episode_0075

“Hmm…”

The day a formal document from the Knights Order and a letter sent directly by a presumptuous young man arrived on my desk simultaneously.

Coincidentally, both were related to the second son of Count Hume, so, intrigued, I slowly read the formal document and the letter.

Both texts had lengthy, flowery rhetoric, but when summarized, it boiled down to a single sentence.

[If it’s not too much trouble, please lend me a few knights.]

“Secretary, is this friend of mine sick these days?”

“He did seem a little tired.”

“Tired isn’t the word, it’s like he’s lost his mind.”

To lose his mind at such a young age, it’s regrettable, but being targeted by the Emperor at such a young age isn’t something a typical noble son experiences, so it wasn’t incomprehensible.

However, one slightly odd thing is that the Emperor has been quiet recently…

“Has anything happened to Lord William?”

“Nothing in particular has happened to Lord William himself. Although the advertisement posted under the name of the atelier he runs has gained some popularity, that’s all.”

“Then why suddenly?”

“This is in the realm of speculation, but…”

The secretary, his face filled with hesitation, trailed off, darting his eyes around, before avoiding my gaze and continuing.

“Last week, Lady Lily had a private audience with His Majesty.”

“Right… Wait, who?”

I seemed to have heard a name that shouldn’t have come from the secretary’s mouth, so I straightened up from my half-slumped posture and asked again.

“Lady Lily spoke with His Majesty in a private room for about an hour.”

“Ha-”

A sigh erupted like a dam bursting.

Speculation or not, that was the problem.

“Do you know what they talked about?”

“No one knows, other than Lady Lily and His Majesty.”

“Hmm…”

This definitely means the Emperor’s influence has been brought to bear on Lord William.

No, not just the Emperor, Lily is probably putting some pressure on William as well.

At this point, both Lily and the Emperor have been patient for a long time, but for their patience to run out simultaneously, Lord William was unlucky.

“So, what has Lord William started doing since the private audience?”

“He placed a new advertisement in the newspaper, and it seems he’s also making new clothes.”

“A new advertisement and clothes, huh…”

Both seemed like unnecessary actions.

Changing the Knights Order’s patrol route due to the young ladies’ enthusiastic response happened just last week.

There’s no way the popularity would suddenly wane in just a week, so new advertisements and clothes during such a busy time?

“Can we obtain the newspaper being published this time before it’s released?”

“Actually, the newspaper company has already submitted the newspaper.”

“What?”

“It’s ambiguous whether to call it a confession or a request for prior censorship, but the newspaper company voluntarily submitted the newspaper to the Knights Order this morning.”

“So, the result?”

“For an unknown reason, it was delivered directly to His Majesty.”

“Ah…”

As expected, the Emperor was the culprit.

Because of the Emperor’s pressure, the newspaper company is being cautious, and Lord William himself must have committed something outrageous enough to feel threatened.

This wasn’t madness, but a desperate struggle by a sane person.

“Assign a few knights to Lord William for the time being.”

“Yes? Is that alright?”

“We must do this much for a subject who is doing his best to amuse His Majesty.”

It was definitely not out of a sense of camaraderie from seeing someone tormented by the same woman, which caused me to feel sympathy.

_

“…I really can’t believe it!”

“Hmm?”

Count Longford stopped his walk towards the garden, hearing his wife’s voice echoing through the mansion from early in the morning, and looked in the direction of the sound.

Then, he carefully retraced his actions, wondering if he had done anything to upset his wife.

‘The wedding anniversary is in the spring, my wife’s birthday is three months away, and I’ve been cutting down on alcohol recently…’

The more the Count recalled his actions, the more a chilling feeling spread down his spine.

He couldn’t believe that someone who would only sulk if he forgot their wedding anniversary would be expressing such intense anger.

“Tsk…”

Feeling that he couldn’t just stand still, the Count immediately turned around and hurried in the direction of his wife’s voice.

“For something like this to happen in our mansion…!”

The closer the Count got to his wife, the more the nervous and sharp high-pitched voice that clearly pierced the Count’s ears made him uneasy.

‘A servant’s insubordination, a child’s rebellion, or a servant’s crime…’

Each of the things that could anger his wife was extraordinary.

The Count’s steps, his lips starting to dry out, soon turned into a run.

“Right in front of my eyes…”

“……”

Turning the corner and arriving in the lobby, what entered Count Longford’s eyes was his wife, holding a pile of grayish-white papers and blushing, and the servants, their faces pale, bowing their heads in front of her.

“Gasp…!”

The Count was quite shocked that the servants’ problem, which he had half-expected, was actually true, but he tried his best to hide his agitation and shouted loudly to his wife.

“Wife! What’s wrong?”

“Honey…!”

The Countess, confirming the Count, staggered towards him with a tearful expression and collapsed into his arms.

“Wife, I’m here, so calm down now.”

“Huff… Huff…”

“……”

The Count patted his wife, who fit perfectly into his arms, while also examining the servants.

Seeing the servants’ expressions mixed with bewilderment, fear, and resentment, the Count felt that he should step back and carefully examine the situation, rather than taking sides with anyone first.

“So, wife, what on earth happened?”

“Huff… From this morning, the servants have been looking at very, pa… scandalous pictures.”

“Scandalous pictures?”

“Look at this!”

The Countess, stepping back out of the Count’s arms, unfolded the paper with trembling hands and showed the Count a certain page.

‘A newspaper…?’

A scandalous picture coming out of a newspaper, the Count couldn’t understand it, but he couldn’t say it openly to his wife, who was angry and whose cheeks and ears were red, so he carefully examined the page his wife had unfolded.

What unfolded before the Count’s eyes was a picture of an elf whose clothes were wet, revealing her skin.

The first word that came to the Count’s mind when he saw the elf’s appearance was “lewd.”

The skin and underwear that were openly visible, the calves not covered by the skirt, the imbalance of decorating the hair like a pure girl, while emphasizing that the body revealed underneath was a mature woman, tightened the man’s heart.

At the same time, the thought that flashed through a corner of the Count’s mind was “beautiful.”

A nearly perfect female body, a beauty that makes you wonder if you dare harbor lust.

More like a fairy than a person.

More like a statue than a woman.

Like a work of art, it makes you feel admiration and recite praise after feeling a moment of instinctive desire.

“Ah…”

“Honey?”

“Hot…!”

As the Count savored the beauty of the elf in the picture, his wife’s voice, full of doubt, pierced the Count’s ear.

Regaining his senses and taking his eyes off the newspaper, the Count then confirmed his wife, who was glaring at him with sharp eyes.

“Ah, that… it’s very scandalous.”

“That’s right!”

The survival instinct that was triggered instinctively made the Count agree with his wife’s words.

Then, his wife, understanding that the Count was too shocked to speak, shook her shoulders and poured out her anger.

“To be looking at something like this, how can they be so vulgar…!”

“Ah…”

The Count could now understand the clues to the situation.

“Wife, I understand your feelings, but calm down and listen to me.”

“Haa… Alright.”

“I’m the one who receives this newspaper. I was reading it because it contains news from all over the Empire, but strangely, there’s a picture like this today. The servants must have been flustered too. It would have been difficult to dispose of it arbitrarily since I was the one reading it.”

“Ah…”

The blood drained from his wife’s face, and the vitality returned to her eyes, which had been slightly out of focus.

And his wife, realizing what mistake she had made, glanced at the newspaper and the servants, biting her lip slightly.

“I’m… I’m sorry, I was too excited and poured out unfair anger on you.”

“Huff…!”

The servants’ and Count’s expressions brightened and sighs of relief burst out from various places at the sight of his wife bowing her head slightly and apologizing to the servants.

“I’ll be sure to atone for this incident someday, so go back to your respective jobs now.”

“Yes.”

And his wife, who even promised compensation, gave freedom to the servants who had been forcibly held back.

“You did well, wife.”

“No, it’s my fault, how can you say I did well? I should have listened to the servants…”

“It’s fortunate that you admitted your mistake even belatedly, the servants will understand.”

The Count approached his wife and patted her on the shoulder.

His wife looked at the newspaper with a gloomy expression, then met the Count’s eyes, putting strength into the hand holding the newspaper.

“Honey, let’s cancel this scandalous newspaper right away.”

“Hmm, there’s no need to go that far… Gasp…!”

“What did you say?”

The Count, who had reflexively denied his wife’s words, realized what mistake he had made when he saw his wife’s expression slowly turning cold, and hurriedly covered his lips with both hands.

But the words that had already been spilled could not be easily taken back.

His wife shook her shoulders and drove the Count against the wall, poking her chest with her finger and began to pour out her resentment-filled voice.

“You…! Do you like this kind of thing so much?! I can also do this kind of thing…”

His wife, pouring out her anger and glancing at the picture in the newspaper, seemed unable to say ‘I can do it,’ and trailed off with a gloomy expression.

“Wife…?”

The Count carefully called his wife, seeing her expression turning rapidly gloomy.

“…You probably don’t like old women like me anymore, do you?”

“Wife, that’s not it…!”

The Count hugged his wife, who was falling into self-deprecation beyond gloom, tightly, and was faced with the difficulty of having to prove his love from the morning.

On the other hand, a certain young nobleman, who was the person responsible for spreading small and large disturbances throughout the empire…

“This is a letter from the Imperial Family to Lord William.”

[His Majesty feels great pleasure in your actions and commends you.]

[Accepting your request, we will dispatch knights until we deem it unnecessary.]

“Wow!”

He was smiling like a boy, delighted by the praise from His Majesty the Emperor and the knights dispatched by His Highness the Crown Prince.