The Counterfeit
The sky, which had been gloomy all day, was now completely shrouded in dark clouds. It looked as if rain might fall at any moment, yet not a single drop came down.
Labi had brought me to the residence of the northern vassals. I wondered whether the Huerton Countess might be here. With that thought in mind, I looked out the carriage window, but we had stopped at a separate building some distance from the main house.
“We’ll walk from here.”
Labi draped a black cloak over my head. He put one on himself as well, then guided me forward.
We followed the narrow, winding path until an old cabin appeared. Labi took a key from his pocket and unlocked the door.
I removed the cloak and looked around. The room smelled of damp wood and was empty of people.
“This is where the Huerton Countess stayed until a few days ago. We’ve moved her to the Northern Archduchy now to keep her out of sight.”
Labi, who had followed me inside, lit the lantern hanging on the wall. The dark room brightened faintly. In the lamplight, a necklace and several scribbled papers lay on the wooden table.
“These are the things the Countess collected. Every one of them bears an image of the Duchess.”
I took the candle Labi offered and examined the room more closely. Small framed portraits of my face hung everywhere my eyes landed. The locket necklace, the doodles on paper—every surface held my likeness.
It was eerie beyond words. My whole body tensed without my realizing it.
“Sir Telia.”
“Yes, Duchess.”
“You finished investigating the Huerton family days ago. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Labi silently avoided my gaze. I wasn’t scolding him; I simply wanted to understand why he had made that choice.
“His Grace Archduke Hellion ordered me not to inform you until we had irrefutable evidence.”
“Hellion?”
“Yes.”
“Then is it all right for you to show me this now, against his orders?”
At my question, Labi blinked his green eyes and smiled softly.
“Because I am your knight, Duchess.”
He placed a hand over his heart and bowed to me.
“On the day we visited the southern vassals’ residence, you told me that before I was a northerner, I was your knight. Did you not?”
“I did.”
“This is how I repay that kindness. I may receive some punishment if this is discovered later, but it’s nothing serious. You were going to learn of it eventually anyway.”
“…Thank you, Sir Telia.”
Labi nodded as though he understood everything and led me to the desk. While I sat examining the locket, he retrieved a long document from a box behind him.
“This is the journal recording our conversations with the Huerton Countess. My brother Aron and I wrote it together.”
I accepted the papers. It was a log covering two full weeks.
“Read it slowly. There is a great deal written here.”
Labi quietly moved to a section of the wall outside my direct line of sight. I took a deep breath and began reading from the first page.
We rescued Countess Huerton after she was nearly attacked. The discovery location was her protector’s house. The attackers’ identities remain unknown, but they are presumed to be agents sent from the Southern Archduchy.
For the past several weeks, multiple parties have been monitoring the Countess. She spent most of her time indoors, so there were no major incidents, but the house was suddenly raided around ten o’clock this afternoon for reasons we have yet to determine.
All attackers were rendered unconscious, leaving no witnesses. We brought the Countess to our safe house, but the shock appears to have been severe; she remains unconscious.
— Labi Telia Record
The Huerton Countess has regained consciousness, but seizures continue. Even with trusted maids attending her, she shows little sign of calming down.
We stationed watchers at the protector’s house. Upon realizing the Countess had vanished, the protector seemed relieved and discarded all of her belongings outside. We retrieved them under cover of dawn. Most were lockets containing portraits of Duchess Winteara.
When we brought the items to the room where the Countess is staying, she finally grew calm. She calls the Duchess in the paintings her daughter. When I told her this was not her daughter, she began to curse me, so I quickly apologized. It seems best to indulge her delusion for the time being.
— Aron Telia Record
The Huerton Countess is not completely mad. As time passes, her mind grows clearer and her eyes gentler. The maids who attend her say there are signs of long-term abuse across her body. It appears that leaving a person of unsound mind unattended has only worsened her condition.
Today she improved enough for coherent conversation. When I asked who I was, I answered that I was a northern vassal who had come with Archduke Hellion, and that we had brought her here after she was nearly killed by assailants.
I asked if she remembered who she was. After a long silence, the Countess began to sob bitterly as if everything had come back to her. Further conversation was impossible. We had to be satisfied with this much for today.
— Aron Telia Record
Early this morning, the Huerton Countess sent a maid to request a meeting with me. She said that while her mind was clear she would tell me the whole truth. The story she told was entirely different from what the world has been led to believe.
Ciera Huerton was poisoned. The person who murdered her was the former Southern Archduke Voltero.
After the crown prince passed away, the Southern Archduchy and the Huerton family broke their engagement. The former Archduke Voltero sent an expensive tea as a consolation gift to Lady Ciera.
That was when Lady Ciera’s health began to deteriorate rapidly. A quick-witted maid took the tea to a physician, who discovered it contained a rare and difficult-to-obtain poison.
By the time they realized what had happened, Lady Ciera’s illness was already too advanced. Count Huerton went to see the former Archduke Voltero, but the man did not even blink. Instead, he said this:
‘My son says he does not need the throne and would rather live married to your daughter. If one of them must die to end this, how could it possibly be my son?’
When Count Huerton realized this could not be settled within the South, he attempted to inform the capital and the Northern Archduchy of the former Archduke Voltero’s crime.
Around that time, Lady Ciera, sensing her own death, met with Archduke Illid one last time before she died. Upon hearing the news, the former Archduke Voltero twisted the incident into an assassination attempt. He claimed Lady Ciera had tried to kill Archduke Illid and that the Huerton couple stood behind the plot.
The former Archduke Voltero had noticed Count Huerton’s contact with the capital and the North. If the truth became known throughout the empire, it would hinder his son’s path to becoming crown prince. So he framed Count Huerton and executed him without any proper procedure.
The unjustly killed Count Huerton left no final words because he hoped to save his remaining wife.
— Aron Telia Record
Many assassins sent from the South still remain in the capital. They are searching for any trace of the missing Huerton Countess. Judging that it is no longer safe for her to stay here, we have decided to move her residence to the Northern Archduchy.
After revealing everything to us, the Countess’s condition improved noticeably. When we told her we would take her north, she seemed greatly relieved and said she wished to meet the former Archduchess Alensia and tell her the entire truth.
The carriage carrying the Countess will depart early tomorrow morning. It will be listed as a wagon transporting northern-bound specialty goods from the capital, so it should avoid suspicion. With this, we conclude the records concerning the Huerton Countess in the capital.
— Aron Telia Record
My hands would not stop shaking as I read to the final line. The shock and exhaustion were so intense I could barely breathe.
I set the document down on the table. Only then did I notice a final page I had missed.
‘There’s still more?’
I turned past the sheet written in Aron’s handwriting. The last page was written in Labi’s hand.
This afternoon, while walking with Shuri, I witnessed a strange scene. A noblewoman was loudly berating a young woman, demanding how she could sell such a counterfeit. The servant accompanying the noblewoman handed the woman a large framed painting.
Upon closer inspection, the woman was the Huerton Countess’s protector. With an irritated expression, she took the frame to the edge of the slums and discarded it.
Shuri retrieved the abandoned painting. Once again, it was a portrait of Duchess Winteara. It appears to have belonged to the Huerton Countess. The protector must not have thrown it away deliberately because it looked valuable.
According to the maids, this seems to be the painting the Countess had been searching for. Before leaving, the Countess said we could discard all the items she had collected. However, she said she did not know where she had lost the largest portrait.
For a painting dismissed as a counterfeit, it was remarkably detailed. Shuri plans to ask Lady Riceri to verify its authenticity before deciding what to do with it.
— Labi Telia Record
“Duchess, could you look at this for a moment?”
As I set the papers down, Labi called to me. I rose slowly and walked to the inner wall where he stood.
Labi reached out and drew back a black curtain. When he raised the lantern, a large portrait was revealed.
A woman with flowing golden hair smiled gently at me.
It was my appearance at around nineteen years of age. Yet I had never worn those clothes or accessories, nor stood before a painter. It had to be a counterfeit.
“Is this the portrait of me that the Huerton Countess lost?”
Rather than answer, Labi remained heavily silent. He stepped closer to the painting and pointed to the right edge.
I brought the lantern near the spot he indicated. Small letters were written there.
Ciera Riley Huerton
I slowly lifted my head and looked at her—at the woman who resembled me. She looked so much like me that even I could have mistaken her for myself.
The counterfeit was me.
To him, I was her counterfeit.