The Lovely Duchess's Secret

The emperor had a headache.

Today was a good day.

After a plan spanning about a year, he had finally dealt a decisive blow to the demon grand duke, a thorn in his side. As an emperor, it couldn’t be a better day.

Yet, the emperor had a headache.

The reason Grand Duke Adramelech was called the demon grand duke wasn’t just because of his association with black magic or his tyrannical rule that devastated the north.

Rumors had been circulating in secret about Grand Duke Adramelech, who had manipulated the underworld of the empire for the past few years.

Stories about ruthless nobles abducting commoner children for experiments and various entertainments—those rumors centered on the grand duke.

The countless bones and bizarre corpses found all over the grand duchy made it clear these weren’t just rumors.

According to the imperial knight commander, rooms that appeared to be arenas, circus rooms, human breeding grounds, and live experiment rooms were discovered in large quantities.

The problem was that all the evidence found were corpses.

There was only one survivor: a girl imprisoned in a small cell in an underground laboratory.

Hence, the emperor had a headache.

According to the report, all documents, including experiment logs, seemed to have been burned long ago, and the girl appeared to have been living as a test subject in that place alone for years.

It was obvious that she was in a state worse than a mad person.

Even if she retained some sanity, it was impossible to get testimony from her, let alone use it to implicate other involved nobles.

The imperial side might face backlash if not careful.

Adding to the problem was another issue.

Despite positioning himself as anti-emperor, Grand Duke Adramelech was a clear royal blood, an insane younger brother for the emperor.

The Montefeltro Duke, whose motives were unclear, had made the swift operation possible. Without him, the takedown wouldn’t have been so easy.

Though notorious in a different way, this young duke’s involvement in this operation remained a mystery, but in the end, the imperial family owed him a debt.

It was good when he offered help.

After much deliberation, the emperor finally reached a conclusion.

For now, just demolishing the grand duchy was a significant enough victory to celebrate.

While the evidence of the grand duke’s crimes wasn’t enough to implicate other arrogant nobles, it was enough to keep them cautious and in line for a while.

Just these two outcomes were enough for the imperial family to consider it a success.

He should stop worrying, especially since his hair was thinning these days.

And he decided to leave the handling of the surviving unknown girl to the one who discovered her: the Duke of Montefeltro.

Whatever experiments she underwent, and whatever the reason she survived, it was clear that the grand duke had hesitated to dispose of her until the end, indicating she was not ordinary.

Considering the grand duke’s tendencies, it was definitely not in a good way.

The emperor had no intention of dealing with that ticking time bomb.

Once he handed her over to the duke, any future issues would be beyond the imperial family’s responsibility.