I Just Needed Someone to Hate - Episode 3.3

“The Count is the Prime Minister’s son, and I’m Ludwig Rex’s fiancée. Isn’t that a combination that would rub a lot of people the wrong way?”

“……”

“If the rumors are true, even my fiancé’s boss would think so. What makes you think he’d let me be, knowing what I might tell you?”

“……”

“…He’ll come someday.”

Vivianne could see a flicker in Edmund’s eyes. It was fleeting, but she didn’t miss it.

“Until then, just keep doing what you did today. Shake off the police, and if my fiancé sends someone…”

Vivianne paused, her face thoughtful, before continuing.

“Just make sure I don’t end up like that cabaret singer.”

Janet Watkins. Vivianne thought for a moment about that sensational face that had graced the front pages of the tabloids. Even Vivianne had to admit she was beautiful.

“You’ve got a serious piece of metal inside your jacket.”

“……”

No answer came, but it didn’t matter. Being armed meant he had a purpose. It meant he hadn’t come just to fool around.

That was a relief. Because Vivianne happened to have a purpose too.

“There are a lot of things I want to do. Even though it’s a short time, I want to be able to look back on this later and think it was really good.”

Actually going to Madison’s house was one of those things. That was separate from the brief moment she’d considered returning to Mergoville Manor. She wanted to see with her own eyes whether her father had been intercepting Madison’s letters all along.

“Anyway, we both have places to go back to, don’t we?”

It was a fact that both she and he, here, knew well. Whatever the man’s identity, the worlds they lived in were fundamentally different.

“Keep my whereabouts a secret for life, or help me defect somewhere… or raise me like a pet.”

A sneer touched Vivianne’s face as she said that.

“I’m not asking for the impossible.”

“……”

“Just until he finds me, and you can profit from that fact.”

Vivianne paused briefly before speaking again.

“Help me. I’ll be worth it.”

“……”

“I won’t be here long.”

❖ ❖ ❖

“What will you do when that guy, your fiancé’s boss, comes?”

Edmund recalled asking Vivianne that question. He was curious because she was so detached, but not in a way that suggested she had given up on everything.

At that time, Vivianne Mergoville had put on the perfect smile, the kind she might wear at a ball, and said,

“That’s not the Count’s concern, and it never will be.”

It was a clear line in the sand. It wasn’t the look of someone who was about to die, but her composure bothered him.

He thought this woman’s decisions could be defined as black and white. Either she would give up information about her fiancé, or she would refuse to cooperate with her father’s side.

Edmund thought about her voice, still so clear in his mind, and then looked at the crack in the door in the distance. Judging by the lack of rustling sounds, Vivianne seemed to be asleep.

When the music from the radio ended, Edmund changed the channel but kept the volume low.

“…Former Prime Minister Almer Dalesworth resigned after the war, and his successor, Prime Minister Nikolaus Colt, has led the House for two years. With one year left in his term, critics are paying attention to whether he has successfully solved the ‘tasks’ that his predecessor failed to complete. The imperial underworld forces based in Mirabolta Street…”

Edmund turned off the radio, and the light from the glass window showing the frequency disappeared. The vacuum tube’s filament had lost its light.

The space where the voice had been was now just silent. Edmund was about to go back into the room when he paused and looked at the gramophone.

As the needle smoothly crossed the vinyl, music began to play again. It was fortunate that the intelligence agent who had lived here had enjoyed classical music.

Edmund Colt was good at reading lies. And even without that particular trait, he could easily guess that Vivianne Mergoville was more afraid of her fiancé than she was of silence.

Still, her pale, frightened face bothered him. So he wanted to pretend that he remembered her words.

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