Chapter 3

“Look, the movement of your feet is slowing down again, Lord Lucas. Hurry! Where has the man nicknamed the ‘Black Panther of the Battlefield’ gone?! Come now, faster! Forward, march! One, two! One, two!”

“Don’t nag me so much, Gerda. I’m moving at the same speed as you, aren’t I?”

It was early afternoon, and the brilliant early summer sun had risen high into the sky.

Two figures were moving along a corner of the cloister leading toward the Great Cathedral.

One was a middle-aged woman walking with an elegant, brisk pace, her small frame held upright.

The other was a languid young man, his slender, tall frame clad in a simple shirt and black trousers.

His wavy, rich black hair and his indigo eyes, which held a hint of sweetness, were full of a rugged, masculine beauty.

Possessing a baritone voice that was pleasant to the ear, his name was Lucas von Ludendorff. He was the son of a side-consort of the late King Werner—a man who had been known as the “Second Prince.”

Once Prince Felix, the son of the legal wife, ascended to the throne, Lucas would technically be in the position of “The King’s Younger Brother.” However, since the period of mourning had not yet concluded, he was still referred to as the Second Prince.

The Luten Kingdom had four princes and three princesses, but Lucas had been the late King’s favorite among them. At one point, rumors even circulated that he might bypass Felix—who was rumored to be a mediocrity—and take over the King’s position.

Despite that, he was an eccentric who had thrown away that favor and the advantageous succession race, coolly joining the Knights instead.

But thanks to that, he had not been demoted to commoner status or sent out of the country; he remained within the kingdom, spending his days freely making a name for himself.

Even now, just by him walking languidly down the path, the maids who spotted him let out high-pitched squeals of delight.

Lucas, perhaps used to it, acknowledged them with a simple wave of his hand.

“Have mercy on me. This is my first day off in ten days, and I only just crawled into bed a moment ago. Why must I go check on Mother’s mood at nineteen years old?”

“No matter how much you drop your shoulders in dejection, you can’t hide the scent of perfume. I wonder just what kind of ‘duty’ you were performing to be sleeping at such an hour. Besides, saving a helpless young girl is undoubtedly the job of a knight. Especially since you were the one who brought her to this palace yourself!”

Gerda poked at the grumbling Lucas with the lack of restraint typical of a former wet nurse.

“Making her work at the Royal Palace was mostly your decision, Gerda.”

Lucas gave an elegant shrug as he continued down the cloister with his long legs.

That was right.

It was Lucas and Gerda who had decided to take in the “girl with circumstances” known as Elma as a palace maid.

The incident traced back to last month.

It went back to the time of King Werner’s sudden passing.

Here in the Luten Kingdom, there was a system known as the “Great Wish”, which allowed a direct male descendant to grant a single wish for the people upon the death of a King.

The intent was to dispel the misfortune of the King’s death with a blessing from the princes.

In most cases, this was invoked in the form of an “amnesty,” usually rescuing citizens caught by judicial error or minor criminals. However, the mediocre Prince Felix had declared, “When I ascend the throne, I want to hold a ball and invite everyone in the country.”

Even if it was a statement that sounded like a child’s whim, a Great Wish was a Great Wish.

The nobles, while making as many adjustments as possible, began to set the wheels in motion for the ball.

However, when that happened, the “amnesty” that everyone had assumed would occur was not implemented.

Furthermore, since the late King Werner had been a man who mercilessly signed the execution lists presented by the Church, the demands for amnesty from citizens imprisoned without cause and their families were incredibly fierce.

It wouldn’t explode immediately, but it was a seed of discontent that was far too volatile.

In the end, Lucas had busied himself with the administrative coordination he usually avoided and issued the amnesty in his brother’s stead.

However, the Great Wish—which should have ended there—took an unexpected turn afterward.

Surprisingly, when the numbers and crimes of the people held in the prisons were re-examined for the sake of the amnesty, there was one person too many.

Waltzer Prison—the living hell on the outskirts of the Luten Kingdom that everyone feared.

In that place, of all the most harsh and wretched locations that people refused to set foot in, a completely innocent girl had been living simply because she was born to a prostitute serving her sentence.

Even Lucas turned pale at this and immediately set out to resolve the situation.

Specifically, without allowing any excuses from the prison side, Lucas took the girl into custody immediately on his own authority.

He thoroughly concealed the fact that an innocent prisoner had existed and took measures to ensure that rumors about the girl didn’t spread unnecessarily. He felt that while the prison’s lack of oversight should be punished later, he shouldn’t allow her background to get ahead of her and rob the girl of her future.

A girl who had likely been given no education, let alone a decent hygienic environment.

Lucas felt pity and intended to leave her with a reliable orphanage, but the situation developed in an unexpected direction yet again.

When he interviewed the girl himself just in case, he discovered that she had surprisingly been given at least a minimum education.

Though her expressions were somewhat lacking and her appearance was plain, her body was healthy.

Seeing Lucas—with his handsome features—approach her, she had looked down bashfully; her reactions seemed to be exactly those of a “normal girl,” and her emotional development appeared to be without issue.

Well, since her appearance was so shabby and lacked any charm, even Lucas—whose strike zone was famously wide—didn’t feel even a spark of interest.

In any case, he had been thinking of arranging a job for her in the city rather than an orphanage, but that was when Gerda—who was present as a female witness and was tight-lipped and reliable—pressed him, saying, “I will sponsor her, so let’s have this child work at the palace!”

Apparently, even before meeting the girl, Gerda’s imagination had run wild regarding her background as someone “raised in prison despite being innocent.” To Gerda, the girl’s quiet responses and lack of expression were all proof that she had “survived a wretched environment by stripping away her emotions.”

Gerda had always been a bit too good-natured, or rather, a little too soft-hearted.

If a maid faked an illness, Gerda would kindly nurse her, saying, “I’m sorry I didn’t notice.” If she was told with teary eyes that someone’s mother had collapsed, she was the type to sympathize and give even a gardener boy an expensive jewel.

That excessive love for humanity was now directed toward Elma, and when asked, the girl herself said she had no particular objection.

Ultimately, Lucas permitted her to join the palace staff while concealing her origins, and that was that.

“I was under the impression her case had already left my hands and was under your supervision. Why on earth has it fallen into an ‘emergency’?”

“As I said, it’s half your fault, Lord Lucas. Because you, with your needlessly handsome face, go around needlessly seducing maids and then personally interviewed that girl, strange rumors started spreading. From her very first day of service, she became a target for the jealousy of the maids who worship you.”

With that, Gerda explained that this morning, while she was busy talking with a gardener boy, one of the strong-willed maids had forced an excessive amount of work onto Elma.

“Irene… she was the blonde one with cat-like eyes, right? She’s spoken to me a few times.”

“In matters like that, your memory is as sharp as ever… Anyway, it was fine to scold Irene, but the problem is we can’t catch Elma…”

“Is she lost in the castle?”

Lucas raised an eyebrow, thinking that protecting a lost child was a job for the guards, but Gerda shook her head with a sigh.

“No, it’s not that. It seems she is finishing the tasks at a speed that far exceeds our expectations.”

“…What?”

“When I tried to track her down by following the memo of assigned work, whether it was the chicken coop, the guardhouse, the garden, or the hallways—everywhere I went, I was told, ‘She already finished the work and left’…”

Lucas was bewildered.

That was an unexpected development.

Still, if she was handling an excessive amount of work without issue, it seemed like they could just leave her be.

But when he said so, Gerda’s eyes snapped up in a sharp glare as she retorted.

“How cold-blooded! She is a girl who was in prison until just yesterday, you know? Forget the duties of a maid, she literally doesn’t know her right from her left in terms of the building layout. Is there any law that says such a child should be worked like a plow horse from day one without even a proper rest!”

“—Well, that’s a fair point.”

“Furthermore, if she has finished all the assigned work, the only duty remaining is… serving tea to Lady Juliana.”

Hearing that, even the great Lucas slightly knitted his handsome brows.

“As far as bullying a newcomer goes, that is quite cruel.”

“…Yes.”

Gerda murmured a desperate follow-up, saying, “Because Lady Juliana is a person of high nobility.”

Juliana.

Her formal name was Juliana Fitzroy.

As one could tell from the ring of her name, which differed from the Luten style, she was a foreign consort who had married in from the Duchy of Rutland across the channel. She was also Lucas’s mother.

Chosen for her beauty—consisting of glossy blonde hair and deep indigo eyes—she became the First Side-Consort, second only to the Legal Queen. She was a thoughtful and intelligent woman, but at the same time, she was cold and possessed a fierce aggressiveness toward anything that harmed what she loved.

The things Juliana loved were, first, her son Lucas.

And second, the culture of her homeland.

In particular, the habit of enjoying tea in the early afternoon was a supreme ritual for her that must never be violated. A maid who committed a blunder there was usually dismissed without a shred of mercy.

“I had decided that serving tea to Lady Juliana should be done by me, or at least a veteran with over ten years of service… Yet Irene lied to the maid originally on duty to make her take the day off just so she could assign Elma to the task. If that child, who likely doesn’t even know how to drink tea, were to drop the pot, I dread to think what disaster would occur…”

“…”

The crease between Lucas’s brows deepened.

If it ended with a mere scolding, it would be one thing.

However, in the case of his mother, Juliana, she was the type to thoroughly trample a person’s spirit depending on her mood.

“I don’t want to see that child suffer such a fate—being kicked out naked onto the terrace in the middle of winter because the tea was too cold, or having insects made to crawl all over her body because a gnat was in her cup. If the worst should happen… Lord Lucas. You are the only one who can restrain her.”

Gerda was betting on the fact that even the Fierce Consort, Juliana, would soften her mood at least a little if her beloved son asked it of her.

Though he was picky about women and tended to neglect things that didn’t interest him, Lucas had the spirit of chivalry hammered into him. He gave a small shrug and quickened his pace.

They moved through the cloister, passed through the cathedral gates, and headed toward the inner garden facing Juliana’s quarters.

At that exact moment, they heard Juliana’s voice, which sounded excited. The two exchanged a grim look and a nod—

“…Eh?”

The moment they hurried into the garden, the sight that met their eyes left Lucas and Gerda speechless.