A Letter from Raphaelo
Dear Cayena, Your Highness the Princess.
I happened to be staying at the estate when I received your letter, and it brought me great joy.
As it happens, we have only just begun preparations for the building’s construction.
It is an honor to be given the opportunity to assist Your Highness.
I have already informed Lady Olivia, but I hope we may meet at the Imperial Academy in two days’ time.
I look forward to the day we meet.
Raphaelo Kedrey
Cayena scanned the letter Olivia had delivered the day before once again. There was nothing particularly special about its contents, yet she still found it hard to believe. The letter was concise, without a single cryptic phrase. It was plain and perfectly appropriate. But the content itself was not the issue.
Raphaelo actually replied to me?
Cayena stared down at the letter and swallowed a quiet breath.
I’ve changed, so naturally the way people treat me has changed as well.
Still, the thought of facing him tomorrow while carrying this awkward, fluttering feeling felt uncomfortable. Cayena chided herself for being ridiculous and tried to steady her heart.
Tomorrow is the last day of Rezef’s confinement.
For some reason, the ten days Rezef had been under house arrest felt unusually long. Perhaps it was because so many things had happened during that time?
I must receive an appointment letter from Father naming Raphaelo as the western military governor in recognition of my work reforming the Internal Affairs Department.
She planned to hand it to him at the Academy tomorrow.
“Vera, could you request an audience with His Majesty? Susan, prepare my formal attire.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The two women had been writing invitations, but they rose from their seats at Cayena’s command. It went without saying that they earned envious glances from Julia.
Julia’s hand ached from writing ten whole invitations. She set her pen down for a short rest. She was certainly looking forward to the princess’s coming-of-age ceremony, but that had nothing to do with how much she hated this sort of tedious work. Even so, she could hardly slack off when Olivia was working so diligently. In truth, among the four maids, Julia had written the fewest invitations.
The elegant life in the capital, the palace life, seemed to be slipping further away, replaced by an endless stream of unwanted tasks. Just why did the princess take on so much work? Julia genuinely could not understand it.
The prince is locked away, and my older brother has been acting strange lately.
The palace was full of strange occurrences. Her brother, the princess, even the maids—everyone!
Irritably, she plunged her pen deep into the inkwell and yanked it out again.
“Kyaa!”
Ink flew from the pen in every direction.
“Oh no, what do I do!”
Black ink had splattered across her pastel-colored dress. In a panic, Julia rubbed at the stains, but they only spread further.
Olivia glanced at the several invitations she herself had written and let out a short sigh when she saw they were ruined as well.
“What happened?” Cayena asked.
Julia’s face crumpled. “The ink splashed onto my dress!”
“Goodness. You’ll need to change, then.”
Cayena’s gaze then shifted to Olivia. “Olivia, did any ink get on you as well?”
Only then did Julia’s eyes turn toward Olivia.
“My dress is fine.”
That was when Julia noticed that the invitations Olivia had written were covered in ink splatters. She felt a little sorry, but invitations could always be rewritten. A dress was another matter. Still, Julia offered a quiet apology.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize the ink would fly like that.”
“It’s all right.”
Olivia spoke calmly and simply began rewriting the invitations.
Julia was slightly taken aback. She had expected Olivia to ask if she was all right. With a sullen expression, she stood up.
“I will go change into something else, Your Highness.”
“Go on.”
Julia left the office.
Cayena walked over to Olivia and noticed the ink-splattered invitations.
“Hmm, the writing on two of them is ruined. But the rest only have ink on the margins. We can cover those with illustrations.”
Only then did Olivia realize they did not need to throw everything away. It was a solution she would normally have thought of immediately.
“It seems something is weighing on your mind.”
Olivia parted her lips, then quietly pressed them together again.
I can’t possibly tell her that the Kedrey ducal house has withdrawn their sponsorship.
It was something she had feared from the moment she became a maid at the princess’s palace. Yet actually receiving the letter this morning stating that the Kedrey family had ended their support left her heart heavy.
I’ll be fine, but what about my younger siblings?
Her family carried an enormous debt.
The way the debt was incurred and the interest rates are both too strange.
The massive merchant company holding the debt had shown the Grace viscount family unusual consideration in various ways. Since many companies treated noble houses this way, her parents had not thought much of it.
Something feels wrong.
The debt had grown so large that even her salary could barely cover the interest, yet there had been no collection attempts at all. It felt as though money was not the true objective.
Emma said something seemed off too. She appears to be looking into where the debt is really coming from…
Emma was one of Olivia’s younger sisters. A small sigh slipped through Olivia’s lips. She wanted to clear this ominous debt as soon as possible.
Zenon’s nerves had grown razor-sharp lately over matters concerning Catherine Lindberg.
Cayena had turned the imperial palace upside down. Because justice lay on her side, those who opposed her naturally became the villains. The tide had completely turned in Cayena’s favor.
She was slowly eliminating Rezef’s people one by one. Or, to be precise, those connected to the Evans family.
If we install Catherine in the Hamel count house, we’ll secure the emperor’s goodwill. How much value that actually holds remains to be seen.
Rezef denied it, but Cayena had clearly drawn in the emperor’s mistress and her son as a counterweight against him.
We cannot afford to let our guard down simply because the Lindberg son currently holds no power.
Among the neutral factions, there was one particularly threatening force.
If the Kedrey ducal house sides with them, cleaning up this situation will become a major headache.
Just then, a subordinate approached him with a troubled expression.
“Lord Zenon Evans, I have something to report.”
“What is it?”
“Henverton Gillian has attempted contact. Should we ignore him as before?”
Recently the Gillian viscount’s heir had been trying to negotiate for the position of the princess’s royal consort. It was laughable. While the warhorse business was certainly tempting, a royal consort?
Zenon had been about to tell him to ignore the man again, but he closed his mouth. It occurred to him that he might be able to deal with the increasingly insolent princess without dirtying his own hands.
A cold smile curved Zenon’s lips.
“No. I think I should hear what he has to say. Arrange a meeting.”
Zenon left the palace for the first time in a while and rested at his private residence in the capital. The mansion had one excellent feature: its location and internal layout made it ideal for arranging secret meetings.
When he entered the hidden room, the guest who had arrived first was already waiting.
“It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time. I am Henverton Gillian.”
Henverton widened his eyes in an exaggerated arc and offered a handshake. Zenon glanced at the hand briefly before taking it.
“Zenon Evans.”
Although he had never associated with Henverton before, he knew the man well. In particular, the secret gentlemen’s club he operated with his friends was quietly notorious.
It may be called secret, but everyone who matters already knows about it.
“I listened carefully to the proposal you sent through my subordinate,” Zenon began.
“If the Gillian viscount house forms an alliance with the imperial family, it would be an immense help to His Highness Prince Rezef.”
More precisely, the alliance would be with the Evans marquis house rather than the imperial family. Henverton was the heir to the Gillian viscountcy.
He had proposed handing over a portion of the warhorse business he would inherit to the Evans family. The price was Cayena.
“What I want is Cayena herself, not some meaningless title as royal consort.”
If Henverton could seize Cayena immediately, that would be the end of it. He had zero interest in the position of royal son-in-law. He simply wanted to obtain her by the fastest possible means.
Henverton was a passionate collector. He harbored an obsession with beauty. He enjoyed gathering beautiful jewels, statues, and paintings.
And he had seen the single most beautiful thing he could claim existed in his lifetime. That thing was Cayena.
The princess’s beauty stood head and shoulders above everything else in his collection. From the very first moment he saw her, obsession and possessive desire had surged so fiercely that living with a clear mind had become difficult.
Cayena had seen straight through the madness lurking in his eyes back at the imperial library.
“Since your resolve is so firm, I believe today’s conversation will prove quite fruitful,” Zenon said, gazing at the near-madman with cold eyes and a cynical smile.
“I hear the princess plans to visit the Imperial Academy tomorrow. She is to meet with Lord Kedrey.”
“……”
The smile vanished from Henverton’s face for the first time.
“Raphaelo Kedrey… you mean?”
He recalled how Raphaelo had interfered with him at the imperial library. Just thinking about it made his teeth grind. He wanted to tear the man who had dared embrace Cayena to pieces. His eyes darkened with deep shadow.
Zenon continued.
“Before tomorrow’s meeting, I have arranged for a temple.”
Donating a sufficient sum to a temple granted the use of an annex. Temples possessed one very useful characteristic: they were inviolable domains. Without the temple’s permission, no outsider could enter the annex even if a criminal were hiding inside.
At those words, a chilling light flashed in Henverton’s eyes.
“You mean…”
“Bring the princess there. We will divert her carriage elsewhere to draw attention away.”
Even if Cayena’s disappearance were noticed, attention would be focused on the wrong carriage while she was completely hidden.
“The coachman and escort knights will be replaced with the men we discussed.”
Henverton broke into a dark smile.
“Perfect. I like it very much.”
They reviewed several more details before rising from their seats.
“I look forward to tomorrow,” Zenon said with a sinister smile.
“As do I.”
They shook hands once more and parted ways. Left alone, Zenon let out a low laugh.
“Foolish bastard.”
He thought he could possess Cayena? How could an idiot so lost in ridiculous delusion that he could not even perform simple calculations ever hope to hold her?
“He really is the perfect scapegoat.”
Tomorrow, it would be Zenon himself who obtained Cayena, and Henverton Gillian would be the one who took the blame for everything.