Chapter 37🌹

Chapter 37

‘Can a young lady of twenty really send such a serious and insightful opinion on the crime of human trafficking? She would have been only in her mid-teens when the incident occurred in Tessis…….’

One suspicion led to another.

No, rather than suspicion, it was closer to curiosity or interest.

Just why did this adorable young lady keep surprising people like this? What kind of calculations was she turning over inside that tiny head of hers?

‘It feels like my insides are being squeezed tight.’

But it wasn’t as though he disliked it.

Let’s be honest. This was a pleasant kind of tension. Enough to make the corners of his lips soften without him even realizing it.

After carefully reading all the way to the final words of the letter, Ash raised his head, licking his lips with the tip of his tongue as though wiping away the smile that had already spread across them.

Only then did he realize that the blond boy was still standing there quietly, waiting in exactly the same posture as before.

He slowly looked the boy over before speaking.

“Did she tell you to bring back a reply?”

“She did not say so, but if there is anything you would like me to tell her, I will deliver the message.”

“You seem to have received an excellent education.”

“……Thank you. The Baroness taught me.”

Ash took 50,000 gulden from his wallet and handed it to Kurt.

“It’s your service fee.”

“N-no, I’m fine! This is my job.”

“Your master won’t be angry either, so take it. You’ll be receiving this from me from time to time in the future.”

From the way Kurt fidgeted helplessly with the banknote in his hand, Ash realized that the boy really had only recently started doing this work.

Wondering if he might be able to learn something from the boy, he asked in a friendly tone.

“Are you related to Miss Rosalyn’s maid? You look alike.”

“She is my younger sister. The Baron took both of us in.”

“She is a generous master.”

He had asked just in case, but as expected, the boy was related to the maid by blood. The brother and sister truly had similar eyes.

“Do you know when Miss Rosalyn wrote this letter?”

“At night…… Ah, no, I’m sorry. I don’t know.”

“It was just a simple question. Why are you so startled?”

“I was taught never to speak about my master’s private matters, no matter how trivial they may be.”

Ash was also somewhat surprised by Kurt’s loyalty.

His large, round eyes looked as though they would spill tears at the slightest touch, yet when it came to Rosalyn, he was quietly firm.

Rosalyn had brought two young siblings home one day and made them her servants. The boy showed such strong loyalty despite not having lived with her for very long.

From that, he could roughly guess at the nature of their relationship.

“I suppose she saved you when you were standing on the edge of a cliff.”

Kurt must have clearly heard that mutter, which sounded almost like he was talking to himself, yet he gave no answer.

However, an unmistakable defiance flickered in those beautiful eyes, and the fingertips gripping the banknote he had just been given were taut with strength.

Ash took out some official letter paper from a drawer, briefly wrote a note of thanks with a pen, then took out something he had kept tucked away inside the drawer.

“Go and tell her this. Tell her that Inspector McCallen was extremely grateful.”

“Yes. Then I shall…… take my leave.”

Kurt gave a small bow and quietly slipped through the crowd of people just as he had when he arrived.

Watching his retreating figure, Ash smiled faintly.

‘Both the master and her servants are just…… like cats.’

Like stray cats that rummaged through garbage cans in back alleys, yet walked proudly along the tops of walls whenever they spotted a person.

***

When I woke up after sleeping restlessly, it was broad daylight.

I really slept until the sun was high in the sky. I guess I had relaxed quite a bit after all.

But just as I had expected, I hadn’t had any nightmares. In fact, since I had slept soundly for the first time in a very long while, I felt refreshed.

“I should eat something first.”

I asked Maya to bring me something to eat, then slowly walked to the desk and sat down in comfortable indoor clothes.

I wasn’t planning to do anything in particular; I simply had several letters waiting for me, so I wanted to check them.

But the one that caught my attention before the others was Ash McCallen’s reply, which Kurt had obviously delivered.

Even without looking at the name, I could tell from the cheap official envelope.

‘He must have suspected me, right?’

The worry that had continued throughout the entire time I was writing the letter came back to me.

But Ash wouldn’t openly show that he suspected me. Not yet.

‘Right, if he isn’t putting a noose around my neck right now, there’s no need to be anxious. Let’s just brazen it out.’

I steeled myself and opened the envelope.

But inside the envelope was an entirely unexpected gift along with a single sheet of letter paper.

「……Your advice during the previous child disappearance case was of great help. This is a small token of my gratitude, but I am sending you a little gift. You seemed to enjoy watching performances.」

The gift he had sent along with his brief words of thanks was two tickets to a dinner show by a famous singer.

They weren’t as difficult to obtain as the VIP invitation tickets to the <Glacier> troupe that I had received last time, but these certainly wouldn’t have been cheap either.

He had chosen a gift with my tastes in mind. No one had ever cared this much about me before, so I was even a little moved.

I fiddled with the tickets printed in purple before carefully placing them in a drawer.

I didn’t know who Ash intended me to go with, but going with Arthur would be a little difficult.

Since I had arranged the previous ticket myself, if I prepared the second date as well, it might hurt his pride. It might also make me seem too eager.

‘Going with another man besides Arthur might not be so bad.’

What if I contacted the better of the two remaining men whom Countess Brough had presented to me as potential matches?

‘There’s still some time before the dinner show…….’

Thinking lightly about it, I began opening the other letters.

I had picked up the envelope without thinking, but it was from Glen Hill, the butler.

「The financial situation of the Tessis estate is more stable than before. All of this is thanks to you repaying a considerable portion of the bank debt and putting the Merchants Union in its place.」

I could almost hear his proud laughter between the words informing me of the current situation.

For someone who had been troubled every day because of the former Baron Tessis, he seemed to be enjoying things more now despite having even more work to do.

“I should give him a generous bonus later.”

He was someone the Tessis family absolutely needed, so I should treat him accordingly.

Thanks to Glen, I was able to stay in Herona without worrying.

But at the very end of his letter, he had written something I never could have expected.

「And recently, a man who said he was Emma’s uncle came to visit. He said he had come to inform us that her parents had died, but when he was told that Emma had also died, he became deeply devastated.

He headed for Herona, saying that he wanted to confirm Emma’s death himself. I have written him a letter of introduction, so I am noting this in case anyone comes to visit you, so that you will not be too surprised.」

“What?”

It felt as though my heart dropped with a thud.

Emma Hampton was actually a maid working at the Turner estate.

I had only stolen that woman’s access pass to the estate; she would still be there.

If he were really Emma Hampton’s uncle, he would naturally have gone to the Turner estate.

‘If that man came all the way to Tessis to meet that woman, then it means the person he is looking for isn’t the real Emma Hampton…….’

I knew it instinctively.

‘Gale is looking for me. I’m sure of it!’

The face of the man I had forgotten for a long time came to mind, and a chill ran down my spine.

The heart that had felt as though it had been slammed into the floor now began pounding frighteningly hard.

‘What do I do? What do I do?’

If he had Glen’s letter of introduction, I had no excuse not to meet him.

And no matter how much I disguised myself, if it were Gale, he would recognize my identity at a glance.

And then he would kill me.

No, if he saw me pretending to be Rosalyn, there was a greater chance that he would try to marry me and become Baron Tessis himself.

Whatever came first, I would have to be captured by him again and live a life like a slave.

How childish and absurd had my dream of becoming rich and living in comfort been?

Behind my back lurked a sticky, pitch-black reality that could swallow me up at any moment.

‘How could I have forgotten that? Ha…….’

When I closed my eyes, the past I had desperately tried to forget until now flashed before me like a revolving lantern.

***

Rosie Camden.

Yes, not Rosalyn Tessis, nor Emma Hampton, but Rosie Camden.

That was my real name.

The process by which I, once the heroine of the <Mulberry> troupe, became the maid Emma Hampton was more dramatic than any play.

Should I call it a comedy, or a tragedy?

……Let’s just call it a ‘tragicomedy’ for now.

As anyone who has experienced it would know, first love is usually rash and self-centered.

I was no different when I finally suffered through that harsh fever of love at the age of eighteen.