Chapter 61: Letter of Enoch
In his letter, Enoch unexpectedly expressed deep concern about the condition of his daughter, Angela. His words were filled with anxiety that he could not hide even behind his official politeness.
He wrote that lately the girl had seemed too depressed, as if a shadow of sadness hung over her, and neither games nor walks in the garden could dispel her melancholy.
This was due to the fact that after moving into their new, spacious house, the girl had to stay alone more and more often.
And although the walls of the mansion were richly decorated and the rooms were spacious and bright, for a child they were more like empty halls than a place of comfort. Loneliness is a challenge for an adult, but for a child, it can be even more devastating.
Having become an aristocrat, Enoch, oddly enough, became a much busier man than he had been when he was just a simple forester in his native village.
Now he was responsible not only for the servants but also for the estate of the Bastier barony. Although the barony was small, it still required constant attention and care, which took up a lot of his time and energy.
As a result, Enoch had very little time to spend with his daughter, which undoubtedly affected her emotional state.
Of course, there were servants in the house who were ready to help the girl and entertain her with conversation, but it was not at all the same as lively communication with friends or loved ones.
Although she tried not to show her feelings and hid her inner pain, Enoch, as a loving father, could not help but notice it and felt helpless in this situation.
It so happened that, due to certain circumstances, Angela and her father now had to remain isolated from the rest of high society.This decision came from me.
I insisted on it because I couldn’t allow anyone to find out about the main character’s origins ahead of time. Any accidental leak of information threatened to create considerable difficulties and even destroy the entire plan I had carefully constructed.
No matter what, I was not going to allow Angela to enter the palace before she came of age, as was supposed to happen in the original plot.
After all, if that really happened, it would irrevocably destroy the entire concept of the original game, which still remained.
The murder of the heroine’s adoptive father and the unexpected revelation of the secret of her true origins — it was this drama that became the starting point that led to the further development of the plot. And I wanted everything to happen exactly the same way in this world.
For this reason, I asked Enoch not to participate in social events, and especially not to take Angela with him, using the excuse of caring for their safety.
After all, the world of the nobility is cruel. Aristocrats who were recently commoners could easily become targets of ridicule and humiliation.So yes, all this was done solely for "safety" reasons.
However, this decision had a downside. For Angela, an energetic and curious girl, life without friends and communication with her peers became unbearably dreary.
The lack of lively communication and games with other children exacerbated her condition, and perhaps this was the cause of her depression.
Even her adoptive father couldn’t help but notice how she was gradually withdrawing into herself, losing interest in the world around her, and becoming increasingly sullen.
That’s why Enoch turned to me for help — he didn’t know what to do or how to solve this problem on his own. His letter was both a request and an expression of despair, and I understood that the situation could not be ignored.
But when I tried to find a solution, I couldn’t come up with any specific ideas.
Ultimately, I didn’t know any children who could be friends with Angela and whom I could completely trust to communicate with her.
Of course, there was no question of making Rubiella and Angela friends. No, I really wasn’t crazy enough to try to bring the heroine and the villain of this game together.
So I continued to think hard about it for some time, until a worthwhile idea finally came to mind.
Wait, what about...
Unexpectedly, the thought of Lionel suddenly popped into my head.Eureka! It happened like a real epiphany in my head.
In the end, this idea came to me despite the fact that Lionel was one of the love interests, and I initially had no intention of bringing the heroine closer to the favorites of this game before she entered the palace.
However, Lionel Ferder was an exception to the rule compared to everyone else.
This is because, in the original game, Lionel was also the only love interest whom the heroine had known since childhood.
This fateful encounter was supposed to happen back when little Angela, lost in the noisy streets of the capital, suddenly found herself alone among strangers and the endless noise of the big city.
She cried, confused and frightened, not knowing how to find her way back to her adoptive father, who was her only support and protection in this world.Just when it seemed that all was lost, a boy not much older than herself appeared.
He did not walk by, as many other passers-by did, but stopped, reached out his hand, and helped her. That boy was Lionel.
It was he who comforted the girl, cheered her up, and managed to return her to her father.
For Angela, it was a real miracle. From that moment on, the image of that unknown boy, who showed kindness and care in a difficult moment without asking for anything in return, was forever etched in her memory.
Later, it was thanks to these childhood memories that Angela fought so desperately for her relationship with Lionel on his love branch. All because she remembered and believed how kind this boy could be deep down.
Yes, that was Lionel as a child: open and kind. But the years he spent in a brothel, where he experienced cruelty and humiliation, and then his life under the old count’s rule, changed him almost beyond recognition.
The adult Lionel became a man with a difficult character, full of internal contradictions, with dark shadows from the past that repeatedly undermined him from within.
The heroine still cherished the bright image of Lionel in her heart, and it was thanks to this image that a love affair with such a complex and ambiguous character could exist.
This image from childhood became a source of support for her, thanks to which Angela believed in the best in Lionel, despite all his vices and mistakes.
Sometimes I wondered myself: if that touching memory had not been in the original story, would the heroine have paid attention to Lionel?
Would she have believed that deep down he was capable of kindness and tenderness? The answer was not obvious. Most likely not.
After all, it was only thanks to that first encounter that she knew that beneath his rough exterior lay something else, something brighter.
At least, that’s how it was intended in the original game.
But now that I had to intervene in the course of events, this important scene never took place. Events took a different turn, and Angela and Lionel did not meet that day. They were both deprived of the memories that could have become the foundation for their future.
And all because the game forced me to intervene in a completely sacrilegious way! In other words, neither of them ever had those important childhood memories.
But... At that moment, a thought occurred to me: what if all is not lost? What if I can fix it now, at least?
Yes, it would happen a little later than expected, but in the end, better late than never, right?
Apart from the fact that Lionel was two years older than Angela, the difference wasn’t that big. Yes, they could be called almost the same age, who could also spend time together and play.
This way, the heroine would be able to establish a relationship with one of her love interests in advance. And this, of course, would only be beneficial in such a difficult case as "Lionel Ferder."
Yes, so in the end, this concept would sound something like this:
"Childhood friends reunite after several years in the imperial palace!"
I repeated this phrase to myself again — and the more I thought about it, the more convincing it seemed to me.
I thought this plan sounded pretty good. No, it was definitely the best way out of this situation!
I smiled at my own thoughts, feeling the corners of my lips twitch involuntarily. To some extent, I even admired my own resourcefulness.
Well, since the idea was so good, there was no point in putting it off. I felt a surge of determination and inner enthusiasm, as if a small but bright spark of anticipation had been lit inside me.
Thus, I firmly decided to proceed with the implementation of this plan.