CH 4

“Then I’ll leave now so that I don’t disturb your family’s time. Once again, I pray for the repose of the deceased. Duchess, Little Duke.”

“Thank you for your valuable visit, Count Alperon.”

Kardiel thanked Sir Yuzef as the chief mourner. With that, Sir Yuzef’s condolences ended.

No, I thought it would be like that.

Clang! Crash!

There was a loud noise in the direction of the hallway outside the room, as if something was breaking.

Me, Kardiel, Sir Yuzef, and the servants who were with us all looked at the door at the same time in surprise.

“What’s going on?”

The unusual noise caused the servants to jump out first. When I wondered if I should go out to check the situation too, Kardiel said.

“I’ll check and come back, Stepmother.”

“All right, please do so.”

“Count Alperon, please wait here for a moment.”

“I will.”

I didn’t know what happened outside, but I couldn’t send out a guest. Inevitably, Sir Yuzef had to wait with me for a while.

“Please sit over here and wait, Sir Yuzef.”

I don’t think anything big happened, but I thought it would take time to sort out. I offered Sir Yuzef a seat, and he did not hesitate to sit down in a chair at a reasonable distance from me.

Then, suddenly, my gaze overlapped with Sir Yuzef’s.

“…?”

What should I say?

For a moment, strangely, the air around us felt very awkward.

It wasn’t like the silence was uncomfortable. No matter how introverted I am, how can I have a hard time having a casual conversation when I’m in the double digits of my social life?

However, there are no right words to express this feeling. It was an odd sensation, as if Sir Yuzef’s red eyes were relentlessly studying every nook and cranny of me.

Why? Did I do something wrong?

No, is that really what I feel?

“At that time…”

Suddenly, the awkward silence was broken because of my words that couldn’t bear it anymore.

“You know, on the first day of the social season, in the lounge of the banquet hall, Sir Yuzef.”

“Yes, I remember that day.”

“What did you mean by what you said to me then?”

Fortunately, it was not difficult to refine the emerging consciousness that came to mind once the speech was opened.

More than anything, I was very curious about what happened then. I thought it was a joke at the time, but everything he said actually happened.

Rather, if my husband had been murdered by someone, I would have suspected Sir Yuzef as the culprit. But what happened before my eyes was clearly an accident.

The same goes for telling the children to go to bed early. If the children were awake at the moment of my husband’s death and witnessed the whole mess.

How can you handle the shock at such a young age?

Thinking that far, naturally, an uneasy question emerged.

How could Sir Yuzef be so sure that such a thing would happen? And how could I have been advised to put the children to sleep early?

‘You’re not a prophet.’

This is an era in which prophecies and magic have disappeared as a legacy of history. Naturally, that possibility was ruled out.

“Did you accurately predict that my husband would die?”

Sir Yuzef kept his mouth shut to that question with a strange expression on his face, and I stared at him as if urging an answer.

After a while, Sir Yuzef closed his eyes faintly.

“That is not the only thing I know, madam.”

“Excuse me?”

I didn’t immediately understand what he was saying. Sir Yuzef continued.

“I also know, for example, that in an hour and ten minutes from now, two mourners who are on bad terms will come at the same time. And that their position will put the madam in a very difficult situation.”

“…?”

“Of course, this is a range that anyone can predict if several coincidences overlap. Nonetheless, that is the quickest way I can prove to the madam that I know the future. So, would you like me to tell you a little bit more about the distant future?”

Wait, wait.

“You truly know the future?”

“Relatively precisely.”

I stupidly asked back since it was entirely unrealistic.

“It can’t be. How could such a thing be possible?”

I’m sure it’s the first time I’ve ever behaved so idiotically in my life. I kept spilling out what I wanted to say.

“Above all, I don’t know why Sir Yuzef is telling me that. If I had that ability, I would use it more usefully. For example, preventing major and fatal events that will happen in the future, or investing in places that will benefit…”

“That is what I’m doing now.”

“I beg your pardon?”

The corners of his mouth raised slightly.

“First of all, the reason it’s possible is because I have that ability. I know you will think I am a fraud, but I can’t say I don’t have the ability when it exists.”

“What kind of… Sir Yuzef, you speak as if you are a prophet or something.”

“Rather…”

After a moment of choosing words, he said.

“A regressor, would be more accurate to say. Now that I have rewinded time many times, it is not too difficult to remember what will happen next.”

What does this mean?

It was my first time hearing the word regressor itself.

“And the reason I am telling this to the Duchess of Dieren is, as you said, to invest where it will benefit me most.”

“In short, do you mean that I am Sir Yuzef’s investment?”

“That is correct.”

Even after hearing that, I still couldn’t help but to blink in bewilderment. As if to give me time to organize my thoughts, Sir Yuzef looked around with a leisurely smile.

Soon he looked at my husband’s coffin and said.

“Trust is important in business. It’s hard for you to believe me yet, so I’d better give you some more proof.”

That’s how I got to hear from Sir Yuzef some things that will happen in the future.

Kardiel returned to the room around that time.

“It seems that the decorations of my father’s armor that was set up in the hallway fell over, Stepmother.”

It wasn’t a big deal, but it was quite a meaningful incident.

When the tidying up was finished, Sir Yuzef stood up. It was time to see off the guest.

It was as Sir Yuzef had said.

Exactly an hour or so after he went back. Two people who didn’t get along so well came in at the same time.

It’s really difficult. I didn’t think they would come.

“Hm, ahem. First of all, my condolences. I’m also grieving for the loss of my younger brother, but how heartbroken the madam must be.”

“Lizelotte, you must be very worried.”

One is from the collateral family of Dieren, and the other is my older brother.

“Thank you so much for coming to see off my husband like this, Viscount Baden. And Baron Randgritz. Please forgive my rudeness for sitting down due to an injury I received.”

For your information, originally the two of them were never on bad terms, as Sir Yuzef had said. Rather, it could be said that it was a strong alliance.

In the case of Baron Randgritz, my older brother, he inherited the title because I married into the dukedom. Viscount Baden won the current Privy Council chairmanship with my dowry, taken care of by my brother.

That was the relationship between the two I knew. However, Sir Yuzef told a completely different story.

It was that the relationship between the two had completely deviated with the death of the Duke of Dieren.

I didn’t think so when I heard it…

‘I suppose that it’s true.’

Although the two entered at the same time, the way they looked at each other was that of a person who treated their enemies. This must have been exactly what it felt like to see a spark in one’s eyes.

They entered the room where my husband was lying with faces that kept each other in check, and engaged in a war of nerves for a while over who would pay their respects first.

So I had a hard time mediating.

“Lizelotte, please let me speak to you for a moment.”

And that wasn’t the end of it.

Shortly after they had brought lilies to my husband’s coffin, my older brother said to me with a solemn face. Viscount Baden’s teeth gritted with a look that said that the initiative was taken away again this time.

“Speak here, Brother. I have trouble moving right now because of an ankle injury.”

“Ha, Lizelotte. Isn’t it just going to the next room? How can you take responsibility for and lead the duchy in the future if you are so lazy? It is by no means easy to be the head of a family.”

Ah, it’s so annoying, why are you doing this to me?

Do you want me to give you a thrilling experience of losing face in front of your in-law who was having a staring contest with his nephew, who he hasn’t seen in a long time?

“I will go to the next room with Viscount Baden, Stepmother.”

“Well… yes. After all, I have something to say to my nephew too. I, with a more generous and broader heart, should give way to you.”

“…Kar, would you please?”

“Viscount Baden. I will guide you this way.”

Our brother is very lucky, too. He has a nephew who is as good as Kardiel.

Viscount Baden said he would move, but he looked displeased as if he had lost a fight.

Soon the door closed, and I was left alone with my older brother.

afterword 

collateral family: relatives that are neither direct ancestors nor direct descendants