CH 127
The dawn of that night.
Kalt secretly returned to the duke’s residence one step late, taking advantage of the darkness.
“Colonel. As you instructed, I delivered the content clearing Lady Agnes’s innocence to the newspaper company. And I also processed the other thing you asked for together with it.”
Kalt stood before Lionel, who was sitting at the office desk with his chin leaning obliquely and his eyes closed.
What Lionel had commanded was not merely about Agnes alone.
The content regarding the connection between the war and the Emperor. That, too, was spreading together at the very bottom of the Empire.
Opening his eyes slowly, Lionel straightened his head.
“You have worked hard. When a suitable time comes, you all step back from all these matters.”
Rattle.
From inside the drawer, Lionel pulled out the document delegating the position of Commander of the Black Iron Knights—which he had prepared in advance—and handed it to Kalt.
“And in the future, let the Black Iron Knights be led by you.”
“Colonel!”
“That ‘Colonel’ sound, I sure hear it a lot today especially. It is going to wear out completely.”
Lionel knitted one corner of his eyes.
The things that would unfold from now on were items he had to bear entirely alone.
There was no need for the people of the Black Iron Knights and the duke’s residence to get covered in the filth that he himself would get covered in together.
Putting down the document, Lionel filled an empty glass with liquor casually.
‘As soon as the day breaks, I should command Simon to look into whether there is a collaterally related person suitable to pass the ducal title to.’
Ah, Cedric might dislike this a bit.
Still, it could not be helped.
‘Since it is a position that will become vacant soon anyway, it is better to find a good owner for it.’
Lionel swallowed the liquor, whispering inward toward his younger brother as if making an excuse.
***
After the night completely cleared away and Raul safely escaped the Empire, another upheaval arose in the capital city.
This time as well, Agnes’s name was at the center of it.
However, it was in a direction different from before.
“Did you hear that? They say Lady Agnes really had no connection whatsoever with weapon smuggling. It is said that even the Imperial Ballet Troupe proposed the entrance first!”
“Then from the beginning, the rumor that she sold weapons to enter the ballet troupe was a lie.”
Whispering spread rapidly inside the duke’s residence as well.
The maidservants who were sweeping the courtyard were gathering in groups of three and five before anyone knew it, whispering.
“Is it only that? They even say Lady Agnes sent weapons to the North, braving even the opposition of the Bardo Trading Company master.”
“Just how on earth did such ominous rumors get attached to such a person……. But what good does it do to be revealed like this now, when Lady Agnes is no longer here.”
At Agnes’s ironical life, the servants’ shoulders drooped low in no time.
Then, one among them looked around her surroundings and lowered her voice even more secretly.
“By the way, do you guys know that too? Why. About the war with Sercadia. In fact, words are circulating these days that the Emperor His Majesty brought that about deliberately—,”
“Shh! Are you crazy? If you say such words carelessly, a big trouble will happen!”
The other servants hurriedly blocked their colleague’s mouth.
Gazes scattered in all directions for fear that someone might hear.
Passing by that side just in time, the old doctor glanced at that sight.
“……The start of the day is noisy.”
He muttered softly and quickened his footsteps.
“At any rate, I wonder if the Duke will be somewhat fine today……”
Moving his legs—which contained the fatigue of time—diligently to reach the front of the bedroom, the old doctor took a breath for a moment and then knocked on the door carefully.
After a moment, a low, sunken voice flowed out from the inside.
“Come in.”
When he opened the door and entered, Lionel was standing with an appearance having already finished preparations to go out.
His shirt was neatly fastened, and it was an attire fitted faultlessly down to the jacket and gloves.
However, even within that perfection, there was something he could not conceal. The old doctor’s gaze immediately headed onto the table.
At least the emptied liquor glass and the medicine bottle placed beside it were still following Lionel.
Noticing the old doctor’s gaze, Lionel spread his hand nonchalantly.
It was a sign asking for headache medicine.
The old doctor’s gloomily sunken gaze moved to the tips of Lionel’s hands. The long, straightly stretched fingers were trembling.
It was a side effect caused by drug overdose.
“Duke, did you take medicine together with liquor again? If this continues, a truly big trouble might happen.”
“Kalt did so, and you say the same thing too. If it is a big trouble, well. Will I even die?”
At the words thrown without intent, the old doctor’s face stiffened.
Lionel, who was about to pour liquor again and stopped, looked at such an old doctor.
“If I keep drinking like this and die, when do you think that would be around?”
“…….”
“It would not be right away tomorrow, would it?”
As if it were not words spoken because he wanted an answer in the first place, Lionel waved his hand nonchalantly.
“Since it only needs to be not that, just put away that face saying you are dying of pity.”
Lionel snatched the medicine bottle from the old doctor almost as if taking it away, and tossed the medicine into his mouth.
Even after doing so, as if the headache would not recede, he pressed his brow continuously.
As if the doctor’s nagging was not entirely nonsense, his body condition was definitely not like before.
Since these days especially, there were many days when he mistook the dates as well.
Lionel cleared the newly filled liquor glass completely, and turned his body while slipping his arms into the jacket.
Right before leaving the bedroom just as he was, Lionel’s gaze naturally headed toward the bed.
The neatly arranged blanket.
Right in the middle of it, the empty spot.
Before Agnes’s empty spot, he stopped his feet.
Holding his throbbing head, Lionel kept chewing over the unalterable past.
Though wrong rumors could be corrected right, he was feeling as if carving into his bones every moment that past choices could not be turned back.
Sweeping down the bedsheet, Lionel whispered very low.
“……I will be back, Agnes.”
Together with a greeting that the other party would not hear, Lionel stepped out the door.
To find the whereabouts of the secret letter Raul gave a tip on. To head to the harbor where the ship heading to Marsen sets sail.
This was neither due to a petty revenge toward the Emperor, nor a struggle to receive forgiveness.
It was merely because he became worried whether, even if by chance, the Emperor might commit the act of bringing up Agnes’s name again after he himself disappeared.
So it was merely to make a perfect finish so that he could not commit such an act.
***
Meanwhile, the changes surrounding Agnes did not remain only inside the duke’s residence.
During a single night, words spread beyond the capital city into the entire Empire.
At first it was a careful whisper, next it was an unconfirmed rumor, and soon it settled into a story that no one could easily deny.
Particularly, parents who had sent their children to the Northern Front reacted first.
“If it were not for that person, our son might not have returned from that war chaos either. To think she sent supplies, what a grateful person she is.”
Gratitude arrived late.
And that gratitude naturally connected to regret and sympathy.
Why did the Duchess of Valheim have to become a criminal?
Why did she alone have to die with all responsibilities turned over onto her, even with her name dirtied?
That question soon spread into another doubt.
One was that if the past rumors were wrong, then the article currently spreading regarding Agnes might also be a lie, and.
The other was why materials were deficient in the North at the time of the war.
“Just what on earth was the Imperial Court doing at that time?”
Doubt did not stop there, but headed toward the war itself.
As to whether that long war that took away the lives of numerous people was truly waged because it was necessary.
Most of the Empire’s people were not nobles. Thus they had never wanted war, nor had they gained profit due to it.
Those who fattened their bellies through war were only the Imperial Court and the high-ranking nobles of the Emperor’s Faction.
Naturally, the gaze heading toward the Imperial Court began to change as well.
Under this situation, the act of dragging Agnes—who had come to be placed in the position of their sole ‘benefactor’—again to make her a criminal was no longer an easy option.
Accordingly, a clear setback occurred in the plan of the Emperor and Jerome, who originally tried to frame even Lionel together as an accomplice of Rebelt using Agnes as a medium.
The moment the Imperial Court brought Agnes up in their mouths again, there was a high possibility that that arrow would rather head toward the Emperor himself.
“The situation is turning out not so good at all.”
Sitting on the Imperial Throne, the Emperor was tilting his head back annoyedly.
“It cannot be helped. Since the sparks might jump even to the Imperial Court if poked around needlessly, it would be better to watch the flow quietly for now.”
At those words, Jerome, who was standing in the audience chamber, bowed his head neatly.
“I shall follow His Majesty’s will.”
“I thought you would run wild saying you would drag down the Duke of Valheim right away, but how come you are obedient for once?”
The Emperor’s golden eyes looked down as if piercing through Jerome.
However, without a single inch of disarray, Jerome smiled smoothly.
“Am I not His Majesty’s loyal servant? How could I go against His Majesty’s will.”
“…….”
A silence flowed for a moment.
However, the conversation did not continue additionally, and the Emperor twitched his eyebrow once and soon issued an order to leave.
“If you say so, then. Very well, get out.”
“Yes. Then I shall return for now.”
The moment he bowed his waist once and withdrew out from the audience chamber, a sneer hung on the corner of Jerome’s mouth.
“Loyal servant or whatever. Look at him laughing with delight after hearing that kind of trash talk.”
Jerome had not the slightest intention to follow the Emperor’s words.
The Emperor’s reputation was plummeting toward the bottom, and Lionel was shaving himself away due to Agnes’s matter.
Right now was the golden moment to overturn everything.
Toward the direction of the audience chamber whose door was closed, Jerome made a gesture of spitting.
“Am I crazy? To just blow away such a good opportunity.”
