The boy left the room and walked through the corridor.

In the verdant corridor of Duke Siegfried’s mansion, the sounds of insects could be heard.

He walked through the long corridor as if taking a stroll, heading towards the drawing room.

There was a visitor today.

As the servants opened the grand doors, he saw Briton sitting in a chair in the drawing room, holding a chess piece on the table.

Eden felt slightly tense at Briton’s cold gaze, which didn’t even glance at him when he entered, but he slowly walked towards Briton.

Then he greeted him with the proper etiquette and gesture.

“Welcome, Your Highness.”

He could guess the Crown Prince’s purpose for visiting today without being told.

‘It must be because of my declaration of war regarding Arinel.’

Though tension coursed through Eden’s body, he didn’t regret his actions.

To obtain something truly precious, one must take risks.

“Now, it’s your turn, Young Duke.”

Eden, lost in thought, looked at the chessboard upon hearing Briton’s cool and calm voice.

The chess pieces were arranged for a game, and Briton had already moved a white pawn forward one space.

‘Does he want to play chess?’

Eden sat across from Briton and looked at his black pieces.

Chess was one of Eden’s best skills, so the game itself wasn’t intimidating, but he couldn’t read Briton’s intentions.

At times like this, the only option was to move the pieces.

The drawing room was quiet, with only the sound of the two moving their pieces.

A pawn takes a bishop, a knight takes a rook. The number of chess pieces gradually decreased.

Eden took out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat.

‘Is this the right move?’

The game situation that had seemed as clear as looking at his palm was now becoming unclear.

“77 percent, no, 62 percent, no, 43 percent…”

Like a fog had settled, he couldn’t calculate the probability of this match.

Both white and black pieces were decreasing in almost equal numbers, yet he couldn’t calculate the probability of victory or defeat.

“32 percent, no, 67 percent?”

This was the first time he’d experienced such a game.

Finally, when only four pieces including each king remained, Eden couldn’t help but be startled.

Briton’s pawn had reached the end of the chessboard.

“This is…”

Eden’s gray eyes trembled.

Briton, who had been quiet throughout, spoke.

“Promotion rule.”

A pawn can only move forward and can never go backward.

When such a pawn reaches the end of the chessboard, it can be promoted to any piece except the king, and Briton’s pawn qualified for this.

‘If he promotes it to a queen here…’

Eden looked at his king positioned diagonally.

‘…Damn it, I’ve lost. Why did I miss this?’

Then, Briton’s voice was heard.

“I… don’t quite like the idea of one king having two queens.”

“…!”

“Just as one flower is enough for a wife.”

Briton promoted the pawn to a rook instead of a queen.

“Another queen would be worthless.”

‘Does he want to… continue the game?’

But contrary to Eden’s thoughts, Briton proceeded to capture his remaining pieces.

Briton simply wanted to win in his own way.

Eden began to focus on the game again.

“You’ll regret letting your guard down.”

Briton should have promoted the pawn to a queen instead of a rook.

When Eden rejoiced after capturing the rook that Briton had promoted, Briton’s knight, who had approached silently, captured Eden’s king.

“Checkmate.”

Briton’s rook lay fallen while his king and queen remained intact.

“….”

Eden was shocked, unable to believe he had lost so completely, but the chessboard clearly showed the boy’s defeat.

Briton rose from his seat with a slight smirk.

Before leaving the drawing room, his lips moved to deliver an ominous warning.

“Have a clever day, Young Duke.”

***

[News about Mylar Shop’s success and branch opening]

[Imperial Chef Mr. N: “Red beetroot will be a crucial food source during the famine, the Empire must support Miss Mylar’s food business…”]

[Great treasure Acrelect discovered! The relationship with House Mylar…]

[Genius Young Duke Eden Siegfried speaks out. 99% chance Acrelect will greatly help the Empire during the famine!]

In Parmes’s office. The servant who entered cleared away the newspapers he had already read.

Parmes was recalling Arinel’s expression when she was shocked at the mention of erecting her statue.

‘Arinel always underestimates her achievements.’

Even if Arinel hadn’t achieved anything, he would have wanted to create and place statues of the child everywhere, but this reward was a sound judgment regardless of such personal feelings.

‘Protecting the Empire from a great famine is something no hero has managed to do.’

The servant spoke to Parmes, who wore a satisfied expression at the news of Arinel’s consecutive victories.

“Your Majesty, Duke Guermont is waiting to report.”

“Let him in.”

Shortly after the servant left, the floor began to rumble.

Duke Guermont’s enormous frame announced his presence merely by walking.

The yellow-eyed man appeared and placed one arm across his chest, showing proper respect to Parmes as his monarch.

“Well. How goes the investigation of the burned hideout?”

Recently, Duke Guermont visited the mountain region with Crown Prince Briton to investigate the remnants of the Second Prince’s followers.

True to their reputation for being well-informed, by the time they arrived, the known hideout of the enemies had already been consumed by flames.

They had burned it to destroy evidence.

In the end, all they could investigate were the remaining pieces of evidence.

“I sent troops in all directions to thoroughly search for the enemies… grunt…”

A metallic sound escaped from Guermont’s throat, laden with regret.

“We failed to catch the tail of the major rebel forces with bounties on their heads.”

Duke Guermont’s gauntleted fist trembled slightly.

Had they been caught by him, the enemies would have cursed the day they were born.

“However, we managed to catch and persuade a child who had been running errands for money.”

Duke Guermont’s yellow eyes flickered with the memory of sitting across from the child who had been doing odd jobs for pocket money.

He couldn’t understand it.

Why women and children so easily fainted just by looking at him when they sat across from him.

That’s why Arinel, who wasn’t afraid of him, was truly special to Duke Guermont.

In the end, when the child fainted just like all the others, Duke Guermont had to withdraw, and a subordinate with a gentler, softer appearance had to conduct the investigation instead.

“The results?”

Parmes, who raised his chin slightly with a look that suggested this was to be expected upon hearing about the child fainting, asked about what followed.

Guermont, with his caterpillar-like eyebrows deeply furrowed and a stern expression reported the information obtained from the child.

There had been a young woman living in the remnants’ hideout they had visited.

The woman apparently covered one side of her face with long black hair, as if hiding burns.

She was said to be so beautiful and mysterious that anyone who saw her would be momentarily captivated.

And while she mainly exchanged letters with someone via birds, she would assign simple errands to children.

Visitors would come from various places, and after talking with the child, they learned that the perpetrator of the recent attack on the Crown Prince had also visited her.

The child only did simple errands like buying ingredients from the market, so they didn’t know much, but they had overheard a meeting between the woman and a visitor.

“Since the left hand has become unusable, only the right hand remains. If the right hand also fails to deliver a decisive blow, there’s no choice but to throw oneself in…”

Parmes read aloud from the report Duke Guermont had handed him.

His fine brow slightly tensed, and a cold glint began to fill his crimson eyes.

The beautiful curve of his lips twisted coldly.

“The left hand seems to refer to the one who perished in the Crown Prince assassination attempt, and it appears there’s another right hand of similar size.”

Parmes’s eyes moved to the bottom of the report.

And his eye twitched slightly.

“Target designation changed, Mylar’s Ghost. Girl with straw-colored hair.”

“….”

As Parmes read this, Duke Guermont’s yellow eyes also gleamed intensely.

It was clear who the straw-haired girl referred to.

“They’re referring to Arinel.”