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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: Secrets in the Annex
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I moved my feet and stood up. The five minutes she had mentioned were up.
I tried walking around barefoot and no longer felt any pain.
“I brought these thinking it might be too much for you to wear heels in your current condition. They are new.”
Robarta’s consideration didn’t end there. She had prepared a pair of flat shoes for me today.
They were a little loose, but they were much better than heels.
I thanked her with a touched expression and put on the shoes.
“Let’s head back now.”
“…May an old woman offer a word?”
Darcy flinched. He turned his head toward Robarta and gave a willing nod.
“Is it about Marso’s health?”
“No, it is not. It is about His Highness… Perhaps you would prefer to hear it alone?”
Darcy shook his head.
“If it’s a conversation you can’t have in front of Marso, then forget it.”
Robarta looked at Darcy and me, lost in thought for a moment.
“Then I shall speak.”
Opening a drawer and taking something out, he placed it in Darcy’s hand.
“Your Highness, if you burn too much incense, the air becomes stale.”
It was an incense burner that looked quite old.
“You tell me to quit, and now you’re giving me an incense burner?”
“…Is it not difficult to quit all at once?”
Robarta chuckled softly.
A moment later, she placed my heels in a bag and handed it to me. Darcy put the small incense burner into his bag.
“You like it.”
“I can’t just throw it away.”
A lie. I knew he was the type of person who would have thrown it out immediately if he hadn’t liked it.
Darcy helped me up. As we turned our backs to leave the room, Robarta murmured.
“I am glad to see you looking so well.”
Darcy stopped in his tracks and turned his head. The sight of his wide, bewildered eyes was unfamiliar. Seeing Darcy press his lips together, Robarta bowed her head apologetically.
“The longer one lives in the Imperial Palace, the more things one cannot speak of. I have always been sorry.”
There was someone who remembered him from the days when he was dragged around by Kies.
Although she lacked the courage to stand up for him or the sense of justice to look after him, Robarta remembered him.
“This was the best I could do.”
Darcy said nothing, but Robarta’s voice was clearly trembling.
The face that had been awash with indescribable emotion was once again covered by its usual leisurely mask.
Darcy let out a smirk.
“I never even had any expectations.”
Darcy opened the door. Robarta said no more.
Once outside, Darcy looked at me and shrugged his shoulders as if it were absurd.
“It’s funny, that she remembers me.”
“Did you ever show her your face?”
“No, but I did visit a few times.”
It seemed Robarta had been in the Imperial Palace for quite a long time.
“She’s probably been here since my mother’s time.”
I was surprised by Darcy’s words as he searched his memory. If that was the case, she had certainly been here for a long while.
“She has Kies’s complete trust.”
For a mere commoner to become the Imperial physician, the Emperor’s trust must have been crucial. It was reason enough for her to have ignored Darcy.
“Do you resent her?”
He could. Darcy said he hadn’t expected anything, but the very act of saying it was a contradiction.
Robarta was a kind person. One of the few sane people in the Imperial Palace. Perhaps that was why Darcy had hoped for more from her.
“No. I never asked for help in the first place.”
“And yet she figured out who you were.”
Robarta was a doctor. Whether Kies came wearing a mask or a helmet, she would have known his physique.
It would have been stranger if she couldn't tell Kies and Darcy apart.
“You’re finally out.”
As the two of us were about to walk back, we heard the voice of an uninvited guest. It was Kaysen, who had stuck with us this whole time.
I narrowed my brow.
“What have you been doing, not leaving…”
“I had something to ask Sir Darcy.”
Kaysen averted his gaze from me. It was clear that my change in attitude had left him flustered about how to treat me.
“I’m sorry to ask, but is it not possible to use magic to find her?”
Despite Kaysen’s earnest plea, Darcy’s answer was the same.
“No.”
“Sir Darcy, please…”
Kaysen looked anxious. It was understandable, given that his rival and his crush had both suddenly disappeared.
He was so desperate that he sent me a signal for help. Pitiful, but…
“I don’t want to.”
Of course, I flatly refused.
“…You know how desperate I am. And I cannot use my own men.”
“Then you run around yourself.”
Darcy provided the answer from beside me. It was a fitting reply for Kaysen.
We ignored Kaysen’s plea and began to walk slowly. Our steps were sluggish, as if we both shared the same reluctance to return to the ballroom.
The moment we re-entered the small garden connected to Robarta’s residence, Darcy froze.
“…I thought this annex was currently empty.”
“The footsteps sound quite urgent. And there’s more than one or two.”
The two of them continued a conversation I couldn’t understand. What in the world were they hearing?
“This might be the answer you’re looking for.”
“…Then please hide with me.”
“Why should I? What reason does a prince have to hide?”
“Even you sense that something is suspicious, Your Highness. I followed your lead diligently during the operation.”
Because of Darcy’s refusal to comply, Kaysen looked as if he had aged ten years. I felt no pity for him at all.
*Good job, Darcy. You’re giving Kaysen a real-time lesson in how painful it is to talk to someone who won’t listen.*
Kaysen asked me.
“…Aren’t you going to stop him?”
“Why would I? I’m quite enjoying watching you experience how I felt.”
He fell silent at my words.
In the end, we hid behind a dense thicket of bushes near the annex and the fence made from them.
Crouching down, I felt like a character in a spy movie.
When would I ever get to have an experience like this again?
I closed my eyes and listened, trying to figure out where the presence they mentioned was coming from.
Soon, I could really hear the sound of people’s footsteps. Peeking through slitted eyes, I saw servants on the side path opposite us.
They stopped in front of the annex, catching their breath, so this was clearly their destination.
However, each of them was holding a wooden box.
A servant following the three in front stumbled. With a cry of “Ack!” the box slipped from his arms.
The box tumbled, its lid flying open, and its contents spilled out.
We doubted our eyes when we realized what the contents sparkling brilliantly on the lawn were.
“…Magic stones?”
Because they weren’t something ordinary servants would be carrying. Especially not to an annex that was supposed to be empty.
Kaysen, who had been frowning, was the first to offer an opinion.
“They must be taking them to the scene of the earlier incident.”
“No, you know as well as I do that there’s no need to cross the garden to get from the warehouse to the main palace where the ball is being held.”
Darcy refuted it. Kaysen’s face grew serious.
“An illicit deal?”
“…It doesn’t seem like that either.”
Darcy gestured toward the door with his chin.
“You’ve finally arrived!”
The marquis, who had flung open the annex door and was approaching the servants, shouted. He looked just as pale as before.
“He seems to be in a huge rush.”
I could also see Ryan following the marquis out.
Even though they were right next to Robarta’s quarters, they had sought out the annex. And they hadn’t called for Robarta.
Furthermore, the number of guards and servants escorting them was minimal. This meant that their presence at the annex was a secret.
Everything was utterly suspicious. So much so that even Kaysen, who adored Reshuan, couldn’t bring himself to move easily.
Of course, Darcy was merciless.
“The person you’re looking for is probably in there. Go on.”
“…Yes, I will head in now.”
Kaysen rose from his spot with a lukewarm attitude.
But before he could enter, the door opened again.
And there stood Reshuan, looking perfectly fine as she walked out.
“Reshuan!”
Kaysen, the devoted admirer, brightened at the sight of Reshuan and ran to her.
“What was the reason for your sudden collapse? I was worried.”
“I think it’s because I’ve been under a lot of stress lately… I believe I was just lost in thought.”
Reshuan seemed flustered by Kaysen’s sudden appearance but answered him kindly.
“I heard many people were worried because I left so abruptly. Shall we return to the ballroom together?”
“That is a fine idea.”
Kaysen, who would probably say you could make bean paste from red beans if Reshuan said so, escorted her.
The marquis and Ryan came out a little later. It was suspicious that they didn’t come out right away.
Did the two of them have some kind of private conversation?
*What’s the connection between the magic stones and Reshuan’s health?*
Of course, as Kaysen said, the magic stones could be evidence of an illicit deal. After all, the two families who owned the mines and the imperial family had an exclusive trade agreement, with only a very small number of magic stones ever entering circulation.
He, who owned only one mine, might have coveted more magic stones.
But the marquis cherished Reshuan. It was unlikely he would suddenly request a deal when Reshuan had just collapsed.
The marquis’s face was ashen as he went inside with the magic stones. As if Reshuan still hadn’t recovered.
It seemed like only about ten minutes had passed before Reshuan came back out.
What could have happened in that time?
And why didn’t they call a doctor in the first place…?
But why was I feeling such a prickling sensation?
I turned my head and found Darcy staring at me, his chin propped in his hand. His eyes were slanted in boredom, but there was no rush in them.
“Let’s go.”
“Alright.”
“She’s not worth your worry.”
“…Right.”
Darcy and I, who had been standing there blankly, started walking. It was an unsettling end, but there was nothing I could pinpoint.
“Are we going straight back?”
“I don’t really feel like going back to the ball, but…”
Darcy stopped in front of me, his eyes twinkling playfully.
“Then how about we skip out?”
“Where would we go?”
“There’s still time before the ball ends, so… let’s go there.”
He naturally fell into step with me and whispered.
“To my room.”
