Schultz Tartien immediately took a carriage and crossed the bridge.

He stopped the carriage in front of 〈Isaac〉 and went down to the basement with a flushed face and large strides.

In his hand was the weekly magazine his secretary had brought him earlier, rolled up.

The basement, not yet open for business, was filled with hazy floating dust and the smell of stale cigars due to poor ventilation.

And in the deepest part of that basement was the room of 〈Isaac〉’s owner, ‘Shantes’.

Schultz walked unhesitatingly to Shantes’ private bedroom.

Shantes had a perfectly fine house, but he preferred staying here.

Even that displeased Schultz.

It seemed like he was shamelessly displaying the vulgarity flowing in his blood.

The two large men guarding the front of Shantes’ room recognized Schultz and bowed their heads deeply in greeting.

Schultz ignored them and passed by, then flung open Shantes’ door without hesitation.

“Shantes!”

At the thunderous voice, four bodies entangled like they had become one on the massive bed simultaneously raised themselves.

Schultz shouted with his face contorted like a lion.

“What is all this? Get out immediately!”

Unlike Shantes who groggily raised his body, his lovers hurriedly put on their clothes and ran outside.

Among them, one fell while walking and dressing, but no one laughed or asked if they were okay.

Tap—

The door closed, leaving only Shantes and Schultz.

Schultz approached Shantes, twitching his eyebrows that had sprouted white hair.

“What brings you here so early in the morning……”

Before Shantes could finish speaking, Schultz’s raised hand violently struck his cheek.

Slap—!

Shantes froze with his head turned to the side, and Schultz threw the weekly magazine at him.

“It was you, wasn’t it? It must be your doing. The only one who would do such a filthy thing…… Ha! You ungrateful bastard who doesn’t even know the kindness that raised you!”

“……”

Shantes, who licked the inside of his cheek, scanned the weekly magazine Schultz had thrown.

[A bird flies over the cuckoo’s nest! Killing the owner to steal the nest?

— Subtle and sensual rumors surrounding the ducal family, the real power of Levania.]

Murderous intent flickered in his narrowed eyes.

He soon closed his eyes slowly and opened them again, muttering slowly.

His locked voice came out split like a snake’s tongue.

“Why do you think it was me? I didn’t do anything, you’re being too harsh.”

“You call that an answer? This was a secret only you knew!”

Schultz shouted in a rage, trembling.

“Rose should never have been allowed to give birth to the likes of you……”

At Schultz’s words, Shantes burst into low laughter.

“You speak well for someone who didn’t even know I existed. Well, I agree that if you had known, you wouldn’t have let me be born, but……”

Shantes threw back the covers and jumped out of bed.

He wore nothing on his lower body, but he calmly put on pants that had fallen to the floor, showing no shame or embarrassment.

He picked up half-smoked tobacco scattered here and there and lit it.

With a sizzling sound, sparks flew and the white smoke he deeply inhaled scattered messily between Shantes and Schultz.

“You should have managed that bedroom-sized lower body better, Duke Schultz Tartien. No matter how much she was your first love from your hometown, how could you just embrace her so rashly? You even had a fiancée…… That’s how unwanted bastards like me are born.”

Shantes giggled and mocked Schultz.

Schultz Tartien.

This man’s weakness was himself.

The woman this great duke couldn’t forget his first love for and hastily embraced was his mother,

Rose Debeld.

She wasn’t actually a pure woman either.

Living difficultly in the old Tartien territory, she followed the glamour of the city to the capital, and when her money ran out, she tried to sell old memories by finding Schultz, and ended up spending the night with him.

Schultz’s fiancée at the time, who later became the Duchess of Tartien, drove Rose out of the capital, forcing her to return to the countryside with nothing.

When Schultz became a duke and the Duchess Tartien died of illness, Rose came up to the capital holding Shantes’ hand.

‘……My child? How can I believe that?’

At first, Schultz denied it too.

But deep down, Schultz was surprised the moment he saw the child.

It was because he resembled himself too much.

The murky gray hair, blue eyes, and even the slightly curved aquiline nose.

After denying it continuously, he finally promised to take care of Shantes when Rose was dying of pneumonia.

So, did he bring him to the ducal family?

Of course not.

Having blended into noble bloodlines through all sorts of hardships, he wouldn’t so simply insert vulgar blood.

He raised Shantes in the shadows.

While providing full support as promised to Rose, he used him like a limb, making him do all sorts of bad things in the shadows.

Thanks to Schultz’s backing, Shantes quickly established himself in the back alleys.

His cunning and cruel nature from birth also helped his growth.

To Schultz, he wasn’t a “child” like Landers or Maria.

He was raised merely as an appendage of Schultz Tartien.

Kindly speaking, an alter ego; unkindly speaking, a filthy tail that could be cut off at any time without seeming strange.

And his children thought of him in the same way.

‘But I can’t let them push me around forever.’

Shantes thought he needed to hold onto weaknesses that could pressure Schultz, based on what his mother had told him when he was young.

He believed the most certain and powerful leverage was about his birth.

Fortunately, the maid who survived until the end in the Tartien family was Rose’s mother and Shantes’ grandmother.

He easily found his mother’s childhood home and gathered decent evidence there.

Things like family portraits of the Tartien family, or a maid’s diary.

Of course, he never told Schultz he was collecting these things.

‘Why would I invite trouble……’

To deceive Schultz, who frequently inspected his safe due to his suspicious nature, he secretly hid them in a shabby box in the warehouse, but masked men stole it.

Thinking about that moment still made him want to curse, but Shantes deliberately suppressed it.

Whatever happened, he didn’t want to show Schultz a broken composure.

Schultz glared at Shantes with sinisterly shining eyes.

After regulating his breathing a few times, Schultz approached Shantes and grabbed his shoulder.

“Shantes.”

When he called him like this, it was always to assign something very difficult and troublesome.

Shantes silently looked at Schultz without saying a word.

“You are my bloodline. You are my child. I can’t proudly tell you that you’re a member of the ducal family, but I can’t deny that I raised you with the money and power of the ducal family.”

“……”

“Our family’s downfall would never be good for you.”

Schultz firmly gripped Shantes’ shoulder.

His fiercely shining eyes held undeniable power.

“Likewise, if our family’s power grows, that’s good for you. No one will touch you, and you might gain your own power, not just being the illegitimate child of Schultz Tartien.”

The last words were quite tempting.

Shantes licked the inside of his mouth and his eyes gleamed greedily.

“……This rumor spread from outside, so we can’t stop it. Therefore, we need something bigger to happen so this can be buried.”

“Duke, you’re really trying to use me too much with that three-inch tongue of yours.”

“Shantes!”

“Give me proper compensation. Now you’ve gained some power, haven’t you? Give me at least a worthless title.”

Schultz swallowed his curses and reluctantly nodded.

There would be many things to handle to give a title to this rootless person, but that wasn’t the issue right now.

Shantes smiled with satisfaction and patted the back of Schultz’s hand that was gripping his shoulder.

“I’ll look for something that will continuously shock people. For example, a serial murder case……? Isn’t this something only this Shantes Debeld can create?”

Schultz didn’t say anything special but patted Shantes’ back.

Shantes noticed it was an implicit agreement.

Schultz left Isaac without looking back.

And right after getting into the carriage, he muttered to his secretary.

“……Find someone who can deal with Shantes. They need to be very skilled. He’s not an ordinary man.”

Jane flinched in surprise at his words but soon nodded heavily.

The carriage was leaving Isaac without any lingering attachment.