CH 104

“Your Grace, are you here?”

As usual, Daniel’s voice was accompanied by a knock. Leon’s office was lit later than usual.

Leon had to go up to the capital to attend the founding day banquet the next day, so he was handling the work to be accumulated in the Grand Duchy in advance.

“Come on in.”

Daniel’s expression when he opened the door and entered was strangely bright. There were quite thick bundles of paper in his hand. All were documents waiting for Leon’s payment.

Leon raised an eyebrow and looked at him with a displeased face.

“What’s that?”

“…What do you mean, it’s all up to Your Highness today.”

When he put it on a pile of paper piled up on one side of Leon’s desk, the tower of documents collapsed to the floor.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Daniel quickly picked up the papers that fell on the floor, erasing the smile that had been hanging so far. He was going to pick them all up and arrange them, but Leon stopped him with a low voice.

“Stop moving.”

“What?”

“Take it as it is.”

“What?”

When Daniel didn’t understand, Leon, who had his eyes fixed on the documents, glanced at him and kindly told him again.

“Take it and do it yourself.”

“Ha ha, Your Highness, even jokes…”

“Do I look like someone to joke around with?”

Leon’s voice was mixed with sincere annoyance. Then Daniel gave a reason in his own way with a much smaller voice.

“But… Your Grace. I’m not authorized to handle these things…”

“I’m telling you to review it so that I can take care of it as soon as I come.”

At Leon’s words, Daniel drooped his shoulders sullenly. If the boss was away for a long time, all his plans to rest and be idle for a while would be in vain.

“Yes, and I have something to see and give you.”

Whatever the work was, he had to see it through.

When Leon nodded lightly, he cleared his throat and let out the information he had heard from Marvin.

“We’ve learned about Count Rian Felice that you mentioned before.”

Until then, Leon was not very interested in the work, so he turned to the documents again, listening to Daniel’s words calmly.

“He somehow knew that a lady had come to this castle. And that she could be a Grand Duchess.”

When Dana was mentioned, Leon looked up at Daniel. Suddenly nervous about the gaze cast at him, Daniel continued.

“It seems to have something to do with the Deniz merchants, given the fact that her status is not a noblewoman and that she has a lot of wealth.”

He was content, but Leon didn’t know where the discomfort from hearing the name Rian Felice was coming from while listening to it.

“And this is the opinion of the person who delivered it.”

“Say it.”

“I think he got a lot of money from someone, but I don’t think it’s Duke Hamilton. He also talked about the possibility that Rian Felice killed someone for property.”

The moment he heard it, Leon jumped up from his seat. A memory that he had forgotten for a while came to his mind.

Ri… Ahn… Ha… Don’t…

The first day he saw Dana, who was unconscious, she mentioned the name Rian, who she begged not to do it. When he heard Daniel’s words, Leon knew why he remembered this time, but needed something more certain.

“It seems necessary to investigate deeper into the relationship between the Deniz merchants and Rian Felice. Is Dana Deniz still missing?

“Yes, there were rumors here and there about why she disappeared, but the rumor calmed down when it became known that she was Dana Deniz.”

Leon thought hard about something and repeated the previous command to Daniel, who was standing in a daze.

“Okay, then let’s focus more on Rian Felice than on Dana Deniz.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Daniel opened the door to the office, feeling deep in his bones that his work would not decrease no matter where his supervisor went.

***

The banquet, which lasted until dawn, was also slowly ending. The lights were turned off, and people were scattered one by one in carriages or into accommodations assigned by the Imperial family.

The accommodation in the Imperial Palace was in an annex close to the banquet hall.

Until people escaped like the tide, Leon sat on the terrace railing the whole time.

Rian Felice killed Dana Deniz for his property.

Leon made a hypothesis. And he began to put things he knew one by one like a puzzle.

“The woman… was found strangled and unconscious in the mountains.”

Leon, who was calmly recalling the incident, was furious when he remembered Dana’s disastrous appearance at that time.

Even if there was no physical evidence yet, he had a feeling within.

If that’s true.

He wondered how Rian took over the merchant group before Dana lost her memory and was abandoned in the mountains. Perhaps it was when Dana Deniz, who according to rumors, was his secret lover. Leon suddenly became jealous.

If it was true, he vowed to put Rian in hell by mobilizing everything he could. The veins turned red in his clenched fist.

“Whoo…”

He slowly got up from his seat, exhaling deeply.

When the banquet was almost at its peak, he went to the Imperial court, greeting and seeing off the aristocrats one by one at the door.

“Oh, Your Grace! Are you still here?”

“Yes. You will deliver it to His Majesty. I’m leaving at this time.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that. You must be satisfied.”

The Emperor would always complain that he was not interested in social circles and that he would only make an impression at every event.

Leon left the banquet hall, stroking his fingers through his neatly slicked hair.

Leon’s steps were light on his way to the accommodation, and Dana’s room was at the end of the hall.

Throughout the banquet, Dana had hidden it, but in his view, she was fully aware of Rian Felice. Leon could guess what that meant.

He was waiting for when she would tell him the truth.

* * *