Chosen by the Northern Grand Duke

Chapter 202

Chapter 202: Household Matters (2)

In name she was an Intelligence Bureau agent, but Arika's actual role was closer to that of an aide.

She had never thought poorly of it.

It was true, and moreover, it was an honored position.

Arika had served Elaine from a very young age.

When Elaine had asked her to return last year on account of the tunnels, Arika had come back to Serzila with a heart full of pride.

That pride was not greatly diminished even now, when Elaine had become somewhat unusual.

Because in the end, Elaine was the one who would ascend to the position of Grand Duke.

Perhaps the change was even welcome.

The further Elaine strayed from perfection, the more there was for Arika to assist with. Arika was ready to take pride in that work.

She only wished Elaine would do the bare minimum of her duties.

And……she found it grating that Elaine was being swayed by that mage — no, that man.

At any rate, Arika, whose role was close to that of an aide, lived practically within the Grand Duke's mansion alongside Ocellin.

This was in order to handle Grand Heir Elaine's duties in her stead.

"Arika!"

Which was precisely why it was not strange at all that the call rang clearly in her ears.

"You may go."

"……"

"You won't be long, will you?"

Ocellin, caught off guard by the sudden summons, watched on with a dying expression, full of envy.

Because the voice belonged to Ellen, not to Elaine — the one who made use of Ocellin.

"……Probably not."

Arika stepped out of the office with a rather bewildered expression.

It was the Grand Heir's mansion. Yet Ellen had called for Arika at a volume fit to shake the whole building.

'A little.'

A little discretion wouldn't hurt.

She thought that from time to time.

Of course, the servants who worked in the mansion paid it no mind.

It was not particularly strange for Ellen, a collateral relative and cousin, to raise her voice within the Grand Heir's mansion.

And it was common enough.

Ellen had come and gone from this mansion as often as Elaine herself.

This outrageous, unapologetic brazenness was Ellen's weapon.

She was completely certain she would never be found out, and it was that very certainty — and the brazenness born from it — that concealed her identity even further.

The result was that Ellen had never been exposed to anyone.

If the Intelligence Bureau Director had not told her, Arika herself would never have dared to realize that the Grand Heir and Ellen were the same person.

"Oh, you're here."

Arika had come because Ellen called her.

But the person in the room was Grand Heir Elaine.

"What if it had been someone other than me who arrived first……"

"Ellen just stepped out."

Elaine shamelessly pointed to the open window.

"……Understood."

Something urgent had come up, so she had called first — and only afterward realized she needed to change her disguise.

She was about to make a troublesome request.

Even knowing they were the same person, Arika found Elaine more difficult to face than Ellen.

Unlike Ellen, who would eventually disappear, Grand Heir Elaine was the one who would become Grand Duke.

Even with no one watching, that meeting ought to be approached with gravity.

That fact, the remarkable next Grand Duke knew very well.

"What is it."

Arika sighed openly and asked.

The Elaine who changed a little more with every passing day liked this kind of irreverence.

"You sounded like Harad just now."

"……"

"That was a joke. What are you pulling that face for."

Elaine laughed out loud at the blatant irreverence.

It was a laugh far removed from perfection. But it was good to see.

"I need you."

Elaine said.

"Of the people I know, you are the second-smartest."

"Who is the first?"

"Harad, obviously."

Elaine answered as if the question weren't even worth asking.

And then, as though she had never laughed at all, her expression turned serious.

"It seems I've been found out."

"Pardon?"

"This."

Elaine reached her hand into her collar and withdrew it.

Her fingers closed as though grasping something. Nothing was visible to Arika.

That was the kind of Magical Item it was — the one that made Ellen into Elaine. It could neither be seen nor felt, perceivable only to the one who possessed it.

"I think Harad has figured it out."

That Harad had noticed it.

Arika's eyes went wide.

"Surely it wasn't visible?"

"No, that's not it. I'm thorough, as you well know."

"……"

"I mean it."

"Then how did he figure it out?"

Elaine had never been exposed.

Even Arika had only realized the truth after being told directly.

Of course, she had been young at the time — but even now, Arika could not say with confidence that she would have discovered Elaine's identity on her own.

And yet Harad had figured it out?

In just a little over a year?

'Is it because he's a mage?'

If she had truly been found out, that would be why.

Harad the mage had fewer preconceptions than most.

"Could it not be a misunderstanding on your part?"

"I don't think so. Because this is Harad."

"……"

"I'm not entirely sure myself. It's just my sense that he's figured it out. But Harad knows a great deal. Far more than you or I would expect."

Elaine seemed halfway convinced that she had been found out.

"In what way did you feel you'd been found out?"

"Hmm."

Elaine did not answer immediately. She stroked her chin.

She was choosing her words.

It meant she did not want to share what had passed between her and Harad with Arika.

That distance — Arika found it unfamiliar and unsettling.

"What Harad wants is me."

"……"

"Not in that sense, so wipe that sour look off your face."

Arika's expression eased.

Elaine opened her mouth again.

"Harad wants something."

"Yes."

"It's something very important. The thing Harad wants most. Probably the first…… thing. Later it may become the second."

Elaine said it with a slight flush rising in her cheeks.

It was not a particularly becoming expression.

"Why would that change?"

"There are reasons. Regardless, the important thing is that I am the only one who can grant it."

Elaine's explanation was vague.

But it was more than enough to make Harad seem suspicious.

It implied he had approached Elaine with deliberate intent.

"Are you saying Harad became a Hostage on purpose?"

"Perhaps. But that's not the important part. What matters is that I would grant what he wants, if he asked. Though of course it won't go exactly as he has in mind."

"……"

Arika, without realizing it, made a face.

"In order to achieve his goal, Harad has to spend time with me. The more time he spends with me, the closer he gets to what he wants."

"Is what he wants something he absolutely must obtain?"

"It would seem so. If he cannot, his heart might burst."

"……?"

"Think of it as a curse, and it becomes easier to understand. Harad is in a position where he must obtain what he wants, whether he likes it or not."

The problem is that he seems to like it.

Elaine clicked her tongue. For some reason, her expression was displeased.

"I don't fully understand, but it seems Harad is desperate."

"Exactly. That's it. Harad must desperately wish to spend time with me."

"Yes."

"And when I say me, I mean Elaine."

Elaine tapped her own chest.

It was a man's chest.

"And yet Harad spends his time with Ellen."

Not Elaine.

"And while doing so, he keeps saying this to me — to Ellen. That I should find out the secret. Ah, and here, the secret corresponds with what Harad wants."

Harad wanted something from Elaine.

And yet the man spent his time with Ellen, not Elaine, and urged her to uncover it.

"It seems you have been found out."

Arika could not help but arrive at the same conclusion as Elaine.

"That's what I'm saying!"

Elaine clapped her hands together.

"But does that pose a problem?"

It was a major revelation — and yet also, at the same time, not.

Because of who Harad was. Loath as she was to admit it, Harad was not the type to go around blabbing about something like this.

"If I were in Harad's position, I don't think I would mind."

He might even welcome it.

Perhaps he had already relished it thoroughly and was making use of it.

He was more than capable of doing exactly that.

"Surely he will be disappointed in me."

"Pardon?"

"If he had known from the very beginning, perhaps not. But if he discovered it partway through, wouldn't he be disappointed? I think I would be, in his place. It would mean I had been lying the whole time."

"……"

"No. Even if he had known from the beginning, I think he would still be disappointed. It would mean he was waiting for me to tell him first."

Arika's expression crumpled sharply.

She had been summoned in a rush because Elaine feared she had been found out, and yet the Elaine before her eyes kept taking Harad's side.

What made it even more baffling was that she seemed completely unaware she was doing it.

"……So what exactly do you want me to do?"

Arika heard herself grow curt without meaning to.

"I'd like you to go and find out for me. Whether I was actually found out or not."

"……"

"It's a bit, well, embarrassing, for me to check myself."

"……"

"Isn't it? Think of how many times I've put on a dignified front in front of Harad looking like this."

Elaine flushed and looked away with a shy turn of her head.

'This is the next Grand Duke?'

Arika, despite herself, had an irreverent thought.

"……Very well."

But that was the only answer she could give.

She had grown even further from perfection, and as promised, there was more work to do.

Arika would have to take pride in that work, as she had vowed to.

Because whatever she looked like, that was the next Grand Duke, without question.

"What should I do about it?"

"I'm asking you to find out."

"I'm asking about what comes after."

Nothing would change if she hadn't been found out.

And if she had?

"If it turns out you truly have been found out, what do you intend to do? That is what I'm asking."

"Hmm."

Elaine pressed her lips shut.

Her expression said she hadn't thought that far ahead.

***

Interrogation was a required skill for any Intelligence Bureau agent.

With Harad, it was impossible.

There was no justification, and no sufficient force to back it. The man was already a 5th Rank mage.

'Information.'

Gathering it would be meaningless.

Harad resided in the Annex of the Inner Fortress. His every move was already known.

Has he truly been found out?

Arika, the Intelligence Bureau agent who had to uncover that information, felt a wall before her.

'Use any means necessary. Just don't hurt Harad.'

That was what Elaine had said — and yet the only method that came to Arika's mind was torture.

'How?'

To find out what someone close to you is thinking.

Arika understood freshly just how difficult an order this was.

'So that's why she passed it off to me.'

That was why she had delivered the order as Elaine.

There was only one method.

She would have to meet him directly and probe him carefully.

Ellen had lacked the confidence to do it herself, which was why she had passed it off to Arika, the second-smartest person she knew.

The first-smartest being Harad.

It was a peculiar feeling.

She was already being talked about as the next Intelligence Bureau Director.

And yet she had been ranked second?

Arika could not accept it. Harad was certainly exceptional — but that was only magically exceptional.

Setting magic aside, she had no intention of losing to him.

"Harad."

Which was why Arika neither hid nor avoided him.

She walked up to the door of Harad's Annex and knocked without hesitation.

"What brings you here?"

Harad, who opened the door, looked somewhat surprised. His hair was damp with sweat.

"Do you have a moment…… what on earth are you wearing?"

Arika frowned.

Harad was wearing only short trousers.

His upper body, fully exposed, was smaller than those of the knights — yet it did not feel small in the slightest. It was slender and yet substantial, narrow and yet broad. Sweat idled across the breadth of him.

"Is this how you greet a woman?"

Had he thought Ellen was coming, and come out like this?

"I thought you were Kubel."

"……"

"As you know, I run rather warm."

Harad pushed his damp hair back.

"Isn't this common in the North? Don't people strip down to show off?"

"Not in the Intelligence Bureau."

That was fair.

It was, admittedly, less common in the Intelligence Bureau, which operated primarily on the continent.

"And you are not a Northerner. Please put on some clothes."

"Will this take long?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"I would like to have a meal with you."

"Ah. The three of us, with Ellen?"

"Just the two of us. You and me."

Harad tilted his head.

"Why?"

It was a reasonable question.

For some reason, Harad acted with familiarity toward her, but Arika still found it awkward.

They had never met alone without Ellen present.

"Well, all right. Wait just a moment."

Harad went inside to get dressed as if it were nothing.

At that moment, Arika felt a prickling at the back of her neck.

She turned. Ellen was watching from a distance, peering over at them. Her expression was pointed.

'……Don't tell me it's because she saw him without a shirt?'

Arika was speechless.

The next Grand Duke, jealous.

Over something this trivial, at that.

She hadn't even looked down.

'And she's the one who told me to do this.'

The future of Serzila was bleak.

Arika found herself thinking that irreverent thought.