Episode 133
“Think about it, Captain. She never once confessed anything to you until after it had been exposed first. So we are suggesting that you find out whether she is still hiding something.”
Beneath the hazy ash-gray clouds, a man holding a black umbrella spoke. By his own introduction, his name was Wilson, and as Isaac had immediately guessed, he admitted that he was indeed an agent of the Intelligence Department.
The agent knew full well that Isaac and York had not only been exchanging letters, but had been planning to meet. He even revealed himself openly, as though he had no intention of denying that he had been brazenly keeping watch. It was the typical way the “Black Hands” operated.
His showing himself so readily was not particularly meant to threaten Isaac. Rather, it was the opposite. He was shamelessly making it known that they were on Isaac’s side, that they had been watching over him for his sake.
As soon as Isaac finished his conversation with York and stepped out into the street, Agent Wilson calmly called him back into the alley. Then he offered him a cigarette and began speaking as if nothing were amiss.
Since it was true, in a sense, that the queen had been humiliated because of General Churston, Isaac did not find it especially strange that they had made a move. What puzzled him, however, was the subject the agent brought up. Isaac had expected him to toss out a few pieces of information about the general and leave it at that, but the agent abruptly began talking about a duke.
“Are you saying the duke was also involved in that failed operation that day? That the duke and General Churston helped the Grand Duke’s rebellion. ……Why on earth?”
Isaac could not hold back and asked.
Wilson was a man whose delicate features did not suit his build, and who looked as though he were smiling even when he was not. With an expression that made it impossible to tell whether he was smiling or not, he replied:
“That fortress the Grand Duke occupied was, long before then, the place where Duke Leconhild had led his own forces and resided. Her Majesty wanted the documents Lord Leconhild left there. To be precise, she wanted evidence that Lord Leconhild had received the aid of General Churston and Duke Grayson in order to drag her down when she was still a princess.”
“…….”
“Oh, of course, Lord Leconhild has already been exiled to another country, though it was not called exile.”
“Her Majesty means to bring down the other two accomplices as well, then.”
As a soldier who offered his direct loyalty to the queen above all else, Isaac took the matter very seriously. Yet another part of him felt as though it were a distant story concerning other people. Half the work he had handled throughout his time in the Special Service Battalion had been related to political strife, so it was not an entirely unfamiliar topic.
Even so, it felt strange now. Though he had hated the thought of retiring more than anyone, Isaac realized at some point that all he now wanted was a peaceful everyday life, devoid of any such intensity. Like a soldier already discharged, he wanted only to spend quiet days with his family.
Perhaps it would have been different before. The moment he learned that the queen had personally sent her limbs to find him, he would naturally have accepted it as a new mission.
……But now.
Wilson observed Isaac’s lukewarm reaction, then smiled as if he understood.
“Are those two now daring to dream of insurrection?”
“No. That is not the case. However, Her Majesty has long tried to uproot those who participated back then. It is a personal……. No, please pretend you did not hear that.”
“……It is because of Count Gosford, then. Were they involved in Count Gosford’s death as well?”
The name of that man, the queen’s fiancé since her days as a princess—the man who had been meant to become her husband but had died under mysterious circumstances—had now been brought up as well.
Isaac could not help but let out a hollow laugh.
Now it truly felt like a distant story belonging to other people. The queen, who had been sharpening her blade all this time for private revenge, and the general, who had sensed something was amiss and was hurriedly trying to destroy every piece of evidence, people included.
From Isaac’s perspective, they were all simply people and conflicts he no longer wished to become entangled with. He truly wanted only to live in peace now.
“Why was my wife brought into this?”
Instead of daring to voice that disloyal thought, Isaac asked this.
Wilson answered as though he had been waiting for the question.
“Her Majesty believes the captain’s wife has the evidence related to the duke’s side. To be precise, evidence of the rebellion that the duke’s younger sibling and spouse possessed before they were murdered.”
“…….”
To Isaac’s dumbfounded face, Wilson added calmly:
“Ah, of course, the world knows it as an accidental death, and no clear evidence has emerged that the carriage accident was intentional. But for the time being, we believe that the couple was driven to their deaths, whether directly or indirectly.”
Then he returned to that face of his, impossible to tell whether he was smiling or not.
“That is why we ask that you confirm it for us. Whether she truly has the evidence we are searching for. Or, at the very least, whether she knows anything about that evidence.”
＊＊＊
Without realizing it, Isaac clenched his teeth so hard that one side of his jaw jutted out.
York had appeared before Isaac as if he were doing him a favor only when he himself was on the verge of death. He had even brought up information about the fabricated report that he had shown no intention of handing over when Isaac had needed it so desperately. Isaac knew exactly what York was thinking. It meant that since Isaac now knew as well, he had no choice but to be in the same boat. It meant that if Isaac did not want to be killed by the general, he had to move together with York.
The intentions of this agent, who had appeared out of nowhere, were not very different. The fact that he was explaining in detail the circumstances of incidents Isaac had not even been curious about was possible only because he assumed Isaac would stand on their side and willingly, loyally act for them. A “side.” Put nicely, that was what it was; put more bluntly, Isaac had simply become one of the pieces on the board.
Only now could Isaac understand why York had found the union between Sasha and himself questionable. Was it not truly an exquisite combination?
One cleverly wedged, unintentionally, into the fierce power struggles of those in high places—and therefore perfectly suited to die a dog’s death because of it.
“As soon as I returned to Dilton Manor, I was planning to check the study first, but fortunately, they had not arrived yet. They came late and started threatening me with another summons or whatever, but I sent them away for now…….”
“…….”
“In any case, I need to contact the lawyer Grandmother introduced me to and prepare various things. I should move the will and anything that can serve as evidence somewhere else, just in case. When they are setting fire to perfectly ordinary offices, what on earth…….”
Isaac watched Sasha, who was turning in circles and frantically pouring out her immediate plans.
A large hand reached out, took Sasha by one shoulder, and turned her around toward Isaac.
“Sasha. There is something I want to ask.”
“Ask me.”
“……Do you, by any chance, know the whereabouts of the ‘real one’?”
Even without the agent’s hint, Isaac now had to confirm this fact with desperate urgency for another reason.
Whether Sasha truly was an innocent person who had been swept up in this, just as he had.
“I don’t know.”
“Have you ever looked into it separately?”
Or whether, like before, she was calmly facing him while harboring another secret that had yet to be revealed.
“……Looked into it separately?”
Sasha repeated Isaac’s question and stared at him blankly.
For one moment, even the tension from earlier vanished, and she looked at him with an expressionless face.
“……You suspect me.”
“No. Sasha.”
“No. It’s all right. It’s only natural that you would suspect me. I have never once voluntarily confessed anything to you, Captain. Yes. Perhaps this too is something you could suspect of being some kind of show…….”
Before Isaac could narrow his brows and correct her misunderstanding, Sasha spoke with a resolute expression.
“But it isn’t. I truly don’t know. Anything. Even if I were to conspire with them now, what on earth would I gain? What?”
Sasha snapped the words out, then shook off Isaac’s hand from her shoulder.
“Since there are things I’ve hidden all this time, I know I must look suspicious. Yes. It’s my own karma. So…….”
“…….”
“But how am I supposed to explain it? I truly am innocent. And even if I really am innocent, I understand if you no longer want to be involved with me now, Captain.”
Isaac froze at Sasha’s last words.
“What did you say?”
But whether Isaac asked again with a face grown cold or not, Sasha took another step toward him.
“……If I followed my feelings, the truth is, I want to do that. Not merely put distance between us, but I know that for your sake, I should even consider having the marriage annulled for now.”
“……Wait.”
“……But I’m sorry. The truth is, this is the first time I’ve ever had something of my own……. I’m afraid. Afraid that if I let you go like this, I’ll lose you forever, and so I keep trying, ……somehow, to keep you…….”
“Sasha.”
Isaac quickly cut her off. He let out a deep sigh.
A hollow laugh slipped through his stubbornly set lips. Seeing this woman, who had been thinking only of him rather than scheming to deceive him, made him wonder what on earth he had been suspecting.
Isaac had been the one to call Sasha to a halt so abruptly, but Sasha had been the one clutching tightly at Isaac’s sleeve from earlier. An attachment toward the first thing she had ever wholly possessed.
It was too pure to be named greed, yet had too murky a corner to be called simply love.
This feeling she had for him.
“……How on earth did you arrive at such a conclusion? I simply wanted to confirm whether you really knew anything about the ducal house.”
Before, perhaps he would have found it dreadful and shuddered at it.
But Isaac did not dislike her obsession all that much.
Because he knew this was the way she expressed a love as terribly immature as his own.
Isaac carefully sat down in a chair and drew Sasha toward him. Their foreheads touched.
“……I only asked because I thought I needed to know, in order to protect both you and me.”