Mattheus internally froze but couldn't hide the surprise from showing on his face.
While the Crowns didn't make his memory loss a secret, very few people knew because of how bombastically he revealed his healing magic during that royal ball.
For Harloch to be aware of it, the man would have needed to actively search for this information.
In conclusion, Harloch looked into Mattheus Crown.
The question was what else did the man find other than the fake amnesia?
"Calm down, you have not revealed anything incriminating while you were in public. There are certain eccentricities, but nothing he could use against you. Or suspect you with.
"Remember, you are a sheltered twenty-year-old son of a powerful and rich family. You come from a place of privilege yet do not have a lot of life experience. Mattheus Crown is arrogant, self-important, and self-assured to the point he can easily be duped by this man before you.
"Okay," Brunilda seemed to not think what she said was enough and adjusted her tactics. "Channel a bit of Rick, Mattheus. Mr. Egoistic himself."
His friend was referring to her second-to-last boyfriend, Patrick Roberts. Rick was the typical high-flying Fortune 500, Wall Street-type before Brunilda chewed and spat him out like the man-eater she was. He'd only known Rick through reputation and when Brunilda criticized the man while they had still been dating, but Rick had always stood out to him as a bad example of what a person could end up like.
In a way, Rick was significant to him, even though they never met in real life, because it was hearing about Rick's personality and actions that turned him off from the business world. It was with Rick, a successful example in an industry he was majoring in, that he realized he just didn't have it in him to succeed in such a world.
And Brunilda suggested channeling that ex-boyfriend of hers?
In any other circumstance, Mattheus would have made a face at the suggestion.
While he was internally discombobulated about the realization Harloch was testing him and searching for a reaction to whatever possible suspicions the other baron might have?
It was a lifeline from his internal panic.
He smoothly shifted his surprised expression to something relaxed but unwary, self-assured in his safety. "I'm surprised you know about that. Of course, my parents wanted to hide the healing rather than my injuries but, considering I saved General Grant before everyone at the ball, I guess my memory loss became less of a topic than the news I had a never before seen healing ability. Though I admit I would rather be known for the healing than the fact I took a bad fall and hit my head enough to not even remember my name."
Mattheus rubbed the back of his head, where the gunshot wound had been, and grimaced slightly.
Mentally shaking himself of the memory of his first few hours in the woods, pale eyes looked at Harloch again. "Why did you bring it up? Did we know each other before?"
"No, we've never crossed paths officially before," Harloch replied. As he answered, he lifted his arms, and adjusted the cuffs of his shirt. It would be a natural gesture if Mattheus didn't realize the baron was purposely flashing a cufflink with a particular engraving so the twenty-year-old could see.
Mattheus let his eyes become riveted to the design. He counted two seconds before furrowing his brow and frowning slightly. "Your cufflinks…"
"Hm?"
"The design. I have a pin with the same engraving."
"Ah. Yes, I suppose you do."
Mattheus looked at Harloch with confusion and a bit of aggravation. "Baldroy, what is this about?"
The other baron hummed. Mattheus didn't even need his friend to tell him that Harloch was enjoying his conveyed frustration.
"Mattheus, the symbol on this cufflink is the symbol for a secret society. I'm sure you are aware of secret societies as an academic?" Harloch asked.
The Court Healer struggled, conflicted. Warily, he looked at Harloch and vaguely replied, "Maybe."
A bark of laughter. "Yes, they're supposed to be secret, after all. Not surprised you don't say more. Didn't really expect you to. In addition to whatever society you are part of, well…"
Mattheus Crown was technically part of the same secret society as Albert IV but it was, in no way, as malicious as the secretive group with the symbol of the Egg of Columbus. Much like the very old universities in his old world, this world also had secret societies, brotherhoods, and sisterhoods that were relatively harmless and predominantly about connections.
Harloch tapped his cufflink again.
"This is the symbol of the Eulerian Circles Society."
Mattheus furrowed his brows. "Eulerian Circles Society…?"
As in Euler diagrams?
"A… math society?" Mattheus hazarded a guess.
Harloch snorted. "It would make sense if I were a member of a math society but not so much yourself."
Little did this annoying traitor know…
"No, no, it is much bigger than that, Mattheus."
Mattheus tried to hide his curiosity and the temptation of potential power Harloch was basically dangling before him. "Oh? How much bigger?"
He didn't hide it very well.
Harloch was smug.
It seemed the Treasury Officer fully believed in Mattheus's act. But men like him would only see reflections of their own reactions to such information being similar as reassuring rather than suspicious.
The fatal weakness of all people that have aggrandized opinions of themselves: they tended to like people that reflect their beliefs because of some twisted sense of narcissism up until they felt threatened. (But it took a lot to get ego-centric people threatened the bigger their overinflated pride was.)
"Bigger than the royal family, Mattheus. Bigger than this country."
His lips parted in surprise. "I… don't understand."
Harloch shifted until he sat beside Mattheus and swung an arm around his shoulders. "Mattheus, you don't really like Prince Artorius, right?"
Mattheus gritted his teeth. He grimaced. "I…"
"Just between the two of us."
"… No. I don't. I find him a violent boar that should be a commoner with his manners rather than the one destined to become King in the future. He is an idiot that is incompetent and thinks with his muscles rather than his brain. Just like Edgar."
Sorry, Edgar, but Mattheus had to say it even if he didn't personally believe it.
"Ah. Yes. If only Edgar wasn't born before you. You have the ability and talent to be the next Earl Crown but it was stolen from you just because of the order of your birth."
Mattheus ducked his head.
In a way, it was sad, but the original Mattheus Crown did have a sense of bitterness from this. The original Mattheus Crown had also been young and misguided as hell.
"The Eulerian Circles Society offered you a solution, Mattheus. You joined because it gave you a way to realize your ambitions."
"I don't…"
"You're surely not going to say you don't have any ambitions?" Harloch scoffed.
Mattheus ducked his head again.
"It's all that training you have from your pedigree," Harloch sighed. "I was born from a rougher place so I'll voice what you want."
"Baldroy—"
"You want Artorius Morgaine to be ruined. Killing him would be a mercy, so you want him to be remembered in history as the worst blight to the Morgaine line—to be a laughingstock of Yuropa for decades after."
The twenty-year-old shuddered from unease, though Harloch thankfully took it as yearning for such a vision of the Crown Prince being brought so low.
"Is that not what you truly wish for, Mattheus? Sure, you have some clout now as Court Healer and you have sided with Duchess Sophily to oppose Prince Artorius. But do you think it's enough? You, we, cannot do much in our positions… but the Eulerian Circles Society gives us connections and options to realize our dreams."
"It does?"
"Yes. The question is, how far are you willing to go for it? I know how much you were willing to sacrifice before your accident in Glashaw Woods. But what about now?"
…
Mattheus finally breathed a shaky sigh of relief in the privacy of his labs, almost bonelessly slumping into his seat and slouching over the table.
"Good job, Mattheus. Harloch is still cautious but he seemed to have bought the harmless and easily manipulated impression you kept up around him."
"He's still cautious?" Mattheus asked warily.
"Nothing too strange in his position. We're talking about a secret group committing treason, after all."
"Oh. Well, that makes sense." The twenty-year-old felt a bit foolish for not realizing this point but he had pretty much overtaxed his brain from the conversation with Harloch and then continuing to act for the rest of the day as if he were the Mattheus Crown the traitor expected.
"Are you sure about this though?" Brunilda asked in concern.
"What? Going undercover? Isn't being Mattheus Crown already going undercover 24/7? What's another layer to it?"
"Hm." The cat seemed doubtful. "If you are going to continue to play the agreeable amnesiac easily led by the nose, just make sure you know just how far you are willing to go to keep up the act. This… Eulerian Circles Society sounds more complicated than Harloch made the group out to be. In fact, I know he's leaving a lot out. He was leaving out something big when talking about the society helping realize both your dreams."
"I'm not surprised about that. Egg of Columbus and now a reference to Euler diagrams? If Eulerian circles are like what we know of in our old world, that is, isn't there a bit too many misleading puzzles involved with the name and symbol? Or am I looking at this too deeply?"
"I guess we'll see. But be careful, Mattheus, Harloch is a dangerous man."
He knew that. Especially if Harloch could manipulate Obitus Energy. It said nothing good about his morals nor his sanity.