“Lucia, I heard from Madam Leven that you refuse to attend classes anymore. Is it true?”
Lucia’s whole body stiffened with tension at her father’s uncharacteristically sharp question. When Lucia made no reply, Duke Bledel spoke in a meaningful voice, as if he was onto something.
“If Madam Leven has offended you, we can change your teacher.”
Lucia knew her father was firmly angry.
Madam Leven had been in and out of the Duke’s mansion for some time now, acting as her private tutor. Initially, Lucia thought she would be learning etiquette and such that young noble ladies should know. However, as she continued the lessons, Lucia felt something strange.
What she was learning had to do with imperial etiquette, history, and common knowledge related to being an empress.
Sensing her parents’ intentions, Lucia had been behaving rebelliously towards Madam Leven since then.
Lucia was still afraid of her father, but this time she wasn’t going to back down. She clenched her fists in determination and opened her mouth to speak to him.
“Father, what Madam Leven teaches me is useless for a mere noble lady like me. I don’t want to waste my time on them when I’m not even going to be the empress.”
Then the Duke of Bledel turned to Lucia and spoke in a gentler voice, as if to persuade her.
“You don’t yet know what you will become in the future. There’s no need to view the world so narrowly.”
Lucia could feel the coldness in her father’s crimson eyes. But she couldn’t back down now that she had made up her mind.
“Are you suggesting that I might become an empress?”
Instead of answering, Duke Bladel revealed a deeper smile. It was a silence imbued with affirmation. The thought of her becoming an empress was unthinkable.
Even if she had to become the wife of someone she didn’t love as a noblewoman, she could never allow herself to be so unscrupulous as to steal her sister’s husband.
She straightened her back even more, meeting her father’s gaze with determined eyes.
“I have never disobeyed father’s wishes, but I will never steal my sister’s place.”
At Lucia’s mention of Lethenia, Duke Bledel’s eyes grew even colder. Lucia involuntarily flinched at the sight, but she had no intention of retracting her words.
“Lucia, Lethenia is not part of our family.”
“Why do you hate her so much?”
“…….”
“I know all about it—how she lived in the duchy before entering the Imperial Palace. That was truly unjust, Father.”
Lucia’s rebellious attitude triggered the anger of Duke Bledel. After a moment of silence, Duke Bledel spoke to his dear daughter in a voice as cold as winter.
“My dear, you must never speak of Lethenia again.”
“But…….”
“I will not forgive anyone for speaking such impudent words in my presence, even if it is my daughter.”
Unable to speak further under Duke Bledel’s intense warning, Lucia bit her lip.
Following that, the Duke ordered his attendant to confine Lucia to the confinement room. Hearing this, Lucia bit her; however, she didn’t want to grovel and apologize to her father.
She obediently followed the attendant’s lead. They arrived at the attic on the third floor.
As soon as she entered the room, she heard the sound of a lock being turned from the outside. It was still a lonely space with no warmth. What thoughts could her sister have had while confined in this small room?
Lucia leaned closer to the window, which was only the size of her face. A gentle breeze blew in, and her hair swayed lightly.
Outside the window, the Favia flowers had already disappeared. Her mother had removed all the flowers that were there and replaced them with vibrant tulips, changing the atmosphere of the garden.
Lucia stared out the window and thought to herself. Thank goodness it was after her sister left that the Favia flowers were removed.
━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━
Someone entered the Duke’s office. It was Frederick Heston, a child with his eyes covered by white cloth.
Although he appeared to be an ordinary child, he was a middle-aged man on the inside. His physical development had stopped due to black magic, but his consciousness continued to grow.
Instead, Frederick possessed magic power several times stronger than an average black mage and could maintain his lifespan for a longer period of time.
As soon as Duke Bledel saw his longtime companion, he scolded him in a dry voice.
“What are you doing showing up now?”
“I had some business to attend to.”
Frederick said, roughly removing the cloth that covered his eyes. It revealed a pair of grotesque eyes filled with blackness.
“I can’t seem to adapt with those eyes no matter how much time passes, tsk.”
The Duke of Bledel clicked his tongue as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have. Frederick raised one corner of his mouth and smirked.
“How amusing. Isn’t it mostly your fault that my eyes turned this way? Just today, I had to kill five people to extend your esteemed Duke’s lifespan.”
Frederick’s brow furrowed in discomfort, but Duke Bledel was unperturbed.
The reason he could freely control such terrifying black magicians was all thanks to the power of the light of Nenrol.
An extremely pleasurable substance that, once touched, is inescapable. To the black mages, whose sensitivity to pleasure was unparalleled, it brought an ecstasy worse than any demonic temptation.
Thus enslaved to the light of Nenrol, black mages took orders from the Duke of Bledel in a sort of commercial contractual relationship, performing illegal tasks.
These tasks primarily involved murder, which for the black mages, who already enjoyed killing without hesitation, was nothing more than a small hobby.
But it was a good thing, as it not only relieved their boredom but also gave them access to the light of Nenrol. Moreover, as long as they continued to receive the protection of the noble Duke, the risk of their status being exposed was minimal.
Especially for a black mage like Frederick, who had the appearance of a child, it was even more advantageous.
“If you had brought the nectar properly, you wouldn’t have gone through such trouble.”
Duke Bledel expressed his dissatisfaction with a disgruntled look.
“I told you it couldn’t be helped because some nuisance in a black mask suddenly appeared.”
Frederick was waiting outside the auction house due to a problem with the nectar. One of the members of the Black Mask organization mistaken him for a real child, decided to play the role of a guardian, and stuck by his side.
Frederick found it very annoying, so he intended to kill him as soon as they were alone. But he had a magical defense tool. Frederick had to expend more magic than he expected to break it.
Because of this, he lost his timing and was forced to give up the nectar.
“In the end, that guy proved useful for extending your lifespan, so don’t be too hard on me.”
Frederick looked at the Duke of Bledel, whose complexion had somehow improved.
The Duke of Bledel, who had been on the brink of death, was able to recover his strength thanks to Frederick’s forbidden technique, which involved committing an enormous number of murders, like hunting humans.
Rejuvenated, the Duke of Bledel was able to return to the front lines in one piece, and in exchange, he gave Frederick a significant amount of Light of Nenrol.
But the dozens of sacrifices Frederick had already made were not enough to prolong the Duke of Bledel’s precarious life; his black magic could only extend it by a few months.
The Duke was well aware of this fact, but the whereabouts of the nectar stolen by another organization were unknown. In addition, reckless killings would attract the Emperor’s persistent investigation.
“The Nectar left Asha a long time ago. It would have been easier if they headed to Delua, but they slipped into Etherstar, making it harder to track them.”
Frederick replied with an expected answer. It was a waste of time to continue chasing after the nectar. This led Duke Bledel to one conclusion.
‘We’ll just have to kill all the Xenosian.’
He didn’t need the nectar if he could capture all the Xenosian and use them as sacrifices to extend his own life.
The negative public opinion about the Xenosian was growing stronger due to the tricks of the Duke’s faction. However, the Emperor’s faction, favoring Xenosian, showed no signs of overlooking the situation.
The Emperor continued to persistently investigate the attack at the audience-day event. Recently, the Empress’s strange behavior and ominous rumors have made the position of the Duke faction uneasy.
There was only one way to resolve all of this. The Duke stroked his chin and recalled his discussions with the Prince of Delua, Tolle.
<I am not like my father. You know that it was only with the help of Delua that Asha was able to win the war against Xenos in such a short time. But the crooked Emperor Cassel broke his promise to us and took eighty percent of Xenos territory.>
Tolle glanced at Duke Bledel, his words sharp and deliberately provocative.
<Of course, I am well aware that you were involved in that matter as well. At that time, Bledel was undoubtedly Cassel’s loyal dog.>
<Yet you must be in a great hurry, Your Highness, to reach out to me first.>
The Duke of Bledel sneered at Tolle’s provocations. But Tolle remained unfazed and continued.
<No need for unnecessary tension; I hear you’re not doing so well yourself, so why the stiffness?>
<What would your highness give me in return?>
Bledel said, as if testing the waters. Tolle didn’t hesitate and immediately uttered words that were quite tempting.
<I will provide you with Delua forces, and in return, you will give me the vast territory of Xenos.>
<That’s quite an interesting offer.>
<The current Emperor has no heir, so when he dies, the Cassel line will come to an end, so I suppose it’s time for Bledel to take over?>
Tolle’s words sank into the Duke of Bledel’s mind like a slithering snake. He was provoked by the idea of continuing a war of attrition with the feisty Emperor.
He pondered for a moment, weighing the possibilities of what might happen after he and Tolle joined hands.
