ALPL 05

Chapter: 05

I do have a letter of introduction from the household I previously worked for. Luize gave Mrs. Smith a not-unfriendly glare.

“…Since when did you take everything my mother said at face value?”

“I always believed it! I’ve always believed it, of course!”

Mrs. Smith was in a fluster, insisting that Luize write the letter immediately for the interview. According to her, to repay the kindness of the past three days, Luize must surely receive the best treatment possible.

“I’ll think about it, ma’am.”

Luize replied weakly, but Mrs. Smith waved her arms and pressed on.

“Luize, listen! Even a fool like me knows that in life, first come, first served applies to everything. If they’re running an ad this big in the newspaper, it must be urgent. The sooner you send it, the better for you!”

Luize had no money at all. She wasn’t afraid of starving, but what about her mother’s ashes?

Scattering ashes in a river or the sea was a grave violation of doctrine. Ashes were considered the home of the soul.

The church prohibited it emphatically.

Instead, each parish had communal columbaria for commoners who had no choice but to cremate their loved ones, offering them at low prices. They behaved as if even ashes could step onto the threshold of heaven.

Of course, Luize didn’t have enough money for that either.

Mrs. Smith finally stepped back after noticing Luize’s darkening expression.

“‘You’ll think about it?’ The countess liked you so much! If Count Duke himself were safe, he’d never let you go elsewhere. You look exactly like a proper tutor! Even my uneducated eyes can see it!”

Luize accompanied the insistent Mrs. Smith up the hill.

Once back, she read through the newspaper classifieds carefully from the beginning. Unfortunately, there was only one household hiring a tutor.

But it was for the Border Count.

Not just any count. A border count who maintained private troops for defending the frontier.

Moreover, the Burk Border Count’s influence had grown since the current emperor’s ascension, marking him as a clear imperial loyalist. If she sent a letter of introduction, the count might not take kindly to it, considering she was from a family of former pro-predecessor emperor nobles.

Mrs. Smith’s words echoed in her ears:

“If they’re running an ad this big in the newspaper, it must be urgent.”

If there really was some pressing matter… the emperor generally tried to accommodate former pro-predecessor nobles except during the first three or four years of his reign, and Luize had just the right letter of introduction…

She looked at her mother’s urn beside the bed.

It was her duty to place her mother in the columbarium and let her rest in peace.

Finally, Luize took out a sheet of paper and dipped her pen in ink. The short letter to accompany the introduction was completed in no time.

She hesitated for a moment before signing.

In a noble household of such high rank, they would investigate her background anyway, and if it were later revealed that she was an Ermolie, she would face even greater trouble. If her mother were alive, she would have been fiercely opposed to her working in such a noble household.

Since she had first written her name at the pawnshop, she hadn’t imagined she would be signing it again so soon.

Luize Henriette Ermolie

A name that had vanished from the empire because of loyalty to the former emperor.

And now, she wrote it again.

A week later, at the Burk Border Count’s estate.

Caius stared at the jewelry box on the desk. Inside, as solid as a safe, the pearls wrapped in velvet radiated a mysterious glow.

Though he finally held the long-sought heirloom of his father, no trace of joy appeared on his face. Instead, his golden eyes were filled with anger.

It had been twenty years since Albrecht’s pearl was lost. Even though he assumed some fence had taken it abroad, he couldn’t give up on it—hoping against reason, beyond mere desperation.

There had to be some explanation. Perhaps illness, perhaps injury.

When circumstances improved, the person would bring the pearl back and apologize.

The anticipation had grown sporadically and disappeared without a trace. As a result, he had spent the time of two generations waiting for the lost pearl to return on its own.

Yet the pearl never made it back to its owner. A foolish moneylender had documented Ermolie as the rightful owner and had it notarized.

That was why the pearl returned accompanied by a shabby promissory note.

Retrieving the notarized document from the royal bank would have drawn attention. It wasn’t a task to undertake just before the grand plan.

It was better to hope the blind clerks wouldn’t recognize the pearl classified as “Baroque Pearl” for a while.

Caius tapped his fingers over the woman’s name written in elegant script at the bottom of the promissory note.

Luize Henriette Ermolie

The traitor Ermolie had survived and given birth to a daughter. And that daughter dared to claim his name as the rightful owner of a royal heirloom.

Three crowns.

The more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. All for a mere three crowns.

—Knock, knock.

A soft knock sounded, and the steward Martin appeared.

“This is what you were waiting for.”

Caius took the thin envelope he offered. The name he had been staring at so intently until just now was neatly written on the front.

A few days later.

Luize woke before sunrise, nervous.

When Mrs. Smith had pushed her to send the introduction to Burk, she hadn’t expected a reply to arrive so soon.

Yet less than ten days after sending the letter, a reply came, stating that Luize must attend the interview the very next day. As Mrs. Smith had guessed, it seemed urgent even in Burk.

Though the day was cold, she put on the black dress without hesitation. She could not remove her mourning attire until her mother’s ashes were placed in the columbarium.

She wore an old coat over it and draped her mother’s old shawl around her shoulders. Though the color didn’t quite match, the lingering scent seemed to embrace her dry shoulders warmly.

At dawn, she patted her mother’s urn and said goodbye.

“I’ll be back, Mother.”

Then she left for the town of Melk.

Even early in the morning, the market streets were filled with the acrid smoke of forges and the smell of bread being baked diligently. The warmth of bustling merchants comforted Luize’s awkward new start.

Among the carts carrying newly delivered goods, a coachman shouted at the top of his lungs:

“Helden! We’re going all the way to Helden!”

She gathered her wits and quickly climbed aboard. She had a long journey ahead: first to Helden in a shared coach, then transferring to another coach for Burk.

In Helden, there were no seats available on the coach, so six people squeezed into a five-person seat.

Luize felt a sense of relief. Traveling alone to Burk based solely on a letter would have made her even more anxious.

By the time she arrived in Burk, the sun was already high in the sky.

“Which way is the Border Count’s estate?”

She asked the owner of a general store who had just opened the shop. The man frowned, as if he had heard something strange, then pointed north.

Seeing where he was pointing, she understood his skeptical expression. Though not close, a massive mansion could be seen atop a gentle hill.

From her vantage on the hill, the expansive garden was fully visible.

Though Count Engel had been the lord of Melk, he was no match for a border count like Burk, who held a vast estate.

Luize instinctively gasped at the overwhelming scale of the estate, with its grand garden and multiple annexes. The last time she had seen a palace was so long ago that the memory was hazy.

“Thank you.”

She managed a polite nod. As she turned away, the shop owner called out:

“It’s quite far if you walk from here!”

He had a cat perched on his shoulder, perhaps a pet.

Since she wasn’t yet employed, she couldn’t afford extra travel expenses.

Luize smiled and reassured him it was fine. She nibbled on the bread she had brought from her pocket as she made her way to the Border Count’s estate.

It wasn’t for taste—it was to prevent her empty stomach from betraying her with rumbling during the interview.

Her chilled feet ached as she climbed the hill, but she trudged on until she finally reached the imposing main gate.

Massive wrought-iron gates flanked by guards standing at attention greeted her. The strict security made her wonder if the letter for the interview had truly reached her.

Nevertheless, she nervously took out the letter and handed it over.