♡ TL: Khadija SK
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Friday arrived once again, as it always did.
The carriage carrying Theodore and Hazel came to a stop at the entrance to Weston Side Park.
“Am I only permitted to escort you again today?”
Hazel smiled faintly and nodded.
Theodore drew a sullen expression on his face, then opened the carriage door and stepped out energetically.
He was undoubtedly affected, yet determined to fulfill his role as a gentleman, which widened Hazel’s smile.
“I’ll head off now.”
“We’ll meet at the usual spot?”
Hazel nodded.
Theodore lightly kissed the back of her hand.
“It seems the spy doesn’t know about this. Just you and me, right?”
“So it seems.”
Hazel murmured, lowering her gaze.
Theodore blinked.
Hazel’s behavior today was different from usual. She didn’t ignore him or act rudely, but she seemed oddly lost in thought.
Even her cheerful wit, which always amused Theodore, was absent today.
That was understandable. Hazel hadn’t spoken much from the start.
She didn’t seem ill, but was something troubling her?
Or was she still dwelling on what happened at the masquerade ball?
“Miss Hazel, perhaps…”
“I’ll go now, Your Grace.”
As Theodore reached for her hand, Hazel stepped back as if avoiding him and lifted her head.
Theodore paused for a moment at her action, which felt like drawing a boundary between them.
“Miss Hazel.”
“See you soon.”
Even as Theodore tried to reach for her again, Hazel turned and ran off.
Theodore watched her anxious, restless figure for a long time until she vanished completely from sight.
***
Hazel, having run briskly, arrived at Metaphor Café a little before the scheduled meeting time.
Located just off the entrance to Essent Street, Metaphor Café was Hazel’s preferred spot for meeting the publisher she worked with.
The place was so unassuming that no one who knew Hazel’s face frequented it, and the owner didn’t speak—whether he couldn’t or wouldn’t, she wasn’t entirely sure, but no one had ever seen him talk—ensuring secrets stayed safe.
Extra payment also secured her a private room within the café, another reason Hazel favored it.
She scanned the surroundings outside Metaphor Café, then pressed down firmly on the veiled hat she’d bought from a street vendor.
Hazel stepped inside with confidence, and the owner approached silently.
She lifted her veil slightly to reveal her face, and as usual, he guided her to the inner room.
There was a visitor inside.
Upon seeing Hazel, the visitor leapt up and grabbed her hand.
“Haze!”
“Uncle Fabri, are you alright?”
The visitor was Fabri, head of Nemo Publishing House, which commissioned Hazel’s translation work.
Hazel’s worried gaze carefully examined Fabri’s face.
He appeared fine outwardly. Hazel breathed a sigh of relief.
“It seems you’ve heard the news too.”
Fabri smiled bitterly and sat down.
Shortly after, the owner entered and placed a steaming cup of coffee on the table.
“I felt I needed to regain my focus, so I ordered it. That’s alright, isn’t it?”
Nobles preferred tea over coffee, but Hazel, with her mixed blood, favored coffee.
“Of course.”
Hazel waited until the owner left, then asked quickly:
“What does rewriting the banned books list mean? Have you found out what happened?”
Fabri’s face darkened instantly.
“All I know is that many of the books published by our house are on the banned list. And among them are quite a few you translated.”
As a small publishing house, their annual output wasn’t large. Thus, only a handful of books bore Hazel’s name as translator, but for him to say “quite a few” were listed meant…
“That means all the books I translated are included.”
Hazel recalled the contents of the papers she’d picked up and shut her eyes tightly.
She’d hoped she’d misread, wished she’d been mistaken.
She heard consecutive sighs from the man across from her.
“Is there any chance the list could be revised?”
“I’ve been in publishing a long time, but something like this is rare. By the way, where did you hear about it?”
“I…”
Hazel had seen the papers that fell from Theodore’s carriage.
Now that she thought about it, she needed to return those too, but she’d delayed, stunned by the banned books list.
“By chance.”
Unable to mention Theodore or reveal her noble status, Hazel trailed off vaguely.
“Oh, I thought that person had discovered your identity and visited you. Thank goodness, then.”
Fabri wiped his chest with relief. Hazel tilted her head in surprise.
“That person?”
“Yes, that person.”
Fabri pushed the cup on the table aside and leaned forward. His eyes darted left and right, then he covered his mouth with his hand and whispered:
“Duke Theodore Caron Bernier.”
Hazel’s shoulders flinched.
How did Fabri know Theodore?
Seeing Hazel’s stunned reaction, Fabri nodded as if he understood everything and sat upright.
“You must’ve heard of Duke Bernier, right?”
Heard of him?
She’d met him, drunk tea with him, danced with him.
“He visited me at the publishing house in person.”
“In person? Why?”
Hazel’s voice rose unintentionally.
She lowered it immediately and said:
“Do you know Duke Bernier?”
“How could I? Nobles and I are like parallel lines that never meet, aren’t we?”
High society wouldn’t welcome a publisher whose books indirectly criticized noble society.
In any case, they wouldn’t read high-minded cultural books to begin with.
But Theodore was different.
“That person read Nemo Publishing’s books.”
Hazel thought he might’ve read her translations, and her cheeks flushed.
“Anyway, he came to me and said I should leave this country quickly. He said things would get dangerous if those books were officially banned. Then he asked about you.”
“What? About me?”
Hazel’s heart pounded fiercely with each short shock.
At her intense reaction, Fabri’s eyes widened.
He’d known her a long time but had never seen Hazel so shaken.
“Wait a moment. Let me gather my thoughts.”
Hazel gripped the steaming coffee cup and began to think.
Why had Theodore told Fabri to leave?
‘To protect Uncle Fabri.’
The reason wasn’t hard to guess. Theodore must’ve admired Nemo’s books.
Then the second question.
‘Why does he even care about me, the translator?’
The color gradually drained from Hazel’s face as she delved deeper.
‘The royal palace plans to arrest the translators too.’
Perhaps Theodore intended to offer the same advice to the translator as he had to Fabri.
Theodore was capable of that.
But one question remained unresolved.
If he only wanted to advise the translator, why not do so through Fabri instead of trying to uncover their identity?
Did he want to commission a new translation?
‘That doesn’t make sense. The duke can read most foreign books without translation.’
So, was he a fan of hers?
‘No, that doesn’t add up either. The duke likes many things, but he’s not the type to fixate on one.’
If he were, it would’ve been obvious.
Why, then, was he looking for her?
“Did he say anything else about me?”
“The duke? Just that he could protect you well, or something like that. By the way… you don’t have any ties to those people, do you?”
By “those people,” Fabri meant the nobility.
Hazel trembled inwardly and let out an awkward laugh, quickly changing the subject.
“Tell me about your plans instead.”
“Well, I’ll board a ship first…”
The conversation stretched on, filled with worry, advice, and mutual blessings.
After a long while, it was time to part.
“Haze, will you come with me?”
Fabri asked in front of Metaphor Café just before they separated.
Hazel paused while lowering her veil over her face and smiled.
“That… that’s impossible.”
She couldn’t leave Easton yet.
And since her identity hadn’t been exposed, she wasn’t at a stage where she needed to flee in the night like Fabri.
Hazel planned to stay and find a way through this crisis.
Fabri laughed, reading her thoughts.
That choice was so like her.
“Take good care of yourself, my child.”
Fabri extended his hand.
After a tearful farewell, he turned and left.
Hazel watched until he disappeared, then walked briskly away.
But someone was observing the scene from the corner of the alley.
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