Chapter 20: 19

Chapter 19

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Diana was smaller than Iandrus in all ways, but especially her finger nails, which were as small as pebbles. As if possessed, Iandrus’ eyes followed Diana’s hands.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Diana asked casually. He was looking at her teacup with great intensity, so maybe he was just distracted by something. Or maybe he wanted more tea? But his teacup was still full…..

Iandrus’ face reddened.   

“Beautiful.”

“Huh?” Diana’s eyes widened at the unexpected response. She wasn’t even sure if she heard him right, her big eyes full of questions. What was he looking at just now…….?

“Your hands are beautiful,” Iandrus whispered.

Diana dropped her spoon then quickly hid her hands. At first glance, his face looked a little regretful, and Diana felt too awkward to try and pick up her spoon, so she turned her head away. She thought her heart already lost all feeling, but it was beating so fast now, like someone had just sprung new life into it.

There were several things causing the beating of her heart.

And this time, the cause was embarrassment.

Diana’s earlobes turned completely red. She was also not immune to embarrassing thoughts.

It wasn’t as though Diana and Iandrus were unhappy the whole time they were married. Up until Jaymus’ death, they were actually quite happy. Even now, Diana could still remember the first night she’d spent with Iandrus.

Ah.

She’d thought she’d long forgotten it, but apparently she still remembered.

It was not the first time Iandrus had complimented her hands like this. It was like that in the past as well. In the past that only Diana remembers, he gazed at her through the darkness with their hands interlocked.

It was a gaze just as sly and imposing as the darkness itself.

Iandrus had not changed in that respect.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Diana whispered. It was a voice that showed how her heart had melted. Just for a moment, though.

The spring sun that flowed between the two did not fade until they parted ways.

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Diana let out a sigh as she fell onto her bed.

Today, for the first time since returning to the past, she recalled some of the best memories she had. Diana rolled her arm. The throbbing pain she felt seemed to have subsided just a bit.

Her eyes trembled.

She recalled good memories.

Happy memories.

And even some exciting ones.

But all of those things coming together wasn’t enough to erase the pain. Diana grabbed the wrist she had cut and blinked slowly. The fact that Iandrus wasn’t a bad person at the start kept piercing her heart. The good parts of him always remained with Diana.

Why did those days have to pass by in vain?

Why did they have to crumble into nothing and scatter like dust?

The only thing that came after those happy memories was sadness and tragedy. For Diana, Iandrus was a person who could evoke both joyful and terrible memories. With how things were now, Diana was always having her emotions swayed by him as if he were the one in control of them.

Diana swallowed her sadness as if she were swallowing poison.

Memories that she once forgot were overflowing, covered in pain as they did.

But there were happy times, too.

Her heart was pounding. Diana thought Iandrus hated her. Her old memories of the past swelled up, scrambling with each other before falling again. The static sound of silence in the air only served to shuffle her memories further. There were many memories that Diana was willfully ignoring.

There were many times like that.

Maybe she wanted to forget. She wanted to rid herself of Iandrus while erasing all the good things. She just wanted to abandon him, making Iandrus into the cause of all the misfortune.

“I just don’t know…..” Diana muttered to herself in a biting voice. 

Her hands that Iandrus couldn’t take his eyes off of felt hot. There was another stab of pain in her chest, as if bringing back memories of the past.

Diana clenched her fist.

It was like Iandrus was trying to say, ‘Don’t forget about me.’

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Looking over the letter carefully, Guinness set it down in front of him.

It was a letter he had read a few times by now. Floraine was the only way Guinness had to get information without using the power of Philadelphia. Currently, Floraine was studying in Georgesia, which was one of the countries bordering Branneux. Not to mention she was currently studying world politics, which meant she would have an easier time getting access to information.

As if she were waiting, Floraine responded very quickly.

[ Guinness. I hope you are doing well. You’re currently in Philadelphia’s territories, correct? Is anything going on? ]

After their marriage, Guinness inherited the title of Count Philadelphia. It was strange for him to be spending time in the territory when he should be at the capital helping the Grand Duke of Philadelphia develop weapons.

[ To be honest, I’m curious as well. I’ve been interested in Branneux for a while now. Currently, Branneux is in the middle of a power struggle. Their royalty has two promising successors—the first and third princes. The first prince has a moderate foreign policy while the third is more radical. The third prince is dangerous, Guinness. ]

It sounded like Floraine was also concerned about the situation in Branneux. Floraine majored in world politics because of the changing times and the influence of her family. She wanted to help Philadelphia in their weapons development and be a voice of reason during difficult times.

[ Are there any problems, by chance? Hearing you ask about Branneux like this…..Does it have anything to do with you being in the Philadelphia territory? If I find out more, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, Guinness. ]

Guinness rubbed his eyes.

According to Floraine, it was likely that the one pointing the sword at Leonid was the third prince rather than the first. It was possible he was trying to attack Leonid from the inside in order to turn their kingdom to chaos.

But what information would Iandrus bring?

It felt like he was being caught up in a huge conspiracy, but they all had to overcome it. If they didn’t, the great tragedy that Diana foretold would be the only thing awaiting them.

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Iandrus also received information that Cullen got personally from the capital. It was related to both Catherine as well as Branneux.

But the most eye-catching detail was about the change in Count Craydon.

After a series of events, Count Craydon ended up replacing all of his home’s servants. It was a problem of the servants taking the count’s money due to debts, but none of them admitted their fault until they were expelled. And even then, they all pointed the finger at each other.

As a result, Count Craydon dismissed all of the house’s longtime servants and filled the mansion with all new servants. Including the maid that looked after Catherine.

Now all the information gathered by both Iandrus and Guinness were gathered in one place.

Diana carefully looked through the documents one by one.

Catherine Craydon.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever happened with Catherine would be the turning point.

“But we still don’t know who would have access to a poison that could kill Lady Catherine. Maybe the best thing would be to bring her here…….”

“It would be better to invite Jaymus rather than just Lady Catherine.”

If they did that, it would give the impression that the union between the royal family and Philadelphia was perfect and well.

“Then why don’t we paint the picture they want to see?” Diana opened her eyes wide as she expressed her opinion. “We can spread the story that Lady Catherine is sick and cannot go to the Founding Day celebration. And then……I think it would be best to invite them as soon as possible. If there’s a chance she’s already been poisoned, it could be spreading as we speak.”

“But we need to give Jaymus a reason in order to reel him in.”

“…..If there is no reason, then we can just create one, Your Highness,” Guinness said, smiling mischievously. Then he turned back to Diana and gave her a kinder smile. “Remember what we used to do when we wanted to blame our mistakes on our big brother?”

Diana also gave a soft laugh. Iandrus glanced at the two of them, observing the bond only the two of them knew with jealous eyes.

But no one noticed. Iandrus knew how to skillfully hide the feelings in his eyes by now.

Diana spoke up with a cheerful voice. “I do. If there’s no evidence, you can always make something up. And even if it isn’t great, as long as you stick to it, it’s bound to become true.”

“Exactly.”

Guinness nodded proudly. He and Diana would often play together but compared to them, their older brother Lionel was more on the mellow side, which dissatisfied them greatly. If they were going to play, then they wanted to play together, but Lionel would always take a step back, pretending to be an adult.

So if they ever made a mistake or had an accident, they used to blame it all on Lionel.

What a time that was.   

“But if you manipulate too much evidence, it will start to look fake. The point is to tweak it little by little. Only small changes.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Hm….Well, there’s been some trouble brewing with Count Craydon’s servants, so why not make that into Branneux’s issue? All we need to do is plant one person.”

Diana laughed. Now she was remembering her childhood with all this scheming, which made her more excited about this meeting.

“It’s better to manipulate the information of an already existing person rather than creating a fake one. For now, we just need to focus on tricking Prince Jaymus into coming here with just a little bit of information.”

“….But can we really fool Jaymus?”

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