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Chapter 86
‘Entrusting such a grave matter to another’s choice, all to win a woman’s heart,’ Nils felt a pang of frustration internally but dared not show his discontent outwardly.
Nevertheless, it was true that this whimsical refusal hadn’t precipitated the situation into the worst-case scenario.
If only Iona was properly cajoled and persuaded, all problems would surely be neatly resolved.
Separate from his poor relationship with Iona, Nils did not think persuading her would be significantly difficult.
Being under the Crown Prince’s wing, she, of all people, would not want to be seen unfavorably by the royal family.
“...Understood. You must keep that promise.”
Nils stood from his seat, estimating whether Iona had stayed home today.
He felt like he had wasted time darting here and there all day, but at least the end of this ordeal was finally in sight.
Nils vowed never to mess with the family property again and bowed politely to Leroy. Then he left the duke’s residence with an attitude as casual as his unceremonious entrance.
Leroy did not bother to see Nils out, but watched him leave through the window.
Seeing how the coachman hastily spurred the horses the moment the carriage door closed, it seemed his master was in a hurry.
Leroy wondered what sort of conversation Nils would have with Iona once he returned home.
He should at least grovel and beg to make it worth allowing her the choice, though it was questionable whether she had enough discernment left to consider her options.
To Leroy, it seemed Nils still hadn’t fully come to his senses.
‘Well, whether he pleads or stands firm in his pride, the result will likely be the same.’
The Modrov family, not only suffered a major loss to their assets but also lost the trust relationship with the royal family that had supported them for a long time.
Moreover, with the head of the family, who should remedy the situation, away attending to other matters in a distant region, even a rapid response was difficult.
It was clear that a ship led by Nils as captain would be unable to properly counter the incoming storm.
On the other hand, Iona always seemed to instinctively know what the right choice was, always flipping a good hand as if she could see through everything behind it.
Even when Iona first declared she would become the head of the household, Leroy treated it as a distasteful joke. But before he knew it, he found himself believing without a doubt that she would manage to do it.
What she was gradually understanding wasn’t limited to the affairs of the Modrov family to which she belonged.
Leroy recalled a conversation he had with her a few days ago.
“Leroy, I’ve found Lady Viviana.”
“What?”
Leroy couldn’t trust his ears at Iona’s sudden bombshell.
He had never told Iona that he was looking for Viviana. Not because he didn’t trust her, but because he judged it was not a burden to be shared with her.
How on earth did she know to track Viviana’s whereabouts? Moreover, she even managed to locate her target before Leroy could.
Leroy, in his confusion, threw out a chaotic flurry of questions.
“Found Viviana? What on earth are you talking about? Is she safe? Where has she been all this time? More importantly, how did you...?”
“Lady Viviana was hiding in the capital, working under Miss Erna as a maid. While it is true that she seemed to be well without any physical harm, it’s hard to say she’s completely safe under the custody of His Highness, the Crown Prince.”
“Custody?”
“...His Highness, the Crown Prince, has been securing and monitoring Lady Viviana for a while. To use her as a means to manipulate you in the future.”
Leroy felt heat surging to the tips of his head.
Wasn’t the royal family satisfied with turning his surroundings into a mess? So now they were trying to control him further by taking an old friend hostage?
He had been silently gathering strength to uncover the truths of the past. He thought he needed to suppress his emotions coldly to scheme for the future.
But even he, always maintaining a cautious demeanor, felt a momentary impulse to impulsively raid the royal palace and drag his enemy down from their throne.
He wanted to bring Viviana to safety immediately, but it was Iona who stopped him.
Only after hearing her calm voice, which soothed him, could Leroy finally quell his anger and regain his rationality.
Iona already had a detailed plan in place to extract Viviana from the Crown Prince’s grasp.
The moment Leroy attempted to make contact and was discovered, it was certain that the Crown Prince would take action, she explained, insisting that she would handle this matter herself.
Leroy had always harbored suspicions about her inexplicable, boundless goodwill, but in that moment, he couldn’t help but vocalize his thoughts.
“I really don’t understand why you’re doing all this for me.”
It was true.
Her zeal in assisting him was too excessive to simply be about seeking revenge on the Crown Prince.
Rescuing Viviana was certainly important to Leroy, but her existence wasn’t particularly helpful to his cause.
Rather, it was fortunate that she was not accused of being the same criminal for helping the child of a traitor.
However, in response to Leroy’s questions, Iona replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Did I not tell you that the day would come when I would make you feel the weight of the loyalty I speak of?”
In that moment, Leroy felt as if his heart had sunk.
Until then, he had thought that his relationship with Iona was based on a particularly well-aligned mutual understanding.
On the other hand, the emotions she harbored for him seemed infinitely deficient compared to the love she had once devoted to her former lover.
It made sense since the time they had spent together was inconceivably brief compared to the time she had spent with the Crown Prince.
But was he the only one who had been timidly retreating, frightened by such thoughts?
Even so, could he say he was insignificant to her?
Leroy wondered if perhaps, after a long detour, it was their destiny to meet again like this.
Even though she might be looking elsewhere due to a wrong choice for a moment, he still believed he was her true partner. And so, recognizing this, she was doing her utmost for him...
When he thought about it, he did have somewhat plausible reasons to consider their meeting as destiny.
After a lengthy silence, Leroy, with a transparency brought on by not wanting to hold onto it alone any longer, brought out a piece of memory he had never dared to reveal.
“Iona, do you remember a time when you didn’t yet have a name?”
***
Indeed, their first meeting was not a recent event.
Rather, they had to go far back into the past just to barely trace its origin.
That was why he was not terribly disappointed that Iona did not remember him.
Before reuniting with her, Leroy too had spent half of his time forgetting the events of that time.
The year he first met Iona, his family’s vacation home was a duke’s mansion located on the Melthus beach.
The route from his home to Melthus beach included the capital, and so, when the duke and duchess headed to the summer house, they would also stop by the capital to mingle with acquaintances.
From a child’s point of view, this could not be anything but a great ordeal.
There wouldn’t be a child who enjoyed meeting distant relatives and their parents’ friends.
Moreover, meeting the daughter of the neighboring house, Viviana Schmitz, with whom they had nothing to do, only made the formal schedule feel all the more tedious.
Although she was his fiancée, to her, it was just a promise arbitrarily made by adults.
The parties involved merely coexisted, seeing each other as mere cattle or chickens, so in reality, Leroy and Viviana were like childhood friends, or rather, their relationship was even more akin to antagonistic kin.
And, of course, no one cares about the hardships that antagonists go through.
About 30 minutes after Viviana left her seat, claiming to go to the bathroom, Leroy poignantly realized that cruel truth.
[I am leaving to find freedom.]
All he found in her empty seat was a farewell note scribbled on a napkin by Viviana.
Leroy clutched it as if to crumple it, overtaken by a sense of betrayal.
‘I repeatedly told her just to leave it because I was afraid she might have an accident.’
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