56 — Chapter 56

The following morning, when Elma and the others showed up at the dining hall for breakfast, they found Deborah, Kevin, and their entire retinue of servants already gathered there.

Although they were being served daily in the main dining hall as guests, the truth was that the family of the house had only sat at the table with them during the dinner on their first night.

Even then, Lord Jonas had remained silent throughout, Deborah had been busy incessantly flattering Lucas, and Kevin had left after a brief greeting, claiming he had no appetite.

Since then, their life rhythms hadn’t aligned; Lucas was an early riser, while the Frenzel family lived irregular hours. This was the first time they were seeing them in the morning.

While Lucas and Irene looked on with slight surprise, the Frenzel siblings sprang to their feet and shouted toward Elma.

“Good morning to you, Your Highness, Lady Irene, and—Lady Elma!”

“I hope you’re feeling better, Your Highness, Miss Irene, and—Miss Elma!”

Out of formal courtesy, they addressed Lucas and Irene first according to social rank, but the intensity of their gazes and the sheer volume of their voices completely betrayed that etiquette.

Elma showed a slight hint of recoil, but the two of them rushed over to her anyway, undeterred.

“Oh…! You look somehow peaked! You must have slept without even taking dinner! Perhaps because of that, your jawline is sharper by about three strands of hair compared to yesterday afternoon…! How tragic…!”

“Did the physician I arranged prove useful? I believe his skill is top-notch, but yesterday he must have been so flustered by your beauty that he left without even reporting back to me after the examination. You have no idea how anxious I was—! …No, that doesn’t matter, as long as you’ve regained your health!”

It seemed both of them had been deeply worried, indignant, and had exhausted every means to help.

“At least he reported to the Prince, so I suppose that’s something…”

Kevin was still muttering complaints, seemingly frustrated that there had been a flaw in his arrangements, but Elma gave him a calm response.

“Please forgive me for collapsing so suddenly yesterday. It is truly embarrassing that I was brought down by nothing more than the scent of flowers. However, thanks to your kindness, I was able to sleep soundly and even had a very pleasant dream. I’ve been feeling well enough to do some cleaning since this morning.”

“Good heavens! Lady Elma, doing manual cleaning!”

“Exactly! If there’s cleaning to be done, it would be more appropriate for me to set fire to that cursed clover field this very instant and wipe it out!”

“Well said, Kevin!”

The pair, who were supposed to be a mean-spirited sister and an arrogant brother, had now completely devolved into pure, innocent fanatics.

Facing the delusions of her two new followers, Elma pulled her chin in slightly.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but cleaning is an ordinary duty for a maid. Also, as it is currently the dry season and could easily lead to a forest fire, I must ask you to refrain from that.”

She coolly threw cold water on the idea.

“Thank goodness… Elma has developed enough of an ordinary sensibility to stop those two from running wild…”

“Don’t let her fool you, Irene. She doesn’t seem to find anything particularly strange about the way Kevin has suddenly become so devoted to her that he’s declaring war on the ecosystem.”

When Irene muttered her thoughts, Lucas was quick to point out the reality.

In truth, Elma didn’t find it strange at all when people she interacted with suddenly became subservient to her, nor did she find it odd when those subservient people offered up countries, lands, or nature for her sake.

It was the influence of a certain mother’s teachings.

Thus, Elma breezily ignored Kevin’s disturbing remarks and moved the conversation along.

“Now, more importantly, I would like to head back to that marsh sometime today. There are a few points that bother me regarding the Demon Moth we captured yesterday—”

For her part, rather than being worried about herself, she felt a stronger desire to make up for the investigation time lost because she had collapsed.

However, when Elma tried to convey her intent in vague terms so that the details of the investigation wouldn’t leak to Kevin, the boy himself cut her off.

“About that.”

“Actually, we have some thoughts of our own as well.”

The two spoke in perfect sync, as if finishing each other’s sentences.

As a result of Kevin’s sharp edges being rapidly filed away over the last day, he now looked like nothing more than a fragile young boy with innocent eyes and a small frame. At this moment, Deborah and Kevin were simply a beautiful, endearing pair of siblings.

Deborah, having undergone a character change into a pure-hearted maiden, gently clasped her hands together and looked up at Elma.

“First, Lady Elma, and everyone else, please forgive me. I foolishly judged that the current Kevin would not go around spreading word of your circumstances, so I shared with him the… various details I heard from Lady Elma.”

“The truth is, it is a matter that requires deep self-reflection that our territory is in a state that causes His Majesty such concern. I understand that it is misplaced to hold resentment toward the Royal Family for that. Therefore, please rest easy on that point. Also, I apologize for the verbal abuse I directed toward Your Highness and Miss Irene, despite my ignorance.”

At Deborah’s prompting look, Kevin met Lucas’s gaze firmly and spoke clearly.

Despite his youth, the responsibility and spirit of the next lord seeped through. Lucas was inwardly stunned by how much the boy had grown in just a single day.

“…I see. If that’s the case, then it’s fine.”

“You are too kind.”

Irene, who had been the target of the apology, was also surprised by Kevin’s sudden transformation and gave a timid nod.

The Frenzel siblings then shared a brief nod and dismissed the servants. Once they were alone, Deborah spoke up.

“Furthermore, we have a proposal. After speaking with my brother—regarding this matter, we would like to personally question our father, Lord Jonas, about the circumstances.”

“Personally?”

“Exactly. As Kevin said, it is a disgrace that the hearts of the people have strayed so far that even His Majesty is concerned. If it’s due to our own behavior, we must correct it immediately. And if it’s due to our father’s eccentricities, we believe we should question his motives and make him stop.”

Deborah was being entirely serious.

Within her earth-colored eyes shone the unwavering light of resolve befitting a lord’s daughter.

Beside her, Kevin tightly clenched his fists.

He moistened his lips once before speaking with the air of someone who had made up his mind.

“To be honest, I don’t really understand my father’s true nature—or what he’s thinking. I don’t know if he’s actually trying to bring Mother back by making a pact with demons. We’ve never even had a proper conversation about what’s going on in his head…”

The father Kevin knew was a man who had relegated his sickly son to the depths of the estate as if he were a source of shame, while cutting off all social contact to shut himself in his own room.

For a long time, Kevin had believed it was because he had taken his mother, Elisa, away from this world.

He believed he was hated.

However, according to what he had heard from Deborah, Lord Jonas might have gone as far as to intentionally keep Demon Moths—the natural enemy of the Miasma-Weak Deborah—in the family pond.

It was strange to harm even a daughter who had nothing to do with the wife’s death.

Or did it mean that he desired his wife so much that he simply no longer cared about his children?

Kevin couldn’t wrap his head around his father’s logic at all.

“The truth is, I should have stepped into my father’s darkness much sooner. But I couldn’t. I was afraid of being confronted once again with my own sin—the fact that Mother died because of me.”

As he muttered this with downcast eyes, Deborah placed a hand on his arm to encourage him.

Kevin squeezed the ring hanging from his neck and looked up once more.

“That’s why I think this incident is our final chance. We want to truly understand our father. And we want to choose the behavior that is appropriate for a ruling family. So, would you let us be the ones to question him?”

“Of course, we intend to ensure that we cannot hide or fabricate Father’s claims. He should be arriving here for breakfast shortly, so during that time, we would like the rest of you to hide somewhere and listen to our conversation directly. That way, it won’t interfere with your investigation, will it?”

When Deborah added that, Lucas actually furrowed his brows in hesitation.

“But if we do that, we’ll end up hearing your family’s most private matters. Are you certain you’re okay with that?”

“Yes.”

“We are.”

There was no hesitation in the eyes of either Kevin or Deborah.

“What shame is there in the process of uncovering the truth? It is the duty of those who lead a territory to confirm and make the truth known without concealment. Please, leave it to us.”

Since they went that far, Lucas couldn’t say no.

He thought quickly, confirming that allowing them to interview the lord voluntarily did not violate the royal order to “clarify the situation so as not to draw the dissatisfaction of the Royal Family,” and then he nodded.

“I understand. We’ll take you up on that, then.”

He then scanned the room.

“However, we need to think about where to hide. Given my large build, if we have to hide for a long time, things like vases or suits of armor might be—”

“Ah, regarding that.”

At that moment, Elma, who had been listening in silence, pushed up the bridge of her glasses and shoved aside a picture frame hanging on the wall.

She rotated a hidden small lever so fast it left afterimages, and the wall began to move with a creak.

A secret space appeared before Lucas and the others in an instant.

“I thought something like this might happen, so I cleaned out this hidden side room I discovered next to the dining hall earlier.”

“What exactly were you anticipating!?”

“Since I noticed the seating was a bit poor, I took the liberty of preparing a sofa, wine, and snacks like nuts. I hope you’ll forgive the presumption.”

“Are you trying to make it comfortable?! For that matter, stop exposing hidden rooms in other people’s houses without permission! Stop cleaning them! Stop making them cozy!”

Faced with Elma’s overly thorough work, Lucas had no choice but to keep firing back retorts.

However, the Frenzel siblings, whose estate’s structural secrets had just been exposed and remodeled without their consent, simply reacted differently.

“As expected of Lady Elma…”

“Nuts… they’re my favorite…”

For some reason, they only blushed.

“Um.”

In the middle of the chaotic situation, Irene, who happened to be staring blankly toward the door, raised her hand as if she had noticed something.

“I feel like I hear footsteps approaching.”

Her face twitched slightly.

“Given the timing—could it be Lord Jonas?”

“Yes, based on the speed and the pitch of the sound, I believe those are the footsteps of Lord Jonas and his attendant.”

“Is this any time for a calm commentary!?”

Lucas snapped at the nodding Elma, tucked both women under his arms, and shoved them into the small room.

“Sorry, but we’re using this!”

Just as he cautiously and quickly closed the hidden door, Jonas arrived in the dining hall.