“Aah….”
“Mother!!”
In the end, the Countess collapsed.
“Furthermore, the name and title of Leuwen, bestowed by the Sixth Duke of Richmond, are hereby revoked, and the Leuwen estate is likewise returned to the House of Richmond.”
The return of the estate and title to the Ducal house meant that the status of all those under the name of Leuwen had plummeted from nobility to commoner.
Resentment welled up in the Young Count’s eyes as he supported his mother.
All this time, House Marquis Rinko had treated Leuwen like hands and feet. His father had been loyal to the Marquis, and his mother had acted as the Marquise’s tongue. Yet now, they would so calmly destroy Leuwen!
“Marquis!!! Surely this cannot be!!!”
The Young Count screamed, holding his mother in his arms.
“Father!!! How can all this sin be your sole decision!!! Is not Marquis Rinko the one who benefited most from what you have done?!! Then why must you bear it all, why!!!”
Edward Rinko sent a glance to the knight standing beside him, as if to have him removed. But Ares, who had been watching him, softly called out to the knight. When the knight hesitated and looked at the Duke, Ares shook his index finger left and right, as if telling him not to move.
“You all know, don’t you?!! Tell me, would Leuwen have moved alone?!!!
Having lost everything in an instant, the Young Count could see nothing. He glared at the Marquis faction nobles and bellowed.
“Brother, stop!”
“Stop what?!!!”
“I said stop!!”
“Do you think you will all remain safe after casting out Leuwen like this?!!!”
The Hall of the Blue Eagle had become a scene of chaos. Count Leuwen felt the commotion behind him as incredibly distant. He raised his eyes to the dais. On the first step stood Marquis Rinko. And behind him, at the highest place, was the Duke.
The Duke watched the entire situation like a man observing a sea swept by a storm.
The Count’s eyes grew hazy.
Even as a vassal house, House Count Leuwen had established itself in the north, the most barren region of the Richmond territory. In the coniferous forest full of mushrooms and reindeer, snow fell always except for a brief summer. Unlike his grandfather, his father had been frail, and the Count had never crossed beyond the boundaries of that barren woodland.
The day he first crossed that boundary was when the news of the previous Duke’s death arrived. At the ducal castle he finally reached, the one who received him like a master was not the Duke, but the Marquis.
And the Marquis had promised him not barren forest, but vast lands and gold.
“Your Grace!!! If you must punish Leuwen, then please punish House Marquis Rinko as well!!!”
“You insolent wretch!!! What nonsense are you spouting!!!”
The enraged Marquis roared.
Count Leuwen planted his hands on his knees and rose from the floor. The Leuwen Young Count, who had been spewing curses, and Marquis Rinko flinched at his sudden movement.
In the strangely ensuing silence, Count Leuwen took a step toward the Duke like a man entranced. Joseph immediately tried to block him, but Ares stopped Joseph.
The Count climbed the circular stairs of the dais with staggering steps. Stopping only one step higher than Marquis Rinko, who was looking at him strangely, he slowly knelt toward the Duke and the eagle emblem hanging behind his back. And he bowed his head until his forehead touched the step.
“Please show mercy.”
His tight, strained voice was filled with earnestness.
“I will gladly bear the price of all sins. Only, thinking of my ancestors who were loyal to Richmond, please leave us but one small villa in the forest of Leuwen. Please permit my wife, son, and daughter to live there, Your Grace.”
“No, Father, no!!”
When Flora’s tearful shriek came from behind him, the Count raised his head and pleaded even more desperately. His face was already drenched with tears.
“I beg of you thus.”
“Father!!!”
Ares stared blankly down at the Count kneeling at his feet, then slowly opened his mouth.
“So it shall be.”
The Count closed his eyes and bowed his head once more.
“Thank you. Truly, thank you.”
Soon after, the Count, raised up by soldiers, descended the dais with unsteady steps. He brushed past the Marquis’s side but never gave the Marquis a single glance. As the Count approached, the Countess, who had barely come to her senses, and the Young Count rushed to him.
But the Count’s gaze was fixed obsessively on his daughter. He reached out and grasped his daughter’s shoulder tightly.
“Flora. Go to the villa with your mother and brother.”
“….”
“You must do so. Answer me, quickly!!”
The Count urged his daughter urgently. But Flora did not answer her father’s earnest request in the end. Eventually, he was dragged out without hearing his daughter’s answer, and after him, the former Count Leuwen family, stripped of their title, was also driven out of the hall.
A heavy silence enveloped the air of the hall.
“Leuwen ends up in Rinko’s hands after all.”
When someone’s muttering mixed with the sound of rain reached him, Marquis Rinko looked around with icy eyes. The nobles who had accompanied the Duke on campaign openly stared at the Marquis as if they had nothing to fear, while the nobles following the Marquis desperately avoided his gaze.
Only when Edward approached and told him he should step down did he descend from the dais and return to his proper place. And the Marquis, having returned to his seat, realized only then that the Duke had been staring holes into him. Like a tiger eyeing its prey.
Furthermore, only then did he realize that the Duke’s hunt was not yet finished, and his realization soon became reality.
Ares’s low voice coiled around the Marquis’s throat.
“From this moment, I revoke the regent authority temporarily granted to House Marquis Rinko.”
The knightly house nobles all rose from their seats at once and assumed a formal posture toward the Duke. As the sound of chairs scraping backward poured out like thunder, some of the Marquis faction nobles who had been watching the situation also rose from their seats.
“However, for efficient and smooth transfer of duties, you must not leave the castle for the time being. Do you understand?”
Don’t rejoice that you cut off your tail to save your life. The trivial hunt of laying traps has only ended; the real hunt begins now.
The Duke’s cruel voice sounded like a hallucination. Cold sweat trickled down the Marquis’s spine.
* * *
Late that night, Eliza, who for the first time in over ten years faced her maids with a clear mind, threw out a joke to push down the emotions surging up within her.
“Your wrinkles have quite grown in harmony. We’ve all grown old together. Did you all make a promise or something?”
But the maids, including Lady Isaac, did not burst into laughter. Instead, they slowly knelt on their left knees. When all six maids lined up before her knelt down, the forced smile gradually vanished from Eliza’s face.
“My lady, please forgive our disloyalty in failing to protect you.”
Eliza’s wrinkled eyes trembled finely. Her throat tightened, and her heart grew hot.
She rose from her seat. Then she approached the kneeling women, raising each one with her own hands and embracing them.
“Rise, you’ll hurt your knees. It is I who am sorry.”
“My lady.”
“You’ve suffered much. How resentful you must have been of me.”
“Please don’t say such things.”
After raising and hugging the last maid, Eliza led them to the sofa.
“Let us not do this and instead unburden our hearts. Why have you grown so old! Though I’m not one to talk with my hair turned completely white.”
“Now you seem draped in moonlight.”
“You still have a sharp tongue, don’t you?!”
Only then did the maids burst into laughter.
Eliza was surrounded by loyal servants and friends for the first time in a long while, smiling lightly and conversing. But today was a chaotic time, so they could not have a long conversation.
After sending out five maids, only Lady Isaac remained by her side. Lady Isaac, having tidied Eliza’s bedding, approached and spoke.
“Please sleep.”
“I cannot fall asleep.”
“Shall I bring some warm tea?”
“No. Rather, go and see how Lady Taylor’s fever is. While you’re at it, mind the humidity and temperature as well.”
“Yes.”
Lady Isaac, who had gone over to the Duke’s room, returned in less than five minutes. When Eliza looked at her questioningly, she approached and reported.
“It seems the fever has broken. The temperature and humidity in the room are also being maintained suitably for the patient.”
“Indeed, there was the maid the young lady brought.”
“His Grace is there.”
Eliza paused for a moment, then opened her eyes narrowly and fell into thought. She habitually tapped her right index finger on the armrest and remained silent for a long while. Perhaps because one thought led to another, the question that emerged after the silence was somewhat out of context.
“Did you happen to throw away those letters?”
“How could I?”
Lady Isaac immediately brought a small box. Eliza placed the box on her lap and took out the letters with her own hands. None of the letters showed signs of having been opened.
“If you wish to read them in order, you should start from the bottom one.”
Following Lady Isaac’s advice, Eliza turned the box over and began reading the letters one by one, starting from the one at the bottom.
The letters were exactly like her.
The letters beginning with “To Grandmother” were like reports. This and that had happened, and the weather was such. Devoid of a single embellishment and lacking the usual affectionate closing, each letter ended on a single slip of paper no larger than a palm.
Then, as she neared the end of reading the letters, Eliza noticed the common thread running through all of them.
“There isn’t a single line about how she is.”
There was no “I am doing well,” or even “Do not worry about me.” And all those letters always ended with the same phrase.
[I hope you are in good health.]