start living with dignity, I guess?”
“Nonsense. You expect me to believe that?”
Philip’s voice was laced with ice. Having finished changing, I turned back to him.
Philip was glaring at me with an uncharacteristically cold expression.
“Wh-what…?”
*Does he know something?*
My heart twisting in my chest, I closed the wardrobe door and leaned against it.
Then, Philip walked over to me with a suspicious look on his face and said.
“Did you… have a dream or something?”
*A dream…? What did he just say?*
Feeling as if I’d been struck hard on the back of the head, I asked Philip urgently.
“Did you… did you have one too?”
Instead of answering, Philip licked his lips and said.
“A dream where our family dies, gets hurt, or suffers some great misfortune?”
“What… what is this…”
*Did he really have one?*
I rubbed my arms, goosebumps rising on my skin.
Philip stared into the distance and continued.
“A sudden increase in libido, trouble sleeping, the urge to wander around outside…?”
But the next sentence was like a splash of cold water to my face, snapping me back to my senses.
I yelled.
“You’ve been reading the astrology column in the newspaper again, haven’t you!”
“Ah, yeah!”
*This rotten brat! You scared me!*
“You’ve been acting weird lately, haven’t you? I was so worried that I read this morning’s paper, and it said, ‘Capricorns will experience a great misfortune this week. To avoid this misfortune, be wary of men, money, and metal.’ And then you go and stay out all night! With who? Huh?”
I clenched my fists at his words.
Men. Money. And metal.
That was a rather meaningful horoscope, wasn’t it?
I sidled over to the bed, avoiding Philip, who was walking as if he might open my wardrobe at any moment. After a sideways glance at the wardrobe, Philip came to my side.
“Did you hit your head? Want to try some counseling? There’s a historic royal hospital in the west…”
“I’m fine.”
I waved my hand dismissively.
My whole body ached. It seemed I had been completely tense while moving and tying up Eric Orleans.
I unconsciously reached for my shoes to take them off, then froze.
My bare feet were covered in dirt.
“Then what’s wrong? We’re about to become part of the ducal family. Shouldn’t you be excited?”
I looked back at Philip.
Part of the ducal family.
The words sounded nice, but in the end, the Duke didn’t see us as family. He probably thought of us as tools to be used and discarded.
“Part of the ducal family, my foot. Have any of Mom’s husbands ever truly thought of you or me as family?”
Philip’s face contorted.
“Why bring up people who’ve already crossed the River Styx?”
Right, they were all dead.
“Shouldn’t people learn from their failures, Philip? Orleans might not be any different from the other husbands.”
“Then we can just use him too. What’s so hard about that?”
Philip muttered, looking somewhat hurt for some reason.
He seemed to have strangely opened his heart to the Duke after their walk in the ducal gardens.
Feeling uneasy, I looked at him, but it only made me more troubled, so I turned my head away.
My gaze fell upon the wardrobe.
Inside were the film of the photograph taken with Eric Orleans and the Orleans ducal family’s accounting documents.
Eric Orleans hadn’t given a proper response to my blackmail. But surely, with this, he wouldn’t be able to ignore my words.
*To make it more certain, I need to find the documents that follow…*
I recalled Eric Orleans hiding behind the bookshelf.
The rest of the pages would be behind that bookshelf. The remaining documents containing the Duke of Orleans’s true secrets.
Twenty-four hours.
When the time I gave Eric was up, I would have to break into that office again and retrieve the documents.
I had to. To protect my family.
And—
“Being used, using others… aren’t you sick of it? Let’s try to live… I don’t know… a good life now.”
I heard Philip let out a snort.
But I was serious. Once we returned to the south, I planned to live by the principle of poetic justice that the naive young master had spoken of as our family motto.
To be happy with my family.
