Chapter 003
“What could possibly happen? They were simply handed over to the police.”
Recently, individuals had been infiltrating Bluegate and carrying out terrorist attacks on the wall. They were members of the ‘Protectors of the Revolution,’ a group seeking to dismantle what remained of the monarchical system.
Cohas Chetty continued, “In any case, extremism in any form is never a good thing.”
Maria listened to the dialogue as she struggled to cut the chapeau-shaped caramel cake she had placed on her plate.
It didn’t cut easily because it had hardened in the winter cold. Maria gripped the knife tighter—a knife she felt like throwing away in her irritation.
Cohas said to her, “Don’t you go getting swept up in those protest gatherings for no reason either. I mean those wearing the blue badges. Don’t even speak to them. When has a citizen’s revolution ever been successful enough that there are still protests?”
“Alright.”
I’ll handle that myself.
When Maria let out a meaningful sigh, Alexander, sitting across from her, chuckled. He then reached out his long arm and swapped her plate with his own, having already cut his caramel cake in half.
Maria looked at Alexander, who still felt warm and familiar.
At times, it seemed as though he hadn’t changed at all, yet there were red veins in his eyes and scattered bruises on his arms.
Maria had seen these signs on her mother as well. Watching them, she had to accept that he was no longer the person he used to be.
As Maria took a small bite of the cake, a strong scent of blood wafted in with a gust of air.
Benedict followed, having disappeared briefly after arriving with her; he walked in and sat heavily in his vacant seat.
Alexander turned to Benedict sitting beside him and asked, “Is the work finished?”
“Yeah, settled.”
Maria’s gaze shifted toward Benedict, who was leaning back indifferently, looking like a piece of laundry tossed onto the chair. She asked, “…The carriage from earlier?”
But Benedict simply placed a cigarette in his mouth and pulled out a lighter, ignoring Maria’s words. It was clear he was snubbing her.
It wasn’t just a feeling. His attitude had changed drastically compared to last year. He felt more distant than a complete stranger.
Maria asked again with a heavy heart, “Did that man die?”
At that, Benedict took a drag from his cigarette and asked, “If he died, what would you do? Are you going to bring him back to life?”
Maria’s eyes met his defiantly, as if she wanted to pierce through him.
Benedict met her gaze calmly and then said to Alexander, “Why did you cut it for her? She could have sliced it just with her stare.”
“Stop teasing her. Maria will really punish you later.”
“How could she punish me? She can only punish her brother.”
He then tilted his head toward the table and toward Cohas Chetty, acting with a certain slyness, “And the Lord Mayor.”
“The time for you being ‘cute’ has long passed.”
“You used to say I was cute.”
“That was before. When you were the size of a puppy.”
“When was I ever the size of a puppy?”
Benedict muttered with less than approval and pulled the meal plate of the man sitting next to him to place it in front of himself.
Cohas’s subordinate, who was sitting there, tried to maintain a calm expression and signaled a servant to bring him his meal again.
Despite pulling the plate away like that, Benedict didn’t eat much, only taking a bite or two of the meat.
He, who used to do anything requested of him by the Chetty family, had seen his influence rise rapidly to the point where he now sat at this table, ranked immediately below the Chettys themselves.
This meant he had committed many dark deeds as well.
Even though she knew this, Maria’s heart softened boundlessly when thinking of Benedict.
The reason was that a year ago, he had helped her and her mother—who was receiving no treatment due to the lack of a proper hospital—to leave Bluegate together.
Maria’s mother received treatment at a university-affiliated hospital and spent a relatively happy year with her daughter before she passed away.
‘There should be fewer miserable mothers and daughters in this world.’
Benedict had muttered that when he picked up Maria’s mother and daughter in the carriage to leave Bluegate.
At that time, for a strange reason, Maria believed those words were directed from Benedict to himself.
Maria could never forget that help.
In fact, even without that assistance, she would never have forgotten him in her life. Because there is no one in this world who does not remember their first love.
* * *
As soon as dinner ended, Maria left the room.
They did not keep her for the drinking session that followed. Her presence would have made them uncomfortable. They wanted to enjoy their freedom without worrying about a young woman’s feelings.
The Mon Deplano Casino consisted of three buildings in total; the largest main building was the casino. The remaining two buildings were used as a hotel and a restaurant.
If one walked from there along the garden path toward the sea, they would find an elegant and beautiful house, which was the Chetty family residence.
Here and there, these beautiful buildings were erected, but their original owners had all lost their lives.
The head of Camilo Scala, the patriarch of the family, was hung on a warning sign in the crime-ridden area and remained there until it became white bone. His wife and daughter, who committed suicide, were found floating at the pier, embracing each other.
It was said that his only son also died after being sold as a slave from one ship to another.
Lady Scala, Ingrid Lupo Scala—who had floated with her daughter—had loved gold all her life. For that reason, she had the interior of the casino, the restaurant, and even this mansion entirely plated in gold.
It was said that her maternal family, the Lupos—a powerful family in Western Geppel—owned several gold mines. Thus, she decorated this place to resemble her birthplace.
However, the Chetty family loved coins more than gold.
Cohas Chetty kept the gold plating in the casino and restaurant, but he ordered all the gold to be removed from the mansion.
This was the only action of her father’s that Maria had approved of in her entire life.
In place of the gold plating, the interior was draped in blue velvet distributed by the ‘Fifteen Shareholders’—fifteen individuals who had completely separated Eastern Geppel from the monarchy and the nobility in celebration of the Citizen’s Revolution.
Thanks to that, the mansion looked as though it contained the sea within it. It remained so even now as the sun was setting.
The only moment Maria Chetty didn’t feel disgusted by Bluegate was when the blue gold of the sea flooded the entire mansion.
Maria opened her book bag and began placing the books onto the shelf one by one. These were the books she had brought to read during her stay in Bluegate Bay.
Arranging the books took a long time. She would set one down, stop, then remember something and open it to read a little, before pulling out another.
It couldn’t be said that she had poor focus when she was immersed, but she had some difficulty persevering with one single thing.
She delved deeply into matters that piqued her interest, but it took time for her to reach that level of immersion.
However, there was one field Maria could delve into almost as soon as her eyes landed on it: the subject of Canon Law, which she had studied after a Tuesday morning mass last year.
In the Kingdom of Geppel before the Citizen’s Revolution, the law was divided into Royal Law and Canon Law.
But now, with the kingdom divided, the only law applied in Eastern Geppel was Canon Law, and what was utilized were judicial precedents.
For Maria, who grew up in Bluegate where everything was entangled, the law was more like fantasy literature.
Perhaps that was why it was enjoyable. Since it was inaccessible, for Maria, the law was like a unicorn with something on its forehead—something that existed only in a world of imagination.
In Bluegate, there was a powerful rule that superseded all laws.
Authority, power, and the rule were all synonyms here.
It was natural within the bounds of this rule for Benedict to pass arbitrary judgment on gamblers who didn’t settle their debts right on the spot.
Because she was holding the volume of judicial precedents provided by Professor Emilia, who teaches Canon Law, the sun had fully set while she was reading it.
Feeling she should sleep, she lay in the bathtub, unable to take her eyes off the book, and continued reading the volume of precedents for a long time.
At that moment, a noise was heard, and then Luca—one of the bodyguards and Benedict’s close friend—pounded on Maria’s door so violently he nearly broke it.
“Miss Maria! Something terrible has happened!”
Since Luca was someone who exaggerated even small matters, Maria tried to pretend she hadn’t heard and turned a page of the book.
Then Luca shouted: “The President and Ivy are fighting!”
