Duchess Mecklen’s Elegant Revolt - Chapter 24 Part 3

Evan was about to leave to carry out the emperor’s orders when he paused.

The emperor held the report in his hand, looking the same as usual, but something was subtly different.

‘It’s the same report from earlier, isn’t it?’

It was the report that had come in an hour ago, one that needed to be dealt with by the end of the day. Normally, given the emperor’s workload, it wouldn’t take him this long to get through it.

Evan craned his neck forward as much as he could. The emperor was still on the first page of the report.

“Your Majesty, I’ll be on my way.”

“All right.”

Without even glancing back at Evan, the emperor gave a nonchalant reply.

After Evan left with lingering doubts in his heart, only the emperor and Eger remained in the office.

Eger, who had a pile of various chocolates stacked on his own desk, made a sharp comment.

“You don’t look well, Your Majesty.”

“……”

“Did the director turn you down again yesterday?”

Lennoch’s eyebrows, which had been smooth until now, twitched noticeably.

It felt like Eger had struck a nerve, touching upon something Lennoch didn’t want exposed.

To think that the same person who used to tease him endlessly with tales of Lady Joshua was now the one fumbling nervously over Eleanor—Eger found it endlessly amusing.

“You’re not hiding it very well, you know.”

Eger opened a box of chocolates and popped one into his mouth.

“If she’s on your mind that much, why not just go to her now and say something…”

“That’s not it.”

“Then what is it?”

“……”

Lennoch fell silent again, and only the sound of Eger chewing on chocolates filled the office.

After some time, Lennoch finally spoke in a pained voice, “I can’t control myself anymore.”

“……”

“I keep wanting more.”

Using a dream as an excuse, he’d tried to pull Eleanor into his arms and even kissed her. Afterward, consumed by guilt, it was Eleanor who had comforted him with her kind voice, saying it was all right.

But she didn’t know.

She had no idea what feelings that single ‘it’s all right’ had awakened in him.

“If she knew I was thinking like this, would she hate me?”

“No way.”

Eger responded indifferently to Lennoch’s genuine concern.

“If she really hated you, she wouldn’t have come to work today.”

“Maybe she just showed up because of her duties.”

“Only someone like you, who’s obsessed with work, would do that.”

Eger shook his head, amazed by the emperor’s strict separation between personal matters and duties.

“Why don’t you just ask her directly? Confess like a man.”

“Confess?”

“Why are you acting so clueless? You were always the one telling me to just confess.”

“This is different.”

Completely different.

It wasn’t as simple as baring his heart. He couldn’t do that, not when guilt kept gnawing at him.

Lennoch tossed the report he had been holding carelessly onto the desk.

“It’s all my fault.”

“……”

“I should never have let it happen in the first place.”

Now, it was too late to blame anyone else. The choices he had made for her sake had only led to her misery. He would carry that guilt for the rest of his life.

And yet.

Despite all that.

“You look like you could die just to see her.”

“……!”

“You’re quite transparent today, Your Majesty.”

The emperor’s usual relaxed demeanor wasn’t without reason. It was a mask—a facade built on years of experience, a tool for thoroughly concealing his emotions.

Even Evan, who always tried to stay on the emperor’s good side, never truly knew what feelings he harbored.

“If Her Majesty the Empress Dowager found out you were acting like this, she’d be horrified.”

“……”

“Speaking of which, I wonder how Her Majesty the Empress Dowager would feel about Lady Eleanor.”

Would she oppose it out of consideration for Duke Mecklen’s reputation?

Despite the poor relationship between Ernst and the Empress Dowager, it was still hard to tell.

Eger felt a pang of sympathy for Lennoch, who sat at his desk, lost in endless contemplation.

‘He could have anything he wants.’

But here he was, stripped of all his usual composure because of one woman.

The emperor’s desire for her was clear to Eger—it shone brightly in his eyes, a chaotic mix of emotions.

Eger popped his favorite almond chocolate into his mouth.

“Your Majesty, would you care for some chocolate?”

“……”

Unsurprisingly, there was no response.

Eger, not bothering to hide his grimace, chewed the chocolate slowly.

Normally, it was sweet. But perhaps because of the emperor’s somber mood, it tasted unusually bitter today.

***

Vincent placed the warm tea on the table.

The fragrance of the tea spread, but no one reached for their cup.

In the tense atmosphere, Vincent gestured awkwardly toward the door.

“I’ll step out for a while.”

“……”

No response came, but Vincent sensed an unspoken agreement and quietly left the office.

Once the lubricant that had somewhat eased the tension was gone, the atmosphere in the office grew even colder. Unable to wait any longer, Eleanor spoke first.

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

Ernst’s deep voice quickly followed, “Since I placed my mother under house confinement, I’ve been looking into everything she’s done. As you know, my mother not only ran the company but also handled a lot of miscellaneous tasks.”

On the surface, nothing seemed amiss.

Ernst lifted his hand slightly, pointing toward the door. “You must have seen them just now—the ones making a scene outside. They are the siblings of my late father and thus my uncles and cousins. They are all from the Mecklen family.”

Eleanor, who had been well aware of their identities, nodded lightly.

They were the ones who managed the family alongside Caroline while Ernst was busy with affairs in the capital.

“But today, something seemed off.”

“……?”

“Just now, I heard from the family members about a new business my mother was pursuing. Apparently, she’s importing a new type of tea.”

“Tea?”

“Do you know of Ceylon?”

Ceylon.

For a moment, Eleanor’s lips twitched slightly before returning to their normal state.

“She plans to import specialty goods from the Ceylon region for sale.”

“I see.”

Just as she had expected. Caroline had begun to make her move. It was all thanks to Countess Lorentz, who had fed May’s story to Caroline.

Feeling a strange anticipation, Eleanor listened attentively to Ernst.

“My mother rarely attends social gatherings.”

Eleanor knew that as well.

“And as far as I know, she hasn’t left the capital in the past decade.”

Eleanor understood where Ernst was sensing something wrong.

“But according to their explanation, my mother personally brought in the tea from Ceylon. They said she distributed the imported tea to the family members…”

“Ceylon isn’t a city in Baden.”

“Exactly. Ceylon is a region in the Kingdom of Mondriol. Moreover, it’s a place that has never had any trade history with Baden.”

It was strange. How could someone who had never left the capital know such a place? It would be too much of a stretch to dismiss it as simply obtaining information from rumors.

That’s why Ernst had searched through all the company records. But there were no records of anyone from the Mecklen Trading Company being dispatched to Ceylon.

“You need a trade route to bring something like that.”

“I know.”

“But there’s no record of any trade route. Did she have someone other than Mecklen bring it in for her? That would be an unnecessary waste of time and money.”

“……”

“And it’s not an illegal import either. So why bring it in secretly when there was no reason to hide it? Many questions have arisen.”

Eleanor knew the answer to those questions.

The Ceylon tea business was something Caroline had originally been preparing with Umar, the mayor of Kuhen.

However, Umar had committed a bold crime by kidnapping Eleanor and Brianna, and he was killed before the emperor could capture him.

The investigation into Umar had ultimately been left incomplete, but Caroline had deliberately erased all related records just in case.

‘It was too thorough, which only aroused suspicion.’

Eleanor guessed that Caroline had underestimated Ernst in this plan.

The Mecklen Trading Company was one of the largest in the empire. The amount of paperwork it handled was enormous. Caroline must have assumed Ernst, burdened with imperial affairs, wouldn’t have time to read through it all.

A clear miscalculation.

“Honestly, it’s astonishing. How did my mother manage to accomplish all of this without my knowledge?”

“That’s what you’re curious about.”

“Yes.” Ernst nodded. “I’m curious how she managed to bring in the Ceylon tea without my knowing, and if she’s involved in any other business I don’t know about.”

After a brief pause, Ernst, his throat dry, reached for his teacup. Outwardly, he appeared calm, but he seemed genuinely shaken by the revelations.

Eleanor watched Ernst as he drank the now lukewarm tea, and then she asked, “May I ask you something as well?”

“Go ahead.”

“How can you be so sure that I have the answer to your question?”

“……”

Ernst stopped raising the teacup.

Eleanor continued with her questioning, “Our marriage lasted barely three months. How could I know everything about the family in such a short time?”

“…You said it yourself.”

That my mother might have another hidden son.

Ernst remembered it vividly.

It was from when Eleanor had not long joined as a lady-in-waiting. She had asked him if he was certain he knew everything about his mother, even suggesting she might have a hidden son.

“Yes, I remember.”

Eleanor, who had remained silent, smiled faintly.

“And I had bruises on my shoulders afterward.”

“……!”

That day, Ernst had grabbed her by the shoulders and forcefully pushed her away. The tears she shed back then were still vivid in her memory, though she chose not to mention it now.

Similarly, Ernst, recalling the incident fully, stood stiff as a stone.

“That was…”

“I know what kind of person your mother is.”

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on those past emotions. Eleanor naturally cut off Ernst’s words, moving on.

“Do you know why your mother doesn’t attend social gatherings?”

“…Not exactly,” Ernst answered reluctantly. “She said she finds the noise tiresome. That she dislikes being the center of people’s attention.”

“Exactly. She wants to avoid the noise.”

“……”

“The less attention she draws, the more freedom she has to act.”

Yes, that was why no one knew in her previous life. No one knew the true nature of Caroline.

The oppression she subjected Eleanor to, the torment she endured, the humiliation and shame—all of these were things only someone who experienced them firsthand could understand.

“Caroline was nothing short of a tyrant within the Mecklen ducal family.”

“……!”

It was a harsh criticism.

Ernst remained silent.

“I think you witnessed it for the first time on your birthday—your mother ordering the servants to hold me down by force.”

“……”

“It wasn’t just me; the employees of the Mecklen family constantly suffered under your mother’s violence. Whipping was routine for her. Under the guise of discipline, she would beat them within an inch of their lives. Fortunately or unfortunately, one of them was later expelled from the house.”

Had she not become a lady-in-waiting in the palace, even the Empress Dowager wouldn’t have known what was happening in the Mecklen household.

The same was likely true for Lennoch. That was why he had left Eleanor in Caroline’s care.

The thought of him made her heart beat slightly faster, but Eleanor showed no sign of it.

“I hope you won’t say you don’t believe me.”

“……”

“If you go back to the family now and question the employees, you’ll quickly find the truth. Even inspecting the servants’ bodies would reveal it—those beatings weren’t one-off events.”

“……”

“But this is only the tip of the iceberg. The main story hasn’t even begun.”