30
‘This is starting to get troublesome……. Well, I won’t be able to do this sort of thing for much longer anyway.’
Leopold knew very well that his martial prowess was extraordinary. Given that, he would inevitably become indispensable on the battlefield.
So, before long, this woman would no longer be able to confine or restrain him.
That was why, though he was bored and had the urge to throw a punch, he restrained himself and casually brushed aside Urhel’s questions.
“I’m fighting because I was told to fight.”
“Ha, there’s no way you’d be that obedient. You’re not even a damn dog.”
“Why not? I am.”
“If you really were a damn dog, you would know loyalty. You committed the crime of daring to insult the royal family and the Holy One, so you’re worse than a damn dog.”
“My parents are the ones who committed the crime, not me.”
Leopold made the most obnoxious expression he could toward Urhel’s stiff face.
“I’m a damn dog who knows loyalty, you see. I’m fighting so I can go back. Inquisitor.”
A flash of blue pierced through the air in his eyes, as though he had remembered something. When an uncharacteristic smile appeared on his expressionless face, Urhel stopped short.
‘Loyalty? To whom? Surely…….’
Urhel had been summoned by the Crown Prince and given a general explanation of the situation within the palace. More precisely, he had learned it from the priest on Magnus’s side, who had pleaded with him to bring her back.
‘Does this man not know that she was the one who provided the information?’
Under Urhel’s observant gaze, Leopold casually rubbed his eyes.
It seemed as though a blue bird had just passed by, but it was a color rarely seen around here.
“Must have imagined it.”
Leopold shook his head vigorously and let out a hollow laugh. His unconscious desire to somehow grasp even the smallest connection to her was almost instinctive. Even though he knew there was still time left that he had to endure.
‘Eli. Where are you?’
Every breath he inhaled was filled with nothing but stench. Even though winter had almost completely passed, not a single flower bloomed here.
Amid the rotting passage of time, even in her absence, she was teaching him for the first time what longing was.
***
“Yes, it has been confirmed. Please proceed to the fifth counter.”
After retrieving the documents that had arrived at the transport office, Eliza went up to the second floor.
On the second floor of the transport office, there were spaces where one could examine their goods alone after paying a certain fee.
In a small private room, Eliza checked the documents. What Nancy had sent were the deed for purchasing the Saxen mine and a deed of donation.
Eliza stared intently at the name of the unit where Leopold was stationed.
‘The funds are insufficient. It’s still difficult to make regular donations……. How much will your situation improve with just this?’
Eliza sighed. Her plan was still in its early stages, so she could only donate an amount far below what she wanted to give.
As if to prove that her concerns were not wrong in the slightest, unfortunately, the rumors about Leopold’s situation had not improved much.
Several more weeks passed, and when Eliza once again heard rumors about the golden-haired evil spirit, she blankly looked up at the sky.
‘It’s difficult to make things go as planned.’
Fortunately, rumors had begun to mention his martial prowess. Eliza, who had been counting on that, felt relieved, if only for a moment.
Leopold was strong, after all. Much stronger, both physically and mentally, than cowardly herself.
‘I’m glad you haven’t broken.’
Even so, it seemed the discrimination continued. In particular, he did not seem to be able to fit in with the people in his own unit at all.
His arrogant nature and insolent attitude, combined with his fallen circumstances, provided an excellent excuse for others to ostracize him.
‘Rather than arrogant, he’s just got a bad personality.’
Eliza unconsciously defended him, then felt dejected. What was the point of saying something no one could hear?
All she could do now was accelerate her plans. She needed to gain more power in order to help him.
However, a few days later, when she received the bluebird, she had no choice but to curse.
「They found out about the bluebird, young lady.
When I sent it off last time, someone must have seen it flying away.
The young master is making a fuss, saying he’ll catch the bird if it comes again. I think it would be best not to send any birds for the time being.
I wrote this note in advance. If the bird comes, ah, I hope I’ll be able to send it back safely.」
“……Why did it have to be now.”
Judging from the completely different content from the letter she had sent to Nancy, it seemed that Nancy had hurriedly sent only this note that she had written in advance.
Eliza poured some grain in front of the innocently chirping bird and murmured.
“You’ll have to stay in the cage for a while.”
Perhaps understanding what she said, the bird flapped its wings. But it did not take flight, instead staring intently at Eliza with its pitch-black eyes.
“I have another favor to ask of Jenia……”
Eliza took out the notebook containing her plans and began checking its contents. Then she thought deeply.
‘In any case, I had to contact the family at least once.’
Nancy was regularly visiting the transport office in the capital as she was supposed to. If so, it was possible to deliver a letter from Eliza Waluer to the family without using the bird.
Since her whereabouts would remain unknown if she used the transport office, Eliza decided to give her family Ruben’s customer code.
They were probably extremely anxious by now. She had dangled the bait of becoming the Crown Princess and run away, so they must be desperate to snatch it back quickly.
‘Once I get in contact with them, I just need to take what I want from the family.’
The family would want Eliza to return, but she had absolutely no intention of doing so.
There was not even a grain of affection left in her for the family. She simply had not cut ties because throwing away a card she could still use would be foolish.
‘How should I persuade Helreos?’
Eliza rested her chin on her hand and stared intently at the blank sheet of paper.
In a battle of wits where both sides want to obtain what they desire, the one who wants it less is always at an advantage.
And unlike them, who were fretting anxiously over her disappearance, Eliza had absolutely no desire for the paltry wealth and positions held by the Waluer family.
There had been only one thing she wanted since fleeing the capital.
To hold the leash of the sole heir so that she could bring down the Waluer family whenever she wanted.
“It would be better to contact only you without letting our parents know, Helreos. That would be more convenient for you, too.”
Persuading that simple-minded, hot-tempered boy was easy enough. It was only because she had refused to humor him at the mansion that she had always fought back so fiercely.
A fool who had grown up receiving all the family’s affection, assumed he would naturally become the head of the household, and had developed not a shred of ability.
Her long eyes curved into satisfied crescents.
‘What could you possibly need?’
Eliza trusted the intelligence of her only younger brother. She had experienced his simple way of thinking, in which everything in the family would naturally go according to his wishes.
He did not understand exactly what kind of privilege he had been born with from the beginning. Therefore, because he did not value it, he would carelessly squander it.
Especially when it came to his older sister, whom he considered beneath him, he would be off guard.
Having decided to contact Helreos, Eliza carefully considered his personality.
And the matter was resolved so easily that all her complicated worries seemed pointless.
***
“……You still haven’t broken the habit of putting your homework off on your sister.”
As soon as Eliza managed to get in contact with Helreos, she could not help but let out a hollow laugh.
As though the condition of ‘without our parents knowing’ were only natural, the first thing he sent her was an academy assignment.
In a commanding tone, he complained that he had almost failed to graduate because of her.
‘This kid is in his graduation year? How did he not get held back?’
Eliza looked through the documents he had sent, just in case, but the ink marks on the paper could not possibly change.
They were official documents sent by the academy to students eligible for graduation, and they were not even copies but the originals.
It was obvious from the contents that Helreos intended for her to complete the graduation assignment exactly as instructed and send it back.
Eliza pressed her forehead, feeling her blood pressure rise for the first time in a while.
‘I knew he was originally like this…….’
That was precisely why Eliza had thought it would be easy to use him, but experiencing it again after so long made him seem even more pathetic.
Helreos Pruna Waluer was seventeen years old. If his parents had not been intent on marrying her off first, he would have been engaged long ago.
‘No, there were attempts. It’s just that he turned down every young lady.’
Helreos openly judged the appearance of the ladies from families with whom marriage discussions were underway when he met them.
He had spewed such harsh insults, asking whether two of the three were not inferior to him in appearance, before walking away, and the last one…….
‘Did he say he wasn’t interested in women his friend had used and discarded?’
