Chapter 146
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 146
Leopold exhaled a ragged breath. Still, the Chief Lady-in-Waiting’s confident gaze and her willingness to stake her life on this swayed his skeptical heart.
“You must know something I don’t.”
Peter bowed his head.
With a powerful surge, the King’s carriage began its ascent up the slope toward the main building. Fine gravel crunched beneath the sturdy wheels.
In an instant, the main building of Reinhardt loomed before them. Leopold, pulling on his white silk gloves, cast a sharp glance at the bowing Peter.
“Fine. Have it your way.”
“Thank you.”
“But if you fail, your head will not remain on your shoulders this time.”
Peter raised his head and replied, “Yes, Your Majesty.”
He then turned his gaze out the carriage window to assess the situation. The moment he looked, he spotted her.
Barbara Wald.
The shrewd old wolf guarding Reinhardt.
She stood like a stone statue in the center of the sprawling estate. He could feel her razor-sharp, vigilant gaze piercing right through the King’s carriage.
Despite her age, her prowess showed no signs of waning. While nested in the den of his natural enemy, the one thing Peter had feared most was Barbara Wald’s beast-like intuition. She was the first person he wanted to kill, yet also the one he had tried hardest to avoid.
But to catch a wolf, one had to enter the wolf’s den.
Peter circulated his mana to relax his muscles as much as possible. Pretending to adjust his uniform, he raised the collar to better cover his Adam’s apple.
Having crested the slope, the carriage slowed sharply. Once it came to a complete halt, the door was opened from the outside.
“Your Majesty!”
A bright, clear voice drifted in with the wind.
A gorgeously dressed Sabine von Jerome stood as if she were the master of the estate, welcoming the King. Beside her was Charlotte, the one who had opened the gates of the Wolf’s Forest.
Charlotte bowed gracefully as the King stepped down from the carriage.
“A warm welcome to Reinhardt, Your Majesty. Please, come inside.”
“Ahaha, Marchioness.” The King, lightly kissing Sabine’s cheek, let out a pleasant laugh directed at Charlotte. “Thanks to you, I finally get to visit the Marquisate Residence.”
“I should have hosted Your Majesty much sooner. Please forgive my negligence.”
“Forgive you? Think nothing of it.”
“It was prepared so suddenly that it is quite lacking. While chatting with the Dowager Lady, she mentioned she wanted to have dinner here tonight. So, I thought, why not invite Your Majesty as well? That is how this came about.”
Although the true master of the massive estate was absent, no one acknowledged the fact. From the wide-open terrace of the second-floor Central Hall, the sweet melody of an orchestra and bursts of warm laughter drifted out continuously.
“Please, go on in, Your Majesty. Sabine, attend to His Majesty well.”
At her mother’s words, Sabine smiled charmingly, and Leopold gently took her hand.
Charlotte turned toward the pitch-black main hall that lay beyond a roaring wolf statue, which resembled the gaping maw of a beast. As she led the way, the King and Sabine followed, with the King's Chief Lady-in-Waiting trailing behind them like a shadow.
Standing tall like a stone statue, Barbara mechanically bowed her head. Her posture was impeccably polite, but her downcast gaze held a tense, icy coldness.
An unfamiliar scent drifted past her.
When Barbara straightened her back, the King’s Chief Lady-in-Waiting was passing the roaring wolf statue.
It was Barbara’s first time properly seeing the Chief Lady-in-Waiting, who was also known as the phantom of the royal palace. That was how rarely she stepped outside its walls. Rumor had it the woman had a severe allergy to tobacco, coughing fitfully at even the faintest whiff of smoke.
Her height, well over the average for a woman, seemed to be around 180 centimeters. The reason she didn’t appear that tall was likely due to her sloped shoulders and swaying gait. As Barbara habitually committed the woman’s physique, stride, and even her scent to memory, her eyes narrowed.
Despite its seemingly gentle posture, her back revealed no openings.
“Senior.”
A wolf approached from behind her.
Barbara quietly turned and walked to the edge of the stairs, which overlooked a silent fountain.
The sun was setting in the west. A reddish light clung to the pointed treetops like a thick mist.
“We greet His Majesty the King!”
At that moment, cheers erupted from the second-floor Central Hall. The shouts soon subsided, replaced by a low voice as the King began to speak, followed by hearty laughter. The orchestra then struck up a powerful, grand piece; with the King’s arrival, Charlotte’s party would now reach its climax.
Charlotte’s announcement of the party had been a surprise attack.
No, it was a surprise attack.
“The King’s Royal Guard have all entered the mansion.”
“Their numbers?”
“Roughly a hundred.”
The red sunlight reflected in Barbara’s navy-blue eyes.
“And His Excellency has reportedly ordered the retrieval of the Marchioness’s Insignia and Seal.”
“……”
“Search Team 1 has received the order.”
Barbara glanced behind her. Beside Charlotte, who was laughing with the King, she saw Dietrich von Jerome.
Tension seized the back of Barbara’s neck as she stared straight ahead once more. Calming her mind and body with deep, slow breaths, the old wolf looked as if she were on the very brink of battle.
In truth, she had returned to the days when she roamed the battlefield. The King’s army, having entered the Wolf’s Forest so boldly, watched from every corner with gleaming eyes. But the men wearing Royal Guard uniforms were merely a deception.
The stagnant board had been shattered.
The King had made his move, and so had Charlotte and Oscar.
It was clear that Oscar had decided to counter Charlotte in a way she had never anticipated. He had no intention of paying the five hundred billion, nor did he intend to marry Abigail von Franz. That was why he had ordered the retrieval of the Marchioness’s Seal.
If so, what can I do to help Oscar secure an advantageous position on this board?
Beyond the tree shadows that resembled sharp cliffs, the red sun vanished. The light that had spread like mist was swallowed by the encroaching darkness, and the reflection in Barbara’s eyes faded along with it.
The moment she turned, thinking this might be the last sunlight she would see in her lifetime, a mysterious shadow passed by a window of the main building. Simultaneously, a flock of birds took flight from the Wolf’s Forest, their hurried fluttering a stark counterpoint to the sweet melody of the party.
A sense of crisis washed over her, so intense that every hair on her body stood on end.
The mansion was too vast, and the Backup Team was absent. The only forces inside were the Wolves directly under her command. This, however, was not a clash of military might.
It was a battle of justification.
Sensing Barbara’s tension, the wolf beside her tensed as well.
“Tell the Wolves remaining in the mansion: they are not to kill the King’s soldiers inside the Reinhardt estate.”
“But—!”
“Do not fight back under any circumstances. Hide as best you can and wait for His Excellency to arrive.”
“Then, shall I send a sparrowhawk to His Excellency…?”
“Sending a sparrowhawk now won’t change anything. It will only cause him unnecessary worry.”
For the first time in a long while, Barbara recalled her time infiltrating enemy ranks. As she remembered the enemies scattered everywhere and the moments when a single misstep meant certain death, her old heart began to race.
“The garden seen from here is truly beautiful.”
“The back garden where the lilacs bloom is also quite lovely, Your Majesty.”
The conversation between the King and Charlotte drifted down from above. Moving like a silent shadow, Barbara slipped into her office.
She scanned her surroundings with tense eyes, but fortunately, there were no signs of intrusion. Barbara pulled out every document that could potentially harm Reinhardt, threw them into a steel bin, and set them ablaze.
Then she opened the massive vault and checked inside. Oscar had the Marquis’s Insignia, but the Marquis’s Seal was here. The Pelfe Bank Vault Key that Seo-ah had brought was also here.
After verifying the most important items were secure, Barbara closed the vault, placed its key inside one of the numerous smaller safes, and locked that as well.
Finally, she pulled a gleaming blade from deep inside a drawer.
Skillfully lifting her skirt, she strapped a knife to each thigh, then held a thin, long blade flat against the inside of her forearm, securing it in place.
Quietly closing the door behind her, she stepped onto the servants’ stairs on the side of the main building, avoiding the central staircase. Taking care not to make even the slightest rustle of her skirt, the wolf climbed, her eyes gleaming fiercely in the dim light.
* * *
It has been a long time.
To think the day would come when I would enter this place so boldly again.
As he passed through the main gate of the Marquisate Residence, he recalled the last time he had set foot here. Both then and now, the person who had opened the gates of the Wolf’s Forest was the same.
Peter glanced at Charlotte’s back as she ascended the stairs with a swaying gait, then subtly scanned his surroundings.
The mansion hadn’t changed much.
It was still overwhelming and grand, exuding a chill that no fireplace could ever mask. This was no place for warmth. It was a mansion fit only for a sleek wolf with not an ounce of fat to spare—a place where a single red camellia blooming in the bitter cold felt more at home than fluttering leaves and fragrant flowers.