Chapter 5. The Crown Prince's Reply

“If they were targeting the duke, did I fall in his place?”

The count didn't answer immediately.

Seoyun took her hand off the map. Her mother was gripping the armrest. Saying she hadn't been the target wouldn't reassure her.

“The seating plan may have been changed,” Leon said.

The steward looked up.

“This is the original bearing the imperial seal.”

“Then we must check whether the actual arrangement matched it.”

His voice was calm. Seoyun was grateful for it, but found it strange too. It belonged to the same man whose hands hadn't been able to straighten a towel in the carriage.

The count told her not to go out alone for the time being. She agreed, asking in return to be kept informed about the investigation.

“I don't want to hear about it through strange rumors first.”

He looked at his daughter for a long time.

“All right. You should know.”

He wasn't promising merely to soothe a child. Only then did some of the tension leave her shoulders.

What arrived the next day wasn't an investigation report, but a letter from the crown prince.

〈I would like to give you the answer I couldn't give yesterday. Since you were the one who stipulated that we meet in person, I will honor that condition again.〉

She read the last line three times.

A condition that they meet in person.

She needed to find the letter Elin had sent before falling ill. She searched the drawers again, even checking receipts tucked between books. No copy appeared.

Leon's answer was no different.

“I don't know the contents of a letter you sent under seal.”

“Do you know who took it?”

“An imperial messenger collected it in person.”

An official letter. Would a messenger have come for a joke or a love letter? The novel hadn't mentioned Elin being particularly close to the crown prince.

Seoyun pressed the skin beside a fingernail.

Which was more dangerous: avoiding him over a letter she knew nothing about, or going to see him without knowing? She liked neither. At least one of them offered answers.

This time, she went with the count's permission. Leon accompanied her, and two guards from the household followed the carriage.

They met in a small greenhouse at the imperial palace rather than the detached palace.

Adrian was already there. A file and a covered plate rested beside him.

“Have you been sleeping?”

“A little.”

“Lying isn't your strength, is it?”

He drew out a chair. Before sitting, she looked at the greenhouse door. He noticed.

“It won't be locked. And your attendant is outside.”

Through the glass, she could see Leon waiting with another attendant. When she turned, he met her eyes, then looked away first.

“Tell me if you wish to leave,” Adrian said.

She sat.

“No. I came to hear your answer today, Your Highness.”

His hand left the chair back.

“Then you may look at me.”

She turned. He was smiling.

He lifted the plate cover.

Instead of bread, it held poached pears.

“I asked the imperial physician what you could eat. Left to me, you'd have received something merely decorative.”

An honest admission. She picked up her fork. Warm and soft. There was a hint of spice, but it didn't scratch her throat.

“May I see the letter again?”

Adrian looked at her.

“I don't remember exactly what I wrote. I've had trouble with that since the fever.”

He opened the file. She'd worried he might refuse, but he slid the envelope across to her.

“I could have insisted it belonged to me.”

“I'm glad you didn't.”

He laughed.

She took out the letter. Elin's handwriting matched what she'd seen in the diary, the letters slanting slightly to the right.

〈I cannot accept the marriage you have proposed, Your Highness.〉

She nearly dropped her fork.

Without lifting her head, she read on.

〈However, I do not wish this to be understood as my father's decision. I refuse of my own will. I will hear your answer in person.〉

Adrian waited until she folded the letter.

“Do you remember?”

“I… refused to marry you.”

“It wasn't a formal proposal yet. My mother was sounding out the possibility.”

“And I refused that too.”

“Quite unmistakably.”

She looked at the letter again. Elin had known how to say no. She remembered Theo's words. Even to a crown prince.

“What is your answer?”

“That I understand.”

She raised her head.

He shifted one shoulder.

“Did you think I'd summoned you to persuade you after you refused?”

“Honestly, yes.”

“I might have. It would have been a convenient marriage for me.”

There was no humor in his voice.

The list of families he opened included Veira. He said the imperial family needed the cooperation of that neutral house.

“Then why did you want to answer me yourself?”

“Because you refused me yourself.”

He indicated the corner of the letter.

“You said you wouldn't hide behind your father. It would hardly be courteous for me to hide behind my mother.”

She took her hands off the letter. Its folded corner was even more crumpled. This time she smoothed it openly in front of him.

“Am I still allowed to ask you a favor after refusing?” she asked.

“That depends on the favor.”

“To see the donation records?”

“Your family contributed the money. You needn't agree to marry me to see how it was spent.”

She released the paper's edge. Finger marks remained on it.

Seeing them, Adrian added:

“Do not assume all my kindness is entirely disinterested, though. I can't claim I have no wish to impress you.”

She nearly laughed, then pressed her lips together.

“Do you always say things like that in person?”

“If I sent a messenger, you'd give your answer to him too.”

He looked at her. She set down her fork and answered.

“I don't know yet. I don't even know what sort of person you are.”

“Not a bad place to start.”

“Then may I ask about what you've learned today?”

“What?”

“Whether I was more disappointing than you expected.”

She couldn't suppress a laugh.

“I don't think you were.”

His hand paused as he closed the list. He seemed to have prepared plenty to say, but his face suggested he hadn't prepared for that answer.

“Thank you.”

“Don't thank me too quickly. There's still your other request.”

Another request.

There was writing on the back of the letter.

〈Please allow me to inspect the donations for the detached palace's sluice gate works. I wish to verify whether the expenditure in the Veira family's name matches the work actually carried out.〉

Seoyun caught the paper's edge.

A sluice gate. Something that controlled the river's flow.

It stood just below the detached palace where the accident had happened. She remembered the current she'd seen at the concert.

“Were you very interested in accounts?” he asked.

“Wrong figures bother me.”

The reply was almost a reflex.

His gaze lingered on her.

“You've said that before, too.”

She set the letter down. She couldn't be pleased to discover something they shared. The novel's mention of Elin's disappearance kept troubling her.

A woman who refused a marriage, demanded donation records, and vanished after the spring banquet.

Had she been wrong to think Elin was merely a minor supporting character?

Adrian cleared the empty plate and rolled up his sleeves. There was a red mark on his wrist. He said he'd been hurt in the water yesterday.

“Is the child you rescued all right?”

“Eating better than I am now.”

He smiled.

“The child was worried about being sick on my clothes, so I said they could pay for them when they grew up.”

“You really said that?”

“It stopped the crying. Apparently they thought I'd have them killed for it, even if they apologized.”

Seoyun laughed too. She hadn't been trying to.

Adrian fell briefly silent.

When she touched her mouth, he looked away first.

“I'm glad. It's the first time today you've looked less frightened.”

His words made her pick up her fork for no reason. The plate was empty.

He pretended not to notice.

Before leaving, she asked about what had happened in the river. He said that as he'd climbed the steps with the child, he'd seen someone push Seoyun up from beneath the bridge.

“Do you remember what he looked like?”

“A white shirt. He must have taken off his dark outer coat, or lost it to the current.”

They'd all been wearing white shirts.

A new clue, and still she couldn't cross anyone out.

He opened the door for her. As his collar passed close, she saw a red line inside it, curved like a loop. When her eyes stopped there, Adrian adjusted his collar.

“Is there something else you'd like to know?”

Searching for an answer, she lifted the letter.

“May I take this with me?”

“On condition that I keep a copy.”

She nodded. He called an attendant at once.

Just before she entered the carriage, the crown prince called to her again.

“Lady Elin.”

She turned.

“Next time, may we meet without business to discuss?”

His voice was lighter than before. That made him harder to answer.

She suddenly remembered the red line inside his collar. If they met again, she could find out more.

She was about to answer on that basis when she remembered his hand, unexpectedly pausing in the greenhouse. Surely he wasn't waiting for an answer arrived at by that sort of calculation.

Seoyun parted her lips, then closed them. Behind her, Leon took hold of the carriage door.

The metal handle gave a brief creak in his grip.