My Sweet Deceiver - Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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“D
o you like this scent?”
“…Yes.”
Tehez had to agree.
“Would you like to gift wrap this, Madam?”
“Yes, please.”
The clerk skillfully placed the perfume bottle in a paper box and tied it with a ribbon. Tehez paid the price and got her hands on the packaged perfume. She ended up speaking on impulse.
The innate scent seemed to follow her over and over again.
“Come to my office for a moment, and let’s talk there.”
“No! I think we should just go.”
Tehez was polite to Delphine when she spoke to her in public and was about to reveal who she was.
“I will go now. See you next time.”
Tehez was seen off by Delphine and rode the carriage back to the palace.
Tehez looked at the box in her hand.
‘Can I give this to him?’
‘No, I don’t know if he likes presents…’
Seeing her thinking like this, Tehez laughed at herself.
Every day was a thin ice sheet for the succession to the throne, and she couldn’t believe she went to the department store and bought a present for him. No matter how swept away by Delphine, she couldn’t be her usual self.
Why?
The thought of never giving him a proper gift seemed to have guided her.
On the contrary, he also never gave her a personal gift. Other than sending jewellery to the annual birthday banquet.
Tehez couldn’t imagine him choosing a gift.
Good.
They were not even lovers…
Even as she thought to herself, the words ‘not even lovers’ came and stuck in her chest.
They were only on duty and responsibility.
‘I can’t call you my lover…’
Tehez gripped the pitiful paper box.
So, as long as she’s with him…
She won’t be able to think about what to give as a gift or won’t be able to see the scene where she would hand over the gift and wait to see his reaction…
She guessed so.
Because he was a real man.
He really was.
He was by no means a whisper of lies.
As his wife, while Tehez was by his side, he would not look at any other woman or give his affection.
Because he was the man who said he couldn’t love her.
Tehez remembered Denis’ words she had heard on their first night.
His words were an arrow to her that pierced her and became an incurable wound.
Nevertheless…
Tehez put down the object and looked out the window.
Such a small gift complicated her mind.
She’d not give this present to him.
It will be sealed in her drawer forever…
‘…Until the day I leave his side…’
***
The Bishop, who had had a pleasant conversation with Delphine, frowned.
It was the complete opposite of the previous situation. The Bishop did not say a word and silently watched the man sitting in front of him, emptying his teacup.
Denis, the man sitting in front of the Bishop, jumped to the main point without giving an introduction.
“I know my mother left me a legacy. Please return it.”
“…When you came of age, I gave it all back, Prince.”
The Bishop answered, avoiding his eyes.
“Can you tell me in front of Nate that you are sure?”
“…I gave you everything back, didn’t I?
The Bishop replied in a fit of anger when Denis mentioned Nate.
“You must see what I brought today.”
Denis showed the Bishop the edge of the old envelope he had in his arms.
The seal of the Temple was clearly engraved on the letter.
The Bishop frowned.
It was a seal that only the Pope could use.
“If the Bishop refuses, I will ask the Holy Father.”
“…”
The Bishop, who spoke after a long time, seemed not to be happy with the situation, twisted his lips and asked him to wait for a while. He called the priest and told him to bring the books.
The priest returned after a while and put a thin ledger down in front of Denis.
At first glance, it looked like an old, shallow booklet, but Denis recognized that it was a ledger of hidden property that had never been handed over to him by the Temple.
Denis turned the pages of the old ledger and memorized them one by one.
“Two mansions in the capital, four buildings, 500 gold bars… is what you return when I become an adult, but you didn’t give it to me. When I became an adult, you only gave me a deposit of three hundred equities in my mother’s name.”
“…”
“The deposit in the borrowed name is 500 million Louis. If I don’t find this, it will be returned to the Temple after 30 years, right?”
Denis raised his long fingers and pointed them one by one.
“Aha, three billion Louis bearer bonds due next year! Oh, what a pity. It’s a bearer bond, so if I didn’t look for it, it would have been the Temple’s share.”
Denis pretended to be sad in a voice that was not at all sad. The Bishop just gulped down the tea without saying a word. It looked like he was burning inside.
“And two paintings by Lansay and five paintings by Pissarro. If it’s a painting, it won’t be easy to track the funds, and people will line up to buy Lansay and Pissarro… It was an appropriate choice, but it’s a shame. I’m sorry.”
The Bishop also knew that Denis was making fun of him.
However, since what he had stolen was discovered, he just stayed silent without saying anything.
“That’s enough.”
“Yes, I will.”
Denis agreed to the Bishop’s words and put down the ledger.
“It was left to the owner, but wouldn’t it be in trouble if the storekeeper coveted it?”
After saying that, Denis raised one corner of his lips and smiled.
“Now that I have returned it, please go back. Prince, it will be difficult if you keep coming back.”
“What are you having trouble with?”
“It gets in the way.”
“Oh, my.”
Denis said sadly.
“I’ll disturb you often in the future, so I ask for your understanding and forgiveness in advance. Ahh. And I’m going to build an academy, so please donate. I’ll use it for good.”
Denis’ expression was one of the brightest the Bishop had seen recently.
Denis came out with a thin ledger and handed it to Sylvan, who was waiting nearby.
Sylvan also heard from Denis and knew what the ledger was about, so he carefully received it.
“I was also promised a donation.”
“Good for you, Prince.”
“Well.”
Denis smiled in a good mood, responded to Sylvan, and got into the carriage.
“Sir Olivier decided to come in the afternoon.”
Sylvan once again informed Denis of the schedule.
“Yes.”
‘You’re back.’
Denis rested his chin on his hand as he looked at the scenery out the window.
Just getting his mother’s lost property back was a huge achievement today.
He thought his mother would leave him no legacy. This was because Queen Charlize had no interest in fame or wealth all her life.
He lost his mother and didn’t even think about organizing her belongings.
Because it was such a sudden loss.
Moreover, he was only nine years old, and Queen Charlize was an orphan.
The Queen’s funeral, watched by all the people, was held in a considerably grand way.
However, it was up to Dennis to clean up the ruined royal palace where all the funeral procedures were over, and no one cared.
It was the irresponsible neglect of adults.
Indifferent, he simply put all of his mother’s belongings in a small room inside his palace and locked it.
To lose someone like that was to lock a part of his heart.
Would it have been different if Queen Charlize had left a note for him?
Or, if she had given him a clue before she died, he would not have found his mother’s legacy so belatedly.
To start over, the first thing he did was to organize his mother’s belongings, so he could open the long-locked door and find an old letter.
The things that came with her when the Temple sent her to the palace, and the things that she had put into her own name when her spirits fluctuated.
If it had been discovered earlier, he might have been living in a quiet and secluded neighbourhood rather than trying to inherit the throne as he is now.
He couldn’t stop thinking in vain, knowing that assumptions about the past were meaningless no matter what. It was eating him from inside, little by little, every day.
He thought it would be better if time, sorrow and wounds could pass like this.
He wished they could all disappear without any meaning.
The time when she wanted to hold on to his time.
She made him want to be something he could be.
She made him want to find it.
[T/N: I believe ‘she’ refers to Tehez here.]
Denis stared blankly out of his window.
People passed by.
He looked carefully at the faces of the passersby.
He knew she wasn’t there.
***
“Prince, Prince.”
Denis, lost in thought, woke up to Sylvan’s call.
“My Lord, how have you been?”
As soon as the tall man entered Denis’ office, he put down his bag and hugged Denis warmly. Denis naturally tapped the man on the shoulder.
“How long has it been?”
Even though Denis didn’t offer him a seat, the man took off his coat and sat down on the sofa.
“I think it’s been six years.”
Denis counted and sat down opposite each other.
“Yes. As soon as the Prince’s engagement was over, I left for Herzan.”
“It tickles. Just call me by my name comfortably.”
“How could a son of a Count call the Prince by his name?”
As the man exaggerated, Denis grinned.
The man, who had been pretending to be polite, untied his tie and crossed his legs comfortably, looking around Denis’ office.
The man was Olivier, the eldest son of Count Chabrol.
Denis and Olivier had graduated from the Academy the same year. He was one of the few close friends of Denis during his academy days.
After graduating from the Academy, Olivier was expected to inherit the Count, but he unexpectedly left for Herzan to study.
It was because he wanted to study music.
Olivier’s story was published in many newspapers when he left to study abroad, as it was a shocking case of refusal of the title.
“I don’t think much has changed since I was away. Isn’t the King still the same?”
Denis understood what Olivier meant.
It meant that the King was still weighing between him and Fabrice.
Denis answered politely.
“Of course, he is still healthy and unchanged.”
Olivier had a sad expression on his face.
His expression looked so sad, it was as if Olivier had heard the obituary of someone close to him.
On the contrary, Denis’ expression seemed brighter.
“That’s why I need you.”
Olivier looked at Denis and said, “If there is anything I can do to help, I will do it.”
“Be the chairperson of the Academy that I will build.”
“Prince, that’s…”
Olivier, as if hearing those unexpected words, dragged on.
“I can’t think of anyone I can trust. I need someone who is totally on my side, Olivier.”
Olivier’s brow furrowed as if he was in trouble.
“Give me some time to think, Prince.”
“I can’t wait long. I want you to make up your mind as soon as possible.”
At Denis’ last words, Olivier fell into deep thought.
(To be continued in the next episode)
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