The Emperor laughed faintly.
“If that’s true, why didn’t you deliver it back then?”
“Your Majesty, if I had given that ring to the Imperial Princess at that time, would I be standing here intact now?”
The Duke asked self-deprecatingly.
At that time, the former Emperor was not in his right mind. It seemed as if he was determined to erase all traces of Melophe. Abandoning his dearly beloved daughter and completely shutting down Ricata was part of that effort.
So it was clear that if the Duke had delivered Melophe’s keepsake to Sienna as she wished, he too would not have escaped punishment.
Would Joseph have been any different?
After his mother suffered from madness before dying, he had developed a pathological hatred for Melophe and Sienna. The hatred deeply ingrained since his boyhood days grew stronger with each passing day. Wasn’t he obsessed with disparaging her, which significantly contributed to the tragedy that befell the ducal family?
In such a situation, if he had known that the Duke had a private meeting with Melophe, he would have certainly been suspicious. He would have assumed that Melophe, facing imminent death, had revealed all of Joseph’s actions to the Duke.
So there was no choice in the matter. He had done nothing wrong. It was all justified.
Almost simultaneously as the Duke reached his self-serving conclusion, Joseph opened his mouth.
“Go down to your mansion immediately.”
The Duke, who had been looking down, suddenly raised his head at those words. Looking at the Emperor with a bewildered face, he muttered.
“…This cannot be.”
Your Majesty cannot do this to me. The Duke murmured to himself, shaking his head.
“Don’t you know how much the House of Lowell has dedicated itself to the Imperial family? I have devoted my entire youth to the prosperity of the Empire and the Imperial family. How can you cast me aside so easily!”
“That’s why I’m letting this end here.”
It was a desperate cry, but what came back was a cold reply.
“Otherwise, I would have had your neck hanged in the middle of the crowd. In exactly the same way that woman died that day.”
From the voice devoid of any emotion, the Duke naturally realized that the situation was already over. No amount of struggling would change anything now.
The Emperor, Joseph, had completely cast him out.
“Are you angry that I didn’t deliver the will to Your Majesty? Is that why you’ve brought things to this state? Or are you upset because I’ve been hiding Melophe’s keepsake?”
Even while knowing that his situation had completely deteriorated, the Duke didn’t back down easily. It was too unfair considering the lifetime he had devoted to the Empire. He felt so wronged and indignant that he was about to go mad.
“Don’t you understand? Your actions are no different from deceiving me.”
“Even so, I wasn’t the one who forged the will.”
“Simply hiding the possessions of a traitor makes you subject to execution.”
“I was merely trying to protect my life!”
The Duke shouted furiously.
“I clearly explained to you earlier how that ring came into my possession. If the former Emperor, or Your Majesty right after your ascension, had heard those words, would you have spared my life?”
The Duke, who had been breathing heavily alone, suddenly sneered.
“Neither the former Emperor nor Your Majesty would have been any different. You would have been afraid of what Melophe might have told me.”
Joseph’s face hardened at the bitter words that deeply probed his past.
“That mouth…”
“In the end, this is all Your Majesty’s own doing.”
The Duke’s lips stretched into a long sneer.
“You resemble your father quite a lot, Your Majesty. Especially in how you get caught up in momentary emotions and end up making matters worse.”
His attitude of frantically lashing out in anger was extremely disrespectful. It was nothing short of a final struggle. If he was going to be discarded anyway, he wanted to vent his grievances somehow.
“Why did you hide the will?”
Joseph paid no attention to the blatant provocation. At this point, the Duke’s presumptuous anger barely stirred any significant emotion in him.
“I don’t understand. Simply hiding the will to manipulate me according to your tastes—anyone can see that the risk far outweighs the benefit.”
“Would the former Emperor have left such a testament just for this one Imperial Princess?”
Joseph frowned at the puzzling words.
“If the succession law were to be amended starting with this Imperial Princess, to whom would the House of Lowell’s assets eventually be transferred?”
“…No way.”
“The former Emperor was certainly capable of such a scheme.”
Watching the young Emperor’s face gradually harden, the Duke smiled coldly.
“What a futile ambition.”
“He was not that kind of person.”
“Your Majesty still doesn’t know much about your father. Surely, you don’t think the death of Monferrato’s former head was simply due to Your Majesty’s report?”
The former Emperor was similar to his son in many ways. Both held the position of second son, a position with little legitimacy, and both had excessive ambition.
But the father was more cunning than the son, and in some ways, wiser too.
He expanded his territory indiscriminately, eliminating the numerous scrutinizing eyes that had been directed at him during his early reign, and never left anyone who could be a stumbling block to his power untouched, regardless of who they were.
While numerous families were manipulated under the Emperor’s grasp, Ricata alone was an exception. There was no other reason. Simply because Ricata was the family of the woman the Emperor loved dearly.
Although, the moment that great love crumbled, they met a more miserable end than any other family.
“If it was simply for that reason, why would he have sent young Declan to the battlefield as well?”
“Shut your mouth.”
Joseph rebuked him fiercely.
“You dare insult my father now? It seems you truly aren’t afraid of the consequences, Duke.”
After growling lowly, he called for the head chamberlain standing by the door.
“Summon the soldiers right now.”
At the sudden turn of events, the head chamberlain hesitated, looking at him with an anxious face. But the Emperor’s gaze remained fixed on the Duke.
“As of today, I place Duke Lowell under house arrest.”
His tone left no room for reconsideration.
“In consideration of your years of service, I will spare you from prison. Instead, you shall endlessly contemplate within your beloved mansion until your last breath.”
“…”
“Today, and for all that is to come, remember that it was none other than you yourself who brought things to this state.”
The final words were close to mockery.
With that, Joseph turned away. The Duke’s gaze slowly followed his back.
The sight of the closing door seemed particularly slow.
In that moment, like a fleeting instant, the Duke realized.
That this was the moment when his castle, built up over decades, was crumbling.
Glaring at the firmly closed door, the Duke silently clenched his fist.
[In the end, this is all Your Majesty’s own doing.]
Though he had said that to Joseph, in truth, it wasn’t applicable only to him.
After all, it was none other than his own hand that had destroyed his long-built achievements.
****
While the Emperor was conversing with the Duke, Sienna was guided to an adjoining reception room.
Left alone in the empty room, Sienna slowly walked over and sat down on a chair by the window. On the table with a chessboard, pieces were neatly arranged.
Her fingers, resting on the chessboard, reached for the pieces that a skilled craftsman would have created with great care. The touch felt smooth and soft to her fingertips.
On the other hand, the cold of Sendelk was still palpable as the warmth from the fireplace had not yet fully permeated.
While she was fiddling with the chess pieces, suddenly there was a commotion outside. The Duke’s angry voice calling Dahlia’s name could be heard loudly. Looking out the window, she saw the Duke being dragged away by soldiers.
While watching the unseemly spectacle, the door to the reception room opened.
“Thanks to you, the family villa will be a nightmare for me for the foreseeable future.”
Joseph said as he entered with a tired face. Sienna muttered without taking her eyes off the window.
“I suppose it was quite a happy memory until now.”
“Of course. At least during the hunting season, it was nice not having any irritating presence around.”
His sneering eyes slowly surveyed the room.
“I have quite a few fond memories here too. I used to spend time playing chess with the former Emperor in the adjoining room.”
His father, whom he had hated all his life, could be given some credit as the ruler of a nation for expanding territory and maintaining stability within, but he was terrible as a parent.
While his father showered Sienna with lavish love, he didn’t completely neglect Joseph and Marianne, but there was a line they couldn’t cross. That didn’t change even after Sienna was abandoned.
Appropriate affection, attention, or reprimands might have stemmed from duty, but nonetheless, they spent something close to a normal father-son daily life at the villa. The mounted stag in the villa was Joseph’s first hunting trophy, obtained with his father’s help.
Even that bit of affection quickly turned to hatred when he recalled his mother’s face, clearly ill, mumbling delirious words.
“At least here, we were no different from any ordinary family.”
“You didn’t call me here to share such memories. Get to the point.”
When Sienna coldly cut him off, Joseph laughed softly.
“It seems your time in Lopwell wasn’t enough. You still don’t know your place.”
“I understand you’re angry because things didn’t go as planned, but is this the time to take it out on me?”
As soon as possible, even if she couldn’t cover up the already exposed disgrace. Sienna smiled crookedly.
“You should have lived with integrity. If you were going to do something bad, you should have caused trouble only to the extent your brain could handle.”
Sienna clicked her tongue as if it were regrettable.
