Chapter 159
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 159
Click.
The moment the door closed, Charlotte wrenched her hand from Dietrich’s grasp with all her might.
"This is why the servants don't even recognize me as their master. Because you act like this!"
"..."
"My seal is gone from the safe. It was there this afternoon when I took out the insignia, but it vanished without a trace while I was at Reinhardt. Someone broke into my safe, and you’re just letting them leave?"
Dietrich said nothing. Instead, he simply stared at the Marchioness's Insignia pinned to Charlotte's chest.
"Do you really think the maids of this mansion touched your safe? The head maid and most of the others went with you to Reinhardt. Ah, so perhaps it was the servants who remained behind?"
Dietrich let out a dry chuckle and shook his head.
"Somehow, I don't think so."
"..."
"And as I've told you before, the reason the servants of this mansion prioritize my orders over yours has nothing to do with my attitude."
The faint smile lingering on his face vanished completely.
"Marchioness Charlotte von Reinhardt."
"..."
"Do you truly believe the maids of my house stole your seal, Marchioness?"
He mocked her, his voice dripping with genuine derision.
"Even if they did, what use would it be to them? It's not as if the seal is made of gold they can melt down and sell. If they were caught with it, they wouldn’t escape severe punishment."
"Then who—"
"Then? If someone went to the trouble of breaking into the House of Count Jerome to steal a seal instead of gold bars… there is only one thing the thief could possibly want."
Charlotte felt a sudden, desperate urge to clap a hand over Dietrich's mouth, but he continued anyway.
"They want to ensure you can never play the part of the Marchioness again."
Crash!
Lightning flashed, followed by a crack of thunder that sounded as if it would split the sky.
Charlotte stood frozen, her chest heaving. As she drew in sharp, ragged breaths, her frantic agitation slowly cooled into a hard, focused rage.
"Are you trying to say Oscar took my seal?"
"That is for you to judge."
Charlotte offered a thin, brittle smile at his sarcasm. Spinning on her heel, she marched toward her room. Dietrich did not follow. Instead, Sabine, who had been warming herself by the fireplace, trailed after her.
Entering the room, Charlotte walked over to the messy, wide-open safe. The thief had left behind the numerous gold bars and expensive jewelry, taking only a single black box.
The Marchioness's Seal, a few heirlooms passed down through generations of House Reinhardt, and…
"No…"
A chill shot down her spine as her thoughts landed on Ernst's letters. Charlotte began frantically rummaging through the safe again. Sabine watched with wide, stunned eyes as her mother wildly dragged out gold bars, jewels, and various land deeds.
"Mother, what on earth are you looking for?"
"It's gone."
"What is?"
"It's gone!"
Charlotte's bloodshot eyes trembled.
"No. It was just a letter…"
She recalled Ernst's letters, which she had been unable to either discard or bring herself to open. Contained within thin military envelopes, they had felt surprisingly heavy.
Had they really been just letters?
If not, what had Ernst sent her?
As her thoughts spiraled, Sabine's voice broke the silence.
"Did you know? The woman who came to my exhibition… was the woman with the Marquis today."
When Charlotte turned to look at her, Sabine let out a smirk and murmured mockingly, "It was truly bizarre. For our esteemed Lord Marquis to personally grace my exhibition with his presence."
"Are you mocking me too, Sabine?"
"Well, isn't it true? When has the Marquis of Reinhardt ever treated me like a sister? Ever since we were young, those cold blue eyes of his were always filled with contempt. Surely you knew that?"
"..."
"Anyway, I couldn't help but wonder why the Marquis had bothered to attend."
Caressing her lips with her fingertips, Sabine widened her eyes and asked, "If that woman becomes the Marchioness, what will happen to you, Mother?"
"What do you mean by—!"
Charlotte flared up, but Sabine was a step faster.
"Will you be kicked out, just like you sent Grandmother away to the countryside?"
Charlotte's gaze turned fierce.
"Watch your tongue, Sabine."
But her daughter’s intensity was no less formidable than her own.
"If the Marquis took your seal, aren't you in a much worse position than Grandmother was? Besides, the Marquis seemed absolutely certain that you did something to that head maid, Barbara."
And he isn't wrong, either, Sabine added silently, staring intently at Charlotte before speaking again.
"I don't want you to be in trouble, Mother."
It was the sole reason Sabine had been designated as the future Queen. No one had ever explained it to her in so many words, but she was no fool.
If things went awry and her mother reached a point where she could no longer wield any of Reinhardt's power, King Leopold would undoubtedly discard her. Wasn't that why they had only remained engaged and had not yet held a wedding?
King Leopold was delaying the wedding, day after day, waiting until the situation became clearer. If the engagement were broken off, her fate would be far more wretched than it was now. She had absolutely no desire to become a mere noble lady who had almost become Queen.
"It's late. Let's talk more tomorrow, Mother."
Sabine lightly kissed Charlotte's cheek. Her mother, who would have once embraced her warmly, now only stared back with chillingly unfamiliar eyes, offering not a single word of affection.
But Sabine did not care. As she turned away, the expression on her face was a perfect mirror of her mother's.
Stepping out into the hallway, the damp, chilly air brushed against her skin. Walking down the corridor, Sabine instructed her personal maid, who had approached her.
"You know the people I use to deliver letters, correct?"
"Yes, my lady."
"Bring one of them to me. Secretly. Right now."
The maid bowed her head.
"I will be right back."
Sabine did not reply and kept walking. The flickering light of dozens of candles made her shadow sway precariously on the wall.
"Seo-ah…"
Slowly pronouncing the unique name—as striking as the woman herself—Sabine looked out the window at the pouring rain.
Today, her mother had killed Barbara Wald.
"Indeed, Seo-ah… when a person doesn't know their place, they invite disaster."
Sabine's sinister voice seeped into the humid air.
Meanwhile, Charlotte, who had been watching the spot where her daughter had left, also turned her gaze toward the rain-slicked window. As she marched toward the terrace, her feet stung from where her wet shoes had chafed them. Looking down, she saw a red, raw scrape, just as she had suspected.
She gnashed her teeth.
Charlotte ripped off her shoes and threw them with all her might.
Crash!
The hard heel smashed into the glass of a display cabinet, shattering it with a loud, chaotic noise, but her rage remained unappeased.
She stumbled toward the window and flung it wide open. The cursed rain dragged up unpleasant memories of the past, as it always did. Staring into the white sheets of pouring rain, Charlotte muttered fiercely, "Even so, I didn't leave you motherless."
House Reinhardt was prosperous now, but it hadn't been back then.
"What more was I supposed to do? I did my best. Any other woman in my position—ten out of ten—would have done the exact same thing."
That lowly creature, Barbara Wald, acting as if she were his mother and cornering her. Oscar assigning so many wolves to guard that ridiculous Outsider woman like a personal escort. And now, of all things, taking her seal?
"You shouldn't be doing this to me."
Not to your one and only mother.
One of the pieces on her board was becoming an immense irritation.
* * *
Around that same time, a bird rarely seen in those parts appeared over the Vermex Mountains, not far from Luxen. Gliding over the rugged mountain range, the creature suddenly began to dive. Slowing its descent, it landed at a shabby log cabin. Perching on a high roost, it folded its wings and rubbed its beak with its talons. Something was wrapped tightly around its thick ankle.
"Senior, a sparrowhawk has arrived."
"Really? Check where it came from."
The man who emerged from the cabin was an agent of the Reinhardt Intelligence Unit's communications team. After tossing a chunk of raw meat to the sparrowhawk, he carefully untied the leather pouch bound to its ankle. Though the outside of the pouch was damp from the rain, the contents were perfectly dry.
"Who is the recipient? Senior Barbara?"
"No."
He shook his head slightly as he reported, "It's from Rioher, and the recipient is His Excellency."
"Rioher? That's quite a distance. But to report directly to His Excellency instead of Senior Barbara… Is there some urgent matter in Rioher that warrants a direct report?"
"How would we know that from out here? At any rate, it looks urgent. I'll send it along immediately."
When his superior nodded, he entered the sparrowhawk coop. He selected the sturdiest bird among those trained to fly to the residence in Vies, then fastened the pouch to its ankle.
A moment later, the sparrowhawk took flight once more from the Vermex Mountains. It turned its head precisely in the direction of Vies and began to flap its wings vigorously.
"Vies is close, so it should arrive by tomorrow, right?"
The wolf who had sent the bird off watched it disappear from sight before stepping back into the cabin to answer his superior.
"Yes. It should arrive by tomorrow afternoon at the latest."
* * *
"What? Gone?"