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Chapter 17
“I’ll be the guarantor!”
Mason had once said something like that.
The Duke had looked at Mason as if he were something insignificant—like an insect.
In other words, if not for Vanessa, Mason would never have met the Duke in the first place.
Could it be… because I interfered? Because I didn’t dance with Conrad that night… because my father died… did Mason’s fate change because of me?
While she was lost in such thoughts—
“Miss Vanessa.”
Vanessa flinched and turned around.
“…So it’s my time to die.”
The mustached man muttered under his breath.
At the open door stood Phileus.
“Please come outside.”
His voice was deeply subdued.
Caught off guard by his sudden appearance, Vanessa asked somewhat dazedly,
“Your Grace…? I thought you were in a meeting.”
“The air inside is unpleasant. Come out. We’ll talk on the way.”
Following him, she stepped outside and found a carriage waiting for them.
Vanessa ended up sitting across from Phileus without thinking.
It was their first meeting in three days. She had many questions, but what came out of her mouth was this:
“How did you know I was here?”
Phileus seemed to study her face.
“Are you asking that sincerely?”
“Would I be joking? And about Mason… how far back do you know about him?”
“How far back?”
Phileus lowered his head.
“Ah, truly. Miss Vanessa, you’re sometimes so innocent it’s adorable.”
“…What?”
“Did you really think I would let you wander around alone? ‘How far back,’ you say. From the very beginning, of course.”
He shrugged lightly and laughed.
Watching him, Vanessa recalled the day she had first been taken to his estate. She had thought he was crying—but now it seemed he had been smiling even then.
“Don’t laugh.”
“Ah, forgive me. I’m always like this. But I’m not laughing at you.”
Is that really true?
Vanessa had always believed she held the upper hand in their relationship.
He was the one who had fallen for her, the one who treated her as though she were some sort of goddess.
And yet she still did not know his face. She did not know what expression he wore when he whispered those sweet words.
Then what about me? What exactly am I doing with a man whose face I don’t even know?
Whenever she looked at him, she felt a tangled mess of emotions. And meeting him again after three days only confirmed something—much of that emotion was a kind of… sense of conquest.
A sense of conquest toward a man twice her size.
She knew that if he truly wished it, he could end her life at any moment—both metaphorically and literally.
And yet, if she ordered it, he would kneel before her without hesitation.
Of course… that’s only if everything he shows me is real.
But how could she trust this suspicious man?
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
Vanessa shook her head, brushing the thoughts away.
“Nothing. Anyway, we need to help Mason quickly. He has nothing to do with Duke Valendorf. He may have been dragged into something terrible because of me.”
“Is Mason Frost important to you?”
Phileus asked suddenly.
“Well… Mason has always been by my side. He’s my oldest friend. And yet I couldn’t even save him.”
“Always by your side, yet he merely watched while your father abused you? Doesn’t sound like a very sincere friend.”
“Watched? He didn’t—”
“He didn’t know. Is that what you truly believe?”
Of course he must have known. But that did not necessarily mean Mason had been insincere.
“I never asked him for help.”
“As far as I know, Mason Frost never asked you for help either.”
“So you’re saying you don’t want to help?”
“Of course not. Helping you is the reason I live.”
There he goes again…
Vanessa lowered her gaze.
“Your Grace.”
“Yes, Miss Vanessa.”
“You once told me you hide your face because you don’t wish to speak to those who are of no interest to you. Then why do you hide it even from me? If, as you say, you’ve fallen for me—if you even like me even a little…”
“Don’t doubt me.”
His hand came to rest on the back of hers.
“Please… do not doubt that, Miss Vanessa.”
Doubt.
There was a time when doubt was what kept me alive.
How ironic.
Vanessa quietly looked down at the place where his fingers brushed hers.
A message had arrived from the “broker.”
The tiara had been identified as an ancient artifact. Further research would be required.
An anonymous patron had offered a vast sum. The tiara would first be loaned to the Imperial University for study, and afterward would become part of the patron’s collection.
Half the payment would be given upfront, with the remainder negotiated after the research concluded.
Vanessa agreed.
It was more than enough to clear her debt to Duke Valendorf and the Frost Baron’s household.
Thus, all debts were settled.
And the next day, a letter arrived at the Frost household addressed to the eldest son.
It was unnecessarily long, but the conclusion was simple: he would be staying at the Duke’s residence for the time being, so there was no need to worry.
The Duke had offered him a position as an aide. Training would take time, so he would be able to come and go for a while, but his living conditions would be more than adequate.
The Baron of Frost seemed relieved. Becoming an aide to Duke Valendorf was a promotion worth celebrating.
The Baron’s wife, however, sensed something was wrong—but did not dare confirm it.
“I have a plan.”
Phileus said, holding a bishop in one hand and a knight in the other.
His plan was simple:
One: Kidnap Alexei Valendorf and drop him from a height that would not kill him immediately.
Two: Make him reveal Mason Frost’s whereabouts.
Three: Drop Alexei Valendorf from a height that would kill him immediately.
As if that would ever work…
Phileus came to visit Vanessa at dawn again.
Somehow, they were sitting across a chessboard, though the game wasn’t progressing at all.
“It’s probably impossible. Given the Duke’s temperament, we should be grateful if he doesn’t spit at us instead of confessing,” Nicola said, opening the window to let in the fresh morning air.
“How do you know that, Nicola?”
“I learned things in the Imperial Palace when I was young. Back then I used to run errands in the annex where the Duke—he was still young Lord Valendorf then—used to stay.”
“So you know what kind of person he is?”
Nicola thought for a moment.
“Duke Valendorf is… how should I put it… a very famous… bastard?”
Vanessa flinched, and Nicola quickly apologized.
“I’m sorry, Miss. That was crude. I was trying to put it simply… heh…”
“It’s fine. It’s been a while since I’ve heard that word. But for a young nobleman to be called that by a maid…”
Nicola quickly waved her hands.
“No, no, there’s nothing like that you could dig up on him. But… well… he treats commoners like they’re less than insects. He always looks at us with disgust… and if we make even a small mistake, we get slapped… and he always makes someone else do it. As if he doesn’t want to dirty his own hands.”
Ah. So it’s that kind of person.
He was a monstrous man—but outside of the imperial family, no one in the empire could openly criticize him.
Vanessa suddenly remembered what happened at Marquis Blackwood’s estate. That day, Phileus had said he would “finish” gouging out the Duke’s remaining eye—as if the Duke’s lost right eye itself bore responsibility.
Vanessa knocked over Phileus’s pawn.
“Can you tell me what happened between you and the Duke in the past? The Crown Prince said you two were… broken on the battlefield.”
Phileus gave a small laugh.
“Did Fritz say that? Well, in my case it might be true. But not for Duke Valendorf. He has always been… that kind of person. I cannot agree he was ever ‘clean’ in that sense. The women who could testify are all buried in the ground.”
Vanessa’s hand froze.
“Are you saying the Duke is a murderer?”
