Chapter 7

 

Count Ruslan of Kaitel was lost in old memories in his study.

Perhaps the fatigue from his solitary carriage ride through the night was finally catching up to him. The memories he’d been unconsciously immersed in had become vivid before his eyes, almost like a dream.

He, just fourteen years old at the time, had stood forlornly in the Grand Duke’s cemetery.

He stared down at the tombstone on the ground. A desolate wind, blowing from the distant north, ruffled the boy’s hair.

Then, someone approached his side.

It was Grand Duchess Annelise von Licht. The current ruler of the North was also dressed in mourning attire, the hem of her black muslin dress fluttering constantly.

“Have I ever told you about it?”

Ruslan looked at her with dry eyes.

“About when I met Valentina.”

“…No, Your Grace. Mother told me, but not Your Grace.”

“What did Valentina say?”

“She said she didn’t know why you didn’t kill her that day in the snowy mountains.”

Annelise laughed.

“Indeed. Why did I save her? I was twisted back then. My younger brother, who was going to climb to the top in the capital, died suddenly, and my land was drafted as a supply line for a senseless war of slaughter.”

“…”

“Still, it was all Emperor Georg’s fault. He shouldn’t have taken his anger out on a small nation before him. I’m glad I upheld that principle.”

“You are saying you took my mother in out of principle?”

“I was on patrol alone and found a pregnant woman crawling in the snow. Her country and royal family had already been destroyed. Should I have captured her, treating her as a queen?”

“…”

“Her will to live was beautiful.”

Annelise slowly looked down at Ruslan. Her thick, curly black hair and red eyes caught Ruslan’s gaze.

She reached out to the boy, who shared her coloring, and gently brushed his hair away from his forehead.

“Is this magic that Valentina cast on you?”

“Yes. Because I’m supposed to be a child of Count Kaitel…”

“My younger brother, who died childless, is proving useful at times like this. Anyway, as your great-aunt, I will take responsibility for you until you come of age.”

“Your Grace.”

Annelise smiled warmly.

“Don’t worry. I have an ulterior motive. It’s better for my fatherless daughter to have a brother, in case something happens to me, isn’t it?”

The dreamlike recollection ended. It was because his confidant, Semyon, had placed a teacup down.

“Young master, while reviewing legal documents is commendable, please take a break.”

“Am I still ‘young master’ even at this age?”

“Even if you have received your title, you are ‘young master’ until you are married.”

Ruslan chuckled briefly. Semyon had originally been a royal guard who followed the fleeing queen of the fallen kingdom. Ruslan, whom he had served since he was a baby, must still look young to him.

Semyon also brightened the lamp on the desk a bit and said,

“I was worried with the snow falling, but I am relieved that you returned safely at dawn… I’m glad that the top-secret mission was a success.”

“It was sheer luck. The empty shell of a body was disposed of in an appropriate place. It won’t be long before the news of Charlotte Moden’s death reaches here. Here, keep the documents for the capital safe and then send them.”

Semyon respectfully received the scroll. Ruslan hesitated for a moment, then asked,

“Semyon, did you perhaps want to go with me and see the fallen palace?”

For Ruslan, his homeland was a rootless, intangible thing. But he wondered if it might be different for his aged confidant.

Semyon shook his head.

“Witnessing fallen glory would only unsettle an old man’s heart. And magic belongs to the royal family. It is disloyalty for someone like me to carelessly peek at it.”

Aura might be the power that everyone possesses, but wielding it freely is another matter. Not all Ipenians could use magic like that.

Ruslan could only wield a few things that he had inherited from his mother. Countless amounts of knowledge were destroyed under the empire’s feet. Among the few remaining legacies, the magic of immortality, which had caused the destruction, was secured. What a twisted irony.

“So, is that evil woman usable?”

Semyon asked in a heavy voice.

There was a concealed ferocity beneath the calmness. It was a determination to deal with anything by his own hands if it posed a threat to his master.

Ruslan was grateful for his loyalty, but he twisted his lips.

“Is she an evil woman because she accumulated sins in a chaotic world? She was not an unfeeling person.”

“That’s a relief, but I’ve just heard she beat a maid as soon as she opened her eyes.”

“A maid? Beat her?”

An unexpected laugh burst out.

He had already known that maid’s temperament. She was a typical type to disrupt the order of the organization. He had deliberately assigned her to test how the newly reborn Juju would handle things, but she was not easy.

“Thanks to that, what you did in the bedroom spread far and wide. I was worried that the evil woman might have seduced you, which is why I asked.”

Seduction?

Ruslan was momentarily bewildered, but quickly grasped the situation.

The proposal to form a lovers’ contract was entirely a ploy that Ruslan had come up with on his own. Since Semyon knew Juju’s identity, he had made an absurd misunderstanding.

‘But, there is no need to reveal the truth…’

A relationship like this is more credible when it is deceitful from the inside out.

Ruslan clenched his fist and cleared his throat. He needed time to think, since he was making it up on the spot.

“What do you take me for? Do you think I would be led around by her?”

But, thinking back on it, he had been led around. He couldn’t resist her urging him to kiss her neck. He felt a little embarrassed as he tried to suck the white, soft skin, as if he was defiling it.

He ignored the unfavorable facts for the time being.

“We were just caught up in the moment while changing clothes. A physical relationship was appropriate for a partnership between a man and a woman. Since she’s a woman betrayed by the Emperor, I thought she would be loyal if I filled the void.”

“…Is that so. If the evil woman is not trying to manipulate you, then Semyon shall not press the matter.”

“Stop with that title. Now that we are in the same boat, you and she are in the same position.”

This was Ruslan’s sincere thought.

When he first resolved to take revenge, he had thoroughly investigated Charlotte’s life.

She was usually depicted as an evil woman steeped in greed and carnage, but when compared to her actual actions, there was a sense of incongruity.

Her senses as an assassin were almost instinctive. She cleanly excised only those who were most dangerous to the Emperor at the time. Compared to her swift, thorough skills and achievements, what she actually received was modest.

Wasn’t this closer to a loyal subject?

He trusted the person he perceived between the lines and made a gamble. And he met the woman crawling in the snowy mountains.

Only then did he understand what Annelise had said a long time ago.

The sight of the will to live burning sometimes looks beautiful.

Meanwhile, Semyon interpreted Ruslan’s feelings as he pleased.

‘He is still the young master after all. He is at the age when he could be drawn to appearances, no matter what his inner thoughts are.’

The body the evil woman now occupied had striking beauty even among the maids in the mansion. He guessed that as a young and healthy man, he must have felt stimulated.

Then, the door to the study burst open. The two men’s differing opinions also shattered.

Juju, who had finished grooming, appeared in a dress.

The old dress looked more venerable thanks to her beauty. The way she dragged the long hem was natural.

She didn’t seem like a maid wearing such a dress for the first time. Ruslan realized that the figure of a former noblewoman was inside her.

Juju boldly approached Ruslan and sat on the armrest. She brought her face close to his, as if to show off to the old man.

“The maid the Count called was a diligent and obedient person. What shall we do from now on? Do you have a plan?”

Ruslan smiled and clasped his hands on his knees.

“First, sit over there. Let’s discuss what we’ll do from now on.”

According to Ruslan’s plan, they were scheduled to leave for the capital soon.

It was welcome news to Juju. She had been prepared to wait patiently here. She was ecstatic to start so soon.

Therefore, Ruslan was quickly finishing up the remaining work.

He was organizing his inheritance rights as the proxy of the Grand Duke Licht, establishing a budget plan, and reorganizing personnel, in order to lay the groundwork for the territory to function even during his absence.

Although the existing staff would be in charge of the practical administration, he needed extensive knowledge himself to lead them effectively.

Ruslan was competent in that area. The chaotic atmosphere that had resulted from the Grand Duke’s sudden death was returning to stability under his leadership.

Juju observed it through the experiences she had had in the imperial palace back when she was Charlotte.

‘Considering his age, he is probably exceptionally talented.’

She didn’t want to compare him to Albert, but he did come to mind.

Meanwhile, Juju roamed freely through the mansion as the Count’s lover.

The servants whispered about their fates changing overnight.

“Was Juju originally like that? She’s completely changed since she woke up from the poison?”

“Look at how she speaks informally to the Count. It’s true that a man will give his heart and liver after one night in bed…”

“It’s only Lady Dorothea who is pitiful. The title of the Grand Duke’s successor, and the favorite maid, are all being taken away by the brother who rolled in from outside.”

“What can we do? The lady is still young and not well. It’s better for the North than if the Kaitel Count swallows up this family.”

Thanks to that, she roughly understood how the Grand Duke’s family was faring. It seemed like Ruslan’s leadership was causing rumors.

It was not an issue for Juju to get involved in. It was more important to find out what had happened to the world during the past five years. She went to the bookshelf and carefully read the arranged news bulletins.

To Juju, the Emperor’s involvement was also apparent in the death of the Grand Duchess Annelise Licht.

In recent years, disasters were frequent in the East. It dealt a fatal blow to the granary region. As the self-sufficient farmer economy collapsed, refugees who left their homes occurred.

While the Eastern leadership was floundering or just watching this situation, it was Annelise of the North who rolled up her sleeves and got to work.

She actively accepted refugees from neighboring regions. She also released grain to prepare for the cold. She didn’t stop at temporary relief but mobilized them for the construction of undeveloped lands, boosting the economy. Among them was the exploration work of the Ipenia region, which had been completely destroyed.

That had upset Emperor Albert.

She didn’t know what was decisive, but Juju had a rough idea.

It was all of it.

‘The last-place backwoods prince, a parricidal emperor who slaughtered his siblings. Anyway, he hated being told what to do.’

His position was even more unstable in the early days of his reign. The psychology behind his drastic elimination of Charlotte must have stemmed from that.

The more the Grand Duke’s reputation rose, the stronger the Emperor’s control became. He nitpicked about her accepting refugees, saying it was an overreach of authority in the East. He sent constant inspections and investigations, and even a minor accounting error was treated as a great crime.

It was a typical method that Albert frequently used. Once he decided to eliminate a target, he would unfairly drive them, as if giving advance warning. As if waiting for the harassed party to reveal their weaknesses.

‘Just like how he granted me that ridiculous territory.’

And soon after, the Grand Duke had died.

She had suddenly collapsed on her way back from riding horses.

The doctors had not been able to diagnose it, but Ruslan had noticed that her dantian was slightly damaged. It was certain that there was a poison that harmed the body’s vital energy.

However, the problem was that there was no concrete evidence.

“If there is no evidence, then we should make it come out.”

Since Ruslan’s words about this were light, Juju asked again.

“Do you have a plan?”

“It’s right here. You are the plan.”

Ruslan pointed at her with his finger.

“To kill someone with poison, you need to approach with poison. After investigating the Grand Duke’s actions right before her death, it was impossible for anyone other than someone from the Grand Duke’s family to do it. We need to find the perpetrator first.”

“Sorry. I don’t like complicated things. Tell me what that has to do with me first.”

“That’s why we orchestrated a poisoning when we put your body in a comatose state. How do you think the perpetrator, who witnessed the Grand Duchess almost being poisoned, is feeling right now?”

Juju finally understood.

“You’re going to make him suspect other accomplices and then…?”

“If he wonders whether he is going to be eliminated as well, or who is the second accomplice, he will become confused by all the anxiety and he will have three possible choices. He will either run away, try to find out who it is and negotiate, or both. But… in this situation, who seems to be benefiting the most?”

Juju realized what it was referring to.

Ruslan was using himself as bait, waiting for the accomplice to reveal himself.

‘Even the rumors that I’ve been hearing here and there were a deliberate result.’

She was inwardly amazed.

She had thought that he just wanted to use an evil woman’s strength to take revenge on his enemies.

The man was much more meticulous than Juju had expected. He was persistently and meticulously weaving the web of revenge.

‘He is capable of setting out to kill the Emperor.’

He must have started because he was confident.

And on a day close to departure, the foundation he had laid brought in an unexpected person.