I Became the Childhood Friend of the Northern Duchess – Chapter 77

Tomorrow is the day Yulken returns.

Ariel made various arrangements to be as prepared as possible by then.

Wanting to think alone, she asked Elpelt to leave the room and remained in her office by herself.

Soon, she heard a knock on the door, and without asking who it was, she called for the person to come in. Shuri cautiously appeared.

“I guess there were no results.”

“Yes, I’m sorry, miss.”

Seeing Shuri entering with a downcast expression, Ariel had anticipated this, but she still felt a pang of disappointment for Shuri, who couldn’t help it.

She had intended to interrogate the assassin they had captured that day and extract some information, but that plan hadn’t worked out.

However, she didn’t expect things to go that smoothly, so she wasn’t overly concerned.

‘Well, those cunning bastards probably left no trace behind.’

Whether those assassins were directly sent by someone behind the scenes or simply hired mercenaries, either way, they must have ensured there were no clues that could reveal their presence.

Ariel wasn’t expecting a major haul, so she comforted Shuri with words of assurance and gestured for her to come over.

“Silentium.”

Then, to prevent any sounds from escaping, she activated magic and spoke in a hushed voice to ask her question.

“Did you mention anything separately?”

On the day Ariel returned to the castle, she had discreetly asked Shuri to investigate the activities of a few of the vassals who had caught her attention.

Of course, since it was too much for Shuri to handle alone, Ariel had provided additional personnel.

Some might think that since she hadn’t yet risen to the position of head of the family, she wouldn’t have subordinates to command, but that was incorrect.

Aside from Shuri, there were exactly four personal subordinates who lived and died by her orders.

These were her dedicated guards who had been by her side since she was young.

When she knew nothing, they had merely fulfilled their role as guards. But as she grew up and began to wish for subordinates she could command, their role had somewhat changed.

This was the first time she was using them in such a serious way, but luckily they were performing their duties effectively.

“First of all, Sir Dulius reported that there were no suspicious signs. The people he met all had meetings within the castle, and they haven’t gone out for several days.”

“Really?”

Ariel didn’t have many suspicions about Dulius, so she nodded as if she expected that.

Dulius was, to put it nicely, not worldly, and poorly regarding others. The assessment she had heard from her father was that he was a ‘stubborn warrior.’

She also figured that if Edgar was an individual who lacked interest, he wouldn’t go out of his way to scheme against them.

Once Ariel seemed to be satisfied, Shuri immediately moved on to the next subject.

This time it was Gale’s turn.

“On the other hand, Sir Gale is… somewhat mysterious.”

“Mysterious?”

Did she catch a hint of a disturbance or something?

Ariel squinted and asked again.

“Apparently, he left for his family home the day after you returned. After tracking him down, it was confirmed he stopped the carriage in Delion.”

“Delion…”

Delion was a city located on the border that separates the north and central regions.

It couldn’t be reached through the Dimensional Stone, so one could only reach it via carriage, and it was quite a distance.

“Where is Gale’s family home?”

“In a place called Fortuna.”

“Hmm, well that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the claim that he went to his family home.”

Delion and Fortuna were relatively close.

It was possible he just stopped the carriage briefly to rest on the way.

Of course, the fact that he seemed to be erasing tracks the day after the incident could raise suspicions, but Ariel’s perspective was somewhat different.

“It’s not impossible, but we can exclude Sir Gale from the list of suspects.”

“Huh? But…”

Ariel completely understood Shuri’s worry about saying this, so she supplemented her explanation to help clarify the confusion.

“Think about it. Who knows about this incident?”

“Well, that’s you, the young master, and me… right? Of course, including whoever is behind the scheming.”

As Shuri pondered aloud with her head tilted, Ariel snapped her fingers.

That was precisely the point.

“Exactly. But would there be a reason for someone to suddenly try to hide when their tail hasn’t even shown? If the other party isn’t a fool, they would know that hiding in a situation like this would only raise more suspicion.”

“Ah…!”

“If we assume there’s guilt, then this might seem plausible, but on the contrary, if we assume there’s no guilt, it can also appear plausible. Simply because they ‘didn’t know.’ That’s all it takes.”

It meant that an innocent person might carry out suspicious actions without any hesitation.

Shuri nodded vigorously as if finally understanding, and she could accept her master’s reasoning.

“Also, if I were the one involved, I wouldn’t choose to leave the castle while the one who attempted the assassination is blatantly alive.”

Right now, they were lying low, but they had to be more acutely aware of events that would occur after the incident than anyone within the castle.

If time had passed, they would have realized through a lack of communication that whatever operation they orchestrated was thwarted.

However, then why was Ariel maintaining silence about this matter?

If there were suspects, they would be unable to glean anything about who they were.

So, they’d probably be lurking within the castle, sniffing around for any additional information.

For that reason, Ariel also excluded Gale from the list of suspects.

While it wasn’t to the point of being certain like with Dulius, she instinctively felt it was the right call.

Now, the last subject remaining on the investigation list was,

“Sir Vincent.”

“Yes.”

Vincent Roland.

He was the man Ariel had the least direct encounters with among the three on the investigation list.

He always carried a friendly smile, but that only made it harder to gauge what kind of person he really was.

Since she had never been particularly interested in him, she hadn’t even bothered to ask Yulken about his character.

“Sir Vincent also has nothing particularly suspicious about him.”

“Really? Just in case, tell me everything.”

“Yes, first, he stayed within the castle for two days after you returned. The next day, he went hunting with Sir Lux, and yesterday, he went out briefly to meet someone outside.”

“…”

That’s quite an ordinary routine.

Wondering if perhaps she had misjudged the targets to suspect, Ariel thought there was no harm in double-checking.

“Do you have any information about the person he went out to meet?”

“Oh, it seems it was his child.”

It seemed they had confirmed faces too. That was some clear assurance.

However, Ariel furrowed her brow as the unsettling feeling wouldn’t easily dissipate.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on it; it felt like something was just out of reach in her memory.

Sometimes, her heart would react before her mind did, and that was exactly how it felt now.

Clearly, her mind was saying, ‘This is trustworthy information,’ yet something inside her kept pricking her thoughts.

‘What could it be?’

She could have simply brushed it off as just a feeling, but Ariel couldn’t stop herself from digging deeper, striving to unearth something long forgotten in her memory.

Vincent. What memories would linger from her scarce interactions with him?

One month, half a year, a year. As she mentally flicked through the timeline, her eyes widened.

It might have been just passing chatter, but in this moment, one fragment of memory that could be essential resurfaced.

This was about two years ago.

It was a time when Ariel was just beginning to break through the awkward relationship with her father and started growing closer.

On that day, as she was about to leave her room after chatting with Yulken, she unexpectedly bumped into Vincent.

“I hear you and His Majesty have been growing closer, miss. That’s good to see.”

It was among the happiest news for her, so despite not being close, she smiled and accepted the conversation.

“I can’t express how happy I am. By the way, Vincent, were you close with your children?”

“Sadly, I’ve been on the battlefield for so long that I think we’re a bit distant.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

Ariel genuinely thought so at the time.

So, when Vincent later posed a joking yet serious question, she offered her sincere advice.

“If you tell me how you got closer to His Majesty, I can learn from it, you know.”

“Hm… But your children must already be adults by now.”

“Ah, surprisingly, I have a late child, a daughter who is much younger than you.”

The unexpected news made Ariel’s eyes light up.

Typically, the reason parents and children can’t bond is due to a lack of opportunities for conversation. So, she went on to share her own experiences.

“Why not go hunting or fishing together? It’d help strengthen your bond as a father and daughter.”

Ariel suggested going hunting with a girl younger than herself without hesitation.

Naturally, she believed it was a good way since that had helped her grow close with her own father.

“Hunting, huh? That’s quite an idea. Unfortunately, hunting seems a bit difficult for me.”

“Why hunting?”

“It’s embarrassing to say, but I tend to get queasy due to my experiences on the battlefield. I just can’t do it.”

Indeed, he had said that.

“So you’ve never been hunting at all?”

“Right. I did get invited a few times, but I had to decline every time.”

He had never gone even once.

When that thought crossed her mind, a deep smile spread across Ariel’s lips.

“…Shuri, you didn’t track down the fact that Vincent went hunting, did you?”

“No, since he had companions, there was no suspicion, so the person in charge didn’t note any further information after that.”

As Shuri nodded while checking the paper in her hands, Ariel’s smile grew ever deeper and more ferocious.

“Tell those four. To investigate centered around Vincent. And also Lux.”

“Are you talking about Sir Lux too?”

“Yeah.”

Why did he go hunting with them?

No, more precisely, it seemed he had another reason for needing to bond with someone rather than just hunting.

It might be difficult to confirm this, but as the puzzle pieces began to fit together, Ariel trembled not from betrayal but from joy.

‘He has a weak stomach.’

If the day arrives when her prediction comes true, she wanted to test just how far that weak stomach could hold out.