“Fooling around?”
Alaric Sterling frowned even more deeply when he heard those words.
His gaze moved back and forth between Lucian Ravenholt and Felix Ravenholt, clearly unconvinced that the situation had truly been as simple as Lucian made it sound.
Lucian, however, remained perfectly composed.
There was even a faint smile on his face, and his tone was as courteous as ever.
“Lady Evelyn is remarkably clever, and her courtyard certainly has a charm all its own. It’s quite… distinctive.”
He phrased it very tactfully.
At first glance, it almost sounded like a genuine compliment.
Felix, standing behind him, could not help curling his lips.
Distinctive?
Oh, it was distinctive all right.
The weeds were practically up to their knees, the corridors were covered in cobwebs, and the entire place was so dark that from a distance, it looked exactly like some haunted mansion abandoned in the middle of the wilderness for decades.
And that was without mentioning those strange rooms inside.
Or the fact that Evelyn had apparently been talking to someone they could not even see.
Who knew?
Maybe that courtyard really was home to an entire collection of ghosts and monsters.
The more Felix thought about it, the more ridiculous the whole situation seemed.
His anger began rising again.
He wanted nothing more than to tell Alaric everything they had just seen and make the man go look for himself at the place where his own daughter had been living all these years.
Felix had already opened his mouth when his gaze fell on Lucian standing in front of him.
Forget it.
He should endure it.
Others might not know what his older brother was really like, but how could Felix not know?
In front of outsiders, Lucian was always courteous and refined.
Every word and every action was measured perfectly, making him look like the very image of a mild-tempered young nobleman.
But once there were no outsiders around?
He became a completely different person.
Scheming.
Petty.
And exceptionally good at holding grudges.
If Felix genuinely made him angry now, who would suffer later?
Himself, obviously.
With that thought, Felix forcibly swallowed everything he wanted to say and remained behind his brother with an extremely unhappy expression.
Lucian naturally knew exactly how frustrated his younger brother was.
He simply ignored him.
“Lady Evelyn was in a playful mood earlier, so she fooled around with the two of us for a while. There was a small accident along the way, and the courtyard ended up somewhat messy.”
The smile on Lucian’s face faded slightly as he spoke, though his voice remained calm enough that no emotion could be heard from it.
“So we came back for no other reason than to ask Lord Sterling to send a few people over and have Lady Evelyn’s courtyard properly cleaned.”
He made everything sound insignificant.
As though the white powder, the rotten eggs, and that absurdly neglected courtyard were all nothing more than trivial details.
Yet his eyes had clearly darkened.
Lucian had no intention of pretending that he had not seen what was inside that courtyard.
He simply knew that now was not the right time to make a scene.
Until then, he had no intention of letting Felix blurt out everything they had discovered.
Alaric listened but did not immediately agree.
Instead, his gaze shifted once more toward Felix.
If this had truly been nothing more than harmless fooling around, why had Felix looked so angry when he came back?
Alaric’s frown deepened.
“Did she hurt either of you?”
There was noticeably more concern in his voice when he asked the question.
Felix immediately understood what he was thinking.
He had already been furious enough, but the moment he realized that a careless answer might somehow make the entire incident Evelyn’s fault again, he quickly spoke before anyone else could.
“Of course not.”
His answer came so quickly and firmly that there was no room for misunderstanding.
“Lady Evelyn didn’t hurt us. She only got herself dirty. She’s bathing and changing her clothes right now.”
As soon as he said it, the image of Evelyn from earlier appeared in his mind again.
First, she had been buried from head to toe in white powder.
Then an entire basin of rotten eggs had fallen on her.
By the end, she had been white, sticky, and so horribly smelly that even Felix had not dared to stand too close.
The memory nearly made him laugh.
Felix hurriedly pressed his lips together and forced the smile back down.
With a smell that terrible, who knew how long Honeyberry would have to wash before she finally felt clean again?
Without at least an hour or two of scrubbing, she probably would not even be willing to step outside.
Seeing that neither brother had been injured, Alaric’s expression finally eased somewhat.
Since no one was hurt, at least the situation had not become impossible to resolve.
He nodded.
“Very well. We’ll do as you ask.”
With that, he gestured toward the entrance.
Before long, the white-haired elder from earlier was summoned into the hall.
The moment he entered, he bowed respectfully.
“Lord Sterling.”
Alaric did not waste time.
“Take several servants to Evelyn’s courtyard and have the entire place properly cleaned.”
The white-haired elder had been standing with his head lowered.
But the moment he heard those words, he visibly froze.
“Her courtyard?”
He instinctively raised his head, and his expression immediately became stiff.
Alaric noticed.
His brows drew together again.
“What? Is there a problem?”
“N-No. Of course not.”
How could the elder possibly dare say there was?
He quickly shook his head and forced a smile onto his face.
“I’ll make the arrangements immediately.”
His answer was decisive enough.
Internally, however, he was already beginning to despair.
That courtyard was enormous.
Now Alaric suddenly wanted him to take people there and tidy up the entire courtyard?
For a moment, the elder genuinely had no idea where he was supposed to begin.
Forget the knee-high weeds and the cobwebs hanging all over the corridors.
The abandoned rooms alone would take an enormous amount of time to clean properly.
And the biggest problem was—
How many servants in the estate would actually be willing to go inside?
Just thinking about it made the elder’s head ache.
But he did not dare show any of that in front of Alaric.
He could only bow once more before hurriedly leaving the hall to make the arrangements.
Felix watched him go.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
For some reason, he suddenly felt a little sorry for the old man.
Evelyn’s courtyard was far beyond ordinary messiness.
If they genuinely intended to clean the entire place from top to bottom, they were going to be busy for quite some time.
Lucian, on the other hand, remained perfectly calm.
Anyone looking at him would never have guessed that he was the one who had made the request in the first place.
Now that the matter had been settled, there was no reason for the brothers to remain.
Lucian rose unhurriedly and bowed politely to Alaric.
“Lord Sterling, since everything has been arranged, my brother and I will take our leave.”
“Very well.”
Alaric nodded.
Felix quickly followed his brother’s example.
“Lord Sterling, Madam, we’ll excuse ourselves.”
With that, the brothers turned and left the great hall, one after the other.
Alaric did not immediately look away.
Instead, he watched Lucian’s departing figure with a thoughtful expression.
There had been nothing obviously wrong with anything Lucian had said.
Every word had been reasonable.
Every explanation had sounded perfectly acceptable.
And yet—
That was precisely what made Alaric feel that something was wrong.
Lucian was clearly covering something up.
If Evelyn’s courtyard had merely been a little dirty or neglected, Felix would never have returned looking that furious.
Nor would his first words have been to accuse Alaric of treating his own daughter worse than a commoner.
The more Alaric thought about it, the deeper his frown became.
Slowly, he turned his head.
His gaze settled on Lillian Sterling, who was still seated nearby.
Lillian had been struggling to maintain the smile on her face.
But the moment she met his eyes, her heart tightened for no apparent reason.
Alaric said nothing.
He simply stared at her in silence.
And with every passing second, the crease between his brows deepened.