HRADH 11

Chapter 11 Determine

Up until this point, it had been like falling off a cliff and being caught in a raging torrent.

Her father’s sudden death, the fall of her family, the wedding of Ioannes Pride to a man who looked so much like him.

She would fall asleep and dream of the mansion in a pool of blood, and when she woke up, she couldn’t tell if she was dreaming or not.

“A dream, a dream…”

Delphine suddenly turned her head to look at the manor house by the garden.

Her vision flickered, and for a moment, she thought she saw blood.

“My Lady , you look very pale, are you all right?”

But only for a moment.

Delphine’s eyes, which she had closed involuntarily, slowly opened again with courage.

The mansion was still peaceful, not stained with blood, not filled with wails of anguish.

“A dream. No.”

Delphine’s emerald eyes blazed with their true light once more.

She could not be bound by the miserable visions of the day forever.

“He’ll be late again today, won’t he?”

“What, My Lady? Why is that suddenly…”

“There’s something I need you to do for me… I need you to look at the net.”

“What?”

Decision made, Delphine swished the hem of her dress and headed for the mansion.

***

Delphine strode with a confident stride that shook off her hesitation as she made her way to the third-floor office.

Her father’s death hadn’t really been that sad.

The father-daughter relationship had been one of disgust and fear rather than affection in the first place.

The grief of losing her father had passed quickly, and she had survived, albeit humiliatingly.

Should he be satisfied with his survival?

You can certainly do that.

Life now was not much different than it had been before.

Her father had forbidden her to go out before her marriage for fear of causing scandal.

So she’s just going to keep quiet, pretend she doesn’t know anything, cover up all suspicions, and never find out who the man is.

Delphine knew there was a way to go on with life.

That there is a way to survive that involves keeping your eyes closed and your ears plugged.

… But that’s not the way she wanted to live.

Her stubborn pride won’t allow her to live with such an unyielding attitude.

She doesn’t want to die, but she doesn’t want to live as if she’s dead, either.

Delphine curled her white knuckles into tight fists that showed through the blood, and quickly ascended the stairs.

“Oh, no…”

Anna muttered in a low tone of frustration as she trailed behind her.

“There it is again, that temperament…”

That fiery temper that her late owner had tried so hard to correct.

Every time the lady would do something like this, she would always give her a big thumbs up…

The old nanny rushed up the stairs, her wavy red hair trailing behind her.

***

Or not.

Anna’s premonition hadn’t been wrong this time.

“La, Lady. Since the beginning of your honeymoon… I don’t want you to get in trouble for this…!”

Anna gasped and tried to stop her, but Delphine was adamant, as if she had already made up her mind.

“I’ll take the blame, don’t worry.”

Unlike Anna, who was fidgeting, Betty, who was bold, looked determined.

“Be careful, Lady. I’ll signal if anyone approaches.”

Delphine nodded slightly at them as they stood in the corridor, and then stepped cautiously into the drawing room.

The room used by the head of the manor.

It had once been her father’s office.

Delphine stood in the doorway for a moment, her keen eyes taking in the room’s appearance.

The wallpaper, black carpet, and bookshelves lining the walls were the same as before.

The only new addition was a massive mahogany desk and chair that seemed tailor-made for a man of his size.

Delphine approached the desk slowly.

It was a piece of furniture that, like its owner, boasted an unnecessary air of imposing authority.

On top of it, stacks of papers were arranged in military-like angles.

“There must be a record of the events of that day somewhere…”

Delphine picked up the papers and quickly flicked through them.

It was hard to believe that her father had rebelled in the first place.

In this empire, where the emperor held absolute power? A father so beholden to the imperial family?

He had spent his entire life trying to use himself to become part of the imperial family.

But the alphabetised stacks of papers gave no clues.

Delphine rearranged her papers and turned her attention to the room.

Surely, there had to be some paperwork or clues to the case somewhere…

“Del. Learn it, you might need it… someday, when you’re in the centre of it.”

Until shortly before her death, her mother had told her things that other noble children would never have heard or seen.

Things like how to find something someone has concealed, or conversely, how to conceal oneself.

She even learnt how to use a sword secretly, away from her father’s eyes.

When she was younger, everything she did with her mother was fun, like play.

When she  grew a little older, she assumed that the “center of the universe” she was referring to was the imperial family.

Her father had always been desperate to use her to become part of the imperial family.

But now that she think about it, there’s something strange about that.

Why would someone who was going to be one of the palace’s gentle canaries need to learn how to use a sword?

Her father, for example, had tried so hard to kill his fiery temper.

‘I can’t bite anymore.’

Why her mother used to look at herself with such sad eyes.

What was the sound of the shouting that sometimes came from the silent room.

Why his father had suddenly become as cold as frost to him.

“…Maybe, you foresaw this day coming, Mother.”

Muttering softly, Delphine scanned the room.

She rapped her fingers on suspicious-looking wooden boards and eyed the books on the bookshelves.

But it was the massive mahogany desk that Delphine scrutinized the most.

‘You may be a big man, but do you really need a desk this big?’

Delphine opened each of the unlocked desk drawers, calculating intently whether there was room for a secret compartment in this huge desk.

Most of the drawers were empty.

“Do you think he has another office other than this one…?”

When Delphine had almost given up, she opened the last drawer and found something a little unusual.

It was a small, clear glass vial.

The contents were jet-black.

“Is this… medicine?”

Or, perhaps, poison?

That was the moment when Delphine muttered to herself and reached for the vial.

“Lord, Lord, what are you doing here!”

Betty’s renewed cry came from the corridor outside the door.

It was a high-pitched shout, as if she were deliberately trying to be heard.

Delphine’s head snapped up, forgetting to pick up the vial.

If it was the master… the man was already back, suddenly?

‘…How?’

Delphine didn’t just have maids in front of her rooms.

In case you didn’t know, she had four maids from the gates of the mansion to her office.

All were the same loyal maids she had saved from Pembroke Manor ‘that day’.

Without any signals from them, how on earth had he made his way straight to the third-floor Oval Office?

“I’m coming to my office, what do you want?”

A soft voice answered Betty from the doorway.

“…As if the something had hidden you in here.”

The voice sounded so close, like it was standing right in front of the door.

For a moment, Betty’s heart froze cold.

Oh, no. What if he’s been found out.

What if a man tried to kill her?

…like her father?

In an instant, Delphine’s eyes flashed open to the bright red blood that splashed up to the chandelier in the ceiling.

Her hand on the mahogany desk began to tremble.

Thud-.

But before she could escape, the door to her office swung open, and a man so huge his head rested against the doorframe.

“…What brings you here, My Lady?”

He asked in a soft tone with a smile.

He showed no sign of panic at the sight of Delphine standing in his office, his aristocratic mask unmoved as proof.

What to say here.

Delphine clasped her trembling hands behind her back and answered calmly.

“The book was missing from my study, and I was looking for it, wondering if you had left it in your office.”

At that, the man’s lips parted, the corners of his eyes curling gently.

“Alas, what book is it?”

But there was not a trace of a smile in the pale copper eyes that sat between narrowed slits.

The answer came out of Delphine’s mouth without a moment’s thought.

“Ancient Demonic Traces and Exorcism Explored, by Dr Malcolm.”

The most famous book on demonology in the Empire.

The name of the book suddenly came to mind, perhaps because of the newspaper article she’d read the other day, the one that mentioned demons.

It was the moment.

As soon as the words left Delphine’s mouth, the man’s mask-like face cracked.

It was Delphine who was surprised by the reaction.

What was this unexpected reaction?

The masked man and his expressionless imitation of Delphine looked at each other.

Both had gentle smiles on their lips, but there was no mercy in their eyes as they studied each other.

It was the man who broke the silence.

“I don’t remember leaving it here, but did you find the book, My Lady?”

“I don’t think so.”

Delphine glanced around the room once more and replied nonchalantly.

“Did you return to the manor because you left something behind?”

“Ah, yes. Yes, I left behind some papers to be settled.”

He nonchalantly picked up the paper he’d left on the mahogany desk.

The men smiled at each other and left the room with graceful steps.

The door to the Oval Office closed again.

“Of course.”

“Yes, My Lady. Goodbye.”

After exchanging the static greeting of a normal married couple, the man walked out of the mansion through the front door again.

She watched him for a moment on the stairs.

Delphine turned on her heel, grabbed the hem of her dress, and ran back to the quarters.