Chapter 4 – Suspicion (Part 5)

Early in the morning, before Aaron even arrived at work.

The Duke quietly read a letter handed to him by the housekeeper, addressed to Elysia.

[My dear Elysia,

I couldn’t hold back my tears upon hearing that you entered the Grendel Duke’s estate right after getting engaged to the Duke. How could you not even give a hint to your closest friend? I understand you wanted to keep the marriage talks with such an esteemed family a secret. But the fact that you made such an important decision without consulting your friend deeply saddens me.

Had I known about your engagement, I would have gone out of my way to teach you the etiquette of high nobility so you wouldn’t bring shame to the Duke’s family. Isn’t that what friends are for? You might not trust people easily, but the fact that you’ve maintained our relationship despite your narrow circle of acquaintances means you trust me that much, right?

I’m so worried that someone who usually stays indoors is suddenly living in a strange place, feeling lonely and struggling. I’m concerned about how well you’re adapting and whether the Duke’s estate lacks anything for your living. I want to see it with my own eyes. As the only daughter of the Earl’s family, I’ll do anything I can for you, whom I’ve known since childhood.

Father was also very worried upon hearing that you became the Duke’s fiancée. He was greatly concerned, wondering if the Serenze family could handle such a household, and he urged me to take good care of you as a friend.

If you understand my feelings, I hope you’ll invite me to the Duke’s estate soon. I’ll be waiting for your news.

Your true friend who only thinks of your happiness,

Sera van Kumaran]

After reading the letter, the Duke commented.

“It seems she’s very close to the daughter of the Earl of Kumaran.”

The information on Elysia provided by Aaron, who brought the candidate documents, stated that the Kumaran family was one of the trading partners of the Serenze Trading Company and that Elysia, the eldest daughter, maintained a formal relationship with the Kumaran family’s daughter. It also noted that Elysia rarely attended social gatherings and small meetings, so she had no other friends to speak of.

The letter from Sera van Kumaran was the only correspondence Elysia had received from someone other than family since arriving at the Duke’s estate. The letter, sealed with the Earl’s ordinary seal instead of special wax, didn’t contain anything significant, perhaps anticipating inspection, but its content suggested they were close friends. That was Cassius’s conclusion.

The resealed letter was handed back to the housekeeper. After the housekeeper left, Cassius fell into thought.

‘At the Spring Ball, neither the daughter of Kumaran nor the daughter of Serenze acknowledged each other or stayed close. They thoroughly hid their friendship.’

Cassius felt bitter that the fiancée he chose, thinking she lacked ambition and wouldn’t wield political influence, happened to have a significant connection with the Earl of Kumaran family. The extent of the hidden network of noble supremacists was unknown.

***

Meanwhile, upon receiving the letter and confirming the name ‘Sera van Kumaran’ on the envelope, Elysia barely managed to suppress the twitching of her face. Alone in her room, she tore open the letter and read it in one go, frowning.

“How dare she pretend to be close.”

Elysia tossed the letter into the fireplace, where a small fire was burning, and poked it with a poker to ensure it was thoroughly burned.

***

“Report on Miss Serenze’s recent actions.”

The day after Sera van Kumaran’s letter arrived, Cassius summoned the housekeeper to the office after Aaron arrived at work and gave the order. The housekeeper reported on the education about the Duke’s estate given to Elysia, her reactions, and every other trivial detail.

After listening to the housekeeper’s report, Cassius couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss. If she were a daughter of a noble family, she would naturally want to have a say in financial decisions, but she didn’t. Despite having been there for only a short time, she insisted on taking a walk alone in the garden and met Ronan Hass there on the same day, among other things. Once he started thinking it was suspicious, everything seemed suspicious.

“Did she ask any questions?”

“She asked about the servants’ break times and the patrol schedule of the knights guarding the garden. Oh, and she asked if the dark color of the Duke’s estate’s exterior was due to using alchemically treated stones.”

Asking about break times and patrol schedules and inquiring about the exterior materials were clearly to understand the security state of the Duke’s estate.

“Were there any other peculiarities? Even the smallest detail is fine. What kind of person do you think Elysia von Serenze is?”

The Duke believed that the long experience of the housekeeper, Pedro, who was old enough to be his grandfather, would be helpful in assessing the character of the other party, so he asked. Pedro hesitated for a moment before answering.

“She quickly understands whatever is explained to her and treats the servants with utmost courtesy, which shows she is a lady properly educated in a noble family. However…”

The housekeeper hesitated for a moment, but when the Duke nodded for him to continue, he spoke.

“It seemed she wasn’t particularly interested in anything. Also, her lack of desire to be deeply involved in the internal affairs of the Duke’s estate… It felt like she was excessively trying to reassure us by hiding her interest.”

Cassius thought for a moment, then acknowledged and dismissed the housekeeper. He then spoke to Aaron, who was standing by.

“We need a detailed investigation into everything about Elysia von Serenze. What was her childhood like, who did she frequently meet, what was the opinion of the tutors who taught her, and so on, without missing anything.”

***

Elysia had been feeling uncomfortable for some time, as if all the servants at the Duke’s estate were watching her. Today, she had barely managed to persuade the housekeeper to secure some time for a solitary walk.

During her solitary walks, she didn’t want to encounter anyone, so she inquired about the servants’ break times and calculated the free time by figuring out the patrol schedules of the knights. She chose to walk in the garden because it felt awkward to stay cooped up in her room just to avoid being noticed.

‘It feels like I’m being monitored every move in someone else’s house. But I can’t just stay in my room. I miss lounging in my room, snacking, and reading books like before…’

Elysia continued to walk through the endless gardens of the Duke’s estate, avoiding the eyes of the servants. Then she discovered a secluded path leading to the back of the mansion from the garden, where there was a particularly unkempt bush growing thickly in one place.

‘The entire garden is meticulously maintained, but here the weeds are overgrown. It doesn’t seem like they missed it.’

Curious, Elysia pushed through the thicket. It showed signs of only minimal maintenance to prevent the bushes from protruding, but there were no traces of proper grooming. Beyond the unkempt bush, something sparkled, but the overgrown plants prevented her from approaching.

Standing on tiptoe and peering beyond the bushes, she saw what seemed to be the remnants of a once small path. If there was a path, there might be a clearing beyond it. Elysia’s eyes sparkled with the prospect of finding a solitary space where she could indulge in laziness.

‘If I don’t clear this, I won’t know what’s inside. Should I call a gardener?’

However, Elysia shook her head after a moment. If she left it to the Duke’s gardener, it might end up looking just as stifling as the other trees in the garden. And if there was indeed a space hidden behind the unkempt bush, as Elysia suspected, she didn’t want the gardener to discover it.

Excited by the thought of possibly creating a secret resting space here, Elysia began to think about how to make a path leading inside, away from prying eyes.

***

Aaron easily found and met Dolores, who had tutored Elysia from ages 11 to 14. At the time, Dolores had just graduated from the academy and was a not-so-wealthy commoner. To earn more money after graduation, she had taken on private tutoring for noble families.

Currently working at a well-established publishing company, Aaron invited Dolores to a teahouse near the publisher’s office and introduced himself as someone from the Duke’s estate.

“I’m sorry to interrupt your work. I am Aaron Hass, the secretary of Duke Cassius de Grendel.”

Upon hearing Aaron’s introduction, Dolores responded.

“You want to know about Miss Serenze, don’t you?”

When Aaron hesitated in surprise, Dolores calmly explained.

“I’ve been a tutor for several noble families, so it’s not uncommon for the prospective in-laws to want to know about the character from childhood before marriage.”

Aaron, with an awkward expression, asked.

“As you thought, that’s correct. Could you tell me what you know about Miss Serenze?”

Dolores, seeing no reason to withhold information, began to speak freely about what she knew. She recalled that the Serenze family had high expectations for Elysia’s brilliance at the time.

“Thanks to the intelligent young lady, the quasi-Baron Serenze was pleased, thinking they might produce a professor from the family. So they expected the first daughter to enter the Royal Academy of Advanced Studies, while the second was taught about commerce from an early age to inherit the business.”

“She was so smart, so why didn’t she even enter the regular academy? Do you know anything about that?”

“Well, that’s…”

After hearing Dolores’s explanation, Aaron returned to the Duke’s estate with a somber expression.