Ch.9Succession

CRACK—!

“KYAAAAAAAH!!!”

Most people will never hear the sound of a human head bursting. Especially not the people of this world without media.

People first witness the horrific scene before them, then question the sound they heard, and third, they combine what they heard and saw to make sense of it.

And fourth comes the screaming.

“Clear it away quickly!!”

“Call the servants!”

“And a doctor!!”

Only nobles and a handful of attendants participated in the funeral; the servants who performed physical labor were not present.

They knew intellectually that they needed to remove the heavy chandelier, but their meager strength made it impossible to do so.

“Ugh… urgh…”

“HYAAAAAAAH!!”

Everyone knows that screaming won’t improve the situation, but they can’t stop. It’s too horrific.

The massive chandelier had been adorned with all manner of glass ornaments, which had now become shards mercilessly piercing into the Duke’s family.

Most were crushed or dismembered by the chandelier’s frame, and even those lucky enough to avoid direct impact were bleeding profusely from glass fragments embedded in their bodies.

“D-Duke!!!”

Crack— Crackle—

What… what the hell is this…!

I frantically called out to the Duke as I rushed forward. The sound of glass crunching underfoot spread unpleasantly.

“Urgh… ugh…”

“Duke…”

Thank goodness, compared to the others, he wasn’t trapped under the chandelier and seems relatively okay.

Though his body is riddled with glass fragments, he’s in better shape than those whose bodies were completely crushed by the chandelier.

The chandelier that fell in the middle of the procession seems to have missed directly hitting the Duke, who had been at the front.

“Cl… Claude…”

Upon seeing me, the Duke looked at me with an expression of desperate hope.

His lips and neck muscles twitched painfully.

“Pl… please…”

“Don’t speak! Your wounds will worsen!! First… ugh! Let me support you!”

The floor was completely covered with glass shards, so I couldn’t lay the Duke down there.

I grabbed his body and slowly moved backward. The glass fragments embedded in the Duke’s body pierced me as well, but perhaps due to the adrenaline rush, I didn’t feel much pain.

“Duke!!”

“Lord Charles!!”

After some time, people who had regained their senses rushed to the Duke just as I had.

Together, we carefully laid the Duke on a spot free of glass fragments, and I immediately went to where the chandelier had fallen to help the belatedly arrived servants move it.

“…”

When the spot where the chandelier had fallen was finally revealed, no one could speak.

Some still clung to life, but it was clear they would soon die.

If someone with a weak stomach had seen this scene, wouldn’t they have been unable to eat meat for the rest of their life?

“Ugh…”

……….

“Y-Young Master…?”

“Ahaha… Chloe.”

Chloe’s face upon seeing me could literally be described as pale.

No wonder. The clothes that Chloe had spent hours preparing were now in tatters from the glass fragments, with blood seeping through the gaps.

“I-I’m… I’m sorry… I… I…”

“Chloe…?”

What’s she suddenly saying? Why is she apologizing?

Despite being a maid who doesn’t work outdoors, Chloe’s fair skin had turned even paler.

Chloe was panicking and fidgeting anxiously. Her eyes were glistening with tears.

“What do you have to be sorry for, Chloe?”

“B-but… the glass…”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. The glass fragments didn’t fly and hit me; they got transferred when I was moving people, so they’re not embedded deeply.”

“Still… I should have found a better wa—”

Knock knock knock—

The knocking sound interrupts Chloe’s words.

Chloe, who had been unable to regain her composure until just now, immediately became subdued at the sound of knocking.

Hmm… is this what it means to be a maid who has to be mindful of others?

“…Yes, come in.”

Creeeak—

Anyway, I couldn’t keep whoever was outside waiting any longer, so I raised my voice slightly to answer.

Thump thump thump—

“…?”

Who are these people…?

The people who entered my room were completely different from usual.

First, the group consisted of lower attendants and high attendants with no servants among them. Unlike the lower attendants in black uniforms, the high attendants wore elaborate and luxurious clothes.

“We are here to see His Excellency Claude de Bourgogne.”

“…Pardon?”

To me, who was trying to grasp the situation, the high attendant standing at the front of the group knelt and said this.

Well… strictly speaking, my name is indeed Claude de Bourgogne.

But in all my life, no one except the Duke has ever addressed me this way. What sudden wind has—

“The Duke requests your presence.”

“…”

Only then did I vaguely understand how the situation was unfolding.

The events that had just occurred at the church flashed through my mind as I saw the attendants’ faces stained with grief.

“Chloe, I’ll be back.”

“…Yes.”

Chloe answered coldly, impossible to imagine as the sobbing girl from just moments ago.

Hmm… is she holding back because the attendants are right in front of her? I’m proud of her as a brother for doing her job well, but… it’s a bit sad that she has to suppress her emotions to live.

I’ll have to comfort her more later when the attendants are gone and we’re alone.

……….

“His Excellency Claude has arrived.”

“Cl, aude… you’ve come…”

“What is this…”

The Duke’s condition had worsened since I last saw him.

His entire body was wrapped in blood-soaked bandages, and one eye was covered with an eye patch, presumably injured when he fell to the floor.

“Huh… huhhhh…. *sob*… the doctor, the doctor… told me… all, all dead… all…”

“…”

Hearing those words, I looked at the doctor beside the Duke, but the doctor merely closed his eyes and nodded slowly.

“G-God… why on earth…”

“Duke, your wounds…”

“*cough*…! Such a trial…!”

The doctor urgently tried to stop the Duke from speaking, but the Duke ignored him and continued.

The Duke had lost all five of his children and grandchildren in a week, and now his own life was in jeopardy as well. And it happened at his children’s funeral.

I cannot possibly imagine what emotions he must be feeling. Just looking at him makes my heart ache terribly.

“Cl…aude…”

“Yes.”

“Now… you’re all I have left… you…”

“…”

The Duke’s one remaining eye stares at me intently.

Though his body is severely injured, his eye burns with fierce intensity.

“M-my… only… child…!”

“…Father.”

“Yes… yesss… father…”

When I called him father, the Duke—no, my father—exhaled deeply and smiled.

Despite his face being heavily bandaged, making it difficult to see his expression clearly, it was a smile so bright that I could tell he was definitely smiling.

“Meeting you… was a blessing.”

“…”

Father’s eye is looking at my face, but not seeing me.

“Marie… you look… just like Marie and me… exactly…”

“…Yes.”

“Heh, hehehehe…”

Father laughs with satisfaction.

In the solemn atmosphere, only father’s laughter echoes throughout the room.

“*cough*…! Everyone… listen…”

“””…Yes.”””

After a moment, the Duke, having coughed up blood, continues speaking.

His voice continues to tremble, but the Duke is using all his strength to maintain as dignified a voice as possible.

Everyone in this room knows.

What words will come next.

“I… Charles… Charles of Bourgogne…! Name Claude… as my successor… the next… Duke… I declare……”

Thud—

“…”

With those final words, father breathed his last, but no one in the room made any sound of grief. Not even a slight movement.

Only the doctor, with a solemn expression, quietly moved to check the Duke’s pulse, then weakly shook his head from side to side.

On this day, Claude became the Duke of Bourgogne.

……….

“…Oh? So that man is dead?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

In front of an enormous cloth with a white lily pattern on a blue background, a man draped in a red fur cloak sits in an office chair, listening to someone’s report.

“Well, it happens. It seems a bit early, but he was nearly 60, wasn’t he?”

The man in the red fur cloak, King Charles VIII of the Carolingian Kingdom, feels a slightly strange emotion upon hearing that a ruler with the same name as his has died, but soon dismisses it.

The name Charles, taken from the great king, is so common that there are many people with the same name.

“…He died in an accident. Moreover… his successor is said to be a bastard.”

“…What?”

King Charles VIII, upon hearing the report, narrows his eyes and urges the chancellor to tell him more.

“Hmm…”

The chancellor nodded and explained everything that had happened in the Duchy of Bourgogne over the past three weeks, and Charles VIII, hearing this, snorts and falls into thought.

“…Chancellor.”

Charles VIII, who had been lost in thought with his chin resting on the office desk, speaks to the chancellor standing at attention before him in a cracking voice after a while.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“According to the laws of the Carolingian Kingdom, if a vassal dies without an heir, doesn’t the title revert to the king?”

“Yes.”

“And isn’t the Duchy of Bourgogne our fief?”

“Indeed it is.”

Although the Duchy of Bourgogne was granted independence by a peace treaty twenty years ago, the king and chancellor are deliberately ignoring this fact.

The peace treaty only stated that [The Duke of Bourgogne renounces all duties and rights as a vassal of the Carolingian Kingdom.]

Conventionally, that sentence is interpreted as recognizing independence, but strictly speaking, couldn’t it be interpreted literally without issue?

That the Duchy of Bourgogne, the territory of the Duke of Bourgogne, is still part of the Carolingian Kingdom, just without duties and rights.

“We cannot recognize the ascension of a mere bastard.”