Chapter 51: Invitation – 5

Chapter 51: Invitation – 5

The rumor that guests were finally coming to the Duke’s mansion spread quickly.

Not only among the Duke’s servants… but also to the ears of servants from other noble families.

And… as a natural progression, to the ears of other nobles.

Since the capital was a place where rumors spread rapidly, the news, which had only appeared the previous night, had already spread by morning.

“Did you hear the rumor? This time, at the Duke’s residence…”

“Yes, I heard they invited someone who helped the young lady with her work.”

“Anyway, it’s truly an unprecedented event. To see someone other than a member of the Duke’s family enter that mansion again….”

Some nobles tried to find out who the invited guest was……

But it wasn’t just anyone; it was someone who had helped the Defense Force, so their identity couldn’t be easily discovered. 

In the first place, if the Duke’s guests could be leaked so easily, the Duke’s family wouldn’t still hold such prestige in this empire.

A pillar supporting the empire, positioned beneath the Emperor.

Many nobles had challenged them… but they had been defeated over several generations, and had served the Emperor as the Imperial Family’s right-hand man for generations.

That was the current standing of the Duke’s family within the empire.

……Of course, what was visible wasn’t everything, and they had just as many enemies, but it was an undeniable fact that the Duke’s family held such authority.

Even nobles who dared to question the Emperor’s authority couldn’t say much when the Duke’s family directly stepped forward; such was their power.

And the source of that power was… in the private army, the only one in the empire cultivated without restrictions.

The right to own a private army, unregulated in terms of size, armament, or any other aspect.

Excluding the Imperial Guard and the empire’s official army,

No, perhaps even including those two, they possessed the strongest and largest military organization, so power naturally followed.

And the revenue from their imperial territory was… wealthy and developed enough to maintain and train such a massive army as elites.

Located on the border, advantageous for trade, and with excellent soil quality, allowing for farming.

In return, they always took on the role of defending against raids from foreign tribes and monsters crossing the border…

But with such a mighty army, it was never a significant problem.

Therefore, the Duke’s family was always an object of both reverence and jealousy from other nobles.

Because the Dukes, generation after generation, never tolerated even an inch of noble corruption.

They were certainly not wrong; rather, they were exemplary nobles who bestowed good governance upon the common people, but…

From the nobles’ perspective, they were merely annoying obstacles hindering their own gains.

No, even for the Emperor of the empire, it wasn’t much different.

There was even a famous anecdote passed down through generations in the empire, concerning the Duke’s family and the Emperor.

In the past, an Emperor of the empire disliked the Duke’s family and felt uncomfortable with their intervention in imperial affairs under the pretext of assisting the Imperial Family.

Therefore… he ignored the Duke’s family’s advice and began to govern as he pleased, and naturally, the empire began to decline.

After advising that Emperor several times, but having all their advice ignored by the Emperor, the Duke’s family…

…It is said that they declared the Emperor was committing tyranny beyond bounds, and led all their private soldiers to the Imperial Palace, demanding good governance.

And… the number of those private soldiers easily overwhelmed the total number of soldiers in the capital.

Since then, it is said that the Emperor never ignored the Duke’s family, nor could he.

Such was the absolute prestige the Duke’s family held in the empire, an impregnable fortress that would never fall.

…Until, in the present, the key figures of the Duke’s family were all assassinated, and even the Duke’s wife was assassinated.

It was an act orchestrated by nobles who had disliked the Duke’s family for generations, and the Emperor who subtly sought to escape the Duke’s influence, working together.

At that time, a woman who wished to see the world as a beautiful place sat as the Duke’s wife, making infiltration all too easy.

On the day the Duke’s wife was assassinated by the girl she had brought in, the Duke’s family lost three of their most outstanding servants and two of the Duke’s own siblings.

So meaninglessly.

Normally, the Duke’s family would not have tolerated any threat, but… well.

Perhaps it was due to the Duke’s wife’s request that on that day, which was the Duke and his wife’s anniversary, both commoners and other nobles could enjoy the banquet?

Or perhaps it was because the Imperial Family, who had always helped each other for the past 100 years, had betrayed them?

On that day, the first time the Duke’s mansion was opened to everyone in the capital, such a tragedy occurred.

If the Duke himself and his escorts hadn’t quickly swept through the mansion, the only heir, the young lady, might not have existed in this world either.

Since that day, the Duke’s mansion closed its doors, and the Duke’s family quietly focused on internal recovery, more than ever before.

Thanks to the current Duke’s efforts, the internal affairs of the Duke’s family were sorted out… but the young lady, who would normally have served as the Knight Commander, had to settle for merely the position of Defense Commander.

In the face of the Emperor, who never stepped forward and outwardly still feigned intimacy with the Duke’s family, and the malice of nobles who had been biding their time for generations,

The Duke’s family was unable to exert its former prestige.

……Until the young lady, who was the Defense Commander, utterly destroyed a branch of ‘the Organization,’ the capital’s largest criminal syndicate.

A mission no other Defense Commander had ever solved.

Because of this, praise for the Duke’s family once again poured forth among the common people,

And the Duke’s family, which had been reeling from the sudden assassination of key personnel, had also completed all its recovery efforts and was on the verge of reclaiming its original position.

The flaw in the Duke’s family, which nobles and the Emperor had painstakingly created together, was on the verge of being restored.

……Therefore, the radical factions among the nobles who most strongly opposed the Duke’s family, commonly known as the ‘Anti-Duke Faction,’

Especially those radical nobles who had even ordered an attack on the girl seemingly connected to the young lady to find her weakness, could absolutely not let this moment pass them by.

Even more so… at the point when they had mobilized all their intelligence sources, including the Emperor’s support, and obtained information that the girl they had attacked in the past had played a key role in the recent ‘Organization’ crackdown.

“…There are two targets in total. The top priority is the Duke, and if possible, eliminate the girl the young lady invited as well.”

“”Yes.””

“You must eliminate at least one of them. If you fail… be prepared to forfeit your lives.”

These were individuals trained solely for infiltration and assassination of the Duke’s family.

Over a decade ago, key figures of the Duke’s family also lost their lives to these assassins, trained by these radical nobles.

These individuals, who were certainly not trained by ethically normal methods, pledged absolute loyalty to their commanders and would sacrifice their lives for any mission if ordered.

And… that absolute loyalty had not changed since that day over a decade ago when they first succeeded in an assassination at the Duke’s residence.

……The Duke’s mansion, which had to be more lax than usual after receiving guests for the first time in over a decade.

Therefore, they… intended to recreate the tragedy of the Duke’s family from over a decade ago.

This time… by taking the Duke’s own life.

***

…It’s been about 30 seconds since I entered the banquet hall with Christie.

……I feel like I’m going to suffocate to death.

Even if I can somehow endure the glances from the servants behind me since earlier……

“…Is this the one? The one you invited.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Hmm… I see. The Imperial Guard has specially taken charge of the mansion’s security today, so there should be no issues with her identity.”

…I can’t handle the Duke’s chilling gaze.

Moreover, he keeps reaching for his sword as if something displeases him, which makes me terribly scared that if I say one wrong word, I’ll become Lu/cia.

No, I was literally realizing in real-time what it meant to kill someone with just a look.

…For a moment, I even wondered how such a person could possibly be assassinated.

“…Since when has the Imperial Guard been in charge of the Duke’s mansion’s security?”

“I requested it. Have you forgotten the unfortunate incident that occurred previously, relying solely on the mansion’s security?

 Originally, I requested the regular army, but His Majesty personally sent the Imperial Guard.”

……And Christie’s eyes, looking directly at the Duke and speaking so precisely, were no less intense.

If she had had such an intense gaze when we first met… well.

I don’t know for sure, but I doubt the name Christie would have remained in my life for this long.

Fortunately, unlike the Duke, Christie was easy to approach thanks to my appearance.

…Unfortunately, it seemed the Duke didn’t have a setting for liking cute things.

‘No, even so, for me, they’d send the Imperial Guard….’

Of course, I know that there were unfortunate incidents in the past, including the assassination of the Duke’s wife.

…To be precise, I don’t know perfectly since it wasn’t described in the novel, but…

 I know that nobles who wished for the downfall of the Duke’s family and the current Emperor conspired to assassinate key figures of the Duke’s family.

It was said that due to the Duke’s wife’s suggestion, outsiders could freely enter and exit the Duke’s residence, and security was loosened, which led to that disaster.

Naturally, it was because the Emperor was behind it that the Duke’s family’s security was so easily neutralized.

The Duke’s guards probably never thought that people whose identities were vouched for by the Imperial Guard would cause trouble.

…Unfortunately, neither the Duke nor Christie knew that the Emperor had betrayed them, and in the end of the novel, Christie is even killed by the Emperor.

The Emperor must have certainly influenced the Duke’s death in the original story.

In that sense, I understand why the Duke is concerned about security now that I, an outsider, have entered.

To the extent of using the ‘Imperial Guard,’ the Emperor’s closest and elite unit, as security…?

‘Now that I think about it, doesn’t the Duke get assassinated and die soon after this…?’

……The fact that the beautifully arranged appetizer in front of me suddenly started looking blue is definitely not just my imagination.