Chapter 35

Watching this heartwarming scene, Connie felt herself on the verge of tears, too. It had taken several days for Abigail to complete the various forms required to be released after the trial. Connie had gone to pick her up and had been invited inside once they arrived at the O’Brian residence. Everyone seemed to have been eagerly anticipating their mistress’s return home. No sooner had Abigail stepped down from the carriage than the little princess came running headlong into her arms. Her brave front aside, it was clear she had been unbearably worried. Connie joined Abigail and Lucia for tea and then took her leave. She thought the family probably wanted to enjoy some time alone, today more than ever. As she was getting ready to leave, Aldous approached her. “Sorry,” he said bluntly. As Connie blinked in confusion, Abigail burst out laughing. “You don’t sound very repentant,” she said. “Shut up. You shouldn’t have been arrested to start with. Caused us a hell of a lot of trouble, I’ll say. Next time you’d better split before they catch you so you don’t slow us down.” “Yes, I do suppose it was all my fault. So please stop sulking.” “I’m not sulking.” “Once again, unrepentant.” The three of them walked to the front door, chatting casually. But when they opened it, they discovered two people waiting outside. The smile vanished from Aldous’s face as he stepped protectively in front of Connie and Abigail. “Greetings, Holy Grail girl.” Ignoring the bloodthirsty look in Aldous’s eyes, the blond woman whom Connie had met only a few days ago greeted her with a relaxed wave. Today she was dressed casually and carried the same long, cloth-wrapped bundle she had the first time they’d met. “Her name is Miss Grail, San! Are you doing that on purpose?” her slender, silver-haired companion corrected her. She looked like she had a headache. “Friends of yours?” Abigail asked Connie, who tensed. “They’re tourists from Faris, supposedly. We’ve only met by chance twice, so I wouldn’t call them friends, exactly…” “By chance?” Abigail echoed, sounding puzzled, but quickly put on a perfect smile and turned to the women. “Then this must be the third chance meeting, I suppose? Did you have some business with my young friend here?” Connie couldn’t tell if San was intentionally ignoring the air of intimidation in that question or if she had simply missed it, but the woman smiled brightly back at Abigail as she replied. “No, I stopped by because I was impressed by the rescue operation. I see Miss Grail’s friend is a worrywart, so I’ll be straightforward,” she said, taking a step forward. “About Daeg Gallus, that is.” The moment she said those words, Aldous pulled a pistol from his breast pocket. At the same time, Connie felt a gust of wind and heard something cutting through the air. “The men of Adelbide certainly are quick on the draw,” San said with a low chuckle as she held the blade of a large, old-fashioned sword to Abigail’s neck. Connie wondered where in the world the weapon had come from—then noticed that the bundle on her back was gone. So this was what it had held. “Not as fast as women from Faris,” Aldous muttered, his gun still pointed straight at San. “I wonder which would come first, the bullet in my head or this blade in your mistress’s throat?” “Should we test it and see?” Aldous asked with a cynical grimace. The tension grew. What should I do? Connie held her breath. Someone sighed—no, two people. “Rudy, stop it.” “San, your jokes really do go too far.” “Can’t help it,” she said with a smile, lowering her sword. Seeing that, Aldous reluctantly lowered his gun. Eularia bowed her head apologetically. “I’m very sorry for my companion’s excessive rudeness. The truth is, we are here to ask your help.” Aldous clicked his tongue in irritation. “Is that how you act when you want our cooperation?” he sneered. “Rudy!” “No, he’s right. San is just…a very free spirit.” “A fine compliment,” San interjected with a loud laugh. “But it’s true that I can’t exactly depend on weaklings.” “San, you don’t need to say anything else. By which I mean, please be quiet now or we’ll never get anywhere.” Pierced by an icy stare from Eularia, even the bold San nodded meekly and fell silent. “We are supporters of Faris’s third princess,” Eularia said. Abigail frowned as if she was trying to remember something. “The third princess…would that be Alexandra?” she asked after a moment. “If I recall correctly, she has been imprisoned by the opposing faction, no? But why have you abandoned your leader to come here?” “Because it is the wish of the princess herself. She was close with Sir Ulysses, so we swiftly received news of his kidnapping.” “Kidnapping?” Abigail asked, her eyes widening in surprise. Connie gasped. So much had happened that she’d forgotten all about the fate of the young prince. “Yes. Of course, if circumstances allowed, we would like nothing more than to devote ourselves to freeing the princess. But that cannot be. Do you know anything about Faris’s financial situation?” “A trader and acquaintance of mine told me the kingdom is barely surviving.” “That is true. King Hendrick collapsed at a truly unfortunate time,” Eularia said with a tired sigh. She appeared to have no strong respect for or attachment to the king. “Anyhow…the princess opposes the war,” she concluded. “Got tired of explaining?” San muttered. The statement did lack context. Connie and even Abigail were left feeling confused. “…Wait. What do you mean?” “Right now, the people holding the reins while the king is on his sickbed are in favor of starting a war. Now do you understand? The king’s other children have all been won over, and preparations for war are underway in our homeland. And their target is Adelbide.” Abigail’s face darkened. “…I thought there was a peace treaty between our two kingdoms. If Faris ignores that treaty and starts a war, wouldn’t that give our neighbors an excuse to interfere?” she asked. “Yes, if the invasion were unprovoked. That is why they are creating a justification.” “Exactly,” San interrupted in a casual tone. “That’s why they’ve taken Ulysses. It seems the hawks intend to expose his kidnapping, then advance on Adelbide in retaliation. It was fortunate that he wasn’t an official member of the delegation. Our people are parading a double around back home so as many people as possible will see him. It’s no more than a diversion, of course. I don’t know how long the situation will last, but for now, both sides are watching the other. My guess is we have until the delegation returns home. That’s in less than a month.” San lowered her head, her face serious. “Daeg Gallus is behind the kidnapping. Both of us want to crush them. So will you consider helping us find Ulysses?” she asked. Connie considered the situation. The women did not seem to be lying. Ulysses really had been kidnapped, and Lily Orlamunde’s letter had said that the Holy Grail of Eris referred to Faris’s operation to invade Adelbide. Everything lined up. Connie hated the idea of war. She wanted to help them if she could. But one person could only do so much. “I think we ought to ask the Security Force to help…,” she suggested timidly. Eularia shook her head. “They may already be infiltrated by the organization. That’s why Kendall Levine came to us for help without saying anything publicly. We’ve heard there are Daeg Gallus operatives at the highest levels of Adelbide’s government.” “I-I’m getting dizzy…” Connie had thought the criminal group was only involved in selling drugs, but it seemed she had been wrong. “This plan has been in the works for over a decade, after all,” said San. “It’s hugely important. In fact, our chancellor tried to start a war with Adelbide back then, too. Although they were forced to give it up at the last moment.” Abigail, who had been listening with arms crossed, broke in. “…Why did the attempt ten years ago fail?” She was probably hoping to find a clue as to their next move. “You don’t know?” San asked, looking puzzled for once. What had brought down Daeg Gallus’s scheme and plunged Faris into a decade of hardship? Sunlight glinting off her blond hair, San continued as if the answer were the most obvious thing in the world. “Why, the execution of Scarlett Castiel, of course.” Unfortunately, the master of the house was not at home. The butler who answered the door informed Randolph that he would be back soon and led him into the drawing room. He wasn’t sure how long he waited. He was the one who had decided to come in the first place. And yet, in his heart of hearts, he wouldn’t have minded if the master never arrived. Because if Randolph’s line of thought was right—then the truth was unbearably cruel and sad. “Have you come with all your cards in hand this time?” Perhaps that was why the taunting voice rattled him so much. Randolph let out the breath he had been holding and slowly raised his face. The man standing before him had lost none of his beauty to age. Adolphus Castiel. A key figure in the kingdom, with the magenta eyes of royalty. Everyone associated the Grails with sincerity, but truth be told, Randolph knew of no more sincere a man than Adolphus. Not as a person, but rather in his loyalty to the kingdom. As far as Randolph knew, he had never lived his life as the individual man Adolphus. He lived it as a Castiel who had sworn his loyalty to Adelbide. The principle behind his actions was always the same: service to the kingdom. “…Scarlett’s mother was Aliénore Shibola, am I right?” Randolph asked. From his place on the sofa, Adolphus smiled warmly in affirmation. “According to my research, the originator of the Shibola line was Cornelia Faris. What’s more, Aliénore was a direct descendant of Cornelia,” Randolph went on. Randolph didn’t know why Adolphus married Aliénore. But at the very least, the man before him had known where she came from—the origin of Crownless Aliénore. Randolph was also certain it had been the will of the king. Because every move Adolphus Castiel made was for the sake of the kingdom. “Lily’s letter didn’t include the details, but I think the Holy Grail of Eris—” Adolphus slowly narrowed his eyes. Their strong red tint was characteristic of Adelbide’s royal family. But Scarlett’s eyes were amethyst, a perfect blend of red and blue. In contrast, the eyes of Faris’s current royal family were a bluish purple. Eyes the shade of Scarlett’s held a different meaning. They were the symbol of the lost Starry Crown. “The true aim of the Holy Grail of Eris was to enthrone Scarlett Castiel, who carried the blood of Faris’s old imperial family. With her as their new queen, Adelbide would become a vassal state of Faris in both name and fact.” The blood that ran in Scarlett’s veins was, for Faris, the Starry Crown itself. “Those bloodline-obsessed Farish nobles must have been trying to revive the colonial arrangement from back in the days of empire,” Randolph said. Adolphus remained silent. He listened to Randolph with no sign of anxiety or agitation. “In the beginning, Cecilia Luze’s role was simply to become Enrique’s lover and manipulate him from the shadows. I doubt she set out to become crown princess. To start with, no ordinary duke’s daughter—and a Castiel, one of the four great noble families, at that—would have paid attention to a mere viscount’s daughter. But contrary to Cecilia’s expectations, Scarlett dragged her into the public eye. They must have panicked. I’m sure they wanted to avoid drawing attention to Cecilia. Not to say they intended to have Scarlett executed. If she died, their grand plan would come to a grinding halt. The original Holy Grail of Eris could not work without Scarlett. Or rather, Scarlett herself was the plan.” When she was executed, Faris was forced to retreat and rework its strategy—a process that took ten years. “Adelbide would have been caught completely off guard. And it was Adelbide that was saved by Scarlett’s death, wasn’t it?” Adelbide had not engaged in war with any country since it won its independence against Faris and became a kingdom of its own. Of course, there had been minor skirmishes along the borders, but ten years ago, the military was likely quite weak. It would have had no chance of winning a war. If the kingdom’s elites had learned of the plan, what would they have done? If Randolph had been in their shoes, he would have sought a way to avoid war. And as he was poring over the records from that time, something strange had caught his attention. The primary piece of evidence in the attempted assassination of Cecilia Luze was a poison bottle found in Scarlett’s room. There was no sign that anyone had broken into her family residence to plant it there. That was taken as proof of her guilt, but Randolph knew she had been framed. Which left only one explanation. “Breaking into a duke’s mansion is an entirely different thing from breaking into the safe at headquarters. To sneak in and plant a bottle of poison in the duke’s daughter’s room without leaving a shred of evidence? There’s only one person in the world who could have pulled that off.” Aisha’s twisted mix of love and hatred was the trigger. But when Randolph looked closely, he realized sparks were smoldering everywhere. The Faris plot. The shadowy work of Daeg Gallus. Scarlett’s own actions, too, were not without fault. A jumble of trivial events became entangled by chance, forming a thread that looked very much like fate. Was it a thread of destruction, or of salvation? Randolph didn’t know. But he did know that this kingdom had survived as a result. And who had cut the thread of Scarlett Castiel’s life just like the Goddess Atropos? Randolph fixed the man sitting before him with a steady, unclouded gaze. “Am I wrong, Duke Castiel?”