Chapter 84
“Nothing came up?”
“Yes, Your Highness. Not even the slightest trace.”
Late at night, in the king’s study, the royal guard Glyn, who had been away from the palace for several days, reported the results with a troubled expression in front of Eleusis.
“Actually, that’s for the best.”
“I am a little concerned.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s absolutely nothing…”
“Hm.”
Eleusis fell into thought.
Over the past week, Glyn had gone to the Kingdom of Baren on an investigation. All for Chanellica, who would soon become queen.
The nobles were not easy to deal with. Ever since the marriage proposal was accepted, they had been loudly expressing their objections in front of Eleusis.
A foreign-born queen?
Chanellica’s background fell far short of the standards of the kingdom’s aristocracy for the highest-ranking woman in the land. Yet, since the king himself had chosen her, there was no room for opposition.
The nobles, however, insisted on knowing Chanellica’s exact origins and past. Eleusis rejected their demands, saying that knowing anything beyond the fact that she was foreign was unnecessary.
What could her past possibly matter?
Eleusis frowned. He was someone who valued the present, not someone who dwelled on the past. Even if Chanellica had a past she could not reveal to anyone, he could accept it all.
Moreover, the one potential stain on this marriage—Chanellica’s past—was already known throughout the kingdom:
She had been engaged to the Derwin Cartel.
Even knowing this, Eleusis had still proposed. Yet the nobles continued to obsess over her past. They seemed determined to use Chanellica to find a new weakness in the king, despite his disregard for her former fiancé, Derwin.
Eleusis had sent Glyn to Baren, not to investigate Chanellica’s past, but to protect her. No matter what history she had, he intended to act before anyone else could exploit it. That was his will.
“If Miss Chanel isn’t here, then she simply isn’t.”
Before sending Glyn, Eleusis had asked Chanellica directly, explaining the situation where nobles might try to use her origins against her, and told her to inform him if there was anything he needed to know.
‘I wandered from place to place. I don’t know my parents’ faces. I did all kinds of things wherever I went, sometimes receiving help along the way. I do have an older brother, but he moves so much that I don’t know where he is now.’
That was all. For someone over twenty years old, it was an incredibly brief account. After that, Chanellica’s lips had shut tightly, like a shell. Eleusis understood that asking further would be futile.
He didn’t want to pry where she did not wish to speak. There was also a small unease—he worried he might inadvertently bring up matters with her former fiancé, Derwin. Even now, after announcing their marriage, Derwin remained a sensitive subject he could hardly mention in front of Chanellica.
“So… Your Highness?”
“What’s that voice?”
“Well,”
“Ah, don’t. I need to brace myself.”
Eleusis grimaced. Whenever something had gone wrong, Glyn sometimes called him in that subtly teasing voice—a reaction he never enjoyed.
“Phew. Alright. What did you do this time?”
“You might be upset, but… I went to see the Cartel Duke on my own.”
“I see.”
Eleusis folded his arms, resting them on the armrests of his chair.
“Bold of you. I’m displeased.”
“My apologies.”
Glyn knew that approaching the former fiancé of the future queen without orders would upset Eleusis. Yet, he wanted to do anything for his lord. Of course, he acted knowing Eleusis wouldn’t throw him out over it.
“Did you ask about Miss Chanel?”
“Yes. I asked him to tell me everything he knew about her past.”
“…No pride at all.”
“That’s why I didn’t report it to Your Highness beforehand.”
“Just the fact that you asked him for anything at all was enough to crush my pride.”
“Didn’t you say, for Miss Chanel, you’d throw away pride without a second thought?”
“Enough with the lectures. So what did you find out?”
Glyn scratched his head with an awkward expression.
“He wouldn’t tell me anything at all.”
Eleusis narrowed his eyes.
“Then why are you reporting this? You could have kept it to yourself.”
“It seemed… strange.”
“Strange?”
“I prattled on quite a bit, explaining the current situation and even warning that Miss Chanel could be in danger in the future. Yet, instead of revealing her past, he said something entirely different. That struck me as odd.”
Seeing Glyn’s serious expression, Eleusis, who had been sitting comfortably, tensed.
“Something else?”
“If Miss Chanel chose not to speak, there must be a reason…”
Glyn trailed off. Eleusis responded casually, as if dismissing the matter.
“I think so too.”
“Your Highness, you shouldn’t take this lightly. That the Cartel Duke said this means there’s definitely something. And Miss Chanel still wouldn’t say a word.”
“Do I really need to know?”
“This is the important part. Both Your Highness and I suspect something about Miss Chanel. Yet, no matter how thoroughly we’ve investigated, there’s no trace at all. That’s what’s strange.”
Glyn listed all the investigations he had conducted.
“It was so strange that I expanded the search to the Cartel Duke himself. I asked people who had known him since childhood, even visited the places he lived. But no one had ever heard of Miss Chanel. Even the man who briefly came to the palace claiming to be her brother—nothing. It’s hard to explain… it’s like Miss Chanel just dropped from the sky.”
Glyn sighed, scratching his head.
“If she looked ordinary, it might be understandable. But someone with such extraordinary beauty and an unusual hair color… how could there be absolutely no trace?”
“So what are you trying to say?”
Eleusis’ voice dropped several tones. Glyn flinched, aware that his lord was increasingly displeased, yet continued.
“Do you remember when we tracked the Cartel Duke’s movements?”
After the treason incident, Derwin was removed from his position as captain of the Kysel Knights but retained his honorary dukedom, thanks to Eleusis’ consideration.
Eleusis believed Derwin wouldn’t actually plot a rebellion, but all evidence pointed to him. To set an example, he couldn’t overlook the evidence solely based on trust.
Thus, Derwin remained a titular duke with no lands, yet forces like Stern and others still saw him as a thorn in their side, constantly warning Eleusis to watch for his revenge. Eleusis’ elite knights tracked Derwin whenever he made suspicious moves.
“Why bring that up now?”
“The Duke frequently visited… an old, nameless temple on the outskirts. You went there disguised as the administrator.”
“But…”
“Isn’t that where you first met Miss Chanel?”
Eleusis referred to the decrepit temple where he had first encountered Chanellica. He had visited the temple three times while investigating Derwin’s movements.
The temple was the most suspicious of all Derwin’s haunts. Those wishing to remove Derwin assumed he was plotting a rebellion there.
They discovered a large iron door at the temple’s base, but it could not be opened by any means. They believed it might hold clues to a rebellion.
Because of all the noise, Eleusis decided to investigate himself. He never thought Derwin would plan a rebellion there—he only intended to observe whether Derwin opened the iron door.
After two failed attempts, Eleusis visited the temple a third time. That day was different. He coordinated with the elite knights, disguised, and visited on the exact day Derwin returned every hundred days.
That day became historic for Eleusis—he met Chanellica, a frail woman who had been pickpocketed, and shared a meal with the woman who would become his queen. Derwin never appeared.
Now, Glyn was trying to connect the day Eleusis met Chanellica with Derwin’s activities. Eleusis, already irritated, whispered lowly.
“Glyn. You’re not suggesting something absurd, are you?”
Glyn groaned. His lord seemed to already anticipate what he would say.
“I just thought it was worth considering.”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“If the Cartel Duke really was plotting a rebellion and Miss Chanel got involved… it would explain why her past appears clean. A fragile woman like her couldn’t erase all traces of her life unless the powerful Duke was behind it.”
Eleusis’ face twisted. He had finally heard the possibility that Chanellica might have been involved in Derwin’s plots.
“I said I don’t want to hear it.”
“I’m not saying it’s true. Just something to consider.”
“That’s an interesting theory.”
“Your Highness.”
“But it’s fiction. If you write this theory into a book and put it on the market, you’d be rich in no time.”
Eleusis mocked him. Glyn sighed deeply, staring at the ground.
“Yes, yes. Treat it as fiction if you like, but shouldn’t we leave all possibilities open?”
Thud.
“Leave.”
Eleusis closed the book he was reading and rose from his seat. Striding to the study door, he kindly held it open for Glyn to leave without lifting a finger.
Glyn, acutely aware that a wrong word could spell disaster, bowed and quickly exited through the open door.
Thud.
As soon as Glyn left, Eleusis shut the door.
“…”
His face contorted in anger. Eleusis glared at the lowest, locked drawer in his desk.
Inside was a letter he had recently received—from Stern, the one who had hurt Chanellica.
He would have to check it.
To determine the letter’s authenticity, Eleusis would need to have a serious conversation with Chanellica.
