Chapter 9:
When Ethan saw Ben organizing the mail, he narrowed his eyes and approached him.
Having stayed in the capital for a long time, Ethan was quite familiar with the royal insignia.
“You’re up, my lord?”
“What are you doing right now?”
“It’s mail day today, so I was sorting through the letters.”
“I’ll handle it. You go take care of something else.”
As befit the lord of the territory, the DeBrion household received mountains of letters from all over the estate. It had long been Ben’s job to sift through them and pick out the ones the lord absolutely had to read. Although Ethan’s sudden order was out of the ordinary, Ben tilted his head for a moment before nodding.
“Understood.”
Once Ben stepped aside, Ethan pulled out a letter from the middle of the stack—one bearing the royal seal. If this were official correspondence from the palace, it wouldn’t be buried among random letters like this.
Adelaide had occasionally sent letters to her older sister, but she had never received a reply from the crown princess.
If this were a mere personal letter to her younger sister, it was odd that it didn’t come with an imperial knight as escort.
Or perhaps the crown princess had specifically requested it be delivered this way.
Ethan’s fingers itched to read the letter in his hand. The old Ethan would never have even considered such a thing. He didn’t know why he felt so unsettled, but he found himself glaring at the envelope. After a moment’s hesitation, he gripped the letter tightly.
He tore it open carelessly. The letter began without even a basic greeting:
If there’s a man who takes what’s yours in your own home and gives it to another woman, then that house can’t be called a home. Stop being foolish and come to the capital immediately.
The letter crumpled violently in Ethan’s fist. It was unthinkable to treat a letter from the crown princess this way, but his reason didn’t reach that far.
“Ben! Ben!”
Ben, who had been glancing up the stairs to the second floor, rushed over in surprise at the sudden shout.
“Yes, my lord? What is it?”
“Adel—where is Adelaide right now?”
“My lady is out inspecting the central library.”
“The library?”
“Yes, she’s planning to build a new library on the outskirts for the children and went to consult about it…”
“Who went with her? Did she take the family carriage?”
“As usual, she went only with Sir Cedric.”
“The carriage?”
“I believe… she went on horseback.”
Since my lady always rode horses, Ben hadn’t thought to confirm that part specifically. Just then, Anna Stone and her son entered the main building.
“Oh? Ethan?”
She greeted him cheerfully, but the count didn’t hear her.
Ethan rubbed his chin and paced around. If she had gone on horseback and not by carriage, she wouldn’t have been able to carry luggage—meaning she hadn’t left. No, the idea of Adelaide suddenly leaving this house didn’t make any sense. And yet, he couldn’t stay still for even a moment.
“Did something happen? I came with LeWayne to have breakfast.”
“Ah, I’m sorry, Anna, but I’m in a hurry. Ben! Prepare a horse immediately!”
Anna bit her lip as she watched Ethan disappear in a flash without even meeting her gaze. When he had told her not long ago that he had arranged for her to be granted noble status so he could make her his official mistress, Anna had thought everything was going smoothly.
But now, seeing Ethan’s expression, a creeping sense of unease gnawed at her.
Meanwhile, Adele had hurried to the southern part of the estate after hearing that water had suddenly stopped running at one of the facilities. She didn’t want to show Ethan that she still had lingering attachment to this project, so she’d used the library as an excuse.
After giving credit for the work to Anna, Adele had tried to step away from the project—but letting go of her feelings was harder than she thought.
She had started this purely for the convenience of the estate’s people. It would be a disaster if the water wasn’t working when the royal inspection team arrived.
“Cedric, if you go just beyond that hill, you’ll find the pipeline junction. Take the workers and check if there’s any leakage.”
“Will you be all right on your own, my lady?”
“What kind of question is that? Didn’t you say I was your star pupil?”
Herbon was one of the safest territories around. There hadn’t been a single violent crime in months. Besides, Adele had trained so diligently that she could handle one or two grown men without a weapon.
After Cedric disappeared over the hill with the workers, Adele looked out at the vast, picturesque plain before her. A cool breeze blew, sending her golden hair fluttering. She closed her eyes gently. This was her favorite kind of moment.
Then she remembered something the aqueduct specialist had done not long ago.
“He sucked on this hose, and the water came out…”
Once the thought came to her, she didn’t hesitate. As the lady of the estate, putting her mouth on a hose and sucking on it might have seemed undignified, but noble dignity wasn’t high on her list of priorities.
She aligned the hose with the hole and bent down to suck on it, just like the expert had done to manipulate pressure. She gave it a couple of strong pulls, but nothing came out.
“Guess it’s not working…”
Thinking it didn’t matter, she exhaled deeply and gave one final, forceful pull—
“My lady?”
A voice suddenly called from behind. Surprised, Adele turned around with the hose still in her hands—just as water gushed out powerfully from the end of it, striking the man directly in the face.
The water pressure was so strong that she couldn’t control the wild hose.
“Ah—ahhh! Aaaack!”
The more she tried to fix the situation, the more the water sprayed not only the man’s face but his entire body. Though caught off guard, he managed to stretch out his long arms and grip the hose tightly, finally blocking the flow of water.
The torrent subsided.
“Oh no, I’m so, so sorry.”
The man brushed back his soaked hair, looked at her with striking crimson eyes like blood-tinged sunlight, and smiled brightly.
As Adele stared at the breathtakingly perfect man’s lips curling up in a smile, she was suddenly overwhelmed by a dizzying sensation.
“You don’t look like your sister…”
Sister?
Only then did Adele take a proper look at his face. Jet-black hair, neatly slicked back over a clean, well-shaped forehead, and a perfect nose below it—Adele realized she had been staring at him for quite some time.
“Have you finished admiring me?”
“Ah—yes. Sorry. I just, you’re soaked, and…”
Just then, a commotion arose as four men in royal knights’ uniforms approached them. But the man raised his hand to stop them.
“Your Grace, are you all right?”
Adele tried to figure out who this ‘duke’ was. There were only two dukes in the Empire. And if one had red eyes—the royal family’s mark—then it could only be one person.
Zachary Ivan Sonnier, the ill-fated crown prince who had been sent as a hostage to an enemy nation at a young age.
“So you’ve figured out who I am.”
His low voice pulled Adele briefly into a haze.
But once she realized who he was, she quickly snapped to her senses, stepped back, and bowed respectfully. In that moment, she slipped on the water at her feet. As she fell, Zach tried to catch her—but in doing so, he let go of the hose, which resumed spraying wildly.
Water shot into the air over the peaceful plain, forming a delicate, shimmering rainbow. Now both Zach and Adele were completely drenched.
Adele let out a sigh at the cold splash. The two of them locked eyes, and without a word, burst into laughter as if it were perfectly natural.
The cool wind and icy water felt like they were cooling the burning things that had been piling up deep in Adele’s heart for so long.
“My lady!”
Cedric soon returned like the wind and quickly draped his cloak over Adele’s shoulders.
“Cedric, come say hello. This is His Grace, Duke Sonnier.”
After glancing at the imperial knights nearby, Cedric bowed politely to the duke.
“Greetings, Your Grace. I am Cedric Dantes, a knight of the DeBrion family.”
Though Zach accepted Cedric’s greeting, his eyes remained fixed on Adele.
He had approached her alone out of sheer curiosity when he saw a noblewoman inspecting the facility on her own.
He hadn’t wanted to interrupt someone so focused, and what she was doing had seemed rather unbecoming for a noblewoman, so he had silently walked up to her.
Completely soaked, Zach had known the moment he saw her radiant blonde hair and blue eyes—so like the crown princess—that this must be Adelaide DeBrion.
The crown princess’s younger sister—referred to by her maiden name before marriage—was far younger and far more dazzling than he had imagined.
