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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: A Grand Mess
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When Eric leaned out the window, Imeline was already running toward the path, her skirt bunched up in her hands.
“...What in the world.”
Eric muttered.
‘Was she so naive that she didn't know what my father was doing? Or did she not want to know? Either way, ignorance is a sin, Eric Orleans.’
Eric recalled Imeline’s words.
Ignorance? What was it that he didn't know?
With a grim expression, Eric walked to the bookshelf. He reached for the third shelf. Soon, his hand closed around a hidden envelope.
Whatever it was, he would find out once he checked these documents. They likely contained most of his father’s secrets.
Eric generally trusted his father, Duke Orleans, but he couldn’t help feeling tense as he took out the documents.
Eric opened the envelope.
Click.
Just then, he heard the office door open.
It was Lily who had opened it.
Seeing Eric holding the documents, Lily spoke with a look of relief.
“You’ve found the documents, Young Lord.”
“Yes.”
Eric slid the papers back into the envelope. It would be inappropriate to open them in front of Lily.
Lily began to explain to Eric, her expression troubled.
“My apologies. I had taken measures to keep the maids from coming to this floor, but with Lady Imeline’s sudden disappearance, the butler has been searching the entire manor…”
“Disappeared suddenly?”
Eric muttered, glancing at the open window.
“Yes. It seems they are still looking for her. The butler said she vanished the moment he looked away…”
Listening to Lily, Eric thought about Imeline Wedgwood, that strange woman.
On the balcony, she’d acted as clumsy as a southern country bumpkin, yet when he visited her estate, she had brazenly demanded 100,000 gold.
She’d seemed to endure Vivian Cavendish’s insults, only to forge Vivian’s handwriting.
“What in the world is she?”
“My apologies, Young Lord.”
Lily quickly bowed her head at his words. Seeing her rigid posture, Eric snapped out of his thoughts.
Lily.
Her true identity was that of a royal knight. Lily had owed her life to Eric from his time as the captain of the Royal Knights. Because of that connection, she had taken on the duty of serving him.
Eric shook his head.
“No, I wasn’t talking to you. Rise.”
“Then to whom were you speaking…?”
Lily lifted her head, a curious look on her face. Eric didn’t answer, gazing silently at the bookshelf.
Walking to the bookshelf, Eric opened it without hesitation. As the secret space hidden behind it was revealed, Lily furrowed her brow.
“Is that a safe mechanism?”
Eric nodded at her question.
Eric took a small silver necklace from his pocket. He fit the pendant into a slot in the center of the space, and the wall split apart, revealing an area enclosed by three plaster walls.
Lily looked at Eric, her eyes wide with surprise.
Eric said.
“So this is the secret safe. I’d heard there was such a place in the duchy, but I struggled to find the key. I never imagined the key would be… this.”
As Eric’s eyes clouded over, Lily looked at the necklace in his hand and spoke in a sympathetic voice.
“Isn’t that the late Duchess’s?”
“It is. It belonged to my mother.”
A flicker of longing for his deceased mother crossed Eric’s eyes.
Lily said.
“To gift her the key to his secret safe... his love must have run deep. The Duke's for your mother, I mean.”
It was no simple thing. Unions among noble families, who prized bloodlines, were mostly political. In such marriages, where family interests often clashed sharply, spouses frequently regarded each other as political enemies.
The Duke and Duchess of Orleans also had a political marriage. However, it was said that the two, betrothed at the age of six, had genuinely loved each other since childhood.
Eric clutched the silver necklace and muttered.
“What good did that do? My mother was…”
A madwoman.
So Eric thought.
‘I should never have given birth to you! You are the child of a monster!’
Eric’s expression hardened as he recalled the words his mother had spoken just before her death.
Child of a monster.
He had heard those words so often he was sick of them. His mother had said them more often than she had said his name.
Perhaps that was why.
To avoid becoming the child of a monster, Eric had lived his life relentlessly honing himself.
Because after his mother died, those words had lingered within him, a horrifying, circling curse.
‘Child of a monster! You will become a terrible demon in the end!’
Recalling his mother’s final words, Eric gazed out the window.
The day before she was found as a cold corpse in the middle of the vast ducal forest, his mother had said those very words. Those terrible, cursed words had effectively become her last.
As Eric was lost in thought, he saw the silhouette of a woman approaching the forest.
Imeline Wedgwood.
The strange woman running with her red hair and pantaloons flying.
Eric muttered.
“I really… hate madwomen.”
✵ ✵ ✵
It wasn’t very difficult to find the Duke and Philip walking along the forest path of the duchy.
The forest was deep and vast, but a crowd of servants had gathered nearby.
“*Gasp… gasp…*”
By the time I arrived before the Duke and Philip, breathing heavily, Philip was clapping for the Duke with a bright smile.
“Your marksmanship is truly magnificent, Your Grace!”
The moment I heard Philip’s voice, my strength gave out, and I collapsed. A servant who spotted me walked over.
“Lady Imeline?”
Hearing the servant, the Duke and Philip walked toward me.
“Imeline!”
The Duke looked at me, drenched in sweat, and put on a worried expression.
A man better at acting than any con artist…
I looked up at the Duke. He offered me his hand. I was reminded of Eric, who had offered me his hand in the study about ten minutes ago.
Eric Orleans and the Duke were remarkably similar. Ebony hair, pale skin, red lips. And on top of that, those chilling red eyes.
The only difference was that the Duke smiled quite often.
“Why did you run all the way here, Imeline? I heard you weren’t feeling well.”
The Duke said affectionately.
I stared blankly at the Duke’s hand before taking it.
The Duke grinned.
“If you’re feeling better, how about joining us for the game we’ve caught?”
“‘Us?’ Your Grace caught it all by yourself, haha!”
While Philip was laying on the sickening flattery, a gamekeeper behind the Duke brought over the carcass of a bird that had fallen from a tree.
Seeing the bloody carcass, I felt a wave of nausea and turned my head away. The Duke quickly gestured to the gamekeeper.
“Oh dear, it seems our dear young lady was startled. My apologies. I’m not used to these things, having no daughter of my own.”
Dear young lady…
Is having a daughter a prerequisite for knowing that some people find animal carcasses disgusting?
The Duke smiled gently and patted my back.
“But we’ll become a family, step by step, from now on, won’t we?”
The Duke’s suggestive voice echoed in my ear.
I glanced at Philip.
At the word ‘family,’ Philip’s face hardened.
His expression, which had been cheerful all along, was so stiff that anyone else would have thought he was angry, but I knew. That damn fool was now…
Moved. By the word ‘family.’
“Hah…”
I sighed.
The Duke who cons a con artist, Philip who falls for it yet again, and me, who knows the future but can’t change it…
What a mess this is.
I looked back toward the ducal manor I had run from.
The path to joining forces with the suspicious Eric Orleans was growing fainter and fainter.
Eric Orleans was a truly strange man, and he, in turn, clearly thought I was a truly strange woman.
I hadn’t managed to steal the documents, and I’d raised too much suspicion to sneak back in.
It seemed there was truly only one option left.
To cause a massive scene and ruin the wedding!
The wedding was now only six days away.
What kind of scene would be so huge that it could never be smoothed over?
✵ ✵ ✵
While I failed to come up with a groundbreaking idea for a wedding-ruining spectacle, time flew by, and the wedding was now just three days away.
A dress, which designers from the boutique had spent the last three days working on nonstop, arrived at the manor. Instead of a dress lavishly studded with jewels, it was an elegant one with diamonds only on the hem.
‘It’s a different dress from the one I saw in my dream…’
Determined to at least change the dress, I had advised my mother to pick something a little less flashy as soon as the Vivian incident was resolved.
‘Then again, what’s the point of a dress for a marriage that’s doomed anyway?’
I pressed my fingers against my throbbing temples.
Oblivious to my mood, my mother held the dress against her body and hummed a tune.
“Look at this. These are all diamonds, you know? If things go south, we could just run off with this dress and still come out ahead, Philip!”
As my mother shouted to Philip, her face flushed with excitement, Philip replied in a thrilled voice.
“Should I sell a few of these now, Mother? Huh? I could use the money to start a new business…”
As Philip eyed the diamonds on the bodice of the dress, my mother slapped his hand away.
“How could you…!”
Oh?
What’s this?
While I was thinking that, my mother quickly locked the door and came back.
“You have to lock the door first!”
…Of course.
