ITIF Chapter 9

Fully Booked

Only then did Kavelaseth open his mouth with a smile on his face. However, one corner of his mouth was subtly positioned slightly higher than the other.

“If a lady is in distress, it’s a gentleman’s duty to help.”

He gestured with his eyes as if telling her to follow and walked ahead.

He climbed the stairs he had just descended moments ago, and Giselle Grante followed behind him up the stairs.

Though the number of rooms varied by floor, what was certain was that unlike other floors, the inn’s top floor had a total of three guest rooms.

Among them, Kavelaseth headed for the room positioned in the middle.

As expected, Giselle Grante nodded inwardly.

Upon entering the room, Giselle Grante lightly surveyed the interior.

Befitting an inn in the wealthy County of Fortress, the room’s interior was clean without any clutter, and the furniture and decorations were all of the highest quality.

When they arrived at the spacious reception room, Kavelaseth gestured toward the seat across from him.

Then the knight who had been beside Kavelaseth approached and tried to pull out a chair for her.

“Please, have a seat.”

However, she waved her hand, saying it was fine.

As soon as she sat on the sofa, Kavelaseth asked.

“Did you say the reason for going to the imperial capital was to honor the deceased Princess Trinity?”

“To be precise… it’s to attend the memorial service.”

In reality, her reason for going to the imperial capital was to understand the situation after her own death.

And if possible, she wanted to meet the people who had helped her when she was alive as the princess and hear their stories.

Kavelaseth, who had been nodding lightly, smiled slightly.

“Hmm… but what should we do about this?”

“…?”

“This makes your past statement impossible to fulfill.”

“What past statement do you mean?”

“Have you forgotten? You said that at this rate, I would end up marrying Princess Trinity?”

Kavelaseth was right.

Though it was unclear when exactly Kavelaseth began plotting his plan to usurp the throne, in any case, if he married Trinity who was to become emperor, his plan would be greatly disrupted.

Therefore, knowing his plan, Giselle Grante had proposed a marriage contract to Kavelaseth.

She had argued that at this rate, he would become the next emperor’s husband, using the fact that his name had been on the list of candidates for Princess Trinity’s groom at the time.

Despite it being a proposal that wasn’t bad for either of them, for some reason Kavelaseth rejected Giselle Grante’s proposal.

And before Giselle Grante could redefine her relationship with him, Princess Trinity died.

This made Giselle Grante’s past statement impossible, and the marriage proposal also became a card she could no longer present to him.

But in fact, Giselle Grante had foreseen the future and already knew that Trinity would die, and that eventually Kavelaseth would become emperor.

Additionally, she knew that Emperor Kavelaseth would massacre both herself, who had been the crown princess at the time, and her family, the Amaterasu Duchy.

“Sometimes predictions can go awry.”

Kavelaseth pulled up one corner of his mouth diagonally.

“Then there’s no need for me to continue this verbal sparring with you any longer.”

The moment he adjusted his posture as if to stand up, Giselle Grante urgently opened her mouth.

“I need an empty room.”

Seeing her suddenly bring up the main point, a smile appeared on Kavelaseth’s handsome face. However, it didn’t seem like he was smiling from pleasure.

“So that’s your real agenda. You must have heard it was fully booked?”

“Yes, I heard the same thing. That this inn’s rooms are fully booked. But tonight, the rooms to the left and right of this room you’ll be using.”

“…….”

“They’ll be empty all night. Since they’re rooms that won’t be used anyway, wouldn’t it be nice if someone in trouble could stay there?”

“What’s your reason for being certain that the rooms next to this one are empty?”

“Because originally you would have rented this entire building. If it weren’t for the special situation of people suddenly flocking to the imperial capital.”

A gleam appeared in Kavelaseth’s red eyes.

“So? If I give you the empty rooms, what can you give me in return?”

At Kavelaseth’s question, Giselle Grante held up two fingers.

“I’ll give you twice the amount you paid for the room.”

Kavelaseth arrogantly lifted his chin and asked.

“Do I look short on gold coins?”

Everyone in the empire knew of Duke Cardia’s wealth. So her answer was practically predetermined.

‘No.’

But if she gave that answer, she and her party would have to sleep outdoors tonight.

‘…It must be information after all, right? To get what I want from Kavelaseth, I need to give information, not gold coins.’

While Giselle Grante was pondering what information would be sufficient to exchange for the room fee, Kavelaseth casually blurted out.

“Four times.”

Giselle Grante’s eyes widened slightly.

Though she had come to negotiate, she hadn’t thought she could secure a room from Kavelaseth with just this amount of gold coins.

If she could solve the room problem with gold coins, it would be beneficial for her too.

Just as she was about to give an affirmative answer, Kavelaseth continued first.

“I’ll give you four times the room fee. If you do that, would you leave this inn, Lady Amaterasu?”

For a moment, Giselle Grante barely held back from snapping and shouting.

‘Mistaking someone for a beggar should have limits…!’

Her brow furrowed involuntarily at his attitude of not easily bending to her will and the resulting humiliation.

However, she forced herself to maintain a smile as she spoke.

“That would be difficult for me too. I was just thinking that I couldn’t get what I want from you with mere gold coins anyway.”

“If you don’t want to be kicked out like this, you’ll have to show me a card with value exceeding the room fee I offered.”

“Then would providing information of equivalent value work?”

“Ah, information based on those predictions that ‘sometimes’ go awry?”

Kavelaseth emphasized a particular word with force.

He was mocking Giselle Grante’s past statement about marrying Princess Trinity.

After all, Kavelaseth hadn’t married Trinity due to imperial pressure, and Princess Trinity had even died.

Giselle Grante bit the soft flesh inside her mouth.

‘Sigh, Giselle Grante. Why did you tell such an obvious lie…’

Though that lie hadn’t been told by her personally, she was now Giselle Grante herself.

So the karma of the past was rightfully hers to bear.

‘Rather than engaging in verbal sparring over past events that can’t be avoided now, it would be better to apologize honestly.’

Giselle Grante made that judgment.

“I acknowledge my mistake. And I apologize for my past rudeness.”

One of Kavelaseth’s eyebrows twitched subtly.

“There were circumstances that warranted it back then. I can’t tell you everything honestly right now, but could you find it in your generous heart to overlook my past mistakes?”

Kavelaseth’s expression, which had been full of mockery just moments before, became somewhat more serious.

‘So apologizing first was the right answer after all.’

With that thought, she opened her mouth again.

“…So while we can’t pretend it never happened, please forget the proposal I made to you before. And I’ll be careful not to catch your attention in the future.”

“A wise decision.”

Saying this, Kavelaseth’s red eyes turned toward the door. It was a dismissal, indicating that the door to leave was over there now that their business was finished.

Though he was dealing with her because Duke Amaterasu was supporting him, having lost interest, he was about to rise with indifferent eyes.

“Count Frederick.”

“…….”

At the suddenly spoken words, Kavelaseth stared at her silently.

“He’s one of the hidden close associates who carried out Princess Trinity’s work. If you investigate Count Frederick, you should be able to find out about Princess Trinity’s death as well.”

If Kavelaseth’s goal was to become emperor, he needed to read the flow of the political landscape.

Who killed Trinity, why, and for what purpose.

Only then could he prepare countermeasures in advance for whatever situations might arise.

In the current situation, everything was mere speculation, and she identified Count Frederick as the person who would dig deepest into the princess’s death.

‘He would…’

Yes. Count Frederick would try to uncover the truth even at the risk of danger.

Kavelaseth stroked his sharp chin and asked.

“How does the lady know about Princess Trinity? No, before that, how can I trust what you’re saying?”

Though he said he couldn’t trust her words, Kavelaseth was now showing some interest in this topic.

The reason was that he wasn’t immediately getting up and kicking her out of this room.

Giselle Grante shrugged slightly and said.

“Information is usually paid for in advance, but just this once, let’s process it as payment after delivery.”

With those words, Giselle Grante stood up from her seat.

For a moment, Kavelaseth’s red eyes looking at her widened slightly.

When buying and selling information, one always had to pay a price commensurate with it.

And the usual method was to receive payment first before delivering the information.

“Then I’ll gratefully use the room next door.”

Giselle Grante turned toward the door with a refreshed expression as if their business was concluded.

And she moved away from Kavelaseth with elegant steps.

****

Kavelaseth glared at the spot where Giselle Grante had been sitting just moments before with narrowed eyes.

Mulling over her suddenly changed attitude.

‘What could be the reason?’

The only certain thing was that the turning point had been after the physician’s misdiagnosis…

It was difficult to pinpoint the clear cause of her change of heart.

‘Did she simply have a change of heart?’

That didn’t make sense. Giselle Grante had never loved Kavelaseth from the beginning.

What Giselle Grante had wanted was merely the influence that came from his status and position, and he was exactly the same then as he was now.

So what had changed was her.

The Amaterasu Duchy was both a central force supporting Kavelaseth and a family powerful enough for the Empress to covet Giselle Grante as a match for her son.

Come to think of it, the timing when Giselle Grante’s somewhat foolish words and actions gained attention was truly coincidental.

It had been around the time the Empress had marked her as a potential princess consort.