IDIBC Chapter 77

Lethon, That Casino

Sabrina sat with her chin propped on the table, wiggling her ankles back and forth.

She looked me up and down as I entered and shook her head from side to side.

“Your face is absolutely glowing. You’re already getting cocky, aren’t you?”

Lightly ignoring her words, I sat down across from her at the table. My face might have brightened for a reason, but what was going on with Sabrina’s face?

“But why does your face look like that?”

“Calling someone’s face ‘like that’—the fiancée of Young Duke Rochester has quite the sharp tongue.”

Her mouth was still working fine, so it didn’t seem to be anything serious.

“How is Madam Fennel?”

“Same as always. Though she does seem to be sleeping well these days. She’s been doing some knitting too. In the middle of summer, of all times.”

“She must be preparing for winter.”

Sabrina shrugged her shoulders.

“What about Jonathan?”

“He was here earlier, but—ah! Swordsmanship. Today’s the day he has sword lessons. I don’t know why he works so hard at it when he’s not even going to become a knight. Especially when we don’t even know when we’ll have to leave.”

After finishing her words, she let out a deep sigh.

While it was true that they didn’t know when they’d have to leave, it was unlike Sabrina to say such things. She always did her best in any given situation. Of course, the problem was that her best usually involved men.

“But seriously, is something wrong with you?”

“Something’s wrong, all right.” Her voice had no life in it.

“There’s a big card game at Lethon today. Julian invited me to go with him.”

Lethon was a members-only casino well-known even throughout the Principality.

“When do you have to go?”

“This evening.”

Her brow furrowed slightly. The original Sabrina would have been making a fuss since morning. She would have said that to go to a place like Lethon, she absolutely couldn’t be outdone, so she had to do her absolute best getting ready.

“Aren’t you going to prepare?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Why?”

“Lienne.”

When she called my name softly with a sigh-laden voice, I met her gaze calmly. Watching as Sabrina rubbed her fingers against the innocent wooden table.

“If you have something to say, say it.”

“I think I lost this time. No, I did lose. To Julian Bow Paquin, that notorious philanderer.”

The defeat Sabrina spoke of meant having her heart stolen. The heart she had carefully protected and never given to anyone after the painful failure of her first love had finally met turbulence because of him. Of all people, to a man that everyone with a mouth in the Empire called an opportunist.

“You don’t usually call that losing.”

“Then what… do you call it?”

“Starting a one-sided love, or ending up liking someone. You express it like that.”

“No, absolutely not. This is defeat; it can’t be called unrequited love. So I’m fine. It’s just that I need to figure out how to get out of this situation while preserving at least a bit of my pride. That’s where I am right now.”

Watching her anxiously get up from her seat and pace back and forth in front of the table, I fell into thought for a moment. And this thought occurred to me.

Hadn’t Sabrina, who was so deeply hurt by her first love, actually been in pain all along, even though she seemed fine? Without even realizing how badly she’d been injured.

“Is there absolutely no chance that Young Duke Paquin has come to like you?”

“He’s tremendously interested. The kind of interest that cools off after one night together. You wouldn’t call that liking someone. Maybe he’s already started placing bets.”

“Surely not…”

Sabrina shook her head and stopped abruptly in place.

“Now’s not the time to worry about that, is it? Think of a way not to go to the casino. I’ve already used the excuse of being sick so that won’t work, and there’s no event in this Empire he wouldn’t know about.”

“Just go.”

“I don’t want to. If I go now, I’ll have to see Julian’s smug face.”

“Don’t you want to see that face anyway?”

I expected her to snap back immediately telling me not to be ridiculous, but Sabrina fell silent. That silence told me so much. I approached her as she bit her nails and sighed repeatedly, and firmly grasped her hand.

“Then this time, let’s solve the problem my way.”

Her eyes, which had been swaying uneasily without finding direction, turned solely toward me.

“Your way?”

“Sabrina, the feeling of coming to like someone isn’t something to be ashamed of. It’s also something that can’t be divided into winners and losers. If someone tries to make you a laughingstock because of it, that person is in the wrong—it’s absolutely not your fault.”

“Not… my fault?”

Sabrina repeated my words quietly, just like she did in childhood. I embraced her just as I had back then. Patting her back, I continued slowly.

“That’s right, so go and tell him. That you came to see his face.”

“To see… his face?”

“Yes, that you came because you wanted to see him. That you hope he wins this game today.”

“And…?”

“When it’s time to part, properly convey your feelings. Looking at Young Duke Paquin straight in the eyes.”

Sabrina’s anxious eyes wavered in a different way than before.

“That it will probably be difficult to meet in the future. That the feelings you’d been pretending were fake have become real, so it’s hard to keep acting like they’re not. So if he doesn’t feel the same way, it would be better for you two to stop seeing each other around now. Tell him. In your own way, confidently.”

Sabrina’s eyes suddenly sparkled as she hastily pulled her hand from mine and ran off somewhere. Amusingly, what she brought back was paper and a pen.

“What are you doing?”

“Say it again. I’ll write it down and practice in the carriage on the way.”

“What?”

“It sounds pretty good. Since I’ve already lost the game anyway, I might as well admit it confidently and throw down the white handkerchief.”

At this typical Sabrina remark, I burst into laughter. She had already regained her usual mischievous look.

“He wasn’t someone I could see for long anyway. So it’s right to wrap things up around now. Since we’re not even sure when the Saintess will show up.”

I nodded my head vigorously so Sabrina couldn’t miss it. It was an affirmation to Sabrina, but also a resolution to myself.

“If I don’t see him, I’ll be fine. Right now, I can do that.”

I saw Sabrina off to the back gate of the winter territory as she went to bid farewell to a love that had been clumsy and never properly begun.

I thought about asking Ricardo’s permission to go with her, but gave up when she said Walter might be there too. Sabrina also expressed her determination to handle things well on her own.

It felt like summer was drawing much closer.

Though I wanted to bury the flowing time underground and trap it there, today was also passing all too easily.

****

Lethon was a large-scale facility where an entire four-story building served as a casino.

The first floor was set up so commoners could drink and play games casually, and the second floor was entirely rest rooms. Of course, these too were only for commoners to use.

Starting from the third-floor rest rooms, they strictly screened people—only nobles whose names were on that day’s invitation list could enter.

Naturally, the passages were completely separated as well.

When entering the first floor, the atmosphere was boisterous, but from the stairs leading to the nobles’ space, it became quiet, and the surroundings were silent, unlike a casino.

Sabrina passed through the corridor with red carpeting and went up to the fourth floor first. Since they were quite late from the appointed time, she judged that Julian would have already started his game.

On the fourth floor, there were about seven or eight large rooms, and she’d heard that every night was fully booked, so if someone wanted to host a game, they’d have to wait quite a long time.

Of course, the imperial family and the three ducal houses didn’t need to do that.

“It’s here.”

Sabrina followed the man who guided her into one of the rooms on the fourth floor.

“From now on, you may move about freely.”

Some men glanced at her, but since there was no one she recognized, Sabrina held up her fan to half-cover her face and looked around. In one corner, there were people smoking and playing the currently fashionable table game where you hit balls with sticks. And on the other side, gambling with dice was in full swing.

She scanned quickly, but there was no one Julian would be associating with.

Lethon was essentially Julian’s base of operations. Though he’d never told her so, she was vaguely aware that after always escorting her home, Julian would head to Lethon.

Julian met people here and obtained information to maintain his influence.

He had casually described Lethon this way: a miniature version of the Empire.

Since this was a place where commoners also mingled, Sabrina guessed that as he said, the state of affairs in the Empire would be visible at a glance, and quite intuitively at that.

If Rochester solidified his position as the Empire’s sword and shield, Chaplin was called the Empire’s pen.

Paquin was, so to speak, at the pinnacle of noble networks. Paquin’s power came from the information and people themselves. Encompassing not just the noble society visible on the surface, but everything beneath it as well.

That he had summoned her to Lethon, where his domain was clear, meant that today could be the most dangerous day for her.

Sabrina felt her heart pounding anew and caught her breath. For her, this place was like the final battlefield where she would declare her defeat.

Lost in various thoughts, she went back down to the third floor. Except for the occasional sound of men bursting into laughter all at once, there was no major noise.