Chapter 77 Rumors
A full week. Seven days that felt like seven years to me. Being a personal courier for two lovebirds wasn't exactly the job I signed up for in this novel.
If I could've refused, I would've quit by the second day.
But Gisella is still trapped in the Mercer residence like a bird in a golden cage, and Julian?
The guy is like a loyal dog waiting for orders.
There was no other choice. If I didn't move, the plan to flip the script of this novel would fall apart.
Every time the Varannes family carriage stopped at the harbor, I had to get out, act like I was handling some complicated logistics paperwork for the family, then sneak into Julian's office to drop off a letter or pick up a reply.
Julian always welcomed me with a look of pure gratitude. That man, the usually cold and stern Holy Order Commander, turned into a guy starving for news.
Every time I handed over Gisella's scroll, Julian's eyes would light up. He'd always give that rare, faint smile, like I was a hero delivering some priceless treasure.
"Thank you, Lady Varannes," Julian would whisper every time we swapped messages behind stacks of documents.
I just snorted, keeping a straight face. "Save your thanks for later. Where's your letter, Mr. Vance?"
But the trouble didn't come from Gisella or Julian. It came from somewhere unexpected: the mouths of the harbor folk.
The harbor trade center is a noisy place. Merchants, laborers, even the office clerks all share the same hobby: gossip. At first, no one cared about my arrivals.
But by the third time in a week, people started noticing. A noble like Ilse de Varannes, who usually never shows her face in a filthy place like the harbor, was suddenly a regular. And always heading straight for Commander Julian's office.
"Did you see her?" a clerk whispered as Ilse walked past.
"Yeah. That's the third time this week. What's Lady Varannes doing in the Commander's office all the time?"
"Maybe something's going on between them?"
"No way. The Commander is too stiff for that."
"But the Commander always smiles when she shows up. See for yourself."
The rumor spread like wildfire through a dry field. It didn't take long for the gossip to spill out of the harbor, into the taverns, and up to the higher ranks. In the capital, secrets are the currency that moves the fastest.
I was oblivious. I was too focused on the strategy to get Gisella away from Didier. I didn't realize every step I took was now being watched by different eyes.
In a cold office, far from the harbor's chaos, a man sat silently. Duke Claus. He wasn't wasting time with trash reports from his spies anymore.
He'd heard the news from an accidental source. A brief report from a subordinate about the rumors of Ilse Varannes' closeness to his own subordinate, the Holy Order Commander.
Claus dropped his quill roughly. The sound of it hitting the desk rang loud in the silent room.
He didn't believe cheap gossip. But he knew the Ilse he despised.
That girl had no interest in men, she only loved wealth and was always egging Gisella on and definitely not some stiff knight like Julian.
Something was wrong. Something was being hidden.
He stood up, looking out the window toward the capital veiled in light fog. He'd looked for proof of corruption, nothing. He looked for legal loopholes, nil. Now, Ilse was involved in a romance? It didn't make sense.
"So, you're playing games with the Commander, are you?" Claus muttered.
He didn't care about feelings. He didn't care about romance. What he cared about was patterns.
And the pattern Ilse had been showing lately the drastic changes, the weird behavior, and now these rumors of closeness to someone important in the military, it all pointed to one thing.
Ilse was definitely plotting something. And Claus wouldn't let a pawn on his chessboard move without knowing exactly what its goal was.