CHAPTER 43………………………………………………..
The Elephant Grave
In a hot country near the desert beyond the continent, there lives a huge animal called the elephant.
Because an elephant’s long tusks are used as materials for ornaments and various luxuries, hunters do not hesitate to hunt those enormous yet peaceful and extraordinarily gentle creatures.
So elephants flee hunters in herds, and when death approaches they gather their last strength, go to a secret place in the heart of the desert known to no one, and quietly breathe their last. They say that somewhere in that sandy desert there is a pile of ivory as high as a mountain.
Algernon sometimes thought that the royal family resembled elephants.
So many covet the ivory of the royals’ power. The royals spend their lives running, and carrying their great secrets of power, only return to the imperial underground tomb after they die.
Unlike the white, beautiful ivory grave of elephants, the imperial underground tomb was cold and unpleasant — that was the difference, perhaps.
Like the cold that drips from the blue eyes of the Duke of Side.
“Duke, I wasn’t expecting even a cordial greeting from you,”
“…….”
“At least do something about that murderous look in your eyes. It’s starting to make me feel a bit slighted.”
“Hah!”
When the Duke of Side let out a hollow laugh, Anje’s shoulders twitched.
The beauty who had introduced himself as Marquis Algernon — the actual target of that icy stare — seemed unbothered.
“Why have you returned?”
“Well… if you want to say I was struck by homesickness—”
“I don’t believe you.”
Algernon smiled as if he had expected that and opened his mouth again.
“What if I said I was worried?”
“Who worries about whom? You think the cat worries about the mouse? I—”
Before finishing his sentence, the Duke of Side glanced around and sighed.
“We gave Ahandel to save you, Marquis. Was that all? Countless families… no, they saved your life and were annihilated.”
Algernon’s expression darkened.
“Mariana’s family was among them. Can you imagine how dreadful it was for children who knew nothing to have their family ruined overnight and be driven into the streets? Didn’t you promise? Before you died… you said you would not set foot in the Empire — not even after death.”
Algernon frowned into an embarrassed face.
“…I thought I was going to die.”
The Duke of Side, arms folded, tilted his chin as if demanding an explanation.
“I contracted an endemic disease while traveling, and I really did think I was going to die. The physician said so too. My fever hovered around forty degrees, and I was throwing up everything I ate when suddenly that thought came to me.”
“Usually at a time like that people scramble for survival, yet you had time for thoughts. You’re as carefree now as you were then.”
Those merciless words that showed no leniency made Anje look to Marquis Algernon again.
But Algernon only shrugged as if used to it and continued speaking in his own manner.
“Exactly. Anyway, since I was going to die, I thought I might as well go home and die there.”
“Home? Where is your home that you’d return to it? Getting attached, getting sentimental — that’s a luxury for you, Marquis. For you, wherever you can lay your body is home.”
“That’s harsh.”
Though he said that, Marquis Algernon was smiling. His fair blonde hair gleamed beneath the chandelier and his fresh green eyes sparkled.
At that moment Anje understood why Mariana could not take her eyes off him. Even the loveliest flower might not be more beautiful.
“Hmm!”
While Anje stared blankly at Algernon’s beauty, the Duke gave an uncomfortable cough.
He had been fine that morning; Anje wondered if he had caught a cold and turned to look, only to find the Duke glaring at him with a fierce, blue gaze.
“…….”
“Anyway, I returned after a life of suffering, and yet the illness gradually got better once I arrived.”
“Because it’s endemic.”
Everyone’s attention turned to Anje, who had interrupted bluntly.
Oh no. Flustered, Anje quickly lowered his gaze.
“Isn’t an endemic disease originally caused by the body failing to adapt to different water and food? Wouldn’t you naturally recover once you returned home?”
Even given such a fortune as his, it was odd that the illness would improve so quickly.
“You have a clever companion.”
At Algernon’s compliment, the Duke of Side’s expression grew even sterner.
It seemed the idea that someone like Anje could be Algernon’s lover made him furious.
Fearing the Duke might actually draw his sword, Anje hastily added an explanation.
“How dare I call myself His Grace’s lover. That’s not the case — I’m his aide. Complex circumstances tie me here as much as they do the Marquis.”
Satisfied with the explanation, Anje checked the Duke’s face with some pride.
But why did the Duke’s expression grow more murderous than before?
Why was he like that? As Anje averted his gaze subtly and stepped back to put some distance between them, the Duke spoke.
“I think I told you what I expected you to do. If I cause trouble here, it will all be your fault, Anje Beaufort.”
What utter nonsense!
Anje, who tried his best in every moment, could not believe this slanted accusation. It must be because their fortunes were not compatible, he thought.
He barely suppressed the sudden anger and shot the Duke a private glare.
“Pfft!”
Marquis Algernon burst out laughing as if he couldn’t hold it in.
“Is that funny to you?”
“No, I tried to hold it in, but it was just too cute.”
Was this even a conversation?
One man was furious, another maintained a cheerful mood, and the Duke continued to address the Marquis formally while the Marquis blatantly talked down to the Duke.
‘Something’s odd,’ Anje thought.
But it wasn’t his place to intervene, so he kept silent and watched.
“So where are you staying now?”
“Noivan Castle. Where else would I stay?”
Noivan Castle…
The place the late emperor had poured taxes into until the day before his death was — absurdly — not the imperial palace but a very secluded castle in the forest on the outskirts of the capital.
They said the late emperor was tormented in his final years by social withdrawal and various mental illnesses, and to avoid even nobles and his attendants he personally designed Noivan Castle.
But revolts followed, unable to tolerate the late emperor’s strange behavior and incompetent rule, and in the end he was impeached by the parliament and driven out.
Donovan Kaiden I was raised to the throne then.
The late emperor had several children besides Donovan, but when Donovan took the throne, for some reason all of them were dead and only one much younger prince remained.
Noivan Castle was nearly complete at that time, but the late emperor was exiled without ever living in the very castle he had painstakingly built, and died for unknown reasons.
From then on Noivan Castle was called the ghost castle because the late emperor’s ghost was said to haunt it, and it faded from people’s memories, appearing only occasionally in gossip.
So when Algernon said he would be staying there, taken at face value it implied he was not a mere marquis but someone of royal blood or equivalent status.
Anje quickly inspected Algernon’s birth register. But rather than the gleam of gold, the family register was still pale and lifeless, showing no vitality.
‘This doesn’t look like someone who should be laughing here…’
If he wasn’t mistaken, Algernon’s fortune suggested he should be groaning in some sickbed.
“Thanks to that, I had to hurry from that distant place to attend this banquet from dawn,” Algernon said, stretching his arm and loosening his body with an easy air.
“No wonder I’m exhausted. It was nice meeting you. May I be off now?”
“Are you leaving the country?”
“You expect me to leave so soon after just returning?”
He had planned to a few hours earlier, but Algernon feigned indifference.
It was near dawn. The lights in the banquet hall beyond the windows showed no sign of dimming.
In Algernon’s gaze appeared Count Martin and Mariana, dancing a waltz.
“By the way, will you attend the banquet tomorrow too? Then your sister will come as well, won’t she?”
When the Duke of Side made a grinding noise and clenched his fist, Anje grabbed the Duke’s arm in alarm.
“Your Grace, this is not a battlefield. If you kill him here, it will be murder.”
The repairs on the house atop Primrose Hill were still unfinished, and the installments for the furniture and household items preselected at the department store and by the matriarch were far from paid off! The Duke must not cause a scene.
