A Day In The Grand Duchess’ Life (4)

“What else?”

At Reichardt’s question, Roderick smiled even wider.

“Do you know which clan is the hottest in Baden these days?”

“Just say it.”

“It’s the Adelheid Clan. Recently, Her Grace the Grand Duchess of Tessen has been rapidly rising as Baden’s greatest philanthropist. Why are you making that face?”

Seeing Reichardt fail to rejoice at good news, Roderick voiced his confusion.

“Alicia said she was just sponsoring friends she thought were decent.”

At Reichardt’s words, Roderick threw his head back and burst into loud laughter.

“Her Grace is truly bold. ‘Just decent friends,’ you say. These days, among scholars who feel they’ve hit a ceiling in the Empire’s prayer houses or academies and want to pursue business or research, the patron they want to meet most is Her Grace.”

Reichardt was genuinely surprised by Roderick’s words.

“Is that so?”

“The Adelheid Clan prioritizes meeting and sponsoring people from prayer houses. Usually, when you say ‘prayer-house graduate,’ you mean someone rigid, stubborn, conservative—and their status is rarely impressive. In the past, once prayer-house people left, there wasn’t much they could do.”

Roderick spoke with an exceedingly cheerful face.

“When someone becomes a member of the Adelheid Clan, Her Grace first finds them a job. And she funds their research as well. The clan member lives freely on the money they earn from work, and conducts research with the research funds.”

For nobles, sponsoring promising scholars or artists also raised their own prestige.

“Existing benefactors want them to focus only on scholarship, but those leaving prayer houses often don’t even have living expenses. Since they earn their own living costs, they have freedom. On top of that, the jobs Her Grace provides are related to their research, so satisfaction is high.”

“Has anyone she sponsored already produced results?”

Reichardt asked, still half-doubtful.

“There has. It’s really nothing much, but they made some kind of lid, and its sealing power is incomparable to existing stoppers.”

“Impressive.”

“It is. The developer said they achieved the result by combining what they were researching with what they saw while working at the place Her Grace introduced them to. That’s why scholars in Baden want, at the very least, to see Her Grace once.”

Listening to Roderick, Reichardt grasped how things were flowing.

Alicia did not hand out direct hints, but she was providing environments that offered threads to the scholars’ prior research.

He could guess why Alicia—already busy—had become even busier, with no room to breathe.

“I can’t stay here.”

Reichardt muttered, spreading both a smile and a frown at the same time.

“Yes? What do you mean by that, Your Grace?”

Roderick looked at Reichardt with a puzzled face.

Reichardt recalled how Roderick had looked especially proud and full of anticipation the entire time he talked.

Suspicion quickly turned into certainty.

“Why are you so happy about Alicia’s business going well?”

“What’s wrong with being glad that Her Grace is doing well?”

Roderick made a refreshing laugh and tried to wriggle out of it.

“Did Alicia make you a business proposal?”

Reichardt asked with a twisted smile.

For some reason, everything Reichardt said today hit the mark.

His accuracy was unnervingly high.

“…Nothing has been formally set in motion yet.”

Roderick answered seriously instead of denying it.

“What are you planning to do?”

“She said she intended to develop Mount Kaip….”

A villain-like smile rose on Reichardt’s face.

He only thought it to himself.

A silver mine.

It seemed Alicia knew that far already.

“Even a count needs capital to enrich his lands. Make sure you join the business. If Alicia suggests it, it’ll succeed.”

“You aren’t cursing me right now, are you?”

Roderick twitched his cheek, watching Reichardt’s expression.

A royal who was always blunt and indifferent to business or profit suddenly encouraging success was suspicious in itself.

“I’m not.”

Reichardt answered flatly and rose from his chair.

He headed straight for the door.

“Wait, Your Grace…. Your Grace, where are you going right now?”

There was still a long way to go before state affairs would be finished.

After this, Reichardt had appointments with the Empire’s ministers.

“I’m going home.”

Reichardt said proudly.

It was not something even an immature boy would say.

“What do you mean, you’re going home…?”

Roderick stammered in shock.

“I’m going to run. I’ll rest for a few days and come back. Alicia’s overdoing it, so I need to force her to rest.”

Reichardt fired the words out quickly as he stepped out the door.

“What? Your Grace! Running away—where…. Block the exits!”

Roderick rushed after him, and at the ominous words, tried to block his path first.

No knight of the Grand Duchy of Tessen thought they should physically bar the Grand Duke of Tessen.

The knights hesitated, and Reichardt did not miss the opening.

“Your Grace!”

Reichardt strode forward, then moved in an instant, shaking off the knights and escaping Tatus Tower.

“B-block him!”

“Your Grace!”

The knights who lost him shouted at the imperial knights.

Knights who were used to watching for intruders or monitoring the palace had no reason to stop someone leaving it, so they did not react in time.

Even if they had reacted in time, they could not have followed a Reichardt who had decided to flee.

In the blink of an eye, Reichardt left the imperial palace.

It was his first unauthorized departure in his life of public duty.

Alicia had been about to take a brief rest before the next audience.

Even as she sat on the sofa, she tilted her ear to the unsettled noise coming from far away.

The commotion grew louder and closer.

Soon, urgent shouts rang out near Adelheid House.

Alicia rose and walked to the window.

Her hand, opening it, froze.

A huge Lusa was approaching Adelheid House.

The Lusa’s pitch-black, heavy body surged quickly toward where Alicia stood.

“Rei…?”

Alicia leaned her face out the window and focused her eyes.

She hoped it was not, but the one riding the Lusa was indeed Reichardt.

Among the grand ducal knights assigned to guard Adelheid House, few were familiar with Lusa.

At the sight of the large black Lusa, knights and servants panicked.

Exhaling a small breath at the unbelievable scene, Alicia felt sick inside.

Rei, you said we wouldn’t ride a Lusa around Baden.

She could already imagine the “Devil Grand Duke” routine stirring Baden for a while, and her stomach burned.

She hated rumors spreading, but what puzzled her more was Reichardt showing up at Adelheid House at this hour.

He should have been in the imperial palace, in the middle of his duties.

“Alicia!”

Reichardt raised his voice toward the open window.

“Rei, here—”

Alicia’s words were cut off.

“Jump!”

Reichardt shouted, frantic.

“What?”

Once, Alicia had easily jumped down from the height of a four-story building.

Even now, it was not impossible.

But she would likely break one or two bones.

If she took enough magic stones and tried it, she might be able to avoid injury—though she would still be stunned and unable to move for a while.

“Hurry! I’ll catch you! Come on—someone’s coming to catch you!”

Reichardt shouted urgently.

It was a desperate cry.

Creeeak.

Alicia shoved the window wide open.

There were too many strange parts to Reichardt’s words.

She could not understand who would be coming to capture her.

If enemies were coming, defending from inside the building would be more effective.

But Reichardt was telling her, out of nowhere, to jump.

Alicia decided to move first.

Seeing his hand beckoning to her, she made up her mind.

She liked his firm shout that he would catch her.

Without hesitation, Alicia launched herself out the window.

Flap!

Her dress snapped in the fierce wind.

“Alicia! No!”

Daisy, entering the room at that very moment, screamed.

The voice was so loud it felt as if the not-so-large room itself shook.

“Your Grace!”

“Aaah! No…!”

“Your Grace!”

People outside also screamed.

Reichardt, astride the Lusa, turned smoothly in place and matched Alicia’s falling position.

Alicia landed—thunk—securely in his arms.

Alicia had so much to ask.

‘Who is chasing us?’

‘Did another monster appear somewhere?’

Reichardt set Alicia in front of him and drove the Lusa forward.

“Your Grace!”

To others, the two of them must have looked like the Devil Grand Duke and his fragile bride.

The Devil Grand Duke rode a black beast, lured his bride with wicked words, and made her leap from a window.

Then the devil snatched up the beautiful bride and sped away, as if racing straight to hell.

“Your Grace!”

Behind Reichardt and Alicia, the residence servants cried out miserably.

Henrik, arriving at a run, practically wailed.

Daisy, clinging to the window and shouting down, looked no different.

Reichardt seemed not to hear those pitiful voices at all.

He kissed Alicia’s bewildered cheek and rode the Lusa fast.

“I missed you.”

Reichardt brought his lips near Alicia’s face in his arms and whispered.

The voice at her ear was full of longing and yearning, as if years had passed since they last saw each other.

But they had only parted four hours ago, to attend to their own work.

Reflexively, Alicia returned the kiss that touched her cheek.

As if bewitched by the sweet words in her ear, she replied.

“I missed you too.”

Reichardt drove the Lusa even faster.

Realizing no one was following, Alicia twisted her neck and looked back at Reichardt.

“Then who’s chasing us?”

“No one is.”

Reichardt answered with a light kiss to the face looking back at him.

His voice was kind and bright.

“But earlier—”

The image of Reichardt shouting as if their lives were in danger was still vivid.

“It was a lie.”

Reichardt said breezily with a radiant smile.

“What?”

“I lied earlier. They’ll probably try to chase us. They won’t be able to, though.”

With refreshing ease, Reichardt confessed he had lied again.

Alicia could not understand this situation at all.

“W-who?”

“Probably the imperial knights.”

Facing an uphill stretch, Reichardt slowed the Lusa slightly.

“The imperial knights…? Why would the imperial knights chase us?”

“Because the Grand Duke of Tessen abandoned his duties without authorization, perhaps. Don’t worry—they won’t be able to chase a Lusa on horseback.”

Reichardt smiled with a proud, crinkling grin.

Most targets pursued by the imperial knights were traitors or enemies of the imperial house.

Yet in Reichardt’s smiling face, there was not a trace of desperation or suffering.

“Come to think of it… What did you do about your duties…?”

Alicia looked at Reichardt with a disbelieving face.

“I bolted.”

Reichardt replied cheerfully in a polite, low voice.

Alicia could not believe it even after hearing it.

“What did you just say…?”

Reichardt had upheld royal duty and noble obligation more strictly than anyone.

He had a strong sense of responsibility.