~Chapter 144~
Isaac left the High Priest’s parlor looking, for once, in a good mood.
“Maybe he’ll be better today.”
These days, Isaac was like a bomb that could go off at any moment.
If you rubbed him the wrong way, crude curses would spill out.
“C-Chief Priest Evans.”
A nervous priest approached him.
“Priest Pedro is here to see you.”
“Ah…”
Isaac’s face showed open annoyance.
“Tell him I’m busy and can’t meet.”
“Understood. Then shall I refuse Lady Lopez’s audience as well?”
“Lady Lopez?”
Isaac paused, then answered coldly.
“Well, I suppose I should at least see her face.”
“Understood. I’ll have her wait in the parlor—”
“No.”
Isaac shook his head firmly.
“She isn’t worth that much.”
“Pardon? Then…?”
“Have her wait outside.”
“No matter how displeased he is, how can he make someone stand outside?”
Seraphina bit her lip over and over as she stood in front of Isaac’s parlor.
Earlier, when she asked to meet him, a priest had passed along the message with an awkward face:
“He says to wait outside.”
Even so, Seraphina couldn’t storm off.
Thanks to Priest Pedro’s accusation, the Temple had cornered the Duke of Claudius.
That meant Isaac had, in a way, found a new foothold to rise again.
“Ugh, really. When is Priest Evans coming?”
Priests passing by glanced at her with odd expressions.
Seraphina’s face burned hot.
Step, step.
Heavy footsteps echoed.
Seraphina snapped her head up.
“Chief Priest Evans!”
“Well now, look who it is.”
Isaac looked her up and down, displeased, then flashed a circling smile.
“Lady Lopez, isn’t it?”
His tone had an oddly sharp edge.
Seraphina forced a bright smile.
“It felt like I hadn’t seen you lately, so I came to ask how you were.”
“Well, I thought you were cutting ties with me altogether.”
Seraphina flinched, then answered sweetly anyway.
“Please don’t say such hurtful things. You’ve seemed very busy, so I didn’t want to bother you.”
“…”
Seraphina tried her best to flatter him.
Isaac stared for a moment, then suddenly asked:
“So? Did you bring any useful information?”
“Ah, that….”
“I arranged for you to meet Her Majesty the Empress regularly. You should make that worth something.”
It was true.
The Empress still invited Seraphina to her tea times now and then.
Isaac, still the Temple’s Chief Priest, had been her backer, and Seraphina—pretty and eloquent—was a popular lady of society.
There had been no need to cut her off.
“R-Recently, Her Majesty and I have been exchanging the occasional letter.”
Seraphina rolled her eyes, then forced a smile.
“If we grow closer, I’m sure she’ll share more with—”
“I heard Her Majesty attended the Claudius Foundation’s exposition.”
Isaac cut in, pressing her.
“Anything about that? Anything at all?”
“T-That…”
Seraphina could only open and close her mouth, unable to give a real answer.
She wasn’t close enough to the Empress to hear such private thoughts.
“I see.”
Disgust spread over Isaac’s face as he stared at her hesitation.
“So you have nothing. Not a single scrap of information, is that it?”
“C-Chief Priest Evans…”
“Honestly… I didn’t think you’d be this useless.”
He tossed out the words and turned away, cold as ice.
“W-Wait! I—”
Seraphina hurried after him, flustered.
Bang!
The door slammed in her face.
Seraphina glared at the closed door, eyes fierce.
“Hah, really…”
Her beautiful green eyes flashed with venom.
And—
Someone watched her from afar.
“He wouldn’t see me because he was ‘busy,’ and yet…!”
It was Priest Pedro.
“How could he do this!”
His face twisted with betrayal.
House Claudius was quieter than ever amid the sudden controversy.
Worried that reporters might be peeking in, all the curtains were drawn.
The sitting room was lit only by lamps.
“Dietrich, are you all right?”
I looked at the Duke with concern. His expression was complicated.
He glanced at me, then smiled as if to say not to worry.
“Of course. The Imperial family reached out.”
“They did?”
“Yes. They said the Temple is investigating and asked us to wait a little.”
He shrugged lightly.
“They also said there won’t be an audit from the tax office, so not to worry.”
“I see…”
If it was to that extent, the Imperial family must already know the Duke is innocent.
I couldn’t quite hide my doubtful expression.
“So relax, Lari.”
Right then, his long fingers pressed my forehead playfully.
“If you keep frowning like that, you’ll get wrinkles.”
His blue eyes sparkled as he grinned and added teasingly:
“Of course, Lari will be lovely with wrinkles, or even as a grandmother—at any time.”
“Honestly, Your Grace…”
I gave him a mock glare, but my heart still felt heavy.
“He must know this too.”
The longer time dragged on, the fiercer the controversy would grow—
and the more it would damage Claudius’s reputation for integrity.
And yet he smiled so easily.
Because he didn’t want me to worry—
I knew that all too well.
“If the question is hard to answer, you don’t have to. But… do you have any documents that could turn this around right now?”
I asked on impulse, grasping at straws without much hope.
“Yes.”
To my surprise, the Duke nodded readily—though not happily.
“But those documents are entangled with another party. So it’s not easy to reveal them carelessly.”
Entangled… with whom?
Seeing I didn’t understand, he explained:
“The Imperial family.”
“Ah.”
“All previous donation records to the Temple were separately organized with Imperial notarization. Of course, we never mentioned it—no need to provoke the Temple.”
At that, I felt a bit relieved.
Of course—he was always thorough.
If he had been donating such large sums regularly, he would have kept the records in order.
“So countering this isn’t hard. It’s just that…”
“The obstacle is the Imperial family itself.”
“Correct.”
I couldn’t hide my mixed feelings.
