IOPAFP 29

Chapter 29

Gulp.

I swallowed hard.

Could I tell him? It should be okay, right?

I cautiously watched Marquis Lewendif’s expression as I hesitated. I knew he’d gone all-in on me, but asking him to dig up information on Noten was a different matter.

“Well, the thing is….”

“Yes. Please, tell me, Your Highness.”

Should I say it? Really?

My mouth went completely dry. Seeing me like that, Marquis Lewendif nodded twice in quick succession, as if urging me to speak and assuring me that he could handle anything.

“It’s Duke Merchen.”

“Pardon?”

“Noten Merchen.”

“Ah….”

Wait! Didn’t you just say you’d do anything I asked?

Where did that loyal look in his eyes go?!

I frowned without realizing it. Seeing my dissatisfied expression, Marquis Lewendif belatedly ran his hands over his face repeatedly before speaking.

“So that’s why you were hesitating. He is quite a high-ranking figure, after all.”

His uncertain response made it seem like he wasn’t confident about doing it.

Darn it. I shouldn’t have said anything.

Still, I had to try holding on until the very end, right? This wasn’t just for anything—it was for Killian!

“Yeah. It would probably be difficult, right?”

I asked timidly, but the marquis answered with a sly grin.

“If it isn’t me, no one else could do it.”

“You’ll do it?”

“Of course, Your Highness. I may not look it, but I’m the only person who has ever defeated Duke Merchen in a duel.”

“Really? You did? I had no idea.”

“Ahem. It was when we were young, though….”

“So what if you were young? A victory is a victory.”

I praised Marquis Lewendif enthusiastically because he seemed embarrassed….

“I was eighteen, and Duke Merchen was twelve. And even then, I barely won.”

“Haah… come on….”

Why did you have to be unnecessarily honest?

I was a little taken aback, but I held it in and encouraged Marquis Lewendif. It wasn’t as if I had anything else I could do.

“Merchen is famous for its swordsmanship, and they’re a guardian family that protects the Empire. So that’s understandable. He’s gotten stronger now, hasn’t he, Marquis?”

“Hahahaha. Of course, Your Highness. But may I ask why you are investigating Duke Merchen?”

I was wondering when he would ask. But I had no intention of answering. Not yet.

“I can’t tell you that yet.”

“Could it possibly have something to do with Lord Killian Merchen?”

I swallowed hard.

He’s pretty sharp.

It did have something to do with Killian, but I couldn’t tell him that either.

I waved my hands wildly and shouted.

“Ah! I told you not to be curious! You said you’d do it, so just do it without asking questions!”

“Without… asking questions?”

“Don’t ask anything and don’t question anything! Ah! No questions, no objections!”

“Wow…. I’ve learned something new from you, Your Highness. You really are impossible to keep up with! Hahahaha! I’ll have to come up with something like that myself next time. Look forward to it, Your Highness!”

Go ahead and spend a hundred days thinking about it.

You’ll never catch up.

I came from the land of absurdly shortened words, after all.

“Anyway, Marquis, I’m counting on you. I’ll tell you the reason when the time comes, so dig up everything you can about Duke Merchen. Where he goes, what he does, whom he meets, even what he eats. If possible, I’d also like you to find out what’s happening in his territory and mansion.”

At my words, Marquis Lewendif nodded.

Just a moment ago, he’d been joking about whether he’d beaten Duke Merchen or lost to him, but now his expression was deadly serious.

“Don’t worry, Your Highness. I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you, Marquis. But like I said earlier, if things look like they’re becoming dangerous, you have to pull out. I mean it. Value your life. You have to live happily with the daughter this body found for you, remember? Understood?”

“Yes, Your Highness. I will.”

“Good. Then you can go now.”

“Pardon? Already? I have so much to tell Your Highness…. It would take too long to write it all in a letter. You see, yesterday that Adele fellow….”

Yaaawn.

I must have fallen asleep while listening to his nonstop chatter. When I opened my eyes, I was lying snugly wrapped in my blankets on the bed, and Marquis Lewendif was nowhere to be seen.

Wow. He really was quite the chatterbox.

I’m exhausted.

“All right. Shall we move on to the next step?”

Come to think of it, I don’t see Liz. Where did she go, and what is she doing?

Emperor Lovis of the Saliant Empire opened a small door hidden behind thick curtains at the back of his office. Then he proceeded down a dark passageway.

Once a year, whenever he opened this door, his breathing grew heavy and his heart felt constricted.

Had it become a habit?

Eventually, he reached the door at the end.

Beyond it, the small room was densely filled with people who had come to wait for him, each carrying their own memories.

“Thank you all for coming.”

“It is our honor, Your Majesty.”

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Lovis immediately spotted someone.

Someone he couldn’t even allow himself to miss as much as he wanted because of the guilt in his heart.

“Marquis, you’ve come.”

“Have you been well, Your Majesty? It has been a year since I last saw you.”

“I keep telling you that we should see each other more often, yet you stay in your territory all the time…. I have to hand it to you, Marquis. You’re certainly stubborn.”

Along with a bitter smile, Marquis Austin Donovan bowed to Lovis.

His hair had grown even whiter over the past year.

The marquis had secluded himself in his territory for seven years now. Feeling sorry for him, Lovis was about to say something more when Liz, who had checked the clock, quietly spoke.

“The time has come, Your Majesty.”

At her words, everyone’s gaze turned toward one place.

Toward the wall where a portrait hung.

A portrait of Empress Cheryl Donovan Mond—the woman Lovis, and everyone else in the room, had loved more than anyone.

“Empress.”

The portrait hanging alone on the wall was the only thing she had left behind.

Lovis forced his lips apart, which seemed unable to move.

The voice that emerged from his bitter mouth was strangely sweet.

So sweet that it felt almost contradictory.

“It’s been a long time. You’ve been waiting for us for so long, haven’t you? I’m sorry. I’m sorry for making you wait alone in this small, dark room. I’m a husband who couldn’t protect his wife, yet as emperor, there was always so much I had to do. I couldn’t help it.”

Lovis spoke to the portrait.

The beloved woman he longed to reach out and embrace immediately only smiled at him without answering.

“Tia is growing up well. I’ve been doing my best so she won’t feel your absence…. Liz, whom you cherished so much, has been helping me a lot, so don’t worry.”

“That’s right, Your Majesty. Her Highness the Princess looks exactly like you, Your Majesty. She’s such a cheerful child. And she has quite the foul mouth, too…. Ah! I didn’t mean that!”

Liz chimed in.

Her slightly amused voice eased the heavy atmosphere.

Lovis continued speaking.

“I was always nervous that she’d go astray, and even though I knew I shouldn’t, I often gave in to her…. But now that she’s seven, it seems she’s finally growing up a little. Not long ago, she even bought me a gift. Soon, I intend to tell her about you. I only hope Tia will be able to accept it.”

Marquis Donovan let out a low groan and nodded.

Celestia had everything that no one else possessed, yet she lacked the one thing everyone else had.

A mother.

Lovis couldn’t tell his daughter that.

Perhaps he hadn’t wanted to tell her back then either.

Because he felt that if he said it aloud, he wouldn’t be able to endure Cheryl’s absence.

He felt as though even the right to miss her would be taken away from him by his daughter.

So he kept silent.

He made everyone else keep silent as well.

For Celestia, who had inherited a sensitive temperament, he believed that was the best thing he could do.

But now that the time had come to reveal the truth, he was afraid of the aftermath….

Still, it was time to set things right.

If only for Cheryl, who existed solely within that framed portrait.

“I’ve been doing all the talking. Her father is giving me quite the look, so I’ll hand over the turn now.”

Lovis gently placed a hand on Austin’s shoulder.

With reddened eyes, Austin stood before the portrait of his daughter.

“Cheryl, my only daughter. Just as much as I miss you, you must miss me too, don’t you? So today, at least, I won’t cry. I won’t say that I miss you.”

Yet contrary to his words, Austin’s voice trembled.

“You left for a place where I couldn’t even follow you, without ever giving me the chance to properly be your father….”

The entire Empire knew how deeply Marquis Austin Donovan cherished his daughter—or, more precisely, his adopted daughter, Cheryl, who wasn’t related to him by blood.

When Cheryl became empress, no one dared speak about her uncertain origins.

That was partly thanks to Emperor Lovis, who was hopelessly devoted to his wife and doted on her shamelessly.

But it was also thanks to Austin.

“You’ve gone off somewhere I can’t reach, and this father has been terribly lonely.”

Austin gave a weak laugh.

Then he glanced at Lovis once before speaking.

“If Your Majesty permits it, I’ll take good care of the princess in your place. Don’t you dare look down from wherever you are and become jealous.”

After Austin finished paying his respects, Liz took her turn.

After her came the knight who had once served as Cheryl’s escort.

One by one, the few people present finished their farewells.

Finally, Lovis stood before the wall once again.

“Empress. Cheryl…. I know you must be disappointed that Tia isn’t here again today, but please bear with us a little longer. It’s my fault that Tia has grown up without even being able to call you ‘Mom’ or remember you. Our daughter did nothing wrong. I believe that you, of all people, would understand.”

Lovis gazed intently at Cheryl in the portrait, as though waiting for an answer.

Then he turned his gaze toward the people gathered around him.

“Until then, we’ll remember you more, and we’ll miss you more.”

Everyone nodded.

Each wearing a smile that could be seen clearly even in the darkness.

It was a day when the sky poured rain over the entire world, as though it were crying in place of Lovis, Austin, Liz, and everyone else who had loved Cheryl.