The Lady You Want to Kill - CH 12

Laura made the prudent decision to not create any special connections. The Duchess, on the other hand, will undoubtedly be enthralled by this story. Although the Duchess disapproved of what their family were doing, she did not think it was a flaw enough to cut off their interaction. But what will happen this time?

The carriage arrived at the residence, and Beatrice went straight up to her room. Laura asked other maids to attend to Beatrice and headed straight to the Duchess’ room. When she announced her arrival, Agatha immediately called Laura into the room.

“How was she at the Count’s?”

“I wasn’t with her because she ordered me to wait in the carriage.”

“Really? Why did she part with you?”

“She seemed a little excited to see them while she was in the carriage. Maybe it’s because she wanted to talk with them comfortably, but she said she’d go in with me on the next visit.”

“Hmm, Lady Billander isn’t shallow, so it doesn’t seem like she’ll be blamed for trivial things. That’s a relief.”

“Oh, and…”

Laura hesitated for a moment and spoke.

“I heard that Lord Billander asked Beatrice if he could be her escort.”

“Gallot Billander?”

Agatha remembered Gallot Billander. The Billanders are long-time vassals and close friends of the Amber family, their land is fertile and they do not charge heavy taxes from the people in their territory.

Local fruit and flower specialties were popular teas among the aristocrats, giving them a decent income. Heliot, the current head, and Gallot, who would succeed him, were not geniuses, but they’re far from incompetent.

He was not bad at investing and reaping in the right places, and his position in society was not bad either but…

“Did she accept it?”

“No, she hasn’t answered yet.”

She was bothered by the fact that Count Heliot Billander has a terrible hobby, and that his eldest son is carefully helping him with that.

It was clear that he’s not a bad partner for an arranged marriage, but he’s not very reluctant to marry Beatrice, who was in the midst of misfortune in the Duke’s family.

“Did Beatrice like it?”

“No, it didn’t look like that.”

“Try your luck in telling her to decline.”

“Okay.”

After that, Agatha dismissed Laura and began to worry about Beatrice’s escort for her debut. There were not a few vassal families that remained loyal to the Duke’s family, and there were many families that had ties with them.

Being the daughter of a duke, he should not be a man of a title too low, nor should he be a man with problems with his appearance, attitude, and reputation. After that, there’s Marquis Richard and Count Bertram, and a whole lot others to decide from.

“Duke Marquez…”

The current Duke of the Marquez family is about the same age as Calex, so he wasn’t a bad choice. However, the only thing they have in common is that he had the same swordsmanship teacher as him, so there’s a slim chance that he would grant this request of mine.

But who I like the most right now is Duke Marquez, so it wouldn’t be too bad to invite him.

“I should make something delightful for his eyes. Prepare my stationery.”

As she wrote the letter, Agatha grew curious. She wondered if the popular and proud Duke Marquez would answer her invitation.

“I hope you take my bait…”

Kahneman Marquez.

In Empire Rosentium, there are three duke families. The pro-emperor, Duke Amber, the aristocratic family, Duke Virante, who was promoted from marquis to duke after winning a previous war, then there was the neutral Duke Marquez, who inherited the blood of the Empire’s combined royal bloodline.

Except for the Crown Prince, these three are well-known as the best grooms in the Empire. But because the Crown Prince is confined to the palace and usually does not come out, he — who is a blood relative of the Emperor — is rarely addressed.

The Duke of the Amber family now has a twenty-four-year-old Duke Calex Amber, the Virante family has twenty-year-old Duke Eilet Virante this year, and the Marquez family to whom Agatha has currently sent a letter is a twenty-three-year-old Duke Kahneman Marquez.

The Ambers and Virantes are in a confrontational relationship, so they do not interact with each other. The Marquezes, who is neutral, is well-favored on both sides — but it only seems like Duke Marquez doesn’t want to stir their relationship, so he’s continuing to be on good terms with them. No one tried to change the power structure at stake, that’s why the Amber family’s letter, which had arrived at Marquez’s household, was a surprise.

Kahneman Marquez looked down on the dark green envelope with the family’s seal. It was clearly the mark used by the Ambers’ lady of the house.

When one becomes a duke, he makes a separate mark in addition to the seal of his family to inform the location of the sender. The seal of the entire family or the duke’s letter is written as it is, but the lady of the house and direct descendants add their own set of markings.

Kahneman Marquez stared at the laurel wreath on the seal of Duchess Amber. This mark was definitely hers.

“Was I close enough to exchange letters with Duchess Amber?”

“Not really.”

Jenaim, the commander of the Marquez Knights, who had come up to Kahneman’s office to report last month’s training, responded involuntarily. As Kahneman’s gaze shifted from the envelope to him, he shrugged once more.

“Why don’t you read it? There’s no way it’s a love letter.”

“Is Calex Amber married? If so, this must be a love letter from the young duchess?”

“Duke Amber is not married yet. The wife of the late duke is still the duchess.”

“She’s still the duchess?”

When he turned the envelope, he saw the letters ‘Agatha’ elegantly written in gold instead of her family name. Usually, when sending a letter for family affairs, only the name of the family is written, not the name of the individual.

This is because if you write your name, it becomes an exchange between individuals, not between families. And if you use only the first name without the last name, it goes beyond what we deem as private.

“Until her son gets married, doesn’t he treat her more or less like a wife? No matter how much you like older people, you couldn’t possibly want to be a godfather, right?”

“I guess you don’t want to eat the food your lovely wife cooked recently.”

At the Duke’s dry, brutal remark, Jenaim quickly turned away.

“It doesn’t have the family name on it, but isn’t it kind of bad to ignore the letters of Duchess Amber?”

Kahneman simply flipped over the envelope and opened the seal instead of answering. There was a light green paper inside with elegant handwriting, a faint scent of flowers could be smelled.

As Kahneman began to read the letter, he took the teacup prepared in front of him. Jenaim pauses for a moment, he waited for the Duke to finish reading. Kahneman thought that no matter how much he drank, the taste of tea would be indistinguishable.

…Until he put down the teacup. The bitter taste lingered on his tongue as he read the letter, tossing it on the table when he finished.

“I need to stop by the Ambers’ home.”

“What? What for?”

“It said that she has my grandmother’s necklace.”

Kahneman’s great-grandmother was the last princess of the now lost kingdom, Lancel. His grandmother Elsanna is her daughter.

Originally, there was a necklace handed down from generation to generation for the princesses of that kingdom, but it disappeared when King Lancel gave up the kingdom after receiving the promise of a duchy and was absorbed into the Empire.

Elsanna struggled quite a bit to get her necklace back after her mother passed away, but in the end, she could not find it. She often talked about it with him, even if she was over eighty years old and her body was already weakening.

Smitten with his grandmother, Kahneman decided to accept the invitation. It was Elsanna who raised him with sincerity instead of the Marquez couple who died early in an accident. He wanted to give her what she wanted back before she ran out of breath,

“Send a reply that we will schedule a visit.”

“All right.”

The butler, who was waiting at the door, took the letter and went out of the office. Originally, it was polite to reply through a letter written by one’s own hand, but the butler was so good at copying Kahneman’s penmanship you wouldn’t even notice that it wasn’t written by him personally.

“Will she just give it to you?”

“No way.”

The letter from Duchess Amber said that she has the necklace Grandma was looking for, and if I still want it, she wants me to come find out. It was not written directly, but she would definitely ask for something in return for the necklace.

I don’t know what Duchess Amber would ask of me, but I think it’s not family-related since the letter she sent didn’t include their family name, her name was written instead.

However, there’s no way to predict what that “personal” request would be.

* * *

Duchess Amber, who had just begun to grow the garden in March, had been busy these past few days. This was because Duke Marquez came at the Duchess’ invitation.

We didn’t exchange often, to say the least it’s just ‘You’re doing well in the new year, right? I’m doing well, too.’  Duke Marquez only came and went with formal greetings. It was surprising that the Duchess had invited him and even more surprising that he agreed to visit, but the servants diligently finished cleaning and decorating the mansion.

It’s fantastic as it is, but I suppose she wanted to make sure there weren’t any flaws since they’re both a ducal family.

Two o’clock was the time Duke Marquez had decided on for his visit, so it would be difficult for them to invite him for lunch or dinner. Half past one o’clock, Agatha was having tea with Beatrice.

“Do you know who’s coming today?”

“I heard it was Duke Marquez.”

“Yes, I invited you because I have business to do with him. Would you like to say your greetings for a moment?”

“Okay, I will.”

Agatha smiled bitterly at Beatrice’s obedient reply with her gaze slightly lowered. As she spent time with her daughter these past few days, she had learned more about her. One of which was that she never says no. She should’ve known from the moment the maids did everything they asked of her.