Chapter 9
“Yes, I understand.”
Logan immediately left to investigate. Cassis pondered what Evelia had said earlier.
―But I know that neither of us wants this engagement. Besides, I already asked the Duke to break off the engagement…
In fact, when Evelia asked to break off the engagement yesterday, Cassis had thoughts of breaking up with her.
As she said, neither of them wanted this marriage, so there was no need to stay engaged. He just needs to get the information he wants.
But he didn’t know what Count Vanion was up to, and he needed time to investigate.
But now I don’t know. What will happen to Evelia if he breaks up with her? Could it be that she is being harmed by Count Venion?
‘That’s none of my concern.’
Thinking so, Cassis picked up the papers. However, he couldn’t concentrate on them as his mind kept wandering back to Evelia.
* * *
“Ah…”
Evelia, who was leaving the mansion, looked back at a thought that suddenly came to her mind.
‘I couldn’t say goodbye to Ruth.’
He must have been worried because we parted up like that earlier. Knowing that she left without saying goodbye might disappoint Ruth again.
Evelia recalled Ruth’s excited face throughout the tea time.
It made me sad to think that his happy face would turn into worry.
“What is it, lady?”
“No, nothing.”
But she shook her head at the butler, who looked at her questioningly, and climbed into the carriage.
‘Come to think of it, there is still time.’
Looking up at the sky and measuring the time, she opened the window and asked the coachman.
“Please go to Courtney Street.”
The coachman looked back with a troubled face.
“My master told me to take you to the Venion Mansion.”
“I have a business there. Please.”
The coachman seemed to hesitate for a moment, but without asking twice, he immediately turned the carriage around. The carriage rode quickly toward Courtenay Street.
Evelia looked at the scenery passing outside the window, then lowered her head. She could see the bruises, which were clearer than in the morning.
Then I remembered what Cassis had said.
―I haven’t accepted the request for a breakup. So, Lady is still my fiancée, and I think I have the right to ask these questions, isn’t it?
It was a bit strange that Cassis didn’t accept the breakup request, but I thought it was possible.
Although she had proposed breaking up the marriage for mutual benefit, it would have looked suspicious from Cassis’ point of view.
It will take time to confirm that she has no suspicious purpose.
But the reaction he showed earlier was strange even when she was thinking about it again.
He hadn’t treated her like a fiancée at all, and now he was asking a personal questions in the context of an engagement?
It was hard to believe that he was the same person who had gotten angry when he saw her with Ruth.
She’d only seen Cassis twice, and even though she didn’t know much about him, Evelia couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t Cassis-like.
‘Is it because of the bruise?’
Even if it was, it was still strange. It was unlikely that Cassis would be so sensitive to other people’s wounds.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with a clear reason.
In the original story, Cassis was an extra, not a main character. He’s already dead by the time the original story begins.
There wasn’t much information about him either. So, it was only natural that Evelia couldn’t understand Cassis’ intentions.
‘I don’t need to know the reason, so I’d like him to break off the engagement soon.’
While Evelia was tidying up her messy hair, the carriage arrived at Courtney Street before she knew it.
“Thank you.”
Evelia stepped out of the carriage and started walking, trying to remember the original.
Eventually, she stopped in front of a shabby wooden door where people wouldn’t even bother with.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and went inside. In front of her eyes was a bar as shabby as the door.
There were no customers in the small pub with only three tables.
“I don’t think the lady is worthy of coming to a place like this.”
The bartender at the bar muttered as he wiped down a glass. He was a normal man with brown hair.
Evelia immediately sat down in front of him, who until then hadn’t paid much attention to her.
Evelia banged her fist twice on the table.
“Give me a glass of ascent.”
The eyes of the bartender, who was calm even though a customer had arrived, turned a strange face. He put down the glass he was polishing and leaned his upper body toward Evelia.
“Could you say that again?”
Evelia looked straight into his brown eyes and spoke word by word clearly.
“A glass of Ascent, please. With lemon and ice.”
Ascent. It was a popular cocktail in the empire.
But in this tavern, the meaning is different. This was the password for the secret information guild, Sierro.
Hitting the table twice and ordering a glass of ascent with lemon and ice meant I wanted to meet the head of Sierro.
One of the best information guilds in the empire, very few people actually knew about the Sierro.
Naturally, this signal was also not information that Evelia, a noble lady, would know.
But who is Evelia? She was a possessor from outside the book.
‘In the future, Ruth used Sierro.’
Ruth didn’t know until he was an adult that he was Cassis’ nephew, not an illegitimate child.
Ruth, who only learned the truth after Cassis died, went to this information guild to find his biological father.
‘After that, he had a special relationship with Samuel, the head of Sierro.’
Feeling betrayed by Cassis, who deceived him, Ruth opened his heart to Samuel and followed him like a teacher.
Of course, that was 13 years later.
There was one reason why Evelia chose Sierro among many information guilds. Some of them have excellent abilities, but there was a more important reason than that.
‘Someone with a hand I can trade with.’
It’s very difficult to gain the trust of an intelligence guild, especially one that isn’t driven by money alone.
Sierro was like that too. They exchange information for information.
And Evelia had a hand that could move Samuel, the head of Sierro.
“Do you know what that means?”
The bartender whispered in a voice filled with interest. It seemed that there was a slight hint of laughter in his voice.
“I do.”
“Then come over here.”
The bartender locked the door of the tavern and escorted Evelia to a room inside. It was a splendid room that could not be compared to a pub.
The bartender sat Evelia down and soon brought tea.
“I have contacted my master, so please wait a moment.”
The bartender who came closer smelled faintly of the lycera herb.
Lysera was an herb with sedative properties. The effect is good, but the price is expensive, so only high-ranking nobles use it.
Evelia’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the bartender who was raising his body. She grabbed his arm as he tried to leave the room right away.
“What are you doing?”
“I guess I waited long enough.”
She smiled softly at him, who was making a strange face.
“Sir Samuel.”
The bartender raised one corner of his mouth.
“What’s the reason?”
Evelia shrugged.
‘Because I saw it in the original work.’
Samuel had a younger sister.
His sister was born with a weak body, so they always burned Lysera in her room since she was young, but Samuel, who always sticks next to her, has been described as smelling like Lysera.
Even Evelia had no idea he was Samuel until she smelled Lysera. Because he was perfectly disguised.
‘Originally, he had silver hair and gold eyes.’
But I was sure. The man in front of me with Lysera’s scent was definitely Samuel.
And this incense of Lycera was the hand that Evelia held, so she didn’t bother to lie and told the truth.
“I heard that Samuel, the head of Sierro, has a sickly younger sister. That younger sister always burns the Lysera herb, so it is said that even Sir Samuel smells like Lysera.”
“…….”
“And now you smell like Lysera.”
“Just that?”
“What do you mean just that? Who else can smell like Lysera herb, which is difficult to obtain with a tolerable amount of money?”
The man slowly crossed his arms.
“Let’s go ahead.”
“Besides that ring.”
Evelia pointed to the ring the man was wearing on his left index finger.
At first glance, the greenish gem looked like an emerald, but upon closer inspection, it was found that it contained condensed mana.
“It’s an artifact that changes your appearance, right?”
