The Grand Duke's Signet Ring
"You...?" Her crimson pupils dilated. Her beautiful hands trembled violently. Looking at Theodora's deathly pale face, I tried to tell her I was fine, but... "Cough!" Only a hacking cough escaped my throat, as if my lungs had been punctured.
Just then—Crash!
"Your Majesty! Are you alright?!" The sound of the guards arriving echoed through the room.
"Tsk!"
Scuffle! Shatter! Hearing the sound of fleeing footsteps followed by shattering glass, a wave of relief washed over me, and the strength drained from my legs.
"You... Blood... You're bleeding! A doctor! Summon a doctor immediately!" Through my hazy vision, I saw a panicked Theodora and the arriving guards.
"The... guards... cough!" The sensation of blood welling up in my throat made it difficult to speak, but I had to say it now.
"Are you really alright?"
"Cough... Guards... Princess Joy has been kidnapped. Hurry... cough... search the grounds and call Agrippa..." My consciousness was slipping. My mind grew foggy.
"Y-Yes, Your Grace!"
I collapsed onto the floor, forcing myself to endure the agonizing pain. "Haa... haa..."
"You... you're not going to die, right? You can't die!" As I rolled my eyes toward her from the floor, I saw Theodora grasping my hand with trembling, tear-stained hands.
"We... we still have so much left to do... You can't! I haven't even told you that I love you yet... sob..." I squeezed out a faint smile for the weeping Empress.
"I... I won't die... Don't worry..." My consciousness was fading fast. I could feel the strength draining from my limbs.
"Grand Duke!" Then, from somewhere, I heard Agrippa's voice.
"You're... here?"
"G-Grand Duke?!" Kneeling beside me, Agrippa spoke with a look of utter devastation. "Are you alright?"
"No..." I couldn't hold on much longer. With a trembling right hand, I struggled to pull the ring off my left hand.
"What are you doing?! Stay still!"
"Your Grace... please, just lie still! Your wounds will reopen." Ignoring their pleas, I forced the ring off. If I didn't do this... even if I died, I wouldn't be able to close my eyes in peace.
"I-I'll help you." Theodora gently slid the ring off my left finger and placed it in my palm.
It was the Grand Duke's Signet Ring, the seal of the head of the Ryan family. To draft any official document in my name, this seal was absolute. In other words... if by some tragic chance I were to die, this would grant Agrippa the power to rule the Grand Duchy as Regent until Mary could ascend as the Grand Duchess.
"Agrippa... take it..."
"G-Grand Duke?"
"Darling?"
My actions must have caught them completely off guard. Shock painted both of their faces.
"If I die... you know what to do, right? Bring the Imperial Army to Roman... cough..."
"You... you're not going to die! You won't! So stop talking like that!" Theodora cried out. Meanwhile, Agrippa nodded, tears welling in his eyes. Had he read my mind just by looking into my eyes?
"Yes. I will have the Grand Duchy's soldiers withdraw from Roman." I gave a single, weak nod. Then, darkness claimed me.
"Grand Duke!" Agrippa shouted as he watched the Grand Duke slip into unconsciousness. "A doctor! Where is the doctor?!" Judging by the sheer volume of blood Deviang was losing, he was already in critical condition.
"The... the doctor is here!" Once the royal physician arrived, flanked by guards, Agrippa grabbed him by the hand. "Save him... You must save the Grand Duke." Trembling under the weight of the command, the physician stammered, "I-I will do my absolute best."
Agrippa nodded grimly and immediately turned to the guards to bark out orders. "Wake the guards immediately! Station escorts for Her Majesty, the Grand Duke, and the Empress Dowager. The rest of you, search for Princess Joy! They couldn't have gone far yet."
"Yes, sir!" The soldiers saluted with a roaring cry. Agrippa bowed his head to the Empress. "Your Majesty... I shall go and hunt down these rebels." Theodora nodded, her expression hollow with grief and shock.
"General Agrippa... please... find Joy... You must find her." Agrippa swallowed back his rising emotions. Watching the physician delicately extract the dagger from Deviang's blood-soaked body, he forced himself to speak.
"I will bring Princess Joy back safely, without fail. So... please, look after the Grand Duke." Seeing the Empress give a weak nod, Agrippa turned and strode out of the bedchamber, heading straight for the palace gardens.
"Mobilize the Capital Guard and the Giant Legion immediately!" A guard stepped forward hesitantly. "B-but General Agrippa... to deploy the Giant Legion, we require the Grand Duke's authorization..."
Every second was precious, yet this soldier was wasting time with bureaucratic nonsense. Agrippa roared in frustration. "Are you out of your mind?! Do you not recognize what this is?" He held up his palm, revealing the ring. The guard blinked in confusion. "Isn't that... just a ring?"
"This is no mere ring. It is the Grand Duke's Signet Ring. As long as this is in my possession, I wield the absolute authority of the Grand Duke." Seeing the guard's eyes widen in realization, Agrippa commanded, "By order of the Regent, command them to assemble at the palace immediately!"
"Y-Yes, Regent!"
Agrippa then summoned the field commander. "General!" the commander saluted. "Have you captured the assassins?" The commander shook his head. "Not yet, sir. However, we just received a report from a sentry who spotted two figures scaling the palace wall. We suspect they may have already escaped outside."
Damn it... Were they seriously reporting that the guards had just stood by and watched the assassins scale the wall? Agrippa's blood boiled at their abysmal initial response. "You call that a report?! Are you telling me the guards tasked with protecting the Empress and the Grand Duke did nothing but watch as assassins climbed over the wall?!"
The commander winced. "Well... they were incredibly swift. In the blink of an eye, the two of them used grappling hooks to scale the wall and vanish." If they saw them scaling the wall, how on earth did the guards fail to stop them? Had they already smuggled Princess Joy out of the palace?
Having only recently arrived in Roman, Agrippa hadn't yet established a proper counter-assassin protocol. What do I do... "Is that your excuse for letting them kidnap the Imperial Princess right under your noses? I am utterly appalled that you would even utter such pathetic words." The commander hung his head in shame.
"Bring the sentry who made that report to me immediately! I need to hear exactly what happened from his own mouth." After issuing the command, Agrippa pondered whether he should order the Giant Legion and the Capital Guard to lock down Roman.
If the kidnappers had indeed escaped the palace grounds, Roman had to be locked down immediately. A massive search party would have to be organized to hunt them down. But finding fugitives hiding among the countless buildings of Roman would be like finding a needle in a haystack. A lockdown couldn't last forever, and searching the entire capital would require immense manpower and time. Moreover, keeping a metropolis of this scale shut down indefinitely was impossible; the city relied on a constant influx of food and supplies to survive.
But what if they hadn't actually left the palace? Locking down the city would mean wasting a golden opportunity to catch them inside. If only he knew exactly how many intruders had infiltrated... Just then, a guard walked up and saluted. "Are you the one who saw the assassins scaling the palace wall?"
"Yes, sir! That is correct!" Agrippa looked at the guard, who answered with a crisp salute. "Tell me exactly what you saw."
"Uh... well..." The guard hesitated, looking nervous. "I... I am deeply sorry, sir. They moved so fast that we couldn't apprehend them."
Seeing the guard miss the point, Agrippa sighed. "I didn't summon you here to punish you. Describe the situation in detail."
"I... I spotted two individuals dressed in black with their faces covered in the garden."
"When was this?"
The guard paused to think. "Uh... it was shortly after the palace lights were turned on and the emergency alert was broadcast."
The palace lights turning on... That meant it was roughly five minutes after Deviang was injured and the guards rushed into the Gold Area. "Go on. What happened next?"
"The two of them ran incredibly fast across the garden, threw grappling hooks, and scaled the wall in the blink of an eye. Before we could even move to intercept them, they had already cleared the wall. Their movements were unbelievably swift."
Agrippa frowned, sensing something off. "Were they carrying anyone? On their backs or in their arms?"
The guard shook his head. "No, sir. But... both of them had long, coffin-like cases strapped to their backs."
This was absurd. Even if they were elite operatives, how could the guards just stand there and watch two people carrying adult-sized cases scale a massive palace wall? Agrippa felt a headache coming on. "You call that a report?!"
"W-well..." As the guard stammered, Agrippa turned his wrath on the commander. "What kind of training and discipline are you enforcing for your soldiers to act so foolishly?!"
The guard spoke up in a trembling voice. "Actually... now that I think about it, those cases seemed empty."
Is this bastard playing with me? "Do you think that makes any sense?"
"N-no, sir! But... they were just too agile. If they were carrying a person, there's no way they could have moved like that. Logically, with such slender builds, it shouldn't have been possible."
Agrippa fell into deep thought. Unless they were knights capable of manipulating mana—and no knight of that caliber would act as a mere assassin—such physical feats while carrying a hostage were impossible. After a long moment of deliberation, Agrippa made his decision.
"I see... All forces, search the palace!"
This was a diversion. The Princess was still inside the palace.