Chapter 42

“Now, please, right this way.”

Prompted by the young chancellor, Marquis Theodore Saxon, Diana and Alan took their seats.

Despite the curtains being drawn back, the secluded room deep within the royal castle was dim, and the air felt somewhat stagnant.

“His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is currently attending to the welcome reception for the Fieran special envoy, so I will be handling your audience today.”

Theodore bowed respectfully, but there was no vitality in his eyes.

The dark circles under his eyes made his handsome features look somewhat gloomy.

With his silver hair and pale skin, a handsomeness that would normally have women swooning, he seemed almost artificial, and an awkward smile hovered across his face.

Chancellor Theodore Saxon was twenty-nine years old this year.

Though he was in the prime of his working years, the fingers clutching the report were emaciated, and his cheeks were hollowed out.

“Now then, where should I begin?”

Sitting across from Alan and Diana, Theodore cleared his throat once.

“First of all, thank you for escorting the special envoy, Naval Admiral McBride, all the way to the royal capital.”

“No, your thanks are unnecessary.”

Diana replied to Theodore’s words.

Alan remained silent, staring fixedly at Theodore sitting opposite them.

“However, the other party is a nation with which we have yet to establish formal diplomatic relations. Voices have been raised questioning whether it was a bit too presumptuous for a noble house, even a ducal one, to act entirely on its own initiative.”

Here it comes… Diana sighed inwardly.

Just how many times had she been summoned to the royal castle by now—and every single time, it was filled with complaints rather than praise.

She had been prepared for the fact that this summons, too, would come with a sharp warning.

“There are even some quarters suspecting the House of Gazard of treason.”

At Theodore’s words, Alan’s single eyebrow twitched faintly.

Alan’s mother had been a young lady of the House of Pennington, which had been dismantled on suspicion of treason.

Ever since birth, Alan had been scorned as a child carrying the blood of traitors and had been treated coldly in the royal castle despite being a royal prince.

“In the first place, the very moment the two of you happened to be at the port—”

“Begging your pardon, Lord Chancellor.”

Diana’s clear, dignified voice cut straight through the heavy, stagnant air of the dim room.

“Are you suggesting that it is strange for a newlywed couple to take a trip to a coastal town… is that what you wish to imply?”

Purple eyes gleaming with a fierce intensity locked onto Theodore.

“Baron Quilter, who governs the town of Angus, is a vassal of our House of Gazard, and his daughter is my former classmate. Do you find it suspicious in the least that people like us would visit a port town?”

Diana’s gaze stared straight into Theodore.

It was not the youthful Diana who averted her eyes first, but the worldly-wise chancellor.

“I am merely stating that such opinions have been voiced.”

“If that is the case, then you should consider the peril of voicing such claims before verifying the facts.”

A heavy sigh escaped Diana’s lips.

“If they are baseless rumors, they ought to be corrected… why would you say something that only amplifies and encourages such rabble’s gossip?”

She understood Theodore’s intentions all too well.

To act in place of Lawrence, who was occupied with managing Curtis, by pressing the House of Gazard and forcing them to acknowledge their wrongdoing.

If they quietly allowed their fangs to be pulled, well and good; if they adopted a hardline stance, they would be deemed to harbor treasonous intent and dealt with accordingly.

However, the opponent was not Lawrence.

“As I stated just a moment ago, the House of Quilter is a vassal of the House of Gazard. It was only natural that he should struggle to handle the sudden appearance of a warship from an unknown country. Is it truly so deserving of censure that we stepped in to respond on behalf of that baronial household?”

“Did you not think it should have been left to the Royal House?”

“Naturally, we dispatched a messenger to the royal capital immediately. However, there is a distance between the royal capital and the port town. Are you suggesting we should have simply left the special envoy waiting idly all that while?”

Just as anticipated, Theodore faltered under Diana’s fierce momentum.

Theodore was different from Lawrence.

He lacked the ruthlessness to drive someone into a corner when they had committed no fault.

He still retained enough conscience to be aware of his own transgressions.

“I am merely stating that for a single noble house to open trade with another country constitutes an overreach of authority.”

“Then what should we have done? Turned them away, or waited until someone arrived from the royal capital? In that situation?”

He surely knew himself that what he was arguing made no sense.

That was precisely why his tone gradually grew weaker.

“The other side possesses technological prowess sufficient to construct cutting-edge warships. I humbly concluded that handling the matter amicably was far wiser than needlessly provoking a conflict.”

There was not a single lie in Diana’s words.

If there was only one hidden truth behind them…

(Though the truth is, I went to Angus knowing full well from my memories of my past life that a ship from the Kingdom of Fieran was due to arrive at the port around this time…)

No matter how much they were suspected or probed, not a shred of evidence would ever turn up.

Even Theodore, the one conducting the interrogation, knew that much.

“Haa… I understand your side of the argument.”

Unable to help it, a dry sigh escaped the young chancellor’s lips.

“After conferring with His Highness, we will contact the House of Gazard at a later date.”

“I look forward to the day our misunderstanding is cleared.”

Rising from her seat, Diana gave a slight, polite bow.

Alan remained silent until the very end.

After staring steadily at Theodore, he abruptly averted his gaze.

The door clicked shut, and their footsteps faded away down the hall.

Left alone in the room, Theodore slumped downward from his chair, sliding toward the floor.

“Haa…”

He expelled a breath until his lungs were completely empty.

It was not as though he enjoyed conducting such interrogations.

Pressuring the House of Gazard was an order from Crown Prince Lawrence.

(Why on earth does His Highness treat the House of Gazard with such blinding hostility…?)

Even now, the Crown Prince’s words still clung stubbornly to Theodore’s ears.

“Use whatever means necessary; crush the House of Gazard.”

“However, Your Highness… to destroy a lineage of that stature without any reason—”

“If there is no reason, simply fabricate one, can you not?”

The warped smile of the master he was bound to serve.

It made his spine shiver, yet he had been unable to look away.

“If you claim you cannot even fabricate a single charge, I will lend you this person.”

“You are—”

That was the person who had been introduced to him by the Crown Prince.

If he made good use of that person, he would undoubtedly be able to back the House of Gazard into a corner, just as Lawrence desired.

Yet…

(At this rate, isn’t it the Royal House, picking petty quarrels, that is truly in the wrong…)

Blood slowly welled from the lips he was biting down on.

As Theodore gazed blankly into the empty air, his face was overflowing with anguish.