COARV Chapter 25

4. Laurel Manor

"The High Priest took Lina and left?"

"That's what I'm telling you."

"When?"

"Just now?"

The next morning, Linon arrived early with unexpected news. I blinked at him, bewildered, and glanced at the clock on my bedside table.

It was seven o'clock. Sunlight was filtering in through the gap in the curtains. Was I still half-asleep, dreaming this? Then again, I should have been asleep at this hour to begin with.

Balls usually ran until dawn. Which meant the nobles who attended them customarily slept well past noon the following day. I'd left early myself, granted, but I'd still waited until three in the morning, when the ball finally ended. Because the castle's decorations had to be changed, and quickly.

Nothing looked worse than leftover decorations from a party that had already ended. And of course, I'd needed to change the atmosphere to something befitting a visit from the High Priest. Given that I was about to pay the price of Lesche's—a remarkable man's—first marriage, I at least wanted to be a perfect hostess about it.

Thanks to having prepared everything in advance, the redecoration only took about an hour. It occurred to me, not for the first time, how glad I was I'd decided to give the staff special overtime pay. It would have been unfair for people working through the night like this to get nothing for it.

I'd had to personally check and supervise everything, which meant I hadn't fallen asleep until the sky was already lightening. Even so, I'd made sure to instruct my maid: wake me in the morning, no matter what.

The maid had followed my order faithfully. But the moment she woke me, she told me the chief aide was waiting outside. Naturally, I panicked. I assumed there'd been some change to the High Priest's visiting schedule and told her to bring him in right away. Linon came bustling in and said—

"The Saint and the High Priest departed the main castle just now."

"……?"

For a moment, the plain, tastefully unadorned dishes and teacups the staff had polished so diligently for the High Priest's reception flashed through my head. But that wasn't the important thing right now.

"You said High Priest Amos was coming."

"He did."

That's strange.

High Priest Amos was one of nine High Priests, but unlike the others, he operated relatively outside the Grand Temple rather than within it. Because of that, he had some acquaintance with Seria the Stern, who didn't visit the Grand Temple often. Seria mostly avoided causing trouble at the Grand Temple, her own power base—and given her personality, staying away entirely was the safest way to accomplish that.

If it was Amos, he surely would have stopped to see Seria at least once. I couldn't understand why he'd simply taken Lina and left.

"High Priest Amos arrived at the main castle thirty minutes ago. He had a brief cup of tea with His Highness, and then took the Saint and departed immediately. Meal, nothing—he barely finished his tea before leaving."

I felt purely puzzled.

"Did Lina go along willingly?"

"That…"

Linon hesitated for the first time.

"High Priest Amos arrived quite angry…"

"What?"

He got angry?

The Amos in Seria's memory wasn't a man who lost his temper easily. Even when Seria caused trouble during her villainess days, he'd dealt with it according to the Grand Temple's rules with a firm expression rather than any show of anger. He wasn't warm or kind by nature, either, but he simply wasn't the type to get angry. Then again, they'd never spent enough time together for that kind of deep emotional shift to even register.

"The Saint said at first that she didn't want to go, and then High Priest Amos got angry and said he wanted to speak with her alone… After that, the Saint boarded his carriage in tears and they left just like that. Oh, and the Saint's mysterious fits calmed down entirely by dawn."

He always did seem the strict, uptight sort, come to think of it.

High Priest Amos already had the air of a fastidious old professor, and now Lina had had a private audience with him while he was actually angry on top of that. No wonder she'd been in tears.

I nodded when I heard the other priests had all left together too. That much I'd expected. The Stern's wedding was already over, and the priests Kallis had summoned from the Grand Temple for my cold had no reason to stay once I recovered naturally.

I should write the High Priest a letter later. I need to find out why they suddenly took her and left like that.

But then something else occurred to me.

"Did you come to my bedroom this early in the morning just to tell me that?"

Linon cleared his throat. He'd barged in so early that I was currently sitting on my bed in my nightgown. Well—"nightgown" was a stretch, since it wasn't much different from a chemise dress. Long sleeves, hem falling below the knee. Nothing to find fault with among people who knew each other, technically.

"That's… hm."

"What is it?"

Linon rarely hesitated, so I guessed something was wrong. I pressed him again, and just as he made an "uhh" sound and rubbed his face with a dry hand—

Knock, knock.

The bedroom door swung open along with the sound of knuckles on wood.

It was Kallis. I saw the maid trailing behind him with a startled expression. He strode over and stopped in front of the bed where I was sitting.

"Seria. Give me a moment before I leave. There's something I need to say."

I looked at him. Kallis had a domineering air about him, determined to push the conversation through one way or another, but at the same time he seemed a little shrunken, as though worried I might just tell him to leave.

A talk. A talk, then. Fine. There was something I needed to return to him anyway.

"Marquess Haneton. Forgive me, but am I invisible?"

Linon said this with a grin, and Kallis glanced back over his shoulder.

"Leave us for a moment."

"My apologies, but I was sent here on His Highness's orders."

"Did His Highness order every guest in this wing thrown out?"

"Hardly. He told me to attend to you properly. And if there was anyone the lady found displeasing, he told me to throw them out in his place."

Only after hearing this did I understand why Linon had come to my wing so early in the morning. To get "Marquess Haneton" out, you really needed at least someone at Linon's level. The Grand Duke's chief aide. Anything below that, and pushing a marquess out would probably be difficult.

Though—was it really all right for Lesche Berke to keep assigning his chief aide to me like this? I was under the impression Linon had a great deal of work already. If Linon wasn't available, wouldn't Lesche Berke himself just end up taking on more of it personally?

I let that minor question drift by and gave the maid a small gesture. She caught on quickly, bowed, and left just as—

"Stand there if you want, then. Suit yourself."

Kallis seemed less energetic than usual. He seemed tired of trading barbs with Linon too, and rubbed his face with one hand.

Then, whether Linon was there or not, he strode closer to me. I lifted my head from where I sat on the bed. Kallis stood in front of me and looked down. Up close, there were shadows under his eyes, and he genuinely looked several times more exhausted than usual.

"Seria."

At the familiar way he said my name, Kallis Haneton knelt down in front of me. My eyes widened despite myself.

"I'm sorry. I know an apology like this can't account for every wound I've caused you, but…"

"…"

"…could you give me one more chance, Seria?"

I looked at him silently for a moment before speaking.

"What would even change if we got married again? Kallis Haneton. If Lina calls for you—are you so sure you wouldn't go running right back to her?"

"I would. I—"

"No. Kallis. If Lina calls, you'll go running to her again."

I said it firmly. Saying it hurt me too. The thought that this was something like self-harm crossed my mind sharply, but yesterday, staring at that glittering crystal chandelier, this was the one thing I'd turned over in my head, again and again.

"You asked me yesterday, didn't you? Whether I'd pushed Lina. Even the servant didn't suspect me, but you suspected me first. I understand. I understand, because you've been through so much because of me. Because my reputation was so notorious."

I could understand it, in my head. Kallis had nearly lost an arm because of Seria, after all. More than that, Seria was the officially recognized villainess of the original novel. It wasn't debt I'd personally accrued, and some part of me felt wronged by that—but what could I do about it?

I was already Seria Stern. And unlike what the original story had planned, I wanted, somehow, to live. So I thought this debt was mine to bear, fittingly. But my own heart?

Even watching Kallis go out of his way to be so kind to Lina, I'd always told myself there was nothing to be done about it. He was the sub-male-lead, so I thought being drawn to the original novel's female lead was simply an irresistible force. Even so, I'd believed him when he said he loved me.

But believing that didn't mean I could pretend not to see everything happening around us. To avoid a pathetic death, I'd swallowed pathetic feelings, over and over.

I knew it was unreasonable. And still I had to keep persuading myself, keep telling myself there was nothing to be done about it, because this was something tangled up with the original story's two leads—

How long was I supposed to keep doing that?

Until when.

Just how long, exactly, was I supposed to keep doing this?

"I… I've been hurt too badly by you. I don't want to live like this anymore—flinching at every little thing, terrified all the time. I don't want to keep worrying you'll run back to Lina the second she crooks a finger, either…"

As I said it, tears suddenly came pouring down and dropped onto the blanket. I wiped my wet cheek with my hand.

"Let's just close this out now, Kallis."

"…"

Knock, knock.

Right on cue, a small knock sounded and the maid I'd sent off earlier returned. In her hands was a small ring box. She seemed to sense the heaviness in the air, because she set the ring box down for me swiftly and carefully before leaving the room.

"Kallis."

I took it and held it out to him. This was the Haneton Marchioness ring I'd received from him as a token of our engagement.

"I'm giving it back. Take it."

Kallis stared blankly at the ring box for a moment before slowly taking it. The instant his fingertips touched it, he suddenly gripped my hand, hard.

"Seria."

Kallis's eyes blurred as though brimming with tears. All at once I realized something. After being transported into Seria's body, after all this time spent reading other people's faces to survive, I'd gotten good at it. I'd thought he liked me too. And yet he'd cast aside our marriage promise so easily. Even reading someone's expression skillfully didn't mean I could plumb the depths of what they actually felt.

"…"

Too many emotions surfaced on Kallis's face for me to easily read them. I simply looked at him without a word. Then, as though making some kind of decision, he squeezed my hand hard once, and then, at last, released it, his grip going slack.