***
The front gate of the Gloria estate.
Maids holding their luggage bags in their arms gathered in small groups and poured out.
“Ha, we are finally getting out.”
“I am sick of it. There is a limit to working people to the bone.”
“Exactly! I should have left when Sir Hedmilton quit.”
Kyaaak, one maid who had gathered saliva blatantly spat, ptoo, right in front of the main gate.
With refreshed expressions, the maids turned their backs on the Ducal estate without a shred of regret and left.
Only a few days ago, when the banquet was held, the mansion had been full of bright vitality, but now an especially desolate air hung over it.
Anix, for his part, was distracted by something else entirely.
“Shall we send a rebuttal brief to House Keilos?”
The Duke’s office.
Even at Miro’s question, Anix sat quietly at the desk, just flicking his fingers, tick tick.
On the desk were piled resignation letters left by the employees and a thick set of preparatory documents sent from the North.
Since the banquet, many employees had resigned.
The Ducal estate, which had already been quiet in recent times, had become even harder to find people in.
It was questionable whether there were even enough employees left to properly receive guests if someone were to visit right away, but Anix’s mind was elsewhere.
Miro, who had been waiting for an answer with a smile on his face, asked again.
“If there is nothing to rebut, we can just proceed like this and set a date for the hearing.”
“No, no… that’s not it. Was there no other contact?”
As if possessed by something, Anix shook his head, and Miro tilted his head with a gentle smile.
“Is there some contact you are waiting for?”
“Not just to me. Even to Diana.”
“Other than the notice of engagement annulment from the Imperial Palace, there has been no particular contact.”
“Not even a message asking Diana for treatment?”
“Yes.”
‘They are dead.’
It meant that the ones he had dispatched had taken their own lives. If they were alive, they would have contacted him by any means necessary.
Not a forced death, but a death they chose themselves.
That meant they had acted in preparation for unfavorable information leaking out.
How much had been leaked to the North?
As he looked at the preparatory brief densely filled with itemized points, he flicked his fingers even faster, tick tick.
The moment he saw the information about House Diconu, he could no longer speak.
‘How did they get their hands on this evidence?’
There was no way they could have had an informant. Even the victims of the fraud at the time knew nothing of the detailed circumstances.
‘I heard that they recently had an audience with the Emperor…’
No. It wasn’t the Emperor.
From the beginning, when House Diconu’s territory was transferred to the Gloria Ducal House, only the cause and reasons for the family’s downfall had been listed.
House Diconu and Gelloa Village didn’t have even a single point that could be considered a connection, even on the surface.
So naturally, there was no reason for suspicion to fall on them.
At the time, the Imperial Palace had only assisted with the transfer process.
There hadn’t even been a hint of movement regarding Gelloa Village or the fact that House Diconu was also conducting subjugations.
This had been checked repeatedly back then, so there was no room for doubt.
Moreover, was Liselotte not on bad terms with the Emperor?
‘But then, where did this evidence come from?’
Could it be that “that person” had abandoned him?
Suddenly, one possibility came to mind.
‘The man taken from Gelloa Village…!’
He had thought he couldn’t speak.
Was even that an act?
‘How much does that bastard know? How much did he tell the Princess?’
Tuk, tuk, just as his hand movements gradually sped up.
Miro asked again, a little louder this time.
“What connection does Your Grace have with House Diconu?”
“Impossible! Do you think that just because they are a collateral line, they must all be connected to the East?!”
“…Right, that is why I asked. I will write it that way in the rebuttal brief.”
Unlike him, who had shouted angrily, Miro smiled calmly.
Because the contrast felt so stark, Anix forced himself to steady his voice and made an excuse.
“Ahem, ahem… I was flustered because you were claiming there was a connection when there is none…”
“Even if they are a collateral line, are they not a different House altogether?”
“Th-that is true.”
“We can simply argue that the negligence in management has nothing to do with Northern affairs, so please do not worry too much.”
Normally, he would have found reassurance in Miro’s calm explanation.
However, Anix was still uneasy, continuing to move his hand, tuk, tuk.
***
A guest room of the Northern Keilos estate.
Liselotte seated the now neatly cleaned Kairi and asked clearly.
“Alright, if someone tries to take Kairi’s things, what should you say?”
“N…”
Kairi, who had been opening and closing his mouth, struggled to continue the rest.
“…No!”
“That’s right! Kairi, you did so well!”
Liselotte even clapped as she praised him and handed him a cookie.
The moment he received it, Kairi stuffed it into his mouth, munching noisily, his gaze still fixed on the piled-up plate of cookies.
Liselotte smiled brightly and patted his head.
“I’ll give you some anytime once you can express yourself, so you do not have to look at it like that.”
“No!”
Was it because the only word he had learned was “no”?
For now, he gave the same answer to everything.
Still, it was tremendous progress.
After all, he could speak now.
As she was looking at Kairi with pride.
Virki’s voice came from behind her.
“I worked hard making magic tools too!”
The two people sitting side by side at the narrow table, Virki and Eren, were looking at her with completely different expressions.
The raw magic stones spread all over the table seemed to be materials for making magic tools.
Virki pointed at his own head with his hand and asked.
“Aren’t you going to pat me too? I worked hard with that ugly Grand Duke.”
“Ugly? Objectively speaking, Eren is handsome.”
When Liselotte pointed it out directly, Virki’s eyes welled up with tears as he covered his mouth with his sleeve.
“Huhng…? But he is bigger and scarier than me!”
Ah, so the standard was himself.
With his slender frame, pale skin, and long eyelashes, Virki’s appearance really was fairy-like and beautiful.
Perhaps because he lived seeing only his own face every day in the Magic Tower, his standard seemed to be set to himself.
As Liselotte opened her mouth, at a loss for words, Virki calmly gazed at a bottle filled with red liquid and murmured wistfully.
“Hngh, it’s sad, but my magic tool is also going to become big and scary…”
So it was getting even better.
For the past few days, he seemed to be researching something constantly with Eren.
These days, during Kairi’s lesson time, he had settled down under the excuse of safety and was openly making things.
Holding multicolored raw magic stones, Virki lifted them up toward Liselotte from afar.
As he closed one eye and measured them, Eren offered his input.
“Darker colors suit her better.”
“Hmm, I like transparent colors more. Lise is pretty like me, so white suits her better. I should make it with this.”
For what reason he could say that she resembled Virki was unclear, but by now, she decided to give up even thinking about it.
As Liselotte ignored them and picked up another cookie.
Knock, with a knock, Hedmilton entered.
“Princess Liselotte. A notice has arrived from the court!”
“Already? It seems the East had nothing to say either.”
She had expected them to jump up and protest, but.
After opening the notice from the Central Court that Hedmilton handed her, Liselotte paused for a moment.
Eren hurriedly rose from his seat and approached, asking.
“What is it?”
“I thought it was the hearing date…”
She handed the notice over her shoulder.
[ Notice
Order
This case is referred to mediation.
_______________________________________________________________
Reason
As this case is deemed to require mediation, it is decided as stated above in accordance with Article 6 of the Civil Mediation Act.]
“It seems this judge thinks it will be settled through mediation.”
For an ordinary House, it probably would have gone to mediation, but the opponent was House Gloria.
Liselotte shrugged her shoulders and smiled lightly.
“Let’s just go and hear what they have to say.”
***
The Central Court. The mediation room was small and quiet, almost like a place for tea time.
Sitting side by side on the sofa at a distance from Miro, Liselotte could only keep smiling.
The presiding mediator looked over the documents and asked again in a tone that suggested he didn’t quite understand.
“Are you saying you have no intention of mediating?”
“Yes.”
Surprisingly, this wasn’t Liselotte’s answer.
A member from the mediation committee who looked to be at most in his early to mid-twenties asked again, genuinely curious.
“Why is that?”
Miro pushed up his glasses and replied.
“The plaintiff has bribed members from the defendant’s household into going to the North in order to bring down the defendant’s House. Therefore, unless they write a statement of remorse and publicly announce it across the continent, there is no reason to mediate.”
