Raymund feared Seiana might find him strange, but since neither of them had friends, they couldn't tell what was normal or not.
Anyway, Raymund neatly folded the read letter and put it back in the envelope. Just like previous letters, this one would be carefully stored in the safe.
He handled the letter as carefully as if it were made of glass pane the size of a dragonfly's wing, then set the envelope on the table for a moment before picking up some papers nearby.
The papers contained investigation reports about people around Seiana.
'She'd probably be upset if she knew about this...'
He knew he shouldn't be doing this. He was aware that it was a bad thing, but Raymund ultimately had no choice but to use people.
“…ro.”
An incomplete name came out of her mouth, which held a complicated expression.
That name that had come from Seiana’s mouth, a name she called naturally as if it were a familiar presence, though he didn’t know what kind of relationship they had. Thinking back to the conversation they had then, it must be a man, and it bothered Raymund a lot.
‘What if that guy is cooler than me?’
Unlike Raymund, who was an ability user, if he was someone Seiana’s family would be pleased with, in the worst case…
“…”
Raymund’s expression darkened.
Seiana was young. That meant there was still a chance for Raymund. However, engagements often happened before birth, so it was possible even at a young age.
‘Seiana said she didn’t have a fiancé, but…’
That was just for now. It was possible there was someone already decided. For now, since they were both young, being together didn’t cause gossip, but he couldn’t be sure about the future.
It was impossible for someone with a fiancé to be with another person of the opposite sex. If they were gossiped about for such a reason, their reputations would be tarnished.
‘I don’t care about my reputation, but…’
He disliked the situation where Seiana would hear unpleasant things, and would that “...ro” person just sit idly by?
Even if, contrary to his expectations, the person had a generous personality, it was unlikely they would permit Raymund to be by Seiana’s side.
‘I thought it would be enough to just deal with the Count’s people…’
He hadn’t expected such a hidden threat. He should have thought more thoroughly. The situation where he ultimately had to take action like this was painful.
There were a few ways to find out about the people around Seiana.
The first was to ask Seiana directly. However, this was not even considered as it might displease her.
The second was to ask those around her, meaning her family. However, this also had a high chance of reaching Seiana’s ears, and he didn’t think they would provide accurate information, as they cherished her.
So, he used the Imperial Palace's Information Room to obtain the most objective, unbiased information......
It's certain, but......
It was obvious that the information he requested wouldn't reach Raymund alone. Every detail of this document would undoubtedly be in the hands of the Emperor and Empress as well. After all, they'd be curious about the intelligence requested by someone using his Imperial status.
While being their son might have been a factor, the primary reason was that Raymund was an ability user—a valuable asset to the Empire.
That's why he'd been reluctant to use this method... but now regretting it wouldn't change anything. With a sigh, Raymund flipped to the first page of the document.
The only excuse he could muster was that they'd investigated only those with "ro" in their names, rather than everyone around Seiana.
Flip, flip.
His eyes scanned every sentence on the documents. Though there were 19 pages in total, each page contained only a rough profile of one person, making it difficult to perceive as a large number of individuals.
After checking the last document, Raymund's face was stained with confusion.
"Why... isn't it here...?" he muttered in a bewildered voice, his tone betraying his own confusion. He double-checked the documents again, but he couldn't find anyone named "...ro" as Seiana had mentioned.
Andro, Seshiro, Hero… People whose names ended in “ro,” and even those whose surnames ended in “ro,” like Venaro and Fabro, were meticulously listed. Even the personal information of Seiana’s brother, Halo, was included.
Excluding him, everyone else was either a knight of the Count’s family, a servant, or a civil official of the Count, so there wasn’t a single person who was a peer of Seiana and wouldn’t seem strange associating with her.
He checked again for the third time, but the content naturally didn’t change. He wondered if the document was missing, but there was a ‘current page / total pages’ indicator on each page, confirming that no parts were missing.
'Could we have merely crossed paths briefly?'
If so, perhaps it was a relief. If their relationship was older or closer than his with Raymund, the possibility of her favoring him when they were vying for her attention would be significantly low.
And so, the matter concerning “…ro” came to an end.
"Who was the idiot who spouted nonsense at Seiana?"
The bastard who had muddied her expression with absurd babble. This wretch was far more despicable than '...ro'. At least '...ro' was merely an enemy of Raymund's.
I must find this fool and teach him a lesson...
However, Raymund possessed far less information about this guy compared to '...ro'. While '...ro' had at least revealed a single letter of their name, Raymund knew nothing about this other than their tendency to utter foolishness.
That was how thoroughly Seiana had concealed it. It didn't seem to be out of concern that Raymund might harm the person in question, but rather because she simply didn't want to repeat such unpleasant stories. Consequently, Raymund couldn't press her for details.
Once I find out who you are, I’ll make you eat your words......
As Raymund pursed his lips in frustration, a hand suddenly emerged from behind his armpit. Though startled, he coldly swatted it away. The hand had been aiming for Seiana’s letter on the table.
“Ah!”
Slap! The back of the hand, struck with a sound, turned red with pain. Yet, it didn’t stop trying to get the letter, so Raymund covered the letter with his palm.
“What is it?”
“That’s what I should be saying?”
When a grumbling voice came from the thief who had suddenly appeared and tried to steal the letter, Raymund asked back with a dumbfounded expression.
He was the one who should be asking what was going on. Crawling out from behind the chair Raymund was sitting on was a girl around his age.
The girl with thick, curly dark gray hair and dark green eyes didn’t show any fear even while facing Raymund. Instead, she casually glanced at the documents Raymund was holding with a haughty expression and said.
"What's this? Some kind of background check?"
Given the papers contained personal information about others, it was a reasonable assumption. When she leaned forward to examine them more closely, Raymund hastily folded the documents in half to prevent her from seeing.
In that moment, as she reached for the letters again, Raymund swiftly activated his ability.
“Ah! …Let go?”
He lifted the girl up in the air with an invisible force.
Even though she was floating in the air, the girl wasn’t scared. She just had a displeased look on her face and stared directly at Raymund. Raymund stared back.
“Don’t you know stealing is wrong?”
“Heh, who said I was taking it? I was just going to check it quickly.”
“Looking at it without the owner’s permission is also stealing. Are you stupid?”
The winner of the argument was Raymund. The girl seemed about to retort but was left speechless, and she struggled with her arms and legs in the air, huffing.
He had only lifted her into the air and wasn’t restraining her in any way, so she thrashed like a live fish. Yet, as her body remained fixed in the air without budging, the girl glared at Raymund even more fiercely.
Suddenly, the books on the bookshelf behind Raymund collapsed onto the floor with a crash. It was as if there was an earthquake or someone had shaken it.
One might have turned around in surprise, but Raymund remained motionless, staring back at the girl. As a few books floated up behind him, he asked in a sharp voice.
“Are you using your ability to steal?”
“Argh…! I’m not stealing!”
The girl swung her arms wildly as if giving commands, but surprisingly, nothing happened. The floating books simply fell back down as if they'd never been lifted.
The girl's breathing grew ragged. Raymund's suppression of her ability seemed to have wounded her pride deeply.
"You're truly a bad guy. Dog shit! Cow shit! Horse shit!"
"Yeah. And you're the thief."
Raymund coldly spoke to the girl who was shouting vulgar words as insults, then rubbed his temples as he watched her continue to squabble, and sighed.
Since he had been acting unlike himself recently because he was so infatuated with Seiana, it was only natural that he would catch that kid's attention. His frequent outings and the frequent exchange of letters would naturally make her curious about what was going on.
Raymund was not pleased with this situation. Because he wanted to monopolize Seiana, he disliked the very fact that another ability user was showing interest in Seiana.
‘She’s not the type to listen even if I tell her not to be interested.’
He was already troubled by the bothersome ‘…ro’ and the foolish guy who said nonsense, and a situation where this kid also became obsessed with Seiana was out of the question.
Especially since the girl had a simple personality and couldn’t control her impulses, there was a high possibility that she would act without thinking. It was the worst of the worst.
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