DKVM Ch 11

Chapter 11

“Have you been reading, miss?”

It was Sally who walked in.

Rahel didn’t respond, her eyes glued to her book.

Sally’s expression turned sour as she looked at her.

Rahel had always been a quiet person, but she still talked to Margaret and Sally occasionally.

Until Vivian came along.

‘Now that the interruption is gone, it’s time to get to know Rahel again.’

Sally smiled smugly and stepped up to Rahel’s side.

“Miss. It’s not even study time. Can we take a break, I want to play with those dolls.”

“….”

“Or how about a game of tag?”

Sally suggested a few games, but Rahel didn’t even pretend to listen, just looked at her book.

Sally’s irritation grew.

She directed her anger not at Rahel, but at Vivian.

“Aren’t you glad that noisy hillbilly isn’t here, too? She made it hard to read.”

At the mention of Vivian, Rahel’s gaze turned from her book to Sally.

Taking it as a sign of approval, Sally said excitedly.

“I knew she was going to run away from you from the start. She was acting all nice and friendly all by herself.”

“….”

“But don’t you worry, my lady. I’ll be by your side forever-”

“…Go.”

“What?”

“You’re being loud, so get out.”

Sally flinched at Rahel’s harsh voice.

The blue eyes that met hers held a flesh-crushing coldness.

Finally, Sally felt overwhelmed and walked out into the garden. A sob of frustration escaped her.

“It’s all because of that brat!”

Sally’s frustration got the better of her, and she kicked over a nearby flower pot.

With a loud crack, the pot fell to the floor and shattered.

“Speaking of that hillbilly, how dare you try to seduce the man who will be my husband?”

Sally was indignant, repeating her mother’s words.

Margaret told Sally she had to get along with Rahel.

 

“For now, she’s a girl for her own reasons, but when she grows up, she’ll become a man and marry you.”

“Me marry Rahel?”

“Yes. That’s why you have to play with her. Do you understand?”

 

“Yes, even if that brat is here, Rahel will still marry me!”

“Kid.”

Just as she was getting indignant, she heard a strange man’s voice next to her.

It was the guest who had come to the Edelwein estate a week ago, a guest sent by the emperor.

He laughed softly and said,

“Can you tell me more about that story you were saying earlier?”

“…Huh?”

“How a woman, a princess, could become your husband.”

The man’s eyes glowed eerily as he laughed softly.

* * *

Late at night, Karlz was in his office, going through papers.

A knock sounded in the silence.

“Your Grace, I’ll just come in for a moment.”

Owen entered the office and delivered the news.

“The inspectors say they’ll be returning to the capital the day after tomorrow.”

“So soon?”

Karlz raised one eyebrow.

‘They’ve come a long way, I thought they’d stay a month or so.’

The emperor sent an inspector, ostensibly to check on the welfare of the lord in the countryside.

In reality, it was to spy on him.

He was afraid that the duke might use Rahel and plot treason.

In such a situation, the day they discovered that Rahel was a boy, they would…

‘They will try to kill Rahel.’

Of course, on the surface, she was the child of the dead Ducal Princess Isela, so she couldn’t be touched.

That made him even more dangerous.

That’s because the emperor could use someone quietly behind his back.

The emperor he knew would certainly do that.

His weak disciple was someone who would hate and fear the very existence of his nephew. [T.L. Note: Referring to the emperor as the duke’s disciple]

That was why they had come away from the capital to the countryside.

He figured that the older Rahel got, the harder it would be to hide the fact that he was a boy.

He’d given her Vivian, expecting that the emperor would send observers, but he hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly. [T.L. Note: Meaning the duke had not expected the inspectors to come right after they moved there and brought Vivian as a playmate.]

‘And then to have the observers come down here only to have them pulled back so quickly.’

He had a bad feeling about this.

“Father, please protect Lahedis……father’s grandson.”

Suddenly, the image of his daughter, who, even in her dying moments, was only concerned about “Lahedis,” or Rahel, flashed through his mind.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Karlz spoke up.

“Have the villa’s security tightened.”

“Yes.”

As he wrapped up his urgent business, Owen held out another piece of paper.

“What’s this?”

“I’ve been gathering information about Vivian Hessen and her father, Dias Hessen, as you ordered.”

A week ago, after the inspectors arrived, Karlz had Owen do some research on Vivian.

‘The timing of the inspector’s arrival and her entrance into the mansion is too coincidental.’

Of course, since he was the one who brought Vivian into the mansion, it seemed unlikely that the emperor had anything to do with it.

But as he faced the inspectors, he had second thoughts.

He wondered if he’d let a commoner girl into the mansion without any information.

‘I’d better look into this right away.’

Karlz nodded, and Owen began his briefing.

“Her father is her only family member. Dias Hessen, 29 years old. He currently runs a bakery in town.”

“And his wife?”

“Apparently she died before he settled in the village, and he’s been raising the child on his own ever since.”

“What is his reputation like?”

“His relationship with the villagers is very good, and he has a very good relationship with his daughter.”

“When did they settle in this village?”

“Five years ago, he settled in this village with his daughter. I don’t think he was a baker before that, but no one knows the story of his past.”

“I see.”

But it would take some time to track records of their life before living in the village.

They had lived in the village before Duke Edelwein bought the mansion, so there wasno connection to the emperor.

It is unlikely that the emperor would have known and planted someone here before he bought the manor.

‘But it’s also possible that he bought someone after he found out I was coming here.’

Karlz asked Owen.

“Was there any contact between the Emperor’s men and the child’s father?”

“The knights visited the bakery the day the inspector came. Judging by their conversation, nothing much came of it.”

“Other than that?”

“There hasn’t been much contact so far, and….”

Owen held out the note he was holding to Karlz, adding.

“I have something to pass on to you regarding that.”

On the front of the note, the words “From Vivi” were scrawled in bold letters.

“What is this?”

“Vivian’s report to Your Grace. She says she’s been observing and analyzing the knights.

“…That kid? Why the imperial knights?”

Karlz’s question made Owen think back to earlier in the day.

Earlier in the day, a servant had passed this note to Owen, saying it was from Vivian.

When Owen saw the note, he went to Vivian to check it out.

He asked her why she was sending this to His Grace…

“Because I’m on the duke’s side!”

Owen couldn’t help but smile as he remembered the words.

“Because she’s on your side.”

Karlz opened the note with a skeptical look.

Then he saw the child’s crisp, neat handwriting filling the notebook.

March 21st, The weather is sunny.

I came home from a delicious banquet and there were three knights.

One was tall, one was short, and the one who appeared to be the captain was in the middle.

They asked me how the princess was doing and if I had ever seen her use magic.

When I told them I hadn’t, they just got mad.

So my dad told them to stop, and they got angry again.

So I kicked them out before they got into a fight.

“Huh.”

A smirk escaped Karlz’s mouth as he read the report.