Chapter 19
“Serena, you’re back?”
Sven asked immediately as he saw Serena returning from the House of Duke Icard.
“Yes, I’m back.”
Serena cheerfully replied, twirling her curly red hair around her finger.
“He was just… kind of cute, actually.”
While Sven stroked the black cat, Serena began reporting what had happened that day.
“But they told me to lie to Duke Icard. They want me to say she has an illness and will die before she turns twenty.”
“Oh?”
Serena blinked and continued, sounding puzzled.
“And Duke Icard didn’t even seem that shocked… Well, I guess he already knew she was sick, which is why he planned to assign a personal physician to that little girl in the first place. What on earth is going on?”
The more Sven listened, the more amused he seemed. He scratched his chin and smiled deeply.
“I think she has the potential to shake even the imperial family someday.”
When Sven first heard those words, he wondered if the child truly understood their weight.
If someone wanted to shake the imperial family, the easiest method was marriage.
When Duke Icard arranged the match between Laria and Evan, public opinion split in two.
Most believed he wouldn’t be greedy enough to aim any higher, that people had been unnecessarily wary.
A smaller group suspected there was something far more calculated behind it.
But now, one thing was certain.
Laria herself belonged to the latter group—she believed Duke Icard might discard her someday.
That was why she was planning to run away while pretending she was terminally ill.
The Empire did not recognize divorce.
So if Duke Icard wanted to abandon Laria in the simplest way…
It was astonishing that someone her age could think that far ahead and prepare countermeasures.
If she could deceive the great Duke Icard himself, then her acting skills were no joke.
At the horse-racing event, Laria had seemed nothing but warm and affectionate toward both Duke Icard and Evan.
“She’s not ordinary for someone so young,” Sven murmured thoughtfully.
“We’ll need to keep watching her.”
Serena finished her report, fiddled with the ends of her hair, then looked up.
“If we watch her… how far are you thinking?”
“Depending on what we see… perhaps even as far as making her our master.”
“What?”
Sven looked down at the black cat sitting on his lap.
“Lord Neo reacted.”
Shock flashed across Serena’s face.
“Y-you mean… really?”
“Yes.”
Sven spoke with a heavy expression.
“He not only climbed into her lap… he even cried. Twice.”
At first, Sven had only been mildly curious about the affairs of Duke Icard’s household.
But if Neo—the incarnation of a demon—had reacted, then everything changed.
“Oh my…”
“It’s rare for all the conditions to align like this. A noble who makes Lord Neo react…”
Serena’s face also grew serious.
Neo might look like a cute cat, but he was still a demon temporarily residing in the human world.
Neo reacting meant that his wavelength matched Laria’s.
And a matching wavelength meant there was inevitably some connection to dark magic.
“We’ll have to observe her closely, right at her side.”
“But isn’t she still too young?”
“Ten years isn’t very long for us.”
“Well… it really is rare for someone with these qualifications to appear. Especially if Lord Neo reacted.”
Sven stroked Neo’s back.
Neo gave a lazy yawn and closed his eyes.
“She seems born with the ability to read situations, to plan long-term and respond accordingly… but whether she has the courage to truly move the board… we’ll have to wait and see.”
“I’ll watch her carefully,” Serena said, her eyes sparkling with interest.
“I’ll stay close to her.”
“Yes. Observe her well. I didn’t attach someone as formidable as you for nothing.”
In truth, Serena was the vice leader of the Bestian Dark Intelligence Guild.
They had already been paying attention to House Icard, and now they could naturally deploy guild members there.
It was a fortunate development.
Still, at this point, Sven was more curious about Laria than Duke Icard’s true intentions.
“Oh, right. Sven, Lady Laria asked me to pass along a message.”
“What did she say?”
“She said that last time she visited our café, she smelled something burning in the building behind it… and told you to look into it carefully.”
“What?”
Sven’s brow furrowed sharply.
He had already been on edge because a suspicious mage had rented the lower floor of the building where his mother lived.
“I forbade experiments involving fire, but just in case, I should check.”
“Yes… you could have ignored it, but Lady Laria said we were a precious connection, and she wanted to show concern.”
“…A precious connection?”
“Yes. She’s practically confined in Duke Icard’s estate… so she says we’re important to her.”
“I see…”
Sven stroked Neo thoughtfully.
He had assumed she was only sharp and cold, but perhaps she was also someone warm enough to care about even small things.
It made him want to continue building ties with her.
“Hm. But somehow… Lady Laria…”
Serena narrowed her eyes and whispered.
“She feels like she’s going to run, doesn’t she?”
Sven rubbed his chin.
Indeed… creating an alias, buying land, faking an illness—those were all clear signs.
Pretend to be terminally ill, lower everyone’s guard, then escape.
If she was moving this much already, she must have even more thorough plans prepared.
“Probably.”
“Then… she’ll naturally separate from Lord Evan too, right?”
“That’s likely.”
“Ooh, that’s great.”
Serena clapped her hands.
“Getting married at fourteen to someone you’ve never even seen? That was the saddest part. But if she plans to leave anyway, she’ll have chances to meet other men too.”
“Don’t meddle unnecessarily. What do you mean, other men?”
“But you said she might become our master.”
Serena’s face brightened.
“If it’s a political marriage that’s going to end anyway, why stay bound by it? Slowly, naturally, she might form a real connection with someone.”
“Enough.”
Sven waved his hand dismissively.
“If Lord Evan truly has feelings for Lady Laria, there could be real bloodshed.”
“Come on, it’s just a political marriage.”
“Duke Icard’s marriage was political too,” Sven said seriously.
“But if Lady Matilda had run away like that… I don’t even want to imagine it. I would’ve searched the entire continent to find her.”
“I heard Lord Evan spends all day training with the sword. He doesn’t seem close with Lady Laria…”
“That’s something we’ll have to watch.”
Then Sven added, as if another thought had occurred.
“Ah… speaking of men, another strange possibility comes to mind. Something odd happened on this side too.”
“Something odd?”
“A commoner youth came to see me. He claimed he was the one who won money with Black Horse.”
“Hm?”
“And he says he wants to use that money to purchase a title and the territory of Hanyua.”
“What?”
“He could only afford the leftover land that Lady Laria didn’t buy, since he didn’t have enough money. But still… he said half of the territory has already changed owners, so I was caught off guard.”
“Was he handsome?”
“Fairly decent-looking.”
Serena withdrew her fingers from her hair and frowned deeply.
Two people who had won money at the same racing event were now making the exact same moves, in the exact same place.
“…What if Lady Laria has an incredibly capable stalker? Someone copying her completely?”
“I don’t know… That seems the most likely explanation, but we’ll have to watch. Report this to Lady Laria. Let’s see how she takes it.”
“Yes. I’ll judge it myself.”
Serena spoke slowly, her green eyes gleaming.
“Whether she truly is the person Sven has been desperately waiting for.”
