Duchess Mecklen’s Elegant Revolt - Side Story 4

“No, there isn’t.”

Joshua answered flatly.

She gazed down at the rose petals floating atop the tea.

Not fond of tea, her cup remained untouched.

“Then is there someone you’re interested in?”

“No.”

“Was there ever? Or at least someone you thought looked decent? The eldest son of Viscount Metron is quite handsome, isn’t he?”

“Not at all.”

“You don’t have an ideal type either? Like being tall, or having a good personality? Any charm? Lady Norah said she finds slightly chubby men attractive. She doesn’t like men who are too skinny.”

Joshua shook her head. “I’ve never once thought about an ideal type. I don’t place much importance on romance.”

No wonder she had never been involved in any dating rumors, despite her popularity.

She had no interest in the opposite sex at all.

An awkward look passed over Eleanor’s face.

‘What if Kaham’s bracelet really doesn’t work?’

A fleeting doubt crossed her mind.

There was no sense in forcing someone who disliked romance into it.

For Eger, this festival might well be his first and last chance.

This time, Joshua posed a question.

“Do you have someone you’re interested in, Head Maid?”

“Me?”

Brianna waved her fan awkwardly.

There was no wrongdoing, yet for some reason, it was hard to lift her gaze.

She straightened her back uncomfortably.

“There was someone. Not anymore.”

Someone she had forgotten about resurfaced in her mind.

Ernst.

Back then, she had approached him with the intent of making his background her own.

“It just wasn’t meant to be.”

Like a flower that bloomed and faded in a single season, it vanished quickly.

Her past animosity toward Eleanor over the Duke of Mecklen was now just a faint memory.

Brianna pouted. “Looking back, it was nothing. I have no idea what had me so blind.”

“Is that so?”

“He wasn’t bad as a friend, but definitely not husband material. He was indifferent, selfish, and inconsiderate. He only came to me when he needed something—or rather, I was the one always going to him. Ugh, I just remembered something so embarrassing. Why did I cry and cling to him?”

Joshua seemed amused watching Brianna fan her flushed face.

She turned her gaze from the tea and fixed it forward.

“Then you have no thoughts of starting anything now?”

“Who knows? Not right now, at least,” Brianna answered, then smacked her lips bitterly.

She added, “My father thinks differently, though. Ever since His Majesty got married, he’s been pestering me to find a new fiancé. Now he’s subtly pushing me toward Lord Pedro of House Nestor. Doesn’t he ever get tired?”

Recently, during a dinner between Duke Nestor and Marquis Liege, the topic of marriage had briefly come up.

When Brianna mentioned it, Eleanor bombarded her with questions. “Lady Brianna, isn’t Lord Pedro a good match? He’s kind and considerate. Seems like he’d treat you well.”

“No, he seems a bit lacking. And besides, he’s abroad most of the time.”

Brianna dismissed it bluntly.

A twinge of irritation followed.

‘He shows more interest in his jewelry than in me.’

As soon as he saw her earrings, Pedro had gone on and on about the craftsman’s history and the gemstone’s value with gleaming eyes. To Brianna, he was the worst kind of man.

She continued in a sharp tone, “Last week, I bought a sculpture from his guild to decorate the mirror room, and the ship almost departed late. He nearly missed our appointment. Hmph, the way he kept making excuses at dinner was unbearable.”

“…You met him last week?”

Eleanor’s eyes widened.

She had only heard that Pedro had delivered goods to the palace—she hadn’t known he and Brianna had arranged a personal meeting.

Brianna responded casually, “There was a massive downpour that day. Since it was being delivered to Your Majesty’s palace, I oversaw it personally and got completely soaked. He looked like a drowned rat, so I even brought him a change of clothes…”

Fwoosh.

Suddenly, Brianna’s face turned bright red.

Startled by the abrupt reaction, Eleanor and Joshua both turned to her.

Brianna hastily waved her fan.

‘Insane. Why did he undress in front of me?’

She had missed the chance to leave the room while Pedro was changing and had ended up seeing everything.

Unable to cool her burning cheeks, she grabbed her lukewarm teacup and downed it in one go.

“It’s a misunderstanding.”

“……?”

“I didn’t have any strange or improper thoughts.”

“……”

“Nothing happened between us. We just had a normal meal, that’s all. Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t tell me you think I’m the kind of shameless woman who spies on men’s bodies.”

“……”

Eleanor thought to herself—thank goodness Lennoch wasn’t here.

***

“I heard Lord Pedro is returning for the Founding Festival.”

Lennoch, seated beside Eleanor, said.

“He wants to be present at a meeting with Duke Nestor. Would you like to join?”

“Why not?” Eleanor nodded.

At the same time, she couldn’t stop a smile from spreading.

The memory of Brianna’s flustered face from earlier that afternoon lingered vividly.

When she chuckled again, Lennoch tilted his head at an angle. “What is it?”

“Would it be difficult to have Miss Brianna join us that day?”

“It should be fine. It’s not an official meeting. I’ll inform Duke Nestor.”

“Thank you.”

Even if Brianna claimed to feel nothing, there was something suspicious.

Even Joshua, who knew nothing about romance, had noted that the head maid was acting strange.

Watching Eleanor smile nonstop, Lennoch grew curious.

“Did something good happen today?”

“Miss Brianna gets embarrassed easily.”

“Her, you say?”

Lennoch looked completely confused.

Seeing his bewildered expression, Eleanor couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.

After laughing for a while, she remembered something and asked him, “By the way, did you receive Jack Ruby’s report? A dispatch came in last night about Adler’s actions.”

‘Has it been over three months now?’

She was the one who assigned Adler to the stables, but she hadn’t expected him to last this long.

It had been a good call to assign a handler to monitor him just in case.

Sure enough, unable to hold back, Adler had made a move—and unexpectedly, it was to scour the apothecaries.

“He happened to stop by the apothecary Jack Ruby runs as a front.”

“I’ve read the report.”

Lennoch nodded.

“Unlucky for him, really. What are the odds he’d pick the one Jack Ruby’s at?”

“Is he imprisoned now?”

“I wanted to hear your opinion first, so I left him alone.”

Lennoch was surprisingly calm.

Compared to the time shortly after she became Empress—when he had nearly killed Adler himself—his composure now was a remarkable change.

Finding his calm demeanor unusual, Eleanor happened to glance at his hand resting between some papers.

‘…He’s furious.’

Furious beyond words.

The crumpled papers left no doubt.

He was barely suppressing his rage for one reason only—because Adler was her last remaining blood relative.

Eleanor pretended not to see and shook her head. “From now on, I won’t keep Adler in my heart.”

“That means…”

“The only family I have is Henrik.”

Lennoch’s stiff expression, frozen in an awkward smile, instantly lit up.

Even the wrinkled documents seemed to straighten.

She wondered if he really was that happy, then grew curious about Adler’s fate.

“Will you kill him?”

Lennoch shook his head. “I hope he doesn’t give up on life so easily.”

“……”

“That would give me peace of mind.”

His words were soft, but the implication was cruel.

He meant to make him wish he were dead.

‘Could he have been looking for poison?’

Eleanor didn’t know exactly what Adler had sought out—only that he had been roaming apothecaries.

The servant assigned to watch him hadn’t been skilled enough to find out more.

But judging by Lennoch’s reaction, she could guess it might’ve been poison.

“I’ve been careful with meals, so don’t worry. Especially with Chef Sven watching over things for me.”

Ever since the Delph incident, poison control had been strictly maintained.

Still, Lennoch’s expression didn’t ease.

Eleanor subtly changed the topic.

“By the way, what’s the situation with Bahama?”

“Still quiet for now.”

“That’s a relief.”

“But as you’ve said, we can’t let our guard down. The Western Continent’s political climate is shifting just as expected. Emperor Lubraith has continued to postpone naming a successor.”

Since their marriage, Eleanor had reviewed the ties between Bahama and Lubraith.

The Baden Empire of the Eastern Continent.

The Lubraith Empire of the Western Continent.

Separated by the sea, the two nations had historically shared friendly relations.

Last year, the Third Prince of Lubraith visited in person and signed a cultural exchange agreement, which had a positive effect on the empire’s overall trade.

Recently, the Nestor Trading Company led by Pedro had also seen explosive popularity in Lubraith, contributing to the momentum.

But a year from now—

Lubraith’s internal climate was set to change dramatically.

“In the end, the Emperor of Lubraith will choose the First Prince, Linus.”

“That’s troubling. A prince born of a slave… That’s enough to stir conflict.”

“Exactly. And the Third Prince of Lubraith taking a princess of Bahama across the sea isn’t entirely unrelated to the succession issue. His recent increase in contact with Bahama likely has the same motive.”

“So… he’s preparing for civil war over the throne?”

Instead of answering right away, Eleanor leaned against Lennoch’s shoulder.

“I don’t know yet.”

In her past life, Lubraith hadn’t descended into civil war.

What she remembered of the future only went as far as the Second Prince killing the First and seizing the throne.

‘Back then, Lennoch wasn’t in Baden.’

When she had been falsely accused of murdering Caroline and sentenced to the guillotine—

Lennoch had been in Lubraith, not Baden.

‘If he’d been here, he would’ve stopped the execution.’

Given that he had turned back time with Kaham’s bracelet, it seemed he had still cared for her deeply.

If he had known about the execution, he wouldn’t have let her die.

Because he had been invited to the Second Prince’s coronation in Lubraith and had gone overseas, that tragedy had come to pass.

‘The Second Prince’s wife was from the Nestor line, so she was connected to the Empress Dowager too.’

Thus, news of the Second Prince’s rise to Emperor had influenced Baden.

Since Duke Nestor of Baden was the Second Prince’s maternal family, it meant the new Emperor of Lubraith now had ties to Baden’s nobility.

“The Second Prince claims Nestor as his maternal line, and the Third Prince’s is Bahama… So we can’t be entirely uninvolved in Lubraith’s throne struggle.”

“If the Second Prince takes the throne, the Third won’t sit idle—he’ll have seen it stolen from under his nose.”

Lennoch was quick to grasp the tangled web of international alliances.

Eleanor nodded. “Bahama is still watching for its chance. Even now, they continue to raise a military force equal to Baden’s. From their perspective, Lubraith’s succession war is a golden opportunity. Under the pretense of supporting the Third Prince, they could justify military action.”

“Eli.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I have a question.”

“……?”

Eleanor paused and waited.

“How do you know so much about Lubraith’s internal affairs?”

“……”