RAMHM Chapter 66

Because I Missed You

Novian had started drinking heavily on a regular basis. Or perhaps he'd been drinking that way continuously since my death—I couldn't know. The boxes of expensive liquor among the groceries delivered to the servants every morning looked familiar, and the complaints from Spino, the attending physician, didn't seem particularly new either.

"His Grace's complexion has been terrible. Are you actually doing your job properly?"

In Spino's room, which I'd visited without warning, I started blaming him the moment we faced each other. The Spino I knew was extremely diligent and intelligent. So right now he must be choosing words to protest his innocence, his face flushed red.

"Though I suppose if you'd done your job properly, Her Grace the Grand Duchess might have lived longer."

"!"

Spino looked at my smiling face as if facing Adrienne's corpse itself. With good reason. He was someone in this estate who knew the dead Grand Duchess's face as well as Annie did, and he'd been the closest to seeing me die.

"His Grace keeps taking some medicine with alcohol. You know what it is, don't you?"

"Al-alcohol with it? I definitely told him not to take it that way..."

"So you do know what medicine it is."

"I know, but I can't speak of it freely. As this household's attending physician, I cannot divulge my lord's health condition freely."

"Even to me, his wife?"

Spino's eyes shook violently. I approached him slowly.

"I have a duty to look after my future husband's health. And you have a duty to help me."

"I-I respect you, Madam, but you haven't yet been formally entered into Trovika's registry, so naturally..."

"If you were going to be so loyal, you should have saved Her Grace the Grand Duchess. Ah—"

I clapped my hands as if something had occurred to me. When Spino, startled, focused more on me, I pulled up the corners of my mouth.

"Perhaps you played a part in causing Her Grace the Grand Duchess's death."

"... Excuse me?"

I saw it clearly. The blood draining from Spino's face in an instant.

"... I know more than you think. In a way, I might be in this position thanks to you."

"Wh-wh-what are you saying, Madam! That's absurd."

"So tell me. What medicine is His Grace taking?"

"Absolutely not..."

"Before suspicion arises that Her Grace the Grand Duchess died not of illness but by poisoning."

Spino collapsed right there on the spot. He was literally trembling. Given the cold sweat beading not just on his wrinkled forehead but even on his sunken, unsightly cheeks, he seemed more ill than Novian.

"I truly did my best. I have not a single ounce of shame! His Grace's medicine is just an ordinary sleeping pill! I stake everything I have on... I did not do a single shameful thing as a physician! Only..."

"... Only?"

"It's a very powerful sleeping pill, and when taken with alcohol, it causes powerful hallucinations. If His Grace continues taking the medicine not for sleep but for those hallucinations, it must be stopped. So please, Madam, help."

"That's a very serious problem. On days when he conducts business in that state, wouldn't he be unable to make proper judgments?"

Spino nodded very vigorously. For a moment, anxiety crossed his face that he'd divulged information about his lord's health to an outsider, but he seemed relieved as he emphatically agreed with my words.

"It really is a serious problem."

Until he saw me smile, baring my teeth as I said that.

"Thank you. I'll postpone my suspicions about you for now."

For someone who'd just been thanked, he looked engulfed in another kind of anxiety.

Novian had been rushing about very busily these past few days. The letters arriving sporadically from Madame Leblais and Irene contained news that Novian was under tremendous pressure from those vassals. With their great interest in romantic stories between men and women, they mainly sent letters reassuring me, adding that 'the Grand Duke is firmer than expected, so don't worry and just follow what he does.'

I burned the letters in the fireplace and looked up at the clock. Today was a day Novian had said he'd return late, but checking the time had become habit. A few days ago, around exactly that hour when he thought he'd met 'Adrienne,' he'd headed to the Grand Duchess's bedroom. After that day, Novian had turned the entire house upside down claiming he'd lost his keyring, and now carried the emergency keyring.

I'd removed only the Grand Duchess's bedroom key from the keyring I'd stolen from him and entered that bedroom every time since that day. The reason was simple. I wanted to extract a confession from Novian with his mind half-gone.

That damned 'truth' Bliea Acacia wanted revealed, and the truth I wanted to know—in reality, both could be resolved in one stroke if only Novian Trovika, master of this grand estate and source of all these matters, would open his mouth. On days when he came drunk on liquor and medicine, I went without fail to the Grand Duchess's bedroom and whispered.

'Live a new life with Bliea Acacia.'

'Forget about me, whom you couldn't have, and find new love and your happiness.'

Each time, watching him suffer and cry out, then his face becoming as light as if all his sins were forgiven—my insides twisted mercilessly.

Because while he gave no answers to important questions like why he betrayed me or who Bliea was, he responded to those words. But each time, his attitude toward me when sober was becoming slightly softer.

"Madam, Madame Leblais and Baroness Giusetta have arrived."

"Baroness Giusetta?"

"Yes."

I pushed the already-ashed letters deeper into the fireplace and brushed off my hands. Following Marie downstairs, I found indeed the Madame and Nora waiting. The Madame looked at me descending from the second floor—the mistress's domain—with moved eyes, while Nora looked around the Grand Ducal Estate distractedly before our eyes met, then quickly looked away.

"Your face has completely bloomed, Madam. You're glowing!"

"Oh, Madame."

"It's true! My hands are itching to design something right away."

Nora offered only perfunctory greetings, watching as the Madame and I discussed what dress I should wear for the end of the debutante season. The Madame ostentatiously began sketching where she sat, appealing about how many jewels to use, and I played along.

Nora's noticeably wavering eyes had become quite firm by the time the Madame left the estate first, promising to meet again.

"... What should I do?"

Her perpetually displeased air had visibly softened. I hadn't just been waiting for Nora either. According to the Madame, Nora had started a jewelry shop to pay her husband Baron Giusetta's enormous medical bills.

The reason she stayed by the Crown Princess's side despite her disrespect was that when she occasionally bought expensive jewels, the noblewomen who followed suit kept the jewelry shop popular. But Doris was following me, not even glancing at things Nora subtly recommended. In other words, Nora needed to please me to maintain her household and pay her husband's medical bills.

I studied her for a moment, then answered.

"Tell me everything you know. What you know about me. About Her Imperial Highness the Crown Princess. Anything at all."

Nora, who'd been trembling while clutching her skirts, soon regained composure and told me various things. Recently, Duke Castagna had urged the Crown Prince to choose between himself and Novian, and the intensity was much stronger than before—Doris was intoxicated with victory. The Crown Prince was visiting the Crown Princess's palace more frequently than before.

"In my judgment, honestly, His Grace the Grand Duke's foundation is in the Imperial Family. Duke Castagna is a great noble who controls all of the West, so no matter how capable His Grace is, for His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince to ascend to Emperor in the future without any interference, Duke Castagna's cooperation will absolutely be necessary."

"... It sounds like you're saying His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince must at least pretend to give up His Grace the Grand Duke so there will be no complications when he becomes Emperor in the future."

Nora's eyes widened as if surprised such insightful words came from my mouth, but soon she watched my expression. And thinking I was asking these things for the Grand Duke's sake, she continued haltingly.

"B-but His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince couldn't so easily abandon His Grace the Grand Duke, whom he's relied on for so long."

Yes, that was exactly the problem. But synthesizing Nora's words, this could only be thought of as a heaven-sent opportunity. If the Crown Prince couldn't let go of Novian due to personal feelings, wouldn't I just need to create a reason that would force him to let Novian go?

'What if the Crown Prince who said he'd do anything for this country learned Novian's dirty secrets?'

It was time to seize the opportunity I'd been waiting for—to enter Novian's office and find the chance to bring him down.

"Madam! Madam! Something terrible has happened!"

"What is it?"

I was gathering my keyring to examine Novian's office when Yona urgently sought me out.

"The Imperial Second Knights and the Capital Guard are confronting our private soldiers at the main gate, saying they're going to investigate the Grand Ducal Estate!"

"At this hour?"

Unless it was a crime close to treason, storming a great noble's estate late at night without permission was tremendously rude.

"They say it's because of that missing Baroness Kuroseida!"

"Even so, visiting the Grand Ducal Estate without permission?"

"Yes! Even the butler ran out—it's chaos right now!"

"... I should go see. Could you wait on the first floor with an outer coat?"

"Yes!"

Perfect timing. When the servants' attention was directed at the main gate, I could enter Novian's office. I was looking in the mirror to adjust my appearance one last time when I saw the window reflected in the mirror shaking with tap! tap! sounds. I approached immediately and opened the window to see Rhodness below.

"Adrienne."

Startled, I looked around and opened the window wide as Rhodness climbed up the wall and entered through the window.

"Hello."

"How did you know this bedroom?"

"Your maid told me. Why, a child about this tall."

Rhodness spread his hand flat at about his solar plexus level and smiled faintly. Ah, I finally remembered Yona saying 'Imperial Second Knights' with her face slightly flushed.

"Yona wouldn't have thought you'd visit like this. I mean, she wouldn't have."

When I hastily corrected myself, remembering we'd agreed to use formal speech with each other after being too surprised and forgetting, Rhodness made a slightly mischievous expression.

"There's a commotion at the main gate—is it all right for you to come here like this?"

"Ah, I deliberately ordered that to make the guard here lax. Neil must be having a very hard time engaging in a war of words he's never had in his life."

"Since he's already trained through wars of words with Your Highness, Sir Neil will carry out the order very well."

I stroked my startled chest and answered at his remarkably calm words after startling someone.

"Coming so suddenly without any word... Why did you come? If the Grand Duke had been at the estate..."

Rhodness, sweeping up his slightly disheveled hair, stared at me for a moment before opening his mouth.

"... Because I missed you."