The Duke Returns
Elena had been spending her days in a relentless blur of work ever since her return to House Valdert.
In the brief span she had left the ducal seat vacant, the family had fallen into utter chaos—far worse than she had anticipated.
More than half of the capable, useful talent had walked out. Word of her return was slowly drawing them back, but the process crawled. Clearly they were savoring their unexpected vacation while they could.
Infuriating. But what choice do I have? I took a holiday of my own, after all… Drive them off as well, and the result would be catastrophic.
The problems split cleanly into external and internal.
The external ones were political assaults from other nobles aimed at House Valdert. Those she could handle. She was one of the Empire’s Five Great Dukes, and she had returned unharmed—she would crush them at her leisure and extract every scrap of compensation. The thought of grinding those aristocrats underfoot was almost pleasant.
The internal crisis was the real threat.
House Valdert had been certain of Elena’s death. She had fallen into the Hell Zone, and far too many people had witnessed it. With the master’s seat empty, her relatives had bared their greed. Creatures who had never dared squeak while she was present had begun knifing each other over the throne.
And they did it out in the open. Poisonings and assassinations were the bare minimum—they even reached out to outside forces. This is more than one mess to clean up.
The Yustia Imperial Family had stood by and watched House Valdert’s collapse. Every other noble house had been busy calculating how best to carve up the spoils. Enemies on every side.
Had I returned even a month later… the thought alone is dizzying.
She worked without rest, day and night. She purged what needed purging and personally audited every enterprise tied to the family. Without the skill Complete Recovery—which restored not only physical exhaustion but mental fatigue as well—she would already have collapsed from overwork.
“My lady!!”
The door burst open and a middle-aged man strode in.
One of the few retainers Elena still trusted. The gray beard he normally kept meticulously groomed had lost its luster from neglect, and the dark circles behind his spectacles were so deep one might have believed he was a panda.
“Is the task I ordered finished?”
“…I have dispatched an inspection team to the Parade Trading Company. You should be able to see the guild master’s head around noon tomorrow.”
“I have already looked at thirty severed heads today alone. I am thoroughly sick of the sight. Confirm it yourself and dispose of him as you see fit.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“I will not grant it.”
“…Pardon?”
“……Were you not here to tender your resignation?”
“I know it would be useless. A guest has arrived at the estate.”
“Who?”
Elena straightened from her lounging posture. She had previously ordered that any riffraff be turned away at the gate—and “riffraff,” for the record, meant most nobles of count rank or lower.
“A-Plan Legion. The legion whose patronage you resumed upon your return.”
“I see. I cannot be bothered to go to the reception hall. Bring them here.”
“As you wish.”
Elena had already dropped her gaze back to the documents when she realized he had not left. She looked up again.
“Something else to say?”
“Well… this may sound improper, but…”
“Speak freely. I cannot kill you at present. Your death would double my workload.”
“I stake this old life on these words, my lady. Please halt the executions of the family members.”
“You want me to spare them simply because they are relatives? You know full well what they have done.”
“I do know. But is this not excessive?”
“I sent the children to a monastery. I have shown ample mercy. The donation I made to that monastery was hardly small, either. …Hmm. This is becoming a problem. I am beginning to grow suspicious of you.”
“I have taken no bribes. This is for the family’s sake. There is no heir. To order every last one of them disposed of, leaving only two… If anything should happen to you, my lady…”
“…….”
Elena could not dismiss her retainer’s concern. The absence of an heir had been one of the reasons the family had fallen into such chaos in the first place.
As a retainer, of course he feared a repeat of the same disaster. She closed her eyes for a moment.
In the past I would have ignored this entirely. This world was never going to last more than thirty years anyway. But now…
A man rose in her mind—a man whose power made even gods look ordinary.
That man could change this world’s fate. No—he would change it and still have strength to spare.
Elena opened her eyes.
“I will produce an heir within ten years. Wait that long. Ten years is a generous estimate, mind you. It might well happen as early as next year.”
“…Pardon? Not choose—produce? D-Don’t tell me Your Grace intends to create an artificial human?!”
“You overstep. Were we not so short-handed, I would have you run thirty laps of the training grounds.”
“……Who is the other party? What of their bloodline? Do they possess the dignity befitting House Valdert?”
The retainer’s expression turned deadly serious.
“Bloodline? High nobility. Born the youngest of three brothers and seized the heir’s seat for himself. Dignity… he is an excellent actor. Set him to it and he could pass for a king. He claims he has even played emperor before.”
The retainer’s brow furrowed. He searched his memory frantically, but no face came to mind.
“Surely not… the Imperial Family?!”
“Do you wish to die?”
“A slip of the tongue. In any case, if it is this nameless gentleman, I believe I can trust him.”
“…Trust him with what, exactly?”
“I have the distinct impression that man would dive into hell itself for Your Grace’s sake.”
“…….”
“And the one who has made Your Grace so… at ease… must be him as well.”
“At ease? Me? Can you not see how busy I am?”
“Ease of the heart, my lady. You used to indulge the occasional joke, true—but there was always a line. A firm, unyielding line.”
“And that line is gone now?”
“I can still see it. Only it has receded so far that it looks rather blurred. A fine change. I shall go fetch the A-Plan Legion members now.”
The retainer withdrew. Elena stared blankly into empty air for a moment.
I’ve changed?
The crease between her brows smoothed, and she let out a soft snort of laughter.
Not bad.
A short while later, the members of A-Plan Legion filed into her office. Legion Master Kang Myeong-jin led the group, surrounded by a cluster of beautiful women. There was nothing soft or spring-like about the atmosphere, however. Every face was as solemn as if they had come to a funeral.
“Duke Valdert. It has been some time. I am relieved to see you unharmed.”
“Skip the pleasantries, Kang Myeong-jin. I have no time—get to the point. I can already guess. This is about Seong Yujin.”
At the mention of Seong Yujin’s name, the women’s shoulders gave a collective twitch. Elena’s sharp mind supplied their names and dossiers at once: Ju Seo-hyeon, Yu Seo-hee, Lilsne, Lee Minjeong.
Once she would have shrugged it off. Now the women grated on her nerves far more than they should have.
…He definitely touched them. A man like him would never leave beauties like these alone…
An inexplicable tightness settled in Elena’s chest.
“…Yes. We know he is alive. He must have escaped the Hell Zone with Your Grace. Where is he now?”
“I don’t know.”
She lied without so much as wetting her lips. If these people tracked Seong Yujin down now, while he was in the middle of dealing with the Black Pillar Alliance, it would only complicate matters for him. She quietly soothed the petty spite that had begun to rise.
“We parted ways the moment we escaped the Hell Zone. I have been too busy cleaning up this disaster of a family to know anything about him.”
“…I see.”
Disappointment flooded their faces—especially the women’s, who looked thoroughly dejected. Spite reared its head again, though its target had shifted.
“Are you not his comrades? Coming to me because you cannot trust him… how disappointing. Had it been me, I would have believed in him to the end.”
“We do believe in him. We simply could not sit still for worry, and so we came to Your Grace.”
“That is precisely the proof that you do not trust him. The bond between comrades seems rather thin. Had it been me, I would have trusted him completely and waited.”
“Mmm…”
The A-Plan Legion members swallowed their groans.
Elena turned her gaze on the women.
“Do any of you know the name ‘Yuria’?”
“No. First time hearing it…”
Kang Myeong-jin and the women reacted identically. Elena curled one corner of her mouth.
“Ah. Is that so. Well, I expected as much.”
“May I ask who she is?”
“A woman more capable than even I. And… a rival? Something along those lines. She has nothing to do with any of you.”
Perhaps they caught the peculiar nuance in Elena’s tone. The women’s expressions soured. In particular, the tall woman with long black hair and sharp eyes openly scowled and stepped forward.
Ju Seo-hyeon.
Elena recalled the name. A glance at Ju Seo-hyeon’s chest confirmed it was large enough to rival Yuria’s. Elena’s mood soured a fraction further.
“Your Grace. I will be direct. What is your relationship with him?”
“Your tone is insolent. Still, you belong to the legion he is part of, so I shall overlook it. My relationship with him is… more than whatever you are imagining.”
“…You say that as though you know exactly what I am thinking.”
“…….”
Elena smiled quietly. That look of pure condescension set Ju Seo-hyeon’s hands trembling. Yet she did not cross the line. She stepped back as if she wanted nothing more to do with Elena. Instinct had already told her that Elena was an absurdly powerful opponent.
“Now it is my turn to ask. What is your relationship with him?”
“…We are mortal enemies.”
“Is that so. And here I thought it was a master-and-bitch arrangement.”
“What?!”
Ju Seo-hyeon’s face flushed crimson. Elena laughed softly. She had tossed the remark out because the woman looked so high-strung—yet it seemed she really had been trained as a bitch.
“Kang Myeong-jin. If your business is concluded, I would prefer you leave.”
“Forgive us for taking Your Grace’s time.”
“It is fine. As for him… trust him and wait. Surely you do not think he would abandon you?”
They offered their farewells and left the office.
Elena swept a hand through the air. A conch shell dropped from her subspace into her palm. She stared at it, deliberating, then tucked it back into the subspace.
He started this mess. He can handle it himself.
I moved alongside Li Mei wearing the jester’s mask of Cheonma, an executive of Helten. We were visiting the Black Pillar Alliance’s officers one by one to “persuade” them.
Persuasion is a generous word. Closer to blackmail.
I looked at the Chinese man standing before us. Li Mei had layered Charm and Fascination on him. With Fascination stacked three times, he had become a devoted slave, spilling every weakness he possessed—assets, corruption, the lot.
Li Mei claimed that applying Charm for one hour a day over roughly thirty days could rewrite a target’s subconscious and forge a perfect slave. We did not have that kind of time, so we used blackmail instead. Anyone who refused the blackmail died without mercy.
“Yujin. The Black Pillar Alliance Master seems to have caught on. Not because any of the officers we turned snitched… he knows my unique trait, so he must have deduced it.”
Everything we had done so far was merely groundwork for a smooth takeover of the Black Pillar Alliance.
If the Alliance Master already knew, this approach was finished. Now came the real work.
“Time for a thrilling conversation with the Black Pillar Alliance Master, then.”
Kill the Alliance Master and take his seat. After that, purge the Black Pillar Alliance once more. Scale the organization down to a size that matched Li Mei’s capacity—she had never led a syndicate before.
“Let’s go.”
We tore open a spatial teleportation scroll and transferred to the zone where the Black Pillar Alliance Master waited.