His actions were a complete mystery to me, and it was still too early to point to him as the culprit. I couldn’t yet remove the possibility of him working on someone else’s behalf. It also wouldn’t be wise to make contact with him without a plan since there was a possibility that he was involved in the attempt on my life.
Should I tell all this to Van? Or maybe Lady Opera?
Duchesse was Van’s most trusted advisor. Even if I shared all my theories with Van, I doubted that he would believe me so easily. On the other hand, Lady Opera held little influence, and I didn’t want to expose her to danger.
Other than the Dragon Duke’s family, I couldn’t think of anyone else to talk to who had enough clout, connections, and experience.
“Lady Mille-Feuille, um, I’m not really sure what to say to you at a time like this, but...” Parfeil began with a worried look on her face. “Um... I’m always by your side, no matter what, and you can tell me anything. There are times when you can solve things just by talking about them, you know.”
That must have been her roundabout way of telling me not to worry about things all by myself.
“Parfeil, thank you,” I said.
“Anyway, if there’s something that’s worrying you, why don’t you try talking to the three ladies about it?”
“Oh!”
It turned out that there were people other than the Dragon Duke’s family who had clout, connections, and experience. Lady Marthe was descended from a branch of the royal family, Lady Nonette was part of a house prominent in high society, and Lady Tuile was from one of the wealthiest families in the duchy. It might not’ve been a bad idea to consult those three for help.
“I’ll write them a letter explaining everything,” I said.
“Then I’ll prepare the pen and stationery.”
“Yes, Parfeil, please do.”
I remembered having had no close friends to turn to other than the Dragon Duke in my previous life. But that was no longer the case. I had many allies to support me, and Parfeil, of course, was one of them.
If we can band together and push back, there’ll be nothing to be afraid of, I thought.
The next day, I ordered one of my white squirrels to get me one of Duchesse’s personal belongings.
“Squeak!” The squirrel ended up bringing me a document signed with his full name. It was crumpled, so he must have been planning to throw it away. I analyzed its remaining mana trails and they turned out to be similar to the ones I had seen yesterday. It was unfortunate that the card and vellum had burned up, since now I had nothing to compare this new trace to. The only proof I had was my memory of them matching, which proved nothing.
I needed to find a different method. Once again, I ended up with a conundrum that I couldn’t resolve on my own.
Three days later, I was accompanied by Parfeil and some guards to visit a shop Lady Nonette had told me about. It was a store that sold cosmetics, but with the use of a special card, we were shown the way to a different room.
“This way, please.”
Inside the fireplace was a hidden door. From there, we were to descend a flight of stairs connecting to a different area. We only had the light of a magicstone to guide us in the darkness.
Despite being careful with my footsteps, I could still hear my heels lightly tapping against the ground. It was just my guess, but this seemed to have been constructed out of a special material to warn of unwanted visitors.
I kept descending the stairs and we eventually reached a dead end. What should we do? While I was wondering, a magic circle activated on the wall. While it blinked, the scenery around us changed in an instant.
The area suddenly turned into an elegant salon, well lit by crystal chandeliers that contrasted with its underground location. A pleasant fur carpet was underfoot. In the middle of the room was a round mahogany table.
The three ladies were there, all wearing gorgeous dresses and big smiles as they approached me.
“Welcome, Lady Mille-Feuille.”
“Thank you for coming!”
“We have been waiting for you.”
“Thank you for inviting me,” I said.
“You need not be so reserved.”
“Indeed.”
“We are all comrades here.”
I’m blessed to have such reliable allies.
I greeted all three with a curtsy. We then broke the ice with some light conversation. Our first topic here was to be the women’s party that Lady Opera was holding on the Founding Anniversary.
“I could hardly believe that Her Highness would be holding a party for all dragonkin women.”
“She has never done such a thing before.”
“It must be Mille-Feuille’s influence on her.”
“Not at all. This was entirely at her own discretion,” I said.
“Oh, you’re being quite modest here.”
Lady Opera had changed a lot. Once, she had been focused solely on the Dragon Duke; but now, she was paying attention to the world at large.
“She was always saying that she does everything for the sake of all dragonkin women,” one of them said.
“But it was always all talk.”
“She was never able to put her words into action.”
“I see... I had no idea.”
Perhaps Lady Opera had been mulling things over as she saw my work. But the motivation and effort that she was putting in now was all hers. Seeing Van’s berserk state must have spurred her into action as well.
The conversation led by the three ladies shifted naturally to the topic I wished to hear about.
“Speaking of change, the Dragon Duke has undergone one as well.”
“Oh, yes, he has,” agreed another.
“A hundred years ago, he always looked displeased and was unpleasant to be around. Lately, however, he’s become quite the handsome and friendly young man...”