“Mael, put a tail on that child.”
“A tail, you mean…”
“One obvious, one hidden.”
The empress winked playfully, looking exactly like the beautiful girl she’d been in her youth.
Her luscious brown hair with its reddish tint, like a pomegranate, cascaded down near her waist, making her frame appear even more delicate.
Her purple eyes shone even redder in the moonlight, looking like rubies and creating an even more mysterious atmosphere.
“Still, no matter how numb to pain she is, she doesn’t seem to like seeing her daughter suffer. What a shame…”
“……”
But that appearance was merely a mask hiding the empress’s true nature.
“…I’ll instruct them to send Rachel along.”
“Good thinking, Mael.”
Mael chose to quietly close her eyes and mouth.
* * *
The Duchess of Radelica sensed the banquet hall growing unsettled. Though the banquet had started just moments ago, quite a lot had already happened.
Her son, whom she hadn’t seen in ages, had chosen a new escort knight, and that escort knight was apparently the Marquis of La Voletta’s illegitimate child.
Even though she hadn’t chosen to be illegitimate, the world’s gaze would never be warm.
“Duchess, you don’t look well. Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. Just a bit surprised.”
“Many things happened while you were away on the expedition, so that’s understandable. But I swear there was nothing to worry about, and there won’t be in the future either.”
The duke gently clasped her hands as he spoke.
“Why don’t you hide that scheming look before you say that, Duke?”
When the duchess spun around sharply to cut him off, the duke retreated dejectedly behind Ashili and Lucia with a drooping face.
“Mother, Cardel says he’s going out for some air.”
“What’s gotten into him that he needs air?”
“……”
“Ashili, it’s a joke—doesn’t it make Mom feel a bit bad when you look at me with such contempt?”
“I’m sure you’ll manage.”
When Ashili didn’t play along with the joke, this time the duchess deflated.
‘They’re both the same…’
To Lucia, who’d watched the whole situation, it was like comparing acorns.
“Mom, did you talk with Dame Evolaine?”
“Not yet. She was somewhere else with Cardel earlier, so I was waiting.”
“Then do it now!”
Cardel had just left Evolaine behind and gone off alone. If she wanted to talk with Evolaine separately, now was the perfect time.
“Come to think of it, you’re right, Lucia. With Cardel away, when else will we get such a golden opportunity?”
“Uh… right!”
Though that wasn’t quite what she’d meant, the simpler-minded Lucia nodded vaguely at the duchess’s words.
“Then I’d like to talk with Dame alone, so could our Lucia take the family somewhere else?”
“Why? Can’t I stay nearby?”
“I’m going to have a secret talk with Dame Evolaine. After we’re done, Mom will tell only Lucia about it, okay?”
“Hmm… okay!”
Lucia, won over by the duchess’s excellent persuasion skills as a parenting expert, immediately drew the duke and Ashili’s attention and led them to the food corner.
Now no one remained near the duchess except Evolaine, who’d been quiet as a mouse since Cardel left her behind.
“Dame, shall we go to the terrace?”
“…Yes, Duchess.”
The duchess took Evolaine to the terrace. The topic wasn’t suitable for the middle of the banquet hall, and she didn’t want to draw attention.
But even after arriving at the terrace, the duchess didn’t say anything.
She simply leaned against the wall, her gaze fixed quietly on the forest outside the palace.
“……”
Evolaine couldn’t help but feel flustered in this awkward situation where it felt wrong to speak first, yet the duchess showed no signs of speaking either.
“Dame, who are you?”
“…Pardon?”
Who am I? What kind of question is that?
The duchess, who’d started the questioning, was no longer looking at the forest.
Instead, she gazed into Evolaine’s eyes as she began her story.
“You know I’m a knight. I went on this expedition as the leader, and our expedition’s final destination was an island called Avilliaka.”
“…I see.”
Why was she suddenly talking about the expedition? Evolaine had no idea what the duchess was trying to ask.
“Do you know anything about the island of Avilliaka?”
“Nothing at all.”
“I see.”
After pausing briefly, the duchess continued her story.
“The island of Avilliaka is inhabited by different races. Many species that aren’t ordinary humans live there. Nymphs, intelligent magical beasts that live like humans, gypsies who use special magic…”
“……”
“Dame, do you know anything about gypsies?”
Thump—it felt like a massive sound of her heart dropping echoed inside her body.
How did the duchess know about gypsies? Did she meet them on the island of Avilliaka?
Then how much did she know about them? Why was she asking this question?
The duchess still had her gaze fixed on her. That gaze felt like powerful shackles binding her body, and Evolaine couldn’t turn her head away.
“…I don’t understand why the duchess is asking me this.”
When she gave an evasive answer, the duchess brought up a different topic and started a different story.
“Long ago, when I was about Dame’s age, I visited the Bartlin Barony. I was a marquis’s daughter, and I went because my fiancé was in that family.”
“But with the duke…”
“It was simply about finding a family to support me. I needed a husband from a family with less power than our marquisate who could provide good support.”
“……”
“Of course, I had dreams of being a knight, so I didn’t inherit the marquis title in the end.”
Evolaine couldn’t find an appropriate response to the duchess, who shrugged and casually told old stories.
She’d never deeply heard someone’s past, and such conversations had never occurred.
Moreover, having this kind of conversation with someone she was meeting for the first time wasn’t easy.
Even Evolaine, who hadn’t experienced such things, knew this level of conversation could only happen between close people.
“In the Bartlin Barony, my fiancé was the only child. An only son, the heir who would inherit the baron title.”
The duchess withdrew her gaze from Evolaine and looked at the night sky.
Wondering if there was something in the sky, Evolaine looked up too, but the sky held nothing special—just countless twinkling stars.
“But he wasn’t the only child.”
“…What?”
He wasn’t an only son? Was there an illegitimate child?
“More precisely, she wasn’t a child, but there was a secretive woman staying at the barony in the position of a daughter.”
“Who was that woman…”
“The baron, the baroness, and my fiancé who would inherit the baron title—they all recognized that woman as a daughter or younger sister. But that woman had no relation to their family whatsoever.”
Evolaine felt the blood drain from her head for a moment.
The island of Avilliaka. The reason for deliberately telling a story from her unmarried days.
Could it be that what the duchess wanted to say was…
“That woman smelled of herbs. A very refreshing and cool scent—the more you smelled it, the better you felt. And,”
The duchess pushed off from the wall and slowly approached Evolaine.
“The gypsies I met on the island of Avilliaka also gave off that scent. Every single one of them, without exception.”
Evolaine unconsciously stepped back. When her back touched the wall, she felt the urge to go further back, through the wall.
“And Dame also has that scent. That refreshing, cool scent.”
As expected. She was talking about gypsies.
Evolaine automatically clutched her necktie.
Like trying to prevent being strangled.
“…It’s not mine.”
“Then whose fragrance is this?”
“…That’s,”
Evolaine couldn’t continue.
That her birth mother was a gypsy. Since she was her child, naturally she’d have a gypsy’s fragrance.
‘How can I say…’
Just the status of “illegitimate child” was background enough to be ostracized in the empire, and if gypsies were involved, the situation would worsen.
Gypsies were taboo in the empire.
While even mages faced restrictions on magic power, this race that lived reclusively in small tribal units freely used spells similar to magic like breathing.
‘Heretic.’
An insult earned as the price for the empire’s jealousy and envy.
Anyone associated with gypsies or gypsy-related matters became a heretic.
The duchess’s gaze bore into her painfully.
Evolaine bowed her head deeply to avoid it, but what entered her vision was the black necktie she’d crumpled.
‘I’m being crumpled like this necktie.’
Why, why did these trials keep coming?
Was one’s birth so important? Evolaine felt so wronged.
Would she have chosen to be born illegitimate? Would she have deliberately come into the world wanting to incur someone’s anger?
“Is the reason the duchess brought up this story and asked me these questions because you think my birth is connected to gypsies and therefore ominous?”
“……”
Silence meant affirmation. Evolaine felt so wronged she wanted to burst into tears right then.
But crying wouldn’t solve anything.
Evolaine clenched her fists and suppressed her surging emotions.
“You asked at first, who I am. I’ll only answer that.”
There was nowhere to retreat, nowhere to escape.
Evolaine had to do what she could.
As always, to survive.
“I am Evolaine. I passed the Lacrel Knights’ entrance exam to become a knight squire and accepted the position of escort knight at Prince Cardel’s request.”
Evolaine met the duchess’s gaze directly.
She wanted to show she wasn’t the existence the duchess suspected.
“Just because I smell like gypsies doesn’t mean I am a gypsy, nor do I intend to become one. I am a knight, and I will remain a knight.”
“……”
The duchess observed Evolaine as she refuted her words.
Though afraid, she clenched her fists so hard blood couldn’t flow, yet still insisted on saying what she wanted to say.
It fully demonstrated Evolaine’s courage and revealed her transparent character.
“I lost. I apologize for my earlier rudeness.”
Her speech changed from formal to casual. Now that she’d become a person of the family rather than an outsider, shouldn’t she acknowledge it?
“Let me introduce myself again. I am Elisa Lou Radelica, mistress of the Duchy of Radelica and former commander of the Lacrel Knights.”
When a knight extends the hand not holding a sword, it means they won’t harm you.
“…I greet you, Madam. I am Evolaine, a knight squire who joined the Lacrel Knights this year and also serve as escort knight to Prince Cardel.”
Evolaine grasped Elisa’s extended hand. Her hand was full of warmth.
* * *
“Duchess.”
The Duke of Radelica welcomed Elisa returning with Evolaine with a kiss on the cheek.
“Why are you being like this today?”
“It’s been three years—cut me some slack, Duchess.”
“I suppose I have no choice. I’ll specially allow it.”
The duke let out a gentle laugh at Elisa’s brazen attitude change.
“Did your conversation go well?”
“Hmm, I wonder.”
The duke asked, curious about what conversation she’d had with Evolaine, but Elisa evaded the answer.
Translator
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bluemoon238
Avoided the answer…
She answered appropriately to such a rude, dangerous, and pointed question while sticking only to provable facts and personal conviction. How can she know when she’s an orphan? They already gave approval! Duchess just behaved like stereotypical snotty nobles do.