Even If You Tear Me Apart - Chapter 19
The chapters are split like this so that the TL can update more consistently over time (✿ ＞◡❛)
Étienne flinched and turned his head. A middle-aged woman, wearing a troubled expression and carrying extra cloth, was hurrying toward them from inside.
“Oh dear. I’m terribly sorry, sirs. Our young lady is just… Here, please dry yourselves with these first.”
At this hour, with night already fallen, the young lady had brought not just one but two unfamiliar young men, nearly grown. No servant would be able to speak favorably of such a situation.
However, Ezekiel accepted the cloth willingly and offered thanks.
“There’s nothing for you to apologize for, Madam. Thank you.”
“I should have stopped her when she said she’d go out alone…”
She introduced herself as Missus Babbin, Iris’s wet nurse and the one who managed the household affairs of the Quilluxia estate. She turned her head away, clearly embarrassed as she watched the boys wiping themselves down.
“But what brings the two of you here at such an hour…?”
“Well…”
The two boys exchanged glances.
Once the knights came for them, the truth would be revealed anyway—but until then, they needed to avoid revealing their identities.
They were princes—heirs to the Murenas Empire. Should anything unfortunate happen, it would be a disaster.
Fortunately, Étienne was quite skilled at this kind of improvisation.
“We’re attendant knights serving Lady Felicia of House Arbois.”
“Oh my! You’ve come from the Duchy of Arbois?”
Missus Babbin’s eyes widened.
Étienne briefly explained that they had been assisting Lady Felicia on an estate inspection tour and had become separated from the party.
Such mishaps, where advance scouts lost contact with the main group during a storm, were common enough, and Missus Babbin nodded without much suspicion.
Still, she didn’t seem entirely convinced. There were far too many bandits in the world who pretended to be knights.
“May I perhaps see your identification plaques…?”
The princes hesitated.
They did have their plaques, but they bore the seal of the imperial family, which posed a problem.
Just then.
“It’s alright, Nanny.”
The one who entered was the girl from earlier—Iris Quilluxia. She appeared to have changed out of her wet clothes, and as she shook her still-damp silver hair lightly, she spoke.
“I saw their horses, and they were magnificent. Bandits couldn’t possibly afford them. They really must be knights.”
Ezekiel narrowed his eyes.
Thanks to the girl crossing the river, they’d been able to securely tie their horses by the riverside.
But to have noticed such detail in the dark… that wasn’t ordinary perception.
Even so, instead of being persuaded, Missus Babbin scolded her.
“Milady! How many times have I told you not to appear before others in such a state!”
Now that the boys’ identities were resolved, the disarrayed appearance of the girl seemed to register.
And no wonder. Though she claimed to be the daughter of Baron Quilluxia, she wore a plain tunic and trousers, like a commoner.
To appear before men with wet, disheveled hair was something no noble lady would even dream of doing.
Perhaps a very young girl might be excused, but she looked around sixteen. At that age, noble daughters were usually modest and kept within the household.
But Iris Quilluxia was completely unbothered.
“They’ve already seen everything there is to see. It’s fine. More importantly, where’s Father?”
“Your father?”
“Oh, I went out earlier to meet him.”
She replied to Étienne’s question, her blue eyes sparkling as she looked his way.
Missus Babbin added with a sigh,
“Baron Quilluxia is the lord of this estate. He had stepped out briefly… We thought he’d return this morning, but because of the storm…”
Baron Quilluxia had gone to take care of business in a neighboring territory, and he was supposed to return by this morning but hadn’t.
The girl and Missus Babbin assumed the Baron was simply delayed. If not for the sudden storm in the afternoon, they would have waited quietly.
“The village bridge collapsed from the storm. I was worried His Lordship might try to cross anyway…”
At that, Ezekiel frowned slightly and tilted his head to the side.
“Yet the young lady herself crossed with great risk, as I recall.”
“Hey!”
Iris Quilluxia cried out urgently, and Missus Babbin gasped as she turned sharply toward her.
“Milady! So that’s why you were wet! Don’t tell me you crossed the river?!”
