Chapter 3

“Are you still here? Try to leave as soon as possible, preferably today.”

“Count!”

“So you know who I am.”

He continued to maintain an antagonistic attitude.

“Of course. You’re Ian Kypris, the Count and leader of the Grand Expedition.”

Elcia carefully avoided words that might provoke him. Ian was originally the eldest son of the Kypris family and commander of the Holy Knight Order of the Tyr Church. After being destroyed by guilt for failing to save the saint, he was driven out of both the marquisate and his commander’s post and ended up in this old castle…

However, at the mention of ‘Grand Expedition’, Ian’s expression twisted hideously.

“You don’t need to remember the name of a loser like me.”

“…Count!”

“Yes, you said you’re a puppet master. So, tell me, who is the current commander of the Holy Knight Order of the Tyr Church?”

“Sir Nersian…”

Ian’s gaze grew even darker with disgust.

“Go back and tell His Highness the Crown Prince. I have severed all ties with the Kypris family, and the Holy Knight Order has a new commander, so discuss all matters with them. Tell him to please forget about a useless person like me, whose hand is in this state!”

“C-Count!”

In her urgency, Elcia grabbed the hem of Ian’s vest. Seiran, who was beside her, gasped in shock at her rude gesture.

“Let go.”

Ian, whose clothes were grabbed, did not even twitch an eyebrow and coldly rebuked her, though he did not immediately shake her off. He did not seem to be a rough man by nature, so Elcia gripped the unfamiliar fabric in her hand even tighter and pleaded earnestly.

“Please, just have one meal with me, okay? Let’s talk for a little while. Are you really going to turn away an important envoy sent by His Highness the Crown Prince?”

Even with her bold words, Ian’s expression remained as cold as ice.

“Don’t be stubborn, Puppet Master. There’s not a single maid here to clean up after you, so just go home. If you tell His Highness all my faults, he’ll understand.”

“Ahem, ahem. Um… Your Grace?”

Seiran, who had been watching the situation, quietly spoke up. This loyal knight had joined the expedition and followed Ian here, abandoning all luxury and glory. In short, at Usley Castle, he had more authority than the butler.

“What is it?”

Ian replied curtly.

“Storm clouds are gathering and will bring a tempest by dawn. Isn’t the distance from here to the capital quite far? Even if you leave now, you’ll be stranded midway, so why not at least have a meal together?”

Ian could ruthlessly ignore the puppet master he met for the first time today, but he could not turn away Seiran, who had shared life and death with him. Reluctantly, he entered the dining room with Elcia.

Elcia felt relieved and brought up various light topics for Ian throughout the meal. Remembering his earlier intense reaction, she avoided sensitive subjects like the temple or the Imperial Family.

Her efforts were admirable, but Ian seemed not to listen to anything she said. Even when Seiran tried to join the conversation, Ian did not respond and acted as if he didn’t hear. It was as if he existed only to eat the food on his plate. Before Elcia could finish half her grilled fish, Ian pushed away his dessert and abruptly stood up.

“Ah…!”

“I’ll go ahead. Take your time eating.”

Before Elcia could set down her fork in surprise, Ian had already left the dining room. Since he had finished his meal, there was nothing she could say. As Elcia hesitated, debating whether to follow him and leave her delicious fruit cake, Seiran quietly stopped her.

“It’s alright, Miss Bennett. Just let him be. It’s late, so nothing will happen.”

“But…”

“It’s been two months since the master last came out of his bedroom. The successful cleaning of his room is thanks to your determination, Miss Bennett. Just getting rid of all that dust today is a huge accomplishment.”

Seiran spoke with relief, poking at the green grapes on his cake with a fork.

“Why did he come out before?”

Had it only been half a day since Elcia met Ian? She had barely spent an hour with him, but she realized something. The Crown Prince’s idea of treatment was not simply healing Ian’s injured hand.

The true purpose seemed to be breaking down the deep wall of despair Ian Kypris had built around himself, so that he would walk out and stand before his lord Conrad on his own. Healing his hand would be meaningless if he couldn’t escape the self-loathing of being the unlucky Holy Knight who lost the saint.

To do that, she needed to learn more about Ian.

The only residents of Usley Castle were Ian Kypris, Knight Seiran, the butler, an old gardener, and three servants who handled all sorts of tasks. The young servant Haden was, of course, included, as he contributed a lot. There were four soldiers, but they hardly ever came inside and lived in a different building. So, her first task was to dig up any information she could find.

Seiran shrugged.

“The gardener caught in the rain couldn’t stop coughing and eventually started coughing up blood, so the master rushed him to the physician. It was late at night and on a day I wasn’t here.”

“Ah… I see.”

So, even as a madman, he cared for his people? Or perhaps, unable to bear the guilt of losing the saint, he couldn’t ignore anyone around him who was suffering.

Since coming to the capital, Elcia had seen countless arrogant nobles who didn’t care whether those around them lived or died. The fact that Ian hadn’t cursed her for barging into his room earlier showed he might be softer than he seemed.

Even if he was broken by drink and guilt, there was a glimmer of hope.

“So please endure the master’s sharp reactions for a few days. Since you have a miraculous puppet for treatment, he won’t be able to kick you out easily.”

Seiran seemed to like Elcia and pushed a bottle full of raspberries toward her.

“Yes, I understand. I’ve made up my mind, so don’t worry.”

Elcia, who loved sweets, opened the bottle with confidence.

The Crown Prince had praised Elcia’s character, and after seeing Ian alive with her own eyes, she felt much more confident. Getting Ian Kypris back to the capital seemed easier than she thought, so tonight she could sleep soundly. She smiled as the raspberries burst on her tongue.

Unfortunately, she quickly realized how naive she had been.

She had barely fallen asleep in her assigned room when someone suddenly knocked on the door.

“M-Miss Elcia! M-Miss Elcia!”

“Mm… Who is it?”

It was Haden, the youngest apprentice servant in the castle. The boy, teary-eyed, delivered shocking news.

Ian, who had left the dining room first, had quietly entered his cleaned bedroom before falling asleep, but suddenly started shouting, burst out the door, and disappeared somewhere. Elcia’s sleepy mind snapped awake.

“Tell me exactly what happened.”

“Hic, hiccup. It started raining, so I just brought him some water and was about to go to bed myself. I went into the utility room, but heard a loud noise from far away… When I hurried over, the door was open and the master was gone…”

Seiran was scheduled to patrol the outer castle walls all night due to the storm. So, there was no one to go looking for Ian now. Rather than searching for Seiran in the rain, it was much better to search for the missing Ian herself.

Elcia threw on her robe and jumped up.

“Alright. You check the main building with the butler again. The wind is strong, so don’t go outside, okay? He might come back.”

“Can you find the master?”

“Yes. If the Count returns, could you ring the bell at the front gate twice?”

“Yes!”

In her haste, she didn’t even think to change out of her loose pajamas and just threw on her robe before heading out. The young servant was so flustered he couldn’t even point it out, and left, wiping away tears.

Elcia decided to start by checking the bedroom she had cleaned today. She wanted to find out why Ian, who had seemed a bit calmer, had suddenly gotten angry and left.

‘Strange. He kept every scrap of paper with writing on it, even the crumpled ones. He gave his clothes to the servant for washing on sunny days. The only things thrown away were useless trash, so why did he get angry? Was it because I cleaned up all the empty bottles?’

She couldn’t imagine Ian had a rare hobby of collecting empty bottles. Thinking this, Elcia slowly looked around the cleaned bedroom. Despite reports of him storming out in anger, there were no signs of anything broken or damaged.

As she looked around the room she had cleaned with Woody, Elcia suddenly felt something was off.

‘Huh…?’

The leather frame she had placed on the dresser was missing. She remembered clearly, since she had done it at the end of her cleaning. Everything else was untouched, so why had the frame disappeared?

Was it ‘darling’, or ‘my sweetheart’… Elcia instinctively thought the beautiful woman in that frame must have had a deep relationship with Ian. Such a personal item wouldn’t have been left in the Count’s room by accident.

Ian was famous as the Holy Knight who lost the Saint, so could it be a portrait of the Saint? She considered the idea, but quickly dismissed it. No knight who served the Saint would hide a portrait with such a sentimental inscription. If discovered, it could even lead to a religious trial.

‘Could it be… Someone precious to the Count? Maybe he had hidden it face down, and when I set it upright, it caused trouble.’

Just as she was trying to recall what the frame looked like, Elcia was startled. Something had fallen onto the clean carpet and caught her eye.

She bent down and picked up a string-like object, frowning.

“This is…”

It looked like the cord used to tightly seal a bottle. So, had Ian seen the frame, gotten emotional, grabbed a bottle, and stormed out?

That was as far as she got.

Finding Ian, who had run out in anger with a bottle, was now the priority.

Elcia grabbed an umbrella and hurried outside, quickly recalling what she knew. As far as she knew, Ian Kypris had no fiancée or publicly known lover. That was because he was the former commander of the Holy Knight Order.

Unlike other members, the commander of the Holy Knight Order of the Tyr Church could not marry while in office.

Originally, there was no such restriction, but after forming a partnership with the Vanir Goddess’s church—called the consort of the main god Tyr—a strange unwritten rule had developed.