CH 51

“…Impossible, Sir Kane.”

With blurred vision, I heard a very familiar voice.

“Lise is too smart to be in that household. They won’t be capable of having a proper conversation at family dinners. They’re not the least bit smart enough to communicate with Lise.”

Oh, there aren’t many people I know who can talk this harshly and feistily.

“Right, that’s also a factor too.”

It was quite a direct refusal.

“It’s hard to even just imagine it. Lise is too cute. If they leave a family portrait, what are they going to do with that over-abundant sense of disparity, Sir Joaquin? It should be at least as good as the Ferelmen household.”

When some of the offended party tried to protest, the person snorted and said.

“I’m her godfather.”

I see, as expected, it was Viscount Ferelmen.

“Don’t get on my nerves, or else…“

He seemed to be threatening people using his position as my godfather. And as if it was some great privilege, he looked at those people arrogantly.

That’s when someone suddenly jumped up from the table.

‘Erhan?’

His eyes were burning. In the midst of his eyebrows rising, a strange glow lingered within his eyes.

“Viscount Ferelmen.”

The low voice said chillingly.

“That’s enough. I don’t think that’s the most important issue at the moment.”

The atmosphere froze as if cold water had been poured down.

“Or else you want me to start treason?”

What? Treason?

I opened my eyes wide in astonishment.

I’m doing all of this to keep the rebels out of Cerceus’ estate and you’ll willingly become a traitor of your own volition?

No matter how much I always put up with everything, I couldn’t just stay still hearing that word.

It was when I was about to get up to grab him by the collar.

***

“Lise! Lise! Are you sleeping?”

I looked up in surprise. I never planned to sleep tonight, but I dozed off for a while.

“No, come on in.”

I hurriedly pulled myself together and opened the door. Diel was standing at the door with an excited expression.

“It’s time. Let’s go.”

“Okay.”

It was already midnight. I headed quietly for the greenhouse with Diel. I obviously had a very absurd dream but almost everything was already starting to blur out.

‘Let’s try to remember as much as possible. It will certainly happen in the future.’

However, all I could remember was that Erhan spoke of treason and confronted Ferelmen himself. Maybe it had something to do with the godfather matter…

‘Rebellion… Erhan… Oh, my God.’

As I was desperately trying to remember my dream, I arrived at the greenhouse in the corner of the garden. I and Diel settled in the bushes next to the greenhouse.

Soon after, one of the top staff of Ferelmen was seen coming out from the greenhouse. Now only Aaron is left inside.

We held our breath and waited.

***

Aaron waited for about 20 minutes patiently.

Ferelmen’s staff takes turns watching him for six hours. The worst of them was Diel Molekin, who seemed to be always jittery when talking to him.

Nevertheless, he had to unconditionally infiltrate the Duke’s Castle.

‘Fuck…’

Every time he thought of Lise’s face which he had seen only twice, one on the first day, and when the buds sprouted out, his teeth grind on their own.

‘Once Sir Wederick seizes this Duchy… the first thing I’ll do is put a knife on that pretty face.’

Even if he’s just a fallen noble, he was still of noble birth. He’s just holding it in for a great cause but he’s normally not used to doing this kind of chores.

Naturally, his anger was all directed at Lise.

He didn’t like the way she looked down on him. Even though she was just a commoner, her arrogant attitude of ordering him to do such lowly tasks was extremely infuriating.

‘No, it’s much better not to wait and just kill her when a chance comes.’

Wederick and Roman also seemed to be quite burdened with Lise’s existence. Anyway, it was true that Erhan left for a place beyond their control because of her.

Of course, it required Wederick’s permission, but Aaron was already out of his mind right now.

He hasn’t slept in days and even if he had the chance to close his eyes, his bed was very uncomfortable. Fortunately, he had at least picked up some sleep today.

It was because 3 days ago, Diel did some pretty things for the first time.

“Aaron, I’m sorry, but… I’m going to play hooky for a while. If the next watchman asks, please tell him I was there.”

“Why should I?”

“If you do, I’ll give you something in exchange. I’ve got a girlfriend, but I can’t take the time off to see her… I’ll do anything you want, please. If Lise finds out, she won’t let me go.”

“Then I’d like to have a meat pie, so please give me that.”

“Nobody eats meat pies here…You have a bad diet. Anyway, I got it.”

The meat pie was a means of contacting other spies in case of unavoidable circumstances. Aaron left half of the meat pie that the maid brought uneaten and put the secretly hidden magic item and a note inside the meat and sent it back to the maid.

If delivered well, he will definitely come at this time when Diel is absent.

Aaron tested a few times carefully and Diel really didn’t come to his turn. It was clear that it would be the same again this time.

Still, he waited for 20 minutes since you’ll never know, but not even the shadow of Diel was seen.

‘Good. That stupid guy really won’t come today.’

No one stepped into the greenhouse except for Ferelmen’s people or the fat maid who brought them the food.

It’s sure now that no one will come to the little greenhouse used by the attending physician’s assistant in the middle of the night. Aaron couldn’t sleep so he grabbed his dizzy head and made two bird noises.

Anyway, at this speed, the flowers wouldn’t fully bloom within the remaining deadline. If this keeps increasing just by ten flowers every ten days as is, he would probably go crazy.

It was terrible enough to imagine being chased away by that rude little girl after all this hard work. Somehow, he desperately needed someone’s help to succeed.

And finally, the door to the greenhouse opened.

He breathed a sigh of relief now that he could take a nap for a while.

***

The sound of birds twitched in the greenhouse. Indeed, someone was walking to the greenhouse from far away. I breathe deeply next to Diel.

“Shall we hit the scene…?”

“No. “

When Diel, who confirmed that someone entered the greenhouse asked breathlessly, I answered firmly.

“Now that we’ve found a tail we’ve got to figure out their purpose. Are you going to make the same mistake as when Esther bit her tongue?”

I and Diel did not even necessarily have to hit the scene in the first place. Their original purpose itself was to find the other spy and predict their next move.

I knew Aaron too well. He tended to think that he would never suffer.

He’s the type of fallen aristocrat who disdains those he thinks were below him to even enter his eyes.

He was a human being who didn’t give her even a single herb even if I begged him while I’m helping at the treatment center in my previous life.

I pushed him to the limit so it was only obvious that he would call someone to pamper him if he was given the chance.

The Bercalia flower’s cultivation mainly consisted of constant labor work so it didn’t require a lot of know-how.

And just as I thought so, the man who sneaked in didn’t come out for six hours. Apparently, Aaron has made another spy, who has a lower status than him, work and is probably asleep during those times.

As time passed and dawn came, the man went out of the greenhouse again at dusk. I could only check the spy’s silhouette in the middle of the night, but now I can properly check his figure in the light of dawn.

My domain within the castle was not so big, so even if I checked the gray-haired young man, I couldn’t figure out who he was. I patted Diel and asked quietly, “Do you know who he is? Is he a servant?”

“No,” Diel whispered with a somewhat shocked expression

“Then?”

“Kane Ashills.”

“Who is that?”

“…He’s with the knights. He’s not an official knight yet but he’s been around for a long time.”

If it was regarding the knights, it was an area I didn’t know at all. The duchess also believed in Commander Joaquin and did not care much about it.

‘Wait.’

I was lost in thought, frowning.

‘To say that the Duchess only believes in Commander Joaquin… If something goes wrong with him then…’

I quickly recalled what happened before my regression. There were quite a few cases where I met fairly high-ranking rebels, but I have no memory of Sir Joaquin.

He must have been removed in the early stages.

I took a moment to seriously consider the intimacy between me and Commander Joaquin.

To be honest, we don’t have a lot of interaction with each other because we’re both in different fields. But he was also responsible for interrogating the people I caught.

‘Besides… Oh, my god. My damn respect for life.’

Since I was already in this self-sacrificial mode since I chose to work here, it’s only natural that I also had to save him.

Furthermore, it was Baron Ishid’s plan to screw us over and it’s my goal to spoil it. The problem was that I knew nothing about the knights and that I didn’t have any friends within the organization.

Diel knows a lot of people inside because he runs errands a lot, but he didn’t have any friends with them either.

‘Anyone close to me who has something to do with the knights…’

I sighed and concluded.

‘…Erhan.’