#Chapter 27. A Weak Woman

“Br, Bruno!”

The weak woman’s voice struck Bruno’s ears.

It was Ariel’s desperate cry, who from the time she was a noble marquis family’s woman until now when she became a duchess, had never once bowed her head to him.

It seems she hasn’t heard the story from the tutor yet!

Bruno blinked his eyes, stopped walking briefly and rejoiced.

After boarding the carriage, his thoughts about how to persuade Ariel became completely useless. It was a joyful thing.

His brother would be imprisoned for a while, and the tutor was injured and currently at the physician’s.

For a while, no one could enter or leave the ducal residence, so this was truly the moment to reverse the situation.

Ariel had seen through the shallow tricks he used when he visited the ducal residence last time, but she was fundamentally weak in nature.

She never spoke harshly, and didn’t wield people around using that great family of hers.

Of course, high society praised her for that, but Bruno didn’t think so.

Well, what did it matter anyway? Even if he thought Ariel’s nature was stupid, a woman’s nature wouldn’t change.

Inborn nature was originally not easy to change.

Look at her now.

When he approached her in a difficult situation, the woman let down her guard.

The weak woman probably just thought he was using petty tricks because he didn’t want to go as an envoy to the Eastern Continent at that time.

She wouldn’t know what human wickedness was like, what kind of thoughts were inside him.

As a marquis family’s daughter with much learning and intelligence, she grasped his shallow tricks, but failed to grasp the essence within.

“Lady Ariel, are you alright?”

Bruno frowned with a deeply worried face and approached Ariel.

Perhaps due to the series of major incidents, Ariel’s face was pale.

Clear skin that seemed to project even blood vessels, and reddened eyes.

Ariel’s appearance approaching Bruno with a face full of fatigue felt very slow.

“How did you…… get in here, Bruno?”

Ariel’s voice trembled as she asked.

When at their weakest, women can be easily moved by consideration and warmth.

So now was the most opportune moment to penetrate Ariel’s heart.

“I slipped money to the guard outside. More than that, I have something to tell you.”

“Really? Then, what about Damian? He must have gone to the imperial palace for investigation, so didn’t you encounter Damian?”

Bruno maintained a pitiful smile and shook his head.

“I went straight to the reception room…… I couldn’t meet my brother.”

“Oh my…… I see.”

Ariel’s gaze went down.

Tears gathered in her glass-bead-like clear green eyes, making Bruno pause briefly.

“Lady Ariel…… My brother will be fine.”

“Yes, Damian will surely…… be fine. But why did you come to the ducal residence, Bruno?”

Doubt filled Ariel’s gaze.

She hadn’t completely let down her guard.

“I have something urgent to tell you. It’s related to the lady’s kidnapping this time. I just…… had a conversation with an investigator, and it seems the investigator has been bought too.”

“An imperial investigator was bought? That…… that can’t be……”

Ariel looked up at Bruno with a surprised expression.

Indeed, by obscuring the essence with talk of being bought, Bruno felt Ariel’s guard that had been rising until just now blur as she was surprised.

“The situation seems quite serious. I can’t leave the ducal residence, so in the current situation, the only trustworthy person is you, Bruno.”

Bruno nodded as he looked into Ariel’s wavering eyes.

“Let’s go to the reception room first and talk.”

This time, Ariel nodded in response.

“Butler. Please guide Bruno. I’ll go upstairs briefly and come back down.”

“Yes, I understand.”

The butler guided Bruno, and Ariel climbed the stairs with a kind eye greeting.

*

“I see.”

Ariel answered.

He kept stiffly raising his head and tried to look down at Ariel with a pitiful face.

At his appearance, Ariel helped him feel even more that way.

She lowered her eyes, acted uncertain, held her teacup with both hands and lowered her gaze.

“But are you certain there’s a kidnapper among those investors, Bruno?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

At Bruno’s face nodding with certainty, Ariel clasped her hands together and lowered her shoulders like someone praying.

“Since it’s about Lucy’s kidnappers, as the duchess I won’t spare any support. So if you have a reason for being certain, it would be good if you could tell me……”

Ariel said.

All evidence probably pointed to Bruno being the culprit of this kidnapping incident.

He would need someone to help him, but the greater his backer was, the less suitable places there would be to request help.

Someone who had justification to investigate the kidnapping incident and could sufficiently check even great backers.

Ariel was probably the only one who met such conditions, so if Bruno thought she was foolish, he would likely come here.

Bruno swallowed his saliva and rolled his eyes as if contemplating.

Ariel didn’t rush him and reached for her teacup in silence.

If the aristocratic faction was behind Bruno, it would be easy to speak.

Since that faction was originally enemies they had to turn against, he could explain to Ariel while spinning plausible stories.

However, if he couldn’t answer easily, it meant more complicated circumstances were mixed in.

Which would it be? Bruno’s backer.

Ariel took a sip of tea and slowly closed and opened her eyes while feeling the opponent’s unheard anguish.

She didn’t need to hear an answer immediately.

If even small ripples of whether to speak or not stirred, those small waves would turn into tides and open his lips.

“……There’s no particular reason, so I have nothing to tell you. If someone had the plan to boldly kidnap the young lady of Zenova, they wouldn’t have just executed the plan without definitely receiving big money, so I think it must be an investor.”

“I see. That alone is sufficient reason too. If you tell me the list, I’ll investigate directly.”

Ariel nodded.

Bruno looked down at the memo paper Ariel offered, then slowly began writing names.

“……I feel at ease because you’re here, Bruno. At such a turbulent time due to kidnappers, even the duke is framed with the false charge of rebellion, so my heart can’t be at peace.”

“Aren’t I family too? I’ll do my best to help as much as I can.”

Family. At that strange word, Ariel smiled warmly.

Bruno, you sent that family into danger, and you still dare say such words to me?

You bribed the tutor to kidnap my daughter, and desperately tried to send my husband to war, as an envoy to the Eastern Continent.

After being abandoned by those backing forces, you came to find me like this, acting like a fleeing rat.

How truly ridiculous.

However, Ariel smiled gently and met his eyes.

The gently drawn angle of her eyes created a beautiful smile that no one could suspect.

“Thank you, Bruno.”

Bruno left the ducal residence and rejoiced as he boarded the carriage.

Things went much better than he had worried.

When he mentioned falling from a horse, Ariel’s atmosphere was unusual and he was anxious, but this was the best situation among those he had expected.

Ariel trusted Bruno completely and would start investigating the guys on the investor list, and this would soon reach that bastard’s ears.

“I don’t know what scheme this is, but my brother and His Majesty the Emperor fought side by side on the battlefield, so any talk of rebellion will end as nothing more than an incident. They won’t be able to escape the investigation of the intact House Zenova. If I explain to my brother separately that it wasn’t me, he’ll believe me!”

Bruno, with a smile on his lips, looked into the air with certainty.

“……Unless I cause confusion in the middle, there’s no hole for that bastard to escape through. Kehehehe.”

Bruno nodded his head slightly and leaned his body against the carriage backrest.

“Bastards. To think they were planning to abandon me. Hmph.”

*

After Bruno left the mansion, Ariel began climbing the stairs to the second floor. Behind her back, she heard several maids’ cries.

“Madam!”

“Madam! Madam! If we’re kicked out from here……! I……! ……Mmph!”

However, their wailing cries didn’t last long. Ariel’s face climbing the stairs one by one didn’t have much expression.

At a glance, she seemed to have a very small smile.

Very slowly, one step each time, their wailing rang out.

Like a child learning to walk for the first time, very carefully and slowly, step by step.

Ariel moving on the velvet-laid stairs made no sound to the degree that if someone closed their eyes, they wouldn’t expect her to be on the stairs.

Very quiet and silent.

Dangerous because it goes unheard, unreachable because it sweeps by in silence.

The maids’ cries were the same. They didn’t reach Ariel.

When Ariel finally climbed all the stairs to the second floor, no cries could be heard.

Only then did Ariel turn her body and look down below.

Her green eyes looking down at the mansion hall from the end of the second floor stairs had turned ice-cold blue, but a gentle smile hung at the corners of her lips.

Ariel nodded satisfactorily at the clean interior.

Thus Ariel turned her steps toward where Lucy was.

Below, the remaining personnel bowed their heads and maintained silence for the duchess.

Cleaning would continue for a while.