He hurriedly arranged for Kasell to station the army in the viscount’s residence, even if it was just for a moment. In his heart, he wanted to gather the army and fill the entire viscount’s order immediately, but it was not possible. No matter how quickly one moves, it takes at least half a day to summon the knights, issue orders, and actually move them. Perhaps Kasell will bring the knights here as soon as day breaks.
The empty early morning hours before the knights arrived weighed heavily on his mind. So Karl decided to spend the night at the viscount’s residence instead of returning to his own mansion.
‘You’re planning to go on leave? And from the viscount’s residence?’
Clovis jumped up in surprise, but Karl paid no attention to him. ‘It’s what I would do,’ he said in a dignified voice, quickly silencing Clovis.
In this vast mansion, there were enough vacant rooms. However, the sudden declaration of the viscount’s unexpected leave prompted the servants of the viscount’s residence to hastily prepare a guest room for unexpected visitors.
When he saw Celeste lying on the bed as pale as death, his heart sank. It was similar to when he saw her lose consciousness on the train, but today’s shock was even greater.
There was probably some relief or complacency in knowing she was in the capital, within his sphere of influence. He hadn’t anticipated that such a thing could happen again in the capital.
‘Is there anyone you suspect?’
Linke, checking on Celeste’s condition, asked Karl if he had any suspects in mind.
There is no evidence, but there is suspicion. In that moment of questioning, both Karl and Linke knew there was someone that Karl had in mind.
But Linke did not persistently ask who that person was. Perhaps because it was someone whose identity could be roughly inferred even without a name.
Moreover, Linke, a bureaucrat with a neutral political stance who aimed to impartially fulfill the given tasks, did not react strongly even if Karl directly accused Franz as the suspect.
He said Celeste’s whole body was clouded with black magic. As the head of the magic department, Linke used restorative magic to help Celeste recover quickly.
Stating that he had done his best here and the rest would be up to the viscount for sufficient rest, Linke left the viscount’s residence.
Having cleared some of the muddled energy, Karl believed Celeste would wake soon. After waiting for an hour, he brought a chair and sat beside the sleeping Celeste. It seemed he needed to see her wake up with his own eyes to feel relieved.
‘Father.’
Even in his dreams, Celeste, twisting her body as if in torment, found the deceased Count Louisette. She seemed to be coming to her senses, but it was just a fleeting moment of awakening.
Thinking that she might calm down soon, Celeste’s tossing and turning only grew more intense.
Suddenly, her hand, floating in the air, gestured as if searching for something in the void, and seeing her precarious state, Karl gently took her trembling hand in his.
It was a lie that Celeste had grabbed his hand in her sleep.
As he held her hand and gently pressed it, Celeste noticeably calmed down. Her body, which had been restless, gradually found solace as his hand became a source of comfort for her.
The cold hand slowly warmed up, and as her body heat transferred through their joined hands, Karl felt his own heart calming down too.
Had they ever been this close to each other before? The fact that Valerie, a tangible presence of their past bond, existed was unmistakable proof. Karl, still not quite grasping the reality of having a child, especially a daughter, couldn’t help but feel captivated by Valerie.
Certainly, Valerie was not a product of the love between him and Celeste, but perhaps an undeniable evidence of a forgotten night. Feeling awkward when looking at Valerie was inevitable.
Everyone who saw him with Valerie unanimously remarked that she was a lovely child, resembling her father in every possible way. When Valerie looked at him and called him “dad” cutely, a tingling sensation surged within his chest.
Was it because he couldn’t remember that night two years ago? Just by holding hands, his heart raced like never before.
The soft back of her hand was very small and delicate. Holding a woman’s hand felt like an unfamiliar sensation to Karl.
Thump, thump, thump.
His heartbeat accelerated, and with a strange sensation of warmth in his ear, Karl coughed lightly. Not a fourteen-year-old boy with a fever in his prime nor one who had just come of age, he found it amusing that his ears were getting warm from such trivial contact.
Perhaps if Celeste hadn’t opened her eyes then, Karl’s face might have turned uncontrollably crimson.
Chuckling at his own amusing thoughts, Karl knew this sentimental contemplation didn’t quite suit him.
Consciously, Karl began mentally outlining the agenda for the next day as the tasks to solve kept piling up day by day.
“Let’s focus on dealing with them first,” he whispered to himself. Karl closed his eyes, calculating what should be done first when Colonel Kasell and the army arrived.
***
As the day dawned, the army arrived as Karl had anticipated. The number of units brought by Colonel Kaselll amounted to three, each consisting of about thirty soldiers, totaling nearly a hundred troops to guard the Viscount’s estate.
It was truly tight security. He sighed deeply as he peered through the window at the garden brimming with knights.
Not being able to step outside due to his damn priestly duties had been going on for a while. The moment his mourning period ended and his plans with Leev to explore the town fell through, it was disheartening.
The security was so tight that not even an ant could move without being noticed, preventing me from venturing outside.
“Feeling suffocated.”
Using the excuse of not feeling well, I declared the cancellation of today’s priestly lessons. Nonetheless, I couldn’t leave the mansion. Perhaps this enclosure would only worsen in the future rather than diminish. A sigh escaped involuntarily.
With all lessons canceled, my schedule went awry. Having nothing to do, plenty of time on my hands, I was bored.
After putting on my most pitiful expression for Leev and consistently being told “no,” Leev eventually relented and offered to show me around the mansion. It was a consolation for not being able to go outside.
As the tour of the mansion began, memories started to slowly resurface. Leev seemed to hope that by exploring the mansion, I might recover my memories more quickly.
“All of this land belongs to the Viscount’s estate, up to the end of that field.”
“All the way over there?”
“Yes.”
The Viscount’s estate was much larger than I had ever imagined. The revelation that every part from the garden hill leading to the mountains belonged to the Louisette family left me stunned.
“Well, it’s not just a spacious garden, but more like a mansion nestled within a mountain.”
“It truly befits a grand noble.”
My mouth gaped at the immense scale of the Viscount’s estate. The explanation about Celeste’s indifference to the numerous noble suitors proposing to her with diamond bouquets was not an exaggeration.
Furthermore, when questioned about why such a vast estate had been built, it was mentioned that beyond the mountain to the right of the garden lay the Louisette family’s vineyard. The vineyard supposedly operated on a scale beyond what most people could fathom.
Celeste was truly… quite literally, a woman who had everything. In modern terms, she was the epitome of a rich heiress, with a beautiful face and an impressive educational background handed down through her conglomerate family.
“This is the space where wine is aged.”
I explored various underground warehouses storing precious food items and warehouses holding magical gemstones mined from the mines. The gemstone warehouse was protected within strict boundaries.
“Would you like to enter? But to enter here, you must first report to the palace through the teleportation device.”
“Even though this is owned by a viscount, you still need permission from the palace to enter?”
“Yes. A few years ago, a law was enacted requiring all magical gemstones to be managed under the palace’s supervision.”
Yet I had heard about the family history up to this point while studying. The next place I was heading towards was a location I had never heard of before.
The ivy-covered entrance seemed at first glance to be just a fence overgrown with shrubbery.
