In truth, there was no need to go far. Edward Linco was none other than in the underground archive. He stood with his back to the door, staring blankly into the interior.
“Young Marquis!”
But Edward did not look back at her. As he stood gazing fixedly ahead as though his soul had fled, the maid, too, looked in the same direction.
“!!”
The maid covered her mouth unwittingly.
Richmond’s archive, which had been filled with the unofficial documents of the Marquis and Marchioness, was completely empty. As if thieves had broken in.
The Duchy of Richmond was a duchy. From managing the castle wall garrison to supervising the servants belonging to the inner keep, down to the minor administrative tasks—how much was there to govern and oversee? Edward was certain that the regency his parents had carried out was by no means easy. Therefore, he had assumed that even if the Duke was set on destroying House Marquis Linco, he would not touch his parents’ authority until he was sufficiently prepared.
‘From this moment, I reclaim the authority of regency that had been temporarily granted to House Marquis Linco. However, for the sake of an efficient and smooth transition, you must not leave the castle for the time being. Do you understand?’
But the Duke had expelled House Count Reuwen while simultaneously reclaiming the regency authority of House Marquis Linco. Furthermore, he had made it so the Linco family could not even leave the castle.
When Edward, seized by dread, had rushed immediately to the underground archive, it was utterly empty.
‘This is the only key to the underground archive in Castle Richmond. You manage it.’
His father’s words flitted through his mind mockingly. Edward gripped the archive key so hard it might break and asked the maid standing behind him.
“What is it.”
“Young master…….”
When Edward turned to her with bloodshot eyes, the maid flinched and spoke.
“Those of us who served the Marchioness… have been stripped of our authority as maids within the castle. We can no longer give orders to the castle’s servants.”
“Ha…….”
Those words meant that his mother could no longer reign as the person in charge of the inner keep.
Edward let out a sigh.
The secret documents had been stolen, his father had lost the administrative authority he held as regent, and his mother had effectively been stripped of her power in the inner keep.
Then what remained was military force. The problem was that the position of Count Reuwen, who had managed the troops until now, was vacant.
All of this had happened in the span of a single day.
Edward left the maid behind and came up to the surface. The cold rain was still falling, and the chill seeping from the stone walls seemed to make his hairs stand on end.
He walked distractedly toward somewhere. Then, when a fork in the road appeared, confusion flooded in. His ragged breaths broke apart in white puffs.
“Haa, haa…….”
For the first time, the castle felt unfamiliar to Edward.
Glancing around, he began to climb a staircase without thought. After ascending the spiral stairs madly, over and over, he reached the top of a certain spire where a small bell hung. It was one of the many spires erected upon Castle Richmond.
It was a spire consisting of nothing but four stone pillars supporting a pointed roof and a waist-high stone parapet, so the wind and rain lashed it unhindered. Edward drew close to the stone railing, heedless of his entire body growing soaked.
“…….”
Before his eyes unfolded the vast ducal castle. The magnificent main keep, thousands of corridors, and hundreds of towers. Hundreds of blue eagle banners hanging atop those towers flapped powerfully despite being heavy with moisture.
And as Edward stared blankly at the undulating sea of banners, his gaze was dragged somewhere as if iron filings pulled by a magnet.
Their red cloaks and black armor were vivid even amid the thick mist. The rain that poured down violently seemed to hinder them not in the slightest, and the chill that penetrated to the bone likewise seemed unable to pierce their steely muscles.
The five hundred knights who had returned alive with the Duke crossed the castle gates of Castle Richmond. The knights who had guarded Castle Richmond under Count Reuwen were completely eclipsed by their momentum.
The black knights lined up in two rows halted in perfect unison at a given moment. Then, at a precise timing, they looked at one another and stepped back several paces.
And down the path the knights had created, a man appeared riding a horse. Two knights standing at the very rear followed behind the man, bearing long flags emblazoned with the blue eagle.
“Haah…….”
Edward let out a sigh.
That the Duke would need more time to seize control of the castle had been purely his delusion. Coming to his senses, Edward hurriedly descended the spire. He spotted his mother’s maid who had come looking for him, ran to her, and spoke quickly.
“The guest who is said to have come from the capital. I must meet that guest right this instant.”
＊ ＊ ＊
The master’s order had come down to the knights, who had each been holding their breath, the night before.
They donned the black armor they had worn at the Wall of Death and fastened red cloaks over their shoulders as they waited for the castle gates to open.
On a dark morning with cold rain falling, the Reuwen family was driven out.
And how much longer had they waited? A criminal was executed and displayed above the moat, and then the master revealed himself atop the massive castle wall.
Cruel smiles spread across the rugged faces of the knights.
“So this is what it tastes like to return alive.”
Someone’s mutter trickled down along the raindrops.
Crimson Isaac approached Ares, who stood atop the castle wall looking down at the knights waiting only for his command. He had just finished overseeing the execution of “Iron Foot.”
“All is ready.”
Without a word, Ares turned and donned the black helm he held.
The defenders guarding the castle wall unknowingly took a step back and bowed their heads to him. Whether because of the drizzling rain and the dark sky, it was already a bleak day. Yet amidst it all, the figure of the Duke clad in black armor and a red cloak was like a war god.
Ares mounted his warhorse that Crimson had brought as if taking flight. Seeing this, the defenders opened the gates for him and lowered the bridge over the moat before the order was even given.
As Ares crossed the moat on his warhorse, the five hundred knights waiting beyond the moat mounted their horses as one. Seeing the cruel smiles playing at their lips, Ares, too, smirked briefly. There was no need to give an order or ask their intentions.
When he spurred his horse toward the vast expanse of Richmond beneath the pouring rain, the knights followed him as though they had been waiting for this very moment.
The rain beat against their helms and soaked their backs, but what was such rain to them?
With the thundering of hundreds of warhorses pounding the earth, with their comrades’ cloaks flying before their eyes, and with a master whom they had sworn to follow even through death, they would not have cared even if it were a place where storms of arrows rained down.
The five hundred knights led by Ares galloped in a long column along the exterior of the massive Castle Richmond. The momentum of the knights riding with their scarlet cloaks billowing was conveyed to the defenders stationed atop the ramparts. The presence of the returned Duke was deeply engraved in the minds of the defenders who had served Count Reuwen as their superior for the past dozen years.
“Wow……. Guess it’s because they’re ones who came back alive from the Wall of Death… They’re different.”
The procession of the Duke and his knights did not end there.
Ares circled halfway around the long, long ramparts and had the postern gate opened. Near the postern gate, the commoners’ dwellings were densely packed. Countless people flocked onto the wide avenue leading from the postern gate to the main keep.
As Ares and the knights slowly marched along the path formed through the commoners, shouts rang out from everywhere.
“Your Grace!!!”
“Your Grace has returned!!”
But the Duke did not respond to their calls, nor did he remove his helm to show his face. He merely announced the return of the Duke of Richmond in silence.
Once they passed through the area filled with commoners, walls and a massive gate appeared once more.
The gatekeepers opened the gates before the order was even given. The knights who had dismounted entered the castle before Ares. When he, the last one astride his horse, went inside, this time countless gazes flew from every corner of the buildings.
Ares led the knights lined up in two rows and continued the march. The nobles following the Duke all rushed out and knelt on their left knee to him, and the servants, too, stopped what they were doing and knelt on their left knee toward him.
Count Rodeo, his white hair disheveled, also set aside his son’s concerns and knelt. He should have done this long ago. His knees had always ached, yet today he did not even feel the pain. Having knelt throughout the long march, as if that were not enough, he finally walked out of the corridor into the pouring rain.
“Father!”
When his second son rushed to support him, the old Count pushed his hand away.
“Do not support me!”
Then he walked proudly behind the knight standing at the very end, and the other nobles, seeing this, rushed out to join the procession.
Ares moved like a wave rushing toward the seashore, leading the long surging tide of loyalty that clung to his back. And even then, not once did he look back.