Chapter 115
Chapter 115
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Eastern-Style Family Meeting (1)
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“Wait here for a moment. I’ll give you time to speak.”
“Understood.”
The old noble sat me down in a seat at the back of the table.
Then he returned to Lydia’s side and sat with a solemn expression.
Lydia took a deep breath.
She then opened the proceedings once more with her lordly, icy demeanor.
Her fellow countrymen from her homeland, lined up in a row.
Her enemies.
“I’ll say it again: nothing changes regardless of Hakim’s fate.”
Everyone focused at the princess’s cold words.
“As the highest royal and direct bloodline of the mother empress, I will rightfully inherit full authority over Samad.”
Duchess Tilda listened to Lydia.
The woman with long braided black hair crossed her arms alone.
“Lydia, isn’t your greed a bit excessive? The imperial territory you already hold nearly matches half of Samad’s population.”
Samad Kingdom nobles nodded at her words.
After Lydia and Vanessa had moved their base to the empire, there were hardly any allies left from the homeland.
“You’re already managing more land than you deserve, and you’re not even a king yet.”
Hakim’s wife countered leisurely.
“And no matter how captured my husband is, he’ll be out within five years. He can inherit the kingdom then.”
Lydia scoffed at Tilda’s words.
Her red eyes flashed as she lifted her chin proudly.
“Ha, are you saying you’ll make a criminal your king right now?”
Tilda’s eyebrows twitched at the sharp tongue of the 19-year-old.
“Watch your words. Unlike Hakim, you’ve never even lived in Samad. At least he spent a few years there.”
Tilda raised a finger.
She pointed firmly at her sister-in-law.
“You think someone who’s only inspected the place can rule Samad well?”
The duchess stood from her seat.
“Besides, it’s common for blood kin to vie for the throne. There’s an underground city, sure, but they didn’t actually revolt.”
She spread her arms wide, demanding agreement from her retainers.
“The worst they did was unwittingly steal something from the same imperial bloodline—Leah’s item—and fail to manage local bandits.”
The duchess recited Hakim’s charges as if they were trivial.
“What good does holding Hakim for that do?”
“...”
Lydia shot Tilda a murderous glare.
As if she wanted to order her knights to execute Tilda and her retainers right then.
“Your eyes are just like your mother’s. All soft features on a wench.”
Honestly, the princess’s current forces could rival all of Samad.
But without justification, it would lose her the homeland’s public support.
“Lydia. It’s not time yet.”
The old noble beside her knew this.
He quietly advised his granddaughter.
Afterward, he glanced at me.
He signaled with his eyes.
“Show them the ‘item’ you brought.”
“Understood.”
I rose from my seat in response.
I picked up the prepared wooden box and approached Lydia confidently.
“Veil, what are you thinking?”
Lydia glanced at me with a weary expression.
I flashed her a reassuring smile.
“I’ve come to deliver a gift.”
“Didn’t you already give me one?”
Lydia pointed to the small red butterfly pinned to her necktie.
“Ah, sorry, but this gift isn’t for you, Your Highness. It’s for Lady Tilda.”
The Third Princess looked stunned at my words.
A gift to a woman of the enemy state, not her.
She seemed deeply troubled.
I ignored her and stared straight at Tilda and her retainers.
Next to the duchess sat Samad’s Guard Captain.
“Hello, great royals of Samad.”
And on his arm...
Was the same emblem as the gift in my wooden box.
“I am Veil Mikhail, Defense Knight.”
I approached the conference table.
Then bowed courteously.
“Defense Knight...? Why is a lowly one like you here?”
Tilda frowned and asked.
Her retainers followed her lead, looking down on me.
“Yes, I’m a low-rank knight.”
I smiled brightly at her.
“The lowest of the low, patrolling the capital to check for issues.”
Tilda clamped her mouth shut at the mention of scouting this place today.
She seemed suddenly uneasy.
“A lowly one dares join the conference, so there must be good reason?”
Samad’s Guard Captain, who accompanied Tilda, asked.
“Yes, well, I caught the perpetrator of last night’s imperial palace terror attack.”
All the royals paled at those words.
“No way. We heard only the crown prince and Princess Irina were captured.”
“Are you lying to our faces right now?”
The eastern royals looked displeased.
They suspected me, absent from the award ceremony.
“Everything I say is true. I was injured at the time, so I didn’t attend the ceremony, but I’ve already been commended separately by His Majesty the Emperor.”
I placed the wooden box firmly on the table.
Thud!!
“So I personally handed over the body.”
The royals all stared at the box I brought.
“But while recovering the body, a vile group tried to steal it.”
I opened the lid.
And...
“Of course, I don’t know who they belong to...”
I pulled out the charred assassin’s arm.
“They tried to hide this?”
I tossed the severed arm indifferently onto the table.
The royal women screamed and recoiled.
“Look at the emblem on this arm.”
But Lydia was different.
She stood, grabbed the arm boldly with her bare hand.
“L-Lydia...”
Her grandfather watched her worriedly.
But the Third Princess ignored him and spotted the emblem on the arm.
“This is... Samad Kingdom Guard insignia?”
“Yes, so the incident’s perpetrator is presumed Kingdom personnel. That’s why I entered the conference room.”
I stared piercingly at the Guard Captain.
Then focused on his arm, peeking out with the same emblem.
“Now that I look, the captain beside Lady Tilda has the same emblem on his arm.”
Lydia smirked at my words.
She understood the meaning of the gift I brought for Tilda.
“You’ll need to ‘explain’ this.”
I crossed my arms alone, looking down at the middle-aged man.
The others did the same.
All eyes centered on the Guard Captain.
“Ah, this... The perp seems to be one of my ex-Guards who was excommunicated...”
The Guard Captain fiddled with his beard.
He forced a smile in response.
“I can’t help what an excommunicated knight does.”
Trying to cut off the tail and flee.
It was so absurd I scoffed.
“Oh, really? But it seems there are quite a few excommunicated knights?”
To tighten the noose, I shouted firmly.
“Everyone, come in!”
At my shout, footsteps approached from the conference room door.
Soon, the door opened.
“Pardon the interruption during the conference!!”
Two great eastern knights.
Batsu and Tau entered.
With a one-armed knight whose arm had been severed.
“...!!”
The Guard Captain’s eyes shook at his mangled subordinate.
I noticed immediately.
“Guard Captain, you’re not going to claim this one’s excommunicated too, are you?”
My aggressive tone chilled the room.
The captain glared at me venomously.
“He was disguised as an imperial knight. Caught trying to steal the body, then swung his sword at me.”
Tilda’s retainers began murmuring among themselves.
As if cracks formed in their once-solid alliance.
Tortured by this, Tilda whispered sharply at the Guard Captain.
‘What the hell do we do now? You said it’d be fine!’
The Guard Captain breathed heavily.
His eyes screamed to draw swords and fight.
‘...’
I smiled at him, lifting the corner of my mouth.
I clasped my hands, calming the situation.
“Well, it’s fine.”
One line turning the inflamed atmosphere around after escalating it.
Everyone stared at me in bewilderment.
“As you all say, it might not be the Guard Captain’s orders. There’s no clear proof, right?”
The captain looked perplexed.
Unable to grasp why I suddenly gave him breathing room.
But the battle-hardened old noble, Lydia’s grandfather, was different.
He eyed me oddly after I doused the heated mood.
“If not the Guard Captain’s doing, then why did they plot this?”
I raised a finger.
I pinned the true culprit not on Tilda or the captain, but on Hakim.
“The most likely mastermind is separate. Hakim himself.”
I took the arm from Lydia.
“When we captured this ringleader alive, he left last words: ‘Hakim is the East’s master,’ which I heard.”
I shook it demonstratively.
“So, isn’t Hakim the true culprit behind all this, not you all?”
I turned my head.
I asked trusty Deputy Batsu.
“Batsu, what’s the usual punishment for trying to bomb the imperial palace?”
“Execution.”
I smirked at the eastern knight’s firm reply.
“Fortunately, no clan extermination?”
Casually uttering grim words leisurely.
Tilda was speechless.
“Then you all live, and the succession issue—the crux of this conference—is resolved. Good for everyone, right?”
The Guard Captain looked distraught.
Sacrifice Hakim to save his neck and shift all blame?
Or accept charges out of pointless loyalty and face execution?
“Why agonize? He’s the emperor’s son—think His Majesty would really execute him?”
I whispered sweet temptations.
“At worst, life imprisonment. No need to worry.”
Lydia’s retainers eyed me displeased for squandering hard-won momentum.
But Lydia, reading the flow, quietly soothed them.
“Everyone, wait quietly. He has his reasons.”
With Hakim gone, no one could block Lydia’s ascension.
Once their symbolic prince vanished, their momentum would crumble naturally.
Better to offer a chance at life than provoke rebellion now.
‘As expected of our princess. Truly brilliant.’
“Now, Samad has only one successor left.”
I looked at Tilda’s side with satisfaction.
The duchess bowed her head.
Her clenched fists trembled madly.
“You should withdraw for now...”
At the Guard Captain’s whisper, Hakim’s wife breathed deeply.
She glared murderously at me through her disheveled hair.
Anger at failing to retrieve her husband?
‘Absolutely not.’
If she truly loved him, she couldn’t accept this.
She’d repent, admit guilt.
To save Hakim.
But.
Tilda only used Hakim for power, nothing more.
So she had no choice but to abandon him.
‘In the end, she couldn’t last five years and got used in the crown prince’s farce.’
The duchess’s black eyes churned as they fixed on me.
A look wondering where this fox-like bastard came from.
A sudden, bizarre intruder.
She trembled as if beholding the royal family’s guardian deity.
“You... I’ll remember this...!”
Tilda cried out in a cracking voice.
She rose and left the conference room indifferently.
No point staying—only her misdeeds would surface.
The Guard Captain followed.
He glanced at me, then passed indifferently.
I bowed courteously to the departing man.
And smirked inwardly.
‘Whatever. You won’t tangle with the East anymore after today.’
Now Lydia alone ruled Samad.
￣￣￣
Royals and nobles filed out after Tilda and the Guard Captain.
Only Lydia’s supporting kin remained in the conference room.
“Thanks for the help.”
Their representative grand duke approached me.
“Thanks to you, my granddaughter’s position is even more secure.”
As if I’d accomplished something grand, the old man looked emotional.
“I just returned found items to their rightful owners.”
I bowed to the former East ruler.
“No, it might be found items to you, but it was a key card to oust Tilda.”
Lydia approached me softly too.
Unlike her usual coquettish demeanor, she smiled sincerely.
“Yes, Veil. Thank you truly.”
The youngest daughter coughed awkwardly, as if uneasy with me among her family.
“I’ll reward you separately later...”
As she tried to wrap up...
“What nonsense.”
The grand duke chuckled and wedged between Lydia and me.
“Since we’re all here, how about dining together?”
Lydia startled at her grandfather’s words.
“W-what, Grandfather?!”
“Heh heh, we easterners never forget a favor from one who helps.”
Inviting an outsider to dine in Samad was exceedingly rare.
“You all agree?”
The grand duke looked to his kin.
They all nodded.
But their eyes held subtle wariness.
“No decent man has ever shown interest in Lydia... This one’s promising, though.”
Lydia’s uncle, Samad’s military commander, eyed me murderously.
Dark-skinned and muscular, his body bore scary scars.
Like a fierce great leopard.
“Indeed, curious how clever he is.”
Lydia’s aunt, Samad’s merchant fleet leader, smiled brightly.
But her smile carried eerie killing intent.
Like a venomous lead she-leopard.
“Hmm. Too scrawny to protect Sis? And he caught her eye?”
Lydia’s young cousin, a Samad officer, eyed me coldly.
Like a youth leopard awakening to savagery.
“Uh...”
I instinctively felt fear at their gazes.
“Can I just go home?”
I unwittingly stepped back.
The grand duke subtly blocked my rear escape.
“Of course not. You won’t even give this old man a chance to express thanks?”
He asked slyly.
His kin glared coldly from behind.
Daring to ignore the grand duke’s goodwill?
‘This is dangerous... I just meant to hand over the found item—why’d it escalate like this?!’
Lydia stared blankly at me being dragged off by the grand duke.
I looked like a desert fox hauled into a leopard den.
“L-Lydia... Do I really have to go...?!”
The princess fiddled with one of her pigtails, avoiding my eyes.
“Well... I can’t defy Grandfather’s orders.”
As if she’d hoped for this deep down.
“No way to help you~.”