Aria Frunhel
Aria Frunhel.
Aria Frunhel.
The young lady of the Frunhel family who had never once shown her face in noble society.
Yes, Aria Frunhel was young.
How young, you ask?
Young enough to be around the same age as the girl currently eating sweets in the reception room.
The moment that thought reached me—
“……Head Butler.”
A certain hypothesis rose in my mind.
A hypothesis so terrible that even calling it the absolute worst would still fall short.
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“What do you think the odds are that the girl who was hiding inside the box from the ducal house is, in fact, the young lady of the Frunhel Duchy who died in an accident?”
The Head Butler kept his silence.
Did that mean asking him wouldn’t change a thing, or that I was asking the wrong person entirely?
“…Right. There’s no way to know until I ask her myself.”
It looked like I would have to return to the reception room after all.
I opened the door to the reception room.
The girl sat quietly with her head bowed low.
I shifted my gaze to the maid.
“Wait outside.”
The maid nodded at my words.
“I shall take my leave as well.”
With that, the butler exited the reception room together with the maid.
The girl’s body flinched slightly.
I had intended to wait until she spoke first if at all possible… but given the circumstances.
“Could you tell me your name?”
I tried to keep my tone as gentle as possible so as not to frighten her…
“I-I’m sorry….”
The girl answered, trembling all over.
…This can’t be helped.
I might as well ask her straight out.
“By any chance…. Is your name Aria Frunhel?”
Even as I asked, I hoped it wasn’t true.
That she was just some child from a good family.
But the heavens didn’t seem to be on my side.
“N-n-n-no!!! I-I-I’m not Aria Frunhel!!!”
…Yep. She’s Aria Frunhel.
The moment I saw the girl’s spectacular overreaction, I was certain.
The young lady of the ducal house who was said to have died in an accident was right here in front of me.
The instant I registered that fact, my head started throbbing.
Just how could a situation arise where a ducal young lady comes to another territory while hiding inside a box?
Even Ivan Cluers’ common sense was screaming that this made no sense.
Even for a fantasy world, this felt a bit much.
Ignoring the pounding headache, I turned my gaze toward Aria.
…Asking any more questions seems impossible.
In her current state, I didn’t think she’d be able to answer properly even if I asked this and that.
She was trembling all over with a thoroughly terrified expression; pressing her further would just be cruel.
“Alright, I understand. Get some rest.”
I said that and was about to leave when—
“P-please don’t throw me out!”
The hand I had stretched out to grab the doorknob stopped.
Aria continued in a desperate voice.
“I-I’ll work hard at whatever you tell me to do! I can clean the floors really well too! So…. please…. spare me….”
…Frunhel Duchy, just what kind of place are you?
“…I won’t throw you out, so you don’t need to worry.”
She didn’t look like she believed me.
I felt uneasy.
Extremely so.
Additional information about Aria Frunhel came in.
It wasn’t pleasant information.
What was it, you ask?
Apparently, the Frunhel Duchy had held a funeral for Aria Frunhel and even buried a corpse.
This entire process had been carried out far too quickly and simply.
Honestly, it made me wonder if this was even right.
“Unbelievable….”
For now, I would have to make sure Aria herself never heard about this fact.
How would she feel hearing that a funeral had been held for her when she was perfectly alive?
More than that…. just what was the Duke of Frunhel thinking?
What was going through his head that he would hold a funeral for a daughter who was perfectly alive?
Had he mistaken her for dead?
…Was that even possible?
Of course, since this was a fantasy world, I couldn’t declare it completely impossible.
But…. the reaction I’d seen from Aria earlier bothered me.
She had begged me not to throw her out.
From the mouth of a ducal young lady had come the words that she could clean floors cleanly.
To avoid being kicked out, she had played the card she was most confident in among those available to her, and that card had been floor cleaning.
That meant there was a high possibility she had often cleaned floors even in ordinary times.
A ducal young lady.
“No way.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
It made sense that it didn’t make sense.
A ducal young lady being abused? That could happen.
But a ducal young lady being abused and her cleaning floors were different stories.
Having a ducal young lady do floor cleaning that should be left to lowly servants was an act that would put a huge scratch on the dignity and honor of the ducal house.
Couldn’t they just keep it secret?
…With how many people come and go from a ducal house, how would that even be possible?
Rumors would definitely spread.
No matter how hard they tried to control it, a rumor that they had made a ducal young lady clean floors was the kind of rumor that couldn’t be controlled.
So there was no way they had made her clean floors.
“There’s no way, and yet….”
My reason was screaming that there was no way.
But my other reason was screaming that there was a high possibility she had often cleaned floors even normally.
…But from the start, the situation of a ducal young lady sneaking into a box and coming all the way into the castle was already an absurd situation, wasn’t it?
An absurd thing had already happened once, so was there a law saying it couldn’t happen twice?
Alright then, let’s take as a premise that Aria Frunhel’s standing within the ducal house was so low and her treatment so poor that she cleaned floors, and think about it again.
The ducal house’s move of announcing that she had died in an accident even though Aria Frunhel was alive.
The ducal house’s move of holding Aria Frunhel’s funeral quickly and simply even though she was a ducal young lady.
Could this mean….
“The Frunhel Duchy wanted to erase Aria Frunhel’s existence from the house…?”
If so, then I could understand why Aria had asked me not to throw her out.
She knew she had nowhere to return to.
“Sending her back to the Frunhel Duchy…. would be impossible.”
I could guarantee it.
The moment I sent her back, Aria would die.
At least if Aria had shown any sign of wanting to go back.
If it hadn’t seemed like she had been abused.
If the Frunhel Duchy had held a normal funeral.
Then the story might have been a little different.
But reality wasn’t like that.
Aria didn’t want to go back, it seemed she had been abused at the ducal house, and the Frunhel Duchy had held a funeral that was bizarre for a ducal young lady’s funeral.
No matter how I looked at it, the moment I sent her back, she would be quietly disposed of….
In that case, I wondered if it would be better to announce to the whole world that Aria Frunhel was currently in our territory so they couldn’t quietly dispose of her…. but that wasn’t easy either.
What did it mean that the Frunhel Duchy had officially announced that Aria Frunhel had died in an accident?
It meant that Aria Frunhel’s death was a declaration made by the ducal house.
If I announced to the whole world that Aria Frunhel was currently in our territory? That would be an act of openly picking a fight with the Frunhel Duchy’s declaration.
“…Even if I reveal Aria Frunhel’s existence, the Frunhel Duchy will counter that the Margrave of Cluers is scheming to shake up the interior of the ducal house using a fake Aria.”
If it came to that, would I be able to win a judgment against the Frunhel Duchy?
It wouldn’t be impossible…. but it would be difficult.
The opponent was a ducal house, and my image in noble society wasn’t exactly great either.
So in the end, I couldn’t send her back to the Frunhel Duchy either….
Ivan Cluers’ common sense was screaming that I could use Aria Frunhel.
She was a being the Frunhel Duchy wanted to erase. Depending on how I used her, she could become a card to pressure the Frunhel Duchy.
But….
“…That’s not right either.”
Alright. I’ve decided what to do going forward.
Aria Frunhel was lying on the bed.
The bed was soft, and the blanket was fluffy.
It was a sleeping place she couldn’t even dream of at the Frunhel Duchy—that is, her home.
For her, who had even been prepared to be thrown out by the Margrave, it felt more than she deserved.
“…Is he a good person?”
Aria muttered that while tightly clutching the blanket with both hands.
She didn’t know.
At least, the Ivan Cluers she had heard of until now was not this kind of person.
The Ivan Cluers she had imagined until now was not this kind of person.
A cold-blooded man.
A family-killer.
A monster.
That was the Ivan Cluers she had heard of until now, and the Ivan Cluers she had imagined until now.
That was why she had been afraid, and that was why she had been terrified.
But the Ivan Cluers she had met in person was quite different from what she had imagined.
He was rather kind, and also gentle.
But Aria couldn’t let her guard down.
She still couldn’t believe Ivan Cluers’ kindness.
No, to be precise, she wanted to believe it but found it hard to believe.
Because———
Ivan Cluers was a human who had killed his family to become the Margrave.