Chapter 106
The Marquis of Godell arrived at the table where the meeting had been arranged.
But I wasn’t there.
The Marquis cursed even though he was the one who arrived late. Then, just as he paused, Bun-Head clung to him in anger and started talking about their deal.
And the one who appeared at that moment—
“Sir, what business do you have with one of our academy’s students?”
The temple knight, Ignatz.
Even the Marquis’s attendants recoiled at the overwhelming pressure he exuded.
My brother had been amused from the very first time he heard my story and said he’d help. Even now, he wasn’t hiding his smile at all. And with that big build of his grinning brightly, he looked even more frightening.
“If you don’t want to be misunderstood, then please explain what business you have with our student.”
Bun-Head must have thought she had found an ally. She eagerly plastered herself to my brother’s back.
How stupid. Did she think the Marquis would just sit still and let himself be painted as trash who came here to commit a disgraceful act?
I wonder what kind of excuses are spinning through his mind right now. Surely, his first priority is to stop his accomplice from escaping.
By the time he was blocking Bun-Head’s retreat, the bundle of cloth in her hand was already calling for me.
Since the thieves had gathered, it was only natural that the testimony of the one who was robbed was needed.
Of course, once I showed up, both of them would likely waste their energy making excuses and spouting nonsense—
But would they really be able to come up with any coherent scheme in front of this man?
“Hey, do I look pretty right now? Even if my hair gets pulled, will I still look good?”
“What does being pretty have to do with getting your hair pulled?”
“It’s important! This is going to be the climax of my life’s drama, so of course I brought an audience!”
Betty’s voice rang out loud and clear. Bun-Head already looked like she was about to lose her mind from the sound of it.
Yes, you’ve been tricked by Betty.
And the Marquis of Godell, when he saw me…… ah, he already seemed to grasp what was going on.
But it’s too late.
The two conspirators, completely out of sync, opened their mouths at the same time……
And I, inwardly, pulled out some popcorn.
Bun-Head’s theft was easy to prove. We had the evidence.
The moment Betty appeared, she clung to the Marquis of Godell and blurted out, “Why did you make me steal, and then make Betty steal too?”
If only the Marquis had said right then, “I never ordered Betty to steal!” we could’ve hauled the two of them off as a pair.
But unfortunately, Betty jumped in first, saying, “I’m actually innocent! This whole play was Sol’s idea!” She must’ve been eager to get Bun-Head to grab her by the collar.
But instead, Bun-Head’s hand came straight at me……
And then things exploded into chaos.
Luckily, some of the classmates Betty had brought as “audience” ran off to fetch other priests, and the mess was quickly contained.
Which is why I am now lying in the infirmary, sipping lukewarm juice with a band-aid on my cheek.
Soon, Brother Eugene walked in.
“Resting well?”
“Brother, how did it go?”
“How far did you see?”
“Um, I saw Lady Fruhtling dragged away by the dorm mistress, and the Marquis of Godell tried to escape behind a barricade of servants but got caught.”
“Ha, you saw quite a bit after you got slapped and collapsed.”
“I only collapsed so I could watch from lying down. Did that man actually run?”
Bun-Head was bound to be caught as the thief. The real issue was the Marquis.
That man was bound to insist, “I never incited theft! Didn’t Lady Fruhtling cause trouble before too? She must be lying!”
……But of course, I had no intention of letting that happen.
“He did try to run. But Sol, you know that metal piece you kept as evidence? Lady Fruhtling testified that she got it from the Marquis. The Marquis denied it, of course…… but there’s no way a mere student could’ve gotten hold of such a specialized item.”
“Ahaha, good thing I held onto it in advance!”
Just because fingerprints couldn’t be tested didn’t mean it was useless. Now it was a fight for them to settle in court.
Even if Bun-Head was his illegitimate daughter, ordering a lady to commit theft was insane. The Fruhtling family wouldn’t just sit still.
And the Marquis of Godell couldn’t exactly go public now and say, “Actually, six years ago, she might have stolen from the Duke of Schleyger’s household too.”
Ah, I wish I could’ve seen their faces a bit longer. Maybe I’ll get to in court.
“Oh right, Sol. Lady Fruhtling confessed everything, so I brought this back.”
“Ah!”
In my brother’s hand was the bundle of macramé. Yes, this was what I endured that whole ordeal to recover.
But his expression was dark.
“Sol, is this an important item?”
“……Why?”
“I got it back, but……”
Very carefully, he spread my dreamcatcher out on the bedside table.
Once shaped like a spider’s web enclosing a nest, my dreamcatcher was now……
“It looks like the two of them tried to find the gem by cutting apart all the knots with a knife.”
What lay sprawled across the table looked less like a craft and more like a tangle of string. Even a spider’s web after a typhoon would look better than this.
Even the pink gem barely hanging at the end was scratched all over.
I rubbed its surface with my hand. The scratches wouldn’t fade. The light that should have reflected in its familiar pattern remained hidden beneath those white scars.
Why? It wasn’t something that should break easily, like some fragile accessory. But now, drooping and torn apart, it looked like the dissected body of a spider……
“……Sol, are you okay?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Why, is there a problem?”
“Your face……”
“Eh? Ah, it’s nothing. I was just…… surprised at how it looks now.”
“Sol.”
“Haha…… wow. No, I mean, how did it end up this…… ragged……”
“……Sol.”
“This, this is……”
It was the very first gift I ever received from the Duke of Schleyger. His first response to my tears.
Proof that once, at least for a moment, he had loved his wife and looked forward to the child she was about to bear.
……And.
The gift that made me call him “father” for the first time……
“Ah……”
I couldn’t breathe.
My brother no longer called my name. He simply sat at the edge of the bed and pulled me into a hug.
But I couldn’t hug him back.
The remains of the dreamcatcher spilled across my hands like debris. I curled my palms to keep any of the knots from falling. The scratches on the gem glared at me.
“What do I do…… this can’t be…… it’s ruined……”
“Sol……”
“No, no…… what do I do? Hic, sob……”
“……”
“Huwaaahhh!”
If only I hadn’t provoked Bun-Head. If only I had agreed when the Duke said we should crush the Marquis of Godell.
Instead of insisting I could handle it alone……
The tears wouldn’t stop. In the end, I cried like a child. Near my forehead, Domado’s tail brushed against my tears, trying to wipe them away.
“……Father.”
And before I knew it, the one hugging me tightly was not my brother but the person I knew all too well.
My tears soaked into the shirt reeking of the paperwork smell of his office.
“I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“Because of me…… the thing you treasured……”
How long had he kept it, even after his wife’s death?
Because of me, it was lost. And because I couldn’t retrieve it in time, it was ruined.
The words melted into tears. But maybe that was better. Saying them aloud would’ve only been excuses.
Unable to face him, I buried myself deeper in his arms.
I thought he might push me away. But instead, he hugged me even tighter, as though to swallow me whole, and whispered:
“No…… Thank you, Sol, for treasuring my precious memory as your own treasure.”
The shame of crying so hard in front of everyone only hit me later.
And to make things even worse……
When I tried to leave the infirmary and pulled back the curtain around the bed, I saw some candies on the side table with a little note that said “Cheer up.” Probably from the classmates Betty had brought as audience.
Guys, what on earth did you hear? You make me sound like someone who lost a keepsake from a deceased loved one! Well…… not completely wrong, but not quite right either!
Still, how did the Duke even find me here?
“Domado, did you call him?”
“Kyuu.”
“Ah, cold!”
The little creature licked under my eyes with its cool tongue. Maybe that was its way of saying yes.
Just as the Duke had said, it wasn’t exactly a living being, so no saliva stuck. But how could I treat it like an object? I scratched its head gently.
“……Thank you. For calling him for me.”
“Kyuuk!”
At the moment I needed it most, I was comforted by the person I most wanted to rely on.
Thank you, truly.
Embarrassing as it is, afterward, the Duke of Schleyger settled everything completely.
Lady Fruhtling was expelled and sent to a provincial convent, never to come out again. The Marquis of Godell had to provide the funds for her admission.
I hadn’t known it before, but apparently, sending a noble daughter to a convent isn’t free. Since it’s basically like marrying them to God, a large dowry is required.
Of course, the Marquis’s punishment didn’t end there. For the crime of teaching sin to a child of the Lord, he was excommunicated.
I hadn’t realized how serious that was until Brother Eugene explained it to me with a wry smile.
“Baptism, marriage, funerals—all of them are handled by the temple, right? But now, the Marquis won’t be able to participate in any of those.”
“Ah……”
“And to manage a territory, you have to cooperate with the local temples. What temple would comfortably work with a lord who’s been officially certified by the capital as ‘the spawn of the devil’?”
Ah, so in a society without ID numbers or centralized records, being cut off from the temple was basically social death.
“So it’s not just about rituals……”
“As a lord, he’s completely screwed.”
“Temple knight, your choice of words is awfully elegant.”
“But there’s no other way to put it.”
My brother shook his head.
“He didn’t get to be a Marquis through sheer luck. The Duke must’ve pulled the right strings. Rumor has it even His Majesty had never seen the Duke so furious.”
“……”
“From now on, I’d better stay on your good side. Please take care of me, Lady Schleyger.”
He teased me with a grin, tugging at my cheek.
But I knew—he had stayed by my side, supporting me all along.
And that evening, a small gift box arrived from the Duke.
