The Grand Duke immediately sought the Count’s place. According to the Count’s butler, the Count had been able to find the damn prince, and he left boasting that there was only one thing left to please the Grand Duke. But there was something the Count did not know. He said that if the Count had really found Leone, he couldn’t come back. He had Adler by his side, so he couldn’t just send the Count back.
‘Seeing that they didn’t come, Adler must have really taken care of it.’
The Grand Duke naturally thought so when the Count did not return. It was difficult for an aristocrat of the level of a count to disappear in an instant. It was a reasonable doubt. The Grand Duke did not stop at inferring that fact, but went one step further and thought of the possibility of Leone returning to the capital. If the Count had indeed ‘found’ Adler, it must have been because Adler had given up hiding for five years. The Archduke watched Adler for a long time. He valued Adler’s ability more highly than his own son. In any case, the fact that Adler gave up hiding must mean that he is coming to the capital soon. That’s why the Grand Duke was not surprised by the news of the prince’s return.
“Tsk.”
The Grand Duke clicked his tongue as he compared Count Adler, who was fast with his work, and his subordinates who did not know what to do. Listening to General Bede’s report, the two came together even better. Adler must have returned to the capital, frightened by the 15 assassins sent by General Wied to check on him. It’s better to have a barricade called the imperial castle than encounter the soldiers of the Archduke outside the imperial castle.
‘But let’s see. Let’s see if the beast returns to the capital.’ The Grand Duke thought.
But, something very strange happened. From the day the prince returned to the capital, from the day the march took place, rumors began to circulate. The returned prince was, without a doubt, the perfect prince himself.
“It’s clear what happened…”
It was a beast with eyes that hated humans because they were wary of them. That such a person even marches back and hears the perfect prince? He couldn’t have set up a stand-in. If he was a double, the spy planted in the Imperial Knights would have already known. The real prince was different, so you just had to find him and kill him.
“Yes? What’s going on?”
“General.”
“Yes, yes.”
“When your subordinates saw the prince in the Meto Mountains, were there any other unusual things?”
At the Archduke’s question, General Bede rolled his eyes. He wandered through the mountains so much that his memory faded a bit. He grunted and pondered for a while, then suddenly made an ‘ah’ sound and his eyes lit up.
“Come to think of it, Your Excellency the Archduke. Didn’t the prince say he hated humans?”
“It did.”
“By the way, from what my subordinates witnessed in the Meto Mountains, the prince was with a certain little girl.”
“What?”
The Archduke let out a surprised voice and leaned his upper body forward.
“She was very short, with curly red hair, and they were said to have a friendly conversation.”
“He had a conversation”
Archduke Evans raised the corners of his mouth.
“Haha. Hahaha. They had a conversation.”
The Archduke, who had laughed out loud for a long time, suddenly hardened his face.
“It’s fun, it’s fun. Butler!”
“Yes, my lord.”
“The red-haired woman next to the prince, come find out the personal information.”
“I will pass it on.”
“Is the Verbena Guildmaster still bargaining?”
“Yes, at the Verbena Guild, it’s a rule not to hand over the requested data, and they’re only raising the price.”
“Double the price you asked for. Then I will give you the information.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
The missing Count of Bucket was a deception of deceptions. As a result, he had pointed out the guild leader of Verbena, which costs an astronomical amount when commissioned. As it was the case this time as well, the Archduke naturally sent someone to the guild leader to hand over the contents of Count Bucket’s request and the information he found out. that was a week ago
“And I will be entering the palace after a long time, so get ready.”
The Archduke raised himself from his chair and said. For a moment, everyone in the office looked shocked. It was Archduke Evans who had a falling out with the emperor and sent a vassal without attending the regular meeting in person to suppress the emperor’s spirit. The fact that the Emperor did not give any bruises to the Archduke, who tended to scratch his pride, sufficiently showed how narrow the position of the imperial family was.
Was he entering the palace? It seemed to be the first time since the prince left five years ago. It was only for a moment that he was surprised by the Archduke’s remarks about the bomb. The butler moved quickly. He knew that it was his duty to carry out his master’s orders.
* * *
Early in the morning, she headed to Adler’s temporary office located in the temporary imperial palace. Adler was too busy to work repeatedly entering and exiting the palace, so Adler took a seat in the palace of the Emperor.
“Is that Leone? Isn’t he acting weird? Isn’t he doing too well these days? Is he feeling unwell?”
When she first said that Leone was strange, Adler made a puzzled face.
“No. He is doing so well. He couldn’t get along, he studied too hard! Those are good things… are they?”
“That’s strange! I mean, he had a seizure as soon as he landed in the imperial castle. There must be a reason why he is doing well now. Maybe he can’t bear it.”
“Trixie. It’s a good attitude as a disciplinarian, but hasn’t Lord Leone been calm lately?”
Wrong. Leone said he was okay, so she tried to persuade Adler to take his child away from the castle and take a look. At least, she needed time to clear her schedule and observe, even for a day. But Adler, who was intoxicated by Leone’s doing so well, was throwing her worries away with a happy face. Just in case, she consulted Benjamin, but Benjamin also accepted that there was nothing wrong with him. He said that he was rather happy that Leone was trying to change because his stimulation of Leone was well expressed. He didn’t answer the question of what the hell was provoking him. She wondered if these people were too complacent.
“Think about it. I couldn’t even find the cause of the seizure, so would it be okay to keep it like this? It would be a big deal if Leone lost his temper at an important moment.”
“I understand Trixie’s concerns.”
“Really?”
“I also thought Leone hated all people. But seeing as he had a seizure as soon as he arrived at the imperial castle, it seems that he doesn’t just hate people.”
“Yes. That’s it.”
“But isn’t he okay now? Maybe Leone is trying to change the situation. He wants to be recognized for his efforts.”
It wasn’t wrong, but she felt a strange rationalization in Adler’s voice that poured out every phrase. As Adler, who only wants Leone’s development, he must have wanted to interpret it as best as possible. It wasn’t that she didn’t know how it felt.
“Watch out, Trixie. I don’t know what kind of heart Lord Leone has, but I can see his struggling to change.”
Was it really like that? Both Benjamin and Adler said that Leone was trying to change. This situation was so strange that only she was anxious.
“Sure, Mr. Adler.”
So she would have to find out the cause herself. Wasn’t she the one who ignored Adler’s words and secretly broke into the mansion during the Meto Mountains?
“By the way, can you tell me about Leone’s childhood?”
She wanted to ask Leone, but it seemed like he was forcibly hiding his uneasiness right now, so there’s no way she would get a proper answer. Maybe it was a story dark enough to reveal deep trauma. First of all, she decided to ask Adler.
“I wonder why Leone became like that.”
When asked the other day, Adler closed his mouth tightly. Since it was before Leone revealed that he was the prince, he thought it was an act to keep a secret. She asked, thinking that now that she was in the palace, he would answer.
“…hmm.”
Adler looked at her face thoughtfully and then nodded his head.
“Well, we rode the same boat anyway. We came to the imperial castle too.”
“Yes!”
Her eyes lit up. The moment had come when that silent mouth finally opened.
“Lord Leone, in fact, is not His Majesty’s own child.”
“…what?”
She asked in a surprised voice. She didn’t even think of the option that Leone wasn’t the Emperor’s child.
“Yes, Lord Leone is the son of Her Majesty’s younger sister, Princess Ludeia, who fled from the imperial castle a long time ago.”
“Did she run away?”
“Yes. There’s a story there, but it’s not important, so let’s move on. About six years ago, when His Majesty the Emperor heard that the princess’s child had been found, he had to vacate the castle for a year with an expedition to bring the princess’s child. At that time, I remained in the capital and guarded the imperial castle, fearing that the a coup d’état might occur when the throne was empty. So I don’t know the details of what happened. From the first time we met, Lord Leone was in that state, and His Majesty did not give a specific explanation.”
“Oh my god. You don’t even know Adler? Why, why didn’t he tell you?”
“Perhaps he deliberately kept quiet about the past because he was plagued with protests from the nobles as soon as he brought Lord Leone back.”
“I see…”
“I just looked at Lord Leone’s condition… I thought he might have been abused.”
“What?”
Abused? She widened her eyes at the unexpected assumption.
