Chapter 20. White Astilbe

“There, that woman.”

A woman entered the ballroom of the townhouse of Viscount Mandels. As the doorman announced her name, the guests couldn’t help but look in her direction. Some showed contempt, while others displayed curiosity.

“Why did Baron Lopez suddenly present his real daughter to society? Until now, he only introduced his stepdaughters who weren’t even blood-related.”

“Who knows…”

“Is it true that the Grand Duke of Bayern is courting Ellenore Lopez?”

“Whether it’s true or not, she made a very grand debut in the weekly magazine.”

Someone made a sarcastic joke, and the people around them covered their mouths and laughed. The scandal of a poor baron’s daughter who didn’t know her place was good fodder for the hungry gossipmongers.

In this week’s issue of ‘Dramatica,’ released on Monday, Ellenore Lopez was covered as follows:

[Many might not even know there was a noble family called Lopez. That’s how far their power has fallen. Surprisingly, the lady of such a humble family is said to be receiving the courtship of ‘that’ Grand Duke of Bayern. Could it be true?]

[According to testimony from a maid who once worked at Baron Lopez’s estate, Lady Ellenore Lopez was said to be a young lady ‘constantly surrounded by ominous rumors.’ Indeed, she has the blood of a Katarian mixed in her veins and even had a mother who was afflicted with madness! …(omitted)… There are also stories that Lady Lopez is actually a pure and kind-hearted young lady. The fact that such a lady enchanted the Grand Duke seems like a scene from a romance novel and lacks a sense of reality. Given the scandal involving Marquis Anderson and the many suspicions surrounding her, Lady Lopez might be a temptress wearing the mask of a saint…]

“What kind of trash article is this?”

A blond man sitting on a couch observing the ballroom openly expressed his displeasure and threw the magazine aside.

A footman, worried about littering the party venue, quickly bent down to pick it up, but it was soon snatched away by another gentleman standing next to the blond man.

The gentleman glanced through the article in the magazine and said with a mix of laughter,

“The woman with two faces who enchanted the Grand Duke of Bayern… What is this? Why are you reading something like this?”

He nudged the blond man’s shoulder playfully, but the blond man irritably brushed his hand away.

The man’s gaze, now holding a whiskey glass, was fixed on the woman who had just arrived at the ballroom. Complex emotions floated over his sand-colored eyes, which were so light they seemed transparent.

The man furrowed his brows in discontent as he tilted his whiskey glass.

‘What on earth is she doing…’

His heart ached sharply as if scratched by lingering regrets. Felix Werner, you fool. He self-mockingly berated himself while chewing on the ice in his whiskey. After all, a noble lady of the baron family wouldn’t even remember someone as lowly as him.

* * *

Of course, whenever Helene found me, she would incessantly chatter about how I could possibly find a good suitor.

I found Helene annoying, so I ignored her, and Helene would scream and get angry, saying I was ignoring her. It was nothing new, just the usual routine.

However, Melissa’s recent behavior was somewhat strange; she would sneak peeks at me from afar and smirk unpleasantly.

I could guess why, but I didn’t want to bother engaging with her. I had more urgent matters to attend to than dealing with Helene or Melissa.

‘No matter what I do, it won’t open…’

I had been wrestling with my mother’s jewelry box for over an hour, but I couldn’t find a way to open it.

There is a hole for the key, but trying to open it with something like a hairpin didn’t work… As far as I remember, the only thing my mother passed down to me was this jewelry box, and there was no separate key.

But there must be a way to open it without a key. Although she was suffering from madness, when Mother gave me this jewelry box, she strangely seemed to be in her right mind.

‘Is there no way…’

While I was staring at the jewelry box and pondering, I suddenly thought of Mother’s diary.

Perhaps there might be a clue about this jewelry box written in that diary. It was a plausible guess, so I hurriedly took out the diary and began to look through it.

As I swept my hand over the faded cover of the old leather diary, I could feel the passage of time. Carefully opening the first page to avoid damaging the binding, I was once again greeted by unfamiliar characters that I couldn’t read.

It was the script of my mother’s homeland, Katar.

Mother’s father, my grandfather, was said to be a merchant from the distant land of Katar. How he came to marry my grandmother, a woman from Freuden, is not well known.

What is certain is that Mother spent most of her childhood in Katar and longed for it all her life.

Father was displeased whenever Mother spoke or wrote in Katari, and if her Katari poems caught his eye, they were promptly thrown into the fireplace and burned.

So Mother would always hide this diary in her room.

‘Hmm, I still can’t read it.’

Mother wanted to teach me Katari, but Father fiercely opposed it, so she couldn’t.

Still, I could read a few characters and knew their pronunciations, but that was all. I couldn’t understand the meaning of the words and sentences formed by these characters.

‘So, there’s no clue about the jewelry box here either…’

Father had given me only 4 days left. I wanted to open this jewelry box within that time and confirm Mother’s true legacy. There might be something inside that could help me.

‘Mother wouldn’t want me to marry a hideous and greedy old man either.’

Mother had always seemed like someone raising me to achieve some purpose. Her words often seemed incoherent and didn’t make sense, but it was clear that the means to achieve that purpose was ‘marriage.’

She wanted to raise me as the finest lady, always saying, ‘You must marry someone with power and status that no one can dare to look down on.’

It was beyond doubt that the person Mother wanted as my marriage partner was not Marquis Anderson.

‘Let’s turn the pages slowly, just in case.’

The thought of having to slowly turn through all 500 pages of the diary already felt tiresome. Still, I exercised patience and carefully examined each page, until I found a page that seemed noticeably thicker than the others.

‘…Hmm?’

As I rubbed it with my fingers, it indeed felt thicker than the other pages. I checked the page numbers. It should go from page 145 to 146, but the back was page 148.

‘Could it be…’

With a sense of having finally found what I was looking for, my heart pounded. If I was right, these were two pages stuck together as one.

I carefully searched for the split between the papers and tried to separate them without tearing them.
I was so nervous about accidentally ripping the paper that I can’t describe how anxious I felt. But after much effort, I succeeded in separating the two pages, and when the hidden page finally appeared, I opened my eyes wide.

‘The jewelry box…’

There was a very detailed drawing of the jewelry box in question.

And next to it, there was a drawing of a white flower I had never seen before, with the surprising part being that it was written in the common language of Europia, not Katari.

[White astilbe]

That was the name of the flower, and…

[Endless love, I am still waiting for you.]

That seemed to be the flower’s meaning.

It also said:

[If you want to open the jewelry box, touch the keyhole with the white astilbe.]

* * *

Although it was good that I found a way to open the jewelry box, there was still a challenge left. Where on earth would I find the ‘key,’ the white astilbe?

Early this morning, I visited every flower shop in the capital, but couldn’t find a white astilbe. It seemed to be a flower that wasn’t easily obtainable.

The only place left was the Royal Greenhouse. The problem was that access was restricted to authorized individuals unless it was an open day.

Whether today was an open day or not… Without any clear information, I headed to the Royal Greenhouse. I was desperate, willing to grasp at straws.

[Brios Royal Greenhouse

Open until 5 PM this Friday]

“…!”

Could the goddess of fortune be on my side? Surprisingly, the greenhouse was open from today until Friday.

Everything felt like destiny. I entered the greenhouse with excitement. Since it was spring and there were many social events, the greenhouse was relatively empty.

I carefully walked, thinking it had been a long time since I last visited this place.

The greenhouse was filled with all kinds of exotic foliage plants and flowers, making it feel like I was in a foreign land. Most of these plants must have been brought in from countries other than Freuden. Of course, there were also plenty of gladiolus flowers, symbolizing the Frederick royal family.

‘Will there be astilbe? And if there is, will there be a white one…’

With a feeling of anxiety, as if I had stepped into a gamble, I looked around, and soon, I spotted a white flower resembling baby’s breath in the distance.

I squinted my eyes and stared at it, realizing that it was different from baby’s breath.

Although it was too far to be sure… it looked similar to astilbe.

‘…Let’s go check it out.’

My steps quickened with impatience. As the white flowers came closer, it felt like a light was being lit in my heart one by one. When I finally reached the flower, I took a deep breath and bit my lip in emotion.

It was white astilbe.

‘It really exists…’

Feeling like I might cry, I strengthened my resolve. In fact, taking flowers from the Royal Greenhouse would be considered theft… but I needed this flower. I had to hide it well and sneak it out. Inside my skirt should be fine. The guards wouldn’t search a lady’s skirt…

As I listened to the pounding of my heart, just as I reached out with trembling hands,

“……?”

I noticed something unusual among the white astilbe.

The first thing that caught my eye was a long leg buried in the mass of white flowers. Then, below that, a wooden plank. Probably a bench. As I raised my gaze, I saw a tightly cinched waist belt and a vest that fitted snugly to the body. And further up… a loosely tied cravat and a shirt with two or three buttons undone caught my attention.

Through the gap… I could see the chest muscles and thick neck that were unmistakably male.

“……”

In an instant, my mind went blank, and all my movements stopped. As I unconsciously rolled my eyes to check the face of the passenger, I almost fainted on the spot while standing.

This man…

Why is this man sleeping in a place like this?

The sunlight that came through the glass ceiling landed precisely on the bench where he was lying. Even in the warm midday sun, his jet-black hair, as if it had absorbed the darkness, reflected a cold, bluish light.

* * *