Episode 11
“Is that bird really so precious to you?”
“Hah, of course it is!”
“Then what if you compare it to the pocket money of mine you siphoned away?”
Helreos, who had never once thought that Eliza might have discovered what he had done because she had not retaliated in any particular way, flinched.
The more obvious it was from his face that his eyes were darting around, the deeper the mockery in Eliza’s expression became.
“Ah, or how about comparing it to the jewelry of mine that you stole? Which one do you think is more precious? I hear Miss Sonia has been proudly showing it off everywhere.”
“Th-That…….”
“Did you really think I wouldn’t know?”
The reason she had not taken revenge all this time was because she knew that the more she did so, the more her parents would blame her.
However, Helreos, who had spent quite some time searching for an excuse, seemed to have stopped thinking, because he once again snorted angrily and shoved Eliza hard by the shoulder.
“You, without even having any evidence!”
“Ah.”
“I’m going to tell Mother! That bluebird was given to me by Mother, you know?! You’ve never received anything like that, so you wouldn’t know, but they said it was extremely expensive! You’re going to get scolded now!”
At the dull pain spreading up her shoulder, Eliza gradually began to lose her temper. Then the words came out before she could think.
“Get out of my room right now. Helreos Pruina Waluer.”
“Don’t call me that!”
“Why? It’s a precious name Mother gave you.”
Helreos hated his middle name. He openly complained that it was taken from his grandmother’s name and was unbearably old-fashioned.
Knowing this well, Eliza made good use of it to tease him.
Just as Helreos’s hand shot up, the door to the room was flung open.
“My Lady! I brought what you asked for…….”
“Tsk, what an interruption.”
The maid who had hurriedly entered the room stopped when she saw Helreos.
Still, he had enough common sense to know that he should not hit his sister in front of others, so Helreos clicked his tongue and turned away.
“Just you wait!”
As his pounding footsteps faded away, the maid hurriedly approached Eliza.
Eliza, who had been silently staring only at the floor, quietly spoke.
“Nancy. Could you clean this up?”
“Yes, My Lady. Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
“Oh dear. Why is the Young Master angry this time?”
“He thought he knew what I had done to his bird.”
“Pardon?”
Maid Nancy’s eyes widened.
Eliza returned to her calm expression and slowly went back to sit on the sofa. Around the time she leaned back, Nancy hesitantly asked.
“……Did he find out?”
“No. There’s no way.”
Eliza was indeed the one who had sneaked into Helreos’s room and released the bluebird.
Even Nancy, who had kept watch for her, might not have known, but that had been one of the steps in the betrayal she had begun to take.
There was only one reason Eliza had released the bluebird that had been in Helreos’s room.
Because the bird the Marquis of Hagen had given to her mother had been spying on the Waluer mansion.
Remembering the original story, Eliza tightly curled her palm into a fist.
“Has there been any word from Father?”
“Ah, he’s still meeting with the Marquis of Hagen.”
“I see……. If it’s this late, he probably won’t summon me today.”
Eliza approached Nancy, rummaged through her pocket, and handed her something.
It was a deep blue feather with a beautiful sheen.
“Keep this feather safe and have it made into a pen. I think it’ll look nice.”
“Are you going to give it as a gift?”
Nancy asked as she accepted the feather. It was a natural question, since Eliza preferred penholders without feathers.
But Eliza turned her head away.
“No.”
Eliza knew those eyes all too well, eyes that resembled the freedom of the blue sky more than anything that could be compared to something as insignificant as this.
Eliza adjusted her shawl and went outside. Left alone inside the closed room, Nancy thought.
‘He hasn’t been coming lately.’
There had been no word from the Young Master of Hagen, who had visited almost every day.
Did they have a fight? Nancy thought about it for a moment before shaking off her thoughts and carefully putting away the feather. Then she moved to clean up the mess on the floor.
***
After Eliza’s lengthy persuasion, Count Waluer accepted her wish to break off the engagement.
But there was a condition. He demanded that she bring clear proof that she was meeting the Crown Prince.
Not only that, he even ordered her to flatter him properly and receive valuables such as a necklace.
Eliza scoffed at the undignified instructions, but she worked diligently toward her plan.
‘Evidence of black magic for His Highness the Crown Prince, and evidence that I’m meeting His Highness the Crown Prince for Father…….’
How had she ended up becoming so busy? Eliza lamented as she looked up at the mansion before her.
It was the Marquis of Hagen’s mansion.
Breaking into a place she had already infiltrated once was easy the second time.
After entering the secret room, Eliza put on gloves and picked up objects small enough to conceal.
‘I’ll take this stone-like thing. If I take the papers, they’ll notice, right? Hmm…… should I take the ink bottle, too?’
Since she did not know what might serve as evidence, she took several things for the time being. Once her pockets grew heavy, she left the room.
As soon as the door closed, it slowly disappeared as though melting into the wall. Watching it, Eliza approached the window and stuck her head out.
“Inhale, exhale…… Ah, I feel like I can finally breathe.”
The dreadful smell seemed to cling to her skin. Eliza brushed off her clothes with her hands and moved on.
She had already signed the contract concerning the Saxon mine earlier, so she intended to immediately take a carriage back to the mansion.
But Eliza’s steps suddenly stopped on the landing of the stairs.
The man who discovered her from below stood there, his eyes shining as though he had made an unexpected discovery.
“Eli?”
“I heard you were out…….”
Eliza muttered softly and briefly wondered whether she should go back up the stairs.
However, if her back turned to him made it look as though she were running away, she would appear even more suspicious.
In the end, she descended the stairs with an expressionless face. Naturally, Leopold followed her.
“Where are you going?”
Eliza did not answer. She was about to go straight outside when she heard a strange sound.
“Ughhhh…….”
It was a groan that instinctively made her turn around.
Eliza hesitated for a moment, but eventually decided to check what the sound was.
“Oh? Looks like he’s still conscious.”
“What are you doing?”
“Hm?”
In one of Leopold’s hands, as he followed behind Eliza, he was holding a man by the back of his neck.
The man was so badly injured that he could not even steady himself, and Leopold was dragging him along.
“Who is that?”
“Oh, this? He’s a rat.”
Leopold slowly blinked, his face more languid than usual.
Their eyes met in a passing glance, and Eliza’s shoulders flinched.
‘Those are the eyes of a rotten fish?’
Those were not the eyes of the Leopold she knew. Eliza swallowed dryly as a growing sense of tension washed over her.
“Do you want him? Should I give him to you?”
A deep shadow filled his long, narrow eyes.
Leopold asked without a trace of a smile on his face.
“What will you do for me if you give him to me?”
“……I don’t need him.”
For some reason, she had a premonition that she needed to run away.
But the injured man’s groan came again.
“A-Ah, please save me…….”
Damn it. Eliza cursed inwardly.
Meanwhile, Leopold released the man’s neck and instead grabbed him by the head.
“Could you be quiet for a moment?”
“Ugh, sob, ngh……. P-Please, save me…….”
The man groaned as though Leopold had gripped him with great force. Eliza could no longer turn a blind eye.
“Let him go.”
“Why should I?”
Eliza frowned.
The Leopold she knew was someone who fought for a reason.
Even if he was a little too free with his mouth and picked fights, whenever he fought, whether in battle or in a duel, there had always been a clear reason.
Then what reason could he possibly have for grabbing that shabby man who looked like a servant?
“Come to think of it, there was something I wanted to ask…….”
The end of the man’s voice stretched out languidly.
Eliza pushed Leopold’s arm away with her body and stepped between Leopold and the servant.
Leopold merely looked down at her thoughtfully without trying to stop her.
“Ah. I remember.”
Nodding his head, Leopold stood up.
“Is it the Crown Prince? Is he the marriage partner you chose?”
“……What?”
“I didn’t know you were ambitious enough to want the position of Queen.”
Eliza instinctively placed a hand over her pounding chest.
It would be a good thing if he had misunderstood on his own, but for some reason, she felt uneasy.
“Gasp!”
Eliza inhaled in surprise when Leopold suddenly came close to her.
Leaving the servant sprawled aside, Leopold seized both of her arms.
“What should I do? I don’t want to give you up.”
The eyes that had once reminded her of the midday sky were now dark and still.
As though someone else were sitting inside them.
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