"Are you enjoying the party?”
"Well, it seems to have most of the essentials, but…"
Veloa swept her gaze across the ballroom with feigned indifference, though the corners of her lips, hidden behind her fan, were slightly upturned.
She didn’t show it, but the party had surpassed her expectations.
The glittering chandeliers, the bustling guests, even the man escorting her — everything.
"If there's anything that falls short, please let me know."
"Would anything actually change if I did?"
"I don’t make the same mistake twice."
"I quite like that."
Veloa's smile deepened.
That confirmed it.
The young Grand Duke of the North was wealthier than she had imagined.
And he was trying to please her.
Veloa quite liked that fact.
Her father's favour had taught her that there was a pleasure in placing others beneath her — more so if they were figures of power, admiration and envy.
"To be honest, I don’t believe all the rumours about Your Highness."
"What rumours are you referring to?"
"The one that says Your Highness is a blood-crazed monster."
"..."
"Or rather, to be more honest — perhaps it’s more accurate to say I don’t really care."
Veloa lowered her fan slightly.
She knew that her eyes, gleaming under the lights, shone more brilliantly — more beautifully — than the sapphire necklace at her throat.
It was easy to seduce a man with such poor taste that he’d fall for even a mere slave.
"What do you base that on to say something like that to me?"
“Honestly, when I heard the story that you turned that barren land into one no one dares to touch, I wasn’t impressed. Stories like that can easily be exaggerated. After all, magic stones are expensive and in high demand.”
"You’re not wrong. All the wealth Schwarhan enjoys today comes from magic stones."
"Anyone can come into wealth by chance. What matters is how it's used."
Veloa fluttered her fan with practised ease.
The next emperor of Blanche.
That alone made Cabelenus a man with good prospects, but it was human nature to hope for more.
If he possessed not only noble blood but true ability, so much the better.
“To be honest, I was disappointed when I arrived in Schwarhan. The land of the Grand Duke of Schwarhan, who is said to enjoy great wealth, had a massive castle but little else worth seeing. I even wondered if Your Highness’s wealth was being exaggerated.”
“That’s how rumours usually are.”
"Or perhaps the rumours were understated?"
Veloa’s eyes curved with elegant amusement.
"What makes you think that?"
"Schwarhan’s party culture is somewhat underdeveloped. And admittedly, my request came quite abruptly. Yet Your Highness still managed to imitate a decent party without issue. So then, isn’t what comes next obvious?"
"..."
"Wealth is power. It’s only natural to want to flaunt it. But Your Highness did not. Usually, in such cases, it’s one of two things."
Either he had no appetite for power, or he was hiding something.
Veloa smiled leisurely.
“I like ambitious people. You have to look up if you want to stand at the top, don’t you think?”
"You say interesting things."
“I can tell you even more interesting stories — once our relationship becomes a bit clearer, of course.”
Even with just a slight lift of her eyes, Veloa was as beautiful as a work of art.
It was only natural that all eyes gravitated toward her the moment she appeared in the ballroom.
Pleased with the attention, Veloa looked up at Cabelenus.
"Are you good at dancing, Your Highness?"
"Not particularly."
"Still, you’ll grant me a dance, won’t you?"
Her fingertip lightly brushed the inside of Cabelenus’s wrist.
Though she wore gloves and their skin didn’t touch directly, it was still unpleasant.
Cabelenus pressed his lips into a thin line and looked down at Veloa, who was much smaller than him.
The foreign princess wore an aloof mask, but her eyes betrayed not only confidence but outright arrogance.
‘I can’t fathom what she’s really after.’
A faint furrow appeared between Cabelenus’s brows.
Though he had observed Veloa for days, his opinion hadn’t changed much.
The princess, intoxicated with her own importance, was transparent — yet there were too many suspicious things about her to simply label her a naive youth.
"Are you going to keep leaving my hand hanging like this?"
"Of course not. Shall we dance?"
Nonetheless, Cabelenus took Veloa’s outstretched hand.
Whatever schemes his half-brother had, all that mattered was achieving his own goals.
For a moment, his eyes flashed like a beast’s gleaming in the dark.
Veloa mistakenly thought Cabelenus had granted her request, but it was the opposite.
Cabelenus hadn’t thrown the party for Veloa’s sake, but for his own — until Alicia’s position was secured, Veloa would serve as a convenient decoy to draw attention.
・・・・・
“Are you all right?”
"It felt like I had returned to the capital after a long time."
As soon as Cabelenus returned to his office, he took off his gloves and threw them straight into the trash.
The touch, heavy with desire, was enough to stir unwanted memories.
“I’ll instruct them to prepare a bath.”
“More importantly, what came of the investigation I asked you to conduct?”
Until they fully understood Zerpheus’s intentions, the charade was far from over.
Cabelenus brushed back his hair, forcing himself to bear the lingering scent of perfume clinging to him.
“We checked Princess Veloa’s belongings and found a communication mirror.”
“Communication mirrors are a specialty of the Christie Kingdom, so having one isn’t unusual.”
“But this one looked different from the ones in the Christie Kingdom. It was made in the Empire.”
“She might still be using it to communicate.”
Cabelenus's brow narrowed.
“We placed someone to keep watch, but so far, nothing noteworthy.”
“Is there some kind of magical device that blocks sound?”
“Most likely. We even chose a room with thin walls deliberately, but still couldn’t overhear anything. Without magical interference, that wouldn’t make sense.”
“She’s surprisingly thorough about such things.”
Cabelenus clicked his tongue.
“I suspect His Majesty himself gave the order.”
“Yet they didn’t hide the communication mirror that clearly shows contact with him?”
“It could be intentional — to draw suspicion.”
“Suspicion?”
“Just as Your Highness knows His Majesty well, he knows you too. Perhaps His Majesty’s plan is simpler than we think.”
Gazeff murmured, resting his chin on his hand.
The Zerpheus he knew was as cunning as a snake.
A reliable ally, but a more troublesome enemy than anyone else.
“Or maybe it’s the opposite. He expected us to think this way and laid an even deeper trap.”
“This is complicated.”
Wrinkles appeared on Gazeff’s otherwise smooth forehead.
“Well, given who we’re dealing with, it won’t be easy to catch him off guard.”
Cabelenus replied flatly.
“Haaa, for now, I’ll dig deeper into the Christie Kingdom. The king is especially protective of the princess, so information is scarce, but that’s our best lead.”
“I’ll look into the princess further as well.”
“I appreciate that, but…”
Gazeff nodded — then suddenly paused, a certain face flashing through his mind.
“What is it?”
“Well…”
“Speak.”
Under Cabelenus’s sharp gaze, Gazeff’s throat bobbed nervously.
His superior was unusually tense.
One wrong word could easily set off a spark.
“…I was wondering if the young lady is all right.”
“Alicia? Why?”
The sharpness in Cabelenus’s eyes deepened.
Gazeff let out a slow breath and forced a strained smile.
He’d known Cabelenus for a long time, but whenever his superior gave him that look, it still sent a chill down his spine.
“I know this might be overstepping, but I heard something from my aunt.”
“What did you hear?”
“She said… the young lady seems depressed.”
“Depressed?”
Cabelenus’s voice dropped lower.
“Well, lately, Your Highness hasn’t been seeking her out. And if she found out you’ve been getting close to Princess Veloa, from her point of view, it might be a little…”
“Not seeking her out? I just saw her yesterday.”
Cabelenus tilted his head, crossing his arms.
The Schwarhan Castle had many secret passages.
Using them, he could easily visit Alicia without anyone noticing.
“But the young lady doesn’t know that, does she?”
“If she did, she’d just wait.”
Cabelenus slightly furrowed his brow.
Veloa was like an unpredictable ball — you never knew where she’d bounce. Trying to keep up with her always messed up his schedule or made him late.
Spending regular time with Alicia, like before, had become difficult.
“Is it really a problem if the young lady waits for you?”
“She’d probably skip meals waiting for me, and lose sleep staying up until I come.”
Tension tightened around Cabelenus’s jaw.
At first, the way Alicia waited for him seemed endearing. But what came after wasn’t so pleasant.
She’d nod off like a sick chick, and maybe from lack of sleep, her appetite dropped, undoing all the progress they’d made in increasing her meals.
“Ah, maybe that explains it.”
“Explains what?”
“My aunt said the young lady’s symptoms resemble those seen in early pregnancy.”
“Pregnancy?”
“She planned to report it to Your Highness after an official diagnosis. Since it wasn’t certain, there was no reason to make a fuss. Though, now that I think about it, maybe I just got ahead of myself.”
Gazeff gave an awkward laugh.
He’d worried about what to do if it really was pregnancy, but thankfully, it seemed not.
The birth of a Schwarhan heir would be joyous, but the timing was far from ideal.
A child born before the formal marriage held an ambiguous position, and it meant one more thing Cabelenus had to protect.
“It hasn’t been confirmed she’s not pregnant, has it?”
“But Your Highness just said—”
“In the end, that’s just speculation, too.”
Cabelenus's eyes narrowed.
He had only held Alicia that one night.
The chances were slim.
“Still, Madame Morco does have a sharp intuition.”
“My aunt only mentioned it as a possibility. Besides, she’s no physician.”
“Even if the chances are low, it’s better to confirm, just in case.”
Cabelenus tilted his head slightly.
He’d always known he’d need an heir someday, but children hadn’t been something he thought much about beyond that.
In the first place, weak, helpless infants were never something the Wolf of Schwarhan would concern himself with — unless it was a child Alicia carried.
For a fleeting moment, his golden eyes gleamed coldly.
An heir was necessary, but not yet.
"...If it’s true that you’re expecting a child, what will you do?"
Gazeff tried not to show any uneasiness as he studied Cabelenus’s reaction.
Even if the timing wasn’t right, if she really was pregnant, that meant Cabelenus would have a child.
But the look in his eyes wasn’t that of a man ready to become a father.
He was too cold, too distant to be called a parent.
“Hmm. What should I do?"
Cabelenus slowly rubbed the edge of his jaw with his thumb.
His meagre imagination couldn’t picture the face of a child who might not even exist.
Still, he thought, if the child looked like Alicia, it wouldn’t be so bad.
A child with reddish-brown hair and grey eyes, just like Alicia — he wouldn’t mind holding such a child.
But with the Blanche blood flowing in him, that was impossible.
Cabelenus and Zerpheus alike had inherited jet-black hair through generations of the Blanche lineage.
And besides…
His lips twisted for a brief moment.
Gazeff, not knowing what to say, agonised for a long while before finally parting his lips.
“It’s still Your Highness’s bloodline.”
“That’s the frustrating part. If a child of my blood had been born later, it might have had some value.”
Cabelenus tapped the desk lightly with his index finger.
If Alicia had given birth after becoming Grand Duchess, the child might have been a worthy heir.
But a child born too early held no value.
It would only tarnish its mother’s honour for life.
“It’s the young lady’s bloodline, too.”
“Even so, it won’t resemble her. No matter how much you examine that small face, you won’t find a trace of her. You’d hardly believe it’s her child.”
Gazeff winced at Cabelenus’s low, bitter voice.
They didn’t even know if the child truly existed.
There was no chance of knowing how the child would appear.
Yet Cabelenus spoke as if he already knew the child.
“You’re not going to accept it?”
“If the child exists because of me, then it's only right that l take responsibility.”
“If so…”
"Still, that doesn't mean we need to tarnish Alicia's reputation, right?"
Cabelenus answered flatly, showing little emotion.
Or perhaps it was better to say he looked completely numb.
“In any case, if something like that were born, it would only be a monster.”
The sneer on his face was nothing like a father’s expression.
Gazeff remained silent, watching Cabelenus toy with the hilt of the sword at his waist.
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