Chapter 13

“Please release them.”

Raon came to see Chris. It was two days after the fire broke out at the poorhouse.

“I mean the people from the poorhouse.”

“By what right are you asking me that?”

Chris looked at him with a face that plainly showed he did not like the request. Then, as if to show he did not want to deal with it, he waved his hand dismissively.

“Don’t meddle in things that have nothing to do with you, and mind the things that do.”

The thing he meant by what did concern him was something related to Bersha. Did he know how heartbroken Bersha had been after Raon left like that? Chris openly clicked his tongue.

“It is the matter of the family I am formally engaged to, and of the person who will become my wife.”

The answer came from behind Chris’s back as he had risen and turned away.

“What did you say?”

Chris turned to look at Raon with a face of disbelief.

“I am telling you that it concerns me now.”

Chris tried to understand what Raon was saying.

“Do you even know what the word engagement means?”

Since he had heard nothing particular from Kina, he could not believe it.

“I do. I am on my way back from having sent a proposal letter to the Viscountcy of Sennet just now.”

Even while knowing what emotion showed on Chris’s face as it tightened at that answer, Raon remained calm.

“Does that answer suffice?”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Ha!”

At the answer without hesitation, Chris let out a hollow laugh.

“You changed your stance very quickly, Duke.”

As though that small laugh had never happened, Chris’s face quickly turned cold. Raon calmly received that stare. The unwavering look in his eyes spoke for his resolve.

“Things have changed.”

A taut battle of wills unfolded between the two men. Raon, who normally would have let it pass or moved on, did not do so now. He could not understand Chris’s anger being directed somewhere so absurd. In the end, that anger had destroyed the innocent poorhouse.

In truth, even that was only suspicion, so all Raon could do without pressing him further was clench his fists tightly.

“They’ll be released by today.”

It was originally the promise Chris had made with Kina. In the end, the one who turned his head away first was Chris. His irritated expression remained plain on his face.

“So you had already prepared for that.”

Why? Even though he was annoyed, Chris’s easy compliance felt somehow strange. He was not the sort of man to change his mind easily, so that meant there had to be a reason.

“Didn’t you say so yourself. That they were people without fault.”

At Raon’s sharp remark, Chris added calmly. This time his face was neat and composed, as though he had never been agitated at all.

“If you don’t like it, I can cancel it.”

Chris added that to the gaze trying to read his intentions. He blew lightly on his fingernails, wanting to appear at ease. It was to show that he could change his mind at any time.

“……Release them now. I will take them myself.”

Perhaps fortunately, it seemed to have worked, because Raon quickly withdrew the sharpness from his eyes.

“There is no need for you to do that.”

“I want to do it that way.”

From Raon’s point of view, Chris was not exactly someone trustworthy in matters like this. And from Chris’s point of view, Raon was suffocatingly frustrating and irritating because of that. But soon he waved his hand and said he could do as he pleased. Since the great matter of the marriage had been cleared, he decided to be generous for now.

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

In the end, as always, Raon gave a formal greeting and left.

“What a rigid b*stard.”

Chris roughly swept back his hair. Fortunately, things were moving smoothly, and yet a strange irritation welled up in him.

News of Raon’s proposal spread through high society very quickly. In an instant, Kina became the most talked-about woman. Naturally so, because of her special relationship with Bersha.

* * *

“Do you really think Duke Graize could possibly have taken an interest in Lady Sennet?”

“Then why are they suddenly getting married?”

“Obviously because of Lady Kapris, right?”

“If that’s the case, then…….”

The noblewomen present smiled meaningfully and fell silent. But they all nodded as though they had expected as much. Of course. There was no way a woman with nothing special about her could have captured Duke Graize’s heart.

“Well, if not, then there would be no reason for it to have to be Lady Sennet.”

That was the conclusion they drew. That she was no more than a screen to allow him to continue meeting Bersha.

“So that must be why Lady Sennet was always going around with Lady Kapris.”

“That would make sense.”

Bersha had always drawn men’s attention with a proud expression. That also meant she had drawn women’s envy as well. Watching her partner change every time, the ladies belittled Bersha as vulgar. Her family, her looks, there was not a single thing lacking in her, so that was the only thing they could use to tear her down. The person herself had never cared, of course.

Even that talk disappeared completely once she started dating Raon. Afterward, Bersha was always with Raon, but in the end, the one marrying him was her closest friend, Kina, who had always been by her side.

“Still, since she stayed right beside her, she managed to get a few scraps.”

Then they laughed. It was rather absurd to call a man like Raon a few scraps, but they did not care. The actual facts were not especially important. They merely needed a reason for someone among them to be mocked. This time, that person simply happened to be Kina.

“Then does that make Duke Graize the kept lover?”

It was something someone whispered as if under her breath. The finest man becoming the kept lover. At those words, the ladies there all laughed together.

“Poor Lady Sennet.”

They laughed and mocked Kina in pity, saying she would stand beside the finest man and yet never possess him for the rest of her life.

The pitiful subject of those rumors, Kina, remained bedridden for several days, sick the entire time. And while she was unable to get up, the teachers who had been released by Chris left the capital for treatment and a safe life, heading toward the territory of the Dukedom of Graize.

* * *

“Is she inside?”

“Yes. However…….”

Since Chris knew very well what she, the head maid, was about to say, he gestured that there was no need to say more and opened the door. Just as he had expected, Bersha was lying curled in a corner of the bed with the blanket pulled over herself.

“Make sure no one comes in until I call.”

“Yes.”

Once even the personal maids had all been sent away, he strode closer to Bersha and abruptly yanked off the blanket she was covering herself with.

“You said you told Raon too!”

As if she had been waiting for the blanket to be removed, an angry voice flew at Chris. Her face was soaked with tears, as though she had been crying.

“I did tell him.”

“Then why is Raon getting married! And to my…….”

In the end, unable to finish the sentence, Bersha burst into miserable tears. It was shocking news that Raon, whom she had trusted, was going to marry Kina, who had been her closest friend.

He could understand how Bersha might think of it as a betrayal by both friend and lover. Chris stroked her crying head. That did not make her sobbing subside, of course.

“What if she were our helper?”

“……What?”

“Lady Sennet. You said she was a friend who would do anything for you.”

Bersha lifted her tear-streaked face and looked at him. She had cried to the point of seeming almost unsightly, and yet her eyes, shining with moisture, were beautiful.

“So you’re saying Kina knows everything now?”

“Yes.”

Startled, Bersha’s eyes widened into circles.

“How?”

“Is that what matters? What matters is that you can still love Raon.”

Chris had no intention of explaining it to Bersha at length. If anything, he did not feel there was any need to explain it at all. Whether she knew or not, things would move in the direction she wanted. Because he would make them so.