Interlude 3: Marx

After we finished our lunch, I walked around the Great Western Garden with Miss Chelsea. From the garden, you could see the royal residences, guest houses, and the center of our government, the royal castle. I told her to avoid going near them unless she had to. There were many nobles who would jump at the chance to use someone with a brand new Skill like hers. It would be awful if she was found by one of those hyenas and suddenly talked into an engagement before she knew it.

While she didn’t smile, her eyes sparkled curiously wherever I led her. I’d heard that she’d been abused back at home, but from how she acted, the possibility that she had been held captive as well had arisen. After cursorily showing her around the western part of the citadel, I brought her back to the Institute’s lodging house.

“If anything happens, make sure to tell someone around you immediately. I swear that the Second Order of Knights, especially, will protect you from anything.” As I told her that at the doorway of her room, both of the knights who had acted as her guards gave strong nods as well.

“Alright. Thank you very much.”

Then, she bowed deeply. I could only imagine how hard her life must have been, for the daughter of a noble to act that way. I gave her another bright grin to try to act as cheerfully as possible.

“Thank you for giving me a tour, Lord Marx.”

Gratefully taking her last comment, I left, returning to the guardroom with the two knights who had been guarding her. They both went off on their breaks, while I entered the deputy commander’s office.

“Welcome back, Deputy Commander. Hm? Has something happened?”

The moment I walked in, I heard a voice. The owner of it was my aide and fiancée Stacey.

“In a sense, yes...”

“It’s not like you to put on airs like that,” she said with a smile, cleaning up the documents on my desk. That had been my job originally, but after taking on the role of Miss Chelsea’s guide, Stacey did my paperwork for me.

After wandering the room for a bit, I sat on the sofa with a thud. Stacey glanced at me, but didn’t say anything. She must have been waiting for me to start. “I’ve told you about that aunt of mine that my grandparents, parents, and uncles doted on, right?”

“Yes. When I went to visit your family, I was shown many portraits while being told about her. There were a lot of them, from when she was first born to one in a gown after she became an adult,” she recalled, forcing a smile. “I heard that she left home soon after that to find ‘true love.’”

I nodded. “It ended up being that her ‘true love’ was Baron Eucharis. Apparently, they met while she was masquerading as a common adventurer...”

Stacey looked shocked, slapping a hand over her mouth. She must have been trying to hide her dropping jaw.

“And so, they married while she was still pretending to be a commoner, and died a few years later without birthing a child... Or so we were told.”

She wordlessly pressed me for more information. After making sure no one else was around to hear us, I continued, “...Miss Chelsea is the spitting image of my aunt.”

“Miss Chelsea was the lady you just gave a tour to, wasn’t she? I heard that she had awakened to a brand new Skill, and was Baron Eucharis’ daughter...!?”

“Yes. Her hair was a different length than my aunt’s in her portraits, but Lady Chelsea had her unique pink-gold hair and the amethyst eyes particular to the Sargent Margraviate. She was terribly thin, but her face was near identical.”

“But your aunt died without giving birth to a child, didn’t she?” Stacey asked, staring at my face.

“I also met Miss Chelsea’s twin sister today. She called me by my nickname before we even greeted each other. She’s nobility, but she acted like a commoner.” I scowled, thoroughly repulsed. “Her younger twin sister’s hair and eyes were red, and they didn’t resemble each other at all. And that’s when I thought... What if Miss Chelsea was actually my aunt’s child?”

Stacey looked shocked at my revelation; she looked me in the eyes and nodded. Just what I expected from my fiancée. I was glad she got what I was going at so quickly.

“That’s something worth investigating.”

“So can I leave it to you?”

“Who do you think I am?”

“My beloved Stacey, who has both the High Level [Search] and Mid Level [Appraisal] Skills,” I replied immediately.

She smiled at how quick my response was. Her [Search] Skill let her assess exactly what she wanted out of various information. She could find just where the books she wanted in the library were, pick out only the necessary information from paperwork, or pick out only [Fire Magic] users from a group of people... That kind of thing.

“Fufu, leave it to me. But I need to finish this paperwork first.”

“That was supposed to be my job originally. You focus on your special mission.” I stood up and headed towards my desk. Seeing me coming, she mercilessly tossed the documents towards my direction.

“I’ll leave it to you, then,” Stacey said, leaving the room with a skip in her step.

I should be fine letting her do the background checks. But one other thing that needed doing was writing a letter to my father, the current Margrave.

“Saving the ill-fated princess is the knight’s job,” I muttered, while starting to flip through the paperwork.