Chapter 2.2

The two left the office well past twilight, deep into the night. Although the moon was absent, the summer constellations glittered overhead, making the approaching festival feel real. Lawrence shaded his eyes with his hand, pretending to be dazzled.

“Ah, this isn’t the kind of weather to be spending with just you.”

“Sorry about that, Senior.”

“As long as you know. Let’s hurry home—I want to see Lea.”

Muttering his wife’s name, Lawrence brushed off his hands as Danielle burst into laughter. 

What would it be like to love one’s wife so deeply? To think of her no matter what one sees? 

Lawrence Weiss, who never worked overtime unless absolutely necessary, was preoccupied with his wife and their one-year-old twins. He paused mid-step, turning his gaze to the flowers in the flowerbed. While he skillfully plucked a few large summer blossoms from the soil, Danielle kept watch, though she didn’t really need to. 

At this hour, who would be here…? Someone was here?

Danielle widened her eyes as she spotted a figure standing by the side door. It was the last person she wanted to see while someone else was flaunting their love for their spouse. In the dim, moonless shadow, her tall and well-dressed fiancé raised his head at the sound of her approach.

“Danielle.”

“Cyril, you… how long have you been standing there?”

Sir Cyril was still dressed as he had been when he delivered the letter earlier that afternoon. 

At least several hours had passed since then… Surely not. 

Thankfully, Cyril shook his head as if to answer her unspoken question.

“I went to the Odillon estate. Brie told me you hadn’t left work yet.”

“Oh… I see. I almost didn’t make it out tonight, but I’m glad you didn’t wait all night.”

Hey, when did I ever stop her from leaving work…? 

Lawrence, now holding an armful of flowers, followed them, mumbling a half-hearted protest. Danielle deliberately ignored him and instead awkwardly nodded at Cyril, who gestured for her to walk with him. 

Danielle positioned herself about an elbow’s length away from Cyril as they began walking side by side. Even taller than her, Cyril tilted his head slightly toward her, the gray starlight catching the bridge of his straight nose. As always, he cut straight to the point without any preamble.

“About earlier, I apologize for the trouble.”

“Oh, that? Don’t worry about it. Someone from either the Knights or the Bureau had to take on the task anyway.”

“I didn’t expect you to be the one to open the door… But if that’s the case, I’ll apologize on behalf of the rude Knights.”

“That’s fine, but I’m not sure how much your apology represents them.”

Shouldn’t His Highness Prince Marcelan come and bow himself? 

Mentioning the King’s brother and the Knight Commander—a ridiculously high-ranking figure—was Danielle’s attempt at a joke. Following a few steps behind, Lawrence noticed how Cyril’s tense expression softened at the jest and clicked his tongue to himself. 

Birds of a feather, truly.

Lawrence jogged ahead and exited through the side door before them. Danielle blinked in surprise at his sudden movement. The senior investigator half-turned and waved his flower-free hand dramatically.

“I’m heading off first! Don’t stay out too late, and don’t be late to work tomorrow!”

“Yes, yes. Don’t worry, we’ll head in soon. Be careful not to drop the flowers on your way home.”

Lawrence cradled the flowers close to his chest, their soft petals reminding him of his wife’s cheeks. 

Ah, I miss Lea. Those two can figure out their marriage on their own.

All he wanted now was to get them out of his sight and return to his wife as quickly as possible.

After Lawrence Weiss’s noisy departure, silence settled between them. Both accustomed to quiet steps, neither spoke as they walked. The night sky had turned monochrome, losing even the faintest hint of blue. Danielle watched the shadows cast on the ground, noting how hers and Cyril’s moved side by side with a slight height difference. Not a single part of them overlapped… Suddenly overwhelmed, Danielle turned to look at Cyril. He tilted his head again, as if waiting for her to speak, his feet still moving at a slow, steady pace.

“So, what’s the real reason you waited?”

“Well, it’s nothing major, but…”

“Unless it’s something important, you don’t usually come looking for me. I doubt you came just to apologize.”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

Cyril hesitated, looking slightly troubled, and then fell silent. Danielle, who knew how decisive and clear-cut he usually was as a member of the Knights, found herself irritated whenever Cyril faltered like this. 

Was it entirely my fault that I tended to be harsher with him than with others? Couldn’t he just act as sharp and intelligent in front of me as he did with everyone else? Well, he was consistently cold, but at least he could try being clever. At the very least, he could act as he did when we were children, even if it meant randomly bringing me stuffed rabbits.

Danielle shook her head slightly to clear her thoughts and returned to the conversation. Whatever the matter was, it wasn’t about the tension between the Knights and the Bureau. Their only shared topic of interest was the upcoming summer festival.

“Is this about the ball? I’ve cleared my schedule for that day after getting approval from my colleagues.”

“Ah. Yes, we needed to talk about that too. Thanks for making time.”

“So they actually let me off. Katarin was worried they’d assign me to guard the docks during the ball after all the chaos the Knights caused… So, who’s going to be mosquito food that day?”

“Sir Maurice and Sir Brig.”

“Brig Collé was at the docks last year too, wasn’t he? Aren’t they supposed to avoid assigning someone to the same post two years in a row?”

“…They apparently put my name in the draw ten times when delivering today’s orders.”

“Wow.”

She was genuinely mocking Cyril this time. Even after blatant cheating had been exposed, the Knights still decided to send him. Watching his face harden with displeasure, Danielle noticed Cyril exhale softly before apologizing again.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

Danielle blinked and looked up at her fiancé. Cyril’s handsome face bore an unusually complicated expression. His lips, which rarely curved upward, now twisted downward in a somber frown. 

What on earth was he trying to say? 

The two of them had committed countless wrongs against each other but rarely exchanged apologies. 

And now, two apologies within minutes, from him?

Cyril took his time choosing his words. Both of them had long since stopped walking. After several moments of visibly repeated resolve, he finally spoke.

“I know you didn’t choose the Royal Investigation Bureau because of me.”

“Oh, is that all…”

Danielle let out a short, deflated laugh. But Cyril didn’t join her. She’d already heard enough of the ‘choosing the Bureau out of spite for her fiancé’ story for one day. In the Knights, where rough camaraderie still lingered, the teasing must have been even worse. After all, hadn’t Cyril been sent on errands to the Bureau after losing a rigged draw? If anyone needed to apologize, it was Danielle. If she had joined the Knights—or even chosen any profession other than investigator—Sir Cyril Frey would have been celebrated as the perfect hope of the Knights.

Of course, as Cyril pointed out, Danielle didn’t apologize.

“The Bureau’s not so bad. Sure, we’re underfunded and have to tread carefully, but…”

“In the end, you didn’t catch the culprit behind the bombing.”

“Well, we tried our best. No one cared for me as much as the investigators did back then.”

“That’s… If you think so, then I suppose it’s true.”

Cyril, wearing a faintly bitter smile, didn’t argue. The investigators had indeed worked tirelessly during the stuffed rabbit bombing incident. Looking back now as an investigator herself, Danielle realized just how grueling the workload at the Bureau must have been back then—far worse than tonight’s overtime. The fact that they failed to catch the culprit could only mean the criminal was either extraordinarily skilled or incredibly lucky.

From the chief investigator to the lowest-ranking assistant, many resigned in the aftermath. Among them was the young female investigator who had initially interrogated the children. She couldn’t have been older than twenty-five. Danielle still occasionally thought of that kind, young woman who lost her job simply because of bad luck. After becoming an investigator herself, Danielle had even secretly searched for records of those dismissed at the time. She hadn’t decided what she would do if she found anything.

The Marquis Odillon, who had personally overseen the Bureau’s efforts but failed to catch the culprit targeting his daughter, had been so furious when she announced her intention to join the Bureau that he collapsed mid-rant. Of all people, only Cyril, who had been present during the initial investigation, had any inkling of her motivation.

“So why did you join the Knights? It wasn’t because I chose the Bureau, was it?”

That couldn’t be, as Cyril had chosen his path first. But Cyril merely shrugged without answering.

“Are you asking out of politeness? You’ve never seemed curious before.”

“Well, it suited you…”

Danielle trailed off, suddenly feeling awkward. Right, it had suited him. When Cyril became a squire at seventeen, she had simply nodded indifferently. When he was knighted at twenty and took his oath, she had grumbled about how outdated such ceremonies were but still stood by his side as his lady. When she joined the Bureau, she had felt unfair that there was no similar ceremony for her.

Right, she had felt a bit left out. The realization tickled her like the flowers Lawrence had picked earlier. Turning to look at Cyril beside her, she saw the starlight pooling on the tip of his nose. It looked like a droplet of water. It tickled.

So Danielle blurted out her words like a sneeze.

“Should we just get married already?”