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Chapter 31
“It’s all right. I suppose Kamin is lucky—having such a kind younger sister.”
Once I heard the circumstances, I understood why she had been watching me so strangely. I gave a bitter smile.
“When I was thrown out of my home, no one helped me. Not even my sisters.”
At my words, Susan fell silent. I stood up and stretched my back.
Thinking about it now, Riena Fond had truly been a pitiful person.
If she’d had a proper family, David would have tried to dissuade her, saying it was a bad match.
Perhaps it was fortunate that she had escaped like this.
And that’s how I met Kamin.
I shrugged. That was honestly how I felt.
“I used to think the world was a place I had to push through on my own. So I was surprised when Kamin readily said he would protect me. He’s someone I can trust and rely on. I think meeting him was a stroke of luck.”
Which meant I should treat Kamin well, too.
Last time I saw him, he seemed to like Korean food. When harvest season comes, I should pound some rice cakes and give them to him. He’d probably enjoy that.
Rice wasn’t the staple crop of this world, but because I craved it, I had been growing a small patch of rice on the outskirts of Fostin.
Ugh, but it’s not chewy glutinous rice—so disappointing. I had no idea sticky rice was this hard to grow!
Still, the fact that rice could grow at all was remarkable. Rice farming required tremendous effort, and without Fostin’s almost uncanny balance of rainfall and sunlight, it wouldn’t have been possible.
As I was already fluttering with excitement, imagining the foods I’d make for Kamin, Susan finally relaxed. She laughed softly and waved her hands.
“Oh, honestly, my brother isn’t that dependable. He nags a lot, and he’s terribly rigid.”
“He nags?”
“Yes, yes. ‘Don’t be picky with food,’ ‘You have to study hard,’ things like that. Meanwhile, he barely has time to eat properly himself and just grabs a sandwich or something.”
As I pictured Kamin nagging, Susan hunched her shoulders and smiled shyly.
“But he’s never once told me I shouldn’t do something. When I asked him to buy me a pony to learn horseback riding, or when I wanted a wooden practice sword, he always said I should do what I was good at.”
That really did sound like Kamin. With me as well, he’d praised how knowledgeable I was, never belittling me for doing something like farming.
“Please take good care of my brother.”
“I should be the one saying that.”
Susan and I bowed to each other repeatedly. With a small chuckle, she added,
“And if things ever get hard, please talk to me too. We’re going to be family now.”
“Susan…”
I was just feeling touched by her words when—
“Let us in!”
“This is a challenge to Fostin!”
Loud voices rang out from beyond the garden. It was clearly a commotion at the main gate.
What on earth is this?
Normally, I wouldn’t have paid it any mind, but today I was in the lord’s castle, and it made me uneasy. Especially since my father had been here not long ago.
Just as I rose anxiously, the butler—who seemed to be searching for me—looked around and locked eyes with me.
It was Susan who asked him first.
“What’s all this about?”
“Well, miss, your gloves—ah! No, pardon me. I’m sorry. There are people attempting to enter the lord’s residence without permission, which has caused the disturbance.”
Startled by the gloves on Susan’s hands, the butler bowed deeply and explained the situation. Then he turned toward me and spoke in a lowered voice.
“Miss Riena, it would be best for you to stay inside the greenhouse. Your father has come to see you.”
At those words, I tightened my grip on the shears I was holding.
My unease had become reality.
***
As the butler had said, the one who had come to the lord’s residence was none other than Riena’s father—the Duke of Fond.
After withdrawing from his previous conversation with Riena, the duke had properly obtained the king’s approval and arrived in Fostin at the head of a contingent of soldiers.
It was nothing less than a declaration of intent to drag Riena back by force if necessary.
What a shameless brute.
Kamin, pretending to be Lady Aurelian’s escort knight so he could observe the duke, was ultimately driven out of Lady Aurelian’s audience chamber.
“His Majesty is currently Riena’s lover, is he not? In a moment of anger, you might cause an incident. I cannot permit that.”
It was something only a grandmother who knew her grandson well could say. Kamin was generally calm and rational, but when faced with what he considered injustice, he could display a force beyond anyone’s imagination.
As if I’d just give up because of that.
So Kamin hid himself in the corridor leading to the audience chamber, hoping at least to gauge the duke’s intentions.
What he saw did nothing to improve his impression.
He doesn’t resemble her at all—yet somehow does. It’s deeply unsettling.
The shape of his eyes, his jawline, even his ears unmistakably betrayed his blood relation to Riena.
And he’s no easy opponent.
A territorial lord was effectively the king of a small autonomous realm. Forcing entry with soldiers was tantamount to declaring war, which was why royal approval was required.
Yet the man who had committed such an outrage under the pretext of retrieving his daughter looked perfectly serene.
The man who discarded his daughter once she was no longer useful.
Kamin studied him with a cold gaze, then abruptly turned away.
Even if Riena forgives him, I never will.
***
When the doors to the audience chamber closed, Lady Aurelian faced the Duke of Fond. With a gentlemanly smile, he greeted her.
“It’s been a long time, Lady Aurelian. Or should I call you the Lord of Fostin?”
He elegantly implied that addressing her as the former empress was a courtesy, despite her being merely the lord of insignificant Fostin.
It was the typical rhetoric of central nobles. Having dealt with countless such figures during her time as empress, Lady Aurelian was unimpressed. She cut him off with cool detachment.
“We’re hardly close enough to speak of ‘a long time.’ This old woman has always secluded herself in Fostin, while you, Duke of Fond, are one of the thickest roots of the central aristocracy. You may speak more casually.”
Go on, show off if you like. I’ll set the stage for you.
At her graceful yet cutting remark, the duke lowered his eyes.
“No matter how prominent I may be among the central nobles, how could I dare to speak down to Lady Aurelian?”
You should have done that from the start. Lady Aurelian lifted her chin, naturally assuming a position where she looked down on him despite his higher rank.
“So, what brings you all the way to this backwater?”
“I’ve come to thank you for taking care of my daughter for all these years.”
“Riena is a bright and diligent child, beloved by everyone in Fostin. It’s not as though I alone looked after her.”
Just when her reply seemed harmless, an icy spike crept into Lady Aurelian’s voice.
“And she no longer uses the name Fond, so there’s no reason for you to offer thanks.”
“Lady Aurelian.”
She’s not your daughter—why are you interfering?
It was a question sharp enough to provoke the duke, who had come precisely to reclaim that daughter as his own again. He faced her without even a ceremonial smile.
“I am here to take Riena with me.”
“Oh my. Then you’re a step too late. Riena said she wished to travel some time ago. I issued her a travel pass.”
“There is no territory nearby that has allowed passage to anyone from Fostin.”
So he had investigated even that. A ruthless father. Lady Aurelian propped her chin on her hand and replied indifferently.
“Then she must have gone far away.”
“You mean a child whose only journey since birth was coming to this territory?”
“What exactly are you trying to say, Duke of Fond?”
Lady Aurelian straightened and faced him directly. The duke finally revealed his true purpose.
“His Highness Crown Prince David has been longing for Riena. He has at last seen through the true nature of the woman who pretended to be a saint.”
So that was the reason. He’d suddenly come to retrieve the daughter he had once ignored.
‘True nature,’ indeed. His affections were shallow to begin with—and just as lightly, he transferred them to someone else.
