Proof of Innocence (8)
“...Master. If it wouldn’t be too rude, may I ask you one question?”
After finishing her conversation with Sian, Eli was certain that no one could be heard nearby, and only then did she quietly speak up to the duke.
“A question? Of course. Ask me anything. If it’s something I can answer, I’ll answer it.”
Even though Eli’s words came a little out of nowhere, Duke Orphega still nodded.
On the surface, he might have looked like the very image of a teacher who cherished his disciple, but even as he nodded, Duke Orphega never once slowed his steps.
As far as Eli knew, he wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere else. He was simply on his way home.
Which meant there was no reason for him to be walking so briskly.
And yet, even after Eli said she had something to ask, Duke Orphega kept pushing ahead.
When he talked to oppa just now, he even put up an aura barrier so no one would overhear...
Even if Sian hadn’t noticed anything, Eli, after half a year of lessons under the duke, had clearly realized it.
Just moments ago, Duke Orphega had formed a kind of shield made of aura, out of concern that someone might eavesdrop on his conversation with Sian.
He had been so careful when speaking with her brother, and yet when speaking with his own disciple, he was so indifferent.
Did the duke himself know there was such a difference, or was he doing it unconsciously?
Unable to shake the feeling that she, Duke Orphega’s only disciple, was being treated worse than Sian, Eli finally opened her mouth again.
“What you said to oppa just now... did you really mean it?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“That... what you just said about marrying the young lady to oppa. I was wondering if you were serious...”
More than anyone else, Eli knew Duke Orphega well. She knew how much he treasured his only daughter, how carefully he had raised her.
Even if Cartesia lacked the proper “compatibility” to learn Orphega’s swordsmanship, she had still inherited her father’s talent and become a formidable swordswoman in her own right.
At the very least, as far as Eli knew, there wasn’t a single cadet who could truly trade blows with her.
And yet Duke Orphega had looked at Sian, whom he had met for the first time that very day, and casually suggested that he marry his daughter.
It was so unbelievable that Eli could barely accept it.
“How amusing. Did you think I was the sort of man who jokes about his daughter’s marriage?”
“N-no! I was just... worried that Master might be taking some huge loss—!”
Feeling as though she had stepped over a line, Eli hurriedly tried to explain herself, and Duke Orphega only chuckled at her flustered state before answering her question.
“A loss... in a way, it would be a tremendous one. I only came here intending to take him as my disciple, and yet somehow I ended up offering him my daughter as well.”
But despite what he said, Duke Orphega’s expression didn’t look particularly unhappy. No, he was even smiling faintly.
And somehow, that expression gave Eli an uneasy feeling.
He’s never once made that kind of face for me...
The Orphega Duke Eli knew was a man who was strict with everyone, including himself. He had also rarely ever had any personal conversations with her, let alone any real exchange outside of instruction.
After taking Eli in as a disciple, he had never even given her a single word of praise.
Don’t get arrogant over something so trivial. I didn’t take you in as my disciple expecting that little of you.
That was, in truth, the highest praise Eli had ever received from him.
And yet, until now, Eli had never once felt disappointed with Duke Orphega.
No, in a way, it had actually felt good.
Because his attitude had been undeniable proof that he had chosen her as his disciple purely for the talent she possessed with the sword.
But now Eli was looking at the way Duke Orphega treated Sian... and feeling something strange stir inside her.
He had shown no emotion at all toward her, his disciple of the past six months, and yet toward Sian he was revealing unmistakable greed.
Why? What on earth was the difference between her and her brother?
Was she lacking in talent compared to him? Or was she inferior in skill? Or was it because of that bizarre ability her brother was hiding?
Questions followed questions in Eli’s mind without end.
And at the same time, something pitch-black began to simmer in her heart, slowly tightening its grip around her chest.
Still failing to recognize the emotion she herself was feeling, Eli spoke to the duke in a cautious tone.
“If Master thinks it would be such a loss, wouldn’t it be better to reconsider the judgment you made earlier...”
“No, I don’t think there’s any need for that. If anything, it may be for the best. I believe it would be far more efficient to bind him to me as family than merely as a disciple.”
“...Pardon?”
“If my guess is correct, then this is an incredibly profitable bargain for me. The attitude Her Highness Cartesia showed toward Sian earlier was quite telling as well.”
Eli frowned slightly, unable to make sense of what her master was saying.
What about that woman’s attitude toward her brother had caused Duke Orphega to say something like this?
To Eli, the woman had just seemed like a foolish girl who was utterly smitten with Sian.
“At first glance, Her Highness’s attitude did look like that of a woman in love, but if you looked closer, there was something fundamentally different about it. Her Highness treated Sian not as her lover, but as someone she needed to protect... or perhaps as someone she owed a debt to. No matter how you looked at it, that was a bit too far removed from a normal relationship between lovers.”
“...?”
What was so strange about that? Of course the imperial princess would think of oppa as someone she needed to protect one-sidedly, given the enormous difference in status between them.
“His Majesty’s subtle message to the other nobles not to interfere with Rutra, Her Highness Arieta’s recent recovery, and the fact that the man who is supposed to be Her Highness Cartesia’s fiancé still hasn’t shown his face clearly... Taken together, those facts are enough for me to roughly estimate what kind of man Sian is, and what value he holds.”
Honestly, he had wanted to go beyond merely proposing marriage and kidnap the boy on the spot, but with the Emperor watching over all of this, there was no way to cross that line.
Still, in the duke’s eyes, both the Emperor’s behavior and Cartesia’s behavior were equally maddeningly timid.
If he had been the first to discover Sian’s worth, then rather than playing childish games like Cartesia was doing now, he would have shoved the boy into a room with his own daughter right away and forced a marriage through.
And after that, well—if the princess ended up bearing Sian’s child, the matter would be settled once and for all.
“...Tsk. The fact that I failed to pay even the slightest attention to that Sian when I took you in as my disciple has become nothing but a regret now. I was foolish. Utterly foolish.”
Duke Orphega let out a sigh before he realized it, and those were the words that slipped from him.
It was the lament of a fool who had picked up a coin on the road and been so pleased by it that he never noticed the jewel lying right beside him.
But for Eli, standing there beside him, those words made her breathing grow ragged before she could stop it.
She couldn’t understand what Duke Orphega was saying.
She had no idea what it was her master thought he saw in her brother that made him speak like this.
But for all that, there was one thing she could understand clearly.
The duke was regretting it now.
He regretted not meeting Sian sooner.
He regretted failing to recognize Sian’s worth on the very day he had taken her in as a disciple.
And... he regretted taking Eli in as his disciple in the first place.
In the duke’s eyes, Eli’s existence was truly nothing compared to Sian.
Officially, she might have held the title of disciple, but one was a girl who had never once heard a word of praise from her teacher, and the other was a man whom the duke wanted to keep close enough to marry off to his daughter.
There was no need to even ask which of the two held greater value.
At least, that was what Eli was certain the duke believed.
“.....”
Duke Orphega kept talking on and on, but Eli could no longer hear her master’s voice.
A wave of nausea rose in her throat.
The one thing she had believed herself to be ahead of her brother in had been reduced to something utterly ordinary, and the fact that her brother could acquire with ease what she had worked herself to the bone for was nothing short of agony to her.
But what made it even more miserable was that, even as she suffered like this, no one was there to acknowledge her pain.
Because to her, the thing called family had never existed anywhere in this world.
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