Chapter 39
This errand runner, who had come pretending to be a merchant, had not been interested in her. He had merely observed her in passing because she was the one closest to Ezekiel. Merlo’s target was Ezekiel.
Just like that man, Akenaus Valdemaera.
“I will tell the major that a spy from Cleris has infiltrated us.”
“Wait, miss.”
Merlo hurriedly cut in, swallowing the end of her words.
“It is true that I came from the Valdemaeras of Cleris, but the person I serve is not Lord Akenaus. You’ve got the wrong idea.”
Perhaps feeling somewhat wronged, Merlo even waved both hands as he firmly explained himself.
“I came on His Excellency’s orders.”
“His Excellency……?”
Rose weighed the unexpected title Merlo had revealed.
His Excellency Valdemaera. In the Valdemaera family, there was only one person to whom that title belonged.
The father of Ezekiel and Akenaus.
In other words, the person who had sent Merlo was the head of the Valdemaera family.
That was why Merlo had so readily responded to Rose’s provocation. In the end, he had trusted in the authority of the greatest power standing behind him.
“Of course, Lord Akenaus could also have secretly dispatched someone. But that is not me.”
Even so, it did not change the fact that he had been spying on Ezekiel’s recent circumstances through improper means.
“At this point? And for what reason would His Excellency Valdemaera do that?”
Ezekiel had endured the bitter winter here alone. The spring he had now was nothing more than a small reward for surviving that winter.
“When one’s child all but severs ties with his family and vanishes to a foreign place, is there any parent who would not care at all?”
“He could have sent a letter first, or visited openly in the name of Valdemaera and met him face-to-face.”
“Lord Ezekiel would have burned the letter without even reading it. If we had requested a visit, we would have been beaten and thrown out. If you had seen how he behaved at the main house, miss, you would agree with me.”
“So you came pretending to be a fruit merchant? And the fruit was an excuse to approach the mansion?”
No wonder he had managed to procure high-quality fruit so steadily every day; she had thought his means rather remarkable. Now that she knew the Valdemaera family was behind Merlo, it finally made sense. If it was Valdemaera, they would have been able to supply anything Ezekiel tried to obtain at once.
“Yes. Good grief……. I came down fully prepared to pose as a clothing merchant, a rifle dealer, a hound seller, even a builder, but I was told the only thing the mansion needed was fruit. When I learned the reason was you, miss, I was rather dumbfounded.”
Merlo shrugged.
“Thanks to that, I did manage to enter the mansion safely.”
“What was your intention in searching the drawing room and the bedroom?”
“Rather than an intention, I simply needed to get at least a rough grasp of how Lord Ezekiel was living. To see how much the mansion differed from the former state I had been told about in detail, and what condition it was in now, I had to know his living environment. I did not touch any valuables.”
“I know. If anything had been stolen, Mrs. Serva would not have failed to notice. But if you came here so fully prepared, it makes no sense to say you only meant to quietly grasp the major’s recent circumstances, does it?”
Surely this errand runner still had an intention he had not revealed. Rose watched the man’s answer.
“I do not know how to explain this. A slight…… hm, sense of responsibility, perhaps?”
“What does that mean?”
“In truth, His Excellency bears some responsibility for Lord Ezekiel being attacked.”
“Responsibility?”
“It seems Lord Akenaus overheard His Excellency comparing his two sons. Saying that his eldest son was a coward, and that his second son ought to manage Valdemaera. In fact, while Lord Ezekiel was winning military honors in the field, Lord Akenaus remained in Cleris. Yes, well…… everything else is an excuse, and everyone knows he was hiding because he did not want to go to war. Publicly as well, Lord Ezekiel’s reputation was far greater.”
“So…….”
“Yes. So he seems to have felt a sense of crisis, thinking that if he stayed still, his younger brother might push him aside and take Valdemaera from him. Considering he used that minion, that unidentified woman, to strike first.”
That minion. That unidentified woman.
At the sudden emergence of her past without even a moment to brace herself, Rose froze for an instant.
“Since you are living cut off from Cleris, you likely know almost nothing of the main house’s affairs, but that place has been anything but quiet. In particular, the feelings of his subordinates in the ‘King’s Army’ are quite poor. Once, we barely managed to stop one of the soldiers from challenging him to a duel at a club, and another time a bullet came flying from somewhere. When we looked into it, they said it happened by mistake during a shooting wager nearby, but whether that is true or not is uncertain. Lord Ezekiel’s unit is famous for marksmanship and ambushes, after all. The man himself is also one of the foremost sharpshooters. In any case, there was no physical evidence, only suspicion, so it was passed over just like that.”
The thought that the man had also spent days that were not exactly smooth while Ezekiel was locked away, writhing in the terrible pain of blindness, brought her a sliver of comfort.
Judging from the contents of the letters she had exchanged with Mongkam, Ezekiel had never ordered his subordinates to avenge him in his stead. He was a man who would only be satisfied after finishing his revenge with his own hands.
Perhaps the subordinates who had lost a commander they respected had attempted private threats on their own, and since they had received no orders, they had deliberately omitted it from their reports.
“Of course, Lord Akenaus did raise a fuss, saying he would come down to Derosa at once and face Lord Ezekiel. Fortunately, His Excellency noticed and stopped him.”
Merlo had chosen the word face out of consideration for the main house’s dignity, but what Akenaus had actually intended to do was surely retaliation.
And if Akenaus had come down, he would have recognized her at first glance. There were only two men who had witnessed Rose’s face directly, not through another person’s explanation. Akenaus, who had personally commissioned the murder, and Ezekiel, who had been attacked by her.
Without anyone knowing, the peace she had now nearly collapsed in its entirety. It was an immense relief that such a thing had not happened.
Rose barely held on to her mind as it swayed dizzily.
“I see.”
“Thus, what His Excellency desires is.”
At last, they had arrived at the main point.
Rose closed her mouth and focused on the matter Merlo was about to bring up.
The man steadied his breath once, then opened his mouth.
“You are no longer a Valdemaera. Do not set foot in Cleris for the rest of your life, and hide away somewhere beyond our eyes and ears, living quietly.”
……What did he just say?
Her heart plummeted from the very first words.
Before the bloodless Rose, Merlo continued reciting what he had memorized.
“Strictly control those subordinates of yours who behave like reckless brats toward Valdemaera. In return, I will provide you with enough funds to live in wealth for the rest of your life. However, as you no longer have the name of Valdemaera, you may not demand any authority within the family, and should anything happen to Akenaus’s person, you will be held responsible. I wish to have the above terms notarized as a written pledge…… is what he said. I have not found a way to convey it to Lord Ezekiel, but this is the purpose of my errand.”
It was a declaration of severance that not only surpassed her expectations, but even felt cold-hearted.
Rose stood there blankly for a moment, at a loss for words, before barely managing to speak.
“Wait. You’re saying it is his decision to cast out one son completely?”
“There is no other way. Do you think His Excellency’s heart could possibly be at ease, having to cut off a sore finger? But he cannot lose both his sons either. With his children on the verge of engaging in a bloody battle against each other, leaving them all disabled or murdered, His Excellency is the head of a family who must protect his house before he is a father.”
Her airway began to tighten again.
It was starting again.
Her breath grew short, her vision shook, and she could not control her limbs as she wished.
They were signs of suffocation. Sin sometimes blocked Rose’s windpipe like this. Especially when Ezekiel paid the price in her stead for the crime she had committed, the aftereffects of that guilt became all the clearer.
Rose gathered every bit of courage she had and protested.
“Don’t you think this is too hasty? The major is making efforts in many ways for treatment.”
“I know. I asked around for news before entering the mansion. Rumors were widespread in the vicinity that he had brought in dozens of doctors at a time. And even the conclusion that not one of those doctors dared to step forward and claim they could treat him.”
Even so, Valdemaera had chosen to cut Ezekiel away.
Why did that man keep being the one to suffer?