Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Maid (1)
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“I’m sorry.”
“My deepest apologies.”
The Counts Olson and Marcus, who had been able to speak out boldly thanks to their families’ formidable influence, were the first to lower their heads.
Seeing this, the rest of the nobles bowed their heads one after another. Though they hadn’t been granted the same level of speaking rights as those two, they had at least been allowed to raise their hands and voice opinions.
“Lately, I’ve even started thinking that way. Maybe it’s not that my nephew’s life is unnaturally resilient, but that the blade meant to sever it is too dull.”
“Please do not doubt our loyalty.”
Count Marcus, who had been gauging Henrik’s mood, spoke up. Count Olson chimed in as well.
“Dane Schmichael is human, after all. How can any person be perfect all the time? When nerves are on edge, even mistakes one wouldn’t normally make slip through. We’ll cling to this tenaciously, so please don’t worry too much.”
“One month.”
Henrik’s short, heavy words doused the room like cold water, chilling the atmosphere once more.
“With that rat’s birthday just one month away, you speak of such leisure?”
The reason they had gathered here. The reason they huddled in the shadows like mice, plotting schemes.
It all boiled down to one thing. In one month, Dane Schmichael’s inheritance ceremony would take place, and even the king would acknowledge him.
They had to end it before that happened.
“......”
The people averted their eyes from Henrik’s icy gaze and bowed their heads.
There was no sharp solution to offer at this point anyway. That made it all the harder to speak.
“...Recently, my nephew did something out of character.”
Henrik swallowed a rising sigh and changed the subject.
He hadn’t expected much from these hyenas anyway. And the more merit they accrued, the greedier they would become.
The delectable prize that was House Schmichael had to be his alone. It had always been his by right.
He was already methodically advancing his secret plan.
It was what ‘that one’ desired. Henrik had to prove he was their faithful servant.
Snap.
At Henrik’s chin flick, all eyes turned to the target.
“Ahem, hem.”
There stood Viscount Vicander, fidgeting nervously with his hands.
“There’s someone here attending for the first time today. Allow me to introduce Viscount Vicander.”
“Ah, hello.”
Viscount Vicander nearly bowed habitually in obeisance but quickly straightened up. He couldn’t help rolling his eyes around, scanning the room, though.
Henrik swallowed a sneer at the sight.
“Who’s that?”
“Ever heard of him?”
“First time for me.”
The reactions were frosty. Among them, Count Olson let out an “Ah.”
“I know who it is now. Recently, a daughter of the Vicander family became Dane’s eighth wife.”
“Oh, that Vicander family.”
Only then did they nod in understanding of who Viscount Vicander was. But their eyes still brimmed with questions.
Why was a noble from such an insignificant house here?
The Vicander family had neither name nor power worthy of this gathering. They merely assumed Henrik, as host, had invited him, and let it go at that.
“I heard some interesting news from the viscount.”
Henrik said with an amused smile.
“My nephew shares a bedroom with your daughter?”
In an instant, everyone’s eyes changed. Viscount Vicander swallowed dryly under their wary, curious, and tense stares.
“The maid I sent with her reported that my daughter entered the marital bedroom together with him.”
“Reliable intel?”
Count Olson raised the question.
“Did that maid relay it properly? My own daughter stayed in that castle too, but she said Dane never once entered the marital bedroom.”
“Th-that’s......”
Viscount Vicander began to sweat bullets. He had only passed on what his wife had told him.
“It’s certain. I sent my nephew a gift to verify.”
Henrik answered in the viscount’s stead. His blue eyes gleamed coldly.
“The marital bedroom was quite hard to breach. I even had to procure an expensive magic tool.”
The glass in Schmichael Castle was specially made and couldn’t be broken by ordinary means. The stronger the impact, the more it repelled with rebound force.
So he opted for a very gentle, precise force to slowly cut through.
Finding that method had taken considerable time too. It was only after tracking down a specialist in special glasswork and torturing him that he learned it.
“Of course, my dear nephew refused the gift. Which confirms they share the marital bedroom.”
Emboldened by Henrik’s support, Viscount Vicander added.
“Yes, and according to the maid... Rose—er, my daughter, that is. She even spent the night with Rose.”
This time, no one questioned Viscount Vicander’s words. Instead, they all widened their eyes in shock.
“What? That block of stone?”
“Hah, so even he’s a hot-blooded man after all.”
“Must be that the family’s daughter is an exceptional beauty.”
Count Olson pressed particularly persistently. His eyes burned intensely, leaving Viscount Vicander flustered in response.
“N-no, not at all...... She’s really nothing special. Utterly ordinary.”
“Indeed, there’s no way my nephew has suddenly taken an interest in women now.”
Henrik knew his nephew well.
Dane would sooner kill a woman than bring her to his bed. And his standards were so lofty and discerning that he had never once turned his eyes to one.
Thus, this unprecedented event surely stemmed from the variable that was Viscount Vicander’s daughter.
He was curious about it.
“Viscount, think carefully. What about your daughter could pique Dane’s interest? Are you certain there’s absolutely no connection?”
“Yes? But really... she’s truly ordinary. Her looks are so-so, and ah, her personality is a bit odd.”
“How so?”
“She wasn’t like that before, but I think she took issue with me taking a second wife. After her little sister was born, she started going astray.”
Viscount Vicander sighed deeply, as if the earth were crumbling.
“Spilling drinks on her sister’s dress at tea parties, stealing her sister’s jewelry...... I never knew raising a daughter would be this tough.”
“......”
Henrik and the listeners thought.
‘A lunatic?’
‘Did he come here to lament his plight?’
‘Is he saying my daughter is worse than that wench?’
As various thoughts swirled, Henrik asked with a furrowed brow.
“I see you’ve been negligent in her etiquette training. Anything else?”
“Ahem, hem. And... she threw such a fit about attending the Academy that I sent her off to study—er, to economize on household expenses. Recently recalled her on leave, though.”
“Did she cross paths with Dane there?”
“Not sure. She was quiet at the Academy, from what I hear.”
Henrik knew exactly how Dane had spent his time at the Academy. Rose Vicander’s name hadn’t appeared in any of those reports.
“Which department?”
“Ma... Magic Studies Department? I think so.”
Finally, a piece of the puzzle seemed to fit.
As the absolute lord of the Calmar Mine’s mana stones, Dane actively supported and drew in talent related to magic studies.
‘Magic Studies Department, of all places?’
Henrik knitted his brows.
If the spy he had planted in Schmichael Castle was functioning properly, Dane should already be poisoned by now.
And it was a poison impossible to cure by conventional means. It required obscure magical knowledge not yet widely known.
Henrik had paid a steep price to employ this method.
Was Dane somehow onto it and taking action?
‘Impossible.’
The poisoning had been done in a way Dane could never detect. Unless the spy betrayed him, discovery was out of the question.
Henrik was certain that spy wouldn’t betray him. Paternal love was a tenacious, sticky emotion, after all.
‘Interest in magic studies talent, perhaps.’
All the women who had previously tried entering Dane’s bedroom had been ordinary aside from coming from noble houses.
Thus, the uniqueness of a female magic scholar might have caught his interest. There was no other explanation.
But Henrik’s instincts told him there was something extraordinary about Dane and Rose’s encounter.
“Well then, does your daughter obey you well?”
“Yes, well. More or less.”
Watching Viscount Vicander’s awkward smile, Henrik realized the man didn’t truly know his own daughter. He had sensed it from their earlier exchange.
What kind of father sends a cherished daughter into a deadly situation? The notion didn’t add up at all.
“Then she can’t refuse her father’s request.”
“Y-yes, quite so.”
But this bumbling fool could certainly be useful.
‘Good, then......’
Henrik began pondering how to make use of him.
Dane’s unexpected action, arriving without warning, pleased him immensely. It seemed his nephew, with scant days left to live, was offering him one final gift.
Suddenly, the wine on his tongue tasted sweet.
‘Dane in love......’
The phrase seemed as impossible as Dane sending assassins after him.
Henrik did not yet know.
That the very event he deemed utterly impossible would soon come to pass. And that by the time he realized it, it would be too late.
**
Thud, thud.
The laborers pounded the floor even, then laid stone slabs atop it.
Clunk, rattle.
Large desks, chairs, and various furniture were hurriedly carried in and placed inside.
Thump.
Next to them piled glass flasks, boards, soldering irons, and all manner of tools needed for magic studies research.
“Hm.”
I scanned the entire room with a sharp eye.
The space had been created by demolishing the wall between two previously empty rooms. It was to be Rose’s research lab.
“How is it?”
Andersen, who had overseen the lab’s construction from start to finish, rubbed his hands together.
“No idea.”
I left the answer to Rose, standing beside me.
“What do you think, Madam?”