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Chapter 44
“Ah, I see. So that was the situation. I spoke carelessly yesterday, forgive me.”
Alcard apologized awkwardly when he noticed the noble family heirloom sword hanging at Noah’s waist.
In truth, Noah had done nothing wrong yesterday either—he had simply done his duty. The real reason Alcard had been so angry wasn’t because of Noah, but because he himself had failed to understand his younger sister’s circumstances. Realizing that only later, he was overwhelmed with shame at his excessive behavior.
Since Noah had no reason to pick a fight with Alcard here, he accepted the apology with his usual blunt face.
“But what’s that in your arms? A child?”
“Ah, yes. This boy is my… well… my son. He insisted on coming along to see His Majesty the Emperor, but he couldn’t fight off his drowsiness. He’s still young, so I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Alcard let out a hearty laugh, saying the child was truly hopeless, though his expression flickered for just a moment before he resumed rubbing his side quietly. Watching him, Alcard thought:
‘I did think he was rather handsome… turns out he’s already married. I’ve heard his territory isn’t doing well either. Feeding a wife and child must be hard on him.’
Clicking his tongue in pity, Alcard patted Noah’s shoulder.
“You’ve had a hard morning already. Please continue to safeguard Caria. And if you ever need help, come to me.”
With a friendly smile but an arrogant air, Alcard walked past him. Noah stood silently, watching his back until it disappeared.
Then, very slowly, he curved his lips upward.
“Who’s supposed to be helping whom?”
His tone was laced with faint contempt, as if etiquette no longer mattered. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes were utterly dry, devoid of mirth.
Unfortunately for Noah, he didn’t realize that this two-faced attitude only made Andyone more wary of him.
“Her Highness the Emperor’s niece, Duchess Caria of Pandeon, enters!”
The Emperor, who had been enduring two long, boring hours of audiences from the throne, wrinkled his face like crumpled paper when he heard the familiar name announced.
Resting his chin on his fist atop the armrest, he turned to Alcard at his side.
“Captain of the Imperial Knights, I told you to inform her that I refuse the Duchess of Pandeon’s audience request.”
“My apologies, Your Majesty. I was so busy that I forgot to deliver the message.”
At Alcard’s brazen lie, the Emperor clicked his tongue loudly enough to be heard. He signaled for a servant to dismiss Caria even now—but before the order could be carried out, she was already walking into the throne room.
And the sight of her made the courtiers break into murmurs.
“What is this, in front of His Majesty?”
“What in the world is she doing?”
Caria appeared dressed in black from head to toe—a black gown, a black veil, every inch of her covered in mourning attire.
There had been no recent funeral in House Pandeon. And if she truly were in mourning, she should have refrained from attending an audience.
“Of course…”
The Emperor rubbed his forehead. The girl who had never once sought an audience was here now for one reason only—to make a statement.
As expected, Caria paid no heed to the hundreds of stares piercing her, and with dignified steps, she glided forward until she stopped at the base of the throne.
“Wife!”
Among the nobles present was her husband, Duke Pandeon himself. But even his urgent call could not make her flinch; she bowed directly to the Emperor.
“I greet His Imperial Majesty, master of the Empire.”
“So, Duchess of Pandeon. You appear before the Emperor dressed in mourning. Has someone died?”
Is this your way of saying that if you can’t get divorced, you may as well be dead?
Rather than pity, the Emperor only felt irritation at her pale, unpainted face. Only yesterday he had warned her not to disgrace the imperial name, and here she was behaving so recklessly before everyone.
But Caria gave an answer no one expected.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I stand here in this attire today to mourn a death. I beg your pardon.”
“What? What has died? If you speak nonsense, I’ll bar you from this hall forever!”
“My conscience. My conscience has died.”
The word that left her lips was nothing the Emperor could have predicted. Disbelieving his ears, he asked again:
“What? What has died?”
“Your Majesty, I have committed a grave sin by concealing a secret from you. I beg to use this occasion to confess and cleanse myself.”
Confession? What is she talking about? The Emperor looked baffled—and so did everyone else in the hall.
The only one who realized what she intended to say was Lubidov Pandeon. He gave her a desperate look, but she did not answer.
She had already given him one chance. He was the one who had thrown it away.
“Your Majesty, the finances of Pandeon have long been impoverished, and each winter the fief relied on the great generosity of the Imperial Family to help its people survive. Naturally, the welfare of the people is the duty of the lord—but Your Majesty, you deemed them also your subjects and could not allow them to freeze or starve, and so you showed such mercy.”
“Yes, I did. And what is wrong with that?”
“Yet the poverty of Pandeon was not truly the land’s problem. The Duchess Dowager embezzled the funds to fill her own coffers.”
The hall fell deathly silent. The Duchess Dowager of Pandeon, guilty of embezzlement? What a shocking claim. She was a highly respected lady in society.
Even if it were true, why would the Duchess of Pandeon herself expose it here in the throne room, for all to hear?
While many were bewildered, some who had already heard rumors began to whisper.
“So the rumors of divorce in House Pandeon were true?”
“Divorce? Between the Duke and Duchess? What do you mean?”
“They say the Duchess already left the ducal manor and lives in a townhouse.”
“And I heard it was because the Duke was unfaithful.”
The Emperor clenched his fist in rage as he watched the very rumors he had tried to suppress spread openly before him. Yet Caria’s accusations didn’t stop there.
“The Duchess Dowager even purchased a title—‘Baron Devon’—seemingly unrelated to Pandeon, and funneled the funds through it. The total amount approaches five million gold—enough to sustain Pandeon’s people through five winters.”
“What!”
“And since every winter the missing budget was covered by imperial support, this means the Imperial treasury was siphoned into the private use of the Ducal House. As both imperial kin and subject, how could I keep silent any longer?”
Even before she finished, all eyes turned to Duke Pandeon. If Caria were speaking falsehoods, he should be denying it—but instead, his face had gone pale and his eyes were tightly shut.
The Emperor let out a hollow laugh. He had suspected the Duchess Dowager lived extravagantly despite the fief’s poverty, but he had not known she created false identities to hoard slush funds. Unable to contain his anger, he demanded of the Duke:
“Duke Pandeon, is this true?”
“…It is true.”
After glaring bitterly at Caria for a long moment, the Duke admitted the accusation with a deep sigh. There was no point denying—an investigation would reveal the truth soon enough.
Instead of denying, he tried to redirect the story in a way less damaging to the family.
“I only learned of this a few days ago, and am still investigating the details. I did not report it immediately to spare Your Majesty needless agitation over unverified matters.”
“That is a lie. The very person involved—the Duchess Dowager—is already hiding in the fief.”
“Wife!”
But Caria cut him off coldly. Of course she would not let him wriggle free.
She had come precisely to corner Lubidov Pandeon. To ruin the reputation he had carefully cultivated in society by currying favor with everyone, and to expose his household bare for all to see.
This was mud thrown at both Duke and Duchess Dowager alike. But Caria—soon to no longer be Duchess—had little to lose.
If only Lubidov had agreed to her proposal at the start, none of this would have happened.
“I was the one who uncovered this and told the Duke. I urged him to inform Your Majesty at once. After all, how would it look to others if vast slush funds were hidden under the false name of Baron Devon? Would they not suspect a darker purpose?”
“Wife, why are you doing this? That is an outrageous leap!”
“Your Majesty, do you know how I came to discover it? Because the seed money for her embezzlement was taken from my allowance—the funds meant for my dignity as Duchess. In all my years of marriage, I have never once received my proper allowance.”
Though she addressed the Emperor, her words were for every ear in the hall. She made no attempt to soften the scandalous content, and her blunt confession sent the nobles into an uproar.
