You Will Not Leave Alive
The doctor turned toward Hagen with desperate eyes, demanding proof of his own movements. Hagen stepped forward and pretended to search his memory.
“Ah, I believe that was the moment. After the examination I left the room briefly to deliver the bill. It must have been right after the young master’s lesson ended.”
“Y-yes, that’s right! I was waiting for Lord Hagen under the stairs and only happened to overhear the conversation.”
Hearing the doctor’s explanation, the Duke rolled his eyes in search of Hilda. There was nowhere left to flee; she stood pressed against the door, head bowed, shoulders hunched tight.
“You!”
Startled by Hagen’s roar, Hilda lifted her face. The easy smile she had worn until now was gone. Confusion flooded the expression stripped of all amusement. Shock that she could not possibly have forgotten the date of the regular examination was written plain across her features.
In everything concerning the townhouse she knew far more than the Duke, who only came up when business required it. That day, aside from the tutor, no other guest—and certainly no doctor—should have been present at that hour.
“Hilda. Did you not claim you knew nothing?”
Selber recalled Maeve’s words.
If it is not the Emperor cleverly arranging matters to ruin your reputation, or if the wet nurse’s affection for the young master is genuine, she will certainly react to “Tarbec.” Your Grace need do nothing. Simply make her confess of her own accord.
The Duke’s lowered voice sounded almost calm. He neither shouted nor scolded. That plain, questioning manner only deepened Hilda’s terror.
“An explanation is in order.”
“I-I’m wronged! Your Grace!”
Without hesitation Hilda flung herself flat on the floor. Kneeling, she let tears fall one by one, covering her mouth with both hands as she pleaded in a voice thick with moisture.
“What exactly do you find so unjust?”
A cold voice devoid of the slightest emotion continued evenly.
“This concerns the young Duke’s safety. Did you properly look after Aern?”
“There has never been a time I failed to look after him properly!”
Hilda cried out in alarm. Clutching both hands over her trembling chest as if to steady it, she spoke with an air of innocence.
“There must have been some misunderstanding. The words of a tutor who quit after a single day—how could I trust such a woman and report her to Your Grace?”
“So you did hear something.”
The wet nurse clenched her shaking hands into fists and hung her head low. Maeve, who had been prepared to step forward and testify herself if Hilda insisted to the end that she had heard nothing, felt relief that the situation was resolving more easily than expected.
“Whether you deliberately hid it or merely postponed answering—none of that matters.”
Aern, who had been checking the rash on his wrist as it calmed after gulping down the medicine the doctor had given him, lifted his head at Selber’s words. He stared blankly at the chaos. He could not understand what was happening. All he had wanted was to know how the Duke thought of him.
“What I asked of you was never judgment. Only that you faithfully perform the duty entrusted to you.”
Selber pressed a hand to the hair at his temple and twisted his expression. Meeting the eyes of Aern, who was watching the scene in a daze, he continued.
“You dared report a falsehood and endangered the young Duke’s safety. I may as well regard this as a challenge to me and to this house.”
He forced down the rising volume of his voice. Each time he closed his mouth, the sound of grinding teeth could be heard.
“Answer me. I am asking you now.”
Even with ten mouths she would have nothing to say. Alone in the remaining room, Maeve breathed in the scent of cooling tea and listened.
“⋯⋯H-how could that be⋯⋯!”
“Nothing but excuses to the end.”
He rose slowly. To the knight who had stood like a shadow outside the door he gave a brief order.
“Drag her away.”
The voice was low and even. Looking down at Hilda curled in on herself, he continued.
“Make her spit out whatever else she is hiding.”
Hilda shrank deeper at the cruel command that fell directly above her head.
“Use any means necessary until she vomits up everything she knows.”
The air in the room grew heavy. As the Duke brushed past her he said,
“You will not leave this place alive.”
The moment the order fell, the knight moved swiftly, seizing Hilda’s arm and hauling her upright. For an instant the wet nurse’s gaze scattered; she shouted toward the Duke.
“Your Grace, you cannot do this! His Majesty the Emperor—!”
Having surrendered everything to emotion and screamed, the woman’s eyes cooled in an instant. At the wet nurse’s abrupt silence every gaze in the dining room turned to her.
“⋯⋯How do you intend to take this matter?”
Breathing hard, the wet nurse played her final card by invoking the Emperor’s name. Maeve propped her chin on her hand and closed her eyes, waiting to see what reaction would come from the Duke.
The Duke gestured to the knight holding her. The knight released the woman’s arm for a moment and stood ready at her side.
“It is only an allergy. To cut me off—me, whom His Majesty the Emperor himself recommended—over something like this? To say you will kill me!”
“Well. This time even His Majesty will not protect you.”
Selber replied with a light, almost casual air.
“Once this spreads it will not stop at a simple allergy story. The way rumors swell⋯⋯ you know that better than anyone.”
Selber curled one corner of his mouth. There was steel in the words. Unable to tell how much he knew, the wet nurse could only clamp her lips shut.
“The wet nurse recommended by His Majesty concealed vital information about the young Duke’s health. She made a habit of lying. This time luck held and nothing came of it, but anything could have happened. His Majesty’s vigilance toward the ducal house has gone too far.”
The quiet delivery of what would follow was more threatening than any shout filled with rage.
“Would such uncomfortable talk not arise?”
The temperature in the room dropped another degree. Unable to meet his eyes, the woman’s gaze fixed on the floor. She gripped her own wrist hard to hide the trembling of her hands. The harder she tried to suppress it, the worse her shoulders shook.
“Y-you go too far.”
“Is that not simply how rumors are?”
The Duke shrugged as he answered her.
“His Majesty is quick with his calculations.”
He glanced the other way, then, as if finishing the sum, met the wet nurse’s eyes head-on.
“He will not leap into the middle of scandal merely to protect one commoner.”
At the cold words Hilda’s legs gave way and she slid down the wall. Her gaze wandered through empty air. Aern looked back and forth between his adoptive father and the wet nurse with a face full of fear.
“For the record, I intend to handle this as your personal decision. It would be wise not to make the foolish choice of mentioning His Majesty again before your head is cut off.”
“Hic⋯⋯.”
Stopping beside her, he whispered low into her ear, then gave the waiting knight another order.
“Drag her away. Hagen, prepare a letter to His Majesty.”
“As you command.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
The knight hauled Hilda out without hesitation. Turned to stone, she stared only at the floor even as she was dragged.
Hagen watched the scene quietly, then bowed once toward the Duke and Aern. His steps as he left to prepare the letter paper were as composed as ever.
“Aern, you return to your room as well.”
“⋯⋯.”
Ordinarily Aern would have gone back to his room in silence at the Duke’s dismissal. Now he stood as if his feet were glued to the floor. The Duke tilted his head in mild puzzlement and looked at him.
“Why are you still standing there?”
“⋯⋯You’re not angry?”
“Is there something for which I should be angry with you?”
Selber asked as though he genuinely could not understand.
“You saw. I have an allergy. You said it was important. I can’t learn swordsmanship, and like this I won’t even be able to survive a northern winter.”
Aern was suddenly afraid of what might come from the Duke’s mouth. But Selber only glanced at the Tarbec oil, then looked at him with unexpected calm and spoke.
“In that case, returning north would be difficult.”
“So? Why aren’t you saying anything to me?”
“Because it is not your fault. Simply stay here.”
Ha. Aern let out a hollow laugh at Selber’s words. His bloodless face had gone pale and rigid, trembling. He stepped backward. At the bitter smile directed emptily into space, Selber flinched.
“⋯⋯I’d rather you got angry.”
A thin, shaking voice spilled from Aern’s lips.
“You could have called yourself mad for ever thinking of entrusting the heir’s seat to someone like me. If you had denounced me for disappointing you, I would have felt safer.”
“⋯⋯.”
“If it’s like this⋯⋯ if it’s really like this⋯⋯ then I’ll know.”
His darting eyes laid bare his anxiety. It was obvious he was speaking slowly on purpose to hide the tremor in his voice.
“That you truly have no interest in me at all.”
“That is not so.”
Brows drawn, Selber took a step toward Aern. Aern retreated the same distance; his young eyes filled with misery.
“Why did you bring me here in the first place?”
The boy’s eyes, as he let out a self-mocking laugh, were turning red. It was different from the bloodshot eyes caused by the allergy. Even when his eyes itched and hurt he had never shown it; the Duke’s response was causing him greater pain.
“You never expected anything from the start. You’re not trying to make me the heir, you don’t love me, you’ve never once thought of me as a son.”
“⋯⋯.”
Selber looked as if he might speak, then closed his mouth again. Aern tipped his head toward the ceiling. No one present failed to recognize the desperate effort to hold back tears.
“If this is how I have to live, it would have been better just to wander the slums.”