Don't Keep a Dog in the Garden - Chapter 28

3. A Dog’s Scheme

The next morning, Whisker headed for the Grand Duchy of Diorent with several subordinates from the Inspection Bureau.

There was no send-off.

Whisker had quietly left the Grand Ducal residence early in the morning, and Cassia had never been good with partings since childhood.

Late summer passed slowly, the loud cries of cicadas filling the garden.

“It’s so quiet,” Marsilla murmured, resting her chin on her hand as she gazed out the window.

“That sounds like a complaint.”

Rinox, who was sitting across from her on the sofa with his legs crossed, remarked dryly, and she shot him a glance.

“It’s boring.”

“It’s peaceful. Peace is something to be valued.”

“What peace, it’s just dull. With Her Grace gone, the residence feels empty.”

“It’s nice and quiet.”

“Even Her Grace is bored, you know? Why else would she walk the same place three times a day?”

At Marsilla’s mention of Cassia, who was out in the garden even now, Rinox fell silent.

Cassia was probably strolling near the small fountain again.

The very place where she had picked up the dying Whisker.

It had been nearly half a month since Whisker went down to the Grand Duchy.

He had brushed it off as peace, but even Rinox couldn’t deny that an oddly quiet stretch of days had settled in.

The Emperor, who used to summon Cassia to the imperial palace whenever he felt like it just to bother her, was silent, and the nobles who would drop by the ducal residence at all hours had stopped coming.

Not a single letter had come from Whisker, who left boasting he would return within a week, and Rinox knew Cassia was quietly suppressing her impatience.

Pulling his gaze away from the window, Rinox muttered, “That bastard really gets on my nerves….”

Marsilla, who had been looking outside as if she hadn’t heard him, rose from the sofa.

She moved to the window, stood on her toes to peer out, then beckoned to Rinox.

“Someone’s coming. Did he come back?”

Thinking Whisker had returned, Rinox went to the window as well.

But what entered through the front gate was an unadorned black carriage, and the person who stepped out of it was entirely unexpected.

“The Crown Prince?”

Jachim had come to the Grand Ducal residence of Diorent without any prior notice.

The butler Ellen guided him to the reception room, and Cassia, who had been walking in the garden, hurried back.

Rushing in the heat, beads of sweat formed on her forehead as she bowed before Jachim.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

With a leisurely smile on his lips, Jachim gestured for Cassia to sit as if it were his own house.

“That’s enough formality. Please sit, Grand Duchess. I won’t be staying long.”

Cassia sat across from him as he indicated.

Her skin, set off by the green summer dress, looked pale and translucent, and the shadow cast by her long eyelashes fell over her expressionless face.

Jachim stared at her for a while as if trying to read her thoughts, then let out a shallow sigh.

“I was going to wait and see, but it’s too frustrating. Grand Duchess, what exactly are you planning to do?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I’m talking about Duke Mastiff. Do you intend to just leave him as he is?”

Jachim asked again, shaking his head in exasperation, and Cassia lifted her teacup to keep from showing any reaction.

The fact that he came without displaying his authority as Crown Prince meant he had come to the Grand Ducal residence without the Emperor’s knowledge.

Whatever the reality, it meant he wanted Cassia to understand it that way.

Is it a trap?

But the bait Jachim cast was Whisker, and Cassia couldn’t simply ignore it and walk away.

Gathering her fraying patience, Cassia slowly set down her teacup.

“I still don’t understand what you mean, Your Highness.”

“Are you saying someone as perceptive as you, Grand Duchess, doesn’t know why His Majesty sent Duke Mastiff to the Grand Duchy?”

“He went to find the one who murdered my father.”

“So he did. Alone, to the Grand Duchy where a thousand imperial troops are stationed.”

Jachim emphasized the number one thousand as he answered.

No matter how capable Whisker was, he couldn’t face a thousand regular imperial soldiers. It implied that his life was in imminent danger.

Cassia relaxed the corners of her lips and put on a composed expression.

“You speak as if the imperial troops would harm the Grand Duchess’s husband.”

“The imperial troops will do anything if it’s an imperial order.”

“Are you saying His Majesty ordered my husband’s death?”

“He’s the one who ordered the Grand Duke’s murder. Wouldn’t dealing with Duke Mastiff be easy?”

Perhaps deciding Whisker alone wasn’t enough to move Cassia, Jachim began bringing up the late Hamilton.

It was effective.

Cassia’s brows, which had been gently curved, straightened, and her gaze sharpened into a cutting gold.

“Would you repeat what you just said?”

“Surely you’re not saying you didn’t know? That the one who ordered the death of the former Grand Duke, Hamilton Diorent, was His Majesty the Emperor?”

Jachim met Cassia’s pale face head-on as he asked.

There’s no way she didn’t know.

Any child in the Fedemillon Empire would know.

But it was a truth that should never be spoken in front of Cassia.

At least, not like this.

Her vision swam with surging anger, but unable to read Jachim’s intent, Cassia bit down on it.

The one who grew impatient at the composure she maintained was Jachim.

He began to spill information she hadn’t even asked for, trying to move her.

“Shall I even tell you the name of the one who carried out the order? Vibrio Cornwall. The late Duke of Cornwall.”

“The Duke of Cornwall….”

“The Emperor’s first hunting dog, the one Duke Mastiff eliminated.”

Now she knew all the names connected to her father’s unjust death.

If Jachim was telling the truth.

If the Emperor truly wanted Whisker dead and had set this scheme in motion, then what was Jachim, his son, trying to do?

Cassia couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you telling me this?”

“Didn’t the Duke say you and I are in the same boat? There’s still something to be exchanged between us,” Jachim answered with a harmless smile.

When princes and crown princes were dying one after another, Whisker had joined hands with Jachim.

Was that alliance still in effect?

There was only one way to confirm it.

“I’ll make sure to convey Your Highness’s intentions to him.”

“Good. Then I’ll be on my way. I can’t be away from the palace for too long.”

Maintaining his relaxed demeanor to the very end, Jachim left the Grand Ducal residence.

After seeing him off without a change in expression, Cassia called Ellen and Rinox and ordered them to prepare for a journey at once.

Startled by Jachim’s visit and the unexpected command that followed, Rinox asked, “What’s going on? Where are you going?”

“I hear His Majesty intends to kill Whisker.”

“What? No matter how powerful His Majesty may be, how could he kill the Grand Duchess’s husband without reason… are we just going to sit still?”

“I didn’t realize sooner that that might be exactly what he wants,” Cassia answered with a cold smile.

She’d married Whisker to protect him, yet ended up turning him into even greater bait.

If he were to return as a corpse from the very place where her father died, the Grand Duchy of Diorent would have to respond in some way.

And that response would most likely be directed against the Emperor.

That was exactly what the Emperor was hoping for.

No, none of that mattered.

She would ask what needed to be asked, and take what needed to be taken. She had decided that.

But she didn’t want to see him close his eyes, soaked in blood, ever again.

***

The Grand Duchy of Diorent, the lord’s castle of the Verdi region. In the study where documents lay scattered in disarray, Whisker sat leaning back in his chair with both legs crossed on top of the desk, staring at the ceiling with a bored expression.

On the floor beneath the desk, paper airplanes he had folded and tossed carelessly were scattered in every direction.

A member of the Inspection Bureau entered the disordered office of the Grand Duke and bowed his head.

“Bureau Chief. The Grand Duchess is on her way.”

Whisker, who had been sprawled in the chair, lifted his head slightly and looked at the agent who delivered the news.

“Cassia?”

“Yes. It seems she’ll arrive by tomorrow evening.”

“Tomorrow? Why?”

“I’m not sure….”

As the agent trailed off, Whisker lowered his legs from the desk and sat up straight.

The unfocused red eyes sharpened instantly into something chilling.