Chapter 25

Katrin swept her hair up, chasing away even the lingering scraps of thought.

Comparing a mere maid like Marel to her mother was improper, no matter how much resentment she carried toward her mother. And she must not try to soothe her longing for her mother through Marel.

But she couldn’t help the love and hate for her mother passing through and staining Marel.

Katrin’s face, now a step removed from longing, sharpened.

“First, let’s make one thing clear. I’m no longer just the Heir.”

Marel’s shoulders jerked upward. It felt as though Marel’s gaze moved restlessly beneath the veil.

‘And come to think of it, Mother’s green eyes were different from her eye color as well.’

Recalling Marel’s pitch-black eyes from the day she first met her, Katrin raised her signet-ringed hand as if to show it off.

“Father has taken shelter in the temple. Chessie didn’t believe it, but it wasn’t what I intended.”

“Ah.”

Marel swayed on the spot, visibly shaken. Katrin stared at her with cold, emotionless eyes.

“You asked for time. I’ll give you exactly one month. I won’t allow more than that.”

“…….”

“Don’t feel hurt, Marel. As the only adult beside Chessie, I have the duty and responsibility to properly tidy up what’s around her.”

Just like her father, who failed to act like a proper adult and only had a negative influence, Marel was also not good for Lachesis. Because Lachesis cared for Marel far too much, Marel’s safety always became the priority in Lachesis’s choices.

The reasons were opposite, but the judgment was the same: neither of them would help Lachesis’s future. Katrin had recently felt, very deeply, the need to remove them both.

For Lachesis’s sake, and for her own sake as well.

If she didn’t want to become a head of house and an adult as irresponsible as their father, it was something she had to do.

‘If I’d sorted them out earlier, could I have tied marriage bonds with the Marutia Dukedom?’

It was when she was making that meaningless supposition that Marel opened her mouth in a voice so small it was barely audible.

“Heir—no, Earl—even now, you’re doing well enough. Don’t bind yourself too tightly to responsibility.”

“What?”

At Marel’s unexpected remark, a disbelieving sigh burst from Katrin’s lips. Her sharply lifted eyes bore into Marel.

“You can’t not know how presumptuous that sounded. The fact you said it anyway—does it mean I look easy?”

“…….”

“You always give me reasons to dislike you.”

Katrin glared at Marel’s unseen face, then turned away. If she stayed any longer, she felt she might reach for Marel’s veil again. Katrin clenched her fist tightly.

“One month.”

With that, Katrin left the room. Bang—the door shut roughly, as if revealing her mood.

Left alone, Marel stood blankly for a moment, then approached the desk in the corner with weak steps. She pulled out a single book, and when she tore open the space made by pasting pages together inside it, a train ticket slipped out.

The destination was a small northern holding far from the Imperial City. The date was left unspecified.

“This time, I wanted to leave without hurting her…….”

A long sigh leaked through Marel’s lips.

***

After leaving the mansion, Lachesis started to call for the coachman, then changed her mind and headed straight for the stables herself. It seemed faster to ride a horse directly than to take a carriage.

Hurrying toward the stables, her gaze was suddenly caught by a carriage standing tall by the mansion’s front gate.

‘That carriage is…… Kadenic?’

Even amid the chaos, her feet halted.

The carriage standing in front of the Deate residence was unmistakably the Marutia Dukedom’s—the one she had just ridden from the Bilder’s residence.

As if he had been watching her the entire time, the carriage door soon opened. The one who emerged was, as expected, Kadenic.

Staring blankly at Kadenic striding toward her, Lachesis let out a hollow laugh.

“Now I’m starting to suspect you’ve hidden a spy in the residence.”

“Let’s just say I have good instincts.”

As if that was an answer……. Lachesis glared suspiciously at Kadenic’s relaxed smile. But she had no strength left to argue.

“You may not know this, but I have to go to the temple right now.”

So it meant she didn’t have time to stand here and talk like this, but for some reason—whatever misunderstanding he had—Kadenic suddenly grabbed her hand.

“Then let’s hurry.”

Before Lachesis could even refuse, Kadenic pulled her along and she ended up getting into the carriage.

The coachman skillfully drove the horses and brought the carriage to a stop in front of the temple earlier than Lachesis had estimated. But even so, they were too late. The main gate before the Great Temple was already shut tight.

Lachesis looked up at the night sky, blackened with late darkness, then asked Kadenic,

“What time is it?”

Kadenic took out the pocket watch he always carried, checked it, and answered.

“It’s a little past eleven.”

Had it already gotten that late? Since the temple strictly prohibited entry from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., it would be difficult to meet her father today.

As the tension drained away, strength suddenly flowed out of the body she had been forcing to hold up. Kadenic, who had been standing behind her, supported Lachesis’s collapsing form. A solid arm wrapped around her waist, and then a thick cloak was laid over her shoulders.

“This is…….”

“The night air is chilly, so I believe I told you to make sure you took one. Did you forget in a single day?”

As he fastened the cloak firmly around her shoulders, Kadenic continued with an unbothered, shameless ease.

“Luckily, it seems my attendant left behind one cloak that was meant as a gift for you in the carriage yesterday.”

……Had there been a cloak in the carriage earlier?

Looking back, all that came to mind was herself enthusiastically spilling praise about the painting.

Embarrassed all over again, Lachesis muttered a small thanks.

‘Somehow, it feels like Kadenic foresaw all of this in advance…….’

The thought flashed through her mind, but it was a ridiculous fantasy.

Shaking her head to dispel such misplaced imaginings, Lachesis focused on the situation at hand.

She could wait until the temple doors opened tomorrow and then meet her father, but if she did that, it would be too late.

Once a name was entered onto the temple’s register, one could never leave the temple again. Until death.

Of course, there were exceptions, but it would never be easy for the ‘Deate Earldom’ to create that exception.

She had to bring her father out before that happened.

‘Should I call Brother?’

But would Robert have any clever solution? It wasn’t something an ordinary Holy Knight could resolve. She worried she would only burden him for no reason.

As Lachesis stamped her feet in agitation, a wary voice suddenly came from the front.

“Who goes there?”

It was an armed guard.

‘A knight!’

The moment she saw him, it was as if a light flicked on in Lachesis’s head.

Wasn’t Kadenic right behind her—war hero, and the object of countless knights’ admiration? And he even possessed extraordinary power. Enough to ignore the temple’s curfew with ease.

“You cannot remain here. Please move along.”

Lachesis half ignored the guard’s words and went behind Kadenic, pushing his back insistently. Using him when she had refused his proposal pricked her conscience, but given the circumstances, she had no choice.

At her urging, Kadenic stepped forward as if he couldn’t help it.

“Uh…… D-Duke Marutia?”

As expected, the guard’s annoyed expression changed at once.

“W-what brings you here. No, more importantly, it’s an honor to see you, Your Grace! The Blue Blessing……. The honor……. Th-that…….”

Cold sweat beaded down the guard’s forehead as he recited an old greeting that wasn’t even commonly used anymore. He looked thoroughly tense.

“May the honor of the Blue Blessing always be with you in the days to come.”

Unable to watch any longer, Kadenic supplied the rest of the phrase for him. In truth, that greeting was a blessing a superior gave to a subordinate, so it wasn’t appropriate for the guard to say it to Kadenic.

A beat late, the guard realized it, and his face flushed bright red. But Kadenic didn’t mind, and instead encouraged him.

“I’m sorry to distract you from your watch for nothing. We’ll be leaving soon, so don’t concern yourself with this side.”

For a brief moment, strength tightened in Lachesis’s hand, which had been gripping Kadenic’s sleeve.

‘What? This won’t do!’

Why, of all times, was someone who always acted like he knew everything like a god being this clumsy right now?