“Your Grace, a letter has arrived from Duke Kesador of the Raska Empire.”

The butler brought the letter and handed it to the Duke. Duke Kesador was the name of the Raska Empire nobleman to whom I had sent a letter on the night of the ball.

I approached the Duke’s side as he hastily opened the letter. And I glanced at the letter to confirm its contents.

……I have received the letter from your advisor and niece, Lady Christine Yusten.

The young lady expressed regret that the imperial marriage between Princess Ella and our Prince could not be realized, and wished for the return of all the jewels and gold coins that the Duke offered to me and my close associates.

……But we feel wronged as well. Wasn’t it your side that ruined things?

According to the testimony of the attendant who accompanied the Prince this time, it seems that your daughter, Lady Danae Yusten, caused trouble in the busy streets, causing the Prince to discard his ceremonial attire. And I hear that because of that incident, the Prince met Lady Evelyn Crested, who is to become the Prince’s consort.

If we look at it that way, wasn’t it due to your Lady Danae Yusten’s reckless behavior that all this damned business occurred?

……Well. I suppose there’s no use in arguing over rights and wrongs at this point. In any case, we also bear responsibility for the failure of the imperial marriage.

How could we have known that our Emperor would accept your Emperor’s proposal so readily! And before we could even properly object!

……As much as I’d like to keep all the jewels and gold coins, Lady Christine Yusten said she would ‘inform the Prince that we tried to persuade the Emperor to prevent Prince Justin’s marriage to Lady Evelyn Crested if we don’t return the jewels and gold coins’, so we have no choice.

……I’ve enclosed a check for exactly half the amount of what we received.

Do not send me any more letters. This is the end of our relationship.]

The letter, which filled three pages of parchment, contained explicit criticism of Danae for providing the grounds to ruin the affair.

I suppressed the urge to laugh out loud and glanced sideways at the Duke and Danae. The Duke’s face, trembling as he held the letter, was delightfully contorted. Danae’s complexion turned pale as she watched the Duke’s reaction.

“What is the meaning of this! Christine, is the content of this letter true!”

The Duke burst out in anger. I nodded with a stern expression.

“……Yes, Uncle.”

“Weren’t you with the Prince the whole time even after Danae and I returned to the mansion!”

When the Duke pressed, I calmly explained the situation at that time.

Of course, I didn’t tell him everything honestly. I lied that it was the Prince who first said he wanted to see the beautiful scenery, and that it was the Prince who sent me out saying he wanted to drink wine. It didn’t matter anyway, since the only people who knew the truth were me, Prince Justin, Lady Evelyn, and Duke Haven.

After hearing all the circumstances, Duke Yusten turned to his daughter with a terrifying gaze and muttered.

“……So in the end, everything went wrong because of that child Danae.”

Danae shrunk her shoulders, frightened by his gaze. Cornered, she shouted in a voice filled with resentment.

“W-why is it my fault that things turned out this way? You should have just not followed me then, Father!”

“By that logic, if you hadn’t recklessly dragged Prince Justin and bumped into the fisherman, none of this would have happened! Ah, really! Are you going to keep blaming others like this!”

“You’re the one who should stop blaming others, Father! Why do you always blame me when things go wrong? It’s frustrating and upsetting!”

“I’m the one who’s upset! The birthday celebration, Viscount Miles’s daughter’s birthday party, and now this! When you think about it, isn’t it all because of your rash actions that the plans your sister and I made have always ended in failure! Do you even know how much damage our family and Duke Klein’s family have suffered because of you!”

The Duke shouted back at Danae and threw the letter at her face. The crumpled paper hit Danae’s pretty face and forehead before falling to the floor. Tears welled up in Danae’s large eyes.

I pretended to be shocked by his actions and stepped in front of Danae.

“Please calm down, Uncle. That was too harsh. Danae didn’t do this knowing things would turn out this way.”

“Haa……”

At my words, the Duke tried to suppress his anger and took rough breaths. Meanwhile, Danae roughly pushed me aside and said in a sharp voice.

“Ha, who asked for your help? Stop pretending to be nice, sister! Do you think no one knows you’re trying to subtly pin all the blame on me while slipping away yourself?”

“Ugh!”

I was pushed back by her strong force and hit my shoulder against the bookcase. Seeing me wince in pain, Danae seemed to get even angrier and shouted while stamping her feet.

“Just look at this! Pretending to be weak, pretending to be kind! Father, don’t be fooled! This must all be an act! Because her plan failed and she might be rebuked by you, she’s using me as an excuse to escape that responsibility!”

I bit my lower lip and lowered my head without responding to her words.

Seeing this, the Duke’s face contorted again. The Duke let out a hollow laugh and spoke as if grinding his teeth.

“……It was I who planned to engage Princess Ella, not your sister. Your sister only helped me.”

“What……?”

“So you didn’t ruin your sister’s plan, but my plan. Shall I say it again? In other words, your statement ‘she’s making excuses because her plan failed and she might be rebuked’ is the same as talking about me, not Christine.”

At the Duke’s words, Danae’s vicious eyes became blank. Duke Yusten brushed back his disheveled hair and looked at Danae with a gaze of contempt as he spoke.

“……I knew you were jealous of Christine for no reason before, but I didn’t know you would go so far as to make false accusations like this.”

“……Father.”

“I kept you by her side so you could learn from your smart and calm sister, but instead of learning, you only envy and belittle her. ……Really, if you weren’t my child, I would have locked you up in a provincial estate long ago.”

At those words, Danae flared up and shouted.

“Father! How can you say such harsh things?”

“Harsh? Me? Your actions that ruin things time and time again are even harsher!”

The Duke shouted back at her. He pointed to the open office door and said.

“Get out! Get out right now! And when you feel like apologizing to me and your sister about today’s incident, then come find us! Until then, I’ll pretend I don’t see you even if I do, and I won’t listen to anything you ask for! The same goes for your sister and the servants!”

“Father, does that mean……!”

“That’s right! Do your washing, bathing, and changing dresses with your own hands for a while! You won’t have time for such useless suspicions if your body is a bit tired!”

“Father!”

“I said get out right now!”

The Duke raised his voice again. Danae glared at me and the Duke in turn with tears in her eyes, then ran out of the office. I stared at her retreating figure and thought.

‘Don’t feel so wronged, Danae. You were the first to deceive me by pretending to be weak and kind.’

I’m just paying you back.

I inwardly laughed at her to my heart’s content while rubbing my shoulder that didn’t hurt at all.

* * *

As her footsteps faded away, the Duke heaved a deep sigh and said to me.

“Are you alright?”

“……Yes, Uncle.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll apologize on her behalf. So don’t be upset. Forgive her later when she comes to apologize. I’m sure Danae didn’t mean any harm.”

I didn’t answer those words. The Duke rubbed his face dry and said as if lamenting.

“……Damn it. I never imagined this would happen. Duke Kesador, that bastard. After taking so much money, he couldn’t even properly persuade the Emperor!”

“You wouldn’t have been able to do anything either, Your Grace. They say that before he could even try to persuade the Raska Empire’s Emperor, our Emperor’s letter had already reached their Emperor’s hands.”

“……It must have been that youngster, Duke Haven, who made arrangements in advance. Otherwise, there’s no way our Emperor’s letter sent the morning after the ball could have arrived before our letter sent on the night of the ball.”

Duke Yusten irritably pulled at his hair with both hands. I remained silent. I had no desire to comfort him, and carelessly offering words of comfort could backfire and incur his wrath instead.

Then the Duke muttered in a barely audible voice.

“……It should have been that bastard Haven who died back then, not the Princess.”

“……!”

“If I had known that the cowardly brat who only cried in his mother’s arms would grow up to interfere with me like this……”

That voice was full of chilling malice. I flinched for a moment. It was the first time the Duke had mentioned the death of Duke Haven’s mother, Princess Liz, so directly.

Saying that the Duke should have died then. Watching him speak as if he had been present at the scene, I swallowed hard. I stared at him ambiguously for a moment. Even if he wasn’t the culprit who murdered the Princess, it was certain that he was involved in the Princess’s unfortunate death.

How exactly was he involved in the death of Princess Liz, Duke Haven’s mother? When and how did he murder the Princess and avoid detection until now? I was curious about that and wanted to find out.

‘If it was a murder method certain enough to kill a member of the royal family without being caught, he must have used that method on others. Surely Uncle took my father’s life in exactly the same way as Princess Liz.’

Then what exactly was that method? I bit my lower lip and fell into thought.