Chapter 34
Logan was wearing thin, round glasses, unlike his usual appearance.
“How did you know I was here?”
“Ever since you were young, you’d always run to a corner where two walls meet when you were in trouble.”
It was a very Logan-like answer.
‘You remember all those little details?’
Aveline marveled at her childhood friend’s remarkable memory and changed the subject.
“Anyway, when did you arrive? No, more importantly, why do you look like that? Are you sick?”
“I’ve been up for days writing a thesis.”
It seemed the thesis he had been working on for the academic festival was still in progress.
Logan, with his strong academic drive, often continued to collaborate with professors and dedicate himself to research even after graduating from the academy.
Logan gave a weak smile.
It was a smile that made his already sickly impression look even more pitiful.
‘I wonder if he’s been skipping meals?’
Looking again, his expression seemed a bit gloomy too.
“Nothing’s wrong, is it?”
“Hmm. I wonder?”
His purple eyes took on a distant look.
“What? Something really is wrong?”
“It’s nothing… By the way, I overheard earlier, what’s this about flowers?”
Logan trailed off and changed the subject.
“Oh, that. It’s nothing.”
Aveline fumbled for words, unable to tell her friend about the plan to spread rumors that she and Theron were lovers.
“…Really?”
But Logan’s expression became even more dejected than before.
‘Why is he acting like this?’
As Aveline was about to focus on Logan’s change in expression, a sharp voice came from beside them.
“My, my, who do we have here?”
“Servell?”
The owner of that voice was none other than Servell.
Servell was maintaining her usual haughty posture with her neck stiffly held high.
“What brings you here?”
Aveline asked, surprised by the unexpected appearance.
After all, this was a party hosted by Duke Nor, a key figure in the imperial faction.
“Is there somewhere I’m not allowed to go?”
Servell retorted, straining her neck, but in fact, it was a bit out of place for Servell, from a noble faction family, to attend.
‘Come to think of it, why is Duke Ribes here?’
Theron, of all people, should be at odds with Duke Nor.
“It’s because this isn’t simply a gathering divided by political stance.”
Logan spoke up, seemingly having noticed the reason for Aveline’s confusion.
“Today’s party is ostensibly held under the pretext of promoting harmony regardless of affiliations. Well, it’s a nice way of saying ‘harmony,’ but in reality, it’s a place to scout business partners or gather information.”
“Then His Highness the Crown Prince too?”
She had thought he was attending simply because Duke Nor was hosting the party.
“He’s probably here to gauge the trends, to see what kind of talk is most prevalent at gatherings like this. Moreover…”
Logan lowered his voice slightly and added as if whispering a secret.
“Nobles tend to be honest in the face of profit, even if they put on airs in public. It’s a good place to confirm their true intentions.”
“I see.”
In other words, he came to personally spy on what kind of deals were being made.
Additionally, if the Crown Prince himself appears and keeps a watchful eye, people would naturally be more cautious about making deals that don’t benefit the imperial family.
From Serio’s perspective, attending was advantageous in many ways.
“Anyway, for various reasons like that, I ended up attending too. By the way…”
Servell, continuing Logan’s explanation, covered her mouth with her fan and looked Aveline up and down.
“You really went all out today, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“Coming all decked out in Lady Herolds’ possessions… From what I heard people saying earlier, it seems your image-manship and show-making have been quite successful.”
Servell said in a haughty voice, spreading her fan with a flourish.
“Um… Don’t you mean image-making and showmanship?”
As Logan corrected her, Servell’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.
“Don’t nitpick everything!”
“What did I…”
Logan made a pitiful face at Servell’s brazen rebuke.
It was a familiar scene, as the two often bickered like this even in their childhood when they all played together.
Watching the two of them, Aveline suddenly remembered yesterday’s events.
“Ah, right. Servell, did you send me a letter yesterday?”
“You only received it now?”
Servell looked quite confident for someone who had sent a letter with just a single dot.
“I’ve been sending them every day since I saw you at the last party.”
“Just with a dot?”
“The important thing is that you received it. So how many of my letters have you received?”
“Once, yesterday.”
“So you didn’t receive today’s. What was different about yesterday?”
At Servell’s question, Aveline immediately thought of the answer.
‘Lisa, who’s in charge of letters, wasn’t there.’
If it was a coincidence, it was truly an incredible timing.
After no letters had been coming to Aveline, one arrived on the exact day Lisa was absent.
‘It’s definitely suspicious.’
She resolved to look into Lisa in more detail when she returned home.
“You look like you’ve figured something out.”
“Yeah. Thanks to you.”
Aveline nodded and then spoke.
“But did you send letters every day for my sake?”
“Nooo!?”
As soon as Aveline finished speaking, Servell jumped.
“I was just curious about the insolent goat that intercepted my letters. My social reputation is at stake in those letters! Absolutely! Particularly! It wasn’t for your sake!”
It was a somewhat reasonable defense.
‘Well, it would be a big problem if someone else read them.’
Aveline and Servell often shared their thoughts on the books they had read.
While the content wouldn’t be an issue if only the two of them, who knew each other’s tastes, read it, it would be embarrassing if a third party were to read it.
‘But she still did it for me.’
Servell, who absolutely hated troublesome things, wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of sending letters with just a dot every day for no reason.
“What are you two talking about?”
Logan, who had been standing blankly between the two, interjected.
“You don’t need to know!”
Servell snapped at Logan and then twirled around.
“Well, I’ll be going now.”
Having said her piece, Servell disappeared into the group of noble faction young ladies waiting for her in the distance.
Melina Sroon was among them.
‘She’s not even making eye contact.’
Perhaps because of the memory from the last party, Melina Sroon was desperately avoiding looking this way.
‘Well, I don’t need Melina Sroon right now anyway.’
Although Melina Sroon had said she would do anything Aveline asked, Aveline planned to use that someday, but not now.
“Viscount Casey, how do you do.”
Just then, someone greeted Logan.
“Ah, Count Huan.”
The man with a vicious look and a small stature, about the same height as Aveline, was Count Huan from the imperial faction.
Although he was in the same imperial faction as Count Herolds, he was also a rival competing for position within the faction.
“And this is…”
Count Huan looked at Aveline standing next to Logan and trailed off.
It was a signal asking for an introduction, as if he didn’t know who she was.
‘How ridiculous.’
Aveline realized that he was pretending not to know her on purpose.
She had seen Count Huan among the people when she was the center of attention, caught between Serio and Theron earlier.
“I’m Aveline Herolds.”
But Aveline introduced herself as if she hadn’t noticed the other’s intention.
“Ah, Herolds.”
As he repeated the name, Count Huan’s face couldn’t hide a trace of contempt.
‘What’s this about?’
Aveline felt uncomfortable as she witnessed his expression directly at her eye level due to Count Huan’s small stature.
“I heard about your unfortunate failure to connect with Viscount Berta.”
Count Huan grinned as he brought up a memory Aveline wanted to forget.
Aveline was very flustered to hear that name here.
It must have been a private conversation between Duke Nor and her father.
Even being in the imperial faction, it wasn’t easy to know such personal details.
“I never thought Viscount Berta would enter a monastery, leaving behind Miss Herolds here. I thought it was quite extraordinary for him to reject a woman.”
The more she heard, the harder it became to maintain her composure.
Not only was he publicly linking Aveline with Viscount Berta, who had a rock-bottom reputation in the empire, but he was also spouting nonsense about Aveline being rejected by him.
It was clearly intentional to anyone watching, an attempt to insult Aveline.
‘Why is he being so blatantly rude?’
Even if he was a rival to her father, Count Herolds, spreading private conversations between members of the imperial faction in a public space was like spitting in his own face.
“You’re going too far.”
Logan, although surprised to hear this for the first time, stepped forward, seemingly feeling that this was unacceptable.
It was the first time even for Aveline to see Logan, who always went around with a kind smile, look so serious.
However, Count Huan continued to run his mouth, undeterred.
“Ah, if I’ve been rude, I apologize. I just thought the two of you would make a good match and tried to arrange it, and I was disappointed it didn’t work out.”
‘Count Huan arranged it?’
Her engagement to Viscount Berta?
