Chapter 45
Kylus tightened his loosely worn gown with a faint smile.
“Please, sit down.”
Kylus offered Alice a seat first.
Sitting across from Alice, Kylus glanced at the empty table.
“I’m not much of a tea drinker, so there’s nothing prepared, but…”
“Ah, it’s fine. I’ll just tell you what I came to say and leave right after.”
“It must be quite important and urgent.”
Kylus crossed his legs elegantly as he raised his gaze. For a moment, a flicker of interest seemed to pass through his usually bored black eyes.
“Yes, it’s quite important… for you, Your Grace. But before I say it, I’d like you to listen without misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding? What kind of misunderstanding?”
“I want you to understand that I’m not saying this because I have feelings for you, or to stay by your side.”
“Hmm.”
“I’m simply telling you what I heard out of basic human conscience.”
Alice put emphasis in her eyes as if to prove she really had no other intentions.
A smile played on Kylus’s lips as he quietly observed Alice, who didn’t even blink.
Alice’s face stiffened slightly at the smile that didn’t fit the situation.
But before she could feel displeased, Kylus quickly composed his expression.
As if he had never smiled, he replied with a serious face:
“Conscience… I understand. I’ll keep in mind that what you’re about to say is merely a confession of your conscience.”
Not an easy conversation.
After taking a deep breath, Alice revealed Madam Quillian’s plot.
“Madam Quillian is trying to poison you.”
Kylus’s eyebrow twitched.
He then tapped the sofa armrest with a strange expression.
“…Poison, you say.”
Does he not believe me?
Alice quickly added:
“Yes. I happened to overhear the plan. The day after tomorrow, when your stepbrother comes to the duchy, they plan to poison you at the banquet. Doctor Helkin will bring the poison. It’s certain since it came from the mouth of Madam Quillian’s closest maid.”
Kylus’s hand stopped tapping the wooden armrest. There was no change in his face.
“I see.”
“…Do you not believe me?”
“Of course not. If it’s coming from you, I’d believe it even if you said the Emperor was actually bald.”
Kylus was saying he would believe her no matter how absurd her words might be.
And there was no playfulness on his face.
But why is your reaction like this?
Alice swallowed the words that were rising to her throat. She looked at Kylus again, but his expression remained impassive.
A voice devoid of any surprise and eyes that remained calm without the slightest change.
No matter how lowly he thought of Madam Quillian… how could he be so static when told someone was preparing to poison him?
Moreover, hadn’t he already fallen victim to this once before?
Alice couldn’t understand Kylus’s excessively nonchalant reaction.
She had thought that even if he wasn’t shocked, he wouldn’t take this matter lightly.
After all, wasn’t it because she couldn’t take this matter lightly that she had come all this way?
Even she, who wasn’t the one about to be poisoned, had stayed up all night, yet Kylus showed no reaction at all.
Am I the only one who finds this situation strange?
Alice slowly parted her lips as she looked at his handsome face.
“…The name of Madam Quillian’s maid is Maris, and the servant who went to buy the poison is a man named Tom.”
Alice articulated the names of the subordinates who carried out the task, thinking there might not be enough solid evidence.
“I understand.”
However, once again, Kylus merely responded gently.
“Is that all?”
“Pardon? Ah, thank you for letting me know.”
His perfectly polite thanks was exasperating.
“No, that’s not what I…”
“Not what?”
Kylus tilted his head.
His genuinely confused face made Alice feel like she was about to burst.
“Don’t you have anything else to ask me, or… well, anything else?”
Like serious questions about this matter, or orders to immediately bring those people in, that sort of thing.
As Alice stared at him, Kylus’s gaze finally changed.
“I do.”
“What is it?”
Just as Alice leaned forward, Kylus’s red lips parted.
“What you want. I’m curious about what you want, be it money or power. So that our negotiation can conclude well.”
“…”
Is he doing this on purpose?
Kylus’s answer was not what Alice had hoped for.
It was more like a non sequitur.
She had even broached the subject first, yet he was talking about something else.
As if he had no interest in Madam Quillian’s plot.
However, it didn’t seem like Kylus was deliberately trying to change the subject out of consideration for her.
Kylus was waiting for her answer with a serious face.
As if he really wanted to know what she desired.
So Kylus truly didn’t have even a speck of interest in Madam Quillian’s plot.
Whether she poisoned him or not.
Like a fool, Alice had been worrying about him all by herself since yesterday.
Staying up all night.
How could someone who had died and come back to life have so little sense of caution?
Alice felt both dumbfounded and a surge of indignation.
Enough to make Kylus’s handsome face seem detestable for the first time.
After all her consideration in coming here.
Alice took a long breath to suppress the anger rising from her core.
Kylus’s eyebrow twitched, perhaps sensing something amiss from her deep breath.
“Are you uncomfortable somewhere?”
“Yes. I’m quite uncomfortable.”
“…With what?”
“Everything. So I think I should leave now.”
Alice stood up abruptly, looking at Kylus whose face was tinged with confusion.
Kylus’s eyes widened slightly, as if surprised.
He finally showed a reaction, though he hadn’t budged at the news of the poisoning plot, but it was too late.
“Alice?”
“Ah, right. I didn’t answer you. Your Grace, I still only have one thing I want from you.”
“…”
“For you to send me to the temple. So I hope you’ll consider my wishes as well. I’ll be going now.”
Kylus stood up, seeming to sense an ominous chill from Alice.
Regardless.
Alice, already in a bad mood, deliberately turned around, creating a cold gust of wind.
Then, without even looking at him, she left the bedroom.
Hoping that he would rack his brains a little because of her, just as she had worried about him all night.
* * *
Thud-
The sound of Alice leaving echoed quite loudly through the bedroom.
And as Alice had hoped, Kylus couldn’t hide his bewildered expression.
Had there ever been a time in his life when he was this flustered?
And because of a woman, at that.
He could assert that there had never been such an occasion.
But Alice had already left before he could even think to stop her.
Without even explaining why she was angry.
‘Everything is uncomfortable.’
“What on earth…”
Kylus furrowed his brow, recalling Alice’s words.
-Knock knock.
At that moment, a knock sounded at the bedroom door.
Could Alice have come back?
Kylus walked quickly to the door, as if springing forward.
But as soon as he opened the door, Kylus was disappointed.
The person standing at the door wasn’t Alice.
“…Your Grace.”
The butler was looking at Kylus with a surprised face.
“Were you going somewhere?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
“I’ve brought your washing water.”
After washing his face vigorously as if to clear his complicated thoughts, Kylus asked the butler while drying his face with a cloth:
“Did you see the Duchess on your way here?”
“Ah, yes. I crossed paths with her in the corridor. Did the Young Mistress come to see you?”
“Yes. To tell me something important… No, more importantly, how did the Duchess look?”
“Pardon?”
“Her mood, I mean.”
“Ah, she didn’t look particularly happy. Did something happen?”
So he hadn’t been mistaken.
For whatever reason, Alice was thoroughly angry.
Kylus furrowed his brow, recalling her departing figure that remained like an afterimage.
“Alice somehow learned of Madam Quillian’s poisoning plot. She came early this morning to tell me about it. She told me that, I thanked her… and then suddenly she said everything was uncomfortable.”
“…”
“I really don’t understand why she suddenly got angry.”
Kylus frowned.
He felt frustrated, unable to come up with an answer no matter how much he thought about it.
But he couldn’t just ignore it either.
Alice’s cold gaze bothered him.
It was the first time she had looked at him like that.
Kylus let out an irritated sigh, unable to shake the chilly image of Alice from his mind.
While Kylus completely failed to grasp the reason, the butler, who had heard the situation from a step back, understood the answer as soon as he heard it.
And he looked at his master with a troubled gaze.
Because while his master was more knowledgeable than anyone when it came to war and tactics, he was a complete novice in human relationships, especially with women.
How should I explain this?
Even though the butler hadn’t directly witnessed the conversation between Alice and Kylus, he could imagine how it had gone.
The Young Mistress must have mustered up the courage to tell him such important information, and His Grace must have brushed it off nonchalantly.
The butler carefully chose his words:
“In my humble opinion, the reason the Young Mistress is angry is probably… because of Your Grace’s reaction.”
