CH 76

Suddenly he called me to the kiosk with freshly squeezed juices.

I was embarrassed how easily he dragged me there, and I wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Okay, but this is the last time.

I thought I was going to pay for the fruit juice and run away. But I couldn’t…

I was unable to leave the market after fruit juice.

Raymond managed to settle with the shopkeeper ahead of me. In this way we went through several stalls.

Every time I tried to insert a word, he interrupted me, and we moved on.

He went over everything with his long legs, and I trailed after him, as if under hypnosis.

“Is this all your works?”

Here he stands in front of a kiosk selling handmade accessories.

“Yes. Everything is done with my own hands. You won’t find anything like that anywhere else.”

Raymond exchanged lines with the merchant, while I focused on the silver coin, which I held in my palm.

This time, by all means, I will have time to pay first.

No, I’m even considering sacrificing the incense burner and just leaving if Ray fails his focus again.

“What a beautiful watch. How much it costs?”

The moment I heard this word, I tossed a silver coin even before the merchant opened his mouth.

“Please, here’s the board.”

Raymond’s gaze fell on me. A light chuckle followed.

“Can I accept it?”

A little embarrassed by my insistence, the merchant asked the question carefully, looking at Raymond and at me in turn.

I answered immediately to keep ahead of Raymond.

“Of course you can.”

However, Raymond didn’t react the way I expected.

He didn’t argue, he didn’t try to get his money out.

Until the feeling of embarrassment overwhelmed me completely, I threw Raymond one last:

“Here’s your payment for help.”

For a moment, I wanted to say something else, but most likely he won’t like it.

“Thanks.”

Raymond responded with a slight smile. He seemed to like this watch a lot.

His eyes were just riveted to them.

At first, I didn’t even look at this watch, because I wanted so badly to disappear from here.

Hm.

Mediocre brown leather, clearly unworthy of an Emperor.

There was no particular decoration to be seen.

It’s completely incomprehensible to me why Raymond’s choice fell on this particular watch.

It’s just… the shape was a little unusual.

Similar to my long-standing gift to him.

I lifted my head and looked at Raymond. Our gazes met.

I saw how his silent eyes tremble.

I have never seen such a look before. And since I came back, Raymond has been looking at me with that look.

Why then did you say that you would never love me?

I hid my eyes because I didn’t want to see him again. These thoughts made me feel stifling in my heart.

“I paid back my debt, so I really should go.”

“I will take you to the carriage…”

“I hope that this will be the end. This action gives me inconvenience.”

Walking with me, Raymond may have enjoyed fond memories of the past. I just hoped that our meeting would end soon.

For him, the past we could be ‘close friends’, but for me it was a terrible unrequited love.

There was a moment of silence, and soon his voice was heard.

“Then let’s part right here.”

He gave me the incense burner.

In addition, the box contained violets covered in mud.

“You can do anything better than me with these flowers. They are so much like you.”

I raised my eyes and gave him a gentle look.

Raymond still remembered what he had said once.

Oh my, do you really remember?

…Why the hell right now? After everything?

My heart froze at such a sudden thought.

It’s all nonsense.

We shouldn’t have met again at all. But when he appears before me time after time, echoes of the past come to visit me.

“You’re looking at me like that. How can I let you in alone?”

He studied my face, trying to track changes in expression.

I think I immediately need to gain even more distance.

“It’s uncomfortable, even if it’s a joke. Well, I have to go.”

I gave him a cold look and turned around without regret.

I felt a tenacious gaze behind me, but didn’t slow down.

* * *

The next day.

In the early morning, when the blue just covered the sky.

The gates of the Drua estate opened.

A knight on horseback jumped out from there. Leaving the Duke’s estate, he drove his horse and disappeared.

And when the knight disappeared, the Duke’s gates were locked again.

The gatekeeper dozed off again, and the Duke calmed down again, as if nothing had happened.

However, the attentive watched will notice how the knights now and then one by one left the Duke’s bedroom and left the estate.

Jeremy appeared from behind the pillar.

No one noticed him in this deathly calm mansion.

Jeremy glanced at the Duke’s bedroom, which was now tightly locked.

What order did the knight receive from the Duke, if so early he rushed off on his way?

It was a family that had lost power. The only thing the few remaining knights did was kill time.

But that knight was in such a hurry.

It was weird.

Did you gallop to Marquis Sios?

Duke Drua and Marquis Sios.

The first time I realized that there was a connection between them was when I returned to the Empire six years ago, when I became aware of Ellie’s divorce.

At that time I walked by without thinking, but now – no.

Marquis Sios tried to destroy Duke Croft, and the Marquis and Duke Drua had secret meetings.

I found out about this by pure chance.

One day everything went on as usual. Instead of announcing my visit, I quietly sneaked into the mansion in the early morning, while everyone was asleep.

Then, by chance, I saw Marquis Sios leaving the Duke’s office.

It was pretty early for the guests.

In addition, Marquis Sios arrived not in a carriage with his own symbols, but in an old carriage, like the commoners.

In a black robe, as if he wanted to hide from prying eyes.

Marquis Sios walked by without seeing me, but I, lost in the darkness, saw exactly his face sticking out over the top of the robe.

If it is true that these two conspired, then it happened a long time ago.

And I had the feeling that this was a great danger.

Especially for Ellie.

After that day, I fussed and tried to dig deeper, but couldn’t find any hard evidence.

Duke Drua never attended public appearances, and the two families were unrelated.

This meant that the work of these two was a very secret endeavor.

Jeremy, who had been in his thoughts for a while, looked at the surrounding landscape. The sun has not yet risen.

There was a sound like a heel hitting a marble floor.

Jeremy went all-in and headed straight for the Duke’s office.

In the silence there was a lock click.

Jeremy stepped into the office and walked over to the bookshelf.

Freud, the current Duke Drua, was utterly paranoid.

Since he couldn’t trust anyone, and even his own family, when he did business with someone, he piled dirt on those people.

Jeremy pulled out a book in the upper left corner of the third shelf and the entire bookcase slid to the side.

The Duke’s secret vault was revealed.