The Seal of Remarriage
Had the road home ever felt this long?
The moment the afternoon meeting ended, Herman—fresh from a private audience with the king—climbed straight into the carriage. In his hand, of course, rested the marriage approval document bearing the royal seal.
After a long, hard drive he finally reached the mansion and summoned the head maid the instant he stepped inside.
“Welcome home, Your Grace.”
“Where is my wife?”
“She is in the study at present.”
“The study?”
Without resting?
The unspoken question lingered in the air.
The head maid cast a sidelong glance toward the second floor where the study lay and continued.
“She said that now that you have returned to the mansion, she ought to look over the internal affairs office.”
“……I told her to rest a little.”
A few days of proper rest would have been perfectly fine.
Diving straight into the documents the moment she arrived was so very like her, and yet it worried him all the same. She must already have been under strain from the merchant guild affairs. The thought that taking on household administration as well might push her body too far was only natural.
“About what time will dinner be ready?”
“It should take roughly an hour.”
“……Have the dessert brought to my bedroom.”
“I shall prepare it at once. I will also inform Madam that Your Grace has arrived.”
“No.”
Herman looked down at the document envelope he himself had carried.
“I will go to her.”
At the same hour.
She handled everything so cleanly.
Riena, reviewing the ledgers the head maid had brought, murmured in quiet admiration. She had always known the woman’s work was meticulous, yet ledgers this flawless—without a single discrepancy—were astonishingly easy to examine.
The rest of the books were the same. Ingredients and supplies for the Bertis mansion were distributed with precise regularity according to fixed monthly standards. The knight order’s ledgers were equally immaculate.
Well, the knight order falls under his jurisdiction, after all.
Anyone who tried even the slightest unnecessary scheming would be overturned at once.
The other ledgers are fine at this level.
What remained was the internal affairs ledger under Marchioness Faisant’s charge.
The head maid and the knight commander handled the supplementary matters—procuring goods and provisions for the household. Marchioness Faisant, by contrast, oversaw the entire management of the Bertis ducal family’s domestic affairs.
It was originally the domain that belonged to the mistress of the house, but the position had stood vacant, so she—Herman’s aunt and a direct member of the bloodline—had managed it in her stead.
The marchioness, however, had a few notable problems—
“Marchioness Faisant? Hmm…… She is still terribly sensitive to fashion. At the last party she wore a shawl made of golden fox fur—said to cost as much as an entire shop.”
“Even for a simple tea party she has an entirely new dress made, accessories and all!”
“A friend of mine works at a salon. She usually puts things on credit under the Faisant name…… but every so often she charges them to Bertis instead…….”
Then as now, Marchioness Faisant was the sort who relieved stress through extravagance. A woman who hated falling behind others more than she hated death itself.
Prideful, too.
And exceedingly greedy.
There were even quiet rumors that she gambled on the side.
She had heard those stories before the divorce, so she could not be certain they still held true—but people did not change overnight. If that vain streak remained intact—
She will certainly have tampered with the ledgers as well.
This opportunity would have let her confirm the scale of Bertis’s wealth at the same time. Her eyes would have grown even greedier.
Yet the ledger she had been handed showed no particular irregularities.
Because, of course—
This one is a fake.
Prepared to deceive Herman and the other aides, no doubt. Since the family’s internal affairs had been entirely in Marchioness Faisant’s hands all this time, Herman would have received only regular reports and never examined the books himself.
“I suppose I have no choice but to meet her in person…….”
Truthfully, she had no desire to seek out someone who already disliked her. A visit would bring nothing but unpleasant words. Even so, if she wanted the real secret ledger of embezzled funds, a direct confrontation was unavoidable.
First thing tomorrow I will gather the aides.
Aides under Marchioness Faisant’s authority were still present in this mansion. They were almost certainly the ones who blinded and deafened the other aides, manipulated the ledgers, and controlled the flow of information.
Knock, knock—
A polite knock sounded, and the door opened.
I asked to be left alone for a while……
Wondering if something had happened, Riena slowly raised her head. The moment she recognized who stood there, her golden pupils brightened.
“Your Grace!”
He strode in still wearing his outdoor coat, as though he had only just returned from the palace. Riena sprang from her seat and hurried toward him.
“You’ve only just arrived? What about the matter?”
He had said he would meet the king today concerning their remarriage. She was intensely curious whether it had gone well.
In answer to her question Herman held out the envelope he had brought. She took it and untied the cord sealing the flap.
“This is…….”
Beneath the paper gleamed a golden lion and two crossed swords.
The king’s seal.
And since this was a document concerning marriage, that meant—
“The king has approved our remarriage.”
No one could undo this marriage now. Not other nobles, not the retainers—not even Riena herself.
“You intend to go see Marchioness Faisant?”
After they had confirmed the marriage document, Herman’s eyes widened the moment he heard her words over dinner in the dining room. Seeing how startled he looked, Riena spoke carefully.
“Would that be all right?”
Even if her conduct was poor, she was still Herman’s aunt—family. Though Riena had become his wife again, casting open suspicion on a member of the household would not look well.
Contrary to her worry, however, Herman merely looked briefly surprised. He neither defended Marchioness Faisant nor scolded Riena.
“I have no objection.”
If the mistress of the house wished to visit a relative, there was no reason to stop her.
Only—
“Are you certain you will be all right?”
His greater concern was that she might hear harsh words if she went.
“I will be fine. I am only going because there is something I need to confirm.”
“Because of the ledgers?”
“……!”
Riena nearly dropped the knife she was holding. The words followed so matter-of-factly that she could only part her lips without sound.
“You knew?”
“Of course.”
How could he not?
Herman calmly finished slicing his steak and added,
“I was the one who gave her permission to handle the internal affairs in the first place.”
Entrusting the ledgers to Marchioness Faisant had been Herman’s plan from the beginning—everything from the fact that she was quietly siphoning the family’s wealth to the fact that she intended to use that money for other schemes.
“There is a gathering my aunt frequently attends.”
“Ah—could it be La Villi?”
La Villi.
An exclusive social circle in the capital where noblewomen gathered to read poetry and share their impressions. Entry required both solid family prestige and a firm footing in high society, so many looked upon it with envy.
And among its members—
“The Duchess of Kratz is there as well.”
“Kratz…… you mean—”
The current speaker of the parliamentary council and head of the Aristocratic Faction.
Wait—then that means……!
“Are you saying the marchioness has turned her back on Bertis?”
Was there anyone in the kingdom who did not know that Kratz and Bertis were natural enemies? As the leading houses of the royalist and aristocratic factions respectively, the two families had been bitter rivals for generations.
The mere mention of that name in connection with Marchioness Faisant already told the whole story.
“She turned her back quite some time ago.”
Once real authority over Bertis passed to Herman, her own position had naturally narrowed. Moreover she was no longer a Bertis daughter but the Marchioness Faisant; maintaining her former prestige and influence had become difficult.
“I do not know the precise reason, but contact with Kratz seems certain. They have often attended salons and the opera together.”
The Marquis Faisant himself had even met privately with the Duke of Kratz—just the two of them.
“But I lacked solid proof.”
Bertis had no need of a traitor. To sever ties with the marchioness completely, however, clearer evidence was required. And so Herman, freshly divorced from Riena, had deliberately entrusted the internal affairs ledgers to her.
She would surely—
“Use that money to prepare bribes.”
And now that the mistress of the house had returned—
“She will have to answer for what she has done.”