The Secretary of the Northern Grand Duchess Has Run Away

Chapter 36:  Erian Hotel (4)

「―――――― 」

The Grand Duke’s daughter of the North, Echina Luton.

She had come to Erian Hotel for the first time in a very long while.

After her mother passed away and the place had been left neglected, she had only ever looked at it from afar.

She had been afraid to face the pitiful state of the hotel she had once cherished so deeply.

However.

A new owner had finally appeared.

At first, she couldn't believe he had taken over the hotel.

There was no way a mere candidate for the position of family secretary could manage it.

And yet, the man she had met possessed a strange sense of distinction.

Thanks to that, she had mustered the courage to visit—though half in doubt.

Her mother’s final legacy, Erian Hotel.

“As expected, the front is empty.”

The area in front of the grand, old-fashioned entrance stood completely deserted.

Echina looked at it with a complicated expression and stepped onto the red carpet in her military boots.

“It can’t be helped since it’s the first day, but it’s still disappointing.”

With a cold expression, the Grand Duke’s daughter stepped into the lobby.

She had expected her empty eyes to be met with a lonely front desk.

But.

What greeted her was something entirely different from what she had imagined.

「We are honored to serve you. Welcome to Erian.」

Hotel staff stood in a neat line, bowing in greeting.

And at the end of their line stood a grand elephant statue, firmly in place.

“It’s an honor to welcome you, Lady Echina.”

The lobby, which she had expected to feel desolate, brimmed with the vibrant energy only found in top-tier hotels.

“Pardon me, but the manager and the director are in the lounge. Shall I guide you there?”

At the question from a staff member dressed in a navy uniform, Echina silently shook her head.

With her hands behind her back, she simply stood there, quietly gazing around the hotel.

“No, I know this place well. I’ll look around on my own.”

The staff swallowed hard at the North’s Grand Duke’s daughter’s characteristically frosty tone.

Then, as instructed, they carefully stepped back.

“An elephant... Reminds me of my childhood. I once saw one in my mother’s hometown.”

Perhaps because she had come straight from the Academy, she was dressed in a uniform skirt and a white shirt.

“It must be a coincidence.”

Echina softly adjusted the uniform jacket draped over her shoulders.

She then walked past the elephant statue with a distant look in her eyes and headed toward the stairs.

“……”

The deeper she walked into the hotel,

the more her chest began to ache for reasons she couldn’t quite explain.

It felt like reclaiming a long-lost place of cherished memories.

“An art exhibition?”

As she descended the stairs, countless works of art came into view.

Recognizing their value at a glance, Echina allowed a faint smile to touch her lips.

“Smart move. They probably can’t renovate the hotel right away, so this is a clever strategy.”

The sound of her military boots echoed solemnly through the gallery.

“Still, something’s missing. There’s no iconic piece worthy of a hotel built by the Grand Duke’s House.”

Assessing the scene with a sharp eye, she continued down the stairs.

But then, Echina came to a halt at the final step.

“……”

The symbolic piece she had mentioned.

Because she had come face-to-face with the final puzzle piece that completed this otherwise empty space.

The most central spot in the gallery.

There hung the image of a beautiful woman.

How could she possibly not recognize it?

Echina couldn't say a single word as she faced her mother’s portrait for the first time in five years.

She simply stood there, blankly gazing up at her mother’s gentle smile.

“I was mistaken.”

Her golden eyes caught the light of the noon sun.

Thanks to that, her once-lifeless pupils glowed like the calm surface of a river.

“The hotel was already perfect.”

The Grand Duke’s daughter softly brushed her hand across the portrait frame.

It had been kept in the vault for years, now finally back out in the open.

Her red lips trembled slightly at the sight.

A woman who had lived for years without emotion couldn’t reclaim her expressions so quickly.

But she realized that lately, she had started to smile—if only in secret.

“Maybe it's time I learned how to give a compliment, for once.”

The Grand Duke’s daughter whispered softly to herself and walked back up the stairs.

She then headed straight for the lounge the staff had mentioned.

Her steps were far lighter than when she had first arrived.

――――――

However, when she stepped into the bar,

Echina suddenly had no choice but to stop in her tracks.

Right before her eyes were me, Helena, and Saint Istina.

And in front of them, I was speaking with determined resolve.

“I’m sorry, but I must decline.”

At my cold, clear refusal, Istina said nothing for a moment.

Looking at her silent expression, I calmly explained my reason.

“I’ve already received great help reopening the hotel, but a cathedral manager? That’s too much.”

At my firm tone, Helena let out a faint smile.

With a gaze as dignified as an empress, she leisurely watched the saint.

“It’s a position far too grand for someone like me, who has no knowledge of religious matters.”

“Well, I suppose it would be burdensome for someone who isn’t even part of the faith.”

Helena chimed in as well.

She bit crisply into a biscuit with her smooth lips and closed her eyes.

“And this hotel will soon increase in value by at least twenty times. I’ll be able to repay your kindness in no time.”

Debts, once received, should be repaid swiftly.

When it comes to money, the best strategy is to untangle ties quickly and move on.

That, too, was a valuable lesson I had learned during my time as Chief Secretary.

“……”

It was clear I intended to pay back the promissory note and the gold bars she’d provided—and then disappear.

At that sly smile, the corners of Istina’s lips dropped slightly.

“How curious, Roger.”

Perhaps it was because she had only ever encountered men who bowed before her benevolence and smiled kindly in return.

She must have expected me to respond with a frigid glare.

“Everyone I’ve blessed only ever longed for more the more I gave them.”

Instead, the saint wore an expression of deep intrigue.

With an elegant motion, she covered her lips.

“You’re the first person who’s ever thought to repay it.”

Istina calmly adjusted her posture.

“How quick you are—like a fox.”

“I do hear that often,” I said, brushing it off with a casual laugh.

At the same time, I glanced toward Helena, who flicked her empty wine glass and added,

“Well, it’s always better to repay borrowed money from the church quickly.”

The Western Grand Duke’s daughter uncrossed her legs.

She then gently fiddled with the buttons of her white shirt.

“If you don’t, they’ll chase you all the way to hell.”

Helena looked up at me with pale blue eyes.

Then, like a queen, she lifted her chin high and spoke.

“Isn’t it far more enjoyable to remain in the secular world than to bury your bones in a place like that?”

Her blue eyes pierced straight through mine.

The longer one stared, the more it felt like falling into the depths of her sea-blue abyss.

But.

Istina was not to be outdone either.

“Enjoyment, you say.”

The saint poured water into a wine glass she had nearly finished.

The once-clear water slowly turned as it mingled with the remaining drops of deep red wine.

“Spending a life of faith under me wouldn’t be dull, I assure you.”

Every time I saw them, I was reminded—aristocratic women, especially the clever ones, thought on a different level.

Ordinary people, when faced with something they can't have, tend to destroy it or curse it behind its back.

But women like them believed in their own abilities and tried to claim it by any means necessary.

“Haha… Just hearing you say that is a great honor.”

As I walked the tightrope between two beasts,

greetings from the lobby staff echoed in the distance.

We all turned our heads in unison at the sound.

And there, we were met with the silhouette of the hotel’s third guest.

“There you are, Julius Roger.”

The Grand Duke’s daughter of the North, Echina.

She approached my side and placed her hand on the table.

Then, without hesitation, she picked up the untouched wine glass.

“Lady Grand Duke,” I said, standing up, glad she had arrived when she did.

Echina then cast a cold, expressionless glance at the guests.

“Famous visitors on opening day, I see.”

The Grand Duke’s daughter picked up the wine glass and brushed her bangs aside.

From her lustrous black hair, the deep fragrance of figs rose faintly.

“It’s been a while, Lady Echina.”

“Looks like you came straight from the Academy.”

The two powers of the empire looked up at Echina with leisurely smiles.

However, the Grand Duke’s daughter gave no response.

She simply…

“……”

Drank down the wine in front of me in a single breath.

“I apologize, but I’d like to speak with the hotel owner in private.”

“We can speak right here, can’t we?”

Helena said, folding her arms as she looked at the Grand Duke’s daughter.

Her deep blue eyes reflected Echina’s frosty face.

“The hotel doesn’t belong to the Grand Duke’s house anymore anyway. It’s his now.”

“Exactly. I was the one who even helped with the acquisition, you know.”

What had begun as a simple rivalry over talent had now turned into a matter of pride between them.

Seeing this, I tried to smooth things over with a relaxed smile.

“Haha… No, not at all, everyone. Actually, it was I who personally asked Lady Echina to come.”

Echina tilted her head slightly at my shameless comment.

Her black hair gently swayed to one side.

“After all, Lady Echina must be quite familiar with how the hotel looked in its early days.”

Saint Istina gave me a look that implied she, too, had once visited this place.

But I quickly added a line in my defense.

“Besides, when Erian Hotel was built, I’m sure the Grand Duke of the North laid out an ideal vision for it—and only the Grand Duke’s daughter would know what that was.”

As of now, I was still a secretary candidate under the Grand Duke’s household.

So it was a way of saying that I would follow their original intentions.

Perhaps lacking a counterargument, the saint exhaled quietly.

“Let’s go. I’ve been waiting.”

I smiled gently at the black-haired Grand Duke’s daughter.

She looked at me for a moment, then adjusted the jacket over her shoulder and followed after me.

“……”

Istina and Helena silently watched us walk away.

Then, they picked up their empty wine glasses and began to speak.

“What a shame. That kind of loyalty would’ve been put to such good use in faith.”

Istina’s skin turned pale again, as if she hadn’t had a single sip.

As though she could control intoxication at will.

“Do you really think what Roger just said sounded like ‘loyalty’?”

Helena called over a waiter and received a cup of tea.

She scooped some white sugar with a teaspoon and added,

“I’m sure you must have felt it too, Saint.”

“Regardless of his intent, he’s not arrogant and does his best in his place.”

Istina lightly tapped her stiff shoulder.

Then, with her half-lidded blue eyes, she glanced at Helena.

“You came to this hotel because of that boy, didn’t you?”

As Helena added a fifth spoonful of sugar to her tea.

“Who knows.”

Helena quietly stared down at the golden surface of the tea.

At the face reflected there—her own regal expression, like that of a queen.

“You already suspect it too. That he’s not just some clever twenty-year-old.”

A mere secretary candidate who suddenly emerged to create the Grand Duke house’s signature weapon.

Then used the profits to acquire a hotel, and without any prior experience, raised it to this level in a single day.

And if what he said was true, the hotel’s value would soon increase more than twentyfold.

Both powerholders had quickly realized that none of this was normal.

That man they had just spoken to—he clearly possessed a rare distinction, something far beyond the ordinary.

“This kind of maneuvering is only possible for the slyest kind of nobleman in his thirties or forties.”

Istina, seeming to agree, let out a faint chuckle at the corners of her lips.

“Men like him are never under someone else's thumb. Sooner or later, he’ll leave the Grand Duke’s house and pursue something much greater.”

“……”

Helena wiped the moisture from her red lips with her thumb.

Then, she rose from her chair and turned toward the window.

Outside, her sprawling shopping district was still under heavy construction.

“For now, we simply wait. And when he finally steps into the sunlight, we make our move.”

“You're sharing such an ambitious plan with me?”

Istina, still seated, replied with a relaxed tone.

“I could be aiming for the same moment, you know.”

Perhaps because her prey had walked out of reach,

the saint’s blue eyes glinted between her strands of silver hair.

Like a snow leopard from the northern mountains.

“I don’t mind.”

If the saint of the empire said something like that, most people would shrink back in fear.

But the Western Grand Duke’s daughter remained utterly unfazed.

“Because once I set my sights on prey, I never let it go.”

She spoke softly, eyes fixed on me and Echina speaking in the distance.

With the gaze of a businesswoman who had just found a prize too good to pass up.