Chapter 29

‘At a time when he should be showing a good side of himself, having it this empty must be bothering him.’

The owner of this dining bar was due to be forced out of Strauss Hotel. And in secret, he had expressed his intent to sign with El Cortida.

Under the pretext of sounding out whether this business was sufficiently qualified to enter El Cortida, Kyle had personally visited Strauss Hotel with his fiancée in tow.

He examined the interior carefully with a businessman’s eye. The window frames were old, but there was not a single stain on the tablecloths. Though he had come without warning, the interior was neat unlike a restaurant soon to close, and above all, the quality of the food was excellent.

Having finished his appraisal with a flick of his finger, he turned his gaze forward. Hazel was quietly looking at him.

“If you were done eating, you should have said so. Did you wait long?”

“You looked busy.”

The relationship between the two had become quite subtle.

The newspapers praised in excited tones a long love story. To the public, Hazel Fitzroy and Kyle Strauss were fated lovers who had been torn apart by unavoidable circumstances and then reunited.

The interviews from friends who had spent their school years with the two also played a large role, all commonly saying, “Those two liked each other even back then.”

But the people involved were somewhat different. As the feelings they themselves had not been able to show openly in the past were exposed through the mouths of others, being forcibly folded into their own past memories was not exactly pleasant.

Hazel thought cynically.

If the feelings from back then were still valid, it might have become a beautiful love story.

Which means the following.

Where those feelings had oxidized and vanished, there was no beautiful love left.

The water glass before Hazel was empty. It was the result of repeatedly drinking cold water in her troubled state of mind. Even so, her chest still felt tight.

In the end, Hazel pushed back her chair.

“Excuse me for a moment. I got sauce on my hand.”

“The restroom’s that way. Go ahead.”

After sending Hazel off, Kyle emptied his wineglass with an indifferent face. He thoroughly ignored the approaching footsteps, which made no attempt to hide themselves.

A voice spoke to him.

“I’ve been seeing you often these days.”

Newly, Kyle felt keenly that his own status had risen. To have the chance to meet face-to-face in one day not just one, but two people whose faces ordinary folk would struggle even to glimpse from afar.

“You seem to take a great interest in me. For my part, it has been quite some time.”

“So it is. Information is sometimes delivered only one way. I was disappointed to learn from the newspapers alone that my son is getting married. I heard you had come, so I came down.”

“Is that so.”

Eliya did not make the foolish mistake of taking Hazel’s seat and sitting in it. Instead, after gazing at Kyle for a moment, she asked,

“Do you like that child?”

“Yes. Enough to have decided on marriage.”

“Kyle, to tell the truth, every time I see you, I find you pitiful. It does not seem to me that you are marrying because you truly love that child.”

Eliya let out a sigh. At a glance, her tone sounded like that of an ordinary mother worried about her son’s impulsive decision.

“I know that you have many complaints about Peter’s decisions. Because of that, you think of me as an enemy. But it was all long ago. After that, you achieved a success that others might envy.”

“……”

“Do you still want this hotel that badly? Enough to use that poor child?”

“Madame.”

Kyle answered listlessly and lifted a hand to call a server. Then, before Eliya, followed the whole sequence of Kyle asking for the bill, paying it, and signing.

Only after that did Kyle reply to Eliya.

“I think you are mistaken. It is not that I want this hotel.”

“……”

“I am curious how high I can rise. In a world where a bricklayer becomes a magnate and a dancer becomes a lady of the house. I became curious how far an abandoned child can climb. By an unfortunate coincidence, your line of business overlaps with mine. How sad.”

“Kyle!”

Eliya called his name viciously. Kyle thought, yes, this is your true face. A venomous woman to whom the act of a benevolent mother does not suit in the slightest.

Their taut gazes met. After glancing at his wristwatch, Kyle broke the unnecessary silence.

“What is wrong?”

“……Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Then I’ll be going. The meal was excellent. The atmosphere is rather awful, though. It does little for my fiancée’s image.”

Seeing Kyle rise, a server brought his jacket. Even before Eliya Strauss, the nerve to keep showing Kyle proper courtesy was rewarded with a generous tip.

Pulling his hat down, Kyle casually remarked,

“Next time, I hope to see you somewhere much more refined. For example, in a new banquet hall, that sort of place would be nice.”

* * *

When Hazel returned, Kyle was standing with his eyes closed, leaning against the wall.

The man whom she had thought would leave at once instead led Hazel to the fountain arranged in one corner of the hotel. For a man who hated Strauss Hotel so terribly, it was quite a generous gesture.

“Since we came all this way, I plan to look around here and there before leaving. Things I never saw as a child are visible to me now. And today I have some need to clear my head.”

The man wandering in a subdued voice stopped before a statue.

“It’s a statue of Joseph III. It was brought in when this hotel was built, so it must be around fifteen years now.”

Hazel listened quietly. The man continued.

“The material is ivory brought from Kartnia, and it’s a work by Marceau Lee. A special oil was applied to the surface so it would not corrode even under rain and snow.”

There was nothing like a giant mole or flaring nostrils included in the statue of Joseph III. Kyle recited more additional facts he knew about the statue.

“The reporters wrapped it up as a work combining materials from the colonies, the money of the bourgeoisie, and the symbolism of the royal family. Journalism scribbled that it was a commemorative gift Peter Strauss had presented to the royal family as if out of generosity.”

Whenever he came to this hotel, Kyle felt strange. His father had especially loved this hotel. Was it because there was not a single pillar, not a single statue, untouched by Peter Strauss’s hand?

And yet there was not one thing here that belonged to Kyle.

“I hate this place. Terribly. Every time I saw it, I wanted to burn every last bit of it down.”

“……”

“But thanks to someone……”

Kyle slowly turned around. Hazel, sensing the depth of his gaze, gave a small start in her shoulders.

The woman’s skirt swayed gently as she stood against the light pouring from the hotel.

Already autumn. A large hand cupped her warm cheek.

“Thanks to someone, I’ve at least become able to walk in here openly.”

He hated this hotel terribly, but the anger he felt just from looking at the building had greatly lessened.

The cause of that was undoubtedly his new position as Hazel Fitzroy’s fiancé. Even Kyle had not expected that she, whom he thought would be reliable only in the physical sense, would also become a subtle support to him mentally.

The woman who would become the cornerstone that let him grind Eliya Strauss beneath his heel and spit on her, the woman who would bring him the right to burn the hotel to the ground just as he wished.

The wedding date had been set for December, less than three months away. The excuse given was that, because the feelings the two had held for one another since childhood were so exceptionally deep, there was no reason to delay the marriage.

Naturally, the greatest beneficiary of this marriage was Kyle Strauss.

Marquis Fitzroy announced that he would give fifty thousand pyeong of land in Westburn to his adopted daughter as a wedding gift. What was more, it became known that, though the Marquis had kept his mouth shut, he had already received approval from Parliament for railway construction in Westburn long ago.

It was a decision that silenced all at once the gossips who had long claimed the Marquis disliked Miss Fitzroy. It was also one of the reasons Joseph III had been enraged after approving the railway construction permit for the Marquis.

The hand that had been caressing her cheek brushed over the cool nape of her neck.

“They have some eye for things. It’s the look of people who want to see how passionate we are as lovers.”

“……”

“It’s a world that requires a suitable amount of showmanship. Well, will you satisfy their expectations?”

The gray eyes that had been quietly gazing at Kyle closed obediently. Tilting his head, Kyle rubbed teasingly over her lips. Soft and moist.

Then Kyle let out a sigh. Surprisingly, Hazel had not improved at all since that first day when she seized him by the throat and fearlessly kissed him.

So he whispered. One hand cradling the back of her head, the other brushing down her shoulder.

“Open.”

“……”

Her lips parted.

Kyle missed no chance and pushed in through the gap. He kept a firm hold on the woman’s head as it was pushed backward by the force. Searching out the soft flesh within, stirring through it and indulging in it, Kyle felt a subtle sense of satisfaction.