Invitation (1)

Reichardt looked bitterly at Alicia, who was considering the situation only from the perspective of a pitiable victim.

“Do you think Rose Combat has good feelings toward Alicia?”

“If it became known that Lady Lily disappeared on her way to the Grand Duchess of Tessen’s banquet, I would have been put in quite a difficult position. She probably wanted to spite me, whom the dead Lily hated, to comfort the pitiful deceased, and to break the negotiations between Relling and Combat as well.”

“What is pitiable about that?”

Reichardt grumbled with a displeased face.

“She can find her pitiful because she’s family. Lady Rose seems to be the smartest person among the Count Combat household I’ve met. If it weren’t for Tessen’s dreadful cold and human warmth, things could have become troublesome. I thought the people of the Combat family only knew how to send top-class assassins, but there was someone who used her head too.”

At Alicia’s bright remark, Reichardt’s face gradually stiffened.

“Assassins?”

“A while ago, the assassins sent by the Combat family were the ones who set the Emerald Tower of Lilizet Villa on fire.”

“Was that so?”

“Well, that’s all in the past now.”

“No, Alicia.”

Reichardt looked seriously at Alicia’s untroubled face.

Peck.

The smiling Alicia suddenly kissed Reichardt on the cheek.

“……What are you doing?”

“Please do me a favor, Your Highness.”

Alicia clasped both hands together and made an adorable gesture toward Reichardt as though she had an affectionate nature.

“A favor?”

“Please tell Connie to become the Marquess of Relling. You can do it, right? I’m counting on only you, Rei.”

Alicia clenched both fists and cheered Reichardt on before leaving the room.

“…….”

He did not ask where she was going. Jamie and Rose Combat were coming to Tech House. After leaving the room, Alicia told them to bring the guests to the reception room, then calmly lied to Connie that Rei was looking for her.

Haa.

Reichardt let out a troubled breath, then soon held two handkerchiefs with subtly different patterns in his hands.

Knock knock.

After a soft sound, the door opened carefully.

“Your Highness? It’s Connie.”

Reichardt hurriedly perched on the edge of the sofa. After following Alicia’s lead, he felt he had become quite the swindler himself.

“Connie.”

At Reichardt’s call, Connie closed the door and came inside. Seeing Reichardt holding two similar handkerchiefs that Alicia would never be able to tell apart, Connie smiled softly.

“The one in your right hand would be better.”

“Thank you. Alicia said it would be good to ask Connie.”

“This is my specialty.”

Connie came over to Reichardt’s side and straightened the handkerchief he had chosen.

“…….”

Reichardt silently steadied his breathing.

“It is done.”

“Connie.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Reichardt silently looked at the face of Lady Rens, who gazed up at him with a pure look, the face that had once been called Lady Relling.

“What did it feel like, after debuting in society, to go to the Imperial Academy instead of an opera box and point fingers while arguing with the great scholar?”

The benevolence that had been resting on Connie’s face slowly evaporated.

“Was it Henrik?”

“Was Henrik the one who told you that Lady Relling and the great scholar Lisman pointed fingers and fought? No. The late Emperor told me. He said it was amusing to see Lisman, whose neck was always stiff, sweating because he had met an enemy who gave the back of his neck cramps.”

“Your Highness, that was all long ago. My eyes are dim now, and I can’t even see letters.”

“One does not argue with eyesight. Even now, if you faced Lisman, don’t you think you could win a war of words?”

“A war of words, Your Highness? That is called a debate.”

Connie recovered her original gentleness and smiled warmly.

“These days, Sir Lisman has no rival. It has been too long since he became a great scholar, so it is hard to find anyone who dares refute his words.”

“Sir Lisman has retired from academia as well.”

“Even so, whenever something major happens, he always issues a statement and keeps a firm grip on public opinion.”

“Just let nonsense pass by.”

Connie spoke gently, yet with the air that if Lisman dared to scold Reichardt, she would chase after him and point fingers at him.

“I heard there was once talk that the Marquess of Relling would name Lady Relling, not the current heir, as the successor.”

Reichardt abruptly changed the subject. Connie, who had been busily inspecting his perfectly arranged clothes, stopped moving and looked at the wall lined with beautiful silk.

“Lady Relling, that is a word from far too long ago. When Your Highness called me that just now, I realized how much time had passed.”

“Do you dislike Relling?”

Reichardt spoke toward Connie’s quiet face.

“That place is my hometown. Your Highness, when I was called Lady Relling, my father, the Marquess of Relling, acted as though he would give everything to me, his only daughter.”

“That is what I heard.”

“Because once I left Lady Relling behind and married, he would not be able to do so anymore. He spent lavishly for the daughter he loved without holding back while he still could.”

“Connie.”

“I married Baron Rens in the imperial capital according to my family’s command. Because that was my duty as Lady Relling. If you ask me whether I wish to become Lady Relling again, I suppose it would be all right if I did. But it is also all right if I do not. I enjoyed plenty as Lady Relling.”

At Connie’s polite and dignified words, Reichardt smiled. Then he erased his smile and asked an uncomfortable question.

“What kind of people are the heir of Relling’s half-brothers?”

“It is difficult for me to speak about the people of House Zack. I did not want to become a narrow-minded person, Your Highness. Two years before my social debut, the people of House Zack came to Relling. Whenever they left Relling, I opened every door and window in the residence and aired it out. I hoped the excessively lively songs and melodies they listened to, the strong perfume they sprayed, and their overly loud laughter and shouting would be washed away by the wind.”

“I understand what you mean.”

It seemed the people of House Zack were difficult for Connie to endure.

“If you have no further business for me, I shall withdraw.”

“I have a favor to ask, Connie.”

As if he were a helpless boy again, Reichardt looked at Connie with a pitiful expression.

“Please speak.”

“Become the Marquess of Relling and beat Sir Lisman with words. Nicolas Relling killed his fiancée, Lady Lily. If Relling is left in his hands and those of his half-brothers, it will be ruined. Please carry on the duty of Lady Relling by becoming the Marquess of Relling.”

Connie performed an elegant courtesy toward Reichardt.

“I will gladly fulfill my duty, Grand Duke of Tessen.”

“I am not Dalia Swan, but Rose Combat of the Combat family.”

The corners of Rose’s eyes were red after a bout of crying. Her dispirited face, bearing traces of tears, looked pitiful and frail. Her dry shoulders shook greatly with hesitation and guilt when she spoke of the wrong committed by her older sister Lily.

“I have sinned against Tessen.”

The reception room of Tech House, after everyone else had been sent away, was quiet. Only Jamie, who knew the whole story, moved between Alicia seated in the seat of honor and the guest seats. He took care of the teacups and handed a lace handkerchief to Rose, who shed tears when speaking of Lily’s death.

Rose finished speaking after confessing her story and the scheme she had initially planned when she came to Tessen.

Creak.

Rose rose from her seat and knelt on the floor. Her bowed head toward the seat of honor calmly awaited its disposal.

Clink.

Alicia set down the teacup she had been holding.

“You have not sinned against Tessen.”

“I am deeply sorr…….”

Perhaps because she had told the entire long story and spoken without hiding her true thoughts, Rose looked somewhat relieved.

“You sinned against me, Alicia Rain.”

Alicia calmly delivered merciless words, yet in a gentle tone, toward the face waiting quietly for punishment. As she spoke, she also crunched through the butter cookies Jamie had brought her, crunch, crunch.

“…….”

When Alicia said that the one Rose had sinned against was not Tessen but Alicia herself, Jamie, who had been silently observing the situation, almost nodded without realizing it.

Sip.

Alicia drank her tea and raised her brows.

“Come to think of it, I really could have been in serious trouble, couldn’t I? At the very first banquet the Grand Duchess of Tessen held in Tessen, the daughter of the Combat family and Relling’s fiancée disappeared. Behind the rumor that Tessen is a land of death, there nearly would have spread another rumor that the Grand Duchess of Tessen was a hostess who made living people disappear.”

That seemed too much of a leap. But if Rose had come to Tessen and, just as she had first planned and intended, wept and wailed sorrowfully over Lady Lily’s disappearance and played the part of a pitiful retainer begging them to find Lady Lily, it truly would have become very troublesome.

“I am deeply sorry. Whatever punishment Your Highness the Grand Duchess gives, I will gladly accep…….”

“Very well. I shall punish you, Lady Rose.”

Alicia briskly pronounced punishment upon Rose Combat.

“……Your Highness?”

If Rose had acted according to her plan, the Grand Duchess of Tessen would have become the guilty party until the missing Lady Lily of the Combat family was found, and perhaps the Count Combat family and Tessen might even have gone to war.

If the Combat family had raised an issue, it was obvious that the Marquess of Relling’s house and Combat would have joined forces.

However, no unfortunate situation occurred because on the very day Rose appeared, they had already noticed that the false identity she presented, Lady Dalia, was not real.

Jamie had only ever seen Alicia gently forgive people who honestly confessed their sins. At his startled call, Alicia sent him a cold gaze like Reichardt’s.

“The banquet guests are arriving at Tessen Castle. In a place where everyone can see, confess that you ran away from the Combat family, Lady Rose. And say that you do not want to go home either.”

It was not such a bad punishment for Rose.

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll let you live in Tessen. Lodging and meals while you stay here, and your title of Lady Rose will be maintained. In return, there will be a price for living here.”

“I will obey the words of Your Highness the Grand Duchess. But what you said is not a punishment for me.”

Rose blinked her clear eyes at such unexpectedly acceptable terms, then spoke.

“Don’t worry. It will be quite enough of a punishment. I’m going to use you as my personal secretary. Make sure you confess to running away properly.”

Having pronounced the disposition, Alicia left her seat, speaking with unusual delight.

“Her Highness the Grand Duchess is too generous.”

Rose, left in the reception room, murmured in a tearful voice.

“Is… that so.”

Jamie Rens, the personal secretary of the Grand Duke of Tessen, responded awkwardly to the moved lady’s words while agonizing over whether being hired as the personal secretary of the Grand Duchess of Tessen was truly a generous punishment, or perhaps the greatest punishment on earth.

It seemed he had gained a colleague.