Chapter 26

Since that day, inexplicable events kept repeating.

Even though it was just Elina and Bianca in the house until Elina recovered, things that weren’t there suddenly appeared, or the front door opened at night.

There was only one bed in the house, so Elina and Bianca slept together every night, but Elina was the only one who easily stirred at small sounds.

She wondered if it was Floyd’s doing, but had only suspicions without evidence.

She tried to ask Bianca during their meal, but Bianca didn’t reveal much.

Everything was a mystery.

“Will you really not tell me?”

“I came as your physician, Miss. There are things I can’t tell you, but I’ll explain slowly….”

Bianca sighed at the unknown parts and kept her mouth shut about Floyd. Previously, she answered everything, but now she couldn’t.

And the grandmother from the first floor. Perhaps Floyd had planned the existence of the grandfather who sold this house.

Even if the coachman who returned to the Rennes Grand Ducal residence told Floyd everything…

Yes, the letter in the food basket.

Wasn’t it Floyd who wrote and sent this all along?

In the basket left by the grandmother claiming leftover food, there was always a short letter written in elegant handwriting.

“Was it Floyd’s will that I bought this house cheaply and that the grandmother treated me well?”

“Hmm….”

“Can’t you tell me this?”

But Bianca kept her mouth shut and said nothing. Her eyes seemed eager to speak.

What was he doing now? 

She wanted to see his face again, which she hadn’t properly seen due to meeting in her sleep.

Ultimately, Floyd didn’t let her go, and she couldn’t forget him.

But she couldn’t go back and be with him. She couldn’t endure the sharp criticism and retainers who disliked her.

“Then just tell me what Floyd is doing. Surely he won’t insist on marrying me officially….”

“…I thought this was better than having you stay at the Grand Ducal’ residence. He agreed.”

“If Floyd is suffering because of me, I’d rather he didn’t….”

“His Grace likes you a lot, that’s why he’s doing this. So you can like the Grand Duke as you wish.”

At Bianca’s words, Elina looked at the only window in the house. Back to square one. The responsibility of a night she couldn’t separate from.

It was deep regret. As she sat on the bed and reached out, the kitten ran to her. The kitten was shy with Bianca, whom she first met days ago, and still hadn’t warmed up.

Looking beyond the bedroom at the living room floor, she saw Floyd’s jacket, now a rag. The small kitten had done this.

“But you look so good with your hair down. I didn’t realize because you always wore it up.”

“Really? I liked it up….”

“If you prefer, you can wear it up.”

Bianca smiled at Elina with a friendly smile like when she was at the Grand Ducal residence. Seeing this reminded her of the time spent alone with Bianca when Floyd didn’t come to the bedroom.

Though it ended abruptly when the retainer arrived a few days later, like marbles on a glass plate.

“I miss Floyd….”

Since arriving here, Bianca showed interest in the kitten, continuously reaching out.

But the kitten, disliking Bianca’s approach, let out a whine. Elina’s small mutter was drowned out.

“His Grace gets along well with such small animals… you haven’t seen His Grace as a child, have you? He was really beautiful then.”

“How could I see that.”

“The former Grand Duchess was really beautiful. She was even prettier than His Grace. She was a princess from a distant country… where was it. Hmm, I don’t remember well since it was during my childhood.”

“Why do you keep saying Floyd was pretty… can you tell me more about his childhood?”

“I said I’d tell you slowly… yes, alright.”

Elina lit the scented candle that had suddenly appeared in the house yesterday and urged Bianca. It seemed she could talk freely as long as she avoided things Floyd directly mentioned.

On the day she first met Floyd, she heard many stories about his father. A bad father who forced his motherless child onto the battlefield.

She later learned it was about Kahel, the first Grand Duke Rennes, but still didn’t feel good about it.

Did Floyd’s father know how sad it was to lose one’s parents at a young age? It seemed that he might not have known, since he had helped the current emperor usurp the throne without any blood or tears.

Floyd was reserved about his mother, who he said was deceased.

Usually, things deeply buried in the heart don’t easily come out. Elina also only expressed her resentment towards Lady Rasiche, not much about her parents.

Every time she brought it up, she felt like dying.

Her parents, who left for a long journey to buy a pretty gift for their only daughter’s seventh birthday, returned as cold corpses after a carriage accident.

Not knowing what death was, she dressed in a pretty dress at the funeral, waiting for parents who wouldn’t come, memories vivid.

“When the former Grand Duchess suddenly passed away… there was an accident. I don’t know what it was….”

“An accident…? Was it related to Floyd?”

“That… probably not. I heard she was pregnant at the time, and couldn’t do anything.”

***

Floyd left the bedroom in the Rennes Grand Ducal residence and walked through the dim garden.

He had just returned from a meeting with family retainers and the Imperial Family about matters to be handled.

Why did they leave such a family and retainers to him and disappear? He felt a bit angry thinking about his father, who had left the family head position.

After finishing all the wars and returning, he was given the family head position he never intended to take….

When Elina disappeared from the Grand Ducal residence, everything seemed perfectly fine. It was hard to believe he had such fierce disputes with retainers who upheld his father’s wishes, who wasn’t even deceased.

In that situation, letting Elina go out of the Grand Ducal residence was the best choice.

“I’ll collect everything tomorrow.”

Floyd was making the retainers write a memorandum at the Grand Ducal residence without Elina. Retainers who contracted with the family head had to follow his will, but the Grand Duchess’s side was slightly different.

The laws and systems of the Koseli Empire were strict regardless of status.

Even nobles or Imperial Family members with close ties to the Emperor had to follow the law.

But did they lack power according to status… that wasn’t the case.

So he made them write a memorandum promising to strip them of their position as Rennes retainers if they caused emotional harm to Elina.

Emotional harm… it was something he hadn’t thought of, but it seemed necessary.

During this time, there were criticisms that would have hurt Elina more if she heard them, and some raised their voices wanting to meet her, but he dealt with it somewhat forcefully.

Elina wasn’t there to hear their criticisms now.

Elina was with the physician she felt comfortable with outside, so his mind was lighter. He originally didn’t plan to approach until he finished internal and external family matters, but things changed.

Meeting Elina in the commercial district that day was completely unexpected.

And he hadn’t planned to visit Elina that night. Until he found himself asking about her well-being and the elderly woman living below her house urgently called him.

Until now, he only hoped she was eating properly in a decent house, so he did a little to help. He worried she might not be eating well if left alone.

He thought he should at least ensure she had meals.

So he asked someone he knew in the area where Elina wanted to live to sell her a good house at a low price, and asked his wife to pay attention to Elina’s meals.

“Are you planning to visit Miss again? What are you taking today?”

As he walked around the main building of the Grand Ducal residence, he encountered Ziegel, holding thick documents.

Ziegel was someone Floyd valued among the few at the Grand Ducal residence. Unlike retainers who couldn’t forget the former Grand Duke and meddled with him, Ziegel had been with him on the battlefield and was naturally friendly to Elina.

He even told him he secretly brought a scented candle good for mental stability to Elina’s house yesterday.

“I’m not visiting. I’ll handle everything and visit officially.”

Floyd took some documents from Ziegel and ended his evening walk, heading to the office he rarely entered.

He hadn’t prepared to become the family head since childhood. He didn’t know his father would pass the family head position so easily, wielding a sword on the battlefield.

But now, as the family head, Floyd was always striving to be a diligent leader.

“I’ve found everything you asked to investigate. Since Miss Elina isn’t officially with you yet, Your Grace, it’s quiet.”

Despite not being asked to follow, Ziegel entered the office with Floyd. He seemed ready to explain the documents he brought.

It was about Elina’s family, the Valois Earl family. Since he said he’d handle everything for Elina, he couldn’t leave this out.

“But are you really okay not visiting the former Grand Duke?”

“Do you think my father would welcome me? Forget it. Let’s work.”

Floyd pondered what more he could do for Elina, spending a long time looking through documents in the office.