The Holy Grail of Eris – Interlude 1 (Emilia Gordwin)

Countess Emmanuel’s evening party was a big success.

The topic, of course, was the hunt that took place at Grand Meryl-Anne the other day. Everybody was eager to hear the anecdote about how others took turns to target the cornered little foxes with their hunting rifles. As the cherry on top, Pamela Francis’ hair had apparently turned as white as an old woman’s overnight. It was obvious that this was simply an exaggeration to liven up the venue, but if you looked at it from another perspective, this meant that ――― it was okay to joke about Pamela like so. Emilia laughed her heart out. That cheeky girl had fallen to being just a loser.

However, what she couldn’t understand was Constance Grail. The guests of that evening party were making a fuss about how that dull Viscount’s daughter was almost like Scarlet herself. What a joke.

No other person like Scarlet Castiel could exist in this world.

She was the lowest, the worst ――― and the most special of all.

Well, whatever. Emilia shook her head to get rid of her idle thoughts. Those things didn’t matter anymore. After all, the person herself was long dead.

Only those who survived would be the winners in life. Emilia thought so strongly. That was why she was the winner. She had grasped the happiness in her hands. By the time she had become Emilia Caroling, she had achieved more than Lily Orlamunde, who she couldn’t even dream to match up to before, and of course, more than the infamous Scarlet Castiel.

She sent the invitation to the foolishly honest Grails. If the girl in the center of the recent scandal attended her evening party, things would definitely end up livelier. The worldly-minded guests would surely greatly appreciate Emilia Gordwin’s capabilities.



“Good day, Emilia.”

It was Aisha Huxley who called out to her suddenly. She was wearing dark eyeshadow and bright red lipstick, and her body was as thin as a stick like usual. Ten years ago, she was a gloomy girl with face full of freckles, who always used to look down, but people really did change with time. There was not even a shadow left from the fanatical girl, who once used to devotedly worship Scarlet.

“Good day, Aisha ――― Oh my?”

When she returned the greeting, she noticed a gentleman standing close to Aisha. It was a handsome man with a slender figure. Seeing that Emilia was lost for words, fufufu, Aisha laughed with satisfaction. ‘Did you notice?’ She tilted her purposefully.

“He is my…close person.”

Emilia could barely squeeze out ‘is that so’ as a reply to Aisha, who seemed very much proud.

◇◇◇

Like Emilia, Aisha was also married. She had a son and a daughter. Before her marriage she was the daughter of Earl Spencer, but now she had married into the family of Viscount Huxley. In other words, her position wasn’t much different from Emilia, who was a Baroness. Rather, Gordwin family was more well-off and even in terms of appearance, Emilia was much more charming than the sickly skinny Aisha. Then, why ―――

While she was in the hall, stirring a cocktail, Emilia noticed the man in question. He had eye-catching good looks and sophisticated bearing. She couldn’t help following his every move with her eyes.

Aisha didn’t reveal the man’s identity to Emilia. He was probably a semi-noble with low status. No, he might’ve even been a commoner. Even when she thought of it like this, it didn’t make Emilia’s mood better. It was frustrating. How could somebody like Aisha catch such a fine man? If it was her, she’d ――― by the time she had noticed it, she had already left her empty glass to the waiter and was following the man.

She went up the stairs and came to the deserted corridor. Just as she was about to call out to him, Emilia noticed that there was a prior guest. She reflexively hid behind the pillar. It wasn’t Aisha. This person was a more alluring and beautiful woman. Emilia slightly opened her eyes wide and smiled devilishly ――― See? It’s just as I thought!

As expected, there was no way anybody could be serious about a woman like Aisha.

With the same feeling as tearing off a butterfly’s wings, Emilia decided to watch over the situation. Leaning against the man, the woman put her mouth close to his ear and whispered as if sighing.

―――Killiki Killikuk

The man narrowed his eyes at those words and his mouth drew into a smile. His boney fingers traced the woman’s earlobe. As they came close enough to kiss, gazing into each other’s eyes, the man muttered something. The woman nodded. Still smiling, the man went in for the kiss. Forehead., cheeks, neck. Then, pulling her deeply opened neckline towards himself, he brough his lips to the woman’s chest.

‘Oh my, how enthusiastic.’ A tattoo of the Sun could be seen on the woman’s slightly exposed white breast. Seeing that, Emilia judged that the woman might’ve been a harlot. In that case, this might’ve just been the way their meetings were done.

Emilia immediately lost her interest. The moment she was about to turn away, she caught glimpse of something shiny from the edge of her vision.

Is that ――― a small bottle?  

After the man put a small bottle the size of a pinky in the woman’s cleavage with an experienced gesture, he quickly separated from her. The woman also smiled and fixed her disheveled collar. Then, the two turned their backs to each other as if nothing had happened and went on their ways.

―――I wonder what was that just now?

However, the question disappeared as soon as it appeared. More important than that was the fact that Aisha’s man was having a tryst with a younger and more beautiful woman. She had to tell this to Aisha as soon as possible. As her friend, of course.

When she suddenly lifted her face, Emilia realized that the woman was about to walk towards her with a composed face. She didn’t know the woman’s name, but it was probably the same for the other person too. Their eyes met only for a second and they went past each other without a single greeting.

At the moment when they passed each other, a nostalgic sickly-sweet smell tickled Emilia’s nostrils.

—
Notes:
The word used for close person is actually 好い方, so, technically, it’s something like “my good person” (?), I guess? So, a lover but without actually saying that it’s a lover? Or you know, “my favorite”, something like that.
Okay, I’m actually not sure about the tryst part. The original says “だとしたらこれはそういう趣向なのだろう”. According to jisho, 趣向 is ‘a plan, idea, design, plot’, so I think Emilia thinks that since she’s a prostitute, all this kissing and stuff is just what she does with all her clients and not just this guy specifically…maybe? Feel free to @me if you know a better translation for this line.

So Emilia can hear the woman whispering something, but she can’t hear it when the man does it. Hmm.

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