Your Majesty, I’m Not that Man - Chapter 1: Preparing to Escape (2)

At Lavinia’s instruction, Albert entrusted his letter to Belle, the most indiscreet servant in the household. When Albert failed to return late that evening, Belle brought the letter to Lavinia, who feigned a pale and anxious demeanor.

“I’m so shaken I can’t bring myself to read it,” Lavinia said, pressing a hand to her chest. “Please, read it for me.”

Eager with curiosity, Belle opened the letter and began reading it aloud. As Lavinia had directed, the letter confessed that Albert was a commoner with no noble lineage, falsely passed off as the son of Baron Trid and adopted into the Wendell duchy.

“My goodness… He says he’s deeply sorry to you and the duke,” Belle remarked with astonishment.

The commotion drew Hans, who arrived in a panic and screamed, “This can’t be true! Master Albert would never—!”

Hans lunged at Belle, attempting to snatch the incriminating letter from her hands. But the other servants standing nearby were quicker, intercepting him before he could reach Belle. Despite his favored status with Duke Maxim, Hans was still a man whose relationship with the duke was an open secret—and male lovers were heavily scorned in the empire.

“How dare a common orphan deceive the duke and the lady!” Maggie said sharply, casting Hans a suspicious glare. “Miss, this must be reported and taken to court!”

Hans paled at the suggestion, fully aware that any formal investigation would spell disaster for him and Albert.

“No! That cannot happen, my lady!” Hans shouted desperately. “If you do that, the Wendell duchy’s reputation will be utterly ruined!”

Lavinia turned an icy gaze toward Hans. She could never bring herself to like the man who had supplanted her mother as the central figure in the duke’s life. Knowing the truth about Albert’s origins only deepened her distaste.

“That’s true,” Lavinia admitted. “We must minimize the damage. The first step is to annul Albert’s adoption into the Wendell family.”

Hans glared at her briefly, his expression darkening, but he quickly averted his gaze, likely realizing that revealing his true feelings would draw suspicion.

As if I don’t already know everything.

Even if Maxim tried to protect Hans, Lavinia knew that her formal complaint as the duchy’s legitimate heir would hold greater weight. The Wendell duchy was not built on Maxim’s authority alone. It had vassal families and ties to other noble houses, none of whom would recognize Albert. Lavinia was confident the emperor would support her as well.

“Where is my mother? And my father?” Lavinia asked Robert, the head butler.

Robert, still regaining his composure amidst the chaos, answered, “The duchess is visiting the Countess Catherine’s salon and should return within an hour or two. As for the duke…”

“I know where the duke is! I’ll fetch him!” Hans volunteered eagerly, stepping forward.

Lavinia stopped him with a cold glare. It was clear Hans intended to reach Maxim first and sway him to his side.

“No, Hans. You seem too shaken by this. Someone else will go. Neil,” she said, turning to a young servant boy who quickly stepped forward.

“Yes, my lady,” Neil replied, receiving instructions from Robert and departing immediately to find the duke.

Hans, panicking, moved closer to Lavinia. “No, I must go! The duke will be deeply distressed by this news—”

“My father won’t be distressed. He’s never cared much for Albert,” Lavinia said, cutting him off. “The only reason he ever paid attention to him was because I was forced to as well, given Albert’s status as my fiancé and the supposed heir.”

Hans flinched as though struck, his lips pressed tightly together.

“That’s not true, my lady,” Hans argued. “The duke may not show it, but he cherishes Master Albert greatly—”

“Master Albert?” Lavinia shot back, her tone razor-sharp. “How dare you call a con artist who deceived the Wendell family master?”

Hans faltered, realizing his slip. It wasn’t something he would usually say, but the tension of the moment had made him careless.

“No, my lady! I misspoke. And there’s no proof yet! What if Master Albert has been wrongly accused? What if this letter is part of some plot against him?”

“Wrongly accused?” Lavinia narrowed her eyes. “Are you suggesting someone fabricated the letter and left it as part of a conspiracy against Albert?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” Hans insisted, his tone bold despite his desperation.

But his audacity only fueled Belle’s indignation. Her face flushed red as she retorted angrily, “How can you say that? Plenty of people saw me receive the letter directly from Albert! Why would I, or anyone else, lie about something like this? And why are you defending him so fiercely, as if he’s your son or something?”

Belle’s words, though spoken in frustration, hit closer to the truth than she realized. Lavinia watched as Hans’s complexion turned ashen. For a fleeting moment, he seemed paralyzed, but he quickly recovered and began shouting again, trying to drown out the accusations.

“What nonsense are you spouting? I’m saying this because I know how devoted Master Albert has been to this household!” Hans shouted, his face red with indignation. “You all were hoping for him to become the next duke not so long ago!”

At this, Belle’s face flushed to her ears.

“That was before we knew he was a fraud!” Belle snapped. “And now that I think about it, why are you still calling him ‘Master’? Are you sure you’re not somehow connected to that con artist, Hans?”

“Who are you calling a con artist?” Hans roared, but his panic was evident as he glanced around. Meanwhile, Neil had already left the estate to summon the duke, leaving Hans to stew in helpless frustration.

“My lady,” Hans turned to Lavinia, his voice almost pleading. “You cared for Master Albe—him. This must all be some misunderstanding. There’s no solid evidence yet…”

“We’ll uncover the evidence soon enough,” Lavinia interrupted coldly. “Up until now, my father vouched for Albert’s origins, so no investigation was conducted. But now that he’s confessed to being a commoner, there’s no avoiding it. Just that suspicion alone is enough reason for him to leave our household.”

“That’s outrageous!” Hans shouted, his face twisted with anger. He glared at Lavinia, but the piercing frostiness of her gaze forced him to look away.

The blatant favoritism Hans displayed only now dawned on Lavinia, and she was stunned by how blind she had been to it before. She felt a surge of gratitude for regaining her past life’s memories—this newfound clarity was essential to protecting the duchy.

Looking around, Lavinia addressed her guards and the servants gathered nearby. “Search Albert’s room thoroughly. Find any evidence of his past—anything that might shed light on his history. Bring it all to me.”

“My lady!” Hans’s voice cracked as he tried to object, his panic turning to desperation.

Lavinia’s icy expression grew even colder as she met his gaze. A commoner, and my father’s lover, yet he dared to push his son into my life as my fiancé? Disgusting.

“My lady! You mustn’t act so recklessly! When the duke returns, you don’t know how he might react—”

“Robert,” Lavinia interrupted, her voice steady and unyielding, “Hans seems to have forgotten his place today.”

Hans’s brazen confidence that Maxim would protect him grated on Lavinia’s nerves.

“Have him confined to his quarters. Do it gently—I don’t want any injuries.”

“As you wish, my lady,” Robert replied, his tone calm but firm.

The butler had long disliked Hans, and his loyalty to Lavinia made him eager to act. Belle wasn’t the only one suspicious of the relationship between Hans and Albert. The butler himself had long speculated that Albert might be Hans’s hidden lover.

“What?! My lady!” Hans’s voice grew higher, his desperation now tinged with fear.

The pitiful look he gave Lavinia only disgusted her further. She recalled the way Hans had always watched her during lessons, his gaze unnervingly warm. At the time, she had thought it was because of her young age. Now, with her memories restored, she understood—he had looked at her that way because he had believed she would one day become his daughter-in-law.

“Take him away,” Lavinia ordered, her voice cutting through Hans’s cries.

Two strong servants stepped forward, grabbing Hans by the arms. He struggled and thrashed, but his strength was negligible. Years of maintaining the slender frame Maxim preferred had left him with little muscle.

Hans’s voice grew faint as he was dragged away, leaving Lavinia standing tall and resolute.

“Should I just kill Albert while I have the chance…?”

Lavinia wrestled with the thought. Though the destruction of the Wendell duchy in the original story was primarily Cassion’s doing, Albert’s deceit and betrayal of her and the duchy could not be ignored.

Of course, the greatest blame lay with her father, Maxim Wendell, who had been blind to everything but his infatuation with Hans.

“How much do you love that man?”

Even though Lavinia was the legitimate daughter of the duchy, born of his lawful wife, Maxim had never considered her perspective. All because of Hans’s scheming, Maxim had been willing to sacrifice her future for Hans’s son.

Hans had planned to keep the truth hidden until Lavinia and Albert were married and had their first child. At that point, Hans intended to reveal the truth, asserting himself as Albert’s father and holding Lavinia hostage to the shame of being wed to a nameless commoner.

A duchess married to a man of no lineage.

Hans would have used that fact to blackmail her for life, crowning himself the shadow patriarch of the duchy and manipulating Lavinia under the guise of a father-in-law.

When Hans learned of Lavinia’s engagement to the emperor in the original story, his bitterness only grew. He had thought her noble status would serve as the perfect leverage to make her his puppet.

But when the situation changed, so did his schemes. Deciding Lavinia was no longer necessary, Hans turned his attention to arranging Albert’s marriage with the daughter of another high-ranking noble, intending to repeat the same manipulative plan.

Remembering this, Lavinia’s shoulders trembled with rage. She couldn’t forgive her father for letting things reach this point.

“If I’m going to render Hans powerless… the first step is to recover the money he’s hidden away!”

The Wendell duchy was wealthy enough that Hans’s theft didn’t threaten its stability. Maxim, aware of the embezzlement, had turned a blind eye, allowing Hans to take whatever he wanted. Despite receiving a generous allowance, Hans hadn’t stopped siphoning funds, preparing for the day his crimes would be exposed.

The stolen money was to fund his escape with Albert—or, if necessary, to hire assassins.

Hans likely kept a significant amount hidden in his quarters, but Lavinia suspected he had stashed away even greater sums elsewhere.

“Where could it be?”

Knowing Hans’s nature, he wouldn’t trust anyone else to guard it. The hiding spot would be somewhere only he knew about.

The easiest solution would be to kill Hans outright, but that wasn’t an option. Hans wasn’t just Albert’s father; he was also the man Maxim loved. Killing him would disrupt too many delicate balances.

“Ugh, honestly! Hans and my father—both of them deserve a good beating!”

Even in her past life, Lavinia had found her parents frustrating at times. But Maxim was on another level entirely.

The only small mercy was that the household staff supported Lavinia without question. Regardless of who became the next duke, everyone expected Lavinia to become the duchess. Many even hoped she would take over as the duchy’s rightful heir.

“Robert,” Lavinia addressed the butler, her voice firm but calm, “I can’t be the only one who finds all of this suspicious. Am I?”

The butler, who had waited for Hans’s protests to fade into the distance, met Lavinia’s gaze.

“Do you suspect something, my lady?”

“Quite a lot.”

If Lavinia was to have Hans secretly monitored, she needed Robert on her side. The butler had served not only Maxim but also the two preceding dukes. If anyone would share her anger at Albert’s deception, it was Robert.

“Whatever you command, my lady,” Robert replied, his voice resolute. “I have no doubt you’ll protect the Wendell duchy.”

If only I could, Lavinia thought bitterly. Her plan was to become one of Cassion’s concubines, escape the empire, and start anew.

When she left, Maxim would likely bring in another adoptee as the next heir, someone without a drop of Wendell blood.

Even so, it would be worth it if she could ensure the survival of the duchy’s people and herself. Staying too long at Cassion’s side was far too dangerous. The emperor’s whims could change, and she had no guarantee he wouldn’t kill her someday.

In the original story, Cassion had only ever shown affection for Albert. Lavinia had no intention of remaining in the emperor’s orbit longer than necessary.

Once she fled the empire, she would sever all ties with the Wendell duchy for good.

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