Chapter 241

A strange silence settled between Iona and Leroy for a moment.

Leroy needed a bit of time to process her confession.

And understandably so—what she said wasn’t something one could easily accept.

He had been plenty shocked when he first heard that she was the biological daughter of Count Modrov. But to think there was an even deeper secret behind her birth?

It sounded almost like a tasteless joke, yet Leroy knew well enough that Iona wasn’t the type to lie about something like this.

After a long silence, Leroy finally opened his mouth to speak.

“Do you have any proof?”

“Do you remember when His Grace spoke ill of my father?” she asked.

“Yeah… I remember feeling a bit weird about that,” he replied, forcing a polite smile as if to hide his true thoughts.

He also saw Hayden as irredeemable scum, but using that as ammunition against Iona didn’t sit right with him. To Leroy, someone like Hayden couldn’t possibly be placed in the same category as Iona.

“At the time, you said the reason the Archduke disliked my father might have something to do with his sister.”

“…Are you saying you’re the daughter of that imperial princess?”

“There’s a chance I’m not. But I think the odds are that I am.”

“I’d like to hear your reasoning,” he said.

As if she had been waiting for that, Iona began to explain how she came to suspect the truth of her own birth.

Leroy’s expression, which had remained serious until then, instantly hardened at the mention of Richard.

It seemed Iona wasn’t the only one who found Richard’s constant talk of his noona sickening.

Swallowing down a bitter feeling that rose in his chest, Leroy pressed his fingers against his lips.

By the end of the long explanation, he had come to the same conclusion as Iona.

It wasn’t certain—but the odds were high.

And that wasn’t something he could just ignore.

After a prolonged silence, Leroy looked her in the eye and asked,

“Do you want to become emperor?”

The unexpected question left Iona bewildered.

“No. Of course not,” she replied.

“I thought you were confessing to me because you had dreams of overturning the system.”

“I’m not that ambitious,” she said plainly.

Her dreams were modest, even small.

Right now, she was simply trying to recover the things she had lost while obsessing over duty and righteousness.

Sure, that path was full of exhausting and oversized obstacles—but none of those were her true goals.

She already had her hands full. There was no way she’d get involved in something as messy as a fight for the throne.

When Iona firmly shook her head, Leroy pointed out the uncomfortable truth.

“But once the current royal family is brought down, someone will have to take their place.”

“The Archduke’s succession rights should take priority over mine,” she answered.

“What a shame. I thought, thanks to the woman I married, I might just get the chance to sit next to the imperial throne.”

Leroy replied playfully.

But Iona’s expression turned suddenly serious.

She leaned in close and asked,

“…Do you want me to?”

If Leroy had said yes, Iona looked ready to reach up and pluck the stars from the sky for him—throne included.

Caught off guard by his own joke, Leroy quickly shook his head, overwhelmed by her intensity.

As he did, the tension in Iona’s shoulders finally eased.

She gave a small cough, trying to cover the awkwardness.

“If you ever need me to, just say the word.”

“…No, I appreciate it, but it’s fine.”

“But if I really did become the ruler of this country,” she added with a small smile, “I’m pretty sure I could shower you with all the rare treasures in the world.”

Iona’s expression visibly brightened when she realized there might actually be a silver lining to claiming the imperial throne.

Leroy quickly calmed her down, saying that such benefits could be had even if she just dumped the entire responsibility onto the Archduke.

After all, to the Archduke, the daughter of Princess Teresa was like a wound that never healed.

If it were ever revealed that Iona was his blood relative, he would no doubt move mountains to make up for the lost years.

As they seriously discussed how best to wring benefits out of the Archduke, both Iona and Leroy burst into laughter.

The absurdity of the conversation—arguing over who should or shouldn’t sit on the imperial throne—suddenly hit them.

After a few chuckles, the smile on Iona’s face gradually faded.

She glanced sideways at Leroy, then asked quietly,

“…Are you okay?”

“With what?”

“The possibility that I might be part of the imperial family you’ve always despised.”

“But you grew up never knowing that. I don’t think you need to feel responsible for something you never benefitted from.”

As Leroy spoke, he gently took Iona’s hand resting on the table.

It was as if to say: Don’t act like a criminal for something that was never your fault.

Iona had predicted this would be his reaction.

Even so, it didn’t feel any less overwhelming.

While she hesitated, unsure how to put her feelings into words, Leroy changed the subject to pull her out of it.

“You said you lived alone with your teacher growing up, right? If so, he might have known something.”

“Oh… him. He’s already dead. Couldn’t be interrogated even if we wanted to. He was eliminated without a trace when I entered House Modrov.”

“Are you sure he didn’t fake his death and vanish?”

“No, I confirmed it myself. He’s definitely dead. I guarantee it.”

“That’s…”

Leroy wavered between that’s unfortunate and that’s probably for the best.

Just then, Iona shrugged lightly and added,

“If he were alive, I would’ve killed him myself.”

“…Then it’s definitely for the best.”

Leroy replied after a brief pause.

Iona, arms crossed, stared quietly at the flickering candlelight before her.

As she had just reconfirmed, she had no concrete evidence to prove her birth.

And even if she were to be officially recognized as imperial blood, the rewards were unlikely to be worth much.

Her attention had to be elsewhere.

“What matters is why I had to be hidden away in the first place.”

Iona suspected that Count Modrov had less-than-noble reasons for raising her in secret.

A man who betrayed the woman he loved wouldn’t take in her child purely out of a sense of duty.

He must have had some plan for her—used her to secure a future for himself.

Just as she had once bitterly acknowledged in the past: Iona was someone’s buried shame.

Swallowing the bitter laugh threatening to escape her lips, Iona spoke calmly,

“First, I think we should request a meeting with the Archduke. We need to discuss this matter together.”

“Are you planning to be completely honest with him?”

“…Not sure yet. But there are things I need to hear from him first.”

Before she could decide the road ahead, Iona knew she had to understand her roots.

It was the first time in a very long while that she felt a genuine interest in her birth mother.

***

The next morning, just before dawn, Iona and Leroy finally met with the Archduke again.

Given what they had learned—and taking into account Richard’s previous visit—they chose a meeting place that guaranteed secrecy.

A secluded warehouse owned by one of the Archduke’s retainers proved the perfect spot to discuss matters that should never leave the room.

Unlike Iona and Leroy, who arrived early, the Archduke showed up nearly half an hour late.

It was the first time they saw him fully cloaked in such a way, completely bundled to obscure his identity.

With his wrinkled features hidden, he looked more like a man in his prime—strong, broad-shouldered, full of presence.

He strode directly toward Iona and Leroy, then roughly yanked off the hat covering his face.

His expression looked even more fatigued than usual.

Without a word, he thrust something toward them—it was a letter envelope, already torn open.

His voice was hoarse when he finally spoke.

“Read it.”

-- End Of The Chapter --

 

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