The Countess's Ambition
I went to see Count Coulomb bearing gifts. Of late the Count had shut himself away, recovering the strength he'd spent in the territorial war.
The last campaign had drained the family's coffers; knights and soldiers had died. Worse than any of that, both of his sons — the boys he had cherished more than his own eyes — were gone. The Count was likely still holding memorial rites for the two who'd fallen on the battlefield.
The rumors circulating outside about Count Coulomb, however, were far from hopeful. From what I'd gathered, development of the Mythril Mine wasn't progressing. He seemed to be hitting a wall in his negotiations with the dwarves, the specialists in mine development.
"Come in, Master Walker."
"My lord Count. I trust you've been well?"
Count Coulomb's face had wasted to half its former self. The flesh had fallen from his cheeks; it would not have been strange if he collapsed at any moment. He looked worse than he had at the funeral — like a terminal patient in hospice, waiting for the end. Count Coulomb himself was likely passing the hours not as a man living through each day, but as a man dying through them.
I showed him the gifts I'd brought.
"Rare sugar imported from the southern continent, and some jewelry. And a modest condolence offering as well. The loss of both your sons must weigh terribly on your heart, but you must rise again now."
The condolence money I'd brought was a full hundred gold. Pocket change from a count's household's perspective, but more than enough to express sincerity. And for House Coulomb, whose finances were currently in poor shape, it would be rain in a drought.
Count Coulomb forced a smile onto his gaunt face and nodded.
"You seem to be the only one who still thinks of me. Thank you. Without your efforts in the last territorial war, we never would have won. I feel as though I do nothing but incur debts to you, Master Walker."
"The Count's happiness is the happiness of commoners like ourselves, is it not?"
"Yes. I must pull myself together, so that my people can find their strength as well. I cannot live bound to the past forever."
He said as much, but Count Coulomb's expression remained dark. He and I talked of this and that — the territory's political situation, business. Word of my great success in the sugar trade had already echoed all the way to the lord's castle.
"So this is that Snow Sugar, is it? It's as white as snow, just as they said. Like looking at salt. No sour smell to it, and it looks exceedingly rare."
"In the south, it's a precious sweetener that only high nobles and royalty can eat. A spoonful in strong tea or coffee improves the flavor tremendously."
"How did you come by this? It can't have been easy to obtain."
"I've made many connections through the slave trade. I obtained it with difficulty from a southern middleman. That's why the quantity isn't large."
Count Coulomb tasted the sugar, as other nobles had, and was startled. A noble of his standing wouldn't have trouble obtaining sugar, but the refined sugar I'd brought would be something he'd never seen. I'd already witnessed this reaction from many nobles.
"Incidentally, what do you intend to do about the succession going forward?"
I steered the conversation naturally. One of the reasons I'd come in person today was to gauge Count Coulomb's intentions.
He had lost both heirs in a single stroke. In that situation, what was he thinking? I was intensely curious.
"The Countess is a remarkable alchemist, of course. In Coulon, voices praising her beauty still haven't ceased. Powerful warriors, mages, and alchemists — even time itself passes them by."
In this world, physical achievement suppresses aging. A common setting in any number of stories.
Count Coulomb's wife, Rienner Coulon, was in her mid-fifties, yet possessed the beauty of a woman in her mid-twenties. Her reproductive capacity would be the same as a woman in her twenties.
"It may be presumptuous of me to say, but many of the territory's people hope the Countess will produce an heir as soon as possible. Only then will Coulon's political situation stabilize."
At my words, the shadow over Count Coulomb's face grew even darker. Seeing that, I knew the information Count Valte had given me was no lie. The Countess of Coulomb was infertile.
"Indeed I must. I intend to produce an heir quickly. For the sake of this territory."
He said this and drank the coffee before him. The coffee he'd drunk was one of the gifts I'd brought — instant coffee, the kind that's commonplace back in the real world.
"Exceedingly sweet and clean. Similar to the Snow Sugar, in a way. Is this also an import from the south?"
"It is. I'm not selling it yet, but I intend to open a market for it soon."
"I wish you good results. Well then, I should be getting up. I have work that's piled up."
Count Coulomb said this and rose from his seat. A roundabout dismissal.
In truth, I'd come to the lord's castle today both to meet Count Coulomb and to meet the Countess. I'd thought that by coming in person I might see her, but she hadn't shown her face.
Just as I was about to leave with some disappointment, the drawing room door opened, and a woman in a black dress entered with two maids.
"Ah, my dear. Master Walker has come to call."
"You've gone to such trouble. I never even managed to thank you for the great help you gave us in the last territorial war. As the lady of House Coulomb, I wish to express my gratitude."
She looked at me and smiled faintly. It wasn't a natural smile, but neither did it feel particularly artificial. A woman skilled at acting. That was my first impression of Rienner Coulon.
"I'd like to speak with Master Walker, if that's all right?"
Rienner Coulon asked her husband's permission in a courteous tone. Count Coulomb nodded, tossed out a remark, and left the drawing room.
"Don't keep Master Walker too long. He's a busy man."
Count Coulomb left the room, and the two maids attending Rienner closed the drawing room door and went out as well. Only she and I remained. I studied her face again.
The public assessment that she appeared a beautiful woman in her late twenties was not wrong. Rienner Coulon looked like the demure daughter of a noble house, fresh from her bridal training and about to take her wedding vows.
Her white, fine skin looked as though water had never touched it, without a single blemish, and the line of her face, curving gently from forehead to chin, presented the image of a soft and kindly lady of the house.
What pleased me most was her ample bosom. Her breasts were full of maternal warmth. That those two sons of House Coulomb had grown into such just and excellent men — those breasts had surely played their part.
The black dress she wore, like mourning clothes, suited her extremely well. It was a modest dress that revealed nothing of her body, yet thanks to her full chest it looked lewd. Any clothes she wore would look lewd.
Having scanned Rienner in an instant, I opened my mouth.
"I didn't see you at the funeral last time. How great your grief must be, having sent both your sons away."
"I heard from Count Valte. You'll be joining our plan as well, I take it?"
Rienner Coulon stripped away every ornamental phrase and went straight to the point. The style I like. So I went to the point as well.
"That's right. Though I'm surprised. As I understood it, the Countess had shut herself away in the lord's castle. How did you make contact with Count Valte?"
I didn't think they'd have exchanged something this important by letter. If they were caught, everything would be over. They must have spoken face to face.
"There's a Communication Crystal Ball in my room. It's linked to Count Valte's."
"Ah! The Countess is a remarkable alchemist, of course."
A Communication Crystal Ball is, simply put, a telephone capable of video calls. Extremely expensive, time-consuming to install, and requiring a high-level mage to use, so even most nobles don't have one. Alchemy and magic share the same roots, so it wouldn't be particularly difficult for the Countess of Coulomb to use one.
And a man of Count Valte's standing wouldn't be strange to possess such an item. No — he would have several of them.
"Did you come here today in order to meet me?"
Rienner placed a hand gently upon her chest as she spoke. The gesture was so courteous it looked like an English gentleman offering a greeting. I nodded.
"That's right. It's a matter of great importance, so I couldn't not meet you."
"Don't worry about the assassination. I'll see it through myself, without fail."
There wasn't a trace of hesitation in Rienner's eyes as she said this. I realized she'd already hardened her heart. Suddenly, a question occurred to me.
"Though I must say, I'm quite surprised. The Count Coulomb I know… he wouldn't abandon the Countess merely because she couldn't produce an heir. Why did you make this choice?"
It was a somewhat rude question, but I asked it anyway. The Countess didn't particularly seem to mind. Whether that was because she had an unusually cool temperament, or because she felt not a shred of affection for Count Coulomb, I couldn't tell. Perhaps both.
Her voice was as cold as frost. I could feel, in that voice, what becomes of a woman who nurses a grudge. But I knew instinctively that this wasn't her true feeling.
There was a slight hesitation mixed into the Countess's answer. Not the kind of emotion that should color the words of someone who'd resolved upon the ultimate revenge of poisoning.
I continued, wanting to sound out her heart more carefully.
"Revenge? Against Count Coulomb?"
"Yes. I tried to stop him before he marched out. I told him to at least leave one son behind. But he said this, with that stupid look on his face: 'If the heirs who will lead Coulon in the future turn their backs on the territory's crisis, no one will follow us.'"
The Countess of Coulomb said this and let out a hollow laugh. The laugh that escaped her sounded less like amusement than a sneer.
"A foolish man. He was always like that. He may have been just as a human being, merciful as a lord, and a father one could be proud of. But he… even if he held me warmly in his arms, he could never let me spread my wings and soar to great heights. He's too soft to stand above other men."
Rienner seemed to feel complex emotions toward Count Coulomb.
From what Count Valte had told me, she'd been the second daughter of a wretched baronial house. She looked as though she'd never gotten her hands wet, but in truth she would have worked harder than anyone. To seize the seat beside Count Coulomb, she would have defeated countless rivals.
"If my sons had lived, perhaps that soft life wouldn't have been so bad. I would have grown old ordinarily and died ordinarily. It would have been boring… but perhaps that wouldn't have been such a bad life either."
She said this. But I thought that even if her two sons had lived, she wouldn't have been able to do that.
The woman before my eyes was a thoroughly power-oriented human being. The kind of woman who would choose, without hesitation, to assassinate the husband she'd lived with for decades. Perhaps her sons' deaths were merely her excuse.
"So you want revenge on the husband who drove your two sons onto the battlefield?"
"Yes. That's right."
Was it sincere? Count Valte had said they'd plotted the assassination at the two sons' funeral. Would a woman thinking of killing her husband during the important hours she should have been holding memorial rites for her sons truly have been sharpening her blade for her sons' revenge?
The Countess of Coulomb was, without question, a dangerous woman. And yet that only made me more interested in her.
"That's roughly how it went."
Back at the mansion, I told Elper what had happened today. Elper was a fine cocksleeve who also happened to be well-versed in high society. That's why I told her my miscellaneous affairs. Elper was skilled at extracting the important points from the worthless information I provided.
She took her mouth off my cock. Even while performing fellatio, Elper would have been listening diligently to my story.
"Power-hungry villainesses are common in noble and royal society."
That's right. It was the same in the real world. In the face of power, even your own mother and father don't exist. Flip through a history book even briefly, and such women appear in every country.
"The Countess of Coulomb's reputation wasn't bad. No, it was quite good, actually. I'm surprised she has such a strong lust for power."
"That just means she's that good at managing her public image. The more I think about it, the more terrifying a woman she is."
You could also call her politically capable.
Image management isn't as easy as it sounds. I've been feeling that myself lately. Elper used both hands to stroke my cock.
"How do you intend to use that woman, Master? A woman like that would have quite considerable abilities, I imagine."
"There's not a shred of doubt that the Countess of Coulomb's abilities are outstanding. Once I take Coulon Territory, I intend to leave the territory's administration to her."
"Territory administration… I thought you'd have Grea do that sort of thing."
Grea specializes in commerce. Running a business and administering a territory are entirely different matters. Of course, Grea would do a first-rate job of territory administration as well, but I don't want her mental energy divided. I intend to be considerate enough that Grea can run the Walker Merchant Guild without any inconvenience.
"There will be quite an upheaval in Coulon Territory."
"Yes. A planned upheaval. It's a shame for Count Coulomb, but this is the predetermined flow. He'll be able to rest in peace in the next world. The territory he's managed so well — we'll make it prosperous."
The urge to come surged up. I pulled Elper's head toward me.
Her lips touched my pubic bone. Throat-fucking — my cock punching straight through her gullet. Elper liked this kind of rough sex.
"Ghk! Ghk! Ghk! Ghk!"
"I'm coming. Take every last drop down your throat."
As I came in her throat, my head cooled. But my cock still pulsed hotly.