57.
Daena stamped her feet, clutching her dizzy head.
“Where on earth did she go?”
Anastasia Roxan had… disappeared.
And while completely drunk, at that.
It had all begun when the apology drinking party ended up making not two, but three people dead drunk.
The young lady who had kept worrying over them from the side had, at some point, quietly begun to find it fun and accepted one drink after another.
And in the brief moment Daena took her eyes off her, her face had flushed bright red, and she had started rambling with an empty glass in hand.
“You… drank all of this? In one go?”
At Daena’s question, the young lady mumbled something in reply.
“We’re in trouble.”
Even Asha, who had been sprawled on the sofa in a drunken haze, briefly regained focus in her eyes.
After exchanging a look with Asha, Daena sat down right beside the young lady.
“Y-you can’t say we gave it to you. This is a secret between the three of us. Understand?”
“Yesh….”
On the young lady’s other side, Asha sat close as well.
“Are you all right? Does your head hurt a lot?”
“Yesh…. I’m fine. I’m an adult too….”
“That last part was a little….”
“It pricks the conscience….”
In the end, Asha, forcibly sobered up, muttered in a normal tone.
“We should probably get her something that’ll help her sober up.”
“I’ll watch her here.”
“All right.”
Asha staggered to her feet.
“Is it really okay to send her off like that…?”
Daena muttered from behind as she watched the sight.
And Asha walked out toward the corridor on the inner side of the party hall….
But after that, she never returned.
Not even by the time the young lady, who had been getting some night air through the open window, finally came halfway back to her senses after draining the cup of honey water a servant had brought.
Even when she drank, Asha had only lifted her mask slightly and revealed her mouth for a moment.
Surely, just because she was drunk….
She wouldn’t, right?
She wouldn’t have done something insane like throwing off her mask and wandering around, right?
“Um, Miss Daena. That young lady with the grotesque mask… has she already gone home?”
“…….”
Yes, it was better to simply think she had gone home in a drunken impulse.
Here in this party hall, there were countless people who held a grudge against Asha, whether she was wearing the mask or had taken it off. Surely she wouldn’t have done that?
They said “surely not” was what got people killed, but still, no matter what, surely….
Daena gave the young lady’s still-flushed cheek one last light touch, then rose from her seat.
“Where are you going?”
“Mm. …At least for today, she’s my niece, so if something happens to her, I’ll be the one who suffers in the end….”
Perhaps she hadn’t heard the quiet mutter at the end, because the young lady asked, “Pardon?” but no answer came back.
Daena grabbed one of her friends who had been having fun and sat her beside the young lady, then approached the corridor where Asha had disappeared.
Though Daena had drunk quite a bit herself, and her head was a little dizzy and her senses dulled,
a shadow suddenly fell at her feet.
At the same time, a chill crawled up her spine.
Along with the heavy presence she felt behind her, the shadow that had overtaken Daena took shape and deepened.
The sound of footsteps stopped right behind her.
When Daena squeezed out her courage and glanced back….
A red-haired man was standing there.
“Where is the baron?”
“Y-yes?”
“Where is the baron?”
Daena froze.
‘He knows Anastasia Roxan!’
How? Why was he looking for her?
The duke stared for a moment at Daena, whose fingertips were trembling, then clicked his tongue lowly and took a step back.
The shadow receded a little.
Only then could she breathe.
Daena had not even realized she had been holding her breath until now.
Even his emotionless downward gaze was as cold and biting as a blade.
Strangely, he did not give the impression of existing as a member of the same society.
As if he were bound by no law and no norm,
a being, quite literally, beyond all standards.
That impression must have played a large part in why the nobles had always avoided him with such exceptional sensitivity.
Even from a distance, she had thought he was an overwhelmingly cold and chilling man,
but now, facing him right in front of her,
Daena could feel just how strong Anastasia Roxan’s nerve had been.
Red hair as though drenched in blood.
Eyes as black as darkness that nothing could ever disturb.
There could not possibly be two such people in the imperial capital, so she was certain.
He was the duke, the war hero, the man who bore the name Isitan Gladinear.
“I don’t know anyone like th….”
“Then I’ll ask again. The person you called your niece—where is she now?”
“…….”
Even with the mask on, a chill could be felt in his voice.
Daena calmly took another step back.
Because the duke did not seem inclined to show her any further consideration.
‘If she has the nerve to seduce a man like this just for the sake of raising her status, shouldn’t they rather be called a match made in heaven?’
Thinking such useless thoughts, Daena steadied her breathing and made her decision.
“I don’t know either. She got drunk and went out into this corridor…. And she hasn’t come back for quite a while, so I was just about to go look for her.”
How could she possibly stop a being as beyond all standards as the duke?
She had no choice but to tell him the truth and survive, at least herself.
Besides….
It did not seem as if he was looking for Asha in order to do away with her somewhere secluded.
Daena happened to lower her gaze, and when she discovered what she had been too overwhelmed by his presence to notice, her eyes widened.
What he was holding in his left hand right now….
It was an object so ill-suited to him that she wondered if she was seeing it properly in her drunken state.
* * *
“Anastasia Roxan.”
I was on my way back with food that might help sober us up.
Someone called me.
I did not want to realize who it was, but it was a familiar voice.
When I turned around, Meriana was standing at the end of the corridor.
Meriana’s face looked perfectly fine, but as soon as he began walking toward me, it became obvious.
Obvious that he was dead drunk.
Because he approached while staggering this way and that, unable to keep his balance.
He even had a glass in his hand, half-full with the liquor he had been drinking.
I thought he had gone home.
Considering his towering, lofty pride, I supposed he must have hated returning to the mansion like this, even if it meant disgracing himself a little more.
Rarely seen, a thick emotion had melted into the gaze with which he glared at me.
Once, he had ignored me as though looking at a bug not worth concerning himself with.
Now, as if he were looking at a fairly equal opponent, he revealed unvarnished loathing, hatred, anger, and humiliation.
And when that Meriana came close before me,
sure enough, the hand he raised high swung as though to strike my cheek.
I lightly turned my head and avoided it.
Honestly, judging by that ridiculously slow hand of his, it was clear that whenever he had decided to slap someone’s cheek, everyone had simply stood there and taken it.
“You dare dodge?”
That was why he was so flustered and enraged when his hand missed.
The maids she always had trailing after her, and the other noble young ladies, were nowhere to be seen.
Not that they would have been any help to me anyway…….
But they would at least have pretended to stop her.
“Of course I dodge. It hurts when you get hit.”
At my reply, Meriana’s lips trembled.
The way her mouth twisted was quite a sight.
Ah, a young lady raised in refinement was beautiful even when she made such a spiteful face.
Did she practice somewhere?
Her hand flew at me a second time.
It was impressive how, once drunk, she threw conversation aside and tried to settle things with action.
I was starting to get irritated, so this time I caught her arm.
‘It’s not as if I can throw her down, or kick her…….’
The reason she realized I was Roxan was probably because of Rohwinas’s attitude.
“Let go! I said let go! Who are you to stop me!”
Meriana shouted at the top of her lungs.
She seemed drunk enough not to realize that if people gathered, she would be the one to suffer for it.
……Alcohol really was the root of all evil.
It even gave me a lesson of sorts.
“What about me is inferior to you?”
Meriana ground her teeth.
No, well, even if you ask me that…….
……I don’t really know either.
“Why do I have to feel this way toward you? Toward someone like you, some insignificant, low-class person…… Why……!”
I did not let go of her arm.
Caught in my grip, Meriana wavered, unable to do this or that.
“Have you ever been properly loved since the day you were born?”
Meriana twisted her lips as if sneering and suddenly began to mock me.
“Ah, you’ve never once received any, so is that why you only know how to behave in such a low-class way?”
Her murmuring voice echoed through the quiet corridor, thick with clinging hatred.
“…….”
That one had landed a little.
“Princess Meriana.”
I spoke quietly.
“I have never fed anyone a potion.”
Meriana giggled, as if she had heard something utterly absurd.
“So how about you stop saying things you’ll regret later?”
The laughter cut off abruptly.
“Regret?”
“…….”
“Are you telling me I’m going to regret this? Who do you think you are, saying that to me, that kind of—”
The one who pulled Meriana away as she jabbed at my shoulder with her hand, enunciating each word, was a man I did not know.
A man dressed as a servant, wearing a pitch-black mask.
The way he approached without a sound, like a shadow, was striking.
And almost at the same time, someone stepped out into the moonlight from the opposite side.
It was an exquisitely timed entrance, as though he had been hiding behind the corner the entire time, listening to our conversation.
Green hair, a faint dimple on his left cheek, and…… a half-mask patterned with wings.
He was the heir of Peregrine.
“My sister.”
When he lightly extended a hand, the servant supporting Meriana withdrew behind Rogiche Peregrine.
Though Meriana was still seething, the alcohol seemed to have suddenly rushed to her head and made her dizzy, so she could not offer any real response.
Rogiche gave his younger sister a gentle smile, as if to say it was all right, then slowly approached me.
‘Don’t tell me he heard who I am?’
“Baron, it’s a pity we have to greet each other like this.”
Ah, I knew it.
I gave a brief nod.
“Your sister seems very drunk, so you should take her away now.”
“If only you two had greeted each other when I said I would introduce you earlier, this wouldn’t have happened.”
For a moment, I could not understand what he meant.
Rogiche smiled.
“You both admire the same person, so wouldn’t it be nice if you became friends?”