Chapter 13 – Joshua
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Ludwig stared at the dark skies outside the window and spoke.
“Is a storm about to arrive?”
The red-haired, middle-aged man who stood in front of him answered his vaguely rhetorical question in a smooth tone. “If you’re talking about the storm, then it has been raging on for quite a while now.”
Ludwig heard a slight aggravation in his voice, however, and turned his sharp metallic blue eyes towards the other man’s bright yellow ones.
“Ah, Marchioness Laimia will not like a raging storm,” Ludwig replied.
The other man was Joshua Laimia, Leticia’s father and the head of the house for the current Marchioness. When he heard his prospective son-in-law’s words, he gave a faint smile as he murmured ‘I wonder…’
The two men—who were considered giant pillars of the country—stood in the corner of the banquet hall. Not only were they great men, but they were directly involved in what the country called the romance of the century.
The other nobles present at the banquet stood from afar, but cast interested glances in their direction from time to time. Despite the nobles’ curiosity, however, none dared to step up to them. They assumed the two men must be talking about the young lady that lost her memory, and the subsequent breaking of the engagement.
“I’ve sent the letter of dissolution to the mansion,” Ludwig informed. “This time, all the ministers from our side all agreed to it. It means that the dissolution is not only my decision, but the decision of the entire duke family as well.”
And their beliefs were correct. Ludwig looked expectantly at Joshua. “I believe…that you will accept the breaking of engagement.”
Joshua’s expression remained carefree and playful. “The problem has long been out of my hands, has it not? The answer has already been decided, so all I need to do is follow. Like a wooden puppet clack-clacking as it follows the master’s hands.”
Despite the smile on Joshua’s face, his eyes were like shards of ice, twisting into Ludwig’s body. Ludwig kept his mouth closed as if he sensed Joshua’s intent.
A silence hung between them, until Ludwig spoke again.
“I’ve looked into the source of the poison that had been used in Leticia’s attempted murder. As her fiancé, I should at least pretend to want to find out who poisoned her, correct?”
Ludwig had suddenly brought up the topic of how Leticia was poisoned. Joshua’s eyes flickered as he looked at the young duke. Meanwhile, Ludwig continued speaking without heeding to his reaction.
“Any families that are considered Marchioness Laimia’s enemies and have had such poison secretly delivered to them are strong suspects. Since the poison is commonly used, the scope of such possible subjects is wide. It took quite a while to narrow down the likely culprits.”
Ludwig stopped speaking there, then picked up a wine glass from a nearby table. He held it up to the light to study the color of the red liquor. After he observed it from several angles, he seemed to have come to a satisfied conclusion, and he tipped the wine glass to take a sip. After removing the glass from his lips, he swirled the glass around in his hand as he continued.
“Then, I discovered something interesting. Perhaps it was a reward for how difficult it was to trim down the suspects,” he seemed to gloat.
The red liquid inside swirled along with his hand movements, nearly flying out of the glass as it spun like a whirlwind.
He then handed the glass to Joshua with a cynical smile. Joshua’s silhouette was a reddened figure through the wine glass. Like he was drowning in blood.
Ludwig noticed Joshua no longer had any smile on his lips, and he let out a harsh laugh. Then, the bombshell.
“One of the families that had the poison secretly delivered to them turned out to be the Laimia family.”
Ludwig ordered an investigation into the poison out of a hunch he had, but neither he nor anyone else could have predicted this outcome. Perhaps it wasn’t an outside enemy power that tried to poison and kill Leticia, but a family member involved in some internal conflict.
Joshua’s yellow eyes were fixed on the red liquid inside the wine glass Ludwig was holding. If Ludwig intentionally chose the drink with the same color as the veins in his eyes, then he must have a terrible personality.
Joshua had kept quiet for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth to answer.
“Are you insinuating that I poisoned my own daughter?”
“They say that if you mix enough poison along with certain drugs…it shocks the brain enough to cause memory loss.” Ludwig tapped at his temples with the other hand that was not holding the wine glass. The cocktail of drugs was used among people who dealt with poisons as well. The possibilities of usage for such drugs was nearly endless.
Ludwig continued. “More importantly, there was a specifically insufficient amount of poison needed to kill a person. To quote the professional who investigated this, the dosage was just enough to keep a person in a coma for a few days. What do you make of this, Marquis Laimia?”
For a father to intentionally bring harm to his daughter was a deeply shameful thing to do. If it was true, Ludwig would completely destroy Joshua’s reputation.
But after hearing those words, Joshua instead slowly raised the corners of his mouth.
His eyes and lips twisted into a perverse smile. It was as if he were changing a mask—no, it was as if his entire person had changed with that single gesture. Even Ludwig, who had come across his fair share of intimidating characters, couldn’t help but flinch at the sight.
“Hohoho, interesting,” Joshua chuckled softly. His personality had changed so completely that it was as if the person he was a few moments ago was nothing but a hallucination. The difference was so staggering that shivers of fear crawled down Ludwig’s spine. At the same time, he was so annoyed by Joshua’s retort that he frowned.
Joshua looked at him, then gave a barking laugh as if he found all this amusing. Ludwig looked nothing more than a child attempting to look confident and smart.
“That’s an interesting hypothesis,” Joshua purred. “Hmm…I see. Perhaps”—he placed particular emphasis on that word—” as you say, I did poison my own daughter. Why would I poison her and make her lose her memory in the first place? Can I hear your hypothesis on that, Duke?”
Was it just Ludwig, or was Joshua hypothesizing as well? Ludwig’s eyes widened slightly as he retracted the wine glass he was holding out to Joshua.
“Perhaps…you and I had the same goal in mind,” Ludwig said calmly. He looked down at the vivid red of the liquor in his hand, then looked back up at the still-smiling man.
“And by that I mean the dissolution of the engagement. You probably calculated that continuing this contract between me and Leticia would end up as a loss no matter what.”
He continued to explain his deduction.
“One side demanded the breaking of the engagement, and the other refused it. You could take out Yevnika, but I could take revenge, so that route was impossible. You could try to use your power to change my mind, but my title and influence are greater than yours, so that was impossible as well. The only course of action left to you was to continue the current situation. As time went on, Marchioness Laimia’s honor continued to worsen, as if stuck in some mud. I’m sure you thought it was unfavorable for you.”
In this scenario, the Laimia family was dragged on by a marriage contract that would likely never occur. Joshua must have been aggravated that he lost inertia, and that the family’s reputation had scratches like a body being pulled around. Sometimes they would crash into something and end up with bruises. In the end, the only result was grievous wounds all over their body.