Chapter 7

“How rude. Is it really so hard to show a little consideration for the friend you brought along?”

Once Mia and Madame Hans had gone, Seira said it mockingly.

“You’re behind all of this, aren’t you?”

Adele felt no real surprise at that.

“My, my — still blaming me the moment you’re cornered, Mother?”

Seira was the daughter of the late Marquis Oswald. Since Adele had once been his wife, that technically made her Seira’s mother — a mother the same age as her daughter. So when Seira called her “Mother,” it was nothing but mockery.

Behind her, the hangers-on who’d been sneering at Adele chimed in, as if they’d been waiting for the chance.

“Honestly. If it were me, I’d be too ashamed to even show my face in front of Miss Seira.”

“You can’t compare her to someone like us. She poisoned a man and still has the nerve to act like this.”

The women, murmuring behind their fans just loudly enough to be heard, flinched the moment their eyes met Adele’s.

“It’s only polite to gossip where the person can’t hear you. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

Adele dipped her head politely and walked past them.

“Count Weiss!”

Seira’s voice rang out suddenly. Adele froze, and Seira came up to her and asked,

“Is it really true, that he’s your brother?”

She’d suspected as much — the rumor must have already spread across all of Greenhill. And no doubt it had reached Christine’s ears as well.

Hiding the bitterness she felt, Adele nodded firmly.

“Yes. He’s as good as my own blood brother.”

Hearing it straight from Adele’s own mouth, everyone’s eyes lit up and they began whispering among themselves — it meant the seat beside Count Weiss was still open.

At that, Seira waved off the hangers-on around her.

“The two of us have something to discuss, so go on ahead without me.”

Once they were alone, she got straight to the point.

“Then you could just as easily arrange a match between him and me, couldn’t you?”

“What?”

It was the most absurd thing Adele had heard in a long while. But Seira’s shamelessness went beyond anything she could have imagined.

“If you help me marry Count Weiss, I can help you in return. You want to clear your name of being a murderer too, don’t you?”

“What difference would clearing my name make, at this point?”

“Think it through. You’d be cleared, and the Count would become part of a house with a tradition as old as Oswald’s. That would even open the door for him to join the Council of Elders.”

At the mention of the Council of Elders, Adele clicked her tongue.

“You should think it through too, Seira. Don’t you understand why His Majesty trusts him so deeply?”

“Trusts him… why?”

Seira mulled it over, and understanding finally dawned on her face.

“Don’t tell me — His Majesty means to make him his imperial consort?”

Adele feigned ignorance, playing innocent.

“Well, how would I ever know the mind of someone so exalted? But if you were him, which hand would you rather take — the Princess’s, or a Marquis’s daughter’s?”

Seeing Seira’s lips tremble, Adele felt a surge of satisfaction. But Seira wasn’t about to give up so easily.

“Are you sure that’s wise? You have feelings for him too, don’t you?”

The jab landed closer to the truth than she’d expected. Adele flinched inwardly, but she was practiced at hiding it from her face.

“You’re mistaken. I already have someone I’m seeing.”

Seira’s scarlet lips curved up in a strange little smile.

“I saw you dancing with the Count that night. I know what I saw — your real face, hidden behind that mask. Was that truly the face of a woman looking at her little brother?”

Adele said nothing for a moment, then smiled quietly.

“Seira, you really do adore me, don’t you?”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“Don’t you think your interest in me is a little excessive? You’re always hovering around me — like some poor child, starving for her mother’s love.”

“Why, you—!”

Seira finally raised her hand to slap Adele across the face. But Adele, who’d half expected it, caught her by the wrist.

“Enough. Start acting like an adult, Seira!”

Seira flinched and yanked her hand free, but she shouted fiercely all the same.

“Don’t act so high and mighty! You will arrange a match between me and Count Weiss — I’ll see to it myself!”

Seira Oswald.

It was no exaggeration to say that Kalaim high society was hers to command. A woman whose beauty and masterful social instincts let her bring anyone over to her side.

Fall out of Seira’s good graces, and the hangers-on loyal to her would spread malicious rumors; after that, it was only a matter of time before even the most innocent person was buried in society. Adele was the prime example of it. It was Seira who’d done the most to brand her as the wicked woman who’d poisoned her husband.

So even the women of the most distinguished families watched Seira’s moods carefully. Not speaking to Adele was simply another way of staying on her good side.

Not that Adele had any wish to make friends in a place like this, either. She’d be grateful enough just to escape being openly condemned.

But the mood at tonight’s party was a little different. Here and there around the ballroom, she spotted women in black dresses. Hadn’t everyone whispered that it looked like mourning wear, back when Adele was the one wearing it? There were even a few who carefully struck up conversation with her.

“Those cookies that day were truly delicious, Madame.”

“Thank you.”

A few more noblewomen came by after that to speak with her — though of course, every conversation that began with cookies ended with Count Weiss. He was the talk of the season these days, and merely being on familiar terms with him had changed Adele’s standing entirely. Even people who’d long resented Seira came quietly by to trade complaints about her.

Seira, seeming to sense the shift in the air, occasionally shot a sharp glare in Adele’s direction — and each time, the women around her quickly hid their faces behind their fans.

It was nothing short of farce.

Adele quietly slipped away from the crowd gathered around her.

“Adele!”

Just then, Mia came toward her, now changed into a new dress. It was a blue gown with a daringly low neckline, trimmed in white fur. With her hair and makeup redone as well, she looked stunning.

“You look lovely, Mia.”

“I’m sorry, Adele. Dragging you to such an awkward party, all because of me.”

“Don’t be. Tonight’s turned out fairly entertaining, actually.”

“If we’d turned around and left earlier, it would’ve felt like losing somehow. So let’s enjoy ourselves tonight until that little witch Seira is fuming!”

True to her cheerful nature, Mia pulled Adele by the hand straight into the middle of the ballroom. A servant happened by just then, carrying a tray of wine glasses, and offered them each one. Mia took one for herself and one for Adele.

“Come on, let’s drink — cheers!”

She clinked their glasses together happily, then melted into the crowd and began to dance. People quickly gathered around her lively spirit.

Good. She’s enjoying herself just as much as she’d hoped.

Watching Mia with a fond smile, Adele slipped out of the ballroom.

Her head felt a little dizzy.

Is it just because it’s been so long since I’ve been somewhere this crowded?

But her condition only kept getting worse. Soon her vision grew hazy, and even the voices around her seemed to fade into the distance. She could barely hold herself upright, as though she’d had far too much to drink.

Could it be that drink I had earlier?

That couldn’t be. She’d only had a single glass.

No matter how she thought it over, something about that drink had been wrong. Thinking back, the servant carrying the tray had handed drinks to her and Mia, then left immediately — as if the two of them had been his only purpose.

Could someone have drugged it? Who would do such a thing?

I need to get outside, first.

Adele decided to step outside for some cold air. As she made her way down the corridor, the strength drained from her limbs, and she had to brace herself against the wall just to keep walking.

“May I help you, Madame?”

A man approaching from the far end of the corridor spoke to her.

“I’m… fine, thank you.”

She managed the words through a face slick with cold sweat.

“No. I think you need my help.”

“…!”

A sudden chill of unease ran through her, and Adele lifted her head. Her vision was so blurred, the world spinning before her eyes, that she couldn’t make anything out clearly. Even so, she just barely managed to recognize who the man was.

“You’re…?”

It was Viscount Eaton — the man who had proposed to her before the Marquis Oswald’s funeral was even over. After she’d turned him down, he’d taken to scrawling vile graffiti on the wall around her house and fleeing before he could be caught.

“Get away from me!”

Adele cried out, but it did no good. He clamped a large hand over her mouth and dragged her into the darkness.

Everyone in the ballroom bowed their heads at once.

At the center of it all stood a young woman, barely twenty, with golden hair. With rosy, blushing cheeks that made her all the more lovely, she was April, the Emperor’s eldest daughter.

“It is an honor to see you, Your Highness.”

Seira stepped forward to pay her respects, and April smiled, her face full of charm.

“It’s good to see you, Miss Seira.”

“My mother, Madame Oswald, was hoping to see you too, Your Highness… but I don’t see her anywhere. I wonder where she’s gone.”

Seira glanced around as though searching for Adele, a troubled look on her face.

“She must be resting somewhere, worn out. We can greet her later.”

April answered gently.

At that, Madame Hans, exchanging a glance with Seira, stepped forward.

“If you mean Madame Oswald, I saw her go into a room down that corridor just a moment ago.”

“I’ll go and bring Mother back.”

At that, April smiled cautiously.

“Then let me come along too.”

Like every other woman in the Empire, April had Christine on her mind as well. Naturally, she was curious about Adele, who’d been caught up in so many rumors involving him. And if the two of them really were as good as brother and sister, she wouldn’t mind earning Adele’s favor besides.

“This way, then.”

Madame Hans led the way, guiding the others. Behind her followed Seira, April, and several others, their faces bright with curiosity.

They passed through the very corridor where Adele had stumbled along just a short while before. From behind a door in a dim, secluded corner, a faint sound reached them — a strange, suggestive moan that stirred the imagination in all the wrong ways.

Everyone stopped in their tracks, faces flushing red.

“I-I’m certain it was that room…”

Madame Hans said, cheeks reddening, cupping them in her hands in evident embarrassment.

At that, Seira’s hangers-on began whispering, as if they’d been waiting for just this.

“Well, a leopard never changes its spots, does it?”

“My goodness, to carry on like that even at a place like this.”

April, who hadn’t caught on to the situation at first, now flustered, dabbed at her forehead with a handkerchief.

“Perhaps it would be best to greet her another time.”

But Seira was resolute.

“No. House Oswald’s honor is at stake here. I must know exactly what’s going on!”

And with that, she flung the door open without hesitation.

Bang!

Everyone cried out in shock all at once.

“Aaah!”

“What on earth is this!”

Inside, a man sat stripped bare, bound tightly to a chair. Gagged with his own undergarments, he’d been groaning helplessly — until he saw the crowd of people and his face turned ghostly white.

“Adele… come on, open your eyes, Adele…”

At the sound of a familiar voice, Adele just barely managed to open her eyes. Her vision still blurred, she blinked slowly, until her eyes met a pair of blue-gray eyes watching her with concern.

If her eyes weren’t deceiving her, this man was surely…

“Chris?”

“Finally coming around?”

Christine asked, clicking his tongue.

“Chris, is it really you?”

“Disappointed it’s not some other man?”

Adele laughed weakly.

“Only you could manage to say something that charming. It’s really you.”

Looking around, Adele found herself lying on a couch, in what looked like a study.