The Editor Is the Novel’s Extra

Albion’s Pastoral House (5)

An unmasked passion emanated from Katarina but Celeste, standing at the window with arms folded, showed no reaction.

“Do you think your grandmother or I would risk everything in this reckless act? It took three generations to accumulate this wealth; it will take a single generation to waste it all!”

It had been revealed through the investigation that Cel was funding Kision’s private soldiers. Although that hadn’t been released to the public, Katarina, who had great connections, received the news sooner than others and quickly blocked all paths through which the word could spread. She was also shocked when she found out that Sophia Lefevre, a competent accountant that she trusted, had been helping Celeste. It was a crime of treason, so even the bold Katarina was unable to maintain her composure.

“Hah, how did you convince that cold accountant? My daughter and my accountant were conspiring treason behind my back, so how didn’t I notice?!”

“Sophia just wanted to help out. It was her civic duty.”

Slap!

Katarina smacked her daughter’s cheek.

Cel could have easily avoided the strike of someone who had never trained in martial arts, but she accepted her mother’s blow. However, the blow was rather sharp. The diamond ring Katarina wore dug into Cel’s cheek, drawing blood.

“Do you feel that a charge of treason is a joke?! Testify that you made the wrong judgment because you were overwhelmed by the effect of that redheaded friend of yours. I’ll get a guarantor. Until now, Viscount Kision testified that everything was his responsibility, so it’s still possible.”

Katarina had built up a strong relationship with Albion’s senators. Until now, she had taken care of their convenience, so now was the time to reap what was sown. If Cel nodded, Katarina would take care of the allegations, regardless of where Isiel or Arthur ended up.

“Mom… You know I can’t do that. That’s my honor and burden, and that’s what I have to pay.”

“Ha, honor?! Did you say honor? You must be alive to have honor. What honor is left for the Etensel royal family members that were strung up in the street? Talk about honor in front of my first husband’s carcass hanging from a streetlight!”

Katarina had been twenty-five when she left Carolinger. Cel’s short-lived father was Katarina’s second husband. Never having heard the details of Katarina’s earlier life before, her face stiffened in shock.

“Mom…”

Katarina stood up and fumbled with her keys. Then, she unlocked her desk drawer impatiently.

Rattle.

Katarina produced a pamphlet and threw it onto Cel’s lap. It was a monthly newsletter with a declaration of the campaign to expand suffrage published by the Violet Club.

“When you hang out with people like this, printing pamphlets and imitating social movements with young girls, what do you think anything will happen? Had it not been for this family, you would’ve ended up the same as the daughters of other refugees!”

Her shoulders, exposed over the black silk dress she wore, shook.

“It is only status and wealth that move the world. It was as such a thousand years ago and will be so in another thousand. Do you want to play politics? You must choose the second or third son of a suitable family! Whether you are voting or fighting, you can get it if you get married and grow old. Why are you messing around with this?”

Katarina’s words made sense. Married women over the age of thirty-five with a wealth of 100,000 dinars or more could vote. Cel had no shortage of wealth, so it was an easy right to achieve if she got married. But that was a road Cel couldn’t take.

“I don’t want to live surrounded by lies, and I don’t want to be anything other than myself. I chose a [Covenant] with those who had the potential to exercise my will so that I could live and die by my faith.”

“You mean you made a [Covenant] with the third prince?”

Cel answered with silence, and Katarina’s lips trembled slightly.

“…You’re crazy.”

Katarina approached Cel, her face scrunching up in sorrow. She was a remarkably tall for a woman, but she was still shorter than Cel.

“When I lost your sister, I thought my tears dried up.”

Dressed in black, the de Neju hotel’s empress stretched out her graceful arms to embrace her only child as if asking for reconciliation. The two had the same eyes and hair, but their difference in attitude was pronounced. Katarina clutched her daughter, her voice trembling.

“You are the only miracle left for me now.”

Cel hugged her mother back.

Clink.

It happened in an instant. Katarina, secretly reached to the cabinet behind Cel, then clasped a collar around her daughter’s neck.

Cel, in disbelief, groped at the metal ring around her throat.

A bit of golden liquid leaked from the metal, revealing it to be tiplaum. Cel’s expression distorted.

“I can’t bear to watch the same thing happen again… Losing a child isn’t something I’ll suffer twice in my life. Sabine, Paula. Lock her in the detention room on the fourth floor. She won’t be leaving until this situation comes to an end.”

“Okay, ma’am.”

“By your order.”

The two sturdy maids guarding the door quickly entered the room at Katarina’s call. Cel pushed her mother away and promptly escaped the maids. However, the moment she touched the doorknob, the maids’ sturdy hands grabbed her.

“Ah, mom…!”

Cel’s eyes closed before she could finish speaking, stiff limbs moving to hold her up.

Sleep on it, before talk about it again. I applied sleeping powder to the suppression collar.”

Katarina sat down on her office sofa. After sniffing at her perfume bottle, she stood back up and picked up the handset. Now that she had captured the cause of the issue, the next step was to fix it.

“Yes, how are you, Judge Catobon? In addition to the deposit mentioned the other day, the donation… Yes, I would like to pay it to the royal guard to prove my loyalty and dedication. Of course, as soon as possible.”

If Melchior raised his sword, Katarina had no choice but to bow down to save her daughter.

‘Funding private soldiers… I feel like I’m going mad.’

It felt like she had a fever, as her cheeks and ears grew hot, and her heart began to pound. While she wrote a letter to reduce her daughter’s charges as much as possible, she fanned herself with her free hand.

It was a truly terrible day.

***

A day passed. Kleio succumbed to his exhaustion and woken up sometime later. His fatigue remained, but he felt relieved at least that Arthur was still alive. He sat down at the table in his bedroom, drinking strong coffee to help wake and occasionally glancing at his terrace, like Arthur might enter uninvited like usual.

“Ahhh…”

He let out a pained sigh. He had always slept well in this world, so he had forgotten this feeling of needing caffeine to forcibly wake himself up.

‘It feels stupid. Ha.’

Gideon hadn’t returned to Kolpos but remained in the capital mansion and went to the Lundane branch to work. It was apparent he was watching Kleio. He had been ordered to come down and eat breakfast and dinner with Gideon.

‘This is house arrest.’

His father was out, but the guards he hired were at his door 24/7. Judging from their aura, they didn’t seem like low-level swordsmen. They watched Kleio closely; their eyes were always on him everywhere except the bathroom. He had tried talking to them, but they had told him they were carrying out the Baronet’s orders, so please remain comfortable. It was a courteous way to say that no matter what Kleio said, they must keep him in the room, so it’s better if he didn’t bother. Kleio opened up his newspaper as he waited for Behemoth, whom he had sent out on his behest, to return.

‘Any information about the current situation would be helpful.’

Today’s main article was about the agreement to reduce working hours between the transport union and the capital merchant’s union. Rep. Geston Falach of the commonwealth took the lead in expressing the transport union’s opinions, and Benjamin Beaton, the chairman, supported the People’s Union. The strike was over, and now Lundane was filled with the energy of early summer.

The newspaper held a few articles.

-The Dernier Continental Hospitality Industry General Assembly held in Lundane-

-Royal Park Botanical Garden opens! The largest orange tree on the continent! ― Rotos Line expected to be congested on weekends-

Kleio crumpled up the newspaper. There wasn’t a single line about Kision. In the first place, it was unlikely that any reporter knew what was happening there.

‘An entire territory was blocked for three days now; a commander is detained… train operations shut down?! Not even a single line about it?!’

Basically, Albion was a country with its infrastructure concentrated in the capital. Prints were often taken from the capital and sent to the provinces.

‘Are the northeast newspapers different? No room to find them… No, any news won’t have a big impact unless it’s published across the whole country.’

It was impossible to obtain national newspapers in the provinces, but it was almost impossible to find those small newspapers in the capital. Melchior’s media control was outstanding.

‘I wouldn’t have any idea myself if it weren’t for the secret letter sent to Baronet Asel.’

Even so, Gideon Asel had no reason to disclose that information to the media. Furthermore, even if Kleio reported it, he couldn’t think of a media company that would believe in an unfounded, anonymous report that desecrated the crown prince and his guard.

Tik. Tik.

“Door!”

Kleio stood up and went to the terrace door, greeting the returning cat.

“Ah! That was quick.”

He had gone six stops by tram to the Camellia hall where Cel was trapped. It wasn’t a speed achievable by a cat’s paws. Behemoth raised his head arrogantly.

“I took the tram.”

“The tram?”

“Yes, the tram. It’s easy to get on through the back door right before departure!”

It was a standard tip for illegally riding the train.

“Your intelligence is admirable. So, were you able to bring Cel the letter?”

“With my genius sense of smell, it was easy. You’ll have to pay a high price for making me climb four floors.”

“Whatever it takes. I will buy an entire cask of wine.”

“Good resolve.”