Gravis’s voice rang out in one of the rooms of his palace in the middle of the night.
“It makes sense now that he would have a special ability that so often manifests in royalty. If he’s the half brother of my late father, that means he’s an uncle of mine and His Majesty’s. It’s no surprise he would possess a Power… Being the half brother of the king, he was just like me.”
“Your Highness, you are the son of the queen dowager! The Marquis of Lagarea was born out of wedlock. You are nothing like him. You must not lower yourself to his level,” Theodor argued vehemently.
“Theodor, I am simply describing the nature of the relationship.”
The faithful servant reluctantly nodded at his master, who urged him to calm down.
Josef spoke to Dirk, seeming to have remembered something. “That old housekeeper told us that Edgar’s mother had delivered a nobleman once. And Edgar’s brother said they could afford a comfortable life because of their mother.”
Dirk nodded. “Yes. That’s it. Edgar Yorke’s mother must have helped deliver Marfa’s baby when the timing of her pregnancy wasn’t adding up.”
“So you think they entrusted the princess to an apprentice instead of a proper midwife because they wanted to keep the birth a secret?”
“Most likely. In return for her help in the secret birth, Yorke’s mother received a large sum of money. And to keep the entire ordeal a secret, she was driven out of the domain and came to the royal capital… It’s all coming together now.”
“I see. So that’s the connection between Edgar and the Marquis of Lagarea.”
Ebbo knitted his brows at their speculation.
“You’re concluding that simply because his mother was a midwife, and Edgar hadn’t even been born at the time? That’s supposed to be his connection to the Marquis of Lagarea?”
Leorino hesitantly answered Ebbo. “I imagine that if the Marquis of Lagarea knew about Edgar’s mother, he would one day come to erase her memory to keep the circumstances of his birth a secret.”
Dirk hummed and brought his hand to his chin. He recalled what else the housekeeper had mentioned. “From what the Yorke family housekeeper told us, I believe that the Marquis of Lagarea or someone related to him visited Edgar before he entered the army. It was the year Lady Brigitte passed away, just as Edgar was coming of age.”
Ebbo nodded. “It was right around that time that I was approached by the Royal Army. When the marquis found Edgar’s family in the royal capital, he may have learned of Edgar’s ability. That’s when he figured he might have some use for him.”
Gravis stopped the group before they could get too far into the realm of conjecture.
“It’s obvious that the connection between the Marquis of Lagarea and Edgar is Edgar’s mother, who had served as the midwife. But as for the Yorke family, further speculation is futile. We will likely never find evidence for any of it. Dirk, continue to investigate the connection between Edgar Yorke and the marquis along other lines.”
“Yes, sir.”
Gravis clapped his hands to regain the men’s attention.
“To summarize what we have learned so far: The Marquis of Lagarea is of Fanoren royal blood and likely knows his origins. That much we know. But he has been loyally serving our kingdom for decades, so we can assume the issue of his bloodline is not his primary driving force.”
The group considered this.
It felt as if they were close to the essence of the matter, but they were still unable to find any conclusive evidence of the motive, which left them beyond vexed.
Leorino timidly opened his mouth.
“Vi…I think what the headmaster said might be relevant after all.”
Gravis looked at Leorino, his brows knitted. Lucas also considered it.
“At this point…it could be.”
“What is it, Lucas? What are you referring to?” Ginter asked on behalf of everyone else.
Lucas answered, “The headmaster leaked this information to Ionia at the time. The Marquis of Lagarea was in love with Lady Brigitte, the mother of the current king, before she got married.”
“Leorino, is that in Ionia’s memory? He heard that Lady Brigitte, King George’s concubine, was in love with Bruno?” August had never heard of this before, and questioned the authenticity of the memory.
Leorino nodded toward his father. “Yes. It may not have been so blatant as to be an overt rumor, but the headmaster was a bloodline purist and said that it made her unfit to be the mother of the next king… I’m sorry… It was a scandalous thing to say.”
Leorino wisely refrained from saying anything further. He recalled how the headmaster had made an impassioned speech on how Gravis was deserving of the throne.
“The former king’s affection for Lady Brigitte is well known, but do you think the rumor about the Marquis of Lagarea could be true?”
“…I don’t know. This was before I was born…but my late father and the marquis were only one year apart in age. One, the crown prince, the other a bastard child rejected from the royal family… The marquis may well hold a grudge if he lost the woman he loved to my father, given the circumstances.”
Ginter once more outlined their theory.
“The Marquis of Lagarea’s mother was Princess Marfa of Lürik, who had been sent away from the royal palace while pregnant with King Tyrone’s child. We suspect that the princess secretly gave birth to the king’s illegitimate son, who then became the heir to the former marquis. He is the Marquis of Lagarea we all know. How he learned the secret of his own birth remains unclear. In his adulthood, he lost his significant other to his half brother, the crown prince, who took her as his concubine.”
It was certainly a complicated relationship. What twisted tale of love and hate had brought the marquis to this? Leorino brought his hand to his throat and bit back the emotion welling inside him.
Theodor continued. “Lady Brigitte was adopted by the marquis in order to marry into the royal family. In other words, she became the adoptive sister of the Marquis of Lagarea.”
“The son of a woman who was royalty but could not become a concubine had given his significant other to the king as a concubine, not to mention making her his adoptive sister… If this is true, then he had lost his royal status, his significant other, everything that ever mattered to him, all at the whims of the royal family,” Lucas spat, his words weighing heavily on the hearts of the men in the room.
Gravis clasped his hands together and took a deep, slow breath. “I suppose his motive is a grudge against the royal family after all.”
No one dared speak.
“So, grievance as the motive for betrayal. The reason may be as simple as that. But simple as it may be, people easily fall into madness when they are deprived of love.”
The men responded with silence. They could not find the right words to say to Gravis.
“If everything we just discussed is true, it is we, the royal family, who owe the Marquis of Lagarea an apology.”
“…Your Highness.”
“My grandfather, my father… I wonder if they realized their throne was built on sacrifice and sorrow. The thought that their blood flows through me makes me sick.”