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Chapter 279
The one who had carried out exchanges with the Nant Tribe on the Empress’ orders was the governor of the Alkanade province.
Alkanade was a royal domain of the Bardem Kingdom— a land entrusted to one of the royal family’s loyal relatives who had pledged their allegiance to the Bardem crown.
And that very lord’s deputy was a man who had never once gone against the will of his superiors— a true model among sycophants.
As a reward for his loyalty, his term had been extended again and again, until he had practically become the Archduke’s long-standing neighbor.
And yet, now they were to remove him.
Neither the man himself nor the Bardem royal family would easily accept such terms.
The problem was that the Empress found herself in a position where she couldn’t refuse the Archduke’s proposal.
“Do you truly think that’s a reasonable request?”
“No matter how you try to persuade me, my stance will not change. Threats won’t work either.”
At the Empress’ sharp retort, the Archduke replied in his usual calm tone.
It was a precarious time— the Emperor had just passed away.
If it were to be revealed that the Empress had incited the barbarians to attack her own country, who could imagine how public opinion would turn?
There was no doubt that her son, the Crown Prince, would face a brutal struggle to ascend the throne.
Until now, the Empress had desperately delayed the abdication process, but that had only been because she was certain her son would eventually take the crown.
Now that very foundation of certainty was beginning to shake, and tension crept across her face.
“I know full well that a hollow promise like ‘never touch the Bilfaud territory again’ will never be kept. So I plan to use this opportunity to exterminate the pests that have been creeping through my front yard and spoiling the crops. That should keep things quiet for a while.”
“Do you not see that simply placing a new man in charge would solve this cleanly?”
“Well, I wonder—who would willingly take such a position, knowing their head could roll at the next change of mood from above? For nobles accustomed to a life of comfort, that would require quite a bold resolve.”
The Archduke let out a faint chuckle, sipping his lukewarm tea.
Then, in a low voice that carried a quiet weight, he continued:
“Please don’t pretend you misunderstand my meaning, Your Majesty the Empress. Do you truly think I came here merely to suggest replacing a part with a new one? What I’m asking is that, for the time being, Your Majesty’s influence does not reach that province.”
“……”
“The beginning of any term is said to be unstable, is it not? I trust you haven’t forgotten that.”
It was a warning— that if she broke their agreement, he would not sit idly by.
With that threat alone, the Empress could no longer move against the Bilfaud territory.
If she were to continue her assaults under such circumstances, it would only strengthen the Archduke’s hand should he ever decide to expose her misdeeds in the future.
There was only one path left open to the Empress— to wait.
If enough time passed for the Nant Tribe’s incursion to fade from people’s memory, the Archduke would lose his leverage; he could no longer use the incident to sway public sentiment.
The only issue was that such a shift in perception would not come in a mere year or two.
Lowering her head, the Empress slowly closed her eyes.
There was no point in showing anger— it would only please her opponent. So instead, she smiled.
The scar twisting her lips made it impossible to form a proper smile, but it didn’t matter.
There was no one left in this world who could see her smiling face anyway.
“…You’ve grown cunning, haven’t you, Archduke?”
“……”
“Twenty years ago, you were just a hot-blooded boy.”
“Do I seem to have taken after you?” the Archduke replied with a mocking smirk.
It was hardly a compliment to be compared to her— yet the Archduke wondered if perhaps that was his weakness.
Because he hadn’t been as ruthless as the Empress, he and his sister had lost far too much.
He hadn’t even been able to protect Teresa. Realizing that now was far too late.
To fight beasts, he should have donned their filthy hide long ago.
Suppressing a self-mocking laugh, the Archduke rose from his seat.
He looked down at the Empress with contempt and said,
“I’ll give you four days. If the measures I mentioned aren’t carried out within that time, consider negotiations broken.”
“Even if I send word at once to my natal family, the messenger will take at least a week just to reach Alkanade.”
“Then have the messenger you send not pass through the palace.”
The Archduke winced as if the Empress had just said something pointless.
He did not want the Empress to seek her relatives’ consent and preserve some fictive trust between them. What the Archduke wanted was for her reckless behavior to break their cohesion. If the Empress went and cut off the heads of her retainers in Alkanade on a whim, friction with the Bardem royal family would inevitably follow.
“You’re compromised. Don’t bother calculating how to minimize the damage—do that and you’ll lose something far greater.”
Having spat those words, the Archduke turned away from the Empress.
But the Empress still seemed to have more to say; she abruptly brought up another subject.
“You rush in as if you’d been preparing this for ages, never looking back.”
“……”
“And that accusation letter—was that sent by you as well?”
The Archduke hesitated without answering. Though the phrasing was vague, he had no trouble understanding which “accusation letter” she meant — the letter Iona had personally sent, the one that revealed her bloodline.
It was not something to admit gladly, and yet the Empress’ son already believed he was the culprit. It seemed Richard had not shared the Archduke’s private conversation with the Empress, but there was no guarantee the matter would remain secret forever. After all, even if the Archduke had visited the palace in secret, the palace’s mistress— the Empress— could very well discover the visit.
After some thought, the Archduke chose the safest response: a deliberately ambiguous stance that could be read any which way. In a voice that suggested he hid other intentions, he replied,
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yet you leave without asking about Teresa’s daughter? You must have heard—didn’t you? There are suspicions that Lady Iona, who was considered an adopted daughter of the Modrov household, might actually be of imperial blood.”
“Warn you once: do not dare speak my sister’s name with that filthy mouth.”
The Archduke strode toward the Empress with his face flushed crimson. Only when he stood directly before her did he realize he had been baited. The Empress had summoned him to watch his reaction.
Feigning nonchalance, the Empress asked, “Did Teresa truly deceive everyone and send her daughter to Count Modrov?”
“I have no desire to reminisce about old memories with you. Hold yourself in check. I’m barely restraining the urge to strangle you right now.”
The Archduke answered through clenched teeth. His hand, gripped so tightly his knuckles had gone white, trembled faintly. The Empress watched his prominent veins with a look of amusement and said,
“You—Archduke—might show a bit more courtesy. Before I hand Teresa’s daughter over to her mother.”
“You—son of a—!”
Unable to contain his fury, the Archduke grabbed the cloth near the Empress’ shoulder and hauled her upright. The neckline of her dress was too wide to seize her by the throat. Whether he refrained from choking her out of a desire not to be accused of brutality, or out of a goodness inherited from his sister, no one could say.
The Empress went limp in his grasp. The Archduke breathed hard and glowered at her as if he would kill.
“Don’t you dare touch that child. Once was already more than enough; there won’t be a second time. Even if I lose everything, I’ll come to kill you first.”
The Empress studied his face with cloudy eyes. She still could not be certain whether the Archduke had been the one to send that letter— what exactly he hoped to gain by trading his sister remained unclear. Above all, she could not imagine him as someone who would use his niece’s life for any purpose.
Still, she read one unmistakable truth in his gaze: it wasn’t merely a blunt fury about his sister’s death. It was a vow to protect.
“Whatever the source, it seems the content was true.”
“……”
“She was real, wasn’t she?”
---The End Of The Chapter---
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