My Sweet Deceiver

Chapter 7

***

***

Late at night, in the palace of Fabrice, the nobles were talking and laughing.

The light was scattering from the chandelier decorated with diamonds, and on the wall decorated with gold were several paintings of Lansay, one of the most famous painters in Valloise.

The largest piece was so large that it took up an entire wall, and that piece was the second most famous of Lansay’s works, .

It was a picture of a man in a red cloak raising one hand on a running white horse and pointing at the hill. The man’s militant and ferocious spirit was vividly transmitted outside the picture.

Lansay had never personally identified the protagonist of this work. However, people guessed that the man in the painting was the first King of Valloise.

No one knew why an expensive piece of art costing 7 billion Loise* was hung in Fabrice’s banquet hall, but the nobles were amazed because it had been long since they had seen the real , so the nobles could not help but marvel.
[T/N: I guess Loise is Valloise’s currency, and it must be a fictional one. Looked up a bit in Google, and there is ‘Louis d’or’ which is any number of French coins first introduced by Louis XIII in 1640.]

In addition, flowers and colourful sculptures were placed everywhere in the banquet hall, and on the innermost stage of the hall, dancers wrapped in thin fabrics were dancing in the sky.

The banquet hall decorated with precious and beautiful things gave off a strangely decadent and bewitching atmosphere. It was like a banquet organized by Fabrice.

In a banquet hall filled with supporters, the nobles praised Fabrice’s abilities. Of course, they were all inflated stories.

Those who supported Fabrice were not truly loyal to him. Because the current King’s affection was toward Fabrice, they only supported the Second Prince.

Otherwise, some looked up to his maternal grandfather, the Duke of Briem, and stood in the line. They were just lighthearted to turn around at any time if the King changed his mind. Perhaps that’s why only opportunists twisted around Fabrice like flies hovering around a corpse.

Fabrice smiled contentedly while looking at the faces of the nobles.

‘I will be King.’

After recruiting the Marquis of Benchetrit as his supporter, Fabrice’s resolve became even stronger. Having been uncomfortable all along with self-reflection, he felt good for the first time in a while.

“Prince, welcome.”

“Yes, Duke. Thanks for coming.”

Fabrice bowed his head quite politely. It was the Duke of Briem.

“What, of course. Seeing you like this today makes me feel like I have to live longer. That way, I can continue to see how you grow strong.”

The Duke of Briem patted the Prince on the shoulder. He looked genuinely satisfied.

“It looks like you can sleep comfortably for the time being. The Marquis of Benchetrit is reliable.”

Baron Barbier, who was standing next to the Duke of Briem, lowered his eyes in front of Fabrice and spoke politely. But he looked as mean as a hunter with his prey in front of his eyes.

“Yes, the Marquis is holding on to the middle. Wouldn’t the engagement end up better?”

“That’s right. The rising divinity of the Lemacs will be more beneficial to the Prince than the dying Dubeaus like the old man in the backroom.”

The low-ranking noble flattered Fabrice by crushing Dubeaus down.

Fabrice frowned.

Dubeaus, whom they treated as the old man in the backroom, was a family with tradition and honour in the capital. It was not a level of the low-ranking nobles, who were ignorant of the family, to be speaking such of the Dubeaus.

As a high-ranking nobleman by birth, Fabrice did not want to even hear the lower-ranking nobles talking in front of him.

“I think all of this is happening for a brighter future.”

Having said that, the nobles bumped their glasses and shared drinks. It was a friendly atmosphere.

“Please do your best in the future.”

Fabrice made eye contact with the nobles gathered in front of them one by one and congratulated them.

After the performance, the dancers cleaned up and started going out of the banquet hall. A dancer came up behind Fabrice’s back and swept his broad back with one hand.

As Fabrice turned around, the pretty-faced dancer smiled charmingly. Then, pretending to tidy up her revealing dance clothes, she gently touched his thigh.

Fabrice took a firm grip on the small hand that touched his thigh and let it go. The dancer smiled at him and disappeared behind the red curtains that were fluttering all over the banquet hall.

Fabrice swept his neatly combed hair once, covering the corners of his curved lips with his hand. He placed the glass he was holding on the table.

“Please continue your conversation. I’m going to get some fresh air.”

“Would you like me to go with you?”

“No. That’s Okay.”

Fabrice, who resolutely refused, strode forward and entered the curtain where the dancer had disappeared. All of this happened in just a few seconds, so other nobles couldn’t even notice.

When Fabrice disappeared, someone brought up a name that should never be brought up.

“By the way, the First Prince must have a hard time.”

The man lowered his voice as if someone was listening to him.

“Did he go down to Newb Shabel?”

A man standing next to him spoke up.

“There was a flood, and there are no supplies because of last year’s famine. No relief supplies!”

The man who said so sounded excited somehow.

“Oh, my.”

“It’s not enough to just stick your face in. Would it be better if I didn’t curse?”

“Well, with that face, it might be possible.”

“No, this guy is joking. Oh, yeah.”

The nobleman who said so shook his head as if he was dumbfounded and drank the wine in the glass at once. There was silence in the hall.

It was because half of the people there thought they were serious.

It has already been a month since he went down to Newb Shabel in the southernmost part of Valloise.

Denis, who had an unobtrusive appearance, was getting things going smoothly, contrary to the worries of others.

When the King said, “There are no relief supplies,” he had received a promise from the temple to provide relief supplies for the damage.

But the effort was overshadowed by the position he had with someone who wanted to meet him as soon as he arrived at Newb Shabel.

***

A small room on one side of the bar was closed.

There was one person waiting impatiently for Denis to arrive. He was a bright middle-aged man who looked rich at first glance. The material of his clothes looked soft and luxurious, and the jewels attached to them were all of the highest quality. When Denis arrived, a middle-aged man jumped up from his seat and bowed to him according to etiquette.

“Hello, Prince. Let me start with my introduction. My name is Vincent Merad, and I work in the trade.”

“Is that so? Nice to meet you.”

Denis sat down gracefully.

The place that looked like a wall opened swung open gently, and a woman came out and poured tea.

She didn’t say a word, and when she was done doing her job of pouring the tea, she opened the wall again and disappeared.

It was a perfect backroom.

“There is no listening ear here. So you can talk comfortably.”

“I see. But why did you ask me to see you?”

Denis went straight to the point. It was not his cup of tea to secretly pursue something in a secret room. Not if it’s his wife.

Denis lifted the teacup.

“I don’t need to tell you long. I’ll give you my wheat and grain as a relief.”

“Thank you, but may I ask why?”

Denis looked directly into the eyes of those who offered to help him for no reason. The middle-aged man who met his eyes lowered his head, and he quietly began to tell his story.

“I’m a native of Newb Shabel, and I’ve been wheat farming since my great-grandfather started it. And he started the food trade business when he was a grandfather. Nate has granted me grace, and I’ve come all the way here sailing in the wind…”

[T/N: Nate is the official religion of Valloise.]

Denis interrupted the man who was about to continue.

“Yes, I see. Can you let me know if you want anything?”

“The Queen knows what I want.”

Denis looked at Vincent in surprise when he heard a name that could not come out of this place.

“It’s not purely a favour. Prince, please include the name of my family on the report when the repairs are complete.”

***

Denis was smoking a cigar while standing by the manor’s window that had been torn down and was repaired. The direction he was looking at was Lubern, the capital city.

He was lost in thought.

It was the face of a woman in Lubern that followed him like a shadow.

Her golden hair as thin as a thread, blue eyes like indigo, a body that would crumble if pressed hard.

It was six years.

They had been engaged for 1 year and married for 5 years.

The years he had spent with her…

Denis breathed deeply into the smoke. After coming to Newb Shabel, he didn’t even know when he slept properly.

When he was alone, he felt like his whole body was sinking under the water, to the bottom. It was useless without her, even though he smoked cigars and tried to sleep with sleeping candles every day.

He just wanted to lay next to her and sleep in peace.

‘I am so weak.’

Denis let out a self-pity laugh.

In her absence, he felt a long way from how he even fell asleep. He felt complicated when he realized that he was relying on her.

She was the daughter of the one who killed his mother.

It was funny how he was being swayed without being able to keep his balance. When Denis was burning another cigar, the assistant came in.

“Prince, it’s me.”

The assistant, who informed Denise of his presence, followed.

“The repair of the dam upstream of the Shabel River has been completed.”

Denis didn’t move, as if he had not heard from the man. Looking out the window with his arms crossed, his gaze was still directed toward an unknown place.

The man asked again, “When do you want to return to the capital?”

Only then did Denis turn and look at the man.

“Capital?”

He murmured like a child who had just learned the word.

Then, as if waking up from a long sleep, he ordered the man.

“After checking the condition of the dam, we will return in two days. Get ready to go back. Please inform the Lord as well.”

“Yes, I will. And since it’s late at night…”

The man barely managed to stop the words that were at the tip of his tongue. He was about to say, “You’d better go to bed.”

Of course, he knew that it was impossible, so he couldn’t finish it.

Denise smiled faintly.

“Can you bring me some wine?”

“Which one…?”

“Anything. No, is there any Chateau Mouton LaRoute?”

“I’ll check.”

“Thank you.”

After leaving the room, Denis pulled out another new cigar from the cigar box. Soon, the room filled with darkness began to fill with cigar smoke.

After a while, his assistant entered the room with a glass and a bottle of wine.

“Fortunately, there was only one left in the wine cellar. Do you want me to pour it for you?”

“That’s all right. You may leave.”

After the man left the room, Denis picked up the wine bottle and read the label.

A woman who drank this.

Denis remembered that woman.

He didn’t even drink alcohol, but he felt like he wanted to get drunk.

‘Can I fall asleep when I’m drunk?’

Denis turned the cork with the opener and opened the bottle.

The deep and mysterious scent of wine filled the room.

No wonder it seemed likeable.

Even though he didn’t drink wine, Denis knew it was good.

Because it was her taste.

After pouring the wine into a glass, Denis took it to the tip of his nose. The scent that filled the nasal passages felt sweeter today. At one point, saliva pooled on the tip of his tongue.

‘Would it be okay to drink today?’

As soon as the beliefs he had kept were about to collapse, he came to his senses.

“…”

Dennis grabbed the handle as hard as he could break and put the wine glass down.

As if that’s someone’s neck, he wanted to break it at once.

Cigar smoke and wine aroma.

Denis felt a sense of déjà vu as if he had been in the woman’s room in Lubern.

He staggered helplessly and went to bed.

It felt like sleep was encroaching on him.

It looked like he could sleep today.

He thought he could.

(To be continued in the next episode)