Chapter 15 First Time Going Outside
“My Lady…?”
Yes. The traitor’s daughter.
What a humiliating process she has to go through just to get permission to go out.
A few days ago, he was acting like he’d give her anything she wanted.
She wondered if she was expecting him to be kind to her.
Delphine was a little surprised at her newfound disappointment.
“I have some work… to do in District 3 today, too, so I can’t go out with you.”
He read her expression as a refusal.
Before Delphine could open her mouth to say anything, the man added with a smirk.
“I’ll pass on your caution to the knights, My Lady.”
The only thing smiling was the shape of his mouth. The eyes that spoke were cold, without a hint of laughter.
The words were a caution, not an order to the knights.
What he had said so far was not a request, but a requirement that she must obey.
“… Yes.”
Delphine replied blandly, flicking the poached egg on her plate with a nonchalant motion.
For a moment, she was glad she could finally go out, but then all her appetite was gone.
The man left the mansion as usual, straight from breakfast.
Instead of locking herself in her study with nothing to do but think, Delphine sat down at the dressing table in her quarters.
“Anna. Would you please get ready to leave?”
“Of course, My Lady.”
Anna exclaimed, happy to be going out after so long.
“It’s a little early yet, but I must put your marten fur around you!”
“No. I have a gray dress, I’ll wear that. Make it as plain as possible.”
She is still the daughter of a traitor.
There’s no need to dress up in glamor to stand out.
“…like that man is so worried about.
“Eh? Oh my god…”
Anna regretted it, but did as she was told and pulled out a dress.
Once dressed, Delphine walked slowly to the mirror and studied her reflection.
A dull, plain gray dress, a rather somber face.
She looked like a sinner.
“…Haha.”
“No baby…, My Lady?”
Delphine’s face contorted, her fists balled tightly.
No, no.
It was her father who was the sinner.
She herself is neither a sinner nor a traitor.
So why should she, the innocent, have to act like a sinner.
“I’m sorry. This looks awful on me. I’ll change. Can you bring me back the dark green dress?”
Anna nodded quickly, her face beaming with delight.
“And the marten fur you told me about… And bring me that emerald necklace, too.”
The man’s gifts, which she’d neglected to tuck away in the depths of her wardrobe, came out of the box in a row.
Delphine untied her red, wavy hair, which she had tied back in a neat bun, and let it fall.
She pinned an emerald barrette on top and wore earrings.
Above her plunging neckline, she wore a necklace studded with emeralds the size of a baby’s fist.
Over her silk gown, she draped her dazzlingly white, silky marten fur.
Soon, a woman as gorgeous and beautiful as an empress smiled confidently at herself in the mirror.
“You are so beautiful, my darling,” she said, “and your beauty has never been matched by the Empire.”
Anna murmured admiringly beside her in a proud tone.
“Yes. I think we’re ready to go. Have the carriage ready.”
“Yes, My Lady. Where shall I take you?”
Delphine commanded flatly as she rose from her seat.
“To the Central Library.”
***
The Central Library was located in the eastern part of District 2 of the capital.
It had been a long time since he had traveled outside of District 1.
Delphine sat in the swaying carriage and stared out the window.
It was hard to believe that District Two was the same capital as District 1.
District 1, home to the royalty and nobility, was decorated to the highest standards of opulence.
The boulevards leading to the Imperial Palace were decorated with amethyst street lamps, to say nothing of the level of opulence.
On the other hand, District 2, the commercial area that circled around District 1, was much more modest, albeit neat.
There were no extravagant buildings, just brick buildings in a well-maintained grid.
Her father didn’t like her to venture out of District 1.On the rare occasions when she ventured out into District 2, he would click his tongue in disgust at the commoners on the streets.
“Pigs.”
Sometimes Delphine would say nothing in response, silently clutching the hem of her dress.
She cringed at her father’s sense of entitlement, taking out the insults he’d received at the palace on those of lesser status than him.
“My lady. We’ve arrived.”
Just then, the coachman’s shout broke Delphine’s thoughts.
She is thinking about her father again.
“Okay. Well done.”
As soon as she stepped out of the carriage, she was immediately approached by two knights with imperial crests.
They were the man’s escorts.
She wondered if it was proper for a captain of the Praetorian Guard to be so personal.
‘Well, I shouldn’t be surprised, after the last time I had a jeweler’s escort.’
Delphine glanced at their doll-like, expressionless faces and armored bodies.
“You intend to follow me into the… library?”
“For your safety.”
The answer came as quickly as the question was asked.
There was no chance of persuasion or appeasement.
‘Fine. Whatever.’
Delphine strode into the library, the hem of her robe hiding her face as she hid her true feelings.
Then she realized it wasn’t.
A bespectacled librarian rushed out to stop the knights as they clinked their armor.
“Alas, knights, armor and weapons are not permitted in the library!”
“Stand back. We are members of the Emperor’s Imperial Guard.”
“Of course I know how to read armor, but… This is the imperial library, this is the imperial name!”
The knights stopped in their tracks at the word “Imperial”.
‘Yes, it is. The emperor’s name would take precedence over the captain of the guard.’
This was to be expected.
Delphine looked at the halted knights, a little nervous.
She was afraid they would try to tell her that she shouldn’t be allowed in.
But to her surprise, the knights merely stood there like broken puppets.
They looked like puppets whose commands had been entered, Delphine thought.
“You said the reason for the… escort was for my safety.”
Delphine smirked and spoke quietly.
“Everyone is forbidden to wear weapons here, so I shall be ‘safe’.”
With a strange sense of exhilaration, Delphine left them and entered the library.
As they entered the main hall, bright sunlight flooded in from the huge glass windows in the ceiling.
The walls were lined with bookshelves three or four times a man’s height.
But Delphine didn’t even glance at the books as she strode straight through the hall, directing her steps towards the eastern wing of the building.
The robe that hid her face had long since been removed.
The corridor grew sparser and sparser as it reached the end.
But always, at the end of the corridor, under a sculpture of an owl, a man leaned against the wall reading a newspaper.
“This is a dead end. Are you lost, Lady?”
The man asks, out of politeness, not even looking up from his newspaper.
“The way is not to be lost, but to be found. In the light of truth, with the eye of providence.”
The corner of the man’s mouth twitched upwards as he looked at the newspaper.
At the same time, the neck of the owl sculpture on the wall turned bizarrely sideways.
The gray bricks of the dead-end wall swung open to reveal the space that had been blocked off.
This old building, they said, held traces of ancient magic, now lost.
That statue was one of them, she’d been told as she entered the club.
“Welcome to…, member.”
The doorman stepped aside, his gaze still on the newspaper.
Delphine pushed past her and stepped through the door.
The neat and tidy atmosphere of the library, bordered by its walls, was instantly reversed.
Red carpets throughout the drawing room, paintings by famous artists on the walls.
The furnishings were all lavish.
This was a secret social club for the nobility of District 1, where no one could enter without a referral.
The reason the club was located in the library of District 2 was to keep it as far away from the prying eyes of the imperial family as possible.
A place where more intimate information could be exchanged freely among the nobility.
Delphine’s recommendation was, of course, her father.
But now that he was gone, gone with the dew of his brother’s death.
Delphine clasped and unclasped her hands, then stood up straighter and walked inside.
There were a dozen or so people in the room, sitting leisurely, drinking tea.
There were a few unfamiliar faces, as if they had just received a new member.
The group around the table looked a little startled, as if taken aback by her sudden appearance.
Delphine was quick to notice the complex emotions that flitted across their faces.
Daughter of a traitor.
A lowly fallen noble.
But the wife of a rising hero, the Marquis of Pride.
How should she be treated?
Everyone is smiling lightly, but beneath those masks, calculations must be racing breathlessly.
