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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: A Test of Trust
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Chapter 26
“Further back. More. More. Further back.”
Deep within the royal gardens, Eric kept gesturing for me to move back. And I was already a good distance away!
I glanced at Sir Lily, who was standing silently in the bushes, holding a camera and concealing her presence, then turned to Eric with a grimace.
“I mean… we’re supposed to be taking pictures of a date… What are a man and a woman supposed to be doing from this faaaaar apart?”
A moment ago, he was, you know? Holding my hand and everything! What’s with this sudden distance now?
It’s not that I want to hold Eric’s hand! It’s just, logically, would a couple who’s eloping to get married behind their engaged parents’ backs be acting like this?
I found myself blurting out in frustration.
“If we’re photographed this far apart, it won’t look like we’re on a night stroll together! It’ll look like the Young Lord was taking a walk by himself and a ghost got caught in the picture! Am I a spirit or something?”
Eric thought for a moment. Then, as if deciding my point was valid, he nodded.
“Fine. Come here.”
I scoffed at Eric’s gesture.
Hmph. Does he think I’ll come just because he’s calling me over now?
“Right away.”
I had to go, and fast.
I quickly scurried to Eric’s side, plastered myself against him, and grabbed his arm with a beaming smile. Eric shook his head with a look of disgust and pushed me away.
“That’s too close.”
Ugh. This guy!
“Ugh, if you’re going to be like this, let’s not take them! Just use the hotel pictures!”
Furious at Eric’s attitude, as if he were training me like one of his hunting dogs, I shouted toward Lily in the bushes.
Lily looked up, troubled. A few leaves were stuck in her hair. She spoke politely to Eric.
“You should stand a little closer……. You’re not both in the frame.”
With a reluctant expression, Eric walked over to my side. Then he stood there, contorting his body to avoid touching me as much as possible.
“Seriously, why don’t we just use the hotel pictures?”
Where else were we going to find pictures as provocative and well-composed as the hotel ones! Huh?!
Just then, Eric said something unexpected.
“Have you considered that you might regret it later?”
What’s he talking about? I just blinked.
“Your tarnished reputation could make it difficult for you to marry again.”
I hadn’t considered that at all, so I was momentarily stunned.
Marriage. I’d never dreamed of such a thing. Mom was always desperate to marry me off into a wealthy, respectable, handsome, and powerful noble family, but…
As if a wealthy, respectable, handsome, and powerful noble would ever like me in the first place.
For me, family is just Philip and Mom. It’s always been that way, and it always will be.
But on second thought, for a man like Eric Orleans, a second marriage could hold significant meaning.
He could enhance the ducal family’s authority by uniting with another powerful noble house, or, if the opportunity arose, he could even marry a princess and become the highest-ranking man in the country.
Briefly disoriented by these thoughts, I started to let go of Eric’s arm.
That was when it happened.
Eric pulled my arm toward him.
“…?”
“So, let’s just go as far as an embrace.”
Before my brain could process Eric’s words, before I could sort through the thoughts of his “second” marriage unfolding in my mind, I had already answered.
“Okay.”
Eric wrapped his arms around me.
I found my face buried in the chest of a man a full head taller than me, forced to feel his body heat. In fact, I almost flailed to pull away, but thankfully, Lily’s voice from behind me stopped my struggling.
“O-Oh, yes! Right now! Taking the picture!”
Lily’s voice brought me back to my senses. I looked up at Eric and said.
“My face has to be visible, you know.”
I tilted my head up and wrapped my arms around the neck of a bewildered-looking Eric.
Our faces were now very close.
Eric’s expression hardened. I smiled, feigning affection, and touched the corner of his lips.
“You have to smile, right? Pictures turn out better when you smile.”
With that, I gave a soft smile.
A beat later, Eric looked at me, slowly raised the corners of his mouth, and tightened his grip on my waist.
Eric’s smile slowly spread across his face. His eyes curved, his lips parted, and the tension and wariness in his gaze vanished.
It caught me off guard. I only then realized it was the first time I had ever seen this man smile.
“So you do know how to smile.”
Eric tilted his head.
“I wasn’t smiling.”
What is he talking about? He was. He still is.
*Click—!*
I’ll have to show him the picture later and prove it, I decided.
✵ ✵ ✵
Inside the carriage, Eric Orleans examined the film and muttered to himself.
“What a curious invention. To draw a scene with nothing but light.”
Light still spilled from the royal palace, where many nobles remained, enjoying the all-night party.
An age where light could be created without expensive mana stones.
The area around the royal palace was brightly lit with electric bulbs.
Just 100 years ago, such daylight-like brightness was impossible without light orbs powered by mana stones. Rumors circulated that fantastical beasts still lived somewhere on the continent, and various legends and mystical tales made the royalty seem like beings different from ordinary humans.
With no publishing industry like newspapers, and no universities mushrooming as they do now, the common person had little knowledge of science or engineering.
Engineers sometimes passed themselves off as magicians, and low-level mages exploited the fact that ordinary people couldn’t measure their mana, exaggerating their own magical abilities.
One only had to consider the case of Oz, who was called a great archmage but was in fact just an electrical engineer, leading to a royal warrant for his arrest just a century ago, to get a sense of the times.
But now, much has changed. The spread of the printing press led to a flood of tabloids that could be bought for a coin or two, and these so-called “penny presses” whispered the gossip of royalty and nobility to the masses daily.
Electricity had also advanced greatly, leading to a surge in cheap electronic products. At the same time, the price and rarity of magical artifacts plummeted.
For the royal family and the nobility, this was an unwelcome change.
A great power passed down from antiquity, with complex methods of wielding it passed down through generations. Magic resembled the traditional logic of succession within royal and noble families.
But electricity was the opposite. An egalitarian energy that followed an absolute formula—one in, one out—that did not change whether the subject was a king or a clown.
Interesting, but dangerous.
Eric gazed at the woman in the film.
Imeline Wedgwood.
Even in the dark film, Eric could clearly make out the woman’s eyes, nose, and mouth.
Everything began with this woman. Sensing his father’s secret, starting this strange plan.
Eric was now in a strange situation where everything he had considered absolute was being overturned, and he was naturally coming to accept things he once thought unacceptable.
For example, treating the sacred institution of ‘marriage’ as merely a part of a scheme was something the old Eric would never have done.
Eric fiddled with the ring on his finger, a chill running down his spine.
*‘The more your thoughts branch out, the less decisive your actions become.’*
It was the first thing his master taught him when he learned to wield a sword.
To shake off his thoughts, he handed the film he was holding to Lily, who sat across from him. Lily took it.
“Are you truly going to… marry Lady Imeline?”
“Even if you ask if it’s true, I already have the princess’s written approval right here.”
Eric pointed to his jacket pocket.
“But according to the intelligence I gave you before we arrived at the palace, Lady Imeline…”
Lily hesitated for a moment.
“…might be an accomplice in the murder of Lord Violode, along with Helena Wedgwood.”
Eric was lost in thought for a moment.
On the way to the palace earlier, Lily had used a scroll to make a quick trip to the south and back, bringing two pieces of intelligence.
One was that an investigator, under Baldeck’s orders, had secretly drilled on the Wedgwoods’ coastal land.
The other was a sheriff’s testimony regarding Imeline’s biological father.
*‘After the merchant lord’s death, a significant portion of his wealth disappeared. Helena vanished with Imeline Violode, who wasn’t even her biological daughter. A guild mercenary said he heard a scream from the lord’s room before the fire broke out at the Violode guild hall. The only people who could access that room were the lord’s immediate family—that is, his daughter and his wife.’*
Having heard the sheriff’s testimony herself, Lily suggested that the young Imeline was likely an abettor or accomplice, and that the main culprit was probably Helena—Helena Violode, who was now Helena Wedgwood.
Using a mere twelve-year-old child as an abettor or accomplice?
Nonsense.
Unless Helena had intended to use Imeline just as she’d tried to use her numerous husbands.
Imeline Wedgwood is not Helena’s biological daughter. She was an adopted daughter Helena met after being sold to the merchant guild due to debt. What kind of bond could exist in a family relationship like that?
Of course—
*If I die, the culprit will be Baldeck Orleans, that monster.*
—it’s not as if old, blood-related families are always stronger.
In any case, it was more likely that there were more secrets hidden in the death of Lord Violode, who was known as Bluebeard.
Whether Helena had deliberately deceived Imeline, or whether there was no arsonist, contrary to the sheriff’s words, and it was simply a natural fire.
Most importantly, Imeline was only twelve when her father died. Eric was leaning toward the idea that Imeline was not even an accomplice or an abettor.
*‘L-let me out… Let me out… Please, let me out…’*
Eric recalled Imeline in the Duke’s office. How she had been particularly afraid of being trapped in a dark place.
Eric felt his imagination stretch to a certain scene. For instance, a scene of a stepmother abusing her young adopted daughter—
Eric clenched his fist.
“I’ve decided to take Imeline’s hand. When the enemy is before you, it is always more efficient to hide any doubts about your allies deep in your heart.”
“The enemy being…”
“Baldeck Orleans.”
Eric stared at the receding royal palace with his dark eyes.
“My father.”
“Do you truly believe the Duke is plotting treason? Shouldn’t you trust the Duke as much as you trust Lady Imeline and the Princess? I…”
Eric did not answer.
He wasn’t here because of the circumstances suggesting his father might be plotting treason.
He was here for the mother he had never once believed, not the father he had complacently trusted all this time.
He said to Lily.
“Once I arrive at the Central Temple, send this check to Imeline.”
Lily took the check from Eric, her eyes wide with surprise.
“One hundred thousand gold?”
“It’s the promised amount. Tell her to use it for the wedding preparations.”
“But you’re preparing the dress and the temple, Young Lord…”
Lily couldn’t bring herself to easily pocket the check in her hand.
“Aren’t you worried that Miss Imeline Wedgwood might take this money and run?”
Eric frowned. He thought for a moment before shaking his head.
“If that happens, then our collaboration is over.”
“Pardon?”
“It might even be a good opportunity.”
A good opportunity to confirm whether Imeline is an ally or an enemy. Trust has always been a good tool for weeding out enemies from within.
And—
*‘Why do you think my father knew your weakness and said nothing? It was so that if you, Helena, and Philip tried to run, he could drag your suspicious family back by their leashes.’*
If Imeline ran, Philip and Helena would also be in danger. If Imeline, who was not ignorant of this fact, still tried to run, it would be proof that something was wrong with the seemingly tight bond between the three of them.
In that case—
—I will immediately have Helena charged with the murder of Lord Violode. No matter who he is, even my father couldn’t marry a woman who has become a murderer.
*‘How dare you touch this Helena’s daughter.’*
Eric recalled the sight of Helena, Philip, and Imeline at the ducal estate.
He grew curious about what choice Imeline would make.
