Obsessed by My Husband’s Loyal Dog

Thud.

Charlotte’s body sprawled out on the floor in a disorderly manner.

“Viscount.”

Sien, who had poured the medicine directly into her mouth, casually tossed the now empty bottle behind her. Then she tilted her head and looked at Kallian.

“That’s a strange thing to say. Have you ever tasted this woman’s medicine before?”

“Hmm.”

“There it is again – that face, the one where you keep things to yourself and don’t tell anyone.”

Kallian simply asked in a quiet voice.

“What about her husband?”

“The people Dylan sent took care of that. They made it look like he was killed by bandits and dumped the body in the river. It won’t be long before he turns up.”

“Another parasite is dead.”

Charlotte Marte’s husband had used her to gain various favours, while steadily draining the duchy of its wealth.

Now that he had died, the wealth he left behind would inevitably go to his noble wife, who was in the process of divorcing him. Her family had long been close allies of the ducal house of Elsen.

“And the other Elsen nobles?”

“As soon as everything is settled, they plan to lodge an objection with the Imperial Council under the pretext of uncovering the truth behind the massacre caused by the Ilmos family. The Ducal House of Elsen will probably also be reinstated”.

“The people of your family as well.”

Sien, who was also descended from a vassal of the Ducal House of Elsen, smiled with a hint of satisfaction. Many of her family members had also been killed in the relentless pursuit of the Ilmos family.

“What shall we do with Miss Marte?”

“Send her with the medicine to the woman she displaced. Include the formula for the medicine as well.”

“Hmm, so she falls because of the medicine she created herself… Not a bad outcome.”

As she said this, Sien looked down at Charlotte before suddenly lifting her head.

“When did you decide to do this?”

“Hmm.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. I know you never really intended to do this.”

Sien’s words were sharp and to the point.

“Even when we kept calling for revenge, you always had that look like none of it really mattered.”

“…….”

“Is it because of Madam?”

Sien had served Kallian at Dylan’s side for a long time and had seen his passion fade with time. Though Dylan never showed it, Sien knew how deeply he grieved.

But the same man who had seemed so indifferent before suddenly changed the moment he married the princess who was originally destined to marry Theodor.

For the first time, Sien saw Kallian filled with fervour over Theodor’s death.

It was a passion he had never displayed before—not when he was forced to hide his true identity and endure the humiliation of being called a northern bastard, not when Theodor repeatedly ridiculed him and treated him like a mere errand boy, and not even when some of the vassals regarded him with cold indifference.

He had finally acted and defeated the usurper, Theodor of Ilmos.

A faint smile appeared on Kallian’s lips at the mention of Elliope.

Shaking her head, Sien asked.

“You’ll have to be locked up for a while, won’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well… shall I bring Madam here for you?”

“…….”

“I’ll step aside and give you some space.”

Kallian’s smile deepened at that. His eyes scanned the cold prison cell. Even without asking, it was easy to guess what he was thinking.

“No.”

“…….”

“I can’t possibly let my wife come to a place like this.”

Still, there was a faint hint of regret in Kallian’s expression as he continued to speak at a leisurely pace.

“But I don’t want to disturb her too much.”

He tapped the iron bars lightly with his fingertips.

“I suppose I’ll have to move my cell.”

“Of course. Which annex would you prefer? There are plenty of empty rooms in the ducal residence.”

Sien replied as if she had already expected such a request.

***

Events in the Duchy soon became the talk of the Empire.

“Kallian Elsen? You mean the famous knight from the north?”

“He’s not just a knight anymore. He’s a viscount now.”

“Did he really defeat the Duke?”

“They say Duke Ilmos tried to kill Her Highness, Princess Leanne!”

“Really? Then he got exactly what he deserved!”

” Uh… what I heard was even worse than that.”

“What? What exactly happened?”

“Well, apparently Duke Ilmos…”

“What! How dare a mere border duke lay a hand on Her Highness!”

Together with Count Gail, the envoy, Princess Leanne hastily returned to the capital and issued a statement vehemently denying the Duke’s claims.

The Emperor also declared that anyone who dared mention the matter would be punished by flogging.

Furthermore, he added the crime of spreading falsehoods to Theodor of Ilmos’ accusations and ordered the complete erasure of the ducal house of Ilmos from the Empire’s nobility register and historical records.

However, not all lingering suspicions could be completely buried.

“I believe in Her Highness. How could I not trust someone so beautiful?”

“Still, you never know.”

“They say a firm denial is as good as an admission.”

“Come to think of it, what about the foreign princes who have courted Her Highness? I have heard that some of the most important people in the Empire have also sent proposals of marriage.

One by one, the terms of the proposals sent to Leanne began to change.

The foreign royals and imperial nobles did not miss the opportunity to renegotiate the terms of marriage to their advantage.

“In any case, even a mere suspicion can be problematic, don’t you think?”

“Honestly, the truth doesn’t matter. What’s important is that this could become a weakness for the Imperial Family.”

“This is a golden opportunity to put the Imperial Family in a disadvantageous position!”

“If we can become imperial consorts on more favourable terms, then the gain is ours.”

As the marriage proposals kept changing, the imperial court erupted in anger.

“The North must immediately send the body of the duke who spread these rumours!”

“If you refuse, it will be considered defiance and treason!”

Under relentless pressure from the Imperial family, Theodor of Ilmos’ body was quickly sent to the capital, and the North severed all ties with the ducal house of Ilmos.

Afterwards, with the ducal seat vacant, the Duchy ceased all interactions with other territories.

“As our former Duke has committed a grave sin against the Empire and the Imperial Family, we will remain in self-imposed seclusion for the time being.”

“With the Ilmos line extinct, there is no one to inherit the ducal title for the time being. As soon as a successor is chosen, we will reopen our gates.

Along with the Elsens, the vassals of the Duchy issued an official statement, adding that until a new Duke is chosen, the North will be governed by the collective decision of the vassals.

They then firmly shut the gates to their territory.

They had sealed the gates so thoroughly that rumours began to spread that their attitude was akin to preparing for a siege.

“The Duchy is in serious trouble.”

“Well, considering the crimes committed by the Duke, it can’t be helped.”

“With no Duke left, can it still be called a Duchy?”

As the Duchy became isolated and the Imperial Family took a firm stance, the rumours about Leanne gradually died down.

In the end, she barely managed to regain her value as a marriage prospect. However, she was quickly sent as a bride to a nearby kingdom – a match of lower status than the one originally discussed.

It seemed as if the matter had come to an end.

…But an even greater crisis immediately followed.

“Seor is attacking!”

After defeating and imprisoning the opposing faction, the Crown Prince of Seor launched an attack.

By this time, the Duchy had withdrawn all its soldiers, sealed its gates, and even pulled back its standing troops on the border. To its enemies, this was a clear sign of a security breach in the Empire.

“Ignore the Duchy! Their defences won’t be easy to break!”

“There’s no point in attacking an area that has sealed itself off! Attack the easier places instead!”

With these shouts, the Seor army advanced without touching the Duchy. Considering their long-standing hostility towards the Duchy, their decision to avoid it was rather unexpected.

The situation escalated quickly. The second prince of Seor, who might have been able to stop the crown prince, had disappeared.

“Spare me!”

“Run! Pack your bags and flee at once!”

For the newly unified Empire, Seor’s invasion was an extremely burdensome war.

The army assembled in the name of the young imperial family was small. Moreover, most of the assembled soldiers were from the Empire’s interior – men who had long forgotten the dangers of the border.

“Hold formation! Hold-Aagh!”

“This isn’t our unit’s fault! If only the Endar soldiers had done their part properly!”

“What? Are you done talking?”

The Imperial Knights, serving as the main force, tried to fill the gaps left by the disunity of the soldiers from the various territories, but it was not enough. The Empire failed to gain the upper hand against Seor.

The battle dragged on with no progress.

The Emperor sent an urgent message to the Duchy, demanding that they join the battle immediately. But the Duchy’s reply remained the same.

“With the ducal seat vacant and no successor in place… there is no one to lead the army.”

“What nonsense is this! Do you not have Viscount Kallian Elsen?”

“If you mean Viscount Kallian Elsen, he turned himself in for the crime of murdering his lord and has been in prison for some time now.”

“Baron Baril!”

“Since Viscount Elsen has voluntarily chosen imprisonment, there is nothing we can do about it.”

In reality, all the vassals in the north knew that Kallian lived more comfortably than anyone else in an annex to the ducal residence that served as his “prison”.

Yet each time an Imperial envoy arrived in the North, he was met with the same response and forced to return to the capital as if he had been dismissed.

Meanwhile, Seor’s invasion continued. The lives of the Empire’s citizens deteriorated rapidly.

“What is the imperial family doing?”

The voices of accountability grew louder. Even the lords who had come to help the Empire began to return to their own territories to defend them.

Soldiers began to desert. The morale of the Imperial Army quickly collapsed.

“But we are still the Empire, aren’t we? How can we be trampled on like this by the once diminished kingdom of Seor?”

“Surely the imperial family should take the lead and encourage the soldiers, shouldn’t they?”

“After all, there are two princes in the imperial family, including the crown prince.”

The Imperial Family held out as long as they could, but under the pressure of public opinion, they finally sent the princes to the battlefield.

Soon news reached them that the crown prince, the first prince, had been killed in battle. It was the result of sending an unprepared man, unaccustomed to war.

The second prince also met his end soon after.

He tried to escape by sending his subordinate in his place, but was caught by the soldiers and found dead that night.

The murderers of the second prince escaped and fled across the border to Seor.

“My… my precious sons!”

“Empress, please! Pull yourself together!”

Upon hearing the news, the Empress fainted and fell to the ground, never to rise again.

The shame of the Kartan Imperial Family and the Empire did not end there.

“For tarnishing the honour of the Imperial Family, I will announce the revocation of Princess Leanne’s right to succeed to the throne.”

The Emperor said this with a stern face, more than six months after the war had begun, and more than a month after the princes had died.