Chapter 06
“You’re too persistent. It’s an illness, really. Think whatever you want. I’m planning to attend the hunting eve banquet hosted by Count Carbondu tonight.”
“You always say events hosted by Count Carbondu are boring. Why do you go every time?”
“Well, it’s because beautiful women show up even more beautifully dressed to those events. Not admiring such women would be ungentlemanly.”
With that, Zakahari turned his gaze to look out the window. Enoch glanced at his master, once again struck by how handsome he was.
Since his arrival, the Empire had been overflowing with noble ladies who adored and longed for him.
It wasn’t just the noble daughters of marriageable age in the capital. Even some married women, older in age, struggled to win his affection. There were more than a few madwomen who sent him letters asking him to take them as his mistress.
His good looks, coupled with a sharp face that seemed to hold some unspoken sorrow, only fanned the flames of his popularity. On top of that, he was kind to most women.
And that was all. In the past year, unlike other young, popular noblemen who would have had at least a few scandals, he hadn’t had even one.
“Oh! I changed my name.”
“What? All of a sudden?”
“Yeah. Zakahari Ivan Sonnier just sounds too grand.”
“So… what now?”
“Just Jacques. Jacques Sonnier. You should call me that too.”
Enoch clenched his teeth, swallowing the rage that boiled up from deep in his gut.
“Changing a noble name isn’t a simple matter. Just use it as a pen name or nickname.”
“Nope. And you’re competent, aren’t you?”
“But still!”
“What’s the big deal? It’s not like I’m governing any land. I can change little things here and there.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t have any land. As a member of the Hesenia royal family, he had been promised two things during the ten years he was held captive in the barbarian kingdom.
One was the life of his younger sibling, born just before he left. The other was the title of Duke, which had been documented to be granted even posthumously.
In this country, nobles were granted lands of a legally determined size. He was given a territory of 15,000 square serres—the same size as the land where the Empire’s first emperor, Ivan the Great, had started his kingdom.
But when the location of the land was revealed, nobles were both shocked and amused. His estate bordered Lake Seronne, at the far edge of the Empire.
A wasteland. People might have managed to survive if it were just barren, but the few bits of arable land in that harsh terrain were regularly flooded by Lake Seronne.
The crops were often washed away before harvest.
And once it was revealed that Zakahari—now Jacques—had requested that land himself, people assumed he had fully abandoned any resentment toward the royal family and had willingly humbled himself.
“Don’t make that face. No income means no taxes. Isn’t that great?”
Enoch clenched his jaw again—but for an entirely different reason.
“As you know, I can live just fine on the royal stipend. So just manage the estate well and invest the money I earn.”
Jacques Sonnier, who had a better eye for aesthetics than most, attended auctions, collected art, and resold it for great profit.
Since his return, auction houses and casinos had sprung up like mushrooms in the heart of the capital.
Even at the infamous casino—known for bankrupting people within half a year—he made large profits each time.
The money he earned was used to feed the few people who lived on his estate. Because the land was so barren, the national aid previously provided had completely stopped once Jacques took over.
Just then, the carriage slowed, signaling they had arrived at the Imperial Palace.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“Drop the ‘Your Grace’ nonsense.”
“‘Your Grace’ is a title of respect for high officials.”
“Yeah, sure.”
Enoch, hiding his burning curiosity deep within, simply gripped the two booklets in his pockets titled ‘Approved’ and ‘Rejected’.
* * *
After a gentle winter in the Herbon estate, Adel had turned twenty.
It had been several months since she had begun a strange cohabitation with the woman who bore her husband’s child—though not officially his mistress.
Even if she didn’t want to hear about Ethan and his first love, stories about them flew into her room without pause, carried by the maids. As a human, she couldn’t help but feel distressed—yet she also couldn’t help but be curious and listened.
From stories about the Count starting to teach his child to read, to tales of him giving Annaston a rare, fine horse—one even difficult to obtain in the capital—everything reached Adel’s ears, including how often Ethan visited Annaston’s residence.
It was enough to dig into Adel’s heart when she heard that all the furniture in Annaston’s guesthouse had been replaced and that the most famous fashion designer in the estate had visited her.
But that wasn’t what hurt the most.
Adel had been pouring herself into the waterworks project for the past few months—as if it were her only lifeline, digging into it day and night.
She met skilled blacksmiths, experimented with different materials for pipes, buried and unearthed them repeatedly, surviving each day like that.
After such grueling work, when she returned to the mansion to inform Ethan, he was inevitably with them.
From the reception room on the first floor of the main house—where she had never once sat with him—light would pour out, warm like a loving family’s embrace. And Adel couldn’t help but stop at the door.
Still, she couldn’t leave the house.
Adel had been officially registered as a daughter of the Milliam family despite being an illegitimate child, thanks to a special privilege held by only that family. Every generation of emperors had issued a decree: any woman born into the Milliam family, regardless of circumstances, would be a noble.
But this special law applied only to the Milliam family.
Thus, the commoner Annaston could not become Ethan’s wife.
Even if Adel left, someone still had to be the lady of the Debrian household. So she rationalized her continued presence as justified.
That morning, she had hurried out to visit the unwed mother support facility she hadn’t checked on in a while. That’s when the head butler, Ben, came looking for her.
“The Count wishes to see you.”
“For what reason?”
Adel asked, confused. The last time she had spoken privately with him was the day after Annaston entered the house. Recalling that conversation made her reluctant to face him again.
That day, Ethan hadn’t been able to meet her gaze. It had been so unlike him, Adel had felt as though she were looking at a stranger.
Still, she composed herself. If he was willing to explain the situation, she would calmly suggest a solution for Annaston’s residence. Though Adel and Ethan’s bedroom was on the same floor of the main house, she had been staying in a separate annex.
She was going to suggest that Annaston and her son stay in the two-story annex at the back of the main house.
“Annaston’s residence…”
“Ah, I already placed Anna in the annex to the right of the main house.”
Traditionally, matters concerning household staff or a husband’s lovers were decided by the lady of the house. But Ethan had already made the decision himself.
The annex to the right of the main house was built like a townhouse, attached directly to the main residence with a shared wall.
It had been used by the former Count—currently residing in the capital—or reserved for important guests.
No matter that she had given birth to Ethan’s son—giving such a place to a former maid was unheard of.
In short, Annaston now lived in better quarters than Adel.
“I don’t know the details.”
Ben’s words snapped Adel out of her thoughts.
“Only that a messenger from the Imperial Palace came today.”
The mention of the palace made Adel’s heart race wildly. Could it be news from her sister? Still dressed for her visit to the shelter, she rushed to Ethan’s office.
When she entered, Ethan was reading a letter from the palace.
“Were you about to head out?”
“Yes, I was going to check on the unwed mother facility. Three women are due to give birth this month, so I thought I’d visit…”
“I won’t take much of your time. This’ll be brief.”
“What is it?”
Adel asked hastily, still standing, not yet seated.
But despite his earlier words, Ethan didn’t begin speaking right away. She tensed up. Even a single sigh from him could hurt her deeply.
“I heard a messenger came from the palace today.”
“Yes.”
“What did the letter say?”
She asked again, but he still didn’t answer.
“Count?”
For a moment, she thought his blue eyes flashed with a cold glint. The tension in her body spiked.
“Is it… news from my sister?”
“No, it’s not that.”
Disappointment showed clearly on her face.
“Then what…?”
Ethan nervously rubbed the handle of his teacup with his thumb, avoiding the topic. As if he were about to say something difficult, Adel swallowed dryly.
“The Imperial Palace… is bestowing a national service medal on our family.”
