295 - The Outcome of the Fake Godwin
Saying thank you for the meal, I enjoyed the delicious Nemaru and drank some tea.
Kyuubee took the dishes and withdrew into the back, but when he returned, he was carrying a steaming basket. I thought maybe steamed meat buns would come out this time, but inside the basket were freshly steamed manjuu.
"These are delicious."
"Indeed. Freshly steamed manjuu are the best."
The moist, chewy texture was hardly what I expected from manjuu. In my previous life, I had only ever eaten factory-produced individually wrapped manjuu, so I had no idea freshly steamed manjuu could be this delicious. The difference between store-bought manjuu and freshly made ones is so great you could almost call them different things entirely.
"Now then, about Godwin's business..."
"Yes. Since I was called here together as well, does that mean you have business with me?"
"Godwin came to me with a consultation. Since you were scheduled to come, I figured he could just ask you directly, so I kept him here."
At that, I moved the hand I had been reaching toward the manjuu back to my lap, as if starting over. I looked up at Godwin to show I was ready to listen, and Godwin was just pulling his hand back from the manjuu as well.
"I am deeply indebted to the Owl Princess in this matter, so I thought I must offer some token of thanks. I came to consult with Ethelbert-sama on what would please the princess."
"A token of thanks...?"
I tilted my head, wondering if I had done anything worthy of thanks. My only connection to Godwin was through Felicia. That meant it had to be related to Felicia, but I was always the one indebted to Felicia, never the other way around. I was troubled that I could not think of what he was talking about, and Godwin gave a wry smile. It seemed that while I had no memory of it, from Godwin's perspective it was something he could not help but thank me for.
"You gave me information through Felicia-sama that there seemed to be someone impersonating me, did you not?"
"Ah... yes. I did inform you about that."
It was rather pathetic that I only remembered when he mentioned it, but indeed, I had done something like that. When I went to the Dupre Orphanage where Leonardo was raised at the end of summer, I encountered a suspicious gentleman calling himself 'Godwin'. At that time, I already had an acquaintance with the real Godwin, so I immediately sensed something was wrong and sent a report through Felicia. The fact that Godwin wanted to thank me meant that information from back then had been useful.
"Thanks to the information from the Owl Princess, I was able to notice it while it was still possible to deal with. Thank you."
"It was pure coincidence that I encountered that suspicious person, so I am not sure what to do with your thanks."
"Still, it is also a fact that my house was saved from disaster thanks to that coincidence."
He pressed me again to let him offer some thanks, so I thought about it for a moment. As far as I was concerned, I had simply reported what I noticed, and I did not feel it was something to receive thanks for. Honestly, even if he asked what I wanted, I could not think of anything suitable.
"...Nothing particularly comes to mind. I will just accept your sentiments."
I did not want anything, but if that matter was settled, there was something I wanted to ask. In a sense, information itself was what I wanted.
"If that matter is resolved, please tell me. Were the girls who were taken by the impostor safely rescued?"
Since they were children from the same orphanage, Leonardo must have been concerned about the children of Dupre Orphanage. For Leonardo, this was a story about younger sisters, though in a different sense than with me. Since the Godwin who had taken in the orphan girls was an impostor, I wanted to confirm the girls' safety.
"That matter... is not really something fit for a lady's ears."
"I would be more concerned remaining ignorant."
I deliberately pouted and made a sulky face, saying that if he would not tell me, I would investigate myself. Godwin gave a light shrug. He probably judged that while he did not want to tell me, it would be better to tell me himself while hiding what he could rather than letting me find out on my own. The wry smile lasted only a moment before his expression tightened.
"...The impostor's name was Dom Mackenzie. Not a noble or anything of the sort, just a common swindler."
Dom himself was apparently hired to impersonate Godwin. He seems to have shown up at several orphanages besides Dupre, gathering girls. In this year alone, he collected thirteen girls and at least two boys. When Godwin's investigation began, only three of them were still alive, and only one is still alive now.
"Only one...?"
"Yes, just one. The other two were a girl who had deteriorated so badly that she passed away, perhaps from the relief of being rescued, and another girl who no longer had the strength to recover."
If there was any solace, perhaps it was that the girls knew they had been rescued. Compared to the other girls who were already not breathing when the authorities arrived at the scene, it was truly a tiny bit of comfort.
"The girls brought from the orphanage were apparently made to work at the mansion at first. There they were given the education and work they had been promised at the orphanage, and by the time the first girl got used to the work, a new girl would arrive."
The later arrivals would be relieved to see that the girls already working were being treated as promised, and would begin working at the mansion. Then when the next girl came to the mansion, the first girl would be told that a proper job had been found for her, and she would be taken away from the mansion. What happened at the destination seemed to be something that could not be told to someone of my gender. Even from this explanation alone, I could guess what had been done. The girls were used for pleasures too vile to speak of, deteriorated, and when they no longer had the strength to recover, they were moved to the basement. There was no moving on from there. In the basement lay several previous victims, scattering bones and the stench of decay.
"The ones who inspected the scene were Silver-White Knights borrowed from His Majesty King Christoph and my private soldiers, but the scene was so gruesome that not a few felt ill."
At the mention of bones and the stench of decay, I recalled a decomposed corpse I had seen years ago. At the same time, I remembered the suffocating stench from back then and reflexively pressed a hand to my throat. If I did not, I felt like my lunch might come back up.
The girls who were pushed into that basement, where several such bodies lay in their weakened state, realizing they would soon look the same -- what feelings did they die with? The girl who, though it could not be said she was saved in time, ran out of strength just as rescue came -- perhaps it was truly a small comfort to her.
"...If the discovery had been even a little later, all of these crimes were set to be laid on my shoulders as my sins."
Dom Mackenzie was just a swindler, not a noble, but there was no way a mere commoner fraudster could prepare a mansion where he could employ so many girls without raising suspicion. There was a Flower Peerage noble who had hired Dom, and the mansion that Flower Peerage had prepared was under Godwin's name. The reason the Flower Peerage was using a mansion under Godwin's name was because the Flower Peerage had offered the mansion to Godwin as collateral for a debt. Godwin had simply thought he was lending money to an acquaintance, but it turned out he had been cruelly betrayed by that acquaintance. That acquaintance apparently testified that he had done it at the request of a Staff Peerage who was Godwin's political enemy, but that Staff Peerage was of course maintaining a stance of complete ignorance. Still, it seems the acquaintance had left evidence in case he needed to protect himself, so it should be possible to charge the Staff Peerage.
...How to put it, it is a tangled, dirty mess.
Both the Staff Peerage who incited the acquaintance to betray Godwin, and the acquaintance who prepared evidence in case he got discarded by the Staff Peerage -- both of them seem pretty messed up as human beings. They were trying to frame Godwin, but in the end they only dragged each other down.
"What about the girl who was rescued in time? How is she doing?"
"Fortunately, it seems she still does not know anything about the basement. She is perfectly healthy in both mind and body."
Apparently she is now receiving the education needed for menial work at Godwin's mansion, just as the swindler had promised when taking her from the orphanage. She can either continue working at Godwin's mansion, or if she wishes, they are considering returning her to the orphanage.
"It is a dilemma whether to inform the orphanage of the truth."
The orphanage sent the girls off believing in their bright futures. They surely would not want to know that in reality, they were treated worse than prostitutes, and their bodies were piled up in a basement. It would also have a bad influence on the other children at the orphanage.
"The swindler, the Flower Peerage, and the Staff Peerage can all be dealt with as criminals, right?"
"Of course. The Staff Peerage is still playing dumb, but the small-time crooks -- the acquaintance who anticipated betrayal prepared some excellent evidence."
I tilted my head at Godwin's words that while the tail had been cut off, all other involved parties were to be judged under the law. If the tail was cut off, that meant the main body was still alive and well.
"By the way, is there really nothing you want? As far as I am concerned, being unable to offer any thanks to the Owl Princess sits poorly with me."
"Let me think..."
Since Godwin pressed again that he wanted to thank me, I thought about it once more. This time I gave it a bit more serious thought, but still nothing in particular came to mind.
"I really cannot think of anything."
I told him to let me call on him if I ever found myself in trouble someday, and ended the conversation. Something I wanted was not something to force out of myself anyway.
"...That response was a good choice."
"What do you mean?"
As I was being rocked in the carriage on the way back, grinning goofily at the manjuu on my lap, Alfred praised me. When I asked what he was talking about, he told me it was about my response to Godwin.
"You said to let you call on him if you were ever in trouble, did you not? That was a better choice than accepting some random gift."
"It is not like I had any particular plan in mind..."
When asked if there was anything I wanted, what came to mind was Leonardo. Since it was winter, he should be showing his face in the capital soon, and the spoiled part of me that had finally settled down was starting to stir again. But there was no way I could say something like that there, so my answer ended up being that I did not want anything. Saying to let me call on him if I was ever in trouble was my way of declining the gift, but it seemed Alfred interpreted it differently.
"Godwin is Valerier's uncle. Among the Staff Peerage, he is an exceptionally powerful figure."
"Valerier, you mean..."
She was the lady's maid who was kept away from me during the poison incident at the autumn detached palace. I had been told she was sent back to her territory because there were not enough hands to tend to the sick there, but I already knew that was not true. Valerier was suspected as one of the poisoners and was sent away somewhere.
"It seems she had Solana look into things, but was Valerier's innocence proven?"
"Yes. Based on the evidence Solana brought, we are in the process of identifying who framed Valerier. She should be free in a little while, but..."
"I suppose she will not return as my lady's maid, will she?"
"Actually, it is closer to say she was taken by Felicia nee-sama."
Valerier, the daughter of a Staff Peerage, was treated with courtesy even while being detained as a suspect. And since she was innocent, that was only natural, but there was not a single reason for her to be cowed as a criminal. Valerier, who endured the suspicion of having poisoned someone while standing tall with her back straight, was met with sincerity by Felicia. As a result, Valerier also succumbed to Felicia's pheromone. She fell for Felicia's character. To put it a bit more casually, she was completely smitten.
...A lady's maid who was sent away, stolen by her protector without me knowing?
Thinking about it that way put me in a somewhat mixed mood, but if Valerier was happy, then that was fine. She was once suspected as the one who brought the poison and put in a difficult position. If she found a master she wanted to serve, I hope she finds happiness there.
Time is up.
Typos and errors, another time.