The Duke's Shadow
The massive door, painted in shades of red and black, was adorned elegantly with the finest fabrics on a black oak tree.
Neville hesitated for a moment before knocking on the study door.
Knock knock—
“Come in.”
Kaiser de Valkian’s cool voice cut through the door and reached his ears.
Neville slowly extended his hand to open the door and bowed deeply as he greeted.
“Neville de Valkian greets his lord.”
“Hah.”
Looking at such Neville, Kaiser let out a dry laugh.
His sudden polite greeting aside, the sight of the guy who had been standing awkwardly with his body balance completely shattered now desperately trying to regain his center caught Kaiser’s eye.
He really pulled off the act... to the point of fooling me?
Kaiser felt a sense of amusement rather than anger at Neville’s audacious behavior.
As expected of a Valkian.
A fierce beast that hid its claws perfectly to deceive even its father.
Thinking that blood doesn’t lie, he said.
“...Did you break your body on purpose? What was the reason for stopping the act?”
Neville tried to answer like an idiot with “Huh?” but closed his mouth.
Since he hated foolish answers.
Quickly calculating the situation by thinking like a mercenary.
Father seems to have misunderstood that I revealed my skills after hiding them.
Even when returning after the duel, Helena had said beside him.
Feeling a strange sensation as he touched his body subtly with his palm, saying that he had hidden his skills all along and was acting.
He brushed it off saying it’s not something to do with family, but if even his father misunderstood, it was different.
He had to use it thoroughly.
“Correct. Actually, I thought that the Breina family was using me to bring down our Valkian family, the main force of the imperial prince faction. So, I pretended to be bewitched by Celine— that woman and was waiting for the opportunity.”
He almost said “trashy” bastard.
Looking at such Neville, Kaiser asked with the corner of his mouth slightly raised in a strange way.
“...Evidence?”
“The fact that he told me not to use a sword, and made me distance myself from my family. Just seeing these two things is enough. He was pretending to be empty-headed, but he is the eldest daughter of the Breina family. He was definitely acting as if he was bright but foolish.”
“That’s not enough. Of course, what you say is correct. He was a conceited, foolish kid. But after the engagement, he didn’t make any clear political moves. There were things that were bothersome, but that could be resolved by marriage. But you are confident that he has another purpose and has been acting all this time?”
Neville felt the mana vibrations echoing around him.
It was clear that he was responding to his father’s 8-star knight’s emotions.
Is he perhaps enjoying it?
With vague expectations, Neville opened his mouth.
“Yes. If I had refused, I judged that they would have pressured me in some other dirty way. Since they are a magic family.”
“What was the reason for stopping the act?”
“I believed that they would show their fangs soon. Using the engagement as a pretext.”
“Using the engagement?”
“It was all speculation, but I thought they wouldn’t oppose me giving up the sword. Saying that they couldn’t marry the eldest daughter of the Breina ducal family, who can’t even handle a sword, to a Valkian family’s dummy.”
Actually, that’s what happened.
They said if I win against the Breina’s knight in a sparring match by pretending to give an opportunity, they would marry me.
If I lose, the engagement ends.
“Do you think they would say something like that?”
The mana around him vibrated greatly.
A situation where Kaiser’s anger was reacting.
It was hard to breathe.
I really went crazy. Getting beaten by such a father.
It was a situation worth getting angry at.
The 4 great ducal families of the empire, the Valkian family that received the emperor’s protection.
Yet, doing a crazy thing to break the engagement by directly requesting it as the fiancée.
At that time, Celine had approached and said not to refuse if she wins and can marry.
So, he had pushed his crazy father to duel like a madman and was beaten like a dog, and even lost the position of successor.
“I think so. Recently, in the letter, it was mentioned that there is a way to marry regularly. Clearly, they will request a sparring match using the marriage as a pretext.”
“Ha..”
“I think this is the opportunity. So, the ones who did the Valkian-style duel also need to be eliminated. If we just send them, the Breina will approach.”
“I originally thought so, but seeing that you are worried that far, it seems there might be a spy on our side.”
As expected of father.
Without saying it, he understood deeply.
“I expect so. And besides that, I want to kill them with my own hands. I want to personally punish the act of looking down on the Valkian family.”
“Personally punishing the act of looking down on the Valkian family...”
Kaiser felt genuine joy.
A talented guy who was bewitched by a woman and gave up his talent.
He couldn’t help but be disappointed by just that, but he couldn’t bring himself to abandon his only blood relative.
The act of saying he gave up was also shielding the Valkian family’s coldness to Neville by wrapping the desire to go towards him.
I need to give a gift to the son who turned disappointment into appreciation.
Kaiser said with a small smile.
“You will have to become stronger for handling the future matters. Take as much medicine as you need. And don’t refuse any of the requests I have.”
Neville felt his heart flutter more than Kaiser’s words.
Father smiled.
That smile he had seen occasionally when he was very young.
He thought he would never see it again.
Feeling something surge in his chest, he opened his mouth.
“...I want to go hunting with you, lord.”
“Hunting?”
Kaiser was surprised at the unexpected proposal.
“...Because I have been away from you for too long while acting and messing with your heart. I want to spend time together.”
Kaiser, looking at such Neville without answering, slowly nodded his head and turned his body to look out the window.
“...That’s too light as a request. I’ll pick a day and tell you then. Until then, tell me what you need.”
Neville found it difficult to open his mouth due to the emotion.
It was the moment he was trying to answer hesitantly.
“If you handle this matter well, I will grant you two things. So, remember that hunting will be after the Breina family comes to find you.”
“...Yes, I will finish it perfectly.”
“That’s obvious. Go now.”
Neville deeply bowed to Kaiser who didn’t turn back and left.
In the now quiet study, Kaiser smiled with a cold, expressionless face as if he couldn’t see Neville.
“The reason I told them to distance themselves from the family... was because that woman had heard about the Valkian family’s ways.”
The mana in the room trembled with anger.
“I have to find out which rat has come in.”
Unless they are formally knights of the Valkian family, they can’t know about the traditions.
So, this means there is a spy in the imperial knight order.
The knights of the Valkian family cannot leave the family.
As long as the family doesn’t fall.
The imperial knight order knows the family’s traditions and has learned the breathing techniques, and this knight order also knows the breathing techniques.
Preventing the possibility of leaking to the outside.
Neville didn’t know that, so he would have said to kill the knights naively.
Since he had only studied basic content related to the family while pretending to be bewitched by women since he was 17.
He doesn’t know about the tradition of the successor connecting with women.
He needs to tell him slowly now.
Right now, there is work to do.
“Attach Anna from the Shadow Unit to Neville.”
Upon Kaiser’s words, a person rose from the darkness in the corner of the study and answered.
“I will obey.”
...
...
“Save me— No, please kill me—”
Hadi— Hadi— creak
Geg— creak— creak
An underground prison filled with horrific screams.
Neville’s red eyes glowed with pleasure in the dark interior.
Cracking sounds.
Tearing sounds.
Requests to be killed.
How much time had passed.
After meeting Kaiser, the torture started in the evening.
By now, the bright sun had risen outside.
Although no ray of light entered the underground prison.
“Creak—
He killed all of them, including the last one.
Very slowly, over a long time.
Neville wiped the blood on the corner of his mouth with his hand.
The most recent method during the torture was his favorite.
The guys who had already become pulp and couldn’t feel sensations.
The method of dropping the guys who had hope of dying into the abyss of pain again.
By inserting the Shadow Aura wrapped needles one by one into the blood vessels.
The Shadow Aura penetrates like poison inside and eats away at the power.
As long as it’s not pushed out with Aura, the dizzying agony continues to torment the inside of the body.
The guys whose rings were already shattered and bodies completely crushed died with their eyes bloodshot.
If he could, he would want to save them and kill them from the beginning again.
It was just a pity that he couldn’t do that.
“...They were crazy bastards who were making bad things with the maids.”
He heard them confessing crimes they didn’t commit.
Probably, they thought I was torturing them to blame myself for the crimes.
All of them were related to the maids in the mansion.
Fortunately, since the time they joined was not long ago, there were few victims.
If not, the number of victims would have increased.
When he climbed out of the underground prison, the butler Schneizer greeted him.
Neatly arranged wrinkles on his white hair, looking like a gentle elderly man.
And his kind smile briefly looked like a priest.
But he was a monster at the 7-star level.
Former leader of the Shadow Unit.
Even seeing Neville wrapped in blood, he was smiling.
With a deep sense of amusement.
“Welcome, young master Neville. Has the matter been handled well?”
“Yeah. Schneizer, are there any maids who suddenly quit their jobs like they were running away recently?”
“Yes. How did you find out?”
“I heard that those dead trash were drugged and doing bad things. Send rewards and apology letters, and let them know that those bastards died horribly. They even did trashy things inside the Valkian family.”
Schneizer looked at Neville with surprised eyes.
After showing his skills in the sparring with the knights, he was taking care of the departed maids?
Schneizer said with a slight smile.
“I will obey.”
“Thank you. Throw the corpses in the Dark Forest. They’re too rotten to feed to the dogs.”
Neville waved his hand and went back to the room.
Seeing that, Schneizer felt joy.
The fierce beast of the Valkian ducal family has taken off his mask and awakened.
...
...
On the other hand, Neville entered the room and pondered.
...When is that Celine bitch coming.
Since he couldn’t remember the exact date, it was driving him crazy.
If the waiting time gets longer, father’s reaction might become a bit cold.
Should I call him first?
Originally, it seemed like he sent letters every day, but he didn’t write for two days since the regression.
Just as he was thinking that, a knock sounded from outside.
“Young master Neville, a letter from the Breina family is being delivered.”
“Come in.”
The door opened slowly and a woman in maid uniform entered.
“Nice to meet you. I am Anna, who has been assigned as your personal maid, Neville de Valkian young master.”
It seemed his father sent her.
It seemed like a kind of gift for having suffered without a maid until now.
A maid with short gray hair and yellow eyes, expressionless beauty.
It was more pleasing than something too bright and flashy.
“Was it sent by father?”
“...Yes.”
“I see. Please take care of it. Leave the letter for now and go.”
“Are you sure?”
What?
He was about to ask back, but her eyes were too serious.
Is she looking at me as an illiterate?
Then it’s troublesome.
“Of course I can read. If I need help, I’ll call you, so go.”
“...I will obey.”
Did the maid normally answer like that?
Neville tilted his head and opened the letter.