To My Surprise
Night or not, the magic tool illuminating the study room brightly made the Empress of the Vlata Empire look up at it blankly, thinking she wished she had two more bodies.
She sighed deeply.
“……Haa.”
Of course, sighing alone wouldn’t end the work, so Marianne buried her face in the desk again.
Excluding the charisma and dignity to suppress the ministers, and the flashy attire she had to show as the Emperor’s wife, Marianne’s appearance was no different from that of a student buried in homework.
The previous emperor hadn’t cared about the state affairs at all, indulging in luxury and pleasures.
On top of that, a rebellion had erupted, so it was terrifying to think how much more time would be needed just for the aftermath.
For that reason, her cool-headed thinking that she maintained during the day loosened somewhat at night. It was the same now.
Although she was doing her work thanks to familiarity, about half of her mind was occupied by other thoughts. And recently, most of those thoughts were about one person.
“Thinking about it makes me incredulous.”
Marianne muttered in a sharp voice, and soon threw the pen away. No matter how she thought about it, the feeling of being ignored didn’t go away.
There was something constantly nagging at her.
Before the surprise of having practically annihilated Diarose.
The legal husband himself came to see her.
It was true that he had done a great service by using his unexpected power to eliminate the main funding source of Abrarum and weed out a few rats mixed in the empire government and nobility.
So, Marianne was also willing to generously overlook him for raising his voice a bit.
Of course, she had no intention of overlooking him challenging the Emperor’s authority, so if he crossed the line, she would give him a proper warning.
However, instead of boasting about his power and merits, her legal husband suddenly asked for gold coins.
“……The maintenance fee for your status is being paid in full, right? So, does that mean it’s not enough?”
“No. That’s not it. You said Diarose was the funding source of Abrarum. Then, the gold coins seized by the imperial government this time should be quite a bit, right?”
It was. Thanks to the evidence gathered by the Hounds, which provided an irrefutable justification, they were able to seize not only the gold coins that Diarose was legally circulating, but also a significant portion of the illegal goods.
The seized gold coins filled the empire’s treasury, which was precarious due to the previous emperor’s waste and the subsequent rebellion, in one go.
Even Marianne, upon hearing the amount, was internally surprised. For an ordinary person, it would be natural to feel greedy.
However, her legal husband was not an ordinary person.
“Just for that amount, you came to see me personally?”
Marianne, who had been preparing for Isaac to demand a share or say an absurd amount, was left powerless.
The amount he mentioned wasn’t small by ordinary civilian standards. But it was an unbelievably small amount to demand after annihilating a branch of the empire’s largest criminal organization and meeting the Emperor.
“My husband says that to obtain money besides the maintenance fee, I need the Empress’s permission?”
Isaac tilted his head at Marianne’s attitude. Principally, that was correct. Whoever it was, Isaac had properly explained it to him.
Even if it was explained, Isaac couldn’t have imagined that the person would go to the Emperor to ask for money. Whoever it was, there was no feeling of blame.
She didn’t need to open the safe to find the gold coins. Marianne rummaged through the drawer roughly and handed a pocket to Isaac.
“Is this enough?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Isaac received the pocket, nodded satisfiedly, and tried to leave. If Marianne hadn’t called him until then, he would have really left.
“Wait. Did you really come to see me just to receive that?”
“?”
Isaac looked at her with a look asking what the problem was.
She couldn’t say anything. If that was the only business, there was no need to continue the conversation.
Even knowing that, Marianne felt oddly unsettled, so she added.
“If you need that much, tell Haria from now on. I’ll give it to you through her.”
“Got it.”
Isaac answered and went out. Strictly speaking, there was nothing particularly wrong, but Marianne couldn’t shake off the feeling that she had been ignored.
It was funny even to herself, but honestly, at that time, there was no other emotion besides astonishment.
However, the fact that the reason he came to see her for the first time was just that made her feel irritated belatedly.
More than anything, it was frustrating that he didn’t come even after the few days of instruction at the tea party to refrain from contacting women.
According to Haria’s report, he was in pain and couldn’t do it because he couldn’t do that.
Of course, even if he came, she had no intention of doing anything special, but the feeling of being ignored didn’t disappear easily.
“Ah, really.”
Marianne clicked her tongue in displeasure and left the study room. After all, she judged that she couldn’t concentrate on work anymore.
When she opened the door, the waiting maids lit the magic tool to follow her to the bedroom.
Later, the magic tool that had been on in the study room was turned off by another maid.
In the study room that had fallen into darkness, only the pen that had been abandoned by the owner was rolling around.
“……Uum…”
Harri’s consciousness returned due to the dull pain.
As she came to her senses, she quickly checked her body’s condition as per her old habit.
At first glance, her clothes weren’t torn or stripped, so it didn’t seem she had been violated. She was still a bit dizzy from a strong impact to the back of her head, but it wasn’t serious.
Her eyes were covered with a black cloth. A gag was in her mouth, shackles on her ankles, and her arms were bound behind her back. Except for that, the physical damage wasn’t as great as she thought.
“How much torture did they plan?”
Even though she knew her body was normal, Haria couldn’t be happy. Being kidnapped with hostility and having no wounds on her body wasn’t a good sign.
It was like the words when the target wakes up and says they’ll give pain.
Especially since Haria knew the kidnappers’ identities, she wished she could die right now.
But in her life, there had never been a wish fulfilled.
“Have you woken up?”
The cloth covering her eyes disappeared, and light appeared. The vision was blurry due to the sudden light in the darkness, but it didn’t last long.
After struggling to look around, Haria guessed that the place she was captured was a basement. It didn’t look special. It was just a slightly larger ordinary house.
However, the people gathered there were by no means ordinary. About 10 black-masked individuals were standing in a large circle, looking down at her.
“Is this the direct unit of the elders’ council?”
Harri confirmed that each of them had an aura that was not ordinary, even without releasing, so she concluded that.
The Sika Clan, an assassin clan ranked high on the continent, and the old monsters who were the real leaders moving them.
“Remove the gag too.”
The gag in her mouth disappeared at someone’s command. Haria bit her teeth to burst the poison hidden in her teeth, but it was meaningless.
As expected, the poison was removed. Of course, she didn’t chew her tongue.
It was only painful, and she couldn’t die immediately, and if the opponent was Sika, she would end up helping them.
So, instead, she said.
“Isn’t this too big a force for catching just one of you?”
“Of course, we didn’t move just to catch one of you.”
The man walking forward with a heavy step. From the pressure, it was clear he was the leader.
Even while feeling like she would be crushed by the aura spreading and pressing, Haria shouted with poison.
“What the hell! Because your rank is low, you treated me like a dog, and now that I didn’t die, what business do you have left?”
Harri was, precisely, her family was from Sika, but among the blood relatives, her status was quite low.
In the Sika, which had strict vertical obedience, Haria’s family was almost like slaves.
Nevertheless, her family was proud of being Sika. Haria, who grew up hearing countless legendary stories of Sika from childhood, was the same.
It was until her family, discarded as consumables by Sika, was exterminated.
“If you’re Sika, it’s only natural to devote your body and mind to your blood relatives. Originally, the traitor should have been executed immediately upon discovery, but the elders are merciful. They said they would specially give you another chance to devote loyalty to the blood relatives.”
The gist was, if you give information, they’ll spare you.
It was nonsense even a dog wouldn’t believe.
“Tell me everything you know about the Empress. Even small things are fine. And before that, there’s one thing I want to ask.”
Haria had already expected him to ask about the Emperor. However, it was impossible for her not to know that Sika, not some random person, had no such information to give her.
So, the real purpose was the latter.
“What?”
“Did you really kill the highest-level combatants of Abrarum stationed in Diarose? Is it really Isaac von Meyer, the new husband of the Empress?”
“Ah, so that’s what you wanted to know.”
Although she didn’t know the current Sika situation in detail, it was hard to imagine that they wouldn’t be hostile to the Empress.
The Sika had attached themselves to the power faction that followed the previous emperor and gained huge benefits. The Empress, who took that away, was an unpleasant and disgusting target for the old elders.
From their perspective, they couldn’t relax as long as the Empress was alive, so they had to keep monitoring and checking her.
Therefore, if a new power appeared to the Empress, they couldn’t ignore it. And once confirmed, they would definitely eliminate her.
Haria didn’t know how strong Isaac was in detail, but she didn’t think he could handle the Sika in terms of assassination.
He was originally someone who came for such a role. A shield and sacrifice for the Empress, a pawn and justification for the Empress to move with another move.
That was the destiny of the man who had a superficially flashy position as the Empress’s husband and the role of the Hound leader.
For that reason, Haria said with a smirk without any hesitation.
“That idiot pervert claims to have killed the highest-level combatants of Abrarum? The Sika clan has become idiots too. Are you telling the truth?”
“………”
Although he was wearing a mask, Haria could see the man’s face frowning. He grabbed her wrist and asked again.
“Is there no lie in what you said?”
“Hah! The only women I’ve seen with him are the ones he was eating with. Maybe those highest-level combatants were women? Then I don’t know. That guy seems to be really good at that kind of thing.”
“……It’s not a lie.”
The man was clearly an excellent assassin, but in the end, he was Sika. It was impossible for the lowest Haria to think of faking her heartbeat, so he believed her lie.
“So, what now? Are you going to spare me if I tell you about the Empress?”
“No. The plan has changed. You here are useless.”
At some point, the man had pulled out a dagger and was holding it.
Since there was no use, he was going to discard it immediately. This was as expected, so Haria didn’t feel dissatisfied.
The vowed revenge couldn’t be achieved. Instead, she could at least taste the betrayal forced on her after being betrayed by Sika.
The only regret was one thing.
“Maybe I couldn’t experience love just like an ordinary woman.”
When Haria closed her eyes, thinking about the regret that seemed like it would make her laugh.
“Is this what you mean by unexpectedly moved? Wow, I was really moved.”
“Eh?”
Harri’s eyes snapped open. The owner of that voice was not the man who had been questioning her just before. It was a relatively recent memory.
“You really didn’t know that I thought of you that way, Haria.”
When Haria opened her eyes and looked up, there was…
“……Excuse me, who? No, that voice is definitely…”
“Ah, right. I was wearing the one Derigan gave me, besides the mask.”
The man who looked like he had peeled off his face leather had a familiar voice. Then, the fake skin peeled off, revealing his true appearance.
“Leader?!”
“Yeah.”
The one looking down with a smile was undoubtedly her leader.
Isaac.