Chapter 52

My expression hardened.

If Selena, the cherished daughter of the House of Bethril, was speaking this way, it really must be a grave matter.

‘What is it? What could have happened at this time?’

Before my regression, I was almost entirely estranged from my family around this time, so I had little knowledge of what was going on internally. Now that I thought of it, my brothers had been inviting people over quite often back then, especially merchants from trading houses renowned for their jewels. Was the grand ducal house in such dire straits that they had been forced to sell even the family jewels?

Selena swallowed hard, then fixed me with an intense gaze.

“I’ve agonized over this for days, but I’ve decided to tell you. Because… well, it’s ‘us.’”

“Us?”

“Yes, us! I mean, we’re close…! Anyway.”

She drew a heavy breath, speaking slowly.

“So, the thing is…”

“Yeah?”

Selena squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

“Cleas Orsen is having an affair with your cousin Mikarin!”

︵‿୨ ₊‧꒰ა ୨ৎ ໒꒱ ‧₊ ୧‿︵

My tension drained away, and I let out a long sigh.

‘Haa, I thought my heart was going to give out.’

As the tension drained away and I realized it was nothing serious, my eyes grew half-lidded with boredom. But misreading my reaction, Selena suddenly grabbed my hand.

“I’m not joking. It’s true. I saw them. That scoundrel, in one of the secluded corners of our estate, he… he put his mouth, h-his mouth—!”

Making out, obviously.

Honestly, those two act as if their lips would fall off if they didn’t kiss at least a dozen times a day.

Selena swallowed hard and spoke again.

“Shall I fetch you a sedative or something?”

She looked absolutely stricken with worry.

I hesitated for a moment.

‘How should I respond to make this useful for what’s to come?’

First, I probably need to calm Selena down a bit.

After a moment’s thought, I made up my mind.

“I already knew.”

“What?! Then why didn’t you do anything about it?”

“Well, it’s just… I haven’t known for very long.”

“…Did you find out before or after Ulysses was caught three-timing?”

Selena’s expression turned rather strange.

“Well, I suppose before.”

Although in truth, it was much earlier than that. But if we were using Ulysses’ three-timing scandal as a reference point, then ‘before’ was technically correct.

However, something unexpected happened.

Selena, her head bowed, suddenly began to weep, tears falling silently down her cheeks!

“Wh, why… are you crying?”

“Because you went through the same thing, so you understood how we felt, and you helped us without any ulterior motive…”

Well, I did understand, but I definitely had ulterior motives.

Your family’s Petra.

“Selena, listen—”

“…You fool, to keep something like that all to yourself. I had no idea. I didn’t know anything.”

Selena threw her arms around me in a tight embrace. I could only roll my eyes as I found myself caught in her hug.

‘…This situation seems to be heading in a strange direction.’

“I’ve made up my mind, Nike. I’m going to be your true friend. I’ll consider your pain as my own, and I’ll do everything I can to repay your sincerity.”

“…That’s kind of you, but—”

“So, who shall we start with?”

I looked at Selena as she briskly wiped away her tears and stood up.

“With what?”

When I asked, she replied.

Selena’s smile turned razor-sharp.

“Mikarin or Cleas. Which one should we kill first?”

“Huh?”

“I brought Petra. I’ll hold them down, and you shove it in their mouths.”

Selena started striding off with fierce determination.

She truly looked ready to kill them both.

“Wait, wait!”

Of course, I wasn’t about to let them off the hook, but I couldn’t just let them die off that easily, either—!

︵‿୨ ₊‧꒰ა ୨ৎ ໒꒱ ‧₊ ୧‿︵

Bang.

The gates closed as the Bethril carriage carrying Selena rattled down the road. I rubbed my neck with an utterly exhausted expression and sighed.

‘It took me… three hours to talk her down…’

“What? You’re not going to kill them? Oh, right. I didn’t kill Ulysses either. After all, even if he was seeing three people at once, he wasn’t having an affair with my cousin! But your situation is different.”

Selena was beside herself with rage.

She insisted that only by dealing with those unfaithful scoundrels as soon as possible could she find any peace of mind.

‘I understand how she feels.’

If I hadn’t gone through what I did before my regression, I might have felt the same way. However, simply poisoning them was too merciful.

They tore my soul to pieces.

I was betrayed by everything and everyone I loved.

They laughed as I begged them to kill me instead.

They plotted, right in front of me, to murder my family and steal Delosif for themselves.

They calculated exactly what they would gain by killing me.

They would go ten days without giving me any food, then bring me some wretched soup and watch with delight as I licked it up like a dog.

In front of my mother’s portrait, they made me press my forehead to the floor and apologize hundreds of times, saying, ‘I’m sorry for being born as your daughter.’

And even all of that was just a fraction of what I endured.

‘That’s why I can’t let them die so easily.’

“My lady?”

Just then, as I was staring blankly into space, I heard Leonard’s voice.

“I came as soon as I got your message. What’s the matter?”

Among the things Selena told me, there were a few that might prove useful.

Especially—

“It’s not just their shameless kissing that’s ridiculous. They act as if they’re living out some grand, star-crossed romance straight out of a novel.”
“They often do.”
“They’re out of their minds. What was it they said? ‘If you don’t like the Grand Duke, I’ll look into it for you? Or maybe I should be the one to poison him?’ That’s the sort of nonsense they say.”
“…What?”
“It’s probably just a figure of speech. Or maybe that’s how much she claims to love him. How could a baron’s daughter possibly assassinate a grand duke? No matter how besotted she is for a man, would she really go so far as to commit murder?”

There were men so mad for a woman that they turned their wives into chimeras. Mikarin and Cleas truly were people who didn’t know any boundaries.

‘But is her true goal really to kill the Grand Duke?’

No.

The Mikarin I knew always put her own safety first, but there was only one exception to that rule.

‘When she’s trying to seduce a man.’

Before my regression, I saw her lure adulterers like that more than once. So her true objective must be…

‘She’s trying to get close to Iscalion.’

That way, she could either drive a wedge between Iscalion and me, or else…

‘She’s probably trying to drag Iscalion into her little train of affairs.’

“I want to know which information guild Cleas is dealing with.”

They wouldn’t have used the family’s own intelligence network for something as significant as investigating Iscalion. If their involvement were discovered, it could mean the end of their entire house, so they must have bought information from outside sources.

“The security is so tight that it’s difficult to uncover any information about a great family.”

“I thought as much…”

“—However, I believe I can be of assistance.”

Leonard smiled with confidence.

“In fact, hoping I might be able to assist with your schemes… well plans, I planted contacts in various places.”

“Really?”

“Especially among those connected to the people you’ve had dealings with, and those involved in your past incidents. One of them is Lord Cleas Orsen.”

What?

I stared at him in surprise.

‘This man is as eerily efficient as Alice!’

I didn’t mean he was a stalker, just that he was terrifyingly competent. Of course, he did give off a bit of a stalker vibe… just a little.

“I need Cleas’s investigation dossier.”

“I’ll bring it right away.”

And true to his word, Leonard brought me the report in no time at all. He was so quick, in fact, that he walked in with me just as I reached my room.

“I never let important documents out of my sight. That’s why there’s a hidden compartment in my carriage. Hahaha!”

As I quickly scanned through the papers he handed me, something struck me as strange.

“…You suspect this person is the informant?”

“Yes. There’s no record of any requests made to the guild. I suspect he may have raised his own informants and hidden them in various places.”

“What makes you suspect this person?”

“He met with Lord Cleas twice this week, both times in complete secrecy. Ah, shall I bring you his photograph? I have that in my carriage as wel—”

“No need. I know his face.”

After all, I met him recently.

Twice, in fact.