Chapter 24

The black pheasant, all black like that man’s hair, fell down silently without crying. There was a note in a small backpack attached to its chest. He read the note as if he was used to it.

He opened his drowsy and detached eyes for a moment and then closed them again.

He jumped off the railing. Vivian sat naturally on his shoulder and then flew into the door of the cage in the room when he opened it. The little sparrow, which was pretending to be the cage’s owner until Vivian returned, could not even escape. Its sharp claws were stuck in the sparrow’s body.

Leaving Vivian behind, which was eating the sparrow, he left the room. While he was walking down the spacious staircase, he heard some noise at the hallway downstairs.

“Hey, Sir Curtis!”

He bumped into Milgrane. He was one of the few who could handle Curtis comfortably when most knights found him hard to deal with. As Milgrane was sociable and easy to get along with, he often hit it off well with Curtis who was heartless and chilly.

“Did you have dinner? If you haven’t yet, why don’t we have dinner together? I won against Carlton on a bet. So, he is going to treat me to a big meal.”

“Sir Curtis, if you’re busy, we can have dinner next time. Hahaha.”

“What are you talking about? Since he has decided to treat you, it won’t make much difference if he joins you,” one knight said.

“Of course, it will! As for Sir Curtis, I know he is one of the top gluttons in the north! ” another added.

“Hey, man. Don’t be so mean. Curtis is the pillar of Astolf in the future, Oh, he is already a big pillar there. I think I need to gain your favor if I can live comfortably later. Don’t you think so, Sir Curtis? Give stupid Carlton a chance to flatter you! ” Milgrane said.

Several knights around Sir Curtis giggled at Milgrane’s joke.

Curtis scratched his cheeks and smiled gently. He hardly ever smiled, so the knights surrounding him doubted their eyes momentarily.

“Well, I would love to join, but I’m going to be busy from now on.”

He even answered cheerfully in a clean break with his reticent and cold-hearted impression.

When they looked at his completely different images, other knights stiffened like stone statues. One of them opened his ugly mouth, the other rubbed his eyes as if he had seen a ghost, and another beat his cheek to see if he was dreaming. Leaving them behind, Curtis left the place quickly. Walking down the stairs two steps at a time, he looked like a different person.

As if he were happy, he lightly wagged the fingers of his folded hands behind his back. There some low whistling in the corner where he disappeared.

It was the beginning, finally. Yes, finally…

***

It was three days before the arrival of the messenger of the Imperial Public Affairs that Ober learned of the contents of the new bulletin.

“Say it again.”

“The daughter of Duke Kling was chosen as the emperor’s fiancee…”

Clink!

The glass he threw at the wall shattered to pieces with a clinking noise.

Laurent, the butler of the Chester family, looked at the carpet messed up with alcohol, ice, and pieces of broken glass. Spilt whiskey was Chester’s specialty whiskey, a 22-year-old rare liquor. The strong smell of alcohol filled the room, not matching the cold atmosphere inside.

‘What a waste! That whiskey is as old as I am…’

Without doubt, the only one in the family who could entertain such carefree thinking in this situation was Laurent, just like there was only one person in the Chester family who could spill such rare whiskey on the carpet.

“What kind of crap could spread such a groundless rumor?”

“It’s not a groundless rumor. This was already announced to the people on the streets in Milan. Assuming he takes a detour as there’s a pile of stones we laid on the road leading to Milan, the messenger of the Public Information Office will arrive in Chester in a couple of days at the latest.”

“Who sent the secret letter? Do you have it now?”

“Yes. here you are. Its handwriting appears to be Duke Hubble’s. ”

Laurent took a small piece of paper from his inside pocket and put it in front of Ober.

His grey eyes read the letters on the paper quickly and soon looked threatening.

“Damn it!”

Ober crumpled the paper on his desk. The handwriting on the secret letter was that of Duke Hubble’s. If he really wrote it in person as he was notorious for being arrogant and authoritative, at least the accuracy of the information was already guaranteed.

“This might be the emperor’s unilateral trick. Since I persistently demanded that he should find and marry a woman, he might have taken any woman in a fit of anger. What about the moods at the Lennox family? Weren’t there any unusual moves there?”

“We didn’t get any unusual messages from Lennox, but…”

“What’s the matter?”

“I hear that they have a new owner at the Elior Mansion.”

“It doesn’t matter…” Ober stopped while throwing a tantrum.

“Laurent, you don’t want to say that the new owner is Marianne.”

“Well, I have to get more information about that, but isn’t the timing perfect?”

“Bullshit! If Marianne had moved, I would have been tipped off by my moles in Lennox.”

“That’s what I think a bit suspicious… Anyway, let me find out more.”

Laurent took the watch from the front pocket of his vest. It was already past sunset.

Regardless of something surprising going on in the capital, the Castle of Chester was still peaceful. According to his schedule, Ober had to attend an impending splendid dinner.

“What shall we do with the dinner?”

Ober was agonized for a moment.

In order to wear the emperor down, Ober didn’t attend the cabinet meeting and destroyed a spotless rock mountain. Since the anti-emperor cabinet members, including Duke Hubble, supported him, he didn’t have to fear the emperor. So, he returned to his territory for a few weeks of rest, waiting for the emperor to withdraw his edicts and surrender.

But he didn’t feel good instinctively when he read the bulletin.

He thought the emperor’s wedding couldn’t be true, but at the same time he became suspicious about one thing.

Not only the emperor, but also the fact that Duke Kling never moved recklessly.

Then, these guys caused such big trouble and got involved in it!

Besides, he felt suspicious about the Elior Mansion which recently found a new owner after a decade. Why now? Of course, this could be the emperor’s trick, but even considering the possibility…

“Cancel the rest of the schedule!”

Ober jumped up from his seat. His dark eyes under his red hair sparkled like a beast’s as if they were sprinkled with the ashes of an ebony tree.

“Let me check it out with my own eyes.”

* * *

Shortly after Eckart’s return, Marianne suddenly became ill. It was a sudden sickness.

After she staggered back into the room, she fell asleep as soon as she lay on the bed.

She started to have high fever in the evening. Her consciousness was faint, and she couldn’t even open her eyes. In the end, Mrs. Charlotte urgently called for a doctor on duty.

The doctor who examined her failed to name her illness. However, her symptoms alone seemed to be a passing cold, so he advised her not to worry too much and focus on lowering her fever. He prescribed some medications and mentioned the order and frequency of eating.

Everyone in the mansion worried about the new owner in their own way.

Mrs. Charlotte did not know exactly what had happened in the parlor, but she guessed that there was something like a collision when she saw the broken display cupboard and Iric concealing his wound. She quickly had the mansion people keep it a secret and changed the existing furniture with new ones.

Iric also kept what happened that day to himself. Instead, he blamed himself, wondering if she got sick as she was overly shocked by his injury. He paced up and down in front of her bedroom every day. That was all he could do.

Cordelli stayed up all night, shedding tears at her bedside, gasping for breath.

Though she, too, did not know what happened, that didn’t matter to her at all. She prayed long every night for her to wake up with a bright smile.

Even Kloud, who came to check the progress of the renovation of the mansion, returned to the imperial palace after talking with Mrs. Charlotte outside his bedroom for a long time. His brief report about the new owner of the mansion was secretly delivered to the office of the emperor every day.

Three days passed since she got sick.

The mansion seemed very peaceful and calm, but the people inside were extremely nervous.

Now everyone was worried about her life. Though her fever went down, she didn’t get better.