Chapter 3.10

“So, what did you do?”  

Camio, seated at the desk, asked Rowen, who was clutching his head in frustration. He had just finished explaining the incident involving Madame Green and Flory being imprisoned.  

“What else could I do? I couldn’t just leave my mother and sister in prison. I admitted they were family and brought them back.”  

The two women had been trembling the entire carriage ride home. Madame Green had been fuming, blaming everything on Ariana, while Flory had been sobbing uncontrollably, unable to believe what had happened to her. They were now resting in their rooms.  

“That’s unfortunate. If you couldn’t salvage the situation on the spot, leaving them there as impostors would’ve been the best course of action.”  

“What?”  

Rowen snapped his head up, appalled by the suggestion, but Camio merely shrugged.  

“It wasn’t an imperial impersonation, just a noble one. They wouldn’t have been executed right away. Once you returned home, you could have sent a letter to His Majesty saying, ‘Our household servants caused this incident; please allow us to handle it internally.’”  

“That…”  

“His Majesty wouldn’t go out of his way to antagonize a noble family over such a minor issue. He’d likely hand them over to you. Sure, they’d have suffered a few days in prison, but it would’ve been manageable.”  

“There was such a way…”  

Now that he thought about it, Camio’s reasoning made perfect sense. But at the time, Rowen had been too flustered to think clearly. His mother had been yelling at the top of her lungs, and his sister had been wailing uncontrollably. Leaving them behind hadn’t even crossed his mind.  

“The best course of action would’ve been to direct your anger at the imperial attendant who accused them of impersonation.”  

“What? Yell at an imperial attendant?”  

“You could’ve said, ‘My mother and sister came to deliver something urgent to me. Knowing it was a special occasion, they brought my wife’s invitation to prove their identity, but the attendant misunderstood and threw them in prison without hearing them out.’”  

Camio effortlessly spun a plausible scenario. Though it was somewhat far-fetched, it wasn’t entirely impossible. Rowen stared at him, dumbfounded, before finally regaining his composure and objecting.  

“Wouldn’t the imperial attendant fight back? They’d be blamed for something they didn’t do.”  

“If you expressed enough anger, the attendant would’ve realized the bigger picture and gone along with it. They wouldn’t want to make an enemy of an Earl unnecessarily.”  

That way, his mother and sister wouldn’t have spent days in prison, and the blame could’ve been shifted onto the imperial attendant, wrapping up the matter neatly.  

“Of course, the imperial attendant would’ve figured out that your mother and sister were ignorant commoners with no noble etiquette.”  

Camio shook his head in exasperation.  

“But that would’ve been less humiliating than having the entire social circle know about it.”  

“Ignorant…!”  

Rowen flared up, but bit his lip and sat back down. Given the current situation, there was no flaw in Camio’s logic. His mother and Flory had indeed acted foolishly.  

‘They may not have noble backgrounds, so they lack common knowledge. But they should’ve realized something was off when Ariana willingly handed over the invitation!’  

Rowen was already in a terrible place with Ariana, who had been icy toward him ever since he fathered Alena’s child and openly flaunted her. How could he have failed to see that his estranged wife wouldn’t offer kindness so easily?  

And this incident wouldn’t end with merely exposing his mother and Flory’s foolishness. It would inevitably bring Rowen’s humble origins as a nouveau riche commoner back into the spotlight.  

‘All the effort I’ve put into erasing that image over the years… wasted!’  

He had spent years mingling with nobles, observing their ways, imitating them, and making them his own. Just when the memory of his commoner roots as the Earl of Astaroth was beginning to fade, this disaster struck.  

“Enough. Just tell me how to fix this mess.”  

“Oh, so you’ve finally decided to take action?”

Camio admired Rowen, as if surprised by his sudden resolve, while Rowen’s face flushed red with shame. Even the thought of finally taking action to manage the situation hadn’t originated from his own mind. It was Ariana who had casually thrown out advice, prompting him to call Camio to devise a plan. Though frustration boiled within him, this was no time to dwell on such emotions. Rowen suppressed his rising anger as much as he could and nodded toward Camio.  

“…Just tell me the plan.”  

“The incident has already happened, and since it occurred on the day of the Imperial banquet, when everyone was gathered in one place, the rumors will spread quickly. It’s too late to contain them.”  

“So, are you saying we should just sit back and do nothing?”  

“Of course not.”  

Camio grinned slyly, his face full of cunning.  

“We just need to throw a more interesting scandal into the social circle than the fact that the Earl’s family consists of foolish women.”  

“And where would we find such a scandal?”  

“We don’t have one. But that doesn’t matter, because we can create one.”

***

Ariana carefully packed the 「Birth of the Goddess of Beauty」 statue and the broken ceramics into a crate, then boarded the carriage. The statue would officially be restored by Dylan, while the broken ceramics were planned to be restored using a new method and sold to the Republic. Her destination was the intelligence agency.  

She couldn’t use the carriage bearing her family’s crest, as it was too conspicuous. Instead, she left through the mansion’s back gate, used by the servants, and hailed a hired carriage. The cheap hired carriage rattled so much at high speeds that it hurt not only her hips but also her back. Normally, she would have gotten off at the entrance to the commercial district and walked to the intelligence agency, but today, she had too much luggage to do so.  

Ariana handed the coachman a small tip, and he cheerfully unloaded her luggage at the entrance of the intelligence agency.  

“Oof…”  

She placed her hand on her aching back and approached the agency’s door to knock. Or at least, she had intended to knock. Just as she was about to, the door swung open abruptly. Ariana flinched, recalling the first time she visited the agency and had accidentally bumped her head on the door. Fortunately, unlike that time, the wide-open door didn’t hit her head.  

“You have a lot of luggage today.”  

The person who opened the door was Rowen. He effortlessly picked up the crate from the ground and carried it inside the agency. It was the same crate that the burly coachman had struggled to lift, yet Rowen managed it with ease.  

“Aren’t you coming in?”  

Startled by his actions, Ariana stood frozen for a moment before snapping out of it and following him inside.  

“Were you waiting for me instead of heading somewhere else? How did you know I was coming?”  

“I heard the carriage. I didn’t expect you’d have such large luggage, though.”  

Rowen glanced at the crate as he asked,  

“What’s inside?”  

“The statue you’ve seen before and a bunch of broken ceramics.”  

“An expensive statue and broken ceramics? That’s an odd combination.”  

Suspicion filled Rowen’s narrowed eyes, but Ariana ignored it and pointed upstairs.  

“Since you’re already helping me move it, could you carry it to the room I rented? Dylan won’t be able to manage it on his own.”  

“It would certainly be difficult for him.”  

Rowen’s response made Ariana realize that Dylan had already arrived at the agency—no, the secret workshop.  

“He’s already here? I thought I’d get here first.”  

“If you wanted to arrive earlier, you should have come yesterday. He showed up at dawn.”  

“I thought we agreed to meet during the day…”  

“Perhaps he rushed to ensure he’d arrive before you, even if it meant coming at dawn.”  

Ariana pictured Dylan’s timid face, always flinching whenever he saw her. Considering how uncomfortable he seemed around her, it wasn’t an implausible scenario.  

The room that Rowen and Kazen had lent Ariana was the small room where she had briefly rested after fainting. Familiar with the space, Ariana entered and opened the door. Inside, Dylan, who had been diligently cleaning, dropped his broom in surprise and hurried over to her.  

“You’re here, Miss.”  

“No, it’s Ariana.”  

“Pardon?”  

“We’re equal partners, so it’s only right to address each other by name, Dylan. I already call you that.”  

“Well… but you’re a lady of high status…”  

“That’s exactly why. If you keep treating me as someone superior, it’ll be uncomfortable working together. Partnerships succeed when both parties see each other as equals.”  

Ariana insisted firmly, leaving Dylan sweating nervously as he reluctantly nodded.  

“Then…Miss Ariana…”  

Though the honorific “Miss” still bothered her, she decided to let it slide for now. Before she could respond, a loud thud sounded behind her. Turning around, she saw Rowen placing the large crate on the table, his face somewhat sullen as he looked at her.  

“Oh! Thank you.”  

“Sure.”  

“?”  

Confused, Ariana blinked. Rowen’s reply carried a clear edge of irritation.