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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: A Deal
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“For now, I’ll have my familiar return you to your room. Get up.”
But Rosette couldn’t bring herself to stand. Her mind was a tangled mess.
‘Do I really have to leave?’
It had been just over four months since she started living with her family at the Duchy of Adrian. Compared to the thirteen years she had spent at the Marquisate of Dallas, it was a trivial amount of time.
But in those four months, Rosette had received an amount of affection that couldn't even compare to the love she had felt over those thirteen years. In truth, it would be more accurate to say she had received almost no love at all from the Dallas family.
Rosette, too, had given her family her entire heart. She felt sorry for Jane, but she might have loved them even more than she loved her.
And now she was being told to leave them. Besides, would they be safe without her?
Rosette murmured, grasping at straws.
“It’ll be easier to deal with the Marquisate of Dallas if I’m here. I know the future, too.”
“I know the future as well. I can handle the likes of the Marquisate of Dallas on my own. Besides, you’re no longer with them, are you?”
Rosette was at a loss for words.
‘Of course. I also believed everything would be resolved if I just disappeared.’
She hadn’t realized it in the past, but Rosette had done a great deal for Marquis Dallas. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he had gained Duke Lilis’s trust thanks to her.
What would happen now that she was gone?
The Marquisate of Dallas would be unable to wield its power properly, and the Duchy of Adrian would not collapse so easily.
Knowing this, Rosette had believed the Duchy of Adrian would be safe when she first turned back time.
‘Besides, the Prince knows the future, just like I do. He’ll be able to notice if any variables arise.’
In other words, knowing the future wasn’t a bargaining chip. She needed something else to persuade Joshua.
In her despair, Rosette suddenly remembered something and cried out urgently.
“I!”
This might be her last chance.
“If I can save Her Majesty, the Empress, will you leave me be?”
Joshua froze and turned around.
“You? My mother?”
“Yes!”
Watching the conviction in Rosette’s eyes, Joshua’s expression hardened.
Until he met her in person, he had intended to get information from her about the poisoning. He had thought that, as Marquis Dallas’s daughter, she must have known something.
But his mind changed after seeing her. The Rosette he saw was remarkably naive.
Her magical abilities were second to none, but it seemed she had been used as Marquis Dallas’s pawn, completely ignorant of any information.
Was there a fool in the world who would share vital information with a chess piece? At the very least, Marquis Dallas wasn’t that foolish.
‘So I naturally assumed she wouldn’t know any crucial details, like clues about the poisoning.’
But what did she just say? That she could save his mother?
Interpreting her words in his own way, Joshua was engulfed in fury.
“How could you possibly save my mother? Don’t tell me you were also involved in that incident?”
“No!”
Realizing his misunderstanding, Rosette quickly denied it.
“I was only eight years old back then and had just been adopted into the Dallas family. How could I have done something like that? I hadn’t even started learning magic at the time.”
Joshua’s intensity subsided ever so slightly.
“Then how do you plan to stop it? Are you saying you know what illness my mother was suffering from? The official cause of death was never properly announced to the public.”
The Empress had died under mysterious circumstances in the Empress’s Palace, of all places. Worse, the royal physicians couldn’t even determine the cause.
The Emperor, believing that the imperial family’s authority would plummet if this became public, announced that the Empress had died from a contagious disease.
He even told her home country, the Kingdom of Ivelin, the same story.
Since Ophelia had always been frail, everyone believed it.
Joshua had vehemently opposed it, but at twelve years old, he couldn’t defy the Emperor’s will.
Therefore, Rosette should also have believed the Empress died of an illness.
But Rosette answered without a hint of doubt.
“Her Majesty, the Empress, didn’t die of an illness—she was poisoned. But the poison used was never properly identified.”
“…How do you know that?”
“Although I didn’t know much at the time, I learned about it later while studying on my own. I remember seeing it in Marquis Dallas’s documents, which I secretly peeked at.”
Rosette shot up from her seat and approached Joshua.
“You’ve been trying to find the method of poisoning since you returned to the past, haven’t you? But you probably failed.”
Joshua neither confirmed nor denied it. But in his silence, Rosette grew certain her assumption was correct and continued.
“That’s to be expected. The poison used on Her Majesty was a peculiar one.”
“A peculiar poison?”
“Yes. It’s used as a medicine when administered alone, but it becomes a poison when combined with another substance.”
“Something like that exists?”
“Yes.”
“But even the royal physicians couldn’t figure it out.”
“That’s because it’s not a commonly known herb in the Empire. I can also tell you what poison was used. So, if I can save Her Majesty, will you leave me be?”
Joshua thought for a moment before asking.
“And if I refuse, are you planning not to save my mother? Are you threatening me right now?”
“No.”
Rosette shook her head without hesitation.
“Even if Your Highness doesn’t accept my proposal, I will still try to prevent the Empress’s poisoning. That’s something I’ve been planning to do since the moment I arrived at the Duchy of Adrian.”
“…”
“I was going to ask Isabelle to take me to the capital soon, but it will probably be easier to figure things out if Your Highness helps me.”
“Then?”
“I’m simply asking you, Your Highness. I’m asking you to trust me just this once, because the me of today is different from the me of the past. I’m asking you to help me change the fate of the Adrian family.”
Joshua looked into Rosette’s eyes, which were gazing steadfastly at his, and felt a wave of sentimentality.
‘She seems like a different person from when we first met.’
The child who had trembled and cried when he had pressed her at the Duke’s estate that afternoon was nowhere to be seen. She was even different from the Rosette Dallas he had known in the past.
In just a few months, she had become a completely different person, both outwardly and inwardly. It was likely thanks to being raised with love at the Adrian estate.
Amidst it all, those clear blue eyes looking at him remained the same. They shone just as they had when he first saw her in the garden.
Perhaps that was why. Joshua didn’t feel offended by her attitude. On the contrary, he found himself offering her advice.
“Let me give you a piece of advice. This is when you’re supposed to threaten me. You already have the upper hand.”
“But I didn’t want to threaten you with something like that.”
“Why not?”
“The Empress is precious to you, Your Highness. I don’t want to be the kind of wicked person who would use that to threaten you.”
It felt strange.
Rosette was clearly the one in the wrong, yet in this moment, Joshua felt as though he were a ruffian bullying an innocent child.
“So, what will you do?”
“For now.”
Joshua forced himself to look away from Rosette.
“I will postpone sending you away. You may stay at the Adrian estate until my mother’s matter is resolved.”
Rosette’s face lit up.
“R-Really?”
“But remember this. If anything happens to my mother, or if you try any funny business, I will personally throw you out.”
“Don’t worry! I really have no intention of trying any funny business. And Her Majesty, the Empress…”
She clenched her small fists tightly.
“I will save her, no matter what it takes.”
“…”
Instead of answering, Joshua snapped his fingers. The wolf that had been waiting in the distance darted over and bowed before Rosette.
“It’s time for you to go back. We can’t have anyone noticing you’re gone.”
“Is it really okay for me to go back?”
“Were you not listening to me?”
“I heard you perfectly well, but…”
“If you’d rather not, I can take you somewhere else right now.”
“No!”
Worried he might actually send her somewhere else, Rosette scrambled onto the wolf’s back. Pipi, sensing the mood, perched on her shoulder.
“I’m going home. Take me to my house, wolf.”
“Then I will be in contact again soon.”
With those words, the wolf began to run. It leaped so high that Rosette felt as if she were flying. Naturally, Pipi let out a terrified chirp.
Rosette was tense the entire way. Only when she saw the familiar estate in the distance could she finally relax.
‘Thank goodness, he really sent me home.’
The nameless wolf entered the estate as stealthily as it had left, without being detected by anyone. Then, in a single bound, it leaped up to her third-floor room.
Letting out another silent scream, Rosette managed to dismount on trembling legs. Pipi had already collapsed onto the bed.
“Thank you for bringing me here. By the way, what’s your name?”
The wolf growled something, but Rosette couldn’t understand its words.
“It seems I can only understand my own familiar. I can’t make out what you’re saying. Anyway, be careful on your way, wolf.”
The silver wolf muttered something again before leaping out of the open window.
Leaning against the windowsill, Rosette watched the wolf disappear into the distance before collapsing onto her bed as if she were a ragdoll.
Pipi fluttered over and settled down on the pillow.
“Still, this is a relief, Pipi.”
[Pii?]
“I get to stay here for now.”
Honestly, she didn’t know what had possessed her to engage in that negotiation-that-wasn’t-a-negotiation with Joshua. Thinking back on the tense situation, she felt as though she might collapse from the sheer release of tension, even though she was already lying down.
Recalling her conversation with Joshua, Rosette unknowingly sniffled back tears.
“I was actually really scared. I was afraid His Highness would really tell Dad and have me thrown out.”
[Piii.]
Pipi gently pecked at her tear-streaked cheek, careful not to hurt her. Rosette burst into a fit of giggles and turned on her side, looking into Pipi’s beady black eyes.
“Still, someday I’ll have to tell Dad and my family the truth, won’t I? About what I’ve done.”
[Pii.]
*You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I don’t like things that Rosette doesn’t like,* Pipi said.
This was why Rosette loved Pipi. No matter what anyone said, Pipi always put her first. Even if the whole world condemned Rosette, Pipi alone would unconditionally take her side.
To be precise, it was less Pipi’s personality and more a characteristic of familiars, but Rosette didn’t care.
“Thank you, Pipi. For comforting me. But I’ll have to tell them someday.”
Rosette murmured gloomily.
“There’s no such thing as a secret you can keep forever.”
