Was This the Plan All Along?
While listening to Damien’s story, a sudden thought crossed my mind. I asked, “What if someone eavesdrops on our conversation from outside the tent?”
Remembering how Izabo had been so cautious about security today made me feel truly lazy. That realization made Damien frown at me. “You worry about useless things even though I’m right here?”
“If you’re here, why would I even need to worry?”
“Of course I’m here.”
Damien nodded firmly and asked, “So?”
Meanwhile Petia had already lain down on the bed. She looked quite tired lately.
After all, she had been as thin as a withered branch. Having lived alone at the very top of Mount of Light, the schedule these days was far too demanding.
Worried, I gestured toward her. Damien glanced at her, clicked his tongue, and approached.
Damien cast a healing spell on Petia. Even while receiving it myself it had been wondrous, but watching from a few steps away was truly awe-inspiring.
A handsome boy with black hair and purple eyes held out his hand and sang in a gentle voice. White feathers drifted down and melted softly upon contact with the saint’s body, an almost holy sight.
As Damien applied the healing, Petia closed her eyes and slumped her head. Startled, I rushed over to her, but Damien caught my waist and lightly pulled me back.
“She’s asleep.”
“But I just healed her. Why is she sleeping?”
“That’s why I healed her. She’ll sleep. Though the body is healed, the mind is still exhausted. The fatigue in the mind becomes stronger when the body alone is healed, so she can’t bear it. It happens often.”
“Then maybe I shouldn’t have healed her at all?”
At my question Damien looked at me with a face of pure disappointment for a moment.
Yet when our eyes met he blinked several times as if the point had struck him dead center, then answered softly. “The mind needs to rest in order to recover from its fatigue, but the body was too exhausted to fall asleep.”
Is he scared of me?
Why is he not flinching? I almost asked, but I suddenly remembered what I had done and closed my mouth.
I knew I wasn’t a good person, at least. Still, it felt slightly unfair that the man who thought I was the kindest and gentlest person in the world flinched at me.
What? How had love changed so fast. ……Or was it not love at all? Tsk.
Since my expression must have looked bad, Damien hurriedly changed the subject. “Anselm said the Chamberlain has arrived.”
“The Chamberlain? Whose Chamberlain?”
“The king’s Chamberlain.”
The lingering feeling of unfairness that had been bothering my heart vanished in an instant. Who had come?!
“Our father?!”
“Yes. The royal Chamberlain is staying at the Demia temple.”
If he found out I had sold Count Serpine a single chador flower here, why would our father come here…
Ah, that made sense. The king had sent Father as an envoy.
Amori Serpine was about to officially declare himself as the successor. Just like most heirs, Amori would formally become the heir upon marriage. Here, he couldn’t become an adult without getting married.
That was why this place held special meaning for Count Serpine. It was the place where the next owner of this vast domain would be announced to the entire world.
For the same reason, even though the other party was Duke Aud, the wedding was held on Serpine territory. Announcing the successor’s declaration on someone else’s land seemed odd, right?
Of course, Duke Aud would not have been pleased. It was no different from a woman being unable to become the protagonist.
Naturally a harsh negotiation process had been involved, and Count Serpine’s side had made many concessions. I didn’t know what those were.
And logically, since Count Serpine was right, Izabo had stepped aside only after receiving substantial concessions. If she hadn’t, no amount of concessions would have made her leave.
The issue was whether the protagonist would become the focus at the ceremony or not. It wasn’t something that could be solved with a little wounded pride like in modern times.
It was a matter of insulting me, insulting my parents, insulting my ancestors, insulting my family, and insulting the citizens of my domain.
Even if it was a hundred times worse than trash talk, a territorial war could very well break out over this.
Because the ceremony was so important, the king’s attendance was not strange. Yet the king had not attended.
The reason he had not attended was exactly that. If the king had attended and still the protagonist had not become the focus…
That meant his influence did not reach beyond Count Serpine. He could not prove to everyone that he was the fake king of Serpine.
Therefore he had sent only an envoy without coming himself… and that person was our father.
Our father, Count Raymond Danier, the royal Chamberlain occupying that position, ranked second in the hierarchy of palace administration. The senior chamberlain was at the top, and no other administrator in the palace could surpass Father.
However, the senior chamberlain rarely moved unless the king was absent and gave him proxy authority.
In short, if the senior chamberlain had come as a congratulatory envoy, it meant the king could not attend, which was why he had sent Father.
The king had wanted to send a true subordinate envoy in the hierarchy where “I am your liege and I bestow blessings,” and the most powerful and respectful position among such envoy relationships was our Father’s.
In other words, it was an envoy that said “I don’t give a damn about Serpine,” but it conveyed that he was actually thinking about it deeply.
And if he knew that I had been living carefree with Damien, teasing Count Serpine for ten thousand gold, and plotting a scheme to restore Duke Aud’s honor while winning her favor…
…well, even if I broke only my legs, medieval fathers would slice my neck too, and still be thrilled.
But Father would probably cry. He would be heartbroken, wondering why we had done something so dangerous. Most men in our family were like that.
But my mother, Lady Louise, could at least break my legs. No, if they broke, it would be unavoidable, but I didn’t want to feel pain, so I had to run away quickly.
“Tomorrow, the moment something happens, we’ll leave. As long as we can avoid my father….”
I realized something. Serpine was in the north and Hamilcar in the south, but both were firmly in the east, bordering the Amein Empire.
That meant Duke Hamilcar could not possibly avoid attending this wedding.
I stared straight at Damien. Damien, as always, was looking at me with a face that was not humanly beautiful.
Just looking at that face made me want to forget everything. For example, he was also a medieval person who hated bathing… wait a second. Damien didn’t have that unique musty smell that people who don’t bathe usually have?
What was that? Did his face wipe out the smell? Were my senses going crazy from looking at that face? No way.
“Why?”
“Ah, nothing. I just thought you must be in trouble too.”
“Why would I be in trouble?”
Why? Of course.
“Because the Hamilcar Duke will be there at Serpine.”
You didn’t think about it at all? I had forgotten because it wasn’t my father, but you had to think about it, right?
Damien’s face crumpled. It seemed he only thought about someone else’s father arriving, but not where his own father was. A filial son with a hot temper, after all.
Damien clicked his tongue and looked at Petia. Petia was sleeping, breathing a little roughly compared to before. Even while sleeping, she looked exhausted.
“This is troublesome…”
Damien muttered. Then he said, “Petia should leave first.”
I was a little surprised. Damien was not the type to give opinions well. Despite his overwhelmingly flashy appearance, his core was either hot-blooded or gullible, one or the other.
He gave everything to the people he loved, and when facing those who hurt them, he simply started casting magic without thought.
He wasn’t the type to think things through and plan carefully.
“Sure.”
Normally it would have been difficult for Petia to leave first, but this time both sides did not want Petia to attend.
The simple reason for Serpine was that Petia had been engaged to Count Serpine.
The count’s wife could not possibly accept Petia, who had been engaged to her, attending her son’s wedding as the saint and blessing the couple.
The count’s wife was of the imperial ducal bloodline. No matter how great a duke she was, she could not ignore the imperial ducal family’s gaze.
Let’s think about what Serpine was famous for. Serpine was a commercial city. Foreign merchants flooding into his city came from the south, the north, and the east.
The east was managed by the Amein Empire, and the count’s in-laws, the ducal family, supported him from the Amein Empire.
Therefore, no matter how much the count missed Petia or how their relationship was, Petia could not attend the successor’s wedding (or the successor’s declaration ceremony).
Originally the Aud side would have demanded the saint’s blessing strongly, and Serpine would have had to concede. Since they were getting married here, they would have to make many concessions to Aud.
However, Izabo was planning to ruin the wedding tomorrow, so she had no interest in blessings. She had been thrilled by Amori Serpine’s refusal at first, but after Petia recommended me she quickly changed.
“It is inappropriate, Your Highness, but there are three paths before you. The first is to widely spread the news of Amori Serpine’s infidelity and demand compensation from Serpine. The second is to quietly marry and eliminate the government. The third is—”
When I mentioned the plan for tomorrow, Izabo’s momentum was fierce and her face was stern.
As if trying to calm her excitement, she took a long breath, thought about my words, and answered slowly. “I cannot choose the first. I have already experienced one annulment, and a second annulment would become my shame. As for the second, I cannot choose it either. It is something my family, my blood, will not accept. So you must tell me the third.”
“The third path will give you freedom. You will become the true owner of Aud, and no one will dare harbor the audacity to claim you and take Aud. You will choose a suitable man from an appropriate family as the prior Dukes of Aud did, bring him into the family, and he will become proof that the union between families is valid. He will also serve Aud and devote his loyalty to you. This is the divine revelation.”
Suddenly Izabo stared straight at me.
“Were you planning this from the beginning, standing in the garden with the intent to catch my eye?”
A cold voice that seemed ready to summon a guard and cut off my head at any moment.