Alicia Rain (4)

Alicia and Marchioness Marine’s dinner appointment was canceled.

The Marchioness, having told Alicia to trust her, had gone directly to the Marquess.

What had been said in the Marquess’s study was unknown.

But the Marquess placed a ban on the Marchioness’s access to the southern wing.

He had issued the same order before.

The reason Alicia hadn’t seen the Marchioness before turning six was because of the Marquess’s command.

After banning the Marchioness from the southern wing, the Marquess summoned both his sons and Alicia to his office.

Since the Marquess was a busy man, Alicia was made to wait with her half-brothers in the reception room next to his study.

“Young Lady.”

“Thank you, Marsha. Please add plenty of milk and sugar.”

“Yes, I’ll prepare it right away.”

Alicia was drinking what she always had.

Normally, she would just nod and accept whatever was first offered, but today she stated exactly what she wanted.

Not only that, she asked Marsha—who had brought the tea—for something more.

Across the table, a smooth voice rang out.

“Milk and sugar in tea? You’re still just a kid, Alicia.”

Alicia’s face, pleased as she looked at her tea, turned cold.

It wasn’t a particularly malicious comment.

It wasn’t argumentative, and she knew the speaker wasn’t a bad person.

But the tone was oddly irritating.

As Alicia’s expression noticeably hardened, Harry tried to smooth it over with a cheeky smile.

“Nineteen is still young. I suppose once you hit twenty-one or twenty-four, you think you’re ancient.”

Alicia shot a sharp look at Harry and Felix as she replied.

Harry, who had planned to lighten the mood with laughter, found his smile stiffening.

Felix, who had been silent, hastily set down his teacup.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were silent, so I thought you agreed. Do you think twenty-four is still young?”

Alicia looked at her half-brothers with an expression that seemed to say, ‘Wow, you’re really getting old.’

It almost seemed like she was saying, ‘You’re just immature kids.’

It was hard to tell exactly what her eyes were saying.

But the look of disappointment in her violet eyes was unmistakable.

“Twenty-four is still very young.”

Felix spoke firmly, raising his teacup.

“Twenty-four is a decent age. For women, it’s past the prime marriage age. And for men, in a few more years they’re practically done fo—”

Alicia, who had once postponed marriage until twenty-four and ended up falling into hell while trying to escape it, sent a steely glare.

Harry stopped talking at the chill in her eyes.

“So twenty-one is old, then.”

Alicia said it like a conclusion.

She smiled, but for some reason, it looked like she was insulting him.

“Alicia, why are you so sensitive today?”

“Sensitive? Are you insulting me right now?”

“No, I just said you were being sensitive. I didn’t insult you or anything.”

“Saying someone is sensitive sounds pretty negative to me. Isn’t it?”

“I was just stating my opinion. Why are you twisting my words?”

Harry laughed brightly, trying to brush it off.

“Dear sister, you’re the one being sensitive today. You’ve responded to every little thing I’ve said. You really do seem sensitive.”

Alicia returned the look as if asking, ‘Didn’t you say calling someone sensitive isn’t an insult?’

“…I’m sorry.”

“Now that you’ve apologized, I feel like I’ve hurt your feelings.”

“Hurt me? No, no. Let’s just get along.”

Harry hurriedly denied it.

“Are we not getting along?”

At Alicia’s words, Harry looked to Felix, hoping for support.

“Well, we’re not exactly close.”

Felix bluntly crushed Harry’s expectations.

“You’re seriously no help.”

“Same goes for you. Hmph, well… we’re family. We can grow closer from now on.”

Grumbling at Harry, Felix smiled at Alicia.

Considering his normally stoic personality, it was a remarkably open gesture.

“Right. Now that I think of it, by tradition you’d be a member of the next Small Council.”

Harry, still looking dissatisfied with Felix, quickly switched to his usual easygoing tone.

Traditionally in the North, the Marquess didn’t rule alone; other family members had speaking rights and contributed to decisions.

The current system of the Marquess ruling almost alone only began under the present head.

Even before, while vassals had a say, final decisions and responsibilities lay with the Marquess.

“Felix. Be honest. How far has the Marquess progressed with the engagement to the Barker family?”

Unless something drastic changed, Felix would be the next Marquess.

As someone already preparing to inherit the title, he was privy to the Marquess’s intentions and decisions.

“The talks with Count Barker are complete. Only the imperial approval and public announcement remain. Has your mind changed?”

After a brief pause, Felix answered honestly, as Alicia had asked.

“The truth is, I never had any intention from the start. The setup was so obvious—I knew the moment I saw it. It was all so insincere. The way the men mentioned at Mother’s tea party just so happened to show up in front of me one by one? I figured no matter what I did, the outcome was set. Still, thank you for being honest today, brother.”

Alicia leaned over the tea table and whispered in a lowered voice.

After finishing her words, she straightened herself.

She had come to the reception room under the Marquess’s order.

“Alicia?”

Harry called out as Alicia began to leave the tea table.

Hearing his voice, Marsha approached Alicia as she rose to go.

“Young Lady.”

“Marsha. Please tell the Marquess that I suddenly feel unwell and won’t be able to see him. I enjoyed the tea. Brothers, please send my regards to Mother for me.”

Without waiting for a servant, Alicia opened the door to the reception room and left.

Click—

The door closed behind her with a crisp sound.

“…Did she look sick?”

Harry, staring blankly at the closed door, turned to Felix and asked.

“No. She just seemed… very different from usual.”

“Right? Did you hear her? She called us ‘brothers.’ I finally feel like I have a little sister. I’ve never seen Alicia talk so much.”

“I wish you would talk less.”

“Hey, Felix. Where are you going?”

“She asked us to send her regards to Mother. The Marquess probably kept us here in the reception room to make us feel how displeased he is. I think we’ve done enough to be polite. Are you just going to stay here?”

Felix stood up and straightened his outfit.

“Look at you trying to rope me in because you don’t want to face things alone.”

“Stop talking already.”

“Everyone loves it when I talk.”

Harry exaggerated his frustration with his whole body, lamenting how he suddenly became the one getting scolded.

“Gentlemen.”

Marsha, who had been watching the two, approached them.

“The tea was lovely, Marsha. Please tell the Marquess that something came up and we had to step out. Only if he asks, of course. No need to mention it otherwise. Felix says he probably won’t call for us anyway. Marsha, do you dislike when I talk too much too?”

Harry rattled off words quickly with a smile-plastered face.

“Not at all. If he does ask, I’ll say exactly what you told me.”

“See? Marsha says she doesn’t mind when I talk. Right?”

Harry continued chatting all the way to the door.

Marsha supported him with a faint smile.

Felix, who had already gone ahead, flinched as Harry’s voice clung to the back of his neck and quickly exited the reception room.

Back in her room in the southern wing, Alicia dismissed the servants.

Once she was alone, still dressed for her scheduled audience with the Marquess, she headed straight to the study.

“The first engagement, huh.”

That first engagement had been the starting point where everything went wrong.

An engaged man caught up in a scandal with a married woman—how absurd.

Now, she would’ve ended the conversation by smashing his head in with a hammer, but back then, she hadn’t been able to.

She couldn’t just let the engagement proceed as planned.

An engagement approved by the Imperial family and publicly announced by both houses held the power of a marriage vow.

“The Imperial House, huh.”

In her formal attire, Alicia wandered around the bookshelves before sitting down at the desk.

“Will this work…”

Alicia selected a white envelope adorned with lace.

She chose a sheet of paper with an equally ornate border.

As she waited for the quill to soak up the ink, she organized the tangled thoughts in her mind.

Once the quill was full, she wrote without a single pause.

The envelope, decorated with radiant white lace, was extravagant.

Even the letter paper was of such high quality that even nobles would rarely use it.

But the most problematic part of this over-the-top letter was its content.

“What… is this letter?”

The man holding the letter could not take his eyes off its bizarre message.

Across from his desk stood two men.

One was a middle-aged man with a warm expression, and the other a young man in a military uniform.

“Your Grace.”

Henrik, the steward who managed the Grand Duke’s estate in Tessen, hesitated briefly, his kind expression faltering.

“Your Grace, this is not something we can simply ignore.”

The Grand Duke’s aide, as usual, cut off Henrik before he could finish his sentence.

“Rosa.”

“Please call me Roderick, Henrik. Your Grace, before submitting a formal report at Henrik’s suggestion, I conducted some investigation. I believe this is not merely a wrongly delivered congratulatory card. Henrik agrees. Henrik, please explain.”

Prompted by Roderick, Henrik tried again to speak.

“Are you saying this Sirius fellow—who may be a fraud or someone defaming the royal family—was right about everything? That he’s not just blabbing royal secrets without permission but is actually blackmailing royalty? Who the hell is this guy? Some high-class archivist from the Grand Temple or something? Reading this letter makes my tongue twist in knots.”

Before Henrik could say anything, the Grand Duke had already hijacked the conversation again.

“Your Grace…”

Henrik, troubled by his master’s dissatisfaction with the gaudy letter, could only call out with regret in his voice.

“My apologies. I haven’t uncovered that much yet. But if you give me more time—”

Roderick unintentionally interrupted Henrik again as he made his report to the Grand Duke.

Just as Roderick began to make a firm vow, the Grand Duke waved a hand to silence him.