Chapter 2.10

Shrinking at his ominous tone, Brienne rolled her eyes.

“W-wait a moment. I think I can help.”

“Help?”

“Yes, Zen… right? I heard you saved my father.”

“Oh, the lord said that?”

“Of course, he told me in the carriage.”

Apparently satisfied with her answer, Zen lifted one corner of his mouth in a grin.

“Aha, did he tell you exactly how I saved him?”

“…No?”

When Brienne shook her head, Zen, who had been holding back a laugh, burst out laughing heartily.

“Well, it’s better not to know. Isn’t that right, Lusell?”

Laughing it off, Zen even wiped away tears as he sought his companion’s agreement. Looking at him with a contemptuous gaze, Lusell sighed.

“Yes, that would be best. Things are only getting stranger.”

“What’s so strange? They offered help first. Come now, young lady, come and sit here.”

Brienne hesitated but eventually took a step forward. When she sat on the rock Zen pointed to, he lowered himself to sit in front of her.

“So, will you really help?”

“…Yes, how much do you need?”

Zen grinned slyly and held up three fingers. Then he added two circles next to them.

“Three hundred.”

Lusell pressed his forehead at the gesture, more common in the back alleys where black market deals were made. Brienne looked down at Zen in disbelief, and he shrugged.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Is it too much?”

“No, it’s not that, but…”

“Well, that’s good then. Anyway, that’s what we need. All in gold coins. If you can, shiny new ones would be even better. You get what I mean, right?”

Finding herself an accomplice to a black market deal, Brienne nodded.

Three hundred wasn’t an unreasonable request.

If it was a reward for saving her father, she would have given it anyway.

“All right. But before that, I have something to ask.”

“What?”

“What kind of people are you?”

The way they spoke, the way they looked. She already knew they were from the Holy Kingdom of Roeta. Brienne narrowed her eyes and looked back and forth between the two men suspiciously. Lusell, as if flustered, avoided her gaze and cleared his throat loudly.

“Ahem, I’m not sure what you’re asking…”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. I want to know why people from the Holy Kingdom of Roeta are secretly investigating Rontiano.”

“Investigating? That’s a misunderstanding! We’re, we’re just travelers enjoying a trip. We came to Rontiano for travel, of course.”

“That’s a lie. I clearly heard you talking about noble families earlier, and suggesting you investigate the nobles living in the capital. I heard everything.”

“T-that’s…”

Unable to dodge the precise point, Lusell sighed and looked at Zen. When Zen nodded as if giving permission, Lusell spoke with a serious face.

“…Miss Brienne, are you aware of the heretics spreading in Roeta?”

“Heretics?”

“Yes, those who set fire to the Demekia Temple. They say that since the times have changed, so too must the religion.”

Brienne tilted her head at the vaguely familiar name. 

The Demekia Temple—wasn’t that the state religion at the foundation of the Holy Kingdom of Roeta? 

She clearly remembered reading in the newspaper that it also oversaw the Roeta Academy and the Mage Association.

“No, I don’t know about that. But what does that have to do with Rontiano?”

“It’s been determined that the heretics’ base is in Rontiano. We caught a group trying to sneak in disguised as exchange students from Roeta Academy.”

They stowed away on a ship?

In this era, illegal immigration? 

She didn’t know the details, but she could tell it was a serious matter. As Brienne’s expression darkened, Lusell lowered his voice further.

“You may have guessed by now, but we are an investigation team looking for their base. But as you know, Rontiano has no state religion.”

Lusell was right.

Unlike the Holy Kingdom of Roeta, where gods exist and there are myths, Rontiano was a country where each family worshipped a different animal.

“That’s true…”

After thinking for a moment, Brienne stood and pointed to the rock she’d been sitting on.

“If so, do you two know what this is?”

Both men’s gazes turned to the rock at once. Zen, who had been quiet, tilted his head.

“What, this was a statue…? Why does this owl look so wronged?”

He raised his large hand and tapped the owl statue’s head. At that moment, Lusell, glancing up at the tapestry hanging on the back of Ford Manor, muttered as if he’d realized something.

“…Oh dear, the families of the Rontiano Empire all have animal symbols. To sit so carelessly on the Ford family’s emblem… My apologies. Sir Zen didn’t realize and behaved rudely.”

“What?”

Startled, Zen quickly withdrew his hand from the statue. His Adam’s apple, as prominent as his build, bobbed up and down. Brienne glanced at him and smiled.

“It’s fine. It’s just an old custom. By the way, Lusell, you’re very knowledgeable. Rontiano is a country that reveres animals instead of gods. It’s a nation that originated from tribes that worshipped different animals.”

“So, that means…”

“If those heretics really started in Rontiano, it would help to look for the animals that appear in their doctrine. As you said, Lusell, it must be connected to a certain family.”

“…Animals, you say.”

A bright look appeared in Lusell’s eyes as he nodded.

“That’s really helpful information. I will never forget this favor.”

* * *

The next morning. Brienne immediately went to find her father. She wanted to keep her promise to Zen and Lusell, and also check on her father’s wellbeing.

“Brienne! You must have been so tired yesterday… No matter how many times we called you for dinner, you wouldn’t come down.”

“Oh, dinner…?”

“Yes. The maid who went to fetch you said there was no response no matter how many times she knocked, so I almost went to wake you myself. Since you’d already had a checkup from the physician, you couldn’t have been sick, so I figured you must have been sound asleep.”

Meeting her father’s worried gaze, Brienne smiled awkwardly. Thankfully, his usual dislike of entering her room without permission seemed to have covered up what happened last night.

“That’s right. I was very, extremely tired… But, Father, I have a favor to ask.”

“Yes?”

Brienne got straight to the point. She explained that Zen and Lusell had lost their money by accident, and as a result, had ended up saving someone. Naturally, she didn’t mention that they were secretly investigating heretics.

“All right. That’s not a difficult request at all.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I was planning to grant any request they had, not just the reward. Since you promised, I’ll take responsibility and see to it. Don’t worry.”

“That’s wonderful! Thank you.”

“Well then. Now, tell me. Was there anything interesting with Young Master Belif yesterday?”

At that mischievous question, an ambiguous smile flickered across Brienne’s face. 

Should I say that I had received a confession? 

After a moment of hesitation, Brienne shook her head.

“There was nothing like that.”

“Ay, really now… If that’s the case, I suppose I’ll have to ask you to look after Young Master Belif’s treatment today as well.”

“What? Is the physician still unwell?”

To be tasked with nursing Herace again—Brienne looked at her father with suspicious eyes. Damon nodded with a troubled expression.

“Yes, it’s truly worrying.”

“There are so many patients. What about calling another physician…?”

“That won’t do! Ahem, what I mean is… Right. You only need to pay attention to Young Master Belif, my dear.”

Damon shamelessly smiled as he placed a hand on Brienne’s shoulder. It was a secret from Brienne that the physician had come at dawn, treated everyone, and left.

“That’s very suspicious.”

“What’s so suspicious about that!”

“All right, I don’t have a choice. It’s obvious enough what you’re plotting, Father…”

Brienne reluctantly nodded, seeing the look of anticipation on her father’s face. At that moment—

Knock, knock.

“Marquis, it’s me.”

“Oh, come in!”

The steward entered the study. He handed a package wrapped in a paper envelope to Brienne.

“A gift has arrived for you, Miss.”

“A gift? Who sent it?”

Brienne looked down at the package with a puzzled face.

“It’s a book?”

“It arrived anonymously. There was a card inside, but after checking, it turned out to be just a romance novel. I thought it must be from someone who knows you, so I brought it to you.”

Anonymous, huh. 

Knowing how the Rontiano nobility could be, Brienne tensed a little, since sometimes people sent gifts anonymously with ill intentions. Damon, noticing her tension, added reassuringly,

“A romance novel, huh. Whoever sent it must know your tastes well. Go on, open it.”

At Damon’s urging, Brienne hesitantly unwrapped the package. When she took out the book with the pink cover inside, a black card fluttered to the floor.

‘…Black?’

Frowning at the familiar color, Brienne accepted the card the steward picked up and handed to her. She nodded her thanks and immediately opened the card.

[Thought you might like this.]

Brienne’s eyes trembled as she looked at the handwriting on the white background.

Familiar handwriting, familiar phrase.

‘…Kaiden.’

Her hand holding the card trembled. The steward, noticing Brienne’s sudden darkened expression, asked with concern,

“Miss, is something the matter…?”

“No, it’s nothing. Thank you for bringing it.”

Brienne forced a smile and slipped the card between the pages of the book. Sensing the situation from Brienne’s face, Damon quickly stood up.

“Oh, I had a feeling, and of course it’s from Young Master Bannon. To think he’s only sending word now!”

“…Ah, no. It’s not like that. I’ll be going now.”

Brienne awkwardly shook her head, offered a brief farewell to her father, and turned to leave the room. Even as she ran up the stairs as if fleeing, she could still hear her father calling her name, but Brienne pretended not to notice.

No matter how many times she opened and closed her hand, the trembling wouldn’t subside.

Why was this happening. Why now, of all times?

Kaiden, who hadn’t given her even a hint about the engagement, not even a simple notice. And yet, why send a gift now, especially with a message like this?

……Thought you might like this.

The one line that had always been her favorite in the world, the warmest sentence.

It was always the first line in every letter that came with a gift from Kaiden.

She recalled the days she had secretly smiled at those common words, the moments when she would take out Kaiden’s letters and feel her heart flutter whenever she was feeling down.

For just a single sentence, it was almost too delicate in meaning. In ten years, there had not been a single gift that didn’t start that way.

[Don’t doubt it, and wear the white dress.]

With just those lines, Brienne bit her lip hard, holding back her emotions. To be honest, she had thought Kaiden might at least apologize.

But the fact that there wasn’t even a similar word, and the casual tone that assumed she would of course attend Kaiden’s engagement—

The kindness that seemed to know she would struggle over whom to ask—

All of it felt just too much. How could someone be so cruel to a person who had done nothing wrong?

Brienne wiped away her rising tears with the back of her hand.

As always, following his request, she did not write a reply.