A Different Path

“Ann, it’s… it’s been a while.”

After a few moments of internal struggle, Ewan still braced himself and stepped into the carriage, meeting the meaningful gaze of his personal maid.

Ann remained as poised as ever, her features serene. Dressed in her fitted maid’s uniform, she sat with a perfectly straight back, her hands clasped neatly on her knees.

Every movement she made seemed measured with a ruler, radiating an elegant precision.

“It hasn’t been that long, has it? Didn’t we just see each other a few days ago? But Young Master…”

Ann’s gaze settled on Ewan, a faint, knowing smile playing on her lips as she remarked, “Why is the Young Master completely drenched?”

“Ah, that…”

‘I can hardly tell her I deliberately jumped into the river to conceal something, can I?’

Ewan forced a smile and replied, “I was just so happy at the thought of seeing you, Ann, that I decided to take a bath before coming.”

“Oh? The Young Master took a bath… but why are even your clothes soaked through?”

“Well… washing my clothes along with myself only makes it seem more… formal, doesn’t it!”

“Is that so? But why…”

Ann’s small, delicate nose twitched. Her gaze swept over Ewan, then subtly flickered towards the distant view outside the window. A faint smile touched her lips as she continued, “I can’t shake the feeling there’s a strange scent about the Young Master.”

“Wh-what…”

Ewan flinched, nearly jumping out of his skin.

‘I went so far as to ruin my image, braving the stares of the Silent Watch who looked at me like a madman, all to jump into the river. Yet she can still smell it? Ann, is your nose even sharper than a serpent-person’s?’

Still, he forced himself to calm down.

Experience had taught him that in such moments, panic was the quickest path to disaster.

“It’s… it’s perfume, Ann. The scent you’re detecting is probably just the lingering perfume on my clothes.” Ewan stated with a stern face, improvising wildly.

“This perfume… it certainly has a unique scent, doesn’t it?”

“It’s all-natural, so uniqueness is perfectly normal, haha, perfectly normal.”

“…”

Ann narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing Ewan for a long moment. The atmosphere in the carriage grew heavy and still.

Just as Ewan felt his heart race faster and faster in the oppressive silence, on the verge of losing his composure, Ann suddenly broke into a radiant smile.

“Why is the Young Master so nervous? As your personal maid, do you truly think I would doubt your words?”

“No… no, of course not! I trust you implicitly, Ann. You are one of the people closest to me.” Ewan wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead as he spoke.

“To hear the Young Master say that truly makes Ann incredibly happy.”

Ann’s smile was radiant, and for a rare moment, a hint of bashfulness appeared on her dignified and beautiful face.

Immediately after, however, her expression grew serious.

“Alright, I won’t tease the Young Master any longer. I came here on official business.”

“Official business?”

“There are two matters. First, earlier today, the palace and quite a few nobles suddenly sent a large number of gifts.”

“Gifts… why now?”

“The palace staff said it was a reward personally bestowed by His Majesty to commend the Campbell family’s outstanding contributions during this crisis.

As for the nobles, they usually send gifts, but this time there were suddenly more. However, they were all returned, just as we usually handle them.”

“Outstanding contributions?”

Ewan raised an eyebrow in surprise, feeling somewhat perplexed.

What outstanding contributions? During this incident, the Duke was leading troops abroad, and the Duchess was resting in the countryside to carry her pregnancy. The Campbell family hadn’t just made no contribution; they were utterly unrelated to it.

Only he, to save his Senior, had plunged headfirst into the eye of the storm.

Yet, he hadn’t mobilized the Duke’s estate’s forces. Moreover, the moment Ewan saw so many members of the Silent Watch surrounding them, he understood that his actions, within the vast scope of this immense upheaval, could not be considered a heroic rescue; at best, they were merely icing on the cake.

Even without him, the Evil God’s plan would most likely still have failed. Nothing would have changed… except that his Senior might truly have died.

‘Hmm, and perhaps the Silent Moon might have struggled a bit more.’

Nevertheless, Ewan’s actions could not be described as “outstanding contributions.”

What’s more… he had only just emerged from the Mist of the Dark Moon, and the palace’s gifts had arrived even before him. The timing simply didn’t add up.

“I heard that after this incident, many nobles in the capital suffered quite heavy losses,” Ann hinted, her words carrying a deeper meaning.

“Is that… so?”

Ewan paused, then quickly understood. Thanks to His Imperial Majesty’s brilliant maneuver, the noble factions in Belrand had suffered a significant blow, and it was likely they wouldn’t be able to cause trouble for a long time to come.

The Campbell family, due to its staunch Royalist faction identity, had done nothing yet lost nothing. Coupled with the consolidation of imperial power, this shift in dynamics inexplicably brought them immense benefits.

Though, they might now face even greater envy and resentment.

“It seems that having a small family line also has its advantages.”

Ewan sighed, his emotions complex. Generally, the more distinguished a noble, the more they wished for the decline of imperial power.

Yet, among the great nobles, the Campbell family was an anomaly. Having only a single heir for generations, and with a dwindling household, they naturally lost the primary means for nobles to form factions and alliances: marriage.

After all, there was only one Duke Campbell, and only one son of Duke Campbell. One couldn’t expect them to marry dozens of noble daughters.

It was precisely because of this that the Campbell family could only rely on Duke Campbell’s prestige to gather a large number of minor and medium-sized nobles, transforming into the head of the Royalist faction.

‘Now that I think about it, in the original book, Ewan Campbell was stripped of his noble status and reduced to a commoner after that incident, suffering a tragic fate, with even the Duke’s estate unable to intervene. It definitely wasn’t as simple as it appeared on the surface; it was most likely pushed by other nobles,’ Ewan thought to himself.

After all, many people didn’t want to see a powerful Duke so close to the Royal family, even going so far as to consider a royal marriage.

However, despite his egregious actions—doing *that* to the princess and causing such a huge scandal—in the original book, the protagonist was merely demoted to a commoner, without shaking the Campbell family’s status in the slightest. This demonstrated the Emperor’s trust in the Campbell family.

“Eh? Wait, that’s not right.”

Ewan suddenly thought of something and looked up, questioning, “That still doesn’t explain why the palace would suddenly send gifts at this critical juncture. Isn’t that just intentionally inviting hatred towards our family?”

“Regarding that, the palace staff also brought a message when they delivered the gifts.”

Perhaps it was just a misconception, but Ewan suddenly felt that Ann’s tone was unusually strange.

“What message?” Ewan asked curiously.

“They said…”

Ann paused, then stated with a hint of sourness, “They said the Duke’s estate could begin preparations for the Young Master’s engagement ceremony with Her Royal Highness Princess Celicia… in a few months.”