TRL 33

Chapter 33

“Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t.”

“What are you talking about? Explain properly.”

Lindsay took out a neatly folded sheet of paper and placed it on the desk.

“First, there was nothing particularly noteworthy about that maid’s personal relationships. She’s lived her whole life in Birch Castle, so she hardly meets anyone. She has no friends or acquaintances outside the other maids in the castle, and she doesn’t go out to the city very often either.”

On the paper, the maids close to Hannah and the places she usually visited when she went into town were organized clearly at a glance.

After waiting a moment while Rita skimmed through it, Lindsay took out another document.

“But when I looked into her family background—especially her father, whose identity is unknown—it turned out to be quite complicated.”

The new document contained testimonies and investigative records about the time when Hannah’s deceased mother became a maid of the Lascail family.

“Twenty-two years ago—before the maid Hannah was even born—her mother, Joanna, came to Birch Castle. At the time, she was already pregnant with Hannah, but her belly hadn’t begun to show yet, so she hid the fact and applied to work as a maid.”

Pointing to a section of the document, Lindsay continued.

“Joanna worked as a maid while secretly giving birth to and raising Hannah, but she was soon discovered by the other maids. This is Joanna’s testimony from that time.”

Rita read the passage Lindsay indicated.

“The child was unwanted! I thought I might die because of this child, so I ran away from my hometown. While working here as a maid to earn money, I tried to erase the child with magic… But while I hesitated, I felt the child move, and… sob… I just couldn’t, I couldn’t bring myself to erase it….”

When Rita finished reading and looked up, Lindsay continued.

“At the time, the benevolent duke and duchess surmised the circumstances of a commoner girl who had fled her hometown alone while pregnant, and they accepted her as she was. They even helped her so she could raise the child. However, just in case, they ordered our jeweler’s guild to investigate Joanna’s background. The results are here.”

She turned to the next page. It was an old report.

• According to the investigation, the maid Joanna’s hometown was indeed the Adicle Grand Duchy, as she claimed, and she had been a maid responsible for cleaning the stairways in the grand duke’s castle.

• People around her said she worked diligently and had a quiet disposition, so she did not particularly stand out.

• She was the daughter of a hunter, but her home was robbed, leaving her an orphan at a young age. The village chief took pity on her and raised her, and after she became an adult and found work as a maid, she sent more than half of her earnings to the elderly village chief.

• The village chief was unmarried and died of old age three years ago. Other than him, Joanna had no family or blood relatives. She also appeared to have had no lover or fiancé.

• Joanna left the grand duke’s castle suddenly without properly resigning, leaving behind only a single letter saying she would quit.

• Judging from the circumstances, it appears she conceived a child through an unwanted relationship with someone of high status or someone dangerous, and upon realizing this, she fled without informing the other party.

Lindsay spoke in a stiff tone.

“This is the same kind of report that your parents received back then. After seeing these results, the two of them discussed the matter and decided not to dig any further into Hannah’s father and to leave it buried. Joanna herself said she had no intention of revealing the child’s father until the day she died.”

“…So in the end, Joanna really died without telling anyone who Hannah’s father was?”

“Yes. It’s said that she never let slip even a single clue until she died of illness about ten years ago. Hannah herself knows absolutely nothing about her father either.”

“If it was someone she had to hide that thoroughly—someone so frightening that responsibility or punishment couldn’t even be discussed—then…”

Rita pushed the documents aside and looked at the imperial family tree that lay beneath them. The Adicle Grand Duchy. The Grand Duke of Adicle. It was definitely a name she had just seen on the genealogy.

“…Then it’s highly likely he was someone with enough power to consider a maid and her illegitimate child nothing more than a stain and erase them from the world.”

Her gaze fixed on one part of the imperial family tree.

The current emperor’s father and former emperor: Percival el Adicle Cairam.

And the former emperor’s older brother—who, despite being the firstborn, lost the throne to his younger brother Percival and was adopted into his maternal family, Adicle: Fergus.

The princes had not fought a civil war. It was simply that the emperor two generations ago chose the capable and sincere second son over the incompetent and debauched first son as his successor.

Historically, it was recorded that Crown Prince Fergus had “yielded” the throne to his younger brother Percival. But no one truly believed it had been voluntary.

That “deposed crown prince who yielded the throne” became the previous Grand Duke of Adicle. The current Grand Duke of Adicle is his only son, making him a cousin of the current emperor, who is Percival’s son.

Rita traced the line branching from the emperor two generations ago to the Adicle family with her finger.

“The highest authority Joanna could have encountered in the Adicle grand duke’s castle would be the Grand Duke of Adicle—whether the previous one, or the current one, who would have been the duke’s heir at the time.”

If the one who laid hands on the maid Joanna in the grand duke’s castle had been the grand duke or the grand duke’s heir, then Hannah would be a child with imperial blood.

It would indeed be a secret Joanna could never dare to report and would carry to her grave. A child of imperial blood born unintentionally to a maid would have no way to live peacefully.

“That is a highly plausible inference, my lady,” Lindsay said, nodding. Then she continued.

“However, it’s also possible that for Joanna, the incident was simply a nightmare she wanted to forget and never mention again. And for a commoner maid, even a low-ranking noble or knight who frequented the grand duke’s castle would be a sufficiently high-status person. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be the grand duke she feared.”

“…That’s true.”

“Moreover, in the twenty-two years since Hannah was born and raised, no one ever came looking for Joanna. That means Hannah’s unknown father didn’t care that Joanna had run away and likely doesn’t even know of Hannah’s existence. So we can’t know for sure. Not unless we were to verify Hannah through an actual imperial bloodline test…”

Lilietta understood that the “bloodline test” Lindsay referred to was not the piece of paper she was looking at, but some other means.

“…But if, by some chance, Hannah really were the daughter of the Grand Duke of Adicle, and if the grand duke had absolutely no idea, and if such a child had been kept as a maid in Lascail… My lady, you understand now, don’t you? Just how complicated this could become.”

“…Yeah. I understand.”

Her head was spinning from the unexpected conclusion. Rita pressed a hand to her forehead and let out a sigh.

“So that’s why you had me study the family tree first today. I get why my parents chose not to dig any deeper back then. And why they said it was a complicated matter…”

“I also believe this is not something that should be pursued further. Unless Hannah herself is eager to know, that is. She doesn’t seem to want to know either. She appears to sense the kind of circumstances surrounding her birth.”

With a sigh, Lindsay added,

“But if there is a reason the mage who kidnapped you chose Hannah specifically as the body to possess—and if that reason is connected to her father’s bloodline—then we cannot simply pretend we don’t know. It’s possible that the mage belongs to the Adicle territory, that he is Hannah’s father, and that he was an accomplice of the man named Pascal who kidnapped you.”

“…Ha.”

“In that case, the one behind your kidnapping could be the Grand Duke of Adicle, and there may have been political motives. After all, the disappearance of just one Lascail princess resulted in this great house losing all vitality and going into seclusion. If it truly was Adicle’s scheme, it would have been an excellent and efficient form of restraint.”

Lindsay Dice spoke without hesitation, even though she stood before the very person involved—the princess of Lascail and victim of the incident.

She had come to understand her master’s personality over the past few days, but even so, it was an impertinent way of speaking. Her master might feel hurt or become angry and punish her. Lindsay stole a glance at her expression.

“Damn it…”

Lilietta merely let out a curse-laced sigh and, without much agitation, frowned as she asked,

“What reason would the Grand Duke of Adicle have to keep Lascail in check?”

The new mistress really is a cool-headed one. She understands quickly, too.

This will be worth serving.

Feeling a quiet sense of pride, Lindsay spoke.

“My lady, shall we look at the family tree once more?”

Pointing to the names marked with crowns, she continued.

“As you can see, the former emperor fell in love with and married a daughter of a humble baronial house so obscure it didn’t even warrant a territorial title. And the only son born from that union—His Majesty the current emperor… went even further and fathered a son with a commoner maid who didn’t even have a surname.”

That son was the current crown prince—born of a maid, later adopted into the imperial family by the current empress, and therefore of precarious bloodline legitimacy.

Rita looked down at the name beneath a crown slightly smaller than the emperor’s.

Gideon el Ledert Cairam.

‘A name that reminds me of Gid. No way that could be related, though.’