Your Majesty, I’m Not that Man - Chapter 7: The First Outing (3)

A cold, hollow feeling swept through Lavinia’s chest, and she had to fight to keep her tears at bay. She had never thought of Robert as a father figure, but he had been one of the few people she could rely on in the Wendell household.

When Lavinia exited the café, her escort knights looked at her with some confusion.

“Is something the matter, milady? It sounded quite noisy in there…”

“Ah… It was nothing. Just something that needed to be said. Let’s leave immediately. The next stop is the dressmaker’s shop.”

The knights called for the carriage, which had been waiting at a slight distance from the café. As they waited for it to arrive, Lavinia glanced back and saw Robert rushing out of the café, his face filled with desperation. She stiffened her expression and turned her head away.

“Lady Lavinia, the carriage has arrived,” one of the knights announced.

“All right…”

When the carriage came to a stop, one of the knights opened the door for her. Inside, the maid who had accompanied her was awake, her face still groggy from a nap. Lavinia ignored her entirely as she stepped into the carriage.

Robert, standing outside, didn’t dare call out to her and could only watch the scene unfold helplessly.

“To the Pompadour dress shop,” Lavinia said to the maid.

The maid relayed the instruction to the coachman. As the carriage door closed, the escort knights mounted their horses, and the royal carriage began to move.

Watching it depart, Robert panicked, then turned and began running in the direction of the Wendell estate.

Now there was only one option left: the duke himself would have to stop her and persuade her. That was their only remaining chance.

＊ ＊ ＊

As scheduled, the carriage left the palace. The observers quietly tracked its destination.

The client had requested that the incident be staged as a robbery, which made the job much trickier. Their target was protected by none other than imperial knights—eight of them, no less. While it was impossible to assess the skill level of each individual knight, the imperial knight order was known for its exceptional standards, carefully vetted under the emperor’s authority.

Sniping from a distance with arrows or magic would have been a far easier method, but the client insisted on making it look like a robbery.

“A robbery, when they’re riding in a royal carriage? Really?”

This was the capital, not some remote countryside! A robbery in broad daylight, targeting a royal carriage, no less? There wasn’t a thief in the entire empire foolish enough to attempt such a thing.

The spies tracking Lavinia’s carriage clicked their tongues at the absurdity of the client’s request. Despite their grumblings, they would carry out the task—they had been paid a substantial sum, after all—but disguising this as a robbery seemed impossible.

“What to do…”

The carriage, having left the palace, stopped in front of a café. When the princess stepped out, the spies quietly observed the scene. They doubted the café was her final destination; it seemed more like an early meeting stop.

After a short while, the princess emerged from the café and climbed back into the carriage. An old man followed her out, his expression desperate as he gazed after her, but she didn’t so much as glance back at him.

“What’s going on?”

Though curious, the spies prioritized following the princess. They noted that the old man eventually moved away from the café and appeared to hail a carriage.

Fortunately, the royal carriage was heading toward the commercial district. The spies had worried it might turn toward the Wendell estate instead. If she stayed at the estate for a long time and returned directly to the palace, they would have had no choice but to risk attacking her while she was still in the royal carriage.

It was a holiday, and the streets were crowded with people. While this made tracking more difficult, it also provided plenty of cover for the spies.

The royal carriage stopped in front of a dress shop. After the princess stepped out, the carriage moved slowly past the shop and toward an area behind the commercial district where carriages gathered.

“Perfect!”

Attacking a royal carriage was vastly different from attacking a shop. Furthermore, the escort knights accompanying Lavinia wore armor without the insignia of the imperial knight order. Likely, this was because they were assigned to a mere concubine.

To any observer, it simply looked like a noblewoman visiting a dress shop to purchase clothing.

“Now’s the chance!”

The spies quickly signaled the assassins who were on standby. The group consisted of professional killers and disposable thugs who were unaware of the operation’s true purpose. The thugs believed it was simply a lucrative job and had no idea of the real stakes.

The assassins were already masked. Among the thugs, only one knew the faces of the assassins—and his fate was to be killed by them along the way.

Receiving a message tied to an arrow, the assassins checked the location and the number of escort knights. Then they tossed the message into the fire, burning it.

“Let’s move. The target is in position.”

The leader of the assassins spoke in a low, growling voice. The thugs, also covering their faces with masks, nodded in agreement. Smirking, they had no inkling that they would later be framed for the entire incident and executed by the emperor.

＊ ＊ ＊

Madame Pompadour’s dress shop was a very useful place for certain people. The shop shared its back wall with a prominent social club that was well-known in high society.

Outwardly, the two establishments appeared to have no connection, but in reality, a tunnel linked the dress shop to an opium den within the club.

Whenever authorities conducted raids and searched the buildings, customers would escape through the tunnel and emerge in the dress shop. Lavinia knew about this because, during Zelenka’s period of opium addiction, she had once fetched her from this very location.

“To think that dreadful experience would come in handy…”

The tunnel’s exit was located in the dressing room at the far end of the shop. All she needed to do was lock the door and locate the exit.

The issue was the maid who had accompanied her. Most noblewomen relied on their maids for assistance when changing clothes in dressing rooms. If Lavinia entered the dressing room alone, it would undoubtedly raise suspicions.

“It won’t be hard to get rid of one maid.”

As soon as the carriage stopped in front of the dress shop, Lavinia assigned the maid a task. Handing her some money, she instructed her to buy snacks and drinks for herself and the knights.

“…But then there will be no one to assist you, milady,” the maid said with obvious displeasure.

Ignoring the maid’s annoyed expression, Lavinia replied, “If you hurry back, you’ll still be able to assist me. The quantity is large, so be careful when carrying it. Now, go quickly.”

The maid, struggling to maintain a neutral expression, reluctantly ran toward a shop near the entrance to the commercial district. Lavinia had specifically mentioned a particular cake from that shop, ensuring the task would take time.

When Lavinia entered the dress shop, the owner, William, recognized her but refrained from openly acknowledging it, instead greeting her warmly. Lavinia returned his greetings briefly and began browsing the dresses.

The escort knights glanced around the shop before positioning themselves near the entrance, ensuring they wouldn’t obstruct customers. Lavinia cast a quick glance at them and then began selecting dresses.

She needed to spend as much time as possible in the dressing room, so she picked several outfits.

One, two, three, four… five dresses.

That should suffice.

Suppressing her nervousness, Lavinia walked toward the dressing room at the far end. With eight knights watching her, using the most secluded dressing room wouldn’t seem out of place.

“Phew…”

Once inside, she locked the door and placed the dresses on the floor. Lavinia immediately began searching for the tunnel entrance. The panels covering the tunnel were often replaced due to frequent use, so all she had to do was find the newest one.

“There it is.”

Taking a pin from her hair ornament, Lavinia bent its end and inserted it into the hidden latch. She pulled gently, and the panel opened silently. Relieved that it didn’t make a sound, she entered the tunnel and closed the panel behind her.

The tunnel was pitch black, with a single path stretching forward. It was too narrow to stand upright, forcing her to crawl.

“It doesn’t matter… I just need to reach the club!”

She began crawling through the darkness, groping her way forward. The dress she was wearing would undoubtedly get covered in dirt, but she could simply remove it once she was out of the tunnel.

***

The dress shop’s owner, William, was flustered by the sudden arrival of the imperial knights. Though he recognized Lavinia as the only daughter of the Wendell family, she wasn’t a regular customer, and he wasn’t sure why she had come.

Lavinia had avoided this shop ever since her mother had used its secret tunnel twice, preferring to stay far away from it.

“Welcome, milady…”

The position of the emperor’s concubines was a peculiar one. In other nations, a king’s concubines were typically given proper status and firmly bound to their roles. However, this emperor did no such thing.

He neither granted them rank nor rights, instead assigning them only the role of a concubine.

As a result, Cassion’s concubines lived in the palace but existed in an ambiguous position—not quite consorts, not quite mistresses. Those who interacted with them often treated them based on their original noble status rather than as imperial concubines.

Just as William was doing now.

“I’m just browsing lightly. I’ll choose what I like, so there’s no need for assistance,” Lavinia said casually as she examined the dresses.

Unable to find an opportunity to intervene, William stood aside, glancing nervously at the imperial knights.

As she had said, Lavinia quickly chose four or five dresses and headed to the dressing rooms. These were the same dressing rooms the imperial knights had inspected earlier.

“Good thing it’s not a busy time for the opium den.”

Had it been, the faint smell of opium might have seeped out. William clenched and unclenched his fists at the thought. Drug raids only happened at night, so there was no reason for anyone to use the tunnel at this time.

“But something feels off…”

The fact that there was a tunnel beneath that dressing room was something Lavinia would likely know. And yet, she deliberately chose that particular dressing room.

“Could she be looking for opium?”

He had heard the rumors that Lavinia had captured the emperor’s heart. Could it be that she had secretly used drugs to manipulate him? William’s mind raced with various speculations as he watched Lavinia disappear into the dressing room.

For some reason, he felt a sharp sting on his cheek. Turning his head, he realized the imperial knights were glaring at him coldly.

They might have thought he was leering at Lavinia, which sent a chill down his spine. There was no point in trying to explain, as it would only make him look more suspicious. William hurriedly turned his head away, pretending nothing had happened.

“I hope the lady quickly finds a dress she likes and leaves this shop, but…”

“What if she really went into the opium tunnel?”

If that were the case, he would have to buy her some time until she returned with whatever she was trying to procure. If things went wrong, his tunnel, and the opium den hidden beneath the club, could all be exposed.

Even if he bribed the authorities as he had done before, this time, it might not be enough to escape the consequences.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, William began to sweat nervously.

＊ ＊ ＊

Reaching the end of the tunnel, Lavinia carefully felt around for the exit. Surely, they wouldn’t have designed it so it couldn’t be opened from inside, right?

When Lavinia used to receive desperate calls for help from Zelenka, she would always wait outside the dressing room with fresh clothes for her. Because of this, she had never actually seen where the tunnel led.

Given its simple structure, Lavinia assumed it might lead to a storage room—perhaps a basement pantry or a wine cellar.

“Since it’s supposed to be a secret passage, it probably doesn’t lead directly to the opium den…”

Lavinia pressed her hands and feet against the tunnel’s ceiling and walls as she inspected the end of the passage. The ceiling seemed suspicious. With all her strength, she managed to lift it slightly.

“There’s something on top!”

It was heavy, likely weighed down by something substantial, making it difficult to push open from below. After some hesitation, Lavinia opened the extra-dimensional storage space on her bracelet.

All she needed to do was place her fingers on the amethyst and think of the item she wanted. The item would appear, making it possible to retrieve things even in total darkness.

Lavinia pulled out a letter opener—a knife made from a shard of dragon bone left over from crafting weapons. While extravagant for a letter opener, it reflected the opulent tastes of the nobility. It was also a magical artifact, one of the treasures her late grandfather had gifted her.