The final tally of the flowers was still a little ways off, and Westalia and Paige were on their way to the former Marquisate of Lanchester. The land wasn’t particularly prosperous, but it was large and rich in natural resources.
“I’ve missed this. I used to come to this church for services a long time ago,” Paige said. Her parents’ graves were behind the church. Since they’d had no money for a proper burial, they typically would’ve ended up being buried in a public cemetery. However, two fine graves had been quietly dug here by those who still cared for Gasparo after the corruption case.
Paige crouched down on the spot to offer the bouquet of flowers she’d purchased on the way there and put her hands together in prayer. Westalia saw her shoulders trembling and could tell that her friend was crying. Exposing Tiberio’s wrongdoings and exonerating Gasparo of the false accusations against him couldn’t bring back the dead. Westalia could only pretend not to notice and said a prayer as well.
“Um, Westalia? Just where are you taking me?” Paige asked.
“Don’t worry about it. Just come on!” Westalia said.
After visiting the graves, the two got back into their horse-drawn carriage and after a thirty-minute ride they arrived at a large mansion on a hillside.
“This is...” Paige whispered. The large mansion had been the estate’s main residence of the Lanchester family. They’d usually spent their time at their townhouse in the imperial capital, but when the summer heat became too severe, they’d return here to wait it out.
After they got out of the carriage and walked to the front door, Westalia handed the key to Paige.
“Are we trespassing again? You even made a key for this place?” Paige asked suspiciously, looking down at the key in her hand.
“No. It’s your key.”
“What?”
“I got it back for you—the ownership of the house,” Westalia said, a brilliant smile on her face. “And not just the house, actually. The townhouse in the capital, the Lanchester domain, your fortune, and your peerage. They’ve all been processed and returned to you.”
Once the state confiscated these items and they were given to another person or organization it would’ve been too complicated to get them back, but Leonardo had prepared everything even before the public trial and had moved quickly to ensure Paige would get back what her family had lost. The only thing Westalia had done was to negotiate, perhaps a little too aggressively, with the finance officials to pay Paige more compensation out of the newly confiscated properties of Duke Reyn.
Leonardo had asked Westalia to keep his name out of it, not letting Paige know that he was behind it, and to pretend that she had done it all herself. Westalia didn’t think it was necessary to keep his name a secret, but she guessed he figured Paige wouldn’t be too happy to accept his help.
“The peerage will be conferred soon, and you’ll be the new head of House Lanchester,” Westalia continued.
Paige flung her arms around Westalia, making her stumble a bit. Paige’s embrace tightened in response, as if propping her up.
“Thank you,” Paige muttered into Westalia’s shoulder.
It’s really Leo whom you should be thanking... Westalia thought. Besides, any work on Westalia’s part would be modest compared to everything Paige had done up to this point. Westalia had the utmost respect for her and just wanted to thank her knight for her service.
Stepping back from Westalia, Paige said, “I’ve regretted my actions this whole time. I thought that if I had supported my parents back then, rather than leave them, then they wouldn’t have died.”
But then her expression changed—she looked relieved. “But since I can’t change the past anyway, I want to cherish the present that my choices have brought me to. I am happiest now that I am serving you. Besides, it can be fun down here at rock bottom, can’t it?”
Paige could now choose whatever future she wanted for herself. She could join the Imperial Army and make it as far as her father once had. But she still wanted to remain at Westalia’s side.
“With people like you and Leo around, it’s never a dull moment,” Westalia said.
Then Paige knelt down on the spot and took Westalia’s hand to show her knightly allegiance. “I am sure that you are just unaware of your own charms. For me, there is no greater honor than to serve you, my future empress.”
Westalia was silent. Paige’s straightforwardness brought tears to her eyes. But soon Westalia’s usual bold expression returned. “I will be counting on you to do your part, my most trusted knight, Paige Lanchester.”
They looked at each other and smiled.
“By the way,” Paige said, standing up. “I heard through the grapevine that Tiberio was being transferred from prison to his exile this morning. However, when his attendants went to fetch him from the dungeon, they found that someone had beaten him about the face until he was unrecognizable. His teeth were broken, and his cheeks and eyelids were swollen. Apparently, there had also been poison applied to the wounds to amplify the pain. It was such a terrifying sight that it allegedly made the attendants scream.”
Paige’s gaze fell on Westalia’s ringed hand. Her fingers were bruised and scratched, as though she had repeatedly punched something. Westalia looked away, hiding her hand behind her back.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sure he was used as an outlet for the guards’ or someone else’s resentment,” she said, remembering how she’d snuck down into the dungeon on the eve of Tiberio’s exile to do as she pleased with the man.
“I see...” Paige said.
Westalia would take it to her grave that the culprit was a certain candidate for empress. Paige would surely see that said culprit was her own master. Knowing this, Westalia dared not point it out but instead just smiled. The two of them look like a couple of children in cahoots, acting innocent so that the adults wouldn’t find out about their misdeeds.
Westalia quickly took the key from Paige’s hand and turned away. “Come on, let’s get inside. I want to see what kind of place you used to live in.”
“Hey, wait! You can’t go in before the owner!” Paige said, happily chasing after Westalia. She clearly had no manners, but Paige wasn’t really complaining.