C59
It was easy for the three male members, who were not interested in flowers, and Liena, who was adopted after the duchess's death, not to know.
Furthermore, it was after the death of the duchess that Cassius began to seriously search for the time capsule.
"So are you saying there is a problem with the mountain behind this? But a hundred years have passed since the bell tower was built."
The duke responded to his son's question.
"...Now that I think about it, the bell from the bell tower doesn't ring three times at dawn."
"What are you talking about? The temple bell is supposed to ring three times a day."
"Yes, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But in this poem, it says dawn."
"Doesn't this dawn mean morning? Actually, it doesn't ring early in the morning."
"It's struck, to be precise."
Detailed explanations were given elsewhere.
"The temple in the Cassius territory originally had the custom of ringing the bell four times at dawn. It was a unique feature that didn't exist anywhere else in the empire."
Leandro, with dark circles, was standing at the door leading to the hallway.
"Thanks to this, it was criticized as heresy that was abolished a long time ago."
"Brother! Is it okay if you go out like that?"
"... It's fine. If they're talking about our mother's time capsule, I can't not come. Besides, I have a conversation to share with my wife."
Not me, idiot.
Leandro, perhaps surprised by my look, didn't sit and continued pacing nearby.
The duke moved on to the topic with the sound of the bell tower.
"I also thought it was strange, but until now, I thought it only meant morning. The custom of morning bells disappeared even before I married Cheryl. I never thought you would know that..."
I asked.
"Actually, you didn't want to get rid of it, did you? The unique culture of your hometown."
"I was thinking of reviving it someday. When we become so powerful that no one can say our family is an agent of the devil."
"Perhaps the duchess wrote this poem imagining a future in which the duke would achieve that goal. In the future, the dawn bell will ring four times."
"...Thank you for your words."
Although it seemed like a strangely sarcastic comment, I could feel the slight sincerity contained in it.
I only mentioned the end of the novel, but did it sound encouraging?
"Anyway, the important thing is that these three passages have their own contradictions."
"Isn't it just a mistake? Now that I think about it, Mom was quite silly."
"You can't say that about our mother, Leheim."
I picked up the pen, ignoring the two brothers' discussion.
"If it's a complex encrypted text, we have to find some kind of hidden meaning in this contradiction."
Three passages were crossed out.
"But from what I've heard so far, the duchess doesn't seem to have that kind of temperament. Here, I boldly omitted these three sentences."
"Do you want to omit it completely?"
"Yes, what are the words at the beginning of the poem?"
"Purity."
"What is purity? A state of cleanliness, we don't normally describe a lie as pure."
"Are three verses lies?"
"Yes. This is incorrect information. So the remaining sentences are..."
"The spring of purity has returned without fail! In all those places, I hid treasures!"
"Leheim, my ears hurt."
"The first sentence was probably written to include the word 'pure.' Maybe it literally means it was written in spring."
Duke Cassius recalled the past.
"I think it was spring back then."
"The important thing is the last sentence, the passage that explicitly mentions the treasure."
"In all those places, I hid treasures."
"All those places are places mentioned in the three previous verses. But since we decided to omit those three verses, let's consider omitting this one too."
"So the only thing left is "I hid treasures."
"That part is important. The fact that the duchess hid the treasure.
Immediately, Leheim's protest resumed.
"Of course, it's our mother who hid the treasure, not father, right? What the hell is important, sister-in-law?"
"Speak courteously, Prince Leheim."
Leheim stammered at my point.
"Well, what is important?"
"That..."
I deliberately paused. Then the duke looked at his younger son as if he were about to kill him.
"Oh...! I'm so sorry for all this time, sister-in-law!"
"On the other hand, this hall has a particularly large amount of artwork representing the duchess."
The duke seemed frustrated, but he responded as if he didn't want to go against my wishes.
"Cheryl especially liked this hall. Her hobby was meeting new people."
I walked towards the artwork.
"Did the duchess like these too?"
"No, she said she was a little embarrassed. She used to be very shy. These are things I paid for in my greed."
"And this bust?"
"Ah, that plaster statue was a rare gift from Cheryl. It's a replica of the marble statue in the castle, and she told me to see her face even when I was in the capital..."
The duke, speaking with a weak expression on his face, stopped talking.
"But does this matter? What about the time capsule?"
I tapped the bust for a while. The Cassius family was dismayed.
"Be careful!"
"What if it breaks?!"
"It's okay. It's lighter than it looks because it's empty."
The first person to notice was Liena.
"Wait. Is it empty inside?"
"It's a hollow plaster statue of herself that the duchess prepared. Duke, when exactly did she give you this plaster statue?"
Duke Cassius remembered it exactly.
"It was 17 years ago."
"In what year did you hear about the time capsule?"
"That was also 17 years ago..."
The three, father and sons, opened their eyes at the same time.
"Could it be the "I" mentioned in the poem?"
"I told you. The fact that the duchess hid it is important."
The poem told us openly. Not only the person who hid the time capsule but also where it was hidden.
The place that Duke Cassius didn't even think to check until the end was inside the bust of his wife. Who would dare to destroy the bust of the duke's beloved wife and pretend to see inside?
"Shall we shake it?"
"Wait, wait! I'll do it!"
"What are you trying to shake with those thin arms!"
Duke Cassius, who had pressed his ear to the plaster statue and shook it carefully, admitted that he could hear a sound inside.
It was very heartbreaking to damage his wife's gift...
"It seems like Cheryl. She had a secretly mischievous side."
Finally, he made a decision.
Shortly after, experts arrived at the mansion. They finely cut the bottom of the statue and checked the inside to ensure that the statue suffered the least damage possible.
Then things like bundles of letters and bookmarks wrapped in wool came out. The woolen garment was a scarf that the duchess herself had knitted, and there were three thick envelopes with letters.
The three men each took an envelope with their name written on it and opened it carefully. Their eyes turned red as they read the contents.
I drank tea in silence and waited. At first, they ignored me as a guest and all that, but then the maids hurriedly served black tea.
"......
Looking to the side, Liena seemed to be in a mentally complicated state. Is it uncomfortable because she can't share memories of the duchess with her family?
"It has nothing to do with me."
Rather, it's that letter. The letter that the duke is reading. Thanks to the original story, I could remember the contents of the letter accurately.
Although the complete text of the letter is not included in the novel, the important parts are written in the original story.
[Don't worry too much. I trust my husband. You will never become like your father over time.]
The duke's father, the previous Duke Cassius, was a capable ruler but not a benevolent person. For him, the inhabitants of the territory were an object of control, not attention, and he easily sacrificed people for a greater good.
[Do you remember what happened a few years ago when Kayden's son, Joshua, was born? When I asked you to hold the child, you didn't know what to do.]
The expression of Duke Cassius, who had been crying as if he had just read that passage, hardened like a stone."
[Joshua was born prematurely. You said he was too small compared to our other children. He's so tiny that you were afraid of what could happen if you touched him. How funny it was to see a big man struggling in front of a newborn baby.]
The duke's hand holding the letter trembled.
[I think you did it. You seem frightening on the outside, but you're a warm person inside. You will never be the kind of person who preys on powerless people like your father. So, believe in yourself too.]
In the novel, Joshua appears only once and plays a minor role, so the letter simply ends with encouraging Duke Cassius and reminding him of his wife's love.
However, the effect it will have on the Duke's mind when he faces his mistake today depends entirely on him.
What is Edman Cassius thinking now? That man is looking at the distant landscape outside the window with vacant eyes.
"Is he looking back on the past he had forgotten?"
Before I knew it, the living room had turned into a sea of tears.
Leheim was crying loudly, and Leandro also wiped away tears.
Meanwhile, Duke Cassius, who had cleaned the tear stains, approached me and bowed formally.
"Ethel, thank you very much. If it weren't for you, I would never have read my wife's letters in my life."
You're welcome. Even if it wasn't me, Liena would have found it, but let's leave it at that for now.
"And... Kayden."
The two made eye contact at the same eye level.
"It's very cheeky, but will you give me another chance to apologize?"
From now on, it was not my place to intervene.
I looked at the head butler. In the sense of "Shall I leave first?" He responded with his eyes as well. "Yes."
I left the mansion and scheduled a meeting with the duke to meet him at the town hall tomorrow. Leandro followed me belatedly as if he had something to say, but I was already gone.
It is said that on that day, the butler had a long conversation with his former master well into the night.