FDPKH 04

Chapter 4

After that, it was swift. Orton Crow reluctantly let the wagon through, and those aboard had their identities briefly checked before entering Avalon, the central city of the North.

Grandma Sophia and the others all thanked me and said their goodbyes.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

If she had clearly been a friendly neighborhood grandmother before, now there was a bit of a wall. It seemed she had noticed from my conversation with Orton Crow that I was not of ordinary status.

I held the grandmother’s hand and said with a smile,

“Hurry along now, Grandma Sophia. Your grandchild is waiting!”

At my unchanging manner, the grandmother smiled warmly as before.

Orton Crow waited for me as I exchanged greetings with the others. I thought that was rather unexpected, but reading his gaze, his intent was easy to understand.

He was currently gauging what kind of person I was.

After everyone had left, Orton Crow approached me.

“Now that everything is fini—”

“Then would you guide me, Viscount Orton Crow?”

I deliberately ignored him.

Just because he was gauging me didn’t mean I had to show him only a kind and good side.

Especially to Viscount Orton Crow—the Grand Duke’s aide.

I had heard rumors about him even in the imperial palace. A genius among geniuses who completed the Academy in the fastest time in history. A peerless talent coveted not only by the First Princess but by the emperor himself. There had been a brief stir in the palace when such a man became the aide of the Grand Duke’s house rather than the imperial palace.

To a man so intelligent and quick-witted, there is nothing more foolish than showing him too much of myself.

Well, he seemed a bit lacking in work sense and poker face, but that was only a difference in skill level.

“Welcome to the Winter Castle of the North, Head Maid Belgismain.”

The gates of the Grand Duke’s castle opened.

—

“Please wait a moment.”

Orton Crow, who had guided me after I entered the Grand Duke’s castle, said. On the large door he indicated was a pure-white bird, the symbol of the Grand Duke’s house.

A pure-white bird. A nameless lowly creature that had pecked at bugs beneath the hazel tree symbolizing the imperial family.

If Adelta is the sun, the imperial family is the hazel tree that grows under her grace, and the Grand Duke is beneath it—a symbol that laid bare that blatant intent.

Knock knock.

“Your Grace. I have brought the guest you mentioned.”

At Orton Crow’s words, a dry voice came from inside.

“Come in.”

At that, Orton Crow spread the large door wide with both hands. The moment the door opened, a neatly arranged office came into view. The office was on a high floor, and the wide-open curtains seemed to add a refreshing feel.

And the man in the center. The owner of the black eyes sitting in the office chair, looking at me as I entered. The handsome man—cold as the North’s bitter winter, yet like a giant beast of prey—brushed back his flowing hair and gazed at me.

This was the man Adelta had shown me: Grand Duke Logan Fenatos.

I bowed to him. Drawing my right foot back, bending my knee, and lifting the full part of my skirt slightly with the tips of my fingers.

This was the formal greeting offered to the imperial family in the palace.

“May you dwell in the blessing of Adelta. This lowly one greets the noble one.”

It was perfect imperial etiquette.

I did not raise my head until he permitted it. One must never move without the imperial family’s permission. He is currently a Grand Duke, so there was no need to offer this greeting, but to make a strong impression and let him know that I treat him as imperial family, this greeting was necessary.

“……”

The Grand Duke said nothing.

I maintained that posture. Truly, continuously.

My legs ached and my body trembled, but for now I clenched my teeth and held the posture.

Fortunately, he didn’t seem inclined to keep me standing forever—soon he permitted me to relax.

“For now, sit.”

At his permission, I sat on the sofa in the office. Then the butler expertly served refreshments and tea. The Grand Duke, who had been sitting in his office chair looking over some documents, also rose and sat on the sofa once the tea was prepared.

“So. I heard you came to the North to recuperate because you were unwell.”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“But there’s the warm South, and the West with plenty to see—why come to the cold North?”

So it’s “what are you scheming.”

I smiled brightly at his intent, faintly revealed despite his efforts to hide his expression, and answered.

“I was born and raised in the Imperial Capital and had never once seen snow, so I came out of pure curiosity.”

“You must have seen plenty of snow on the way here, no?”

“However much I’ve seen, how could it compare to the Augus Snow Mountain, where snow has fallen for ten thousand years?”

The Augus Snow Mountain was the snowy peak right behind the Grand Duke’s castle. At what was, in a sense, an obvious remark, the Grand Duke smiled cynically and sneered.

“So you were planning to drag your ailing body all the way to the snow mountain, it seems.”

“That would truly be wonderful, but just seeing it felt like it might restore my health.”

This body had only briefly worsened for me to enter. Since its original owner had disappeared and I had entered, it was only natural that the sick body would gradually recover.

Of course, it wouldn’t be because of the snow mountain.

“I see.”

The Grand Duke stroked his chin once and looked at me. I was still smiling brightly. Meanwhile, inwardly, I hoped he would ask me the questions he must be holding.

But the Grand Duke ended the conversation more blandly than expected.

“Still, I cannot have you staying just anywhere. Orton. Give the young lady a guest room.”

Those words were very welcome, but for an unmarried noble to stay at the residence of the opposite sex went against this country’s conventions, so I had to decline once out of courtesy.

Even if my goal was to approach him.

“But Your Grace. I worry that my staying here might be a burden to you.”

“Thanks to the young lady spreading rumors everywhere, word that the ’emperor’s head maid,’ frail as she is, is heading north has already spread among the northern nobles. If I don’t receive such a person as a guest, the Grand Duke’s dignity would be in shambles.”

“But…”

At my words, he let out a short sigh and said,

“Orton. Give her a guest room in the annex. Then you’ll be satisfied as well.”

“Yes. Your Grace.”

At the Grand Duke’s words, Orton Crow, standing beside him, answered.

The Grand Duke rose from the sofa and sat in his office chair. Then, wearing a doll-like smile, he said to me,

“Please enjoy the snow of the North to your heart’s content before you leave. Head Maid Belgismain.”

I offered him a bow in imperial etiquette once more and withdrew.

“Thank you for your grace, Your Grace the Grand Duke.”

Click.

The office door closed, and Orton Crow led me and showed me to a certain room. It was a guest room in the annex, quite far from the Grand Duke’s office. For a guest room, it was a bit chilly and looked old. But Orton Crow said to me without any change in expression,

“This is the room you will use during your stay.”

As I set my luggage on the table and looked around, he said to me with a genial smile,

“The Augus Snow Mountain is visible from the annex as well, so it should be enough for enjoying the snow.”

I smiled brightly at his words and answered,

“Thank you.”

—

I already knew that Aria Belgismain, the young head maid of the imperial palace, was heading north.

Nevertheless, the reason the Grand Duke had not brought her in was simple.

Because he couldn’t trust her.

Servants were, without exception, light-mouthed and nimble creatures. When they opened their mouths, it was flattery; what they reported was nothing but lies. For them, the most important thing was not the safety of the one they served but their own wellbeing.

Moreover, the head maid who had attended that emperor—the thought that it might be some filthy relationship made him want to deliberately ignore her.

But she was a clever woman.

She spread rumors everywhere so that he could not ignore her. Thanks to that, the northern nobles—who trembled in terror at the mere mention of the emperor—pressured him, making it hard to simply ignore her.

The Grand Duke let out a stifled sigh at the wind coming through the open door.

Honestly, he didn’t like it.

He already distrusted others by nature, and someone who concealed her intentions like that was even more untrustworthy.

Above all, the “small promise” his mother had often mentioned seemed to have long lost its meaning, which displeased him all the more.

Just then, someone knocked on the door twice.

“It’s Orton, Your Grace.”

“Yes.”

At the permission, a familiar man entered the office. Orton Crow, dressed in a neat suit, saw the wide-open office door and let out a short sigh.

“May I nag you?”

“My head hurts.”

“Isn’t that because you left the window open? I’ve told you until my mouth wore out that the temperature drops sharply at night, not during the day, so you shouldn’t leave it open like this unless you’re wearing something…!”

“If you’re going to do it anyway even if I refuse, why ask?”

“I asked out of courtesy. Even with a close friend, it’s polite to ask before saying something they don’t want to hear. Moreover, you are His Grace the Grand Duke. Naturally, I should ask your opinion at least.”

“Not losing a single word—that’s your strong point, I’ll give you that.”

“Phew… I did think so myself.”

At Orton’s words, the Grand Duke, who had turned his chair as if fed up, turned his head. At his “surely not” expression, Orton nodded meekly.

“Yes. I lost. Completely.”

He raised both hands, recalling the situation outside the Grand Duke’s castle.

Yes. Honestly, it was true he had somewhat looked down on her.

The young head maid of the imperial palace?

That was a reputation infinitely small before his title as a peerless genius. He wasn’t the Grand Duke’s aide at a young age for nothing. Above all, because of his master’s nature of rarely keeping people close, he was concurrently holding the position of head butler. Yet he had never once found the work difficult.

To him, the sight of Aria Belgismain—smiling innocently while inducing, no, forcing a mistake whose ending was obvious—was a fresh shock.

He felt that she hadn’t survived in the imperial palace for nothing.

“Hmm… I simply cannot figure out why she came here. Is there something in the snow mountain so important that she’d drag her sick body here?”

“Perhaps she came because of the promise Lady Aelita mentioned?”

At Orton’s somewhat hopeful words, the Grand Duke let out a curt laugh.

“No way.”

The Grand Duke rose from his seat. He said as he put on the light coat he had hung up in advance,

“I’ll go see Mother, so plant some people in the annex.”

“Understood.”

“And investigate that woman. In great detail—leave nothing out.”