Chapter 9
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“Colonel, your expression does not look good.”
The imperial palace banquet hall where beautiful melodies were flowing.
Lionel, dressed in military uniform, was standing with his arms crossed, leaning half his body against a pillar.
Today’s banquet was an event to celebrate the victory in the war.
Such noisy gatherings were not to Lionel’s taste.
Seeing the emperor’s face was even less appealing.
However, he had no choice but to attend for the sake of the Black Iron Knights.
It was because he wanted to give the knights who followed him and traversed the battlefield together the opportunity to have their merits recognized.
“Isn’t this someone. The guardian of our empire, Colonel Valheim!”
As the emperor’s voice resounded, applause erupted throughout the banquet hall.
“No. Now I should call you duke. You have achieved such close merits and finally raised up the fallen family—how splendid in every way.”
It was praise as benevolent as could be, but the emperor’s pupils were not smiling.
The reinstatement was never a favor.
Releasing the charge of treason placed on the Valheim family and restoring them to nobility was another shackle the emperor placed to control Lionel.
“Duke Valheim. Continue to work hard for this empire in the future. Of course, do not harbor the thought that your efforts are excessive and stand above the imperial family.”
It seemed like a joke at first glance, but it clearly contained a warning.
If he challenged his authority, he would break his neck again at any time.
Lionel bowed his head and raised the corners of his mouth. A short and courteous smile. But that smile was false.
Soon, the orchestra’s performance stopped. When the emperor raised one hand, the surroundings became quiet.
“To celebrate the victory in the war, I have prepared a special spectacle, so look forward to it.”
As soon as those words fell, the stage in the center of the banquet hall lit up.
“So enjoy to your heart’s content, Duke. A welcome guest will soon arrive.”
The emperor added meaningful words with a sinister smile.
Boring and empty music.
Champagne poured overflowing into the glasses.
Standing at the emperor’s feet, Lionel suddenly thought.
It would be better to be in the midst of artillery fire.
This place was no different from a battlefield, except that no gunfire was heard.
Lionel scanned the hypocritical nobles who hid knives in every word they uttered casually, then tilted his head back in boredom.
And at that moment, a clear face slipped into his mind.
The face of Agnes he had encountered in the reception room a few days ago.
Platinum blonde hair that shone softly like sunlight on a small frame. Mysterious smoke-gray eyes that seemed to hold dew.
Even though she was clearly ill, Agnes was beautiful. To the extent that anyone who saw her once would helplessly fall for her.
Her clean skin was pale like glass, and every time her eyelashes trembled, it seemed as if the fragile light of life was shaking.
A gentle and weak impression.
It was unimaginable that a person with such an appearance had diverted weapons out of base greed.
“Hah.”
Lionel let out a sneer.
For a fleeting moment, the assumption that the rumors surrounding Agnes might be false kept surging up.
The sight of Agnes trembling and holding back tears sometimes even felt pitiful.
To the extent that the emotion of wanting to protect her brushed past.
“You have quite an amazing talent, Agnes Bardo.”
To shake a person’s heart this much with just one flawless face.
It was truly an enormous talent.
What broke Lionel’s reverie was the emperor’s joyful exclamation that came with the sound of the closed banquet hall doors opening.
“Oh! The last guest I invited has finally arrived. You’re old acquaintances with the duke, right?”
Unconsciously turning his head, Lionel’s mouth corners slowly straightened into a line.
There stood a being who should not be in this place.
The owner of the face that had been arbitrarily rummaging through Lionel’s mind until just moments ago.
Agnes Bardo.
The moment he saw Agnes dressed in a banquet gown, Lionel’s expression hardened stiffly.
His adjutant approached such Lionel.
“Colonel, there is something you need to confirm.”
“Is it urgent?”
“Not really, but traces of a carriage were found under the collapsed bridge.”
“……A carriage?”
The adjutant looked around and lowered his voice.
“At first, I thought it was for deception, but it’s strange. The shape was different from a military carriage.”
“Didn’t you say clearly that there were no civilians on the bridge?”
“As far as we have ascertained, that was the case.”
Lionel’s brows slowly furrowed.
The scream over the radio that he had forgotten came to mind again.
“Find out more in detail. Before the traces disappear.”
“Yes. And regarding Miss Agnes, there are additional materials secured from the instructions you gave earlier. Would you like to confirm them?”
“That later.”
Lionel, cutting off the adjutant’s words, strode forward.
When Agnes staggered as her crutch slipped on the shiny marble, his arm reflexively went out.
When he came to his senses, Lionel was supporting Agnes.
His eyebrows furrowed at the small and fragile body entering his arms.
Doubts rose again without tiring.
Is there really no possibility that Agnes Bardo is flawless.
It was a lingering attachment that stubbornly refused to be erased.
He couldn’t understand why such lingering feelings arose.
Emotions moving outside of calculation were not pleasant, so he had investigated several times.
Whether Agnes had indeed diverted weapons to the south.
And every time, what came out were numerous evidences proving the rumors to be true.
There were overflowing reasons not to trust Agnes.
Yet, why was his stomach twisting like this.
“Thank you for catching me, Duke…… Your Excellency.”
Agnes cautiously separated from his arms.
She no longer called him Rael by mistake even once.
Clearly, he had told her to do so.
When the light weight that had been on his arm disappeared, Lionel felt somehow empty.
But still with an expressionless face. He only gazed at Agnes, who was limping to greet the emperor.
The excited emperor welcomed the Bardo family.
“My guest is none other than the lady of the Bardo trading company, Agnes Bardo.”
A deep shadow fell on Lionel’s forehead.
Originally, the merchant class could not even set foot in such a place.
The reason the Bardo family appeared here became clear only then.
Although no one outwardly regarded those invited by the emperor as uninvited guests, it was hard to hide their inner feelings.
Unpleasant expressions were clearly spreading in the banquet hall.
“Because Bardo firmly supported the rear, the Black Iron Knights were able to avoid collapsing on the battlefield. So how could Bardo be missing on a day like today.”
The emperor deliberately elevated Bardo. In front of all the nobles listening.
“So I intend to further solidify the ties between Bardo and the Black Iron Knights. Duke Valheim.”
“……Yes, Your Majesty.”
“To commend your merits, I plan to proceed with a marriage proposal. Isn’t the duke’s military achievements too great to end with just restoring the title.”
Strength entered Lionel’s jaw.
The emperor ostentatiously extended his arm toward the audience. As if making a sacred announcement.
“I command the marriage of Lionel Edmund Valheim and Agnes Bardo.”
In that instant. Uproar arose in the banquet hall.
Valheim and Bardo. Although imperial orders had been issued to the two families in advance, this was the first time it was announced in such a public setting.
Lionel’s blue eyes shook to hold back anger.
“Your Majesty, I clearly stated that I would refuse the marriage matter.”
“Duke. Have you already forgotten?”
The emperor stretched his mouth corners.
Then he grabbed Lionel’s shoulder with a hand wearing white gloves.
“Didn’t I tell you not to harbor the thought of standing above the imperial family. For the hero who saved the nation to become a traitor, it’s just a moment?”
As if reminding him of the past when treason was charged against the previous Duke Valheim couple and the family was ruined. Strength was put into the emperor’s grip.
Grind.
The sound of Lionel’s molars grinding rang out fiercely.
The emperor knew well too. That the Bardo trading company had been playing tricks with supplies all this time.
He had deliberately overlooked it.
Hoping that Lionel and Cedric, the two brothers, would die on the battlefield and the Valheim lineage would completely end.
However, Lionel ultimately survived and returned.
And the emperor seemed satisfied only if he thoroughly trampled Lionel’s pride into the mud.
The daughter of a lowly merchant who flips his eyes over money.
The enemy who drove his younger brother to death.
By seating a defective who couldn’t even properly engage in social activities as the duchess.
A few nobles who knew the inside story let out pitiful sighs toward Lionel.
‘Pity. What a shitty feeling.’
Lionel roughly brushed his hair back.
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