Chapter 61

Chapter 61. The Royal Palace (1)

“I must return at once.”

At the baron’s son’s words, the butler offered his advice.

“It is already late today, so I believe it would be best for you to leave early tomorrow morning.”

The sun had already set. The baron’s territory was very far away.

“You can have everything ready by morning, can’t you?”

At Manuel’s question, the butler replied,

“Yes. I will prepare everything.”

The baron’s son thanked Manuel.

“Thank you.”

No one looked pleased by the sudden misfortune.

The servants quickly began packing and preparing the people who would be leaving the next day.

The rest of the party also withdrew to their assigned rooms.

The evening banquet was canceled as well, and the baron’s son bustled about until late at night, hoping for any additional news.

“I did not think they would actually give me a guest room.”

I clicked my tongue as I looked around the room.

Then again, this was the capital of the kingdom.

This was a place where the influence of the Marquess of Lansarote’s house, the duchess’s family, was stronger than that of the ducal house.

Considering I was an illegitimate son, being treated like this was only natural.

It only felt strangely harsh because the treatment I had received at the main house lately had not been bad.

“This is closer to walking into enemy territory.”

I had prepared myself for that.

It was not as though I had only been treated worse than this once or twice before. I had even died from it.

After resting briefly in the room, I stepped out onto the balcony.

Night had deepened, and even the capital’s scenery, which had looked fairly impressive, was now sunk in utter darkness.

The servants who had been preparing for tomorrow’s departure had all gone to bed.

Still, there was one person besides me who had not fallen asleep.

“What are you still doing awake at this hour?”

A voice came from the neighboring balcony.

When I turned my head, I saw Valea, the baron’s daughter, standing in the darkness with a captivating smile on her face.

Just as my room was a guest room, the rooms beside it were guest rooms as well, and Valea and her brother, guests of the ducal house, were staying there.

The room beside mine was Valea’s.

The reason I had stepped out onto the balcony in the first place was because I had sensed her presence.

“I think I got a bit excited because this is my first time in the capital.”

At my answer, she let out an odd little snort.

“I noticed it before too, but while your way of speaking suits your age and station well enough, the things hidden in your eyes and your words feel completely different.”

The remark, made almost in passing, struck right at the heart of the matter, and I unconsciously clenched my fist a little as I remembered what had happened before I died in the baron’s territory.

So my act did not work on her.

Should I really let her go like this?

But the words that came out of my mouth were something entirely different.

“It seems you cannot sleep either, my lady. Please allow me to offer my condolences once more regarding the baron.”

At the sudden change of topic, Valea narrowed her eyes.

Then she let out a long sigh.

A sorrowful sigh, like that of a daughter grieving her father’s death.

But the words that followed were the exact opposite.

“If Father is truly dead, then he has died exactly as he should have.”

My mouth fell open.

I made sure it was the expression of someone hearing something outrageous for the first time in his life.

Fortunately, the moon was hidden behind clouds just then, concealing the sinking look in my eyes.

“You need not look so shocked. I cannot explain the details, but this is a much better outcome for you too, Young Master.”

Of course it was a better outcome for me. I had gone to quite a lot of trouble, after all.

But why was this woman saying such things to me?

The last image I had seen of her before dying had been that of someone half-crazed. Surely she was not going to start acting that way here as well.

Her gloomy expression grew brighter and brighter.

“Of course, it is also a tremendously, tremendously good thing for me. Do you know that? I can start anew now. I can live not as the baron’s daughter who moved only as Father commanded, but as Valea.”

To an outsider, it might have sounded like nothing more than the words of a noble girl freed from parental pressure.

But I knew what she truly meant.

The beast that had been trapped in a cage had just escaped!

I relaxed my clenched fist.

And that beast was not looking at me.

“Now I can do what I want. Once I return and confirm Father’s death, I will erase the Valea who existed before and begin again.”

And the true meaning of that was probably that she intended to erase the evidence of all her earlier crimes and turn them into the perfect crime.

Moreover, the mana shimmering around her made my body twitch before I could stop it.

Fortunately, it subsided at once. The bright smile on her face vanished as well, and she returned to her mournful expression.

“Oh dear, I must have talked too much because of the night air. Please forget everything I just said. I must still be out of sorts after hearing that Father passed away.”

Now then, what was the right answer here?

“Ah, yes. Yes. I... I did not hear anything.”

I stammered out the words while wearing the face of someone completely at a loss.

At that, she gave me a pitiable little smile.

“Thank you. Then I will go in first.”

She bowed her head. I returned the greeting.

And with that, she went back inside.

Leaving me with one last remark.

“See you later, little young master behind the mask.”

Left alone on the balcony, I quietly stared at the now-empty balcony next door.

I was not a righteous man.

There were countless blades in this world, and countless villains and madmen.

Just because I became aware of them did not mean I had to punish every villain and every lunatic, nor did I have any intention of doing so.

If I were going to live that way, then in my next life I should have hunted down and killed every maid who had murdered me in the first place.

And I was curious. Now that the baron, the one guiding her, was gone, what would become of her?

So long as that blade was not pointed at me, I wanted to know where that madness would turn next.

That was why I decided to let her go.

I stepped back into my room and closed the window.

Early the next morning, the carriage carrying the baron’s son and Valea departed.

When they parted ways, the baron’s son seemed deeply disappointed that he would not be able to attend the academy together with Manuel.

Which was only natural. Once he returned home, he would have to inherit the territory.

He could theoretically have left an administrator in charge and enrolled in the academy anyway, but if the territory would have been difficult to manage even with him there in person, then leaving it to an administrator would have been absurd.

As for Valea, what would she do now?

At that very moment she was seated in the carriage, performing splendidly as the grieving daughter who had just heard of her father’s death.

Whether she would return to the baron’s house and turn the territory upside down, leave to strike out on her own, or simply continue doing whatever she had been doing before, I could not tell.

But it was no longer my problem.

All I could do was hope that she would never stand in my way.

And so the baron’s children left the capital.

It was an absurd situation, to have come all the way to the capital only to turn around and leave again, yet the matter of the baron’s house disappeared completely from everyone’s minds in less than a day.

Manuel and the people in this townhouse were far too busy preparing for his academy entrance.

As expected, they paid almost no attention to me, but I quietly inserted myself into the process and made preparations for entering the academy as well.

The servants did their utmost not to cross paths with me, but they were still servants of the Duke’s house. If I gave an order, they had no choice but to obey.

And so, while I lived that rather amusing half-ostracized life, someone came looking for me.

It was a butler dressed in garments bearing the royal crest.

To my surprise, it was a royal butler who had come for me.

“Her Majesty Queen Ria de Carlos summons Lord Alex.”

The expression on the butler’s face had changed since the first time I saw him.

At first, he had practically pretended I did not exist.

But now, he looked obviously uncomfortable.

He lacked polish. The Head Steward back in the ducal territory would never have let it show so plainly.

In any case, it was a summons from my patron.

I followed behind the royal butler and the soldiers toward the royal palace.

---

“...Mm. It is... impressive.”

I spoke in a somewhat flat voice as I looked out through the carriage window at the royal palace.

“It is the mag. nifi. cent royal palace built by King Carlos, the First King.”

At my remark, the royal butler seated across from me answered in an utterly businesslike tone. Yet even he did not call the palace beautiful or splendid.

As it loomed larger and larger before us, the royal palace made its founder’s tastes abundantly clear.

It was enormous, sturdy, and devoid of even the tiniest speck of elegance: a proper fortress built for war.

Of course, the first king, who had lived through the Great War, had needed a proper war fortress.

But since then, the palace had not once been invaded by a foreign enemy.

As time passed, the capital expanded, and the danger of outside attack vanished. After that, most of the people living in the capital had grown to dislike the palace’s appearance, finding it almost grotesque.

As a result, the old name given to it in the first king’s era, “the Knight’s Castle,” had come to be used almost as a form of self-mockery.

Thanks to the grand title of being the queen’s guest, even after entering the inner citadel we were able to remain in the carriage and head straight for the rear palace.

The residence of the third queen within the inner palace, known as the Ladies’ Palace, was quite beautiful in contrast to the main palace itself.

After stepping down from the carriage, I followed the royal butler into the building.

A beautiful corridor, and servants lining either side, standing still and bowing their heads.

Of course, they were not bowing because they knew who I was. They were bowing because of the royal butler.

Even so, it felt different from the greetings I received at the ducal house, and it made me unexpectedly tense.

I had died several times by now, and I thought I was beyond being nervous, but the presence of the royal palace was no ordinary thing.

“Welcome.”

As soon as I stepped through the ornate door at the end of the hall, a voice greeted me.

The drawing room beyond it was the most lavish room I had ever seen.

There were two women in the room besides the maids.

One looked somewhat older, the other was younger. Both were astonishingly beautiful.

I recognized the younger woman’s face, which meant the older one had to be the queen.

The younger woman was Katrin de Ratenhamar.

Katrin—the one I had once called Firebird Hunter when I did not know her name.

She had been beautiful even as a mercenary, but now, dressed in a gown and wearing proper makeup instead of mercenary attire, she was so beautiful I might not have recognized her at all.

I exchanged a brief look with Katrin, then bowed deeply and respectfully to the queen.

“It is my first time meeting you, Your Majesty the Queen. I am Alex... de Gresia.”

I stumbled a little over my full name, perhaps because it had been so long since I had used it, but it did not seem strange enough to matter.

“I am Ria de Carlos. You may call me Ria.”

The queen answered my greeting while looking at me with open delight.

But what a ridiculous thing to say. There was no way I could call her by her name alone.

She seated me on the sofa before her and continued speaking.

“I was quite surprised when Katrin asked me for this favor. She never asks me for anything, you see. And that made me very curious to meet you, my young lord.”

That was only natural. I might have been the Duke’s son, but I was neither the legitimate heir nor even legitimate at all. Asking her to support a bastard son could only seem odd.

It was only natural that it would stir her curiosity. I let out a sigh inwardly at the obvious outcome.

Katrin looked at both the queen and me with an apologetic expression.

“I could not help it. It would have been strange for me to sponsor the Duke’s son myself, and it would have been difficult to bring the matter to Father. So asking Her Majesty was my only option.”

Though she was Katrin’s older sister, there was no way Katrin could call the queen “older sister.”

And yet the queen was telling me to call her Ria. That joke was far too much.