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Chapter 7
At last, Belladis opened her mouth.
“Grandfather.”
The retainers looked at her with somewhat startled eyes.
Until now, she had never even dared to properly look the Duke in the eye, let alone exchange words with him.
Yet, the Duke did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.
At that moment, the captain of the imperial guard interrupted again.
“Your Highness, no matter what happens, we of the Imperial Guard will protect you, so please, do not be afraid.”
The meaning behind his words was clear.
“Do not be afraid of Calypse.”
“Hold your tongue, Captain of the Guard! This is the Calypse duchy. What, pray tell, is there for Her Highness to fear here?”
“And what do you mean by that?!”
The Calypse retainers all flared up in outrage, but the imperial guard captain showed no sign of fear.
The fact that he dared to speak such insolent words before the Duke and his retainers showed just how much confidence he had in himself.
Belladis glanced at the retainers whose faces had flushed red with anger and thought,
Forget what I said about choosing the right position.
To Calypse, Belladis Calypse herself was nothing but disgrace and humiliation.
“Your Highness.”
She fixed the guard captain with cold eyes.
You—who are of not the slightest help in breaking through this 0.1%.
It’s about time you disappeared.
“As I said before, you may return now.”
“Your Highness, how could we possibly leave you behind? Especially when you’ve just suffered such a terrible incident—you must be confused and shaken….”
“That terrible incident, I suffered at the hands of someone I called in myself.”
On the surface, it sounded as though she meant only the physician, but no one failed to catch the hidden meaning.
Everyone knew the physician and the captain of the guard were in league.
The guard captain, at a loss for words, could only open and close his mouth soundlessly. Belladis, who never let a tilted scale slip from her grasp, pressed the advantage.
“Since the matter’s come up, how about you leave today?”
The once frail, pink eyes—eyes that had seemed the weakest in the world—now pierced the guard captain without the faintest tremor.
“Do you mean… today?”
With Belladis’s order of expulsion, the strongest justification for the imperial guard’s stationing was shattered.
“What’s there to drag out when you have nothing else to do?”
Watching his face flush crimson with rage and embarrassment, she couldn’t resist adding one more blow.
“Now works fine, too.”
The guard captain’s lips parted as though to protest, but Belladis cleanly ignored him and turned her gaze to the Duke.
As if waiting for that very moment, his eyes met hers.
“I’m sorry for having caused you concern, Grandfather.”
She did not miss the brief twitch of his eyebrow, however quickly it was gone.
“I would like to stay here.”
The Duke finally spoke after a short pause.
“As long as you are Calypse, you need no permission from me to remain here.”
And he did not forget to dismiss the guard captain.
“It’s a long road ahead. Best be on your way before dark.”
Good. That’s settled.
For now, she had succeeded in staying here. And just as importantly, she had succeeded in driving away the bothersome imperial guard.
Ophaniel kept nagging her, but Belladis, who had lost trust in him after the “husband incident,” paid his words no mind.
He had said this operation was like chess.
But the difference from real chess was that her pieces weren’t even on the board yet.
Which meant—she had to find the necessary pieces and place them on the board.
From her visions of the future, she knew there were several key individuals she needed to secure in order to win.
And she had just seen one of them.
[That one. That was the body I originally meant to give you.]
His name was Hector Rodic.
Leaving aside her regret at not being able to inhabit that body,
he was an extremely important force in the coming war.
The problem was—
“A message from Mount Valhalla. Miasma is quickly spreading, and of all places, near the duchy’s water source.”
—there was a very high probability that he would die on this expedition.
And if he died, the strength of the Calypse knights would be severely shaken.
Which meant, if she wanted to steer the future to her advantage, she had to keep Hector alive.
Just as she stepped out of the Duke’s office, she spotted a group of Calypse retainers.
“Hey, you there! Wait!”
“What is it, Your Highness?”
Their faces were filled with suspicion and wariness.
She didn’t care about that right now.
“Where are the knights heading to Mount Valhalla?”
A vast garden stretched out before the main keep.
Knights preparing for departure kept sneaking glances in one direction.
There, stood a hulking knight and a man in a perfect formal suit.
“You’ve properly memorized the terrain and strategy around the water source, haven’t you?”
The embodiment of the word sarcasm—his name was Edwin Fillmore.
With his immaculate blond hair, the golden eyes glinting behind his monocle, and his flawless, measured attire,
the young lord of House Fillmore was the very definition of a perfectionist.
“Of course, Lord Fillmore, sir!”
In contrast, the hulking knight who brushed aside Edwin’s nagging with a laugh was Hector Rodic, the viscount’s son—known as the very embodiment of improvisation.
Edwin and Hector had grown up together in the duchy, like brothers.
And throughout their youth, the one left constantly disillusioned had always been Edwin.
“Looks to me like you’re marching out with His Grace without the slightest proper plan or preparation.”
“Oh, come on. Our good lord count worries way too much, eh?”
In logic, Edwin never lost to anyone. But…
“Stop glaring, you’re scary!”
Against Hector—who had no care for logic—their childish spats always drove him mad.
“Do you have any idea how serious a problem your unchanging flippant attitude is? You’re not even wearing proper protection on campaign…!”
Blah, blah, blah.
Just as Hector was about to start digging at his ear in boredom, Edwin’s demeanor shifted in an instant.
He turned sharply, like a new recruit before his commanding officer, and bowed deeply.
“Your Grace.”
At the same time, Hector’s atmosphere also transformed.
His rough features remained, but all trace of playfulness vanished.
The man approaching them, Theodore, asked bluntly,
“The purification stones.”
“We’ve prepared almost exactly the required amount. I wanted to bring spares, but there aren’t many left in the duchy….”
Purification stones.
The only known means at present of eradicating the miasma that had suddenly begun spreading one day.
The problem was that the imperial family held a monopoly over them.
Because of that, Calypse was left at their mercy.
Theodore donned his gauntlet and gave the order.
“We depart.”
In that instant, the lightheartedness still lingering on the knights’ faces evaporated.
With the long wail of horns announcing the march in the background, the clatter of armor echoed here and there.
Taking the reins of the warhorse handed to him by his squire, Theodore spoke to Edwin.
“Even if the imperial guard has left the duchy, the rats already hiding inside will remain. Find them while I’m gone. And as for Belladis…”
Edwin listened intently, but the rest of the words he never heard.
“Wait!”
It was the sudden voice that cut in.
Not loud, but so out of place among the iron scent of armored knights that Edwin froze and turned.
Theodore, too, turned his gaze.
“Wait a moment!”
Even without wanting to, they couldn’t help but see her. Perhaps it was the color of her hair.
Her silvery locks rippling in the air shimmered like sunlight scattering across a river.
Theodore’s eyes turned cold at the sight.
The woman was running toward them between the warhorses and armed knights.
Had she finally realized, after all this time faithfully playing the role of Calypse’s weakness, that she could not go on like this?
Or was this, too, another ploy of the Emperor?
Either way, he had no desire to play along any further.
Theodore finished giving his command.
“If Belladis makes any strange demands, block them as best you can. As long as she isn’t harmed, I don’t care what you do.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
The moment Edwin replied, Theodore’s eyes met Belladis’s from across the distance.
Let’s hear what nonsense you’ve come to spout now.
But then—her pink eyes, which had locked on him, suddenly turned away.
Theodore’s crimson eyes twitched.
And she shouted—
“Hector Rodic!”
To his surprise, it wasn’t him Belladis had come for.
