"...Yes?"
Edward looked at him with a bewildered look. He had declared that he would release the secret weapon that he had been saving for years for the best opportunity, and now he was disappointed?
"I expected your unique creation."
My unique creation?
Edward clenched his fist.
'Do you think I haven't thought about it?'
Is there any artist whose dream isn't to have his own work presented at the Foundation? However, even after racking their brains at his desk for three whole days, no clear musical idea came to mind. It seemed like he wouldn't be able to finish the score by the deadline. There was nothing he could do. For someone with such a delicate artistic spirit as himself, having a deadline was poison.
"I'm sorry, Count."
Leonard bowed his head, slightly gripping his hat.
"If you're going to present <Fantasy Butterfly> at the Foundation, I will withdraw my support."
"What, what did you say?"
"I decided to support you, Count, not a ghost who has already returned to the dust."
"...No, listen."
"Then please repay the money I borrowed by the due date."
"Wait a minute!"
Edward hurriedly grabbed Leonard. He had already squandered all the money he had received from that man, and now he wants me to repay him? It was ridiculous.
"Do I just have to exhibit my own work?"
Leonard chuckled.
"Of course, the level must be excellent. But I don't worry about that part, given your talent."
"..."
Edward remained silent for a moment. He had not yet looked for the unpublished scores that Ariana had mentioned. If really were Eduardo's last work that had never been revealed before in that secret vault...
Edward's eyes flashed.
"Please wait a minute."
Edward hurriedly walked up the stairs. He opened the office door and found the vault in one breath. The interior was exactly as Edward had known. However, if Ariana had said so, there must have been another space beyond that.
'Grandfather, that old man has always loved that girl Ariana.'
Since that was Ariana's passing comment, it was worth checking.
Bang!
Edward hit the inside of the safe with his fist, but his hand only hurt. He should bring an extension, but as he was thinking about it, a shadow appeared beyond the door.
"What are you doing, Master?"
Edward, who turned around in surprise, opened his eyes wide. Butler Wilhelm was quietly watching Edward, who was striking the safe. His old eyes didn't seem all that surprised. The moment he recognized that Edward realized.
"...You knew the secret of this safe."
Wilhelm was silent. Edward's fists trembled at the sight. Yes. Now that he think about it, the butler was the old man's old friend. Edward got up and strode toward Wilhelm.
Crash!
The old butler's cheek turned.
"You dared to keep a secret from me, the master of the house. Tell me. How do you open it?"
"...It only contains Eduardo's personal treasures. There's nothing of value here."
Wilhelm showed a rare hesitation. Edward was certain at that sight. Certain that there really was something hidden inside. Perhaps, something that would be of great value to him.
"Open it or die. Choose one of the two. If you don't care about your life because you don't have much time left, you'd better think again."
A mean light flashed in Edward's eyes.
"I'll banish you from the Lopez family and kill you. No one will take the body of an old man who was abandoned by a family that he had been loyal to his entire life, right?"
"..."
Wilhelm closed his eyes once as if he had given up, then opened them again, and said quietly.
"... I'll open it."
You should have come out like that a long time ago.
Edward smiled crookedly and nodded toward the safe. Wilhelm approached and pressed the engraved carvings inside the safe in a rhythmic rhythm, and the walls of the safe began to open with a small sound.
"Get out of the way!"
Edward, who pushed Wilhelm away, looked inside with greedy eyes.
Inside, there were only a few bundles of paper. On top were densely drawn musical staffs and musical notes. Edward's heart pounded.
'It really exists!'
This is the last work of the musical master. It may be more valuable than his masterpiece, the Butterfly of Fantasy...!
Edward hurriedly snatched the musical score and looked at it. After a while, his eyes slowly began to open.
"...Huh."
This is it. A flame called confidence burned in Edward's chest.
"This is it... This is it."
A fresh yet intense development. Musicality that did not lose its dignity. It seemed that the old man's fame was not entirely in vain. Edward quickly scanned the musical notes on the musical staff and exhaled deeply.
***
Dante lit a cigarette while looking at the faint dawn light. Thick smoke flowed out through the gaps between his teeth. His stomach felt stuffy as if it was filled with smoke. Of course, he knew very well what caused this unrelieved feeling.
"...Then."
The lips that had been quivering slightly came to mind. They were lips that would crumble into a soft mass as soon as he pressed them. He now knew quite well how those lips would let out a hesitant breath when he dug into them. They whispered slowly before his eyes.
"Then tell me. What does it feel like?"
"Ha."
Dante exhaled roughly and extinguished the cigarette that had been half-burned. Ariana looked up at him with her clean eyes at the subject of such words. As if she really wanted to learn about an unknown area to gain inspiration. As if there was nothing else, her eyes were challenging. Isn't that a truly destructive thirst for learning?
Dante clicked his tongue and touched his forehead. When he recalled the eyes that had looked up at him without blinking even once, his stomach began to boil again. He got up nervously and opened the window. The more he thought about it, the more he became shocked.
Of course, yes. It was true that he had provoked and harassed her first. But that woman should not have responded like that. Without fear. If only she had known what he was thinking as he looked at the back of her neck, which was white because her hair was tied up when she played. If she had known that sometimes, whenever she struck the keys, he would imagine pushing her trembling body onto the piano and knocking it over and that he would not even realize that the song was over...
She would not have dared to fight back like that.
'What are you going to teach me?'
Dante laughed at himself. A teacher who rushes in hastily, without any more time than his students. Isn't that too unsightly?
'That won't do. Not yet. Not yet. It wasn't the time.'
"Master. It's Rio."
"...Come in."
Rio opened the door, came in, and reported politely.
"I'm on my way back from carrying out the request that Ariana entrusted to me."
Ariana. Dante's fingertips froze for a moment at that name. The inside of his mouth felt dry for no reason, so he picked up his cigarette again. Rio naturally turned his gaze to the ashtray, his eyes widening.
"Oh my, you seemed to be smoking less recently, but why are you...!"
"Shut up. Go ahead and report."
When Dante waved his hand in annoyance, Rio stood at attention and continued his report.
"Yes. As she expected, Lady Ariana, when I threatened the Count that I would withdraw my support if he didn't submit his own composition, quickly changed his words. He said that he would submit his own composition instead of <Fantasy Butterfly> to the Foundation Day."
Rio added, recalling Edward at that time.
"With an extremely confident look on his face."
Sir Leonard, no. Rio had been faithfully carrying out the commission Ariana had given to the Information Guild Yor these days. Of course, Ariana didn't know that the one running around to carry out his commission was the direct aide of the Duke of Heigenberg.
Sometimes he felt uneasy thinking that he was deceiving Ariana...
'Well, it's true that there is no information guild as capable as Yor'
"Anyway, Lady Ariana is truly amazing. It's no exaggeration to say that she predicted all of Edward Lopez's actions."
In fact, Rio didn't really do anything for this mission. He just approached Edward as if he were his sponsor and recited the script Ariana had written for him. Then, Edward reacted and acted surprisingly just as Ariana had predicted. The accuracy was amazing, but what was most admirable was her guts to plan the plan and execute it without hesitation.
"You seem to have a great talent for strategy and tactics. I'm just saying this, but if you go to war, you'll achieve great results as a tactician-."
"Stop talking nonsense and finish your report. Is that all you have to say?"
"Oh, and there's one more thing I want to report."
Rio's expression became even more serious.
"This morning, Lord Roderick captured a member of the Dawn Order who was running away..."
The small ball that had been launched by the affair between Lucas Pedegreen and Elena Lopez had grown into a huge snowball. While investigating Lucas, an 'anonymous letter' denounced the debt relationship between the Marchioness and the Proken jeweler, and during the investigation, the collusion between the Dawn Order and the jeweler was revealed to the world.
The Dawn Order, whose biggest source of income had been discovered, began to disperse, and the Emperor entrusted their pursuit to the Duke of Heigenberg. Most of them were captured, but some were persistent. The one captured this morning was one of them.
"They say he said something strange."
Rio continued his report, frowning.
"He said that he wasn't in the Parje Forest that day, that he didn't act as an assassin. So he shouted that the Duchess had no grudge against him."
Parje Forest?
Dante's eyebrows hardened. It was the forest located upstream of the Essen River where Dante had saved a dying girl ten years ago.
'And that day at the same time...'
Eduardo Lopez and Cecilia Lopez. It was also the day that Ariana's maternal grandfather and mother died in a carriage accident.
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