A Mad Lady’s Confession - Chapter 71

“The situation in the southern Catalman region is showing troubling signs.”

The official delivering the report sounded quite grave.

The meeting was in full swing inside the assembly hall, where representatives sat in chairs carved with the crests of each family that led the empire. Despite the gravity of the subject raised, everyone who heard the news wore the same indifferent expression.

“Isn’t that region always full of complaints?”

The Minister of Finance, who was among those present, responded dismissively, “This time is different. We’ve heard that they’ve joined forces with the fishermen along the southern coast. Rumors are also circulating that someone has emerged as their central figure and is rallying public sentiment…. They say this person has been going around declaring that there’s no longer any need for them to endure hunger.”

Even in Römern, where everything was abundant and overflowing, there was one place whose people barely survived in poverty and hunger throughout the year. It was the Catalman region in the south of the empire.

“Lazy people are bound to blame others for their hunger,” a plump, middle-aged count with a greasy face spoke dismissively.

Lazy people, indolent people, people abandoned by God. Despite being citizens of the same empire, that was how the people of Catalman were commonly described.

“This isn’t a matter to be taken lightly. The words ‘The emperor has abandoned us’ are spreading openly. The moment the people turn their backs on us, the borderlands will cease to be a shield and become a blade….”

The official who had brought the report continued in an earnest tone, but the ministers merely scoffed.

“Strictly speaking, if they’re going to become a blade, wouldn’t they need something to work with? You say they can barely survive because they can’t even satisfy a single day’s hunger. What support could they possibly have to stage an uprising?”

In truth, Catalman was the poorest region in the empire. Every year, desperate letters arrived asking for their tribute taxes to be reduced or for relief to be provided, but the imperial family ignored them. Instead, it branded their poverty as the result of their own laziness and indolence.

Even so, it had never posed a problem. That was because of Catalman’s unique nature.

“In any case, their blood is the problem. The blood of those barbaric ancestors!”

Once, when Römern was expanding the empire’s territory, ethnic minorities and small kingdoms fell under Römern’s rule one after another. The empire made all of them live within a single territory, and that territory was what had become present-day Catalman. Most of the blood flowing through Catalman’s residents came from foreign ancestors conquered by Römern.

For that reason, the people of Römern looked down on Catalman, with the imperial family taking the lead. While the previous emperor had governed them relatively benevolently, the current emperor openly scorned and ignored them. At times, he didn’t even hesitate to say that he wished they would disappear from his land.

“Even so, won’t leaving them alone like this only allow the problem to grow? It would be better to uproot it while it’s still a sprout.”

“His Majesty is already facing difficulties on several fronts, and you want to add yet another problem?”

The argument between the ministers and the official continued. Every meeting was filled with clashing opinions.

Then, as though asking him to make the decision, someone addressed the man sitting motionless at the head of the table.

“Well then, what does Duke Nielsen think?”

Everyone fell silent and looked at Matthias.

Though he was among the youngest present, he stood above all of them not only in experience but also in decision-making authority. If Matthias Nielsen’s decision were conveyed as the will of the Council of Nobles, the imperial family would accept it, so there would be no problem.

He always had an answer for everything. Although he never concealed how frustrating and pathetic he found them, Matthias Nielsen invariably offered a suitable answer in the end. Expectant gazes turned toward the man.

As if to meet those expectations, the man, his blond hair neatly combed back and his formal uniform immaculate, spoke elegantly.

“I don’t know.”

“….”

“Decide among yourselves.”

As though there were nothing more to say, Matthias delivered those words with an indifferent expression while everyone could only stare at him and murmur among themselves.

“Your Grace!”

At the voice calling from behind, Matthias turned around with an irritated expression. The official who had argued so passionately in the meeting hall moments earlier ran toward him.

Even after he told them to decide among themselves, they ultimately failed to decide anything. They had to report to the emperor, who preferred ordering his subordinates around to doing the work himself, that the Council of Nobles had discussed a particular matter and reached a particular decision. Yet no one had been willing to state their own position clearly.

Even so, the official placed his last shred of hope in Matthias Nielsen.

“Your Grace, forgive my presumption, but the situation in Catalman is urgent. We have no time to lose.”

Despite the urgent words, there was little agitation in the duke’s expression. The official looked up at the man, who stood at least a handspan taller than him, and studied his mood.

His sharply gaunt jaw and the bluish shadows around his eyes indicated that Matthias was in rather poor condition, but the official was too busy staring at his bewitching face to notice and merely waited tactlessly for an answer.

“As I said.”

Matthias opened his mouth.

“I don’t particularly know.”

“…Your Grace, then what should we report to His Majesty….”

“Tell him exactly what happened. Everyone who attended the Council of Nobles was an imbecile, so the meeting became a complete mess and ultimately reached no conclusion, while Duke Nielsen said he knew nothing and told them to decide for themselves.”

“….”

“Then I’ll be going.”

He dipped his head in farewell and turned away without hesitation, radiating a cutting menace that warned he wouldn’t tolerate being stopped again.

The carriage door shut with a thud, and as the wheels began to move, Matthias rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes.

Nothing but loud, fucking nonsense. They’d shouted so much while spouting empty drivel that his head was beginning to throb.

“I heard that if you shout so loudly at your age, you might burst one of those thread-thin ‘pathways of blood’ beneath your skin.”

The voice he’d heard sometime in the past suddenly echoed in his ears, burrowing through his throbbing head. He quietly opened his eyes.

It had been one month and two days since the woman disappeared.

He was no longer surprised at himself for counting how long Eleanor Brynhill had been missing.

They’d spent the night in the beach cottage, and when he opened his eyes, the woman was no longer in his arms. Thinking she might have gone for a walk along the sea, he searched the beach, but she wasn’t there either.

He also considered that she might have returned to the estate alone, but Theobald, the butler, and Melissa, the head maid, were even more surprised than he was. Madam hasn’t returned, they said, or some such nonsense.

They searched the coast from end to end. Thinking she might have gone out alone and fallen into the sea, he launched several boats and hired everyone capable of diving to scour the water, but the woman wasn’t there.

Matthias pushed past them, plunged into the sea, and repeated the same search himself, but Eleanor Brynhill wasn’t beneath the surface.

Could she have been kidnapped? Had some wicked bastards taken her while he was asleep? Had someone put something in the water and wine from the basket left outside the cottage door?

Could something have happened on the day she visited Giela Düsseldorf? What if Giela Düsseldorf had resented Eleanor for coming to apologize and tried to take revenge?

When he hurried to the house in Tollen, Giela Düsseldorf looked at him in disbelief.

“Why would I do such a thing, and how could I possibly manage it? Do I look like I have that kind of power?”

It was a modest estate for a count’s daughter to live in, and an elderly head maid and a single maid made up the entirety of its staff. It was true that she didn’t appear to possess the means to enter Nielsen’s territory, much less the lord’s private grounds, and snatch someone away.

As Matthias paced about with his nerves worn completely raw, like a man desperate to find even the slightest lead, Giela Düsseldorf unexpectedly let something else slip.

“Besides, I have no reason to take revenge on her. Why would I, when she wasn’t even the culprit?”

At the time, he didn’t even have the presence of mind to question her further about Eleanor not being the culprit. The thought that he had to find the woman was the only thing driving him.

He sent people everywhere connected to Eleanor Brynhill. He rode personally to every place he could reach, and where he couldn’t go himself, he repeatedly sent others to search with relentless persistence.

Could it have been one of my political enemies? What if someone who hated Nielsen had taken Eleanor? He investigated everyone who had ever been involved in any dispute with Nielsen, great or small, or who had any reason to hate him.

Even so, every effort came to nothing. As though she’d evaporated, the woman was nowhere to be found.

Where could you be now? What were you doing? What might be happening to you?

Restlessness, anxiety, and the worst imaginings possible made his heart burn black. When he was nearly driven mad, when sealing off Gammelstad was no longer enough and he’d even resolved to go to the emperor and demand an order sealing off the entire empire, he realized something.

The only belongings the woman had brought with her.

Her modest dresses, the small handbag with worn corners, and the beetle-shaped brooch inside it were gone. And then he knew.

The woman, Eleanor Brynhill, had left of her own accord.

After confessing that she would make him happy and that she loved him.

“….”

Why in the world?

Yet even after shamelessly asking that question, far too many reasons immediately came to mind. Reasons the woman might have had to leave him.

The sharp pain he’d felt hundreds of times since Eleanor disappeared pierced him once again.

He shook his head to drive the thoughts away. His eyes, unable to sleep properly, stung unbearably. As though every trace of moisture had dried out. Just like the Matthias Nielsen he used to be, endlessly brittle and dry.