Chapter 136
She was smiling kindly as usual.
However, Angelina felt a strange chill.
“I see you met with the Marquis. I’m most relieved that you’re safe.”
She only expressed concern. But…
‘She seems angry…’
It was the first time Angelina had seen Laura angry, and it was a bit frightening.
‘Well, I’d be angry too if I were her.’
Angelina recalled how she had run away and had nothing to say in her defense.
“Duke Kadenhart has come with you as well. I’m glad to see you again.”
Laura also greeted Blake. But the edge in her voice made Blake sigh.
Before he could respond, Angelina quickly intervened.
“Then I’ll see you next week, Duke.”
She added a small “I’ll miss you” and smiled awkwardly. Since his continued presence would only result in him facing resentment from Haley and Laura, it seemed wise to send him away quickly.
“Take care of yourself.”
Understanding her intention, he left with just a brief farewell.
There was no time to watch him leave.
“Take care? Miss, are you unwell?”
“That’s not good, Miss. Where are you feeling uncomfortable? Strange, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong physically. You haven’t caught a cold, have you? Hiing, you should have taken Haley with you, Haley could have taken good care of you.”
Laura picked up on what he had said, and Haley’s endless worrying continued.
“…Hah.”
And a sigh from Jake, who was standing a few steps behind.
How many times had he asked her to at least give warning before taking impulsive actions, yet here she was causing trouble again.
Once more, Jake felt his blood draining. After all, he was the one who had let Blake into the mansion.
Of course, a mere knight had no authority to prevent a Duke’s visit, but he felt so self-conscious about potentially contributing to Angelina’s escape(?).
“I’m sorry, everyone.”
Angelina said, having heard his sigh.
“You were all worried, weren’t you?”
“We were.”
“Of course! Waaah!”
“….”
“Kyu?”
Everyone except Pudding, who had been with Angelina the whole time, began to voice their complaints, and Angelina had to endure their nagging all day.
No matter how much it came from a place of affection, nagging was still unpleasant to hear.
***
“It has been confirmed that Duke Kadenhart was behind the incident.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
The Empress made an interested sound through her nose.
Around her, her maids were busily helping with her preparations to go out. Receiving their attention, the Empress’s face grew more troubled.
“Seeing that she returned home with Marquis Flaubert this morning, perhaps it wasn’t the Duke acting alone, but something the three of them planned together.”
The “incident” the chamberlain was referring to was the explosion that had occurred at the Flaubert mansion.
It was impossible for news not to spread when a hole appeared in the wall of a noble’s mansion. Especially one located in the capital.
The Empress had thought it was just Ante up to some strange scheme and didn’t consider it significant.
But investigation revealed that Blake Kadenhart had entered the mansion a few hours before the explosion.
Since no one had seen him leave afterward, it wasn’t difficult to deduce that the explosion was related to him.
Further investigation showed that Angelina Flaubert was also missing from the mansion, and the Empress realized it wasn’t Ante’s doing.
She had invested considerable resources to understand the full circumstances of the incident, but there wasn’t much to show for it beyond the fact that Blake had disappeared with Angelina.
“That’s not likely.”
One thing was certain: it had nothing to do with Ante.
“The Tower Master was also frantically searching for them.”
“Couldn’t that have been an act?”
“If they had staged a performance with some other purpose in mind, they wouldn’t have ended it like that. He likes things to be flashy.”
Rather than making a hole in the building, he would have completely collapsed it, or he would have loudly proclaimed to newspapers that Blake Kadenhart had kidnapped his sister.
Having kept him on a leash and observed him for a long time, she knew what kind of person he was.
“The real problem is the Duke.”
“You’re right. It seems the Duchy has indeed…”
“Yes. It seems they’re back on their feet again.”
The Empress finished the chamberlain’s cautiously broached statement herself and let out a small sigh.
“To think he could revive a Duchy in such a state. It seems I underestimated that boy’s determination.”
She had thought she had crushed all hope of recovery when he was young, but apparently not.
“Well, considering he survived and returned from the Dark Forest against all odds, his survival instinct has been as tenacious as an earthworm from the beginning.”
The Empress suddenly recalled her son’s insistence that Blake shouldn’t be left alone.
Her son was quite inept in other matters, but it seems his judgment of Blake was accurate.
“What will you do?”
“What can I do now? I’ve already pulled away too many resources.”
She had thought the Duchy’s foundation was completely destroyed, so she hadn’t paid any attention to it.
At this point, any action would take too long and resources were scarce.
“It seems he noticed the relationship between Marquis Flaubert and the Tower Master and is trying to use it…”
It was obvious, wasn’t it? Looking at how he kidnapped the sister his rival cherished so much and took her to the Dark Forest.
It seemed he had intended to use the sister as a hostage to gain something.
“The rumors about recent dealings between the Duchy and the Tower Master don’t seem to be entirely baseless.”
At first, she had dismissed it as groundless gossip, but now she saw how it all connected.
“But that won’t work on the Marquis. No matter how much you tempt a leashed dog with treats, if the owner of the leash doesn’t allow it, the dog can’t take the treat. That’s just natural.”
“You’re absolutely right.”
But the Empress knew Blake wouldn’t gain anything.
‘His obsession with his sister is beyond imagination.’
Using his sister as a hostage would only backfire.
Unless one knew the “truth” as the Empress did, there was no way to force Ante to move.
“Let’s just keep an eye on that for now. More importantly, our Aiden is the problem…”
Having just finished her preparations, the Empress smiled with satisfaction as she examined the harmony between her makeup and earrings. But beneath that satisfaction, there was a coldness.
“I never expected him to discover that place, but it seems that troublesome rabbit from the Flauberts has been running her mouth.”
Her voice was icy.
Her son, who had been obediently following her lead, had subtly twisted away from her control after going on a “boat ride” with Angelina.
It was a subtle change, but the Empress could notice it. After all, the eyes and ears she had attached to him had disappeared in real time, so she couldn’t miss it.
The fact that he had discovered the Kuns Village affair said it all.
“That’s not all. Given that a message came from the High Priest, and His Majesty the Emperor has shortened his schedule to return to the palace…”
The urgent message from the High Priest.
It was that the stone at the Witch’s Tomb had been broken.
Though it had worn down over time, it had firmly held its place, so it wasn’t strange that the Order was flustered when it suddenly shattered.
If it had ended there, they might have just considered it poor maintenance and left it at that.
The problem was that the Emperor, who had gone on an inspection tour to the opposite side of the empire, was returning by forcibly adjusting his schedule.
“The official reason is that he might be late for the ball, but wasn’t the original schedule fine for that?”
“…Yes, it seems the Saint has truly appeared.”
The Empress knew it too. That the Emperor knew all the truth of history.
The Emperor had told the truth, passed down from emperor to emperor, to the Empress he had married.
He had judged that he could trust her since they had grown up together, and thought that as his partner in ruling the empire, she should know.
Never dreaming that the Empress would harbor other intentions using that truth.
In any case, the Empress knew that on the day the hand of the “Sun” touched this land again.
That is, the moment the true Saint appeared again, everyone would know it.
Grandonia.
Artoas.
Zeplictus.
“That explains why the Tower Master quietly brought back the Duke who had kidnapped his sister to the capital.”
Ante, who had absorbed “Zeplictus,” would surely have recovered the memories of history at the same time as the Emperor, and since there was only one bloodline left in the Kadenhart Duchy, Blake would have learned everything.
“I wonder how that rebellious dog will act…”
The one fortunate thing was that she had a firm grip on his weakness, so Ante wouldn’t betray her and cooperate with the Duke.
A smile formed on the Empress’s lips.
“I’m looking forward to the upcoming ball.”
If they were going to do something, that place was likely to be the venue.
“Perhaps this ball will commemorate not the Emperor’s birthday, but the return of the Saint.”
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