Chapter 7
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"It's okay, get out of the way."
Sylver pushed past the soldiers and stepped toward her.
"Lieutenant Dieppe."
Delnia greeted him as he brushed past the soldiers with a casual stride. Fortunately or unfortunately, Roan was not with them.
"What happened?"
"The Major has granted you an interview, but on one condition."
This was unexpectedly good news for Delnia, who had been preparing herself for refusal, but before she could react, Sylver quickly added.
"I must be present for that conversation."
The muscles in Delnia's face stiffened instantly.
Monitoring and censoring the conversation meant treating her not merely as an innocent bystander in this case, but as the mastermind of a crime that could be plotted at will.
"If you're uncomfortable, you can withdraw."
Sylver offered, as if he understood her feelings, but Delnia shook her head.
"No, I'll meet the Count."
For now, anyway, she had to see her father first.
"There is no need to feel insulted, I'm dignified.”
Delnia stiffened her resolve, calming her wildly fluttering heart. At her determined glance, Sylver said nothing more and led the way.
As they descended the stairs and reached the room at the end of the hallway on the first floor, the soldier standing guard saluted Sylver and opened the door for them.
"Come in."
Delnia followed him into the room.
The room, like the rest of her quarters, was sparsely furnished with nothing but the bare necessities. Even the windows were meticulously curtained, making it even darker and more stark.
Her father, Count Eperne, sat in the dreary room, the only decoration in a room that seemed to pride itself on its isolation. He didn't even glance her way.
"I will stay here."
Sylver said, taking up a position by the door. It was a small room, and he could hear every word of the conversation, but he was being considerate.
Delnia bowed to him, then turned to face the front once more and approached the Count.
"Count."
She called out to him calmly, but there was no response, not even a movement. The Count remained motionless, his gaze far off into the distance.
"Count?"
Puzzled, she called out to him once more, quickening her pace and closing the distance.
Only when she was within earshot did the Count turn his head blankly.
His beard grew unruly and unkempt, and his face showed the fatigue of the hardship, but aside from his pallid complexion, he looked relatively unharmed. It was enough to make one wonder if he had been subjected to a harsh interrogation.
But there was something else that puzzled Delnia even more.
"What is it?"
She was stunned into silence by the annoyed tone of the man's voice.
She hadn't expected to be greeted with joy, nor had she expected to see a tearful penance.
Still, she hadn't expected to be treated like this.
"I came for an explanation."
Delnia spoke calmly, trying to quiet the churning inside of her.
But the Count’s next words were enough to exhaust her patience.
"What's the point? You've heard it all."
The Count jerked his chin at Sylver in the corner and spoke harshly. Delnia was stunned, unable to muster up the will to defend herself against such impudence.
Of course she heard. Of course she had heard what he had done, how he had been guilty of it, how bizarre the process was, and how there's a mountain of evidence to prove it all.
But that was the Navy's position, and she was Eperne.
Delnia had come all this way to see if there were any extenuating circumstances with the Count, if there were any injustices, if there were any lawyers she could trust or families she could plead with.
But it was all for naught. The man who had jeopardized the family's future felt no guilt, let alone responsibility.
"Why did you do it?"
When all discussion became pointless, that was all she had left to say.
Why did you do it? What the hell were you thinking?
She needed to know, even if it was for the wrong reasons.
It wouldn't undo what had been done, and even if she knew why, it would still be hard for her to understand.
They were still family, even if they were nothing more than empty shells wrapped in a plausible story.
But the Count's tight-lipped mouth refused to acknowledge even that. Delnia could no longer hold her tongue at the inhuman treatment.
"Why, how could you do this to me? You are the master of Eperne!"
"Master of Eperne?"
The Count's face, which had never been one to hide its annoyance, flushed with anger.
"You disrespected me so much, and now you call me master?"
The air in the room froze at the thunderbolt of anger. As if he had planned it.
“How did your mother, the legitimate heir of that great Eperne, treat me all her life? She forced me into the Count’s position like a slave and treated me like a bum all my life!”
"What.................."
"Every time we ran into each other, she'd duck away as if she'd seen something unclean, and she didn't even bother to hide her disgust for me, sighing and huffing before I could even open my mouth, but what?"
Delnia was speechless, staring at the Count in disbelief.
She couldn't even tell him to think of his dignity. Her mind was too white to care about the eyes watching her.
She knew that her father and mother were a cold couple, with a mutual disdain for each other. Delnia probably knew better than anyone else in the world.
But that's what they say about arranged noble marriages.
So there was nothing wrong with a father who never gave her a warm hug, or a mother who taught her lessons with a harsh beating at the hands of a maid.
That was just the way family was.
But.
"Why did I do it? To get away from this damned Eperne, of course. To get away from your mother, who has ignored me all my life!"
"...."
"But I was foolish, too. There was an easier way, one that would have been easier, one that would have allowed me to follow my master and rid myself of all who thought me so ridiculous."
The Count let out a self-deprecating sneer, as if he'd only just realized it now. It didn't seem to matter to him that he'd be swept away along with them.
"And you, too."
The Count, who hadn't glanced at Delnia since she entered the room, suddenly glared at her.
"I suppose you learned all that disrespect for me from your mother."
"I don't think so."
"Or else, along with the rest of Belfort, it's all because your mother looked down on me..................!"
"Not that, I-I never did."
It was true that she had not been kind to the Count. The older she grew, the less she liked her father.
That was because he was so cold to her, spending most of his time out and about and never giving her a warm glance.
When she was younger, she would go up to him and hug him. But the bigger she got, the more she realized that the Count didn't like her, and she didn't dare reach out.
Somewhere along the way, she changed his title from Father to Count. The Count didn't react to the change. The distance between them had grown that way.
"You know that, father."
The corners of Delnia's eyes were moist. The Count's eyebrows raised as her pale apricot-colored eyes turned as dark as a sunset sky.
A faint hint of guilt flickered across the Count's tired face, perhaps because he hadn't been called by the title in so long. It was the first time Delnia had ever seen him so vulnerable.
"When you were young and innocent, when you knew nothing........ Yes, there was a time."
"...."
"It's not that I didn't know. There were times when I thought you were so young, what could you possibly be guilty of? I wanted to love you, too, somehow."
The Count muttered weakly, as if he'd aged in an instant, and strangely enough, the little sound cut through her heart even more sharply than his earlier shout.
"But I couldn't, love isn't something you can force, and every time you looked at me with that woman's face, I couldn't bear the pain."
The Count spoke solemnly, as if he were belatedly confessing a sin committed long ago.
Delnia had always known he was not a kind or loving father. That he had little affection for his family. Perhaps he didn't love her at all.
But to say that he had tried to love her and failed, the misery was unparalleled.
Because it seemed like the Count who said that really tried, but in the end he failed, making her feel like she was worse than a stray dog on the street, unwelcome to anyone.
"I................"
Delnia's lips parted at random. She felt like if she didn't say something, the barely contained emotions would spill over.
But what the hell could she say?
Nothing in Eperne mattered to him, only what he could throw away, so their well-being was not even a consideration.
In the end, his inability to love her was the answer to everything he'd done. Maybe even too much.
Delnia shut her mouth, unable to find the words to say. Her whole body trembled, as if she had been abandoned by the world.
***
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