“Seeing that you have the energy to go for a walk, you must be feeling much better.”
As Diez couldn’t manage any response, he added,
“I’m glad. That you’re better.”
There was no reaction from Diez. Since she had deliberately turned her head away, there was no way to know what expression she was making.
“Take care of yourself and don’t get sick. Don’t cause any worry.”
“……Yes, Your Grace.”
He hurriedly got into his car as if escaping, lest Diez try to say anything more. Soon, a servant closed the car door for him. The moment he was completely separated from the outside, he unconsciously let out a sigh and loosened his collar.
Soon the car smoothly drove over the paved driveway. He could almost feel Diez’s gaze standing stock-still in that spot, but Jürgen didn’t look back at her until the end.
Despite arriving reasonably early, Leopold’s villa was already bustling with guests. The familiar chamber music and people’s voices mixed randomly, distracting his attention.
But it was too late to turn back now. The footman at the entrance crossed a line on the list and announced loudly to the people gathered inside.
“His Grace, Duke Klaus has arrived.”
The gazes of those who had been happily conversing with champagne glasses in hand turned toward Jürgen. There was no one who didn’t welcome him, but that wasn’t what mattered to Jürgen.
“Oh my, Duke Klaus.”
“You came today as well. I knew you would, it would be disappointing without you, Your Grace.”
Politely dismissing the ladies who approached him, Jürgen soon faced an insurmountable barrier.
“Jürgen, you came.”
Leopold, handsomely dressed in a similar tailcoat, approached with a grin. The other nobles who had apparently been talking with him could be seen tactfully dispersing.
“Your Highness.”
“Stop with that ‘Your Highness’ business. I’ve told you many times that you can just call me Leopold.”
“How could I casually address someone who will soon inherit the throne by name?”
“You’re being old-fashioned. It’s all just lip service; becoming king isn’t that special. I’ll just have a heavy crown placed on my head. Someone might think I want to be revered like the Sun King.”
He lightly patted Jürgen’s back as if they were close friends. Whenever this happened, Jürgen would be seized by a dangerous impulse. The impulse to grab Leopold and ask him outright:
‘What exactly do you want from me?’
Jürgen habitually shook off the sudden impulse and simply nodded his head respectfully.
Prince Leopold was not a man who could be dismissed in such a way. Jürgen knew this fact better than anyone.
“How long do you plan to keep your distance from me, our dear Duke?”
“I’ve never kept my distance.”
“You’re doing it even now, telling such an obvious lie.”
“How would you like me to treat you, Your Highness?”
At that, Leopold, who had been giving him a pointed look, shrugged his shoulders with a bland laugh.
“If I tell you directly, it won’t be fun, so I won’t say.”
As if he was starting to get tired of this conversation as well, Leopold changed the subject slightly and asked,
“I’m just curious. Are you still doing well these days, without any problems?”
“What reason would I have not to be doing well?”
“For someone saying that, your complexion looks quite poor.”
I momentarily forgot that Leopold was not at all a dull man.
Damn it.
“There seem to be some unsettling rumors going around as well.”
Of course, the talk about rumors was probably something he had just made up. Since he had often tried to test Jürgen in this way before, Jürgen was also skilled at responding.
“Rumors always travel from person to person, don’t they?”
“I know that, but I’m saying this because I’m concerned about you, Duke Klaus. You’re too clean a person to be entangled in petty rumors.”
Jürgen gladly accepted the champagne glass Leopold brought him. He needed to drink; otherwise, he couldn’t endure much longer.
“I thought you wouldn’t drink.”
“These days I have so many things to worry about that I can’t manage without drinking.”
“So that’s why your complexion has deteriorated, because you’re overwhelmed with work?”
Leopold smiled as if he understood. If only you would disappear from my life, everything would be much easier. Such words, of course, he quietly swallowed.
“I can’t take up too much of the Duke’s time. While you’re here, just relax and enjoy yourself. Talk with other people too. Don’t stand alone in some unknown corner like last time.”
Leopold, who seemed to be moving away willingly, suddenly exclaimed as if he had remembered something and asked again.
“Are you planning to attend the festival in two weeks?”
“Isn’t it obvious that I will?”
“Well, I suppose it’s a difficult event to miss, especially from a business perspective. They call it a festival, but it’s really just an occasion where they set up tables for business discussions.”
While tilting his glass slightly and thinking about what Leopold might be getting at, Jürgen heard him add,
“I’m planning to skip it this time.”
“……But Your Highness.”
“I know, I know. As the heir to the throne, not showing my face at such an important event would be a national embarrassment. Father is already furious. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to come up with a plausible excuse?”
Even Jürgen hadn’t expected Leopold to miss the Victory Day celebration.
“I told you before, didn’t I? That I need to enjoy myself thoroughly before inheriting the throne.”
“……”
“I’d rather not leave the capital if I can help it. It’s not like I’m indispensable to the festival anyway. Father can deliver the congratulatory speech in my place, can’t he? After all, I’m still just a prince.”
He winked one eye and moved away from Jürgen. Jürgen watched as he blended into the crowd of nobles with practiced ease, before finally coming to his senses and shifting his gaze elsewhere.
What could his intentions be?
Although it might mean falling right into Leopold’s trap, Jürgen couldn’t help but worry.
If the prince’s declaration about not leaving the capital was true…
Would it be alright to leave Diez alone at the mansion? What if Leopold approached her while he was away for a few days?
There were too many concerns to dismiss this as needless worry. Diez had already caught Leopold’s attention to some extent.
No matter how he looked at it, Leopold didn’t seem likely to leave her alone. This wasn’t something he could afford to take lightly.
For a while, no one approached Jürgen to talk. Perhaps they had noticed that he was lost in deep thought. Finally, as Jürgen put down his champagne glass and was about to move away from the noise…
“Duke Klaus, I’d like to pay my respects.”
The unfamiliar voice of an older man suddenly stopped him. Jürgen, who was about to dismiss him without even looking, froze in surprise when their eyes met.
“I should have greeted you earlier. Please forgive my oversight.”
The man who approached with a friendly smile was none other than Diez’s father, Wilhelm Schleicher.
Servants were waiting outside to greet their master who returned to the mansion late. Jürgen looked at his wristwatch with a tired expression.
The current time was thirty minutes past midnight.
Although he should have been able to fall into a dead sleep after enduring five hours of party noise, despite his fatigue, he felt he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.
“Welcome back, Your Grace.”
Jürgen merely nodded to the servants who had come out to attend to him and stepped into the mansion in silence as he always did.
“Will you be retiring to your chambers now?”
Jürgen nodded, gesturing with his eyes. It was a signal that the servants could be dismissed.
“Then……”
“Has Miss Schleicher gone to sleep?”
The servant immediately answered his impulsive question.
“I believe she took her medicine about two hours ago and went straight to sleep.”
“……I understand. You may go now.”
At these words, which were as good as permission to leave, the servants quietly returned to their own quarters. Alone, heading to his bedroom, Jürgen loosened his ribbon tie carelessly and sank into a comfortable sofa.
Phew. With a long sigh, he closed his eyes with a tired expression, but soon found himself staring into space.
What exactly was going on?
As far as he knew, the Schleicher family had taken on an enormous debt due to business failure and had collapsed to the point where recovery was impossible. To somehow avoid the family’s downfall, the alternative arranged was their pretty only daughter, Diez.
Hadn’t his father personally bought her on the condition of taking her as his mistress?
Even if they had cleared their debts with the help of the ducal family, it would have been nearly impossible for the Schleicher family to recover to their former state.
But Wilhelm Schleicher, as Jürgen saw him, didn’t look like a ruined man at all. For someone supposedly invited by Leopold deliberately to provoke Jürgen, he seemed too comfortable and familiar as he mingled and conversed with people.
What Jürgen saw was not a man who had sold his only daughter as a mistress to a duke.
Wilhelm Schleicher even approached Jürgen first to speak with him. As if exchanging greetings in such a way was natural between them.
His mind was in turmoil. He strongly felt that he was missing something important, but Jürgen, who had no energy left to think more about the problem, simply closed his eyes.
As his sharply raised nerves relaxed and his mind began to drift drowsily. Suddenly, he thought of Diez. The moment he recalled her, his right forearm, which had been burned with cigarettes many times, stung and hurt.
He had to take responsibility.
He wouldn’t be able to rest comfortably until everything was put right. He absolutely did not want to sit down like a loser and regret things after it was too late.
He had made a promise to Diez. That he wouldn’t drive her out of the ducal residence. That he would let her stay here for the time being……
If so, there was only one role Jürgen had to play.