Chapter 19

Floyd stared blankly as the carriage carrying Elina completely left the Rennes Grand Ducal residence. In his hand was nothing but a piece of paper that Elina had left behind.

It was the note with the address of the Rennes Grand Ducal residence, given to her at their first meeting when everything began.

“Bring Duke Silvesta. We need to settle this clearly.”

Ziegel, Floyd’s adjutant, bowed deeply to his superior. He was a loyal adjutant who still believed in and followed him despite this unbelievable situation.

As soon as the carriage with the Rennes Grand Ducal family emblem disappeared from sight, several knights discreetly followed behind it.

Elina might resent him again if she found out, but this was something he had to do, even if it meant receiving her resentment.

“Mother… please protect Elina and our child.”

Floyd took out an old diary from the center of his office bookshelf and tucked the crumpled note inside, which had been handled so much.

If I could explain why I was there that day… would Elina understand me?

For the first time in his life, he drank so much that his memory of that day was hazy, but he didn’t seem to have mentioned this.

He only talked endlessly about his father… and nothing else….

For weeks, he had been dealing with retainers, which was a headache. The words of the retainers and those outside the family would not be a problem if time passed and Floyd handled himself well.

No matter what anyone said, Floyd was the only Grand Duke of the Koseli Empire, and any opposition could be dismissed.

But the reason he was trying to slowly win over the retainers was just one.

Floyd didn’t want Elina to be hurt any more.

It seemed he had already given her all the hurt he could.

***

At that time, Elina was suspicious of the coachman driving the carriage with the Rennes Grand Ducal family emblem prominently displayed.

Since Floyd had personally assigned the coachman, there should be no problem with safety, but she doubted if he was really a coachman.

“Miss… but don’t you hear a child crying?”

“What…?”

“A whining sound keeps coming from somewhere….”

He kept looking back into the carriage and talking instead of focusing on driving. However, he wasn’t driving the carriage oddly, so she said nothing.

But suddenly, a child crying… Had the coachman been mistakenly informed that I was a woman who had given birth to the Grand Duke’s child, not one who was carrying it?

While she was thinking that….

Meow. She really heard a cry.

Meow. This time, it was clearer.

“A cat…?”

“Oh, it does sound like a cat crying. But did the Grand Ducal residence have a cat…?”

There were no cats at the Grand Ducal residence. But she had a guess about this cat sound. Having packed her belongings after weeks, it was really possible….

Elina began to rummage through the luggage piled inside the carriage. Since it wouldn’t be in what Floyd packed, she only picked from the belongings she brought from the Valois residence.

“Miss, it’s dangerous. I’ll stop the carriage….”

The young coachman, who appeared to be around Floyd’s age, slowly brought the carriage to a halt. It was early morning, so the streets were quiet, and the coachman hurriedly jumped down from the coachman’s seat and opened the carriage door.

Elina stared blankly outside the suddenly stopped carriage and continued to unpack. The carriage she was riding was large, and the luggage to look through was very small.

So she found it quickly.

“Please be careful… Miss, your safety is the top priority.”

“Anyone would think you’re not a coachman but a knight… Oh, a cat!”

“I’m really not a knight… Was there really a cat?”

In front of the astonished coachman, Elina held a tiny kitten she found in a bag full of luggage.

Why was this kitten here…? 

It was definitely a kitten born to the cat she rescued from the Valois residence.

While leaving the Valois residence, this kitten must have slipped into the packed luggage and survived for weeks without dying in the unpacked baggage.

“Where did you come from… Did it sneak into the carriage? Give it to me. I’ll handle it.”

“Don’t kill it!”

The coachman looked at the small black kitten, smaller than a ball of yarn, and the woman holding it. Actually, it was awkward to even call her a woman because she was so young.

He wasn’t really going to kill the cat, but seeing her trembling in fear made him feel guilty.

“I’m not going to kill it! Please don’t look at me so scared!”

“That’s a relief….”

Elina looked away from the somewhat excited coachman and gazed at the kitten squirming in her arms.

There was plenty of space in the bag where the luggage was packed, so breathing would have been easy, but it was amazing that it survived until now without eating or drinking for weeks.

“Did someone at the Grand Ducal residence take care of it…?”

It was hard to understand otherwise. How could this tiny thing survive alone… Anyway, it seemed like she had one more responsibility.

Except for not being able to marry Floyd formally, she felt she could take responsibility for anything, so it was no big deal.

The coachman, unable to return to the coachman’s seat and groaning, kept talking to Elina. 

Was he worried he might be scolded later because of the suddenly appearing cat?

“Let’s get going. We have a long way to go today.”

“…Are you going to keep the cat, Miss?”

“It seems like I’ve separated it from its mother cat because of me. I should take responsibility for this one too.”

Leaving the Grand Ducal residence truly felt freeing. Like being reborn.

Elina watched the kitten, which had been meowing since she took it out of the luggage. Its blue eyes set in black fur reminded her of Floyd.

It hadn’t even been 30 minutes since she left him, yet she kept thinking of him. She had promised herself she would never see him again.

Why was this promise so light? 

Except for that one time, she hadn’t even sought him out when he hadn’t visited the bedroom for days. Why, now that she had completely left….

“Understood. Please know that I must accompany you until you choose a place to stay.”

“Yes….”

The carriage door closed, and she gazed out the window as it slowly started moving again. It had only been a few weeks, yet the color of the leaves on the streets was changing vividly.

When she left the Valois residence and got a carriage to find Floyd, she was full of hope, but now she was filled with emptiness.

Though she didn’t want to, with what Floyd had filled the carriage, she could comfortably take care of the child in her womb and the kitten she met today.

She never expected to receive back the sincerity and heart she gave him that day in such a material form. She thought no one could put a price on it.

But perhaps this was a high price for her insignificant sincerity. As that thought crossed her mind, sadness welled up again.

“I’m not crying, I won’t cry. Don’t comfort me.”

Meow. The kitten whimpered and burrowed into her arms. The small creature with perky ears was very warm.

The kitten, which had been doing so for a while, suddenly betrayed its new owner and scurried to the opposite side of the seat. What could possibly be there….

The place the kitten ran to was where Floyd’s coat was, which she had thrown off as soon as she got into the carriage.

“…Did Floyd take care of you at the Grand Ducal residence?”

Meow. Of course, the cat didn’t speak. Though he had draped it over her shoulders, saying it was cold, it only circled around his discarded coat.

Cats had a good sense of smell. She had saved a cat in distress and fed it every other day, but she had never really raised one.

Floyd. Calling his name only when he wasn’t there, Elina leaned back against the soft carriage cushion.

Whenever she called him “Your Grace,” she felt an indescribable solid wall between them. He was someone more suited to marry a noble lady.

“Indeed, what does the Grand Duke gain by marrying me?”

Even if her family was an Earl’s, the Lady Rasiche would hinder the marriage without a dowry.

She knew all high-ranking nobles engaged in political marriages. Even those who forced marriage by getting pregnant beforehand were, in reality, middling nobles….

“Still… I’ll make sure to protect all of you, so don’t worry.”

For the first time in a long while, Elina patted her uncalled-for belly and turned her gaze to the window. It was a familiar commercial district halfway between the Rennes Grand Ducal residence and the Valois Earl residence.

She wanted to hide away in a deserted place to avoid people’s eyes, but with a child in her womb, she needed to see a doctor regularly.

And it would be hard to survive alone in a deserted place. She planned to choose a small house in the most secluded part of the commercial district and live there as if she were dead.

Once the child was born and started to grow, she hoped people would forget. She dearly wished for that.

“…Did you really have to put me in a carriage with the Rennes Grand Ducal family emblem?”

“Well, His Grace ordered the best carriage for you… From here, I’ll get off and escort you. Please wait a moment.”

She deliberately left the Rennes Grand Ducal residence early in the morning when no one was around. But because she hesitated about where to go and discovered the kitten in between, quite a bit of time had passed.

In broad daylight, a large carriage with the Rennes Grand Ducal emblem on the main road drew everyone’s attention.

Elina drew the curtain over the window and curled up. She was afraid people would point fingers at her, calling her a shameless, thoughtless woman.

Because Floyd had strongly expressed that she couldn’t leave without taking the Grand Ducal family’s large carriage and the enormous wealth within it, she couldn’t choose a hired carriage.

Had he abandoned me or let me go? 

Elina still vividly remembered him kneeling and pleading.

“Carefully step out. No one will recognize you as the prospective Grand Duchess… or know about your relationship with His Grace.”

After the carriage she was riding came to a stop in a secluded place, the coachman covered the conspicuous Grand Ducal emblem and moved.

Receiving the escort of the still mysterious coachman, Elina took in the quaint residential area. 

How much would I have to pay to live in such a pretty house?

Since the bag of gold coins Floyd gave her was substantial, she briefly thought, maybe she could indulge a little.

Just then, an old man, who seemed to be the owner of the quaint houses, rushed out and spoke to Elina.

“Oh my, are you here to see the house? There’s a small garden where you can enjoy gardening. Ah, a cat! It’s perfect if you look inside the house, perfect!”

Frightened by the old man who seemed willing to do anything to sell the house, Elina turned her gaze to the coachman beside her.

He did say he’d stay until I found a house… 

She thought, trying to reassure herself.

A strange look passed between the two. As if they had prearranged something.

“I originally intended to sell the house for a thousand gold, but due to urgent circumstances… I’ll offer it for six hundred, no, five hundred gold. How about it?”

“Five hundred gold….”

He even offered a high discount rate that made her wonder if it was a scam.