COARV Chapter 26

Kallis Haneton mounted his horse and turned to look back once. Through the rising winter mist, the great castle of Berke was already fading into faintness. Kallis, aware of the jewelry box tucked into his coat, spoke to the aide riding beside him.

"Vin. Go ahead to the capital and get the rumors under control. Say the disruption to the Stern's wedding was entirely my fault."

"Yes, my lord. And what shall I tell House Keliden?"

"No need to tell them anything. They'll have heard the rumors on their own by now—and not one letter came from them."

He already knew Keliden treated Seria like a cast-off child. Living it firsthand still left his mouth bitter, and there was nothing to be done about that.

And how the empire's high society would buzz over this. Juicy gossip, good for three years running, easy. Only natural—too many big names tangled up in it, each one juicy in his own right.

Kallis knew Seria wouldn't stay married to Lesche Berke for long. This was something plenty of people besides himself would anticipate as well. Anyone who knew Lesche Berke never did anyone a favor without reason would guess some kind of deal passed between them, in the marriage and the divorce both—and some of them would be right.

Lesche Berke had walked into that wedding hall to save Seria's life.

A Stern's divorce wasn't like other nobles'—the temple was bound up in it too closely, which made it a headache. But even so, it only came down to a few years' difference.

Lesche Berke had become Seria's provisional husband, but the formally recognized fiancé, per House Keliden's own records, was still Kallis. Keliden, loath to see Seria raised to Grand Duchess, wouldn't send Berke's territory so much as a letter recognizing the marriage—if only out of spite.

"Divorce…"

For now, Kallis was still Lina's husband as well. Once he finished settling the divorce with her smoothly, he planned to go back to Seria and kneel again.

Before that, though, he'd need to hand off the role of Lina's guardian to someone else. He was in the middle of considering who might be suitable when—

The tall, elegant carriage carrying Lina and the High Priest suddenly came to a stop. Since it anchored the middle of this long procession, the horses ahead and behind it halted at once.

"How could you lie to me like this, Your Eminence!"

Lina burst out of the carriage.

"You said we were going to the temple in Haneton territory! I believed what you said, so why are we going to the Grand Temple instead!"

"Saint!"

Amos, the High Priest, called out sternly, and tears streamed down Lina's face. Seeing that, oddly enough, Seria's own crying face flashed through Kallis's mind, and his heart grew uncomfortable.

"If the procession stops, it inconveniences everyone following behind us. Let's get back into the carriage and discuss this properly."

Kallis couldn't understand why Lina was so reluctant to go to the Grand Temple in the first place. In the end, Lina climbed back into the carriage in tears.

When I heard that Kallis and Lina had left, I slept the entire day. I wasn't usually the type to sleep so much, but it seemed the last few days of overexertion had caught up with me. More than anything, hearing that the most important guest of all had just up and left seemed to knock the strength clean out of me.

The nobles who came to the castle will be starting to head home soon, too.

Roughly five or six hundred of them, wasn't it? Lesche would probably have me see off the departing guests too. Got my life saved, and signed myself into slave labor in exchange….

I'd told the maids: if Lesche comes looking for me, wake me at once. But they didn't wake me till evening.

"My lady, please just have dinner and go back to sleep."

"Sleep hungry and you'll wake up starving."

The tray the maids brought was as generous as always. The main dish was grilled flounder with a butter-based sauce, chicken roasted with whole black pepper, and gently steamed beef. I warmed myself first with a light soup, then had a salad topped with dried fruit. By the time I'd finished off cheese and wine, I felt full and considerably better.

"His Highness didn't come looking for me, did he?"

"No, my lady. Oh, but the chief aide has been waiting outside."

My spoon stopped mid-air.

"…Linon has? Since when?"

The maids checked the clock.

"Um…"

"About an hour, maybe?"

I had him rushed in at once—his hands were frozen stiff. I told them to hurry and bring a hot water bottle and stew, then demanded to know why they hadn't woken me sooner. The maids said Linon told them not to. Linon's own excuse was even more absurd.

"I'm no ill-mannered mutt who'd wake a lady who cried herself to sleep!"

"Who cried herself to sleep?"

Saying something that misleading, like it was nothing. Honestly. Granted, Linon had been there earlier when I cried in front of Kallis. I let out a sigh and asked—

"So why, then? Is it about seeing off the guests? Is there some important guest leaving at this hour?"

"What? No, my lady. All the guests have already left."

"Ah. So the ones scheduled to leave today are all gone."

"No, every single guest has left Berke Castle entirely."

I blinked, slowly.

Linon's words were exactly as he said. Not a single one of the countless guest wings had a light on. It was as quiet as if a typhoon had swept through and passed. All the guests really had left.

"Someone really showed them out politely, I see."

Linon flinched. He looked at me with a wronged expression.

"Are you saying that to me?"

"Who else would be here besides you, Linon?"

"It was His Highness's order, and I am merely His Highness's powerless little minion who obeys his instructions, my lady."

Though I do know he can't stand noise.

In a society this obsessed with face, how many people alive actually had the power to say "the party's over, get out" to a guest's own face? Probably no one but Lesche—or maybe the Emperor of the Gleick Empire.

"So why did you come see me, then?"

"Ah, there's somewhere you need to go tomorrow, together. It's called Laurel Manor… you've probably heard of it."

"Yes, I've heard of it."

Laurel Manor was quietly famous within Berke Castle. If you followed the grounds behind this vast main castle, deep inward, and rode a carriage a long while through the glacier-adjacent white birch forest, you'd eventually come upon a beautiful mansion built of green marble. That was Laurel Manor—the place where only the direct Berke family bloodline was permitted to stay.

Rumor had it the underground storerooms were packed full of treasures, and that the interior was decorated lavishly with every kind of luxurious ornament. Though hardly anyone was ever invited there.

This much was the sort of thing you could pick up just from moving in high society long enough. And I knew one more thing beyond that.

In the original, Laurel Manor is written as a place that simply evaporated.

That beautiful green mansion, along with the whole surrounding estate, was left as nothing but a vast, black crater. Even this much I only knew because Lina had grown curious about the rumor she'd heard in society and pestered Lesche about it. Lesche—that cold male lead—never once properly mentioned Laurel Manor in the original.

"You'll be going there tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes. Is there some problem—"

"No. There isn't."

I was just surprised that I'd be visiting a place that never even appeared properly in the original, and so soon at that. Linon tilted his head and continued.

"In that case. Either way, you and His Highness will be going together. You won't be staying long. Just about two days, and you'll be back."

"Understood."

The next morning, I left my bedroom early, and it was plain to see the number of people around had dropped to a tenth of what it had been. The main castle was quieter. I thought to myself that this still felt strange, and gave a chin-jerk toward the door, the cloak held close against my chest. There was a screech of metal as the iron bars swung open, and inside was—

"Bibi!"

Abigail, who'd been locked up for a full week now on charges of insulting Marquess Haneton. As Elliot had once mentioned, she still looked fortunately sturdy. A little thinner, maybe…

"Here, this is the thickest cloak I own."

She must have suffered regardless, because Abigail accepted it without protest and wrapped it around herself obediently. Elliot, who'd followed along beside me, pulled a stew and spoon from a mahogany lunchbox. I handed the spoon directly to Abigail myself. The beef stew brought early from the main castle kitchen was still steaming.

"Eat this first. There's more in the kitchen. Weren't you cold?"

"Less cold than the time I was dunked in ice water for three days straight."

"What? Who tortured you like that?"

"I'm joking, my lady."

Abigail said this lightly and smiled, but her hands were genuinely freezing cold. Small mercy that Berke ran its dungeons properly—I'd heard that elsewhere, prisoners froze to death in winter cells often enough. I'd worried about it plenty.

"My lady. While I was locked up, you killed one of them, didn't you? Either that man or that woman?"

"Killed them?"

"It'd be even better if you killed both."

I let out a hollow laugh. Abigail had been so worked up about being released this morning that I'd been a little worn out, but that fatigue vanished entirely.

"I didn't kill them."

"Pity. May I kill them?"

"You'd be executed."

"I wouldn't get caught."

"There are two witnesses standing right here."

Abigail looked at me and smiled at that, but the smile vanished from the corner of her mouth the instant she turned around. Because standing behind me was Elliot, who'd carried the stew.

Naturally, I turned my head too and glanced at Elliot. He was taking in Abigail's look head-on, but his gaze had gone oddly stiff.

Bibi's remark must be bothering him. I mean, Lina and Kallis are both way too big a deal.

For the man responsible for security across all of Berke Castle, and by extension all of Berke's Grand Ducal territory, it wasn't exactly a pleasant thing to hear.

"Sir Elliot?"

Elliot looked at me. He was quick on the uptake. He immediately raised both hands in a flustered gesture.

"I have no intention of reporting this, Lady Seria."

"There you have it."