LUCIAN STARED BLANKLY INTO THE AIR and soon turned back to his father. Who had been trying to persuade him, looked at his son and hardened his facial expression.
A moment later, his smiling face disappeared out of nowhere and Lucian, who had a doll-like expression, spoke to him.
“But, Father.”
“…..”
Pedro could not answer his son because he felt like something was blocking his throat, and he could not bring forth his voice.
Lucian spoke again in a quiet and calm voice, just staring at him emotionlessly with his eyes wide open.
“Hand over the Duchy to me now.”
“………”
Lucian had to carry out a rigorous schedule for years for the sake of soon taking over the Duke’s authority.
It was Pedro who knew it better than anyone that he couldn’t hold him down anymore.
Lucian, who was still staring at him after saying his piece, suddenly turned his back as if he didn’t care even about Pedro’s answer.
And as Pedro looked at Lucian’s retreating figure for a long time, Pedro finally breathed out a stifled breath after his son finally disappeared into the darkness.
Pedro wiped the sweat off his forehead with his trembling fingertips.
Feeling dizzy, he put his hand on a window frame in the hallway.
He recalled the conversation he had with his father before. No, he basically just reenacted it.
“Are you telling me I’m sick…? Are you really saying that I’m sick? Father!”
“What you are doing is not love. It’s a delusion. How can you say that you love another man?”
“But Father… I know it is true in my heart. My heart beats only when he’s around.”
“It’s a disease. It’s a very disgusting mental illness. Otherwise…”
Pedro murmured, still recalling the voice of his father who was belittling him.
“Father… it seems like this illness is hereditary.”
While thinking of Lucian, who was staring at him with the same crazy eyes as he did, Pedro put a little strength to his hand while holding the window frame.
“I’ve denied it so far… but I think my son is right, Father.”
There was no one around him while he laughed as if he had lost his mind. Only the locket around his neck sparkled as if it were responding.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.───
I THEN CHECKED THE NOTES GIVEN to Damian and found Amber. “Amber.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“I want to go out for a while…”
“Very well, Young Master.”
Amber was still as competent as ever. Even if I didn’t have to say much in the end, she started to prepare everything herself.
“Ah, if possible, I don’t want to ride a carriage that has the Duchy’s emblem on it.” However, as if I were being interrogated, she narrowed her eyes and asked.
“Young Master, what else are you going to do?”
“Huh?”
Maybe it’s because I would often have us do strange things while we were in the south, Amber immediately suspected something.
But I pretended to be innocent and tilted my head to the side.
“Young Master once thought to jump into the sea while wearing a horseback riding suit because you wanted to swim all of a sudden while we were in the south. What else? You once told me to catch a live fish for the chef so you could eat raw fish? And also…”
When Amber tried to bring up everything she’d been through in the south for seven years, I answered as casually as I could as if I was trying to reassure her.
“Come on, it’s not like that this time. I just wanted to meet an information broker.”
“…Pardon?”
I looked at Amber, who was startled and jumped back with a strange look.
I know that the meetings are held at secret places for the sake of secure and accurate information. But was it such a surprise that I knew about it?
As I tilted my head in confusion, Amber approached me quickly and whispered into my ear.
“Did you get permission from the Duke? Please say yes, Young Master.”
“Why do I need to get permission?”
“…Young Master!”
“Ah! Amber, my ears will fall off!” I’m not kidding, she shouted right next to my ear. Frowning due to the ringing sensation, Amber immediately grabbed her head.
“I’m sorry, Young Master, but…”
“I’m just going to meet them for just a little information. I don’t know why you’re so worried.”
“Do you think intelligence is the only main source of income for the information broker? They’re all connected to the back alley. Aren’t you worried because you’re going to a place like that?”
“I’m taking Doggy and Damien with me. Don’t worry too much.”
“Ha… I’m really going to get fired when the Duke finds out about this.”
“I mean, shouldn’t it be fine as long as you don’t get caught?”
“Young Master!”
“Why would I go there if I didn’t have to? I’m going to find out some things that I can’t ask the Duke. That’s all that it is.”
Because of what I said, Amber sighed in resignation after a long time. I know she’s worried, but I couldn’t make a concession.
I had to know what happened to Count Elrand, and I wanted to know more about Noah.
It’s hard to guess the relationship between the two because of Lucian, who never talks about him.
Did their blooming romance go awry?
Eyy, but they’re the main characters. I’m sure it wouldn’t go wrong.
I thought I should know more about the state of the County. This decision is mostly due to my late parents, but also because Cassander, who heard my thoughts about that crazy uncle a few days ago, began to nag at me constantly.
It basically went like this…
[ You stole my descendant’s body, but you’re not taking care of the Elrand family?! Do you even have any conscience? ]
He wouldn’t believe me no matter how many times I told him I didn’t really steal it. I felt like I was going to get a migraine because of his yelling all the time without giving me any help.
Was this some kind of backstory in the original story?
No matter how interested I was in the main characters and the people around me, I wasn’t aware that there was an important setting like this.
It’s frustrating, but I am curious anyway, and I had to figure out how to find more information because I thought the Duke wouldn’t tell me the truth.
Oh, Duke, I guess that’s all the trust I have for you right now.
Then I shook my head while Amber picked out some clothes and brought them in. They all had a very appropriate design that was neither too fancy nor too simple.
Great job, Amber.
You’re very competent, as expected.
After changing clothes in a hurry, I got into a carriage that had the Duchy’s emblem on it. Amber, who followed after me, said.
“I’m going to transfer you to another carriage once we get halfway there.”
I smiled broadly at her words. Ah, she really is a competent person.
“Thank you, Amber.”
“Huu, I’m telling you. Since you’re back in the capital residence, you shouldn’t act the way you did in the south. Anyway, I’m only helping you with your mischief until you have your debutante. You should pay more attention to your manners and attitude once you have your debutante.”
“I got it.”
I nodded at what she said. Because I knew very well what she was worried about.
A debutante is an event that marks your formal entry into high society.
Until now, I was able to move around freely because my face was not well known, but it will be difficult to act that way in the future.
The carriage quickly entered the town. In the middle of the trip, I transferred to a commercial carriage at the carriage storage location and went to the place Damian told me about.
In the past, most of the novels had the information guild’s headquarters hidden in a bar, but the information guild here is rather unique.
I followed the winding alley. It was not until a small store, that looked like it had been a restaurant at one point, that was invisible to Damian appeared in front of me. In that hard to find location was a rather nondescript bookstore.
It was a small bookstore that could be in any alley, but it is just very suspicious for it to be in such a deserted place.
Entering a bookstore full of white dust, I looked around inside the store.
As Damian had told me to, I started looking for a book while I pulled my hood, that was covering the color of my hair, lower over my face.
Then Doggy’s head popped out of my bag.
{ You didn’t forget about me, did you master? }
I smiled, my eyes curving into crescent moons as I looked at Doggy, who I brought for self-defense.
In any case, this desirable little fox really knows how to act cute. He tilted his head and asked quietly.
“Don’t come out and stay inside. Don’t stand out.”
{ All right, master! Trust me! }
Doggy, who knew the purpose I had when I brought him here in this kind of place with me, buried his head inside the bag again.
“Here it is.”
I pulled out the book Damian said to look for. After checking the title of the book again, I was fascinated and read it.
“101 spicy sauces in the world.”
The author of this book seems to have a similar taste in food to me.
Even if it wasn’t because of information, it was an interesting book, so I purposely picked up one more copy of the book.
She discreetly put on a large pair of glasses and gave the two books to an old man who was spending his time in a rocking chair at the back end of the store.
“Welcome.”
Then the old man with white hair stopped rocking in his chair and said his greeting towards me belatedly. I’m sure he saw me when I was coming in earlier.
Anyway, I told him the secret code.
“I’ll buy this one. And I want you to transcribe this one book.”
A code that means that the customer requires information.
Take the book they have designated and ask for the transcription. Even if it doesn’t seem like much, it’s not that suspicious and most won’t stumble upon this by accident.
Who else besides me has such a penchant for spicy sauce besides me anyway?
“The price of a book is one gold coin. Now, please follow me.”
I took a gold coin out of the pouch Amber had prepared for me in advance and paid for it. I thought it was a bit expensive for a book, but I didn’t care.
While I was looking at the information desk, I didn’t bother to ask for the book I liked.
The old man took me to the back of a large bookcase. The inside of the shelves was also full of books, so it looked no different from any of the others.
The old man stood in front of the bookcase and began to pull out books one after another.
When the right books were removed, the bookcase opened without a sound.
Oh, isn’t this kinda cool?
Behind the bookshelf, a colorful hallway with red carpets and red wallpaper shone right in front of me.
Ah, the red hue makes me want to eat something spicy like jalapenos.
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