TCRVP 7
by Sylvie Hart 🪐Chapter 7
The Grand Duke, who had returned while holding Melissa precious in his arms, personally came to the storage room tucked away in a corner of the Imperial Palace where I had been dumped a few days later.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—Director McGuffin happened to be away.
“……You work in a place like this?”
The Grand Duke cast a disdainful look toward the corner piled high with miscellaneous junk, as though he found the place utterly distasteful.
It might not look like it, but I had worked hard to clean it up after I arrived.
“It’s not as bad as it looks.”
The Grand Duke snorted.
“You must want quite a lot, Deputy Director.”
He continued without even waiting for my answer.
“What do you want in return? Money? A higher position? Do you want to become the director?”
I was momentarily at a loss for words, but I managed to regain my composure.
“I don’t want any of those.”
The Grand Duke stared at me as if he simply couldn’t believe me, but I was being completely sincere.
Even though I might not look like it, Imperial officials were actually paid fairly well. And after I became deputy director, my salary had doubled.
I supposed he thought that since I would only be staying for a few months, he might as well give me a hefty sum of money before I left.
But for me, who was somehow still holding on perfectly well, it was practically a windfall.
And naturally, I had no desire to become director either.
Why would I?
Director McGuffin was blocking all the troublesome work for me.
“I just want you to let me meet Lady Melissa more often.”
The Grand Duke looked like he found that impossible to believe.
“Just be honest with me. Don’t use my sister and try to obtain something from her later.”
Ah.
So that was what this was about.
‘Melissa really doesn’t need to try so hard to be loved, then.’
What the Grand Duke feared most was the possibility that I had ulterior motives for approaching Melissa and that the child would be hurt because of it.
So he was telling me that if there was something I wanted, I should tell him now.
He would quietly take care of it where Melissa couldn’t see.
But the problem was……
‘I really don’t want anything!’
The only thing I wanted was to spend time with Melissa.
‘……And I’d like him to abandon that rebellion plan, but telling him that would basically be suicide.’
Considering the story of The Black Five Murderers, the only person capable of stopping Grand Duke Cardicha was Melissa herself.
If I recklessly stuck my nose into it, I might really lose my head this time.
“I don’t know what I could possibly say to make you believe me, but I’m quite satisfied with my current position.”
“……You really don’t want anything?”
By now, this circular conversation was genuinely starting to make me uncomfortable.
“Didn’t I already tell you that I want you to let me see Lady Melissa more often?”
Achilles Cardicha stared into my eyes for a long time instead of answering.
As if he could read my mind just by doing that.
But I was pretty good at staring contests myself.
I had even once been told behind my back that I had ‘an unpleasant, sharp gaze.’
And this time was no different.
I won.
He looked away and muttered in a voice barely loud enough to hear.
“……The deputy director must be one of two things. An extraordinary con artist…… or an angel sent down by God.”
No, I’m neither of those!
That night.
In the silence-soaked bedroom, Achilles Cardicha fell deep into thought.
Naturally, before entrusting Melissa to her, he had conducted a background investigation.
There was no way he could entrust his precious little sister to some commoner woman whose identity he knew nothing about.
Tessa Harrington, Deputy Director of the Child Protection Bureau.
A strict principled woman who never made allowances for individual circumstances, a heartless villain from the Ministry of Finance…… who had now been demoted to the obscure Child Protection Bureau.
Normally, she was the sort of person he would never have spared a thought for.
The problem was that she had captured Melissa’s heart in an instant.
‘……All she did was listen to her.’
Achilles let out a hollow laugh.
It sounded simple enough when put that way.
Melissa trembled whenever she saw him and did nothing but cause trouble. Sometimes, she was so troublesome that he even wondered whether she was doing it on purpose.
So what exactly was he supposed to listen to?
A brief report on Tessa Harrington was nowhere near enough to put his mind at ease, but since she was Melissa’s only lifeline, he had no choice but to entrust his sister to her.
Even so, he hadn’t sent Melissa off without taking any precautions.
Achilles had forcibly placed a magical tool around Melissa’s neck and taught her how to use it.
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary amethyst necklace.
In reality, however, it was a powerful magical artifact.
Once activated, it would restrain the person standing before her while simultaneously sending an immediate signal to him.
……
And Melissa hadn’t activated the magical tool.
Instead, she had even approached Tessa first.
It was something Achilles could never have imagined Melissa doing only a short while ago.
‘Yes. Whatever kind of person she is, the fact remains that she’s good for Melissa.’
Even so, he still couldn’t let his guard down.
She could simply be a shrewd swindler.
‘I need to investigate her more thoroughly.’
But even if Tessa Harrington was a con artist, she had made Melissa smile.
She had made Melissa throw herself into her arms……
The image of Melissa nestling herself against Tessa was still vivid in his mind.
How could he not feel grateful to Tessa Harrington?
Achilles was not an ungrateful man.
If anything, he was the sort who returned exactly what he received and gave as much as he had been given.
‘She doesn’t want money or a position……’
Even so, it would be absurd to give her nothing at all.
There was one sentence in the report that had caught his attention.
‘She was said to always look exhausted from working day and night.’
He had failed to notice it because she usually did nothing but glare at him with eyes filled with hostility, but now that he thought about it, she had indeed looked rather haggard.
‘But her eyes were certainly gentle whenever she looked at Melissa.’
The corners of Achilles’s lips slowly curved upward.
He had just thought of a way to both buy himself some time to investigate Tessa further while keeping her away from Melissa for a while……
And reward her at the same time.
“It’s a reward vacation. Take two weeks off and get plenty of rest before you come back.”
“A reward…… vacation?”
I was genuinely bewildered by Director McGuffin’s words.
During my three years at the Ministry of Finance, I had never once taken an extended vacation.
More precisely, I had never taken any vacation at all except when I was burning up with a fever.
Naturally, my superior had never once suggested that I take a vacation either.
“Yes. It’s an order from above, so follow it.”
“When you say ‘above’…….”
“If you were a little quicker on the uptake, you’d know when to keep your mouth shut.”
“Oh. Right.”
He was absolutely right.
No matter how much of an obscure posting the Child Protection Bureau was, it was still an independent institution.
According to the official hierarchy, there was only one person above us.
The Prime Minister.
……But had there ever really been such a thing as rules around here?
“So does this mean I don’t have to worry about getting fired over some trivial thing anymore?”
Director McGuffin stared straight at me.
“Do you really think the Grand Duke would sit quietly if you were dismissed?”
“……Oh.”
So, apparently, I had acquired what was essentially a powerful backer.
‘I wish I’d gotten one sooner!’
If I had, I could have thoroughly enjoyed watching those bastards at the Ministry of Finance panic.
The director tapped his index finger against the desk.
“That doesn’t mean you should start throwing your weight around. This vacation is also a message telling you to keep a low profile for a while.”
I immediately understood the situation.
‘He’s saying, “I’m going to investigate your background pretty thoroughly, so don’t interfere. Go have fun while I do it,” isn’t he?’
The Grand Duke of Cardicha didn’t trust me.
Thanks to Melissa, who had told me every little detail about the ‘magic necklace my brother gave me’ as soon as I met her, I also knew that he had taken certain safety precautions of his own.
It didn’t bother me.
If anything, if it weren’t for that necklace, I would have suspected that the Grand Duke was hiding somewhere around the villa.
“Paid vacation, right?”
Surely they wouldn’t give me vacation as a way of keeping me quiet and then make it unpaid.
The director chuckled.
“Yes, it’s paid. So leave immediately.”
If that was the case, there was no reason for me to refuse.
‘I needed some time to clear my head anyway. Perfect.’
The female protagonist of a childcare story, her secretive mastermind of a brother, the rebellion he was plotting……
This was the perfect opportunity to get away from all of it and cool my head.
“We’ve arrived, ma’am.”
The moment I stepped out of the carriage, my mood naturally lifted at the vivid blue sky and mild weather befitting a southern resort town.
‘The capital is freezing with cold winds blowing everywhere, but it’s practically spring here!’
After paying the carriage fare, I dragged my travel bag along and staggered toward my lodging, the Hotel Erendal.
I had heard that it was difficult to find a room without making a reservation in advance, but fortunately, someone had just checked out, leaving exactly one vacant room.
“However, the room isn’t quite ready yet…… Would you mind waiting a little while?”
“Of course.”
I sat down on one of the plush sofas in the hotel lobby and leisurely began reading a book.
‘Hmm, this is interesting.’
The bookseller had recommended it as a mystery novel by a promising new writer who was gaining popularity lately, so I had picked it up.
It was incredibly exciting, with twist after twist.
I had just reached the moment when the detective finally began revealing all the tricks behind the case.
[Everyone! I would like to reveal here that Adel is, in fact, not Adel.]
“What on earth do you mean, Detective? I’ve known Adel my entire life! He never switched places with anyone!”
[Of course not. Because……]
But I never found out Adel’s true identity.
Because an extremely unwelcome visitor had spoken to me.
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