Chapter 27

With a full stomach, she headed to the nostalgic hotel. She hadn’t made a reservation here either. She had planned to take her time, visiting various grocery stores, and gradually placing jars while deciding where to stay.

The hotel she arrived at was, as expected, the luxurious one where her family used to stay twice a year.

When they came as a family, they always stayed in the best room, and her mother had always loved the interior and furniture of that room. This time, she had intended to stay in a regular guest room.

However, the moment she wrote her name at the reception, the young woman's expression changed, and an older man took over.

"The room you stayed in before is available," the man said, offering her the top-tier room.

"No, a regular room will be fine today," she replied.

"Unfortunately, all the double rooms are booked, so the price will be the same. Please feel free to use that room."

Why was she being treated this way after so many years?

The restaurant earlier and this hotel—wasn’t it strange?

The room she was shown to had three bedrooms, a luxurious space. Without giving her a choice, the staff led her in and said, "Please enjoy your stay," before leaving.

The same white rose-patterned wallpaper from when her mother was alive.

The rose-pink fabric sofa her mother loved.

The bedding was the same linen her mother used to love.

(This room looks like it was set up to match my mother's tastes, but that can't be. There's no reason for them to do that.)

While she was lost in thought, Dorothea said with a smile, "It still looks very much like your mother's room. Was this room modeled after your mother's?"

Dorothea’s words made her think, and she went into the bathroom. The scent of her mother's favorite herbs filled the air. When she brought her nose close to the sachet by the window, she smelled a blend of lavender, rosemary, and white rose. But it was too similar to the scent she and her mother had blended through trial and error. Was she overthinking it?

"Dorothea, Diego, I'm going out of the room for a bit, but I'll be back soon," she said and rushed out.

She ran down the corridor to the kitchen area, where a new employee, a young girl in a new uniform, was mopping the floor. The girl looked troubled when she saw Bertine.

"Ma'am, this is the kitchen area."

"Are you new here?"

"Yes, I am."

"Is the manager here?"

"Yes, he is."

"Can you please call the manager right away?"

"Here?"

"No, in the café downstairs. Please hurry."

"Yes, ma'am."

Bertine left before the girl could ask her name.

She entered the café on the first floor and sat at a table where she could see the entrance.

"Can you add a little sweet liqueur to my tea?" she asked the waiter and watched the entrance.

As she sipped her tea, a man in a hurry entered, looking for someone.

Bertine's movements froze when she saw the man, who seemed to be the manager. His gaze stopped on her, and after a few seconds, he walked straight to her table.

"Hey, it's been a while, Bert. Seven years, right?"

"It's been a while, Luca. You're the manager here. Please sit. It's been seven years since we parted when I was seventeen. Was it your arrangement that I was shown to the top-tier room? When did you start working here? Why did you disappear without a word?"

Luca was the person she was supposed to marry when she was seventeen, before she became engaged to Andrew at nineteen. Shortly before their engagement, his family's business failed, and they disappeared without a trace. Two years later, her father decided to marry her to Andrew, but she was sent to the Allied Nations instead.

Luca answered her questions with a slightly stiff smile.

"First, I didn't arrange the top-tier room. I was surprised to see you come alone without a reservation. Second, I started working here when my family went bankrupt and our engagement was called off. Third, after our family went bankrupt, we had to leave Sanlouan in a hurry. If I had contacted you, it might have caused more trouble."

Her head was in a whirl with too many questions, but she thought she should protect the young girl first.

"Please don't scold the girl who called you. I deliberately asked her to do it because she was new."

"I thought so the moment I saw you. If it had been another employee, they would have told you the manager was out."

"Who gave that order? It wasn't you, was it?"

Luca didn't answer.

"Hey, is my father the owner of this hotel? If so, everything makes sense. The receptionist's attitude changed the moment she saw my name, and I was shown to the special room without a choice. The special room was decorated to my mother's taste, and Luca, who suddenly disappeared from Sanlouan, is the manager here. Everything."

Luca remained silent, so Bertine decided to push him.

"Sefirino at the restaurant confessed."

"Sefirino? He did that on his own?"

"Yes, so the restaurant is also owned by my father."

"Bert! You're pushing me."

Ignoring his question, Bertine pressed on.

"My father kept the fact that he owns this hotel and the restaurant from me. Why? I have more questions. Just before my wedding, the king told me to marry the representative of the Allied Nations. However, the Allied Nations had already declined before I left the country. My father didn't know this. What's behind the story of me being sent to the Allied Nations? If you're connected to my father, you must know something."

Luca looked at Bertine for a while, then decided to speak.

"Your father is known as an alchemist for his business acumen. Every business he touched succeeded, and the House of Juan accumulated more and more wealth."

"I know. He was appointed as the prime minister because of his skills, right?"

"Yes, but he was too competent."

From there, Luca told her about the relationship between the royal family and her father that she didn't know.

The current king is a gentle person but lacks business acumen. From the time he was the crown prince, Bertine's father, Maxim de Juan, had been supporting him. The king and the marquis had been getting along well, but things started to go wrong when the king married the queen and the marquis became the prime minister.

The queen was intelligent and greedy, wanting to increase the royal family's wealth. She ordered Bertine's father to increase the royal family's private wealth, but as his skills as the prime minister became more apparent, she began to feel uneasy, Luca said.

"The queen wanted to use the prime minister's abilities but didn't want the royal family to be dominated by his power. Greedy people often think others are greedy too. The marquis had to give up a significant amount of his business to focus on his duties as prime minister!"

According to Luca, when the queen learned that Bertine was to marry Luca, the eldest son of a prominent merchant family in the Kingdom of Sanlouan, she feared the power of the marquis would grow and tried to destroy the family.

Seven years ago, just as Bertine and Luca were about to get engaged, rumors spread that Luca's family was in financial trouble, citing information from a noble source. As a result, all investors pulled out. Luca's father continued the project with his own funds and searched for new investors, but found none. Eventually, the funds ran out, and the project stopped.

The empire's suppliers reclaimed the building materials and demanded payment. Luca's father had to use the family's property and assets in Sanlouan to pay them.

"Why did those baseless rumors spread all at once? My father couldn't understand it and fell ill from the stress. Our family went bankrupt, and my father died in despair. When we were about to lose our home and scatter, the marquis reached out to us."

After that, thanks to the marquis, Luca got a job at this hotel and was trained strictly under the then-manager. During his work, he continued to investigate the rumors. He found that everyone who spread the false rumors had some connection to the queen's family. The real mastermind was probably the queen, but there was no evidence.

"So, the push to send me to the Allied Nations two weeks before my wedding was probably—"

"Most likely the queen's order. To be honest, the king isn't that smart."

"The thousand gold coins, the royal family could have paid, right?"

"Of course. Your father had made them so much money. The family you were to marry into was also a skilled merchant. So, the queen acted again. She wants to keep the marquis in a state of living death."

"No..."

Wait.

If her father owned a large restaurant and this luxury hotel, he could have sold them to pay the thousand gold coins. Then why was she sent to the Allied Nations?

As if reading her thoughts, Luca explained the marquis's reasoning.

"Bert, the marquis was afraid you would become a tool for the royal family's profit. If you had stayed in Sanlouan, your value would eventually be known to the queen, and you would be forced to work for the prince for life. So, he reluctantly agreed to send you to the Allied Nations."

"Wait. What do you mean by my value?"

Luca looked at Bertine with a troubled expression.

"You don't realize it, do you? The marquis was very cautious in raising you. Bert, you are the 'next alchemist' that the marquis himself, a renowned alchemist, trained for a long time after recognizing your talent."

Finally, I've explained why Bertine wasn't married until she was 24.