Chapter 14: Dominic Is Free Now

A luxurious carriage adorned with the royal crest stopped in front of the Rosenfeld family mansion.

A royal carriage at this hour?

The butler, who opened the door with a bewildered expression, bowed his head with an unconcealable smile when Dominic alighted from the carriage.

‘Ah. Our young master Dominic has been working at the Royal Assets Management Bureau, and he’s already risen so high as to ride in a royal carriage…!’

Oblivious to the fact that the butler was gravely mistaken.

Dominic gave him a slight nod.

Then, he bowed his head deeply towards Queen Olivia inside the carriage.

Seeing this, the butler, realizing that someone of very high rank, though he didn’t know who, was in the carriage, also bowed even deeper towards it.

Only after the carriage had moved away did the two raise their heads, exchanging different glances.

The butler’s eyes asked for an explanation, while Dominic’s eyes pleaded not to ask anything.

“……?”

“……?”

Dominic, realizing a communication error had occurred, finally spoke.

“Ask nothing. Speak to no one. I beg you.”

Leaving those words, he left the butler behind and entered the mansion.

As he headed straight to his room, Dominic was gripped by an unresolved question.

‘The Queen made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, and I firmly rejected it. But why did the Queen then give me a ride in her own carriage? It’s not like there weren’t other carriages.’

When the Queen had said that, he thought, ‘She hasn’t given up yet. She intends to persuade me to the very end.’

So he had felt annoyed and wanted to refuse.

But, as the Queen had said, ‘Surely you won’t refuse this as well?’, he couldn’t bring himself to refuse that too, so he had ridden with her in her carriage.

Contrary to his expectations, no conversation took place in the carriage.

Only an incredibly uncomfortable silence prevailed.

‘What on earth is her intention…’

Having reached his room, Dominic decided not to dwell on complex thoughts anymore.

Whatever the Queen’s intention, what did it matter?

He was about to leave the royal palace soon anyway.

With that thought, Dominic felt his heart lighten. He changed his clothes and flopped onto the bed.

And, dreaming of his future after being dismissed from his post, he drifted off to sleep.

***

Olivia’s gaze, as she watched the night scenery of Wellington rapidly passing by outside the window, was chillingly subdued.

Her body was in the carriage returning to the royal palace.

But her mind still lingered in the mansion where she had been with Dominic Rosenfeld.

‘How dare he refuse my offer…?’

She had, of course, expected it wouldn’t be easy.

Who was Dominic Rosenfeld?

He was the man who, during the second round of the high civil service examination, had brazenly submitted a piece scathingly criticizing the King and the kingdom.

While others typically filled their papers with all sorts of sycophantic remarks, thinking the King himself would grade them.

To him, royalty were beings who had to strive harder than anyone else to minimize the kingdom’s chaos and work towards its development.

That was the duty of royalty, and he believed all royalty, from the moment of their birth, had to do their utmost to fulfill that duty given along with their privileges.

That was Dominic Rosenfeld.

Being such a person, she thought he wouldn’t easily accept an offer to help her in the power struggle for the next throne.

That was why she, the Queen, had personally stepped forward instead of sending her subordinates.

No matter how high a position they held, an offer made by a mere subject and an offer made by herself, the Queen and mother of the next king, had a world of difference in impact, even if the words were the same.

Even if he didn’t come over at first.

She believed that if she offered him the power to realize his ideals, even someone like Dominic Rosenfeld couldn’t refuse.

‘Just in case, I even offered to let him marry any woman he desired, whoever she might be…!’

He was in the prime of his youth and at an age to start thinking about marriage, so she thought it would work.

But he didn’t bat an eye.

Throughout their conversation, his gaze was indifferent from beginning to end.

No emotion could be felt.

Olivia simply couldn’t understand.

‘How can a person refuse power? How can a man refuse the chance to embrace the woman he desires?’

She knew he was an upright man.

But even the most upright person would hesitate and waver, at least momentarily, in the face of such an offer.

However, Dominic Rosenfeld rejected her offer flatly, without a moment’s hesitation.

Even though she had offered to let him reform and develop this country as he wished.

‘It was as if he was not just detached from all of it, but had transcended it…’

Watching him, Olivia thought.

‘He is someone no one can possess.’

So she cleanly gave up.

But suddenly, a wave of anxiety washed over her.

The source of that anxiety was.

‘Could he have rejected my offer so flatly because he supports Katarina?’

That was it.

Although he had said he didn’t work for anyone in particular, how could one believe another person’s words 100%?

It could just be an excuse, and in reality, he might have refused because he thought Katarina was more suitable to inherit the throne.

The feeling that he was someone no one could possess was, after all, just her personal impression.

‘Perhaps he has already become Katarina’s person.’

Such thoughts even crossed her mind, but on second thought, it didn’t seem like it.

Olivia had been watching Dominic Rosenfeld closely ever since the day the King had a private audience with him immediately after the new officials’ appointment ceremony.

And she had been meticulously monitoring Katarina for even longer.

If Dominic Rosenfeld had become Katarina’s person, Olivia would not have been unaware of it.

Even if not clear evidence, she would have obtained at least some small clue to infer it.

But not a single such clue had been found.

Therefore, Dominic Rosenfeld had not become Katarina’s person.

Not yet, at least.

‘What I cannot have, Katarina must not have either…!’

Olivia decided to implement a new plan.

That Katarina also coveted Dominic Rosenfeld and was therefore watching him closely.

Olivia was not unaware of this.

And just as she was monitoring Katarina, Katarina was also monitoring her.

Olivia knew this.

Olivia decided to use that to make Katarina misunderstand that Dominic Rosenfeld had become her person.

That’s why she had asked Dominic to escort her, and even gave him a ride home in her carriage, ‘directing’ it to make their relationship seem extremely close.

As if to show off to Katarina’s subordinates who would be watching, hidden in the darkness.

They would naturally report what they saw to Katarina.

‘Katarina will mistakenly believe that Dominic Rosenfeld has become my person.’

One wouldn’t approach someone believed to have already gone over to the other side asking them to become their person.

Katarina would not meet Dominic Rosenfeld to make him an offer of recruitment.

And Dominic Rosenfeld accepting Katarina’s offer and becoming her person would also not happen.

Through those trivial actions, Olivia had eliminated the possibility of such a thing happening.

Though she had failed to possess Dominic Rosenfeld, the thought that she had also prevented Katarina from possessing him was somewhat of a consolation to Olivia.

***

The secret chamber of the Crown Princess’s palace.

“……Are you certain?”

Katarina mulled over the report Baldwin had just submitted and asked again in a low voice.

Her expression was as calm as usual, but her eyes betrayed an unconcealable sense of disappointment and regret.

“Yes, Your Highness. Rosenfeld reportedly conversed privately with the Queen, then escorted her out of the mansion and boarded the carriage with her.

According to the agents on site, their relationship…… appeared very close.”

Baldwin’s expression was also composed, but his voice as he delivered the report sounded like a sigh.

“Haa… So he’s become the Queen’s person…”

Katarina let out a deep sigh.

At the same time, she stared blankly at Dominic Rosenfeld’s personnel report lying on her desk.

The sharp insight and critical spirit shown in the high civil service examination, and the astounding achievements demonstrated later at the Royal Assets Management Bureau.

He was undoubtedly a coveted talent, and she believed him to be a loyal subject who truly cared for the kingdom.

So she had hoped he would become her person.

She believed he would.

She thought he was someone who would never be swayed by Queen Olivia’s temptations and would not walk the same path as someone like her.

However.

Dominic Rosenfeld had ended up becoming Olivia’s person.

‘He was someone I truly wanted to obtain…’

‘If our people at the port had been faster, if he had been with me in that mansion instead of the Queen, would the outcome have been different……’

‘What on earth did the Queen offer him to make him switch sides? I need to know that so I can offer something greater……’

‘Should I give up like this…?’

On this day.

Katarina’s mind was so preoccupied that she couldn’t sleep a wink.

***

[Peace Ended, War has Begun]

An article on the front page of the newspaper reported that after the hasty divorce of King Jorge VIII of Poila and Queen Larissa of Davian origin, Poila had declared war on Davia, thus starting a war between the two nations.

Now, the price of mana stones will rise sharply, and the royal funds I invested will go up in flames.

And I will be dismissed as I wished.

‘Dominic is free now…!’