"We will conclude today's meeting here."
The Cabinet meeting ended.
Herdin leisurely rose from his seat and left the conference room with Ruth. As soon as they stepped out, the first thing he saw was the hallway window.
The weather was overcast. Judging by the ominous look of the dark clouds, it seemed rain was imminent.
Noticing his gaze, Ruth said,
"Just when I thought the weather was warming up a bit, it looks like spring rain is coming."
Herdin gazed at the panoramic view of the Imperial Palace beyond the window. Although obscured by trees, the Empress's Palace must be over there. And Blair would likely be there by now.
'Someone from the Count of Laureline has arrived; they said someone from the Imperial Palace visited the Count's estate yesterday. And today, Her Majesty the Grand Empress summoned you, Madam.'
Before the marriage, he had thought that Katrina cherished her daughter dearly. After all,
her daughter always wore expensive clothes and jewelry, smiling brightly amidst the people who praised her.
He didn't know then that appearances aren't everything.
The way Blair looked at the first post-marriage dinner with Ivan and Katrina, and at Katrina's birthday banquet.
The reality of their mother-daughter relationship, seen up close, was different from what he had imagined.
Only then did he realize that Katrina's attitude toward her daughter was peculiar. Blair's attitude toward her as well.
Although one cannot judge the whole picture based on those brief, fragmentary glimpses, he could tell that their relationship was not a typical mother-daughter bond.
Suddenly, Blair's appearance at the dinner came to mind.
The way she spoke softly, even while her hands trembled beneath the table.
"...."
Walking down the hallway, lost in thought, Herdin stopped in his tracks upon spotting something.
It was raining.
***
After finishing her conversation with Katrina and leaving the Empress's Palace, Blair encountered an unexpected variable.
It was spring rain.
Blair stood frozen in the face of the sudden downpour. A maid from the Empress's palace spotted her and ran straight into the rain to fetch a carriage.
Having rushed out after finishing her conversation with Katrina, Blair had no time to have the carriage ready,
so she had to wait idly at the entrance. Watching her, the maid cautiously spoke up.
"Madam, it is still chilly. Please wait inside."
"It is fine. They will be here soon anyway. The air is fresh, so I will stay here."
Rejecting the maid's suggestion, Blair waited for the carriage, staring blankly at the drizzling rain.
'What difference would digging into it now make? Do you think that dead woman will come back to life?'
Katrina was not only refusing to approach the truth of the incident from ten years ago, but was actually terrified of it.
If what she had said was the truth of the incident, there was nothing for her to fear.
The moment I saw her like that, I finally properly confronted the possibility I had ignored for the past ten years.
Perhaps Mother used me.
The accident that day, and perhaps even my own life.
At the same time, the sight of my mother's face, undeniably resembling mine, sent a shiver down my spine.
How could she do that?
How could Mother do this to me?
Of course, this is merely a possibility. It might not be the truth. It might simply be my own suspicion.
But this, too, might be my own rationalization, born of my desire not to be abandoned by my mother.
I thought that all I needed was Asiel. And that thought remains unchanged even now.
Yet, what is this emptiness in my heart?
This feeling of being left alone in the world.
"...Asiel."
Recalling the child's face that had giggled at her, Blair stroked her empty belly.
My baby. Since
there was no trace of that child anywhere in this world she had returned to, she caressed the area where she had once held him.
However, her thin belly, to which she felt nothing but her own body, only amplified the emptiness.
If she met Asiel again, if she held that child—her only blood relative—back in her arms... it felt as though this emptiness, which had grown large enough to engulf her, would vanish. It felt as though the emotions of this very moment would become meaningless.
Because just looking at that child, who breathed and smiled brightly while relying solely on her, made her feel like she could overcome anything.
That is why, now that the child is gone, she couldn't help but feel nothing.
At the moment when the rainy landscape filled Blair's empty violet eyes, a carriage stopped in front of the Empress's Palace. It bore the family crest depicting the wings of a mythical beast.
It was the crest of the Duke of Delmark, the same one Blair had arrived in, but it was not the carriage she had come in.
The carriage door opened, and a familiar face stepped out.
Herdin, holding an umbrella, strode toward Blair. Blair stared blankly at him as he approached.
They had argued.
He doubted her. Because she was Katrina's daughter.
He was likely doubting her even at this very moment—what they might have said, whether she had fallen for her mother.
And perhaps he had killed her past self.
Nevertheless, the moment he appeared before her eyes, there were finally two people in her world.
Herdin, having walked at a pace neither leisurely nor fast, stopped in front of Blair.
Blair looked up at him with disbelief. Beneath the umbrella, his piercingly blue eyes gazed silently at her.
After observing her for a moment, he extended his hand.
"Let's go."
Blair looked back and forth between the large hand offered to her and him,
then placed her hand on top of it. The large hand wrapped around hers and gently pulled her under the umbrella. At the same time, the umbrella tilted toward her.
Blair boarded the carriage with him. Ruth moved to the carriage Blair had arrived in. Soon, the carriage set off.
Only silence filled the carriage.
Blair glanced at Herdin out of the corner of her eye. He said nothing, merely staring at the raindrops streaming down the window.
'I naturally assumed he would ask about the conversation with Mother.'
If he had, Blair would have answered as if nothing had happened. Blair felt uncomfortable with this silence. She worried that he might be harboring suspicions without showing it.
Eventually, Blair spoke first.
"Mother… it seems she planted someone in the mansion. She found out that I was consulting with Lady Laureline."
Only then did Herdin's gaze, which had been fixed on the window, turn toward Blair. There was no sign of surprise on his face. He seemed to have already anticipated it.
"And…"
Blair, who had been answering an unasked question, closed her mouth before continuing.
If she mentioned that Katrina had told her to stop trying to recover her memories, it would amount to revealing to Herdin the possibility that she was involved in Esmeralda's death in some way.
How would he react upon considering that possibility?
He, too, must have already suspected her mother, but turning a mere hunch into a suspicion bordering on certainty was a completely different story.
Nevertheless, Blair continued speaking.
"...And she told me to stop trying to find my memories."
She had resolved to find the truth no matter what, and he was the partner to find that truth with her.
"Of course, regardless of Mother's wishes, I will definitely—"
"I know."
A calm, low-pitched voice cut Blair off. The look in his eyes, too, did not suspect or interrogate her as before.
"You do not need to explain any further to me."
Blair looked at him with a bewildered expression.
"Then why…."
It was an unfinished question—if that wasn't what she was curious about, why had he come to take her?
Instead of answering, Herdin quietly looked down at Blair's pale face and noticed a small raindrop clinging to her hair.
Seeing his hand approach, Blair instinctively closed her eyes.
He brushed the raindrop hanging near her temple with his index finger. His gaze, which had been fixed on the raindrop, returned immediately to Blair, and their eyes met.
Only then did Herdin answer in a dry voice.
"It's just... because it's raining."
***
"Did you call me, Your Excellency?"
That night, Herdin summoned Caligo to his office.
"Caligo, track the Grand Empress's whereabouts for the time being."
On the day of the accident,
Blair had gone to the Empress's Palace secretly without telling Katrina, but Katrina said she had heard from a lady-in-waiting planted in the Princess's Palace that Blair had gone there. The lady-in-waiting had also testified to this.
Katrina used this fact to dismiss the suspicion directed at her. She argued that
if she had truly intended to kill Esmeralda, would she have deliberately committed such an act on that particular day, knowing full well that her own daughter was at the Empress's Palace?
In fact, she had even gone to the temple that night to save Blair, who was seriously injured.
However, Herdin had believed without a doubt that Katrina was the culprit until now. He thought the maid's testimony was a lie, and that Blair was merely feigning amnesia to conveniently cover up her mother's crime, even though she knew of it.
However, there was one more possibility everyone had missed because they could not defy the bonds of kinship.
'The possibility that she had used her daughter's life as well.'
Blair likely felt the same way.
She probably never imagined that her mother would use her life.
'No, she probably didn't want to think about it.'
If that were the truth, I wouldn't have the confidence to accept it.
Once I brought that possibility to mind, I hesitated about helping her regain her memories.
Still, I have no intention of stopping here.
Whatever the truth may be, I must find out—why my aunt had to die, why Delmark had to bear such a disgrace.
Even if Blair gets hurt in the process, it is a truth that must be accepted.
'Either way, I cannot rely solely on her memories.'
Having reached that conclusion, Herdin continued.
"I thoroughly stirred up that woman. If she were the culprit, she would check things one more time. She must be anxious, wondering if I might have missed something."
"...."
"Keep a close eye on all the witnesses involved, and report it if you find anything suspicious."
Upon receiving Herdin's order, Caligo's eyes gleamed sharply, unlike usual.
He bowed his head with a serious expression.
"I obey your command."