Change (2)
“I’ve recently heard something rather interesting about you, Duke.”
The audience chamber of the Imperial Palace.
There, Duke Orphega was speaking with the Emperor alone.
In principle, an imperial audience was no small honor for a vassal. It meant the Emperor placed greater weight on speaking with a duke than on discussing state affairs, and above all, it proved that he trusted the duke enough to meet him privately.
And yet both Duke Orphega and the Emperor wore the same uncomfortable look on their faces, as though each of them had some deep grievance over the other’s recent conduct.
“I heard rumors that you used the investigation into the disappearance incident as a pretext to slip into Lutra and turn the whole place upside down. Is that really true?”
“...Ah, that matter.”
At the Emperor’s words, Duke Orphega lowered his head and answered in a tone that suggested it was truly no concern of his.
“I happened to be at leisure with nothing to do, and on a whim, I suddenly decided to act. Besides, I’d received a bad feeling when I heard that such a grim affair had occurred at the very place where my daughter was enrolled. I only wanted, in my own way, to help resolve the matter, but the world doesn’t always unfold according to one’s wishes.”
“Is that so? Then can you also tell me what exactly you discussed with a certain cadet after calling him aside?”
At that, Duke Orphega slowly lifted his head to look at the Emperor’s face.
The Emperor looked exactly as he always did. His voice, too, sounded no different from before, at least on the surface.
But Duke Orphega had reached the Master rank, and with it he had gained a heightened sense sharp enough to catch even the most minute details ordinary people would never notice. So he could tell immediately.
The Emperor was displeased with something the duke had done.
“How curious. I had no idea Your Majesty was paying so much attention to a single cadet.”
“I also find it curious. You, who never spared a glance even for the famed knights across the Empire when they offered fortunes just to exchange a single swordstroke, suddenly declared that you would take an ordinary cadet as your disciple.”
For one brief instant, the Emperor and Duke Orphega simply stared at each other without speaking.
And then both of them understood it instinctively.
The person before them was, in a sense, a rival who had noticed the value of a treasure they had both tried so desperately to hide.
Then there was only one thing that mattered right now.
How much did the other side actually know?
“I’m sorry to say this, but I’d appreciate it if you refrained from laying a hand on that cadet, Duke.”
The one who spoke first was none other than the Emperor.
“If you’ve heard the rumors, then you know well enough. That cadet is the man my daughter has taken a liking to. If you recklessly interfere with him, my daughter may find herself in an awkward position.”
“So that cadet is, in fact, the famed imperial princess’s lover.”
At Duke Orphega’s murmur, the Emperor nodded.
“Exactly. The child is already bound to marry the fiancé arranged for her after she graduates from Lutra. In that case, as a father, is it so much to ask that she be allowed to love as she wishes for at least the duration of her school years?”
On the surface, it might have sounded like the touching devotion of a father who loved his daughter. But from Duke Orphega’s perspective, it was nothing but absurd nonsense.
What kind of deranged man in this world would hear that his fiancée had fallen for another man and simply swallow it with grace?
From the beginning, it was ridiculous that the Emperor and Duke Orphega would hold a private audience simply because it might interfere with the imperial princess’s romance.
Of course, the Emperor himself would surely know full well that this was a patently absurd excuse.
And yet there was only one reason he was still laying out such a pathetic lie before the duke.
Was that meant as a warning?
I’ve noticed that you know something about Sian.
But I have no intention of making a bigger mess of things. I’d rather not see any more trash realizing his value and crawling into the picture.
This is the last time I’ll politely tell you not to cross the line, Duke.
So give up on everything here and step back.
That boy already belongs to me, and to Cartesia, and has for a long time.
That was likely the true meaning behind the Emperor’s words.
But I can’t just back down so obediently, either.
If all it took was one warning from the Emperor for him to fold his tail between his legs and retreat like a dog, then he would never have dared to try in the first place.
Duke Orphega, too, was serious enough to place his one and only daughter into Sian’s hands without hesitation.
“I’m sorry, but there’s one request I can’t accept, no matter what else. That, at least, I must refuse.”
The moment Duke Orphega flatly declined, the smile on the Emperor’s lips deepened.
“Oh? And might I ask the reason?”
“It’s nothing much. Truth be told, even my foolish daughter apparently found that fellow named Sian quite to her liking.”
“...Hah.”
At Duke Orphega’s answer, the Emperor let out a derisive snort as though he had heard the most ridiculous thing imaginable.
“As I recall, the young lady of House Orphega has never even properly faced the brat’s face, has she?”
“Well, they do attend Lutra together. It’s possible they simply happened to cross paths by chance.”
“You expect me to believe that merely passing each other in the halls was enough for the young lady to fall in love with him?”
“Matters between men and women tend to unfold in exactly that sort of way, don’t they? Just as Her Highness Cartesia and that Sian fellow publicly declared themselves lovers after slipping away together.”
Duke Orphega answered the Emperor without giving a single inch, his tone shamelessly unyielding.
Only then did the Emperor realize it. The duke had no intention of yielding or retreating from this meeting, either.
If it had been almost anyone else, he would have brushed them aside somehow, even if it took some force. But unfortunately, Duke Orphega was not such an easy opponent.
The Empire’s guardian deity, and a man who had reached the supreme realm known as Master.
Setting aside whether it was even realistic to speak of removing him, it was simply unthinkable to cast out the man who effectively controlled the Empire’s military strength.
This is exactly why I tried to keep that Sian brat hidden from public eyes as much as possible…
And yet he could never simply abandon such a precious treasure named Sian.
He was the imperial benefactor who had saved Arieta’s life, the man Cartesia loved, and at the same time the future son-in-law the Emperor had already set his sights on.
As the Emperor clicked his tongue inwardly, Duke Orphega quietly spoke again.
“What we seek is the same, but unfortunately it seems there is only one treasure.”
“So? Are you about to tell me that, out of consideration for my dignity, you’ll step back willingly?”
“Hardly. I’m just as desperate in my own way. However, since the option of monopolizing that treasure has disappeared, I’d like to suggest a second-best solution, Your Majesty.”
“A second-best solution?”
“At this point, neither side can keep the treasure entirely for itself, but that doesn’t mean sharing it is impossible, does it?”
The Emperor, having understood what Duke Orphega was driving at, narrowed his eyes.
“So you’re saying we should simply place a pair of flowers in that brat’s hands?”
“If Your Majesty says it that way, I’m sure Princess Arieta would feel rather hurt. Since we’re being generous, why not make it three?”
“...What?”
Duke Orphega had known from the beginning that just as it was impossible for him to wholly monopolize Sian, the Emperor likewise could not simply discard a man of Orphega’s caliber without cause.
But as long as they still needed one another, there was plenty of room for negotiation, so long as neither side wanted to plunge things into total ruin.
The Emperor and Duke Orphega wanted the exact same thing.
To bind Sian within the web of blood ties by placing their daughters before him.
Then wasn’t there a simple solution? If it came to that, they could just have all three—both imperial princesses and the Orphega young lady—marry the same man.
“Do you truly believe such a thing is realistic? That he’s going to become the husband of two imperial princesses and one young lady, as though he were some emperor of the Empire?”
“If it isn’t realistic, then we simply make it so. Isn’t that what power is for, after all?”
Duke Orphega’s eyes flashed as he spoke to the Emperor in a firm voice.
“The plan is already prepared to a certain degree. It can’t yet be called perfect, but… if Your Majesty lends your support, it may become far more complete than it is now.”
With that, Duke Orphega bowed deeply before the Emperor.
It was a kind of vow: if the Emperor would only let this one outrageous demand pass, he would offer his loyalty in full from then on, no matter what happened.
“I will make that Sian boy into the hero of the Empire.”
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