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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: A Father's Secret
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✵ ✵ ✵
“I am Imeline Wedgwood, daughter of Helena Wedgwood.”
With a thoroughly intimidated expression, I surveyed my surroundings and prostrated myself before the King, Princess, and Prince.
In truth, I should have paid my respects when I first came to the capital and made my social debut.
However, we were a noble family of such little influence on this continent that the royal family did not receive our greetings. It wasn't as if we would be invited to the social gatherings hosted by the royal family anyway.
But thanks to my mother coincidentally meeting the Duke at a gathering right after she arrived in the capital and starting to date him, we were able to naturally participate in various social events without having paid our respects to the royal family.
Thus, my mother, Philip, and I had to prostrate ourselves before the royal family, wearing expressions that said, ‘We apologize for our tardy greetings.’
“Oho, the daughter of Helena Wedgwood. I suppose we’ll be seeing much of you from now on.”
The King accepted my greeting with the smile of a good-natured uncle.
His words implied that since I was to become the Duke’s adopted daughter, he would be seeing me often as a young lady of the ducal house. It was a purely political remark.
Meanwhile, Prince Robert, seated to the right, merely offered a perfunctory smile, as if even acknowledging my greeting was a bother. And the Princess…
“So you’ll be Eric Orleans’s sister? A pleasure to meet you. I quite like your hair color. Is red not the color of passion?”
She spoke to me in a friendly manner, a peculiar smile on her face.
But the grace and aura emanating from her expression and her very frame were not those of an ordinary person. She exuded a tension that rivaled the killing intent said to be exuded by Aura Knights.
My fear was not an act; it was real. I remained prostrate, muttering words of gratitude and humility, before finally excusing myself.
My whole body ached after leaving the audience chamber. I tapped Philip on the shoulder and said.
“Even if you had gone to the Rose that Blooms at Night yesterday, I doubt the Princess would have deigned to ravish you.”
Normally, Philip would have been angered by my teasing, but he seemed to have been overwhelmed by the Princess’s charisma as well, for he simply agreed.
“Well, of course. These days, the Princess’s interest is solely focused on Eric Orleans.”
“Eric Orleans?”
I flinched involuntarily at the unexpected name.
“Yes. Last night at the Rose that Blooms at Night, the two of them had a passionate… Anyway, there are rumors that the place where the flirtatious Princess finally settles will be with Eric Orleans. They say the two will finally get engaged this year.”
I frowned. Eric and Princess Ella, engaged?
I glanced back toward the distant doors of the audience chamber. The Princess sat on a lavish chair with a dignified posture, casting a sly smile at the handsome young squires and knights.
Last night, I had thought Eric and Ella’s relationship was merely a political union, but what if they were actually lovers?
‘Will this disrupt my plans…? Love over family?’
But if that were the case, it wouldn't explain why Eric had bothered to follow me after leaving Ella’s room, nor why Princess Ella looked so serene despite having been, in a way, spurned that night.
Most importantly, about sixty percent of what came out of Philip’s mouth was false information. Of the remaining forty percent, twenty was just bravado. Still, it was information I had to prepare for, just in case.
“Thanks to this, Eric Orleans becomes the Princess’s man, and when the Princess ascends the throne, he’ll be the future King Consort, which means we’ll be part of the royal family. Hah… You’d better know this is all thanks to Duke Orleans, little sister.”
Philip chattered on excitedly.
We’ll see if he can still chatter like that when he finds out that very same Duke Orleans plans to put a bullet through our heads.
With that thought, I scanned the room for Duke Orleans and his son, Eric.
‘I need to find out more…’
“But why hasn’t Duke Orleans arrived? Shouldn’t he be here by now?”
Typically, the higher a noble’s status, the later they arrived at royal parties.
But according to what I saw in my dream, Duke Orleans had arrived early, romantically, for my mother’s sake, and witnessed Vivian Cavendish’s atrocity. Then he had chased after my mother as she ran out crying and proposed to her in public.
I thought that was supposed to happen around now…
“You think he’d come now? Only low-ranking nobles like us show up at this hour.”
“No, that’s true, but… I’m sure I saw…”
…in my dream, that is.
Just then.
From the entrance of the royal ballroom, a woman entered, adorned with so many glittering things it was dazzling just to look at her. The knight guarding the door announced in a booming voice.
“Marquess and Marchioness Cavendish, and the two daughters of Marquess Cavendish, have arrived!”
‘Huh? The Duke is supposed to come before her.’
My face hardened as I watched the members of House Cavendish make their grand entrance in their splendid attire.
Among them, Vivian Cavendish shot me a spiteful look.
“Hey, didn’t you rip all her hair out? Looks like she still has some left.”
Philip whispered to me with a displeased look on his face as he watched Vivian. A sense of foreboding washed over me as I retorted.
“I know. If I knew this would happen, I should have just shaved her head completely bald…”
Feeling anxious, I downed the soda water I was holding in one gulp. It tasted bitter, not sweet.
✵ ✵ ✵
Opening the bookshelf door wide, Baldeck spoke with a relaxed expression.
“Come out. Unless you intend to sever ties with your father over a few stolen ledger pages.”
“…”
As expected, his father knew Eric was the one who had taken the ledger. But just a few pages?
Eric then realized his father believed he didn't know the full contents of the ledger. It was a reasonable assumption; otherwise, why would he have left behind the latter half, which contained more critical information?
Eric realized that his father’s reasonable assumption had, ironically, created an opening for him.
Stepping out from behind the bookshelf, Eric glanced into the space within.
No writing remained there.
‘The secret ink won’t disappear until it comes into contact with water.’
Eric had hidden the writing on the wall again before opening the bookshelf. It was thanks to what Imeline had told him last night.
Could those words truly have been written by his mother? If so…
Eric looked at his father, who was seated at the reception table. He was still in his hunting trousers, and a long rifle was propped against the desk in his study. The faint smell of gunpowder wafted from the rifle’s tip.
Eric’s hand went to the sword at his hip.
Duke Baldeck watched the silent, standing Eric with his red eyes and asked.
“Have you confirmed the contents of the ledger? You were planning to take it to the Princess, I presume?”
Baldeck’s eyes glinted.
‘I’ve given birth to a monster’s child!’
Eric recalled his mother’s words. A painful curse that had lingered in his mind for so long. The very curse that had driven a fourteen-year-old Eric to leave the ducal estate.
Now he saw that those words weren't a curse directed at him.
Baldeck Orleans.
‘They were directed at that monster.’
“You knew?”
Eric calmly sat down across from the Duke.
Despite being middle-aged, the Duke maintained a physique as solid as Eric’s, thanks to his diligent hunting and exercise. His impressive natural height was an added bonus.
The Duke crossed his long legs and smiled gently.
“Knew what? That you still swear allegiance to the Princess even after resigning as Captain of the Knights? Or that you tampered with the ducal estate’s ledger?”
“Both.”
The Duke looked at Eric with a strange smile.
He had no memory of ever having a long, friendly conversation with his father. His father had always been more of a stern figure than the affectionate man he showed to Imeline, Philip, and Helena.
‘Weakness is evil!’
‘If someone steals what is yours, bring me their wrist.’
‘You are Baldeck’s son.’
Though his methods were somewhat violent, Eric had always considered his father’s behavior to be typical of a capital nobleman and patriarch.
‘Emily… to leave me…’
Seeing his father grieve for so long after his mother’s death, a young Eric had even worried he might lose his father as well.
Eric gazed steadily at the red eyes that were identical to his own.
The feeling of someone you thought was closest being the most distant.
Eric was struck anew by how devastating that feeling was. Even though he had surely felt it when he lost his mother.
“A few days ago, when I learned you had tampered with the ducal ledger, I immediately suspected you would take it to the Princess. My suspicions were all but confirmed when I heard you spent the night out with her yesterday.”
The Duke was strangely circling the topic.
Eric realized that Baldeck was trying to determine whether Eric had simply taken the ledger, or if he had also discovered the existence of the secret ink.
How much should he reveal, and how much should he hide?
After a moment of deliberation, Eric quickly decided on his course and spoke.
“I discovered a secret ledger written in invisible ink. Were you colluding with Prince Robert?”
At Eric’s words, Baldeck slowly raised his eyes. For a brief moment, a shadow passed over his eyes, a detail Eric did not miss.
This moment, this look in his eyes.
It was to confirm this that Eric had laid the truth bare.
“I won’t deny it.”
But contrary to his momentarily shaken eyes, Baldeck admitted it with confidence.
A swift calculation that there was no way to cover up what was already exposed, and—
“But it is not as dangerous as you think. I was merely purchasing weapons to assist the Prince in his expedition to the new northern frontier next summer and providing him with some support. You may ask His Majesty the King about the expedition yourself tonight. It has already received his royal sanction.”
Eric finally understood the reason for Baldeck’s confidence.
