Chapter 24: One Girl?

My younger brother’s ability to act was considerable; after he clung to me like that, the move proceeded quickly.

Even though I hadn’t even held the enthronement ceremony yet, I had effectively claimed the rights first.

This room where I lay was the room only used by successive Grand Dukes.

And, opening that door led to a room for a couple’s cohabitation, and opening another door led to the spouse’s room.

Now, my brother had moved in, transforming it into the heir’s room.

It certainly felt wider and warmer than the room I used before.

It was also much closer to the study I often used, and the office I would be going to in the future.

…Of course, having to reinstall all the artifacts I had placed in the previous room was a bit troublesome, though.

As a bonus, I also had to finish off the friends I had buried beneath the room.

However, well, that was a problem that could be roughly solved with the staff, so let’s move past that.

Knock—

“Come in.”

As I reflexively granted permission, a familiar face appeared.

It was Mary’s face, dressed in a servant’s uniform, her eyes lacking their usual sparkle, unlike usual.

“……Ah.”

She wouldn’t be able to answer.

That thing around her neck was, after all, an artifact.

To repeat, while artifacts were more complex than magic to make and use, they were definitely higher in terms of versatility.

While general mental magic only went as far as making someone momentarily not themselves, artifacts could do this…

“Alright, Mary. How did you handle it?”

“…..With a pillow, the breath……..”

They could be controlled to achieve the desired goal while leaving the detailed execution to the person’s ability.

Compared to mental magic, which required giving detailed instructions for every single action, it was definitely many times more convenient.

“Hmm, death by suffocation is excellent. Did you cover your tracks well?”

Well, it did have the disadvantage of having very strict conditions.

Since it was activated by inputting specified commands, not by infusing mana, it was difficult to use just anywhere.

And the thing Mary was wearing consumed no less than four inputs, just for one artifact.

“…..The young lady, needed books….. to buy…..”

Considering that each one of those inputs was difficult to match, it was an artifact perfect for using on subordinates like this.

Given that there were spies all over the mansion who had failed all three opportunities, it would be easy to use here, though.

“Good, it seems you received treatment well, judging by your fingers. Then, shall we try to… snap you out of it, once?”

“….Yes, yes……… Ah?”

Reason returned to her empty eyes, and her expressionless face instantly hardened.

From the look of it, she seemed about to scream or cry loudly.

“Ah, aaaaah. Uwaaaaaa-!”

“Quiet, Mary.”

“-! -!!”

Hmm, such melodrama.

She simply gave a struggling person suffering from illness a gentle send-off, so why is she so sad and crying?

Anyway, from what I heard, it didn’t seem like things would get better for her, so why was her attachment so strong?

If she was prepared to kill someone and played tricks on me, she should endure her mother’s death.

“Ah, just in case, let me tell you, from this moment onwards, do not take any action that could harm me.”

If she knew how to empathize, shouldn’t she have been prepared for that much?

Considering that a normal person would have to make a firm decision to kill someone, that should be right.

“-!!!!”

Her mouth forcibly shut, Mary’s eyes, staring at me, were full of venom.

So, who told you to waste all three opportunities you had? You should be grateful I didn’t have the staff handle it.

“Hmm, Mary. If I’ve given you a chance to grow, you should mature quickly. Or, shall I give you that chance again, through your sister?”

As soon as I said that, her body trembled violently, and she clenched her fists tight.

“………”

And then, as if broken, Mary lowered her head.

Truly, I don’t know why she does such meaningless things.

“I know you’re sad, roughly, but distinguish between personal and public matters, Mary. You still have to do your job as my exclusive maid, don’t you?”

If it were up to my heart, I would want to grind her into dust, but I’ve invested a considerable amount, so it’s a waste to discard her.

Her tea tastes quite good, and isn’t there one more thing I can use as a weakness?

For now, assigning her several tasks will be the best course of action.

Caressing my splinted left hand, I finished the last letter with slightly shaky handwriting.

This was the result of acting emotionally when I should have left it to the Holy Sword.

“Alright, then shall we talk? How many friends like you are there in the Duchy? I think I heard it fragmentarily before. Head Butler, Chesswap? And was it Kaczmarek?”

“…Head, Head Butler, Lord Chesswap, Mr. Kaczmarek, yes.”

Mary seemed to be trying to keep her mouth shut, but her lips cruelly spoke the names of the spies.

However, they were names I didn’t know. I wasn’t the type to memorize people’s names.

“Who are the latter two?”

“Sen. Senior Knight. And-“

Hah, she has such useless stubbornness.

“Speak quickly. If you act so arrogant, I might actually order you to kill your sister, you know?”

“Sen, Senior Knight! And Administrative Assistant!”

Tsk, why does she always need a few more words to understand?

It’s been about a day, she should be able to shake off her sadness by now, I can’t understand why she’s like this.

“Okay, presumably those three are the highest-ranking among your friends?”

“….Yes.”

Hmm, surprisingly, I should say it wasn’t completely eaten up?

I thought the entire Duchy would be even worse, given how many spies were teeming in the Grand Ducal mansion, but I was mistaken.

Indeed, it must be difficult for ordinary talents to enter the administrative department or the decisive Knight Order.

If there was a place with enough talent to swallow the entire Duchy, would they act so complicatedly?

Compared to other places, the mansion must be easier to infiltrate, hence the large number.

With a letter of recommendation from a famous family and the guarantee of someone already working, there would have been no need to go through separate procedures.

“Truly, you’ve placed a lot of rats. So many.”

Would it be better to just cleanly purge them all?

Like Mary, putting leashes on them is difficult because matching each person’s inputs is tricky.

It’s even too much trouble to wave my staff.

It would be much more efficient to just cut off their heads with the Holy Sword at once.

“……..Cleaning up corpses is troublesome, and it’s bad for my reputation.”

Flinch—

Mary’s body twitched and trembled at my quietly spoken words.

The silver lining, at least, was that even someone like this was embedded as a spy.

That is to say, it’s not just filled with individuals honed for their purpose to the point of suicide if things go wrong.

Rather than being professional, it’s closer to acting as spies solely out of desperation.

Seeing her act so emotionally, it certainly wasn’t a professional organization.

“Lastly, let me ask one thing. That… Pollack, yes. Is Count Pollack on your side?”

Well, thanks to this, I’ve roughly sorted out how to handle things.

“….No. He, was rather a person of interest to be watched.”

As I said before, the easiest kind of people to deal with were those buried in emotion.

“Good, then I have nothing more to ask. Alright, deliver these letters as written. And you can summon Count Pollack.”

I won’t need to give Mary separate orders.

Because of the command I gave a little while ago, all actions that could harm me have been completely forbidden.

“…Yes, I understand.”

If she resists, wouldn’t it be a waste?

It just takes a bit more material, but I can make one if I want to.

Leaving Mary behind as she walked away, I got up and lay down on the bed.

It was almost time for my brother to return after training, so it was best to pretend to be resting quietly.

After the incident last time, he certainly showed movements to help me, or rather, control me?

Undoubtedly, his ability to properly express his opinions in that process was certainly a good thing…..

But, it’s worrying that he only shows it towards me.

It seems I’ll have to think about or research methods to properly draw out my brother’s true nature soon.

There were plenty of subjects for research besides the spies.

***

“……..This letter, wasn’t it delivered incorrectly?”

“It is clearly a letter that came in the Marquis’s name.”

In a mansion in the Duchy, a man with brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard questioned the letter he had received.

He wasn’t old, but his appearance wasn’t young either; he was the one called Marquis Mihalik by the public.

“She wouldn’t have a reason to send me a letter.”

Muttering thus, he slowly tore open the letter sealed with wax.

The sender of the letter was Grand Duchess Eleonora, someone with whom he certainly had no relationship for private correspondence.

………Although she was someone who would soon become the Grand Duke, that wasn’t the case for Marquis Mihalik.

“Wh- what is written?”

Count Noviki, who was drinking tea across from him, asked, watching the Marquis’s expression.

Since the last meeting, he had virtually clung to the Marquis.

“Hmm.”

The content of the letter was quite shocking, yet it deviated from Marquis Mihalik’s expectations.

It contained things that wouldn’t normally be written if she knew about him.

“It asks for a recommendation for someone to judge the trial regarding the attempted assassination of the Grand Duchess. It says that person will be selected in the meeting.”

“Yes? What does that even mean…?”

Marquis Mihalik couldn’t help but frown.

From her perspective, there was no reason to take such an action.

“Furthermore, it states she wishes to meet soon to discuss matters related to that. What do you think?”

“Recipient, was it really the Marquis…… you?”

Even if she didn’t know the specific ‘plan’ that he and his followers were pursuing, she would surely know that Marquis Mihalik was not on the Grand Duchess’s side.

Count Pollack, that cunning old man, had been visiting the Grand Ducal mansion frequently lately.

If it was that man, it was virtually obvious what he would have said about Marquis Mihalik.

“……Our only connection was seeing each other once at the previous noble assembly.”

“C- could the Grand Duchess have misjudged? Or didn’t listen properly to Count Pollack—”

“That wouldn’t be, likely.”

Marquis Mihalik couldn’t help but deny Count Noviki’s words.

Although he had only seen her once, she was not a naive or weak person.

Unlike her seemingly sickly appearance, the presence she showed at the meeting was enough to make even the Marquis inadvertently lower his head for a moment.

That presence was clearly that of someone who could grasp the waist of the Empire, had she not come to the Duchy.

Especially as a young lady who hadn’t even had her coming-of-age ceremony yet.

“You saw it too. She is at least not someone unable to distinguish between black and white. Rather, the Grand Duke might be like that.”

He could rather understand it if the Grand Duke, whom he had seen several times, was like that.

The few times he had visited the Grand Ducal mansion and seen him, he had a strong gentle and timid side, unlike his father.

Truthfully, if only considering suitability as a leader… Marquis Mihalik also acknowledged that the Grand Duchess was better than the Grand Duke.

“Tsk, there’s no choice but to meet her directly. She is such a person with insufficient information.”

However, the position of Grand Duke was not one that a good leader must ascend to.

He, who held his main house and territory at the northernmost edge of the North, the last boundary where people could live, knew this for certain.

“D- directly, you mean?”

The monsters pouring out of the Valley, they were on a different dimension from those faced in the Empire.

Formless beings, terrifying and surpassing human perception, that could not be defined by simple adjectives.

Dirty seeds that would gruesomely swallow the entire world the moment the thread of reason was lost even slightly.

“Yes, to understand her true intentions, I must at least get close, mustn’t I? It would be helpful to see her true nature directly this time.”

Unlike the Demon King, who was in conflict with the Empire but could at least be reasoned with, the things from the Valley were no different from natural disasters.

What was the goal of the Duchy?

For what was the Duchy established?

“Is it, not dangerous? What if the Grand Duchess schemes—”

The Duchy was created to prevent the Valley from conquering the world once again, to prevent the repetition of the tragic past.

The Duchy was meant to completely expel those true enemies of humanity that could not be associated with.

“Schemes?”

Yet, what is the current state?

Old men drunk on the Great War that occurred before he was even born were holding power and running rampant.

They were shaking the foundation of the Duchy, making a fuss about a war that was only five years long at best.

What in the world was that war, what did it leave the Duchy?

Yet, the war with the Valley, which had continued since the Duchy’s founding, hadn’t even ended.

“Hah, I’d rather she did. At least it would lessen my guilt a little, wouldn’t it?”

It was laughable that old men buried in the past claimed to be acting for the Duchy’s future.

For the future of the Duchy, they should first realize what the foundation of the Duchy is.

What was needed for the one who would become the Grand Duke of the Weiss Duchy was the quality of a hero who would not lose the thread of reason and would cut down the monsters of the Valley.

A hero who would wield the Holy Sword and constantly stand on humanity’s front lines must hold the position of Grand Duke.

The Mihalik family, having fought the Valley alongside the Grand Dukes since the Duchy’s establishment, knew this well.

“Killing a sickly girl is something I, too, found a little reluctant.”

It was merely laughable what the old men from the southern part of the Duchy, who had never stood at the northernmost edge, were chattering about.

That damned Great War, Great War.

Did they even shed blood properly before speaking of war?

What was so important about that past that they were trying to develop the Duchy in strange ways?

Thanks to that, useless people were only increasing.

“P- perhaps. If the Grand Duchess mentions my name, could you please speak to her about it? I am rather uneasy……..”

Like this, Count Noviki.

Having luckily gained a position in the Duchy by the grace of the former Grand Duchess, he could hardly be called useful.

“……..I shall do so.”

However, I must endure for now.

The matter that needed to be accomplished first was the handling of the Grand Duchess, and Count Noviki could perhaps be used as an excellent disposable piece.

That was a problem to consider later.

If the Grand Duke struggled to ascend to the position, there was also the southern branch relative with whom contact might have been made by now.

No matter what, the condition for Grand Duke was one.

A hero who would mercilessly wipe out enemies.

The Weiss family was a family born with that heroic quality, so as long as they fulfilled their role well.

For Marquis Mihalik, who had fought the Valley his entire life, it didn’t matter who became Grand Duke.

He didn’t want to see the grim sight of humans dying to non-humans if possible.

………Even if, in that process, a person had to kill one girl.