At first there had been talk of a divorce between her and the duke, but her family had already moved on to the next generation, the position of the family head now in the hands of Rosmaria’s younger brother. The two being on bad terms meant she had nowhere to return to.
On top of that, her son Hydgene was deemed to be without fault in the whole situation, so had been permitted to remain as the duke’s successor, so long as he worked to unlearn some of the values instilled in him by his mother’s education. Some people argued that treating his mother too harshly could give birth to an unnecessary grudge in him.
As unscrupulous as Rosmaria was thought to be, the misappropriation of her husband’s money had been deemed just barely within the domain of what could be forgiven, and she had taken a very apathetic, hands-off approach to child-rearing, so fault in the children’s upbringing could be thrown at the feet of those around her going rogue.
Whenever Deenoark had attempted to interact with his children there had always been someone to interfere. If he had time to spend on them, Rosmaria’s narcissism had demanded he spend that time with her instead. “He’s my husband,” she had insisted, much to the chagrin of Deenoark’s close associates.
That obsession left no room for doubt as to her faithfulness to her husband. As twisted as it was, it was clear she loved him. That said, the servants and knights she had brought from her own family into the marriage had been brutal in their embezzlement and persecution of others, so as their leader, Rosmaria was responsible for their behavior as well. A majority of their evil deeds had been done to please Rosmaria in the first place, and it was reported that she dealt very severely with anyone who made even the slightest mistake while serving under her.
The decision as to the suitable punishment for her changed numerous times, but in the end, her power and authority had been stripped, and she had been confined to a sanatorium within the duke’s territory.
“I didn’t know anything! It was all my servants acting on their own!” she had wailed, but there were none who would take her side. She might have found some sympathy if she were a young woman newly married, but she had been married to the duke for over a decade and had two children of her own. Her role as the wife of the duke was not only to manage his home but to have a hand in managing the entire duchy. An excuse like that would never fly.
After first arriving in the sanatorium, she had alternately wailed and raged against her situation, but within a month she had calmed down considerably. Or rather, people assumed she had likely just given up, as Deenoark’s staff manning the facility met each tantrum with superficially polite coldness.
Instead, she had turned to alcohol, drinking enough she could have bathed in it if she so chose, falling into a life of depravity that had her sleeping well past noon each day. Deciding it was better than her ranting and raving, the staff had left her to her own devices.
But the days she spent holed up in her room had led the staff members to let down their guard. One morning, concerned after receiving no summons for a great length of time, one of the maids peeked into her room to make sure she was okay, only to find no trace of her. Naturally they immediately dispatched as many people as they could muster to search for her, but having discovered her disappearance so late, they found no sign of her even after three days.
On top of that, a review of the staff she had brought from her family into the duke’s estate revealed that one of her servants had gone missing at the same time. This servant wasn’t a simple butler who served her day-to-day, but a Shadow—an agent known to work behind the scenes, doing whatever dirty work she required. Though it was somewhat strange that the other servants and knights couldn’t even clearly recall the man’s appearance, that strange relationship had provided him the leeway to slip past the surveillance they were all under.
The review unearthed only a couple pieces of information on him: His name was Anno, and Rosmaria had found him when he was a child dying on the streets. She had taken him into her household, where he did menial, laborious work. His long hair, combined with his penchant for looking at his feet, meant his face was often obscured. Combined with the way he mostly spoke in mutters and murmurs, most people found him creepy at best.
But when pressing Rosmaria’s family for more information, they learned that Anno had received training from the Shadow serving the generation before Rosmaria’s, a discovery they couldn’t ignore. No doubt he had used his peculiar behaviors to slip into hiding, waiting for the right opportunity to break Rosmaria out of the sanatorium.
Concerned that Rosmaria or her Shadow might act on their grudge against Misha, Kite’s unit had been ordered to return to Bluheitz immediately. With Rosmaria being a pure-blooded aristocrat, even if she were on the run, there was no pretending that she would put up with rough and untamed game trails, so Kite’s unit was to split into three and return to Bluheitz along the three major highways leading into Redford.
Kite had wanted to warn Misha of the potential threat just in case, but judging by the girl’s response earlier, that would do more harm than good.
“But I want to do something.”
With only two years experience serving the duke as a knight, Kite was very much at the bottom of the hierarchy. He had barely even seen Rosmaria’s face during his service. From what he had heard on the job, Rosmaria was the typical example of an aristocrat’s wife. She was second only to the duke in terms of people Kite was sworn to protect, but surrounded as she had been by retainers brought from her own family, there had been little room for the duke’s knights to do anything for her, and so there was virtually no relationship between them beyond simple shows of courtesy.
Her children were similarly sheltered from the outside, so the duke’s men had little contact with them either. It was customary for the mother of highborn children to see to their education, so there wasn’t much room for anyone else to comment on her methods.
That said, with Hydgene positioned as the duke’s heir, once he turned eight, he began to interact in a limited manner with the knights, giving him his first interactions with people outside of his mother’s circle.
In contrast, Lyla had stuck to her mother like glue. Even when they encountered her by happenstance walking through the halls, Lyla would look at them as if stepping around a filthy stain on the carpet—that is, when she didn’t entirely ignore their existence. Since she was young, sheltered, and sensitive, most people shrugged off her attitude. It was no surprise that she saw people who wielded weapons for a living as barbarians or savages. But for Kite, who was much closer to her in age, her attitude was rather irritating.
His experience with her had been part of why his initial reception of Misha hadn’t been particularly friendly. Even though he’d known it was an emergency, he had been fully conscious that he was meeting her as a knight covered in filth from the battlefield. He had no idea how the daughter of a duke would react to his appearance, save that it would be cruel and harsh.
Granted, those expectations had been betrayed in the best way, but...
“Well, I guess Lady Lyla has changed somewhat too,” he thought aloud, recalling his last meeting with the girl.