Proof of Innocence (6)
“Well now, are you turning down my offer without a second thought?”
The Duke of Orphega himself had made the offer to me. He was asking whether I might be interested in becoming his disciple.
The Emperor’s strongest swordsman, and at the same time one of the handful of greatest powers on the continent—an offer from someone like that.
For ordinary people, it would be the kind of chance they’d never let slip away, even if it meant licking the sole of the duke’s boot.
Because to become the duke’s disciple meant inheriting, in time, everything Orphega had built up until now.
But I had no intention of becoming Duke Orphega’s disciple.
To be more precise, I had hesitated for a moment, but in the end I’d decided it was better not to take that path.
“Well, I’ll be damned. I can feel my pride taking a hit. I certainly didn’t expect you to refuse me outright.”
No matter how I dressed it up, I had flatly rejected the duke’s offer to his face.
I figured Orphega might be offended enough to lose his temper at me, but unexpectedly, the duke didn’t look particularly put out.
No—if anything, he seemed to be looking at me with genuine interest.
“I can let you refuse my offer. But… could you tell me why? I’ve seen plenty of fools bury their heads in the dirt just for a chance to become my disciple, but you’re the first to ever refuse, and that intrigues me.”
At Duke Orphega’s words, I paused to think about how I ought to answer.
I had plenty of reasons for refusing him. The question was which one would actually make him accept my answer without argument.
“If I became Your Grace’s disciple, then I’d be in the same peer group as Eli, wouldn’t I? That’s correct, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes. The Orphega family’s swordsmanship isn’t exactly meant to be passed down to just one person.”
“And that’s why I don’t like it. Since Eli became Your Grace’s disciple before I did, that would mean I’d have to treat Eli as my senior brother.”
For a moment, Duke Orphega stared at me as if he’d been stunned stupid, then burst into loud laughter.
“Hahaha! You’re a funny one, all right. So what you’re saying is that you rejected my offer because you didn’t like the idea of ranking below your little sister?”
“I’d like to keep at least the authority of being the older brother in the family, if nothing else.”
Of course, that ridiculous reason wasn’t the real reason I’d turned him down—not even close.
In the end, I’d judged that becoming Orphega’s disciple wouldn’t do much to help me take revenge on Eli.
At first, I had considered a plan like that.
Become Duke Orphega’s disciple myself, and then strip Eli of everything she had enjoyed as his disciple.
But that plan wasn’t my style, and more importantly, I didn’t like it.
I didn’t like the idea of becoming Eli’s senior through the duke’s tutelage, the way I’d told him, and I liked even less the notion of leaning on someone else’s power in order to bring about my revenge.
Even if I used Orphega’s authority to take everything from Eli, I couldn’t honestly call that revenge accomplished by my own hands.
It wasn’t that I was some idiot spouting nonsense about how revenge should be fair and proper.
It was just that I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to feel truly relieved once it was all over if I went about it that way.
And I also hated the idea of giving Eli a convenient excuse—some line about how I’d been able to surpass her because I studied the duke’s swordsmanship.
“And… this is just my personal opinion, but after something like this happened, I don’t think I’d be able to trust Your Grace all that much.”
“Oh? And what exactly do you mean by that?”
At his curious question, I glanced sideways at Cartesia, who was standing silently beside me.
With the shameless hope that she’d step in for me if things went south, I looked back at the duke and spoke.
“This is only my guess, of course, but… I think everything that happened today was because Your Grace had already laid the board.”
At my words, the smile on the duke’s face deepened. And I realized that smile was his way of telling me to keep going.
“Just a moment ago, Your Grace appeared before me at exactly the right time and spoke in my defense. But the more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Not that you appeared at that time—that part was odd enough already—but that Your Grace was here in Lutra at all.”
Earlier, while we were eating, Cartesia had said something similar. It was strange for someone like the academy director to step in personally and solve the matter when a cadet had been kidnapped.
And if I turned that idea around, it meant that Duke Orphega, who held a status at least equal to, if not greater than, the director of Lutra, interfering directly in this matter was just as strange.
No, even before that—why in the world would Orphega, one of the most important figures in the Empire, come all the way to an academy where nothing but teenagers studied?
“That’s a bit of a leap in logic, don’t you think? Is there some law saying I can’t carve out time from a busy schedule to stop by Lutra? For example, might I not have rushed here after hearing there’d been a kidnapping, simply to check on the safety of my beloved disciple?”
“Sure, that’s possible. If you hadn’t only accepted Eli’s greeting after my duel was over, that is.”
No matter how I looked at it, the duke’s attitude was miles away from that of a man checking on the safety of his precious disciple.
And at that point, I finally understood.
The duke’s purpose had been to test me from the beginning, and everything I’d gone through had been a stage set solely for that.
“…Well, I suppose there’s no point making excuses. You’re right. I deliberately enlarged the cadet disappearance incident in Lutra, and I came here under the pretense of investigating it. That was all my doing.”
And just like that, Duke Orphega admitted that my guess had been right all along.
“Did you happen to make these plans in advance with Letitia? Why did you corner me like this?”
As if my question made no sense to him, the duke wore a faintly puzzled expression.
“Letitia? You mean that younger sister of yours the Magic Tower Master has been doting on lately? But why is your sister’s name coming up here?”
“…Don’t tell me, Your Grace knew nothing about Letitia?”
“I don’t know what kind of misunderstanding you’ve gotten yourself into, but what I did was nothing more than slightly inflating the scale of a disappearance case so I could visit Lutra legally. Everything else has nothing to do with me.”
A man of Duke Orphega’s caliber had no reason to lie, so it was safe to assume the duke and Letitia really had nothing to do with one another.
Then was this whole thing simply because that idiot Bertel couldn’t control his jealousy toward me and acted on it? Just a string of accidents, one after another, piled together by pure chance?
“Then why go to all this trouble just to meet me?”
“Because His Majesty recently issued an order forbidding nearly all the nobles from interfering with Lutra in any way. Since the matters among the cadets were to be resolved by the cadets themselves, I had no choice but to use such a cumbersome method.”
At the duke’s answer, I remembered the words Cartesia had boasted to me in the past.
She’d said she would make sure scum like Ricardo could never again abuse his power to pin absurd charges like assaulting a royal onto others. So that was what she’d meant?
“Still, I can’t help feeling a little wronged. Not only was I rejected by someone I thought might become my disciple, but now I’m being doubted in such an absurd way. If I simply backed off here, it would feel like nothing but a loss to me.”
“I already turned down the offer of becoming Your Grace’s disciple.”
“But I never accepted your refusal, did I? I’m sorry, but I very much want to make you my disciple.”
There was something almost unsettlingly obsessive in the duke’s tone, and I could only stare at him in disbelief.
“I’m sure there are plenty of people who’d love to become Your Grace’s disciple. And don’t you already have one disciple?”
“It’s better to have two disciples than one. And just now, watching that duel, I felt something in you. You… might be the one who can fulfill my long-cherished wish.”
“…Pardon?”
“I’ll say it only once more. Become my disciple. If you do, I will pass on to you a power and authority greater than anything else in this world.”
At the duke’s words, I slowly shook my head.
“I’m sorry, but I believe I’ve already given my answer to that offer.”
The more I heard him, the less I wanted to become Duke Orphega’s disciple.
It sounded nice enough—receiving the duke’s power and authority—but if I thought about it honestly, it was no different from sticking my spoon into someone else’s unfinished bowl of rice.
Besides, since I’d already decided not to rely on the duke’s authority for my revenge, my answer was never going to change.
“…Persistent, aren’t you? I thought you were a smart boy, but in the end you’re making me resort to this.”
“I’m sorry. But no matter how I think about it, it’s just not something I want.”
Despite the duke’s words, the atmosphere wasn’t nearly as severe as his tone suggested. He seemed to have relaxed his guard a little.
I think the duke’s understood me well enough by now.
Just as I was letting out a sigh of relief, believing the matter had finally been settled, Duke Orphega suddenly grabbed my shoulder and spoke.
“If you truly don’t want to become my disciple, then I suppose it can’t be helped. In that case, what do you think about becoming my man?”
“…Your man? What do you mean by that?”
What was the difference between that and telling me to become his disciple?
When I blinked in confusion, unable to follow his meaning, the duke spoke to me in a firm voice.
“Would you consider marrying my daughter?”
“…What?”