Chapter 21: The Dragon Slayer’s Castle (3)
21
“Young master, what kind of trouble did you cause again?”
As expected, Arin, who had stuffed her luggage full of snacks, asked as she looked at me.
“I did cause some. Dunkel might faint if he heard about it.”
I said that while patting Arin’s head as she munched on cookies.
“My elder brother committed a great discourtesy. I sincerely ask that you please accept our apology.”
Laia, the young lady who had stopped the fight, bowed her head toward me with one hand placed over her chest.
“Thanks to you, it was resolved amicably. Thank you.”
When I replied like that with a polite smile, Lady Laia smiled back at me.
‘Well, look at that. She’s not someone to be taken lightly.’
I thought so as I looked at her neat appearance, one that could be called the very model of chivalry.
It became even clearer when I considered the timing of her intervention in this confrontation.
‘She stood by and watched until I threatened Hector. With that level of influence, she could have stopped it much earlier.’
The clash between Hector and me was an unexpected, sudden incident.
If it had been anyone else, they would have hurriedly avoided the scene or run about trying to grasp the situation.
But she immediately assessed the circumstances and intervened at precisely the necessary moment, extracting the maximum benefit.
The moment I put my blade to Hector’s neck.
It was the optimal timing to trample directly on the pride of the Hellian faction.
“Keugh…!”
Judging by the sight of Hector, red-hot with fury, it seemed my prediction had been right.
“Young master. This way….”
“You’ve expended too much strength.”
As soon as the fight ended, a swarm of maids surrounded Hector and headed toward his private chamber.
“Laia.”
At the voice calling her, Laia turned her head.
Hellian, who was suppressing her anger, was staring straight at her.
“I apologize, Duchess. The situation seemed grave, so I intervened unintentionally.”
Her gestures and tone were courteous, but upon hearing Laia’s words, Hellian clicked her tongue in irritation.
‘She didn’t use an honorific title.’
The imperial figures I had met so far had all addressed her with “Mama.”
An exalted honorific reserved for royalty or those of comparable standing.
But Polwyvern figures like Gordon and Laia did not use that title.
‘They acknowledge her as an elder of the family, but not as its head.’
Politics was the art of packing countless intentions into even a single form of address.
Even as someone practicing it, it was a truly headache-inducing sight.
“…I’ll leave the guests to you. I need to go check on Hector.”
“Understood.”
With a click of her tongue as she looked at Laia bowing toward her, Hellian disappeared into her private chamber.
After the imperial figures left like that, a short while later, freed from the tension, I began desperately turning my thoughts.
‘There’s no telling how they’ll move. Cooperation? Or exile? I need to draw their attention toward me somehow….’
It was at that moment.
“Ah—! That crazy bitch, seriously!”
When unfamiliar language burst out of a familiar voice, my thoughts froze on the spot.
“No, what is this? She made such a fuss about holding a ball, and now she’s the one calling it off? It’s not even funny!”
“Miss, miss!”
The knights around her kept trying to restrain Laia as she spat out curses and complaints.
“Ah, why! You told me to act like a princess only when that bitch was around!”
A wail of despair rose from the knights at Laia’s brutishly loud voice.
“The guest hasn’t left yet!”
After those words, a brief silence fell.
Laia, who had stopped talking, slowly turned her head toward me.
…….
‘Wow, even a skeleton’s skull would turn more smoothly than that.’
I had no idea what kind of expression my face was making as I thought that.
It was probably less awkward than hers, at least.
Thud. Thud.
With the sound of footsteps, Laia slowly approached me.
“Haa…….”
Lady Laia, who approached me with a thoroughly stiff expression, slowly steadied her breathing, and then….
“It seems you may have seen an illusion due to the urgency of the situation. For now, we would like to escort you to our lodgings. Would that be acceptable?”
As if nothing had happened, she smiled at me with a perfectly orderly tone and manner that looked as though it belonged in a book of etiquette.
Her voice, smooth like rolling jade beads, was almost sorrowfully gentle.
“You know it won’t work if you try to act now, right?”
Unable to endure that bizarre transformation, I said so with a grimace.
“…Tch, if you’re not going to fall for it, then don’t go telling anyone.”
The Polwyvern young lady pouted and, saying that, led me to the lodgings.
“You foolish wretch—!”
Smack!
In Duchess Hellian’s study.
Hellian, who had slapped Hector across the cheek, screamed at him like a madwoman, as if her anger still wasn’t spent.
“What were you thinking, swinging your sword in that situation?!”
“B-But that bastard insulted Your Grace…!”
“And that means you cause a scene like that right in front of the conservative faction?!”
Smack—!
No matter how formidable a knight might be, one cannot resist the fear ingrained from birth.
When she struck his other cheek with all her strength, Hector failed to endure it and collapsed on the spot.
“That dog of a bitch…. That woman…!”
Cursing Laia while panting heavily, Hellian soon opened a drawer on one side of the study and took out a small vial.
Crunch!
A red liquid wrapped in a thin membrane.
When Hellian bit the vial open whole and drank it, her trembling body gradually regained its composure.
“Hoo!”
Though she was already nearing sixty, her appearance was closer to that of someone in her forties.
It was thanks to this medicine the Empire had gifted her.
“Right…. Calm down. There’s something else I need to do now.”
An imperial miracle drug that cleared the mind and suppressed aging.
It was a precious item worth more than its weight in gold.
As the effects of the elixir spread and Hellian regained her calm, she turned her head to look into the shadows.
“Sanchez. Are you there?”
At the call of his name, a large silhouette emerged from within the shadows.
“Did you call for me, Duchess Mama.”
Hearing the low voice, Hellian nodded as if reassured and opened her mouth.
“‘Contact the ‘Fallen Leaves’.’”
As she said that, a sound of someone sucking in a sharp breath was heard.
It came from Hector, who was trembling with fear.
“What should the order be?”
“Kill them. Klein, and even the maid who followed him. All of them.”
When Hellian said that, Hector opened his mouth with a shaking voice.
“M, Mother! Don’t do it! They’re Aki—!”
“I told you to call me ‘Mother’!”
Kwa-chang-!
The vase she threw grazed past Hector and smashed into the wall, shattering into pieces.
“That bitch Laia did it, that trash Klein did it too, and now even you don’t acknowledge me?! Huh?!”
“Uh, ugh…!”
In the corner of the dark study, Hector trembled violently, completely terrified.
But at that moment, Hellian widened her eyes, lowered her body, and slowly approached him.
“Hector, my baby, my son?”
As if soothing her frightened child, Hellian slowly walked up and cupped his cheeks with both hands.
“This is all for you. Once you become Duke, everything will get better. So, okay?”
“Y, yes….”
Just moments ago, his mother had been lashing out with mad violence, and now she was soothing him with a gentle voice.
Overwhelmed by fear at his mother’s unpredictable behavior, he nodded frantically and buried himself in her arms.
“That’s right, that’s right. Mommy’s here. My son….”
“…Your Grace.”
When Sanchez, who had been watching the two of them, called out to Hellian, she spoke while holding Hector.
“That knight called Randel. Can you beat him?”
At her words, Sanchez immediately nodded.
“With that level of skill, I can handle about twenty men at once.”
His indifferent voice was directed toward Hellian.
Sanchez, her trusted confidant and a knight of captain rank.
He was not the type to boast or show bravado.
“Then what about Klein, that guy?”
Hearing that, Sanchez fell into thought for a moment before opening his mouth again.
“I can kill him in a single strike.”
“Good. Then you go as well.”
After saying that, Hellian stood up from her seat.
The terrified Hector had already returned to his room.
“If the ‘Fallen Leaves’ fail, you kill them all.”
Having received his mistress’s order, the knight slowly nodded, then vanished back into the shadows he had come from.
“Just a little more….”
Thus, an empty study with no one else inside.
Left alone, Hellian twisted the corners of her mouth as she looked at the red lines flowing down along her arm.
“Just a little more, and I…!”
Her laughter, growing ever deeper, engulfed the dark study.
Beneath it, red liquid dripping from a medicine bottle was staining the floor of the study.
When I asked back with a frown, Gordon, the chief butler of the Polwyvern household, nodded heavily.
“Young Master. What’s an unexplained death?”
“It means we don’t know why he died…. No, go over there and eat some snacks.”
“Yes!”
Answering my words energetically, Arin pulled out cookies packed full in my luggage and stuffed her mouth.
“Um, that maid over there is….”
“She’s always been like that.”
The maids asked as if the sight was strange, but when I brushed it off like that, they seemed to have nothing to say.
Meanwhile, Laia shrugged and looked at me as she spoke.
“Officially, it was reported as death from illness due to old age, but in truth, only that bitch Hellian knows.”
“Miss, your language!”
“Ah, whatever, you already found out anyway!”
“Even so, please act proper in front of a gentleman!”
“What gentleman! He looks like some kind of pretty-boy gigolo!”
‘Gigolo, what?’
While Laia was being scolded by the maids, Gordon added to the explanation.
Thanks to that, I missed my timing to refute the stream of insults flowing naturally my way.
“The only one who witnessed His Grace the Duke’s final moments was Her Grace the Duchess.”
“Then, the will….”
“The original is in Hellian’s possession. The contents are just as you were told.”
As Laia said that while resting her chin on one hand in clear displeasure, the other knights also vented their frustration.
“There are too many suspicious points. But the ducal title of the Empire…!”
“In the end, it requires approval from the Imperial family.”
When I answered the knight’s words, Laia, who had been listening, nodded.
This was the greatest shackle placed upon an Imperial Duke.
Despite possessing authority and power comparable to that of a king, this was why an Imperial Duke had no choice but to remain loyal to the Emperor.
‘And it’s also the biggest reason the Empire is eyeing Leinrant.’
Berkel Leinrant, the great hero who resolved the Akimond Incident.
Because of that merit, Leinrant became the only family able to appoint a Duke without the approval of the Imperial family.
‘All nations on the continent acknowledge Leinrant as the master of the North.’
That was thanks to the Leinrant Declaration ratified in the postwar continental agreement.
“So?”
Having learned some unexpected information, I leaned back against the chair.
“What is your intention in handing this information to an outsider like me?”
There was no way they would give me this information without any purpose.
“Help us.”
After dismissing the nagging maids, Laia spoke to me.
‘As expected.’
With a low sigh, I asked again.
“It doesn’t seem like you’re asking me personally for help. Are you asking Leinrant to intervene in Polwyvern’s succession issue?”
“People with a common enemy cooperate with each other. Is that not allowed?”
“In other words, you want to face Hellian together?”
When I said that, Laia nodded at me.
“Hmm….”
“We’re not asking for anything unreasonable. Just an exchange of information and manpower.”
Listening to Laia’s words, I fell into thought.
No, I pretended to think as I turned my gaze away.
Sssshk!
A translucent female figure appeared, slipping through the window.
She was a spirit who served as the eyes and ears of a Necromancer, a Banshee.
Approaching me, she whispered something into my ear.
Only after I nodded did she seem reassured, disappearing like smoke.
‘……So that’s how it is?’
The information the Banshee conveyed to me.
After confirming it, I spoke to them as they waited for my answer.
“That won’t work.”
A brief silence.
And then, Laia’s voice followed.
“No, why not?! You caused that whole mess at the ballroom, and now you’re scared all of a sudden?! Huh?!”
“Miss, your language—!”
“Ah, let go of me!”
In the meantime, Gordon, who had maintained his composure, looked at me and asked.
“May I ask for your reason?”
“That’s not hard at all.”
Saying that, I smiled faintly and spoke to them.
“I’m about to get assassinated, you see.”
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