Chapter 25: 25

Episode 25: Two Degrees of Separation (I)

 

It was already late at night. In addition, this was a library on the outskirts of the main building where Heinricion normally didn’t walk past.

However, Heinricion didn’t respond as to how he knew Eristella was here.

“Your Excellency, let’s go together. Why are you here all of a sudden…”

Rowen was chasing after him with loud steps, and he soon noticed the fox.

“Fox. You are here! You have no idea how much I missed you!”

And when Anessa, who was following in, found the fox, she waved her hand happily and shouted in a welcoming voice.

‘Right. As I try to avoid Heinricion, it’s naturally less likely for me to encounter Anessa and the other employees.’

Eristella greeted them with a gentle wave of her tail.

“Fox. His Excellency is here too.”

Eristella could see Heinricion. She couldn’t believe she only saw him when he got this close.

“Aren’t you going to His Excellency?”

‘Why would I go to him?’

“Usually, whenever you see His Excellency, you run to him and climb on his shoulder, don’t you?”

‘When did I do that!’

‘Did I really do that? Not so much… Just a few times.’

It wasn’t always like that though.

It was then. Her eyes met with Heinricion, who turned his head.

Eristella turned and ran in the opposite direction.

“Fox?”

Anessa’s voice was heard, but Eristella continued going deeper into the bookshelves.

“…Is the fox sulking?”

Anessa tilted her head.

Heinricion also turned with a dull gaze and headed to a bookshelf in the opposite direction to Eristella.

It was when Eristella glanced back.

“There’s certainly a lot of ancient books in store here, so it may be what Your Excellency is looking for.”

Hearing what Rowen, who had followed Heinricion, was saying, it seemed that he had come here looking for something.

‘What? I thought you knew I was here, but I guess not.’

Eristella turned her gaze back to the book.

‘But why is my back tingling from earlier? Seems like someone is staring at me…’

However, she couldn’t bear to look back. Just in case her eyes met with Heinricion’s.

It was when Eristella’s head stiffened.

A familiar voice came from behind her.

“Is the fox reading a book?”

‘!’

Fortunately, the owner of the high and cheerful voice was Anessa. It seemed that not only Rowen followed, but Anessa as well.

Was the gaze she just felt also Anessa’s? Eristella, who was more relaxed after concluding so, turned her head and pretended to be quite confused.

Then seemingly moved, Anessa opened her mouth and spoke with enthusiasm.

“Fox. This has only text, can I show you a picture book?”

‘No. I want to keep reading this.’

“Wait. I’m sure you’ll like it even more than that book!”

However, Anessa, unable to understand Eristella’s heart, came with a book full of pictures.

“Here. Look at this.”

The way Anessa approached with her eyes twinkling showed her affection for the fox, and Eristella felt sorry for rejecting it.

Should she just pretend to see that? Right when Eristella hesitated…

“Leave it alone, and see what you want to see.”

Heinricion, who barely glanced at them, said indifferently.

“Yes? But this…”

“It doesn’t matter. That’s what the fox likes, so don’t disturb it and leave it alone.”

“…Yes.”

Heinricion lightly chided Anessa and turned his head again.

As if he didn’t care from the start.

“Fox, I think His Excellency knows you best. I will put the picture book back.”

Hardly intimidated, Anessa whispered quietly to Eristella and turned around.

Soon after discovering something, Heinricion went back. Perhaps he really had something to find here.

Alone again, Eristella concentrated on the book.

‘…….’

But not a single page had turned for a while.

Puh.

Eristella, who buried her head in the book, sighed.

‘Anessa. I haven’t seen you for a while, but you’re saying funny things.’

‘Heinricion knows me best. What a weird misunderstanding.’

Eristella shook her head, going from side to side. Then, she gave up on reading the book because the writing didn’t catch her eye anymore.

‘It’s just that I don’t even want to see it.’

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Eristella felt lonely all of a sudden. She closed the book and sat on it. Tonight, she was going to sleep in the library.

*******

A full moon was rising outside the window. The stars were twinkling around it, but there was a limit to how much it could illuminate the dark night.

There was a person looking up at the moonlit night, still not going to sleep.

Rowen knocked and entered the office.

“Are you going to be here today?”

Heinricion was looking at the documents, appearing no different from the afternoon.

Recently, his master stayed up all night in his office without ever returning to his bedroom.

Rowen repeatedly advised him to get some shut-eye in his bedroom, but to no avail.

Was it because he couldn’t sleep or was it that he didn’t want to go to the bedroom?

Rowen’s heart sank as he watched. For a while, his master’s insomnia seemed to be getting better, but suddenly it became worse.

He thought it was probably because of what happened in the Imperial Palace.

Thus, Rowen was even more displeased. Because his master always had a hard time whenever he got entangled with Princess Eristella.

“If you’re going to be nagging at me, you should go home too.”

“How can I leave you alone? I want to go home too.”

Rowen grumbled, but he took a seat next to Heinricion.

And it was when he picked up the documents that he couldn’t finish during the day.

“Rowen, there’s something I’d like you to find out.”

“Say it.”

However, Heinricion hesitated on giving the instructions.

“Is it something to do with black magic?”

Examining his master’s face. Rowen asked as if he had expected it. The incident at the Imperial Palace was symbolic of the reappearance of black magic.

And since that day, Heinricion’s condition didn’t look good, so he could tell.

“Black magic. It bothers me. But what’s more worrisome is…”

A deep wrinkle formed on Heinricion’s forehead.

When he first met Eristella after she turned into a fox due to black magic, he thought it was a tangled coincidence.

However, it could not have been entirely coincidental that Eristella and Count Azurdi were at the Imperial Palace that day.

After contemplation, it was reasonable to think that Eristella headed there knowing the existence of black magic from the start.

‘Then maybe it is necessary to approach the time of the past six months in a different way.’

Heinrichion, who was in agony as if he could not find an answer no matter how hard he thought about it, slowly parted his lips.

“I need you to investigate the princess’ movements again. As of the day of her disappearance…”

Heinricion secretly gave orders to Rowen.

This time, he wanted to find out for himself rather than simply waiting for an answer.

*******

It was a time when even Rowen, who had remained until the very end, had stepped out. Heinricion was the only one left in the office.

In the middle of the night, a chilly wind swept through the window and stirred all over the office. Despite the cold, Heinricion didn’t seem to want to close the open window.

He thought that doing so would make him feel even more stuffy than he was now.

“Ha…”

His insomnia started a long time ago. it was difficult to even take a nap for a while.

Scenes of him bursting out in anger towards Eristella kept appearing in his dreams. And the memories that he had been trying so hard to bury rose up again.

He definitely felt that he saw her real self, which he didn’t know before, from Eristella who appeared in the form of a fox this time.

‘You still treat me like that.’

In the end, it was he who pushed fiercely, but it was also him who was hurt even at that moment.

He smiled bitterly.

In fact, he didn’t really wonder what Count Azurdi and his wife were trying to say before they died.

He couldn’t believe anything they said anyway.

However, what bothered him was…

‘Even Count Azurdi and his wife know the truth. But not me.’

How did the Count and Countess of Azurdi know? Was it because they had close interaction with the grand ducal couple?

‘It can’t be just that.’

So, the last words of Count Azurdi, who were involved in black magic, came to mind. Even if it was just words he threw out as a last attempt.

Heinricion closed his eyes tightly.

After the incident in the imperial palace, as a few days passed, his anger subsided little by little and he was able to calmly examine the situation.

Only then did the strange points come to mind one by one.

As soon as his parents died, Eristella arrived at the grand duchy faster than anyone else, sealed off the mansion, and held the funeral.

She was able to act so recklessly not only because of her status and her position as his fiancée, but also because there weren’t many employees remaining in the mansion at that time.

The problem was that, a few days before the two of them died, the previous grand duke had sent nearly half of the employees away.

When investigating the reasons at the time, the timing was too coincidental, although it was confirmed that the employees were scattered throughout the empire with the predecessor’s orders.

Could there be something suspicious?

Heinricion’s thoughts went that far. But most of the employees who were in the mansion that day either quit or left, almost no one remained.

The person who was still working in the mansion now…

‘Only the butler remains.’

Okay. The butler was there that day.

Heinricion’s eyes lit up.

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