“You didn’t come to see that maid who guards your side, did you?”

Baren, who seemed equally dissatisfied with his master’s movements, countered.

“Was there really a need to return to the mansion yesterday specifically?”

They had been gathered in a small building prepared in the capital until late last night. But Claude, who was scheduled to attend an early meeting this morning, suddenly said he was returning to the duke’s residence despite it being late at night.

At the comment suggesting he was being excessively generous as a master, Claude let out a deflated sound.

“As for you…… How’s the work going?”

As the reproach turned back to him, Baren’s lips sealed shut.

Heriot was in charge of organization-related matters such as investigating the routes used by Heide Guild members, while Baren was tasked with tracking down the guild master who had disappeared. Additionally, there had been no significant results so far.

“I’m quite generous with you too. Don’t make distinctions.”

With that one statement, the carriage fell silent again. Then Heriot, who had been sitting quietly, carefully changed the subject.

“Will you take Flora to the next banquet as well? I heard the emperor asked you to bring her last time.”

It was a question about whether he should bring Flora to the imperial banquet for the first anniversary of the war’s end, scheduled in two weeks, as he had before.

Claude, who had been looking only out the window, said briefly.

“I suppose…… How annoying.”

Claude muttered like a sigh, as if there was no other choice.

His gaze, which had passed over the busy pedestrians, became distant. His eyes sank strangely at the thought that perhaps after this end-of-war meeting, he might have to send Flora away.

No, not a guess, but certainly it would be so. Targeting the time right after the envoys leave, the emperor would bring up that matter.

But what could he do about it? As a subject, he had to follow.

However, what made him so uncomfortable was…… that when that time came, his peaceful nights would be hard to find again.

Yes. That was why.

* * *

From early morning, the marquis nervously put cigarettes to his lips one after another.

Bang!

With an expression of clear dismay, he suddenly struck the middle of the desk with his hand.

“Pathetic fools. Even after having their tail caught once, they couldn’t come to their senses. All of them are utterly useless!”

Having urgently received a report, he spat out curses with an enraged face. It was news that the Heide Guild, which he had started dealing with two years ago when his own subordinates became insufficient after conducting business solely with them, had been annihilated.

More than that, the reason he was fuming with anger had nothing to do with the guild’s damage.

“They dared to plan to stab Marquis Sternbrow in the back by secretly keeping such a ledger.”

The marquis, unaware that Claude had been keeping an eye on him for a long time, was angry because of the assumption that there had been friction between the duke and the guild for other reasons, and in that process, matters related to him might have been handed over.

No, that man would surely have noticed. It was predictable just by looking at his recent movements.

“So the duke has people out investigating?”

“Because he deployed his knights so quietly, we couldn’t find out clearly, but judging from how one knight came to an inn where our side stayed just once and inquired about the merchant group, it seems correct.”

As Baxter, the marquis’s confidant, answered expressionlessly, the marquis frowned and fell into contemplation.

Previously, soldiers from the west had sensed something and lurked around. Fortunately, they had neatly tied up loose ends by disposing of a few soldiers, but since then, they had been paying attention almost to the point of obsession.

They had planted people in the right places, and that included even the place they had visited just once due to unavoidable bad weather.

But to be caught from an unexpected place.

The marquis ground his teeth, thinking of the guild master who deserved more than just being eaten alive. He was suspicious enough to wonder if he had deliberately handed it over.

“How should we handle this?”

“How else? We need to eliminate the duke first.”

“Didn’t we fail last time?”

“That time…… it was that secret something-or-other knight who follows the duke who ruined everything. By the way, have you found out who that secret knight is?”

Baxter shook his head. At first, they suspected it might be Baren, but since he had just returned recently, there was a high possibility it was another knight.

“At a recent imperial tea party, some woman said she was the duke’s guard.”

“Ah…… That Garret lost, didn’t he? A woman, you say?”

The marquis acknowledged knowing about that day’s events but didn’t seem to care much. Not having considered that the woman might be from the 12th Division that the duke had brought, he simply dismissed it, thinking she was just a female knight.

The marquis narrowed his eyes with a contemplative face. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he opened his mouth.

“Soon…… isn’t it that day? I think it was around this time.”

“That’s right. It’s in two days.”

Baxter agreed, realizing what the marquis’s question meant. The marquis split his lips wide.

“Perfect. Judging by his nature…… he won’t make an exception just because he came to the capital after visiting for several years.”

“If he rides quickly, it’s a distance he could travel.”

“This works out well.”

The marquis, who had reached a conclusion, pleasantly stroked his jaw.

No matter how clever he was, the marquis couldn’t match the duke in practical experience. So there was a need to target the moment when he was most vulnerable.

“Whether it’s a secret knight or whatever, it doesn’t matter if they’re attached. Select about twenty men who wouldn’t be a problem if they died.”

“……If the duke meets with misfortune, won’t the emperor order an investigation into the truth?”

“Ha…… Investigation into the truth?”

The marquis snorted.

“The emperor is just an ignorant child. If we roughly make it look like he was attacked by bandits while traveling a long distance, he’ll lose interest quickly and ask if that’s what happened. If I say I’ll handle it, he’ll just let it go.”

The marquis was confident.

He was extremely incompetent, but he was exceptionally good at grasping the desires that bloom from the depths of human nature.

He too had managed his life so perfectly with just that one desire, so pleasing the unworldly emperor was no problem at all.

He was the one who, with honeyed words, stirred the emperor’s deeply buried inferiority complex toward his grandfather, spurring ambitions to become the greatest emperor.

As a result, the current emperor was no different from a puppet moving in the direction he led.

“How dare I have risen to this position? I can’t fall because of something like this. Tell them to handle it properly this time.”

Bishrom was truly a person who knew how to move with meticulous calculation.

He planned an ambush just as his brother, who was about to depart for war the next day, was saying farewell to his family with a solemn heart, and ultimately succeeded.

The man, ethical to the point of being old-fashioned, never suspected the drink given by his only blood relative. Unable to defeat Aden’s superior martial prowess, he used drugs when he was emotionally weakest, rendering him unable to resist and gaining the upper hand.

Having finally seized this sweet power, he had no intention of sharing it with anyone, and with a vile smile, he commanded.

“Send that person.”

* * *

The heat had subsided somewhat, but the wind was still muggy. News came that some places were struggling with famine, while others suffered great damage from heavy rains.

However, the capital consistently welcomed the full-fledged season of pleasure amid good weather.

“I heard they’re holding the end-of-war commemoration festival for quite a long time this time.”

“I heard that too. It seems they’re doing it for almost a month……”

Flora was out on an errand in the city with Yulvi on the butler’s orders. Mary had joined them, saying she needed to mail a letter, so the three decided to spend time together for the first time in a while before heading back.

“It’s good for us, but isn’t it a bit early to hold such a boisterous festival?”

“I wouldn’t know. Those things are decided by the nobles. But I like it.”

Mary and Yulvi agreed that the brief festival last time had been quite disappointing.

Listening to her colleagues’ words as she walked, Flora absently watched the people bustling about.

As she had heard, the square was busy with festival preparations. Thick logs piled high to light a large bonfire next to the fountain came into view.

Just then, Mary, who had been chatting and laughing, asked Flora.

“Flora, make sure you come with us this time without backing out, okay?”

“Flora is busy working. Won’t the master take her to the imperial banquet again?”

“Come on, he won’t take her every day.”