He took Greg to the terrace where no one else was present.

Rudbeckia memorized that door and stood guard with Zeno and Elfleda, pretending to drink wine with them.

So that whatever happened behind this door, no one would interfere.

* * *

“How does it feel to have betrayed your country and family? What was your reason for coveting a mere ducal position when you could have risen to the position of grand duke?”

As soon as the terrace door closed, Caleb glared at Greg and questioned him accusingly.

“Wasn’t that grand duke position inferior to a mere duke? Compared to the Pergos Empire, the Sanders Grand Duchy was, how should I put it… like a backward village of country bumpkins who couldn’t adapt to the new era.”

He had heard that Rudbeckia’s father had opened the city gates to become a duke of a large empire instead of a small kingdom. They said he had the same face as her birth father, but to think he has similar thoughts too…….

Greg placed his wine glass on the white table and spread his hands wide in the air as if introducing an expensive auction item.

“Look at Emperor Adam Perron. He’s the ruler of the continent beyond the empire. It’s natural that if you have ability, you should have power.”

Caleb gave a scornful laugh at Greg’s nonsense.

“You really put effort into talking bullshit. What do you plan to do with that power?”

“What bullshit? What will I do with power? I’ll crush the faces of insolent bastards like you, that’s what!”

Greg clenched his fist tightly and raised it to his chest, then lowered it. He expressed his bursting frustration with a groan.

“Huh? Look at the strength in your hands. Are you going to hit me?”

But Caleb summoned patience from the tips of his toes and didn’t raise his fists. Greg stared intently at his trembling fist.

Then, as if debating whether to speak or not, he rolled his eyes left and right before examining Caleb up and down.

Soon, having made up his mind, he opened his mouth with a smile so wide his cheekbones rose.

“Let’s see, shall I test your patience?”

Greg stepped closer to Caleb and whispered in his ear.

“I’m the one who killed the Grand Duke and Duchess.”

“Wh-what are you saying!”

Without time to think, Caleb grabbed Greg by the collar. Rather than being surprised, Greg stared intently at Caleb’s eyes blazing with anger and laughed harshly.

“……You still make such jokes!! Brother…!!”

“Haha. It’s not a joke.”

Once again, he twisted the collar with both hands with all his might, turning it half a circle more. Greg stood precariously on his tiptoes but didn’t remove his mocking smile directed at Caleb.

“Back then, I leaked that operation. And I poisoned the horses they rode. If the horse moves and escapes, it’s hard to find the corpses, right? The horses collapsed as soon as they entered enemy territory, so they probably died from arrows without even swinging their swords once.”

Unable to contain his anger, Caleb pushed Greg backward. Due to their considerable difference in build, Greg stumbled backward and fell on his backside.

— Thud!!

“Yes. That expression. That expression looking down on me like I’m a bug. Just like the Grand Duke.”

Greg said as he got up and dusted off his pants.

Caleb placed his hand on his waist, but there was nothing to grab.

Who would wear a sword to a banquet?

“Oh my, if I had a sword, I’d be dead right now. You know that if you kill me here, you’ll die too, right? I don’t mind dying together, but if we both die, what will happen to Rud?”

He had observed Caleb and Rudbeckia since childhood. Greg knew that Caleb had special feelings for her before he himself realized it.

Liking someone. Having something to protect means it becomes a weakness. Especially in times like these……

Caleb’s mind was suddenly crossed by the image of Rudbeckia’s face when she had entered the Grand Duke’s residence alone and was adopted, rejoicing that she had a family. He took a deep breath, exhaling all at once after breathing heavily through his nose.

He mustn’t get excited. If he gets excited, he’ll only be playing into Greg’s hands.

Trying his best to calm his breathing, he asked in a polite, low voice.

“Can you tell me the… reason… why you killed our parents?”

“Because they killed my mother.”

Greg pointed to his gray eyes. Most people in the Sanders Grand Ducal family had navy blue eyes, though the saturation varied. Caleb had occasionally been suspicious about why only Greg had different colored eyes.

“These eyes. They’re my mother’s. Your mother tore my mother to pieces. So I just did the same to her, my dear little brother.”

Greg tapped Caleb’s forehead with his finger.

This was the first time he’d heard this story. Yuli had always been a righteous person. A female knight thoroughly steeped in chivalry. She would never kill someone without reason… especially not women and children.

“Whether you believe it or not, it’s the truth. By the way, do you know that Rud wants to become my aide?”

Greg placed his hand on Caleb’s shoulder.

— Tap

He considered crushing Greg’s hand but settled for brushing it off his shoulder.

Though he merely brushed the hand away, Greg lost his balance and awkwardly bumped into the small white table. At that moment, the white wine he had placed on it spilled onto his pants.

— Splash!

“Sh*t. Damn it.”

As Greg cursed, Caleb placed his hand on his shoulder and said,

“This look suits you very well. Don’t ever mention our parents or Rud with that filthy mouth again, Duke ‘Rufus’.”

The moment you lose your reason by expressing emotion is the moment you lose. Caleb spoke each word with emphasis, grinding his teeth.

He felt that Greg was no longer worth dealing with through words. Unless it was with a sword, with their lives on the line.

“And guard your neck well. You never know when I might come to cut it.”

“What! Are you threatening a duke now! You want to try it?”

Caleb’s gaze turned to Greg’s wet pants. After looking him up and down contemptuously as he stood awkwardly with that precise area soaked, he whispered in his ear.

“Seeing you in that state, I worry it might end before we even begin…… How boring.”

Caleb straightened his back and flung the door wide open.

Zeno and Elfleda, who had been standing in front of the door, snickered at the sight of Greg’s awkwardly wet appearance. Rudbeckia smiled brightly at Caleb, and he responded with a gentle smile.

Caleb gestured not to close the terrace door and turned his head to bid Greg a final farewell.

“Well then. Finish your business and come out.”

“Y-you! This bastard!”

As the door remained wide open letting in strong winds, people’s gazes turned toward it, and Greg forced a smile as he picked up his wine glass.

“This humiliation too. I’ll pay you back in full. You worthless bastard. I was considerate enough to let you freeze to death nicely in the snow, yet you inflict such an insult on me?”

— Crash

The wine glass shattered under Greg’s strength.

Until the servants rushed over to clean up, he remained wrapped in anger and humiliation, not unclenching his fist.

He didn’t care that blood dripped from where the glass had cut him, and he couldn’t suppress his anger even until the end of the banquet.

The banquet continued past midnight, and by the time they returned to their lodgings, pitch-black darkness had already fallen.

Rudbeckia slid straight into bed, but the image of Caleb’s face as he emerged from the terrace breathing heavily after his conversation with Greg kept coming to mind.

In the deep night when one had to feel along the walls relying only on starlight, Rudbeckia tossed and turned before realizing she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all. She knocked on Caleb’s door with the excuse of asking him to kiss her forehead.

Caleb must have been unable to sleep as well, for he opened the door right away.

But he seemed to lack the strength to sit and instead lay down on the bed. Rudbeckia sat down lightly beside him.

He raised his left arm to cover his eyes.

“What did you talk about on the terrace?”

“Well…… I heard an unbelievable story.”