Chapter 19: The Decision

“····What does everyone intend to do?”

In the drawing-room of a certain mansion, where the bright light of a chandelier shone down.

However, unlike the bright and brilliant atmosphere of their space, the sound filling it was only of serious and dark talk.

“What do you intend to do? Do you really need to ask that?”

Count Noviki raised his leaning body and lifted his chin.

“How on earth can we recognize her as the Grand Duke?”

“But, there is no proper justification, is there?”

One fat Count closed his eyes tightly and then opened them, speaking calmly.

“It was us who agreed to the proposal to confirm the position of Grand Duke through the Knight Examination. And, the Grand Duchess passed the Knight Examination.”

Thump-

Someone unnecessarily hit a glass on the table, expressing dissatisfaction.

“We don’t know about that either, do we? Is there a possibility that she used dishonest means-“

“Watch, your words.”

A man called Marquis Mihalik snapped back briefly.

Instantly, the temperature of the drawing-room became noticeably colder.

“It was an examination notarized by His Eminence the Cardinal. You all know how inflexible the Church is.”

“Then how on earth could someone who has never trained defeat a knight using mana!?”

Count Noviki slammed his hands down.

He trembled.

“Isn’t that a nonsensical story!”

“Surely, you yourself said you saw it.”

Marquis Mihalik sighed with a sense of futility and shifted his gaze to the chandelier.

“You said she cut off her arm in one blow without any warning. If so, she must simply be in a realm we cannot approach.”

“Are you saying that someone who has been sickly their entire life is a Sword Saint? What story are you telling that doesn’t even appear in fairy tales?!”

Count Noviki shouted as if it was absurd.

His gaze was the most anxious among those present.

When Sonia swung her sword full of killing intent at the Grand Duchess, he was the only one in this room who stood by and watched, thinking it was a good thing.

The others, on the contrary, were frightened and left the Duchy, but he, with many assets tied up in the Duchy, was forced to remain.

Of course, everyone in this room was of the opinion that Grand Duke Philip should acquire the Holy Sword, but among them, he was the only one who had committed a crime at that moment.

“Then perhaps she used magic.”

A nobleman with a cigarette in his mouth exhaled a thin stream of smoke.

“If so, wouldn’t it be difficult even for His Eminence and the knights to identify?”

“Hah, what kind of carefree talk are you having!”

With the continued, almost self-abandoning tone, Count Noviki couldn’t help but flush and raise his voice.

“How can you be so easygoing about something that concerns the future of the Duchy-!”

“Calm down, Count Noviki.”

A thin Baron sitting in the corner chimed in lowly.

“Wouldn’t Marquis Mihalik be upset about it too? And it’s also true that there’s no reason that can be clearly explained.”

As he said, there was no one who could clearly explain the process leading to the current situation.

The Grand Duchess had been ill in bed since the examination, and those who witnessed the scene couldn’t figure out what means the Grand Duchess had used.

“Didn’t she herself prove it right there in that spot? That there is no problem with the Holy Sword, and that she is not connected to anything wicked.”

However, what was certain was that there was nothing that could be called a problem in that process.

Unfortunately for those who could not accept the present.

“…..It’s a checkmate. Whether she knew from the beginning and set the stage, or if she was blessed by God, it has become irreversible.”

One nobleman sighed deeply.

He rested his chin on his hand.

He shook his head.

“Hah, to think that the day would come in my lifetime when I would praise Oksana’s disciple.”

Another nobleman smiled bitterly.

He turned his head back and forth.

What came out was only words of self-abandonment.

In a position where they had already mortgaged their justification to the Grand Duchess’s side, there were no more political moves they could make.

In the political chessboard, the only empty space was the Grand Duchess’s house.

In a space where victory and defeat would be clearly determined, placing a stone would only kill their own large group.

“We should have stopped it from the moment the previous Grand Duke suddenly brought a child, especially from that Schwartz family. We were complacent.”

A prominent noble of the Duchy, sitting in the back, bit his lip and muttered.

“······Is there anything we can still do?”

An elderly nobleman spoke heavily.

“The Grand Duchess possesses clear qualifications to be the Grand Duke, and opposing this is the same as opposing the Holy Sword, isn’t it?”

Only lamentation and regret heavily pressed down on the space.

The light of the chandelier had somehow become something akin to a blessing from God, merely weighing down their situation.

The white snow accumulating outside was merely blanketing the future they had dreamed of.

“Damn it, if I had known this would happen, I would have at least pretended to dissuade them…..”

The only noticeable sound was the sound of Count Noviki, who would abruptly bear the brunt of the consequences, biting his fingernails.

There was nothing more they could do.

It seemed there was no longer a way for them to place the Grand Duke’s son on the throne.

Swoosh-

······At least, under this chandelier.

Marquis Mihalik’s fingertip quietly pushed aside the documents placed on the table.

The documents slid down without a sound.

Avoiding the spaces illuminated by the chandelier, they were paradoxically located in the darkest center.

“····There is still one method left.”

“··Method, you say?”

The nobles fixed their gaze in unison.

Even the air fell into a heavy silence.

That was probably a vague expectation towards Marquis Mihalik, who led this faction.

“·····Is there anything else left?”

However, that expectation could no longer be realized under the chandelier.

For the Duchy they dreamed of, there were no longer any legitimate methods.

“The Grand Duchess, is she not sickly?”

Marquis Mihalik said in a calm tone, as if stating an obvious fact.

Instantly, the air in the room settled like cold ash.

“··Marquis Mihalik, are you serious?”

Someone asked again in a hushed voice.

“No matter what…”

Sounds of hesitation erupted from various places.

These included reactions that stemmed from conscience, fear, and other emotions.

For those who thought they could do anything for their dream, illegitimate methods shone with a sweet yet threatening light.

However, as in any place, there were those who would sacrifice themselves without hesitation for the sake of glamour, despite the warnings.

“I will.”

Short breath, firm lips.

It was a fragment of someone who seemed capable of truly doing anything for their dream.

“····I do not wish for anyone other than a person of the Weiss family to sit in the position of leading the great Duchy. For the sake of the Duchy, it must be so.”

At the strong words, the lights of the chandelier seemed to flicker for a moment.

It seemed as though the dream of those who filled the space, the dream he spoke of, had briefly obscured those lights.

It was a dangerous thing.

It was a dangerous thought.

But, as long as there was someone who went ahead first-

Tap-tap-

Those who jumped in together tended to increase.

Someone’s finger lightly tapped the table.

It was an unconscious movement, as if expressing silent agreement.

“·········.”

No one opened their mouth.

No, in fact, only one person needed to open their mouth.

“The rightful person, should sit in the rightful place.”

He was the only one who was still looking at one place, the Marquis.

“Sir Sonia’s choice was correct. Don’t you think so, Count Noviki?”

“···Naturally, you speak the truth.”

Count Noviki wiped away his cold sweat, yet he couldn’t help but smile at the Marquis’s words.

It was a joy that naturally burst out at the fact that he was not the one who had to take the first step, and at the fact that there were people who would support him even if he fell.

“The others, they think so too, don’t they?”

At that moment, the gazes of the nobles filling the room converged into one.

There was no oath, no pledge.

But, the decision had already been made.

The master of the Duchy had to be a blood relative of the Weiss family.

***

“·····Hmm, is that so?”

I nodded my head at the report from the Count before me, I mean….Pollan?

It seems I should definitely memorize his last name soon.

He wasn’t just one of a few Counts, and at least as the first person to come under me, I should know that much.

“Nothing has been done since then, but you should be cautious. Marquis Mihalik was the person who spearheaded the denial of the Grand Duchess’s qualifications at the previous succession ceremony.”

Anyway, Count Poll… whatever his name was, visited to inform me that those who opposed my ascent to the position of Grand Duke had held a meeting.

I hadn’t specifically ordered him to do anything, but it seems he decided to serve me of his own volition.

In a Duchy teeming with spies, the fact that I had gained a sole ally wasn’t a bad thing at all.

The more people I could use, the less I would have to step forward myself.

“That is true. It seems there are quite a few who are not pleased with me.”

For now, perhaps it would be better to view the two factions separately?

Unlike the faction of spies who had been trying to assassinate me until now, the faction gathered by Marquis Mi… whatever his name was, moved quite openly.

Both had the commonality of having provoked me instead of my brother, but their methods of movement were distinctly different, so they should be viewed separately.

Spy, and hardliners.

Perhaps it is better to name them as such.

‘……It feels like the things I have to do are increasing.’

I had definitely made a contract with the Holy Sword so that I wouldn’t have to live like this again, but in reality, I was living even morebusily.

“Please investigate the movements of that side for a while. Once my rest is over, I will step forward myself.”

“··I hope you recover quickly. Then.”

Seeing the Count’s expression, which looked very complicated, I felt the need to think deeply about it, but I stopped.

It was about time for a seizure to come, so I needed to be in a slightly more comfortable state.

As the Count left the room, despite taking medication, I felt a chill rising, so I quickly lay down on the bed.

Staying in that state and emptying my mind for a moment, reality and myself became separate, as if a film had been placed over my eyes.

It was certainly true that the medication had become stronger than before; even the sensation of the blanket covering my body was faintly felt.

It was difficult to decide whether to express this with the word ‘dreamy’, or with the word ‘powerless’.

I wasn’t normal even without the medication, but I tended to become even more abnormal when I took it.

The feeling of what was clearly visible becoming blurred, and the feeling of the evidence of life within my body disappearing was not pleasant.

The pain that had constantly tormented me disappeared, and the vague sensation of my internal organs running wild was not exciting.

Severe anesthesia, a severe numbness to the extent that I briefly forgot I was alive, would give me a pain separate from the pain of my body.

Thinking that I couldn’t go on like this, I raised my body, which was somehow breathing heavily.

It was good to stay still when a seizure came, but in a situation where my thoughts were so numerous, I felt like I would be buried if I stayed still.

“·····Haa.”

Whether it was due to the cold, or due to the pain I didn’t feel because of the medication, a breath escaped my mouth on its own.

In fact, the main reason was likely that there were more things to think about.

No, it was certain to see it that way.

My brother was clearly not ignorant, but he was in a state where he seemed untrained in analyzing and grasping the situation.

To express it in socially common language, the phrase ‘lacking intuition’ would be accurate.

Seeing that he perceived my conversation with the physician as simply feigning kindness certainly indicated this.

The fact that he suddenly worried about me even after I tore up the physician’s letter would certainly serve as evidence of this.

In the conversation with her, the physician had no choice but to confess that her disciple was her weakness.

By tearing up the letter, I had obtained an opportunity to misunderstand the physician’s intentions and mold her disciple to my liking.

‘……What kind of person was the Grand Duke?’

What kind of person was he, to have created such a brother, and to have allowed spies to run rampant in the Duchy?

As a child, I didn’t live as mentally strained as I do now, so it would remain unknown in the future too.

In the first place, as someone who had decided to live steeped in laziness, I doubted I would have had the time to care about my surroundings.

‘····I don’t know.’

There was no need to try to breathe even in this situation.

My body needed to recover so that I could act human, or engage in politics.

So, let’s think of this as the last time and live according to my true nature for a moment.

As there wasn’t much time left to rest anyway-

Bang-!

·········?

At the sudden clear sound coming from the window, I momentarily stood up.

{I have been telling you to open the door for a while now, why are you pretending not to hear me! There is no need to ignore me anymore!}

Outside, the Holy Sword, which I didn’t know why it was here, was repeatedly banging on the window, spinning around.

I couldn’t help but frown at the sight.

I couldn’t help but express my surprise at the situation, which I couldn’t properly grasp due to my dizzy head.

{Once a month has passed, you should come find me! You make me cling to you until the very end! I can’t take it anymore! I am going to enter by force!}

More importantly, if it enters through the window like that instead of the door-

{Once the examination is over, you should come find me first! Why are you in a place like this-}

Zzzt-

[Kyaaaaa-!?]

····It ended up like that.

The circuit engraved in the room activated, applying a strong shock to the Holy Sword’s blade.

As the room itself had been modified into an artifact, it was designed so that if someone who hadn’t been granted permission to enter or who wasn’t an exception tried to enter, they would end up like that.

“·······Hah.”

Looking at the Holy Sword, which had suddenly become like an assassin who had broken into my room, I felt my head becoming even heavier.

‘······Do God or the Grand Duke, do they have a knack for tormenting me by giving me things exactly like themselves?’

Seeing the sword trembling like that, I couldn’t help but think that.

[Ughhhh…….]

‘…Rather, this was a moment that made me miss my brother, who was merely clueless.’