The Viscount Lexton household was a famous family of geniuses. In the Viscount Lexton family, learning to read at age three was considered basic, writing essays at four was expected, and playing with fairly large units of numbers at five was taken for granted.
Naturally, it was a house that produced civil officials rather than knights, and as such, Joseph Lexton was a very unusual existence within the family. Though Joseph himself couldn’t care less.
Joseph Lexton’s father, Viscount Richard Lexton, was also a prodigy who had grown weary of being called a genius, and during the previous Duke’s tenure, all documents of the Ducal castle had been under his management. He was a walking index—if you merely recited the contents you needed, he could uncannily locate the corresponding document. His eldest son and Joseph’s older brother, Gilbert, was a prodigy no less than his father.
Of course, under Count Rinco’s thumb at the Ducal castle, there had been no work to speak of, so the household’s fortunes had been unspeakably declining—but that was neither here nor there.
But there was reward for their patience. When the happy news arrived that Joseph had returned escorting His Grace, the Duchess who had finally awakened summoned Lady Lexton to the castle. The Lexton father and son went to bed in good spirits for the first time in a long while. However, their sound sleep was shattered by a raucous voice.
“Father!!! Brother!!!”
“…Joseph?”
“You’re confident in organizing documents, right?!!”
“Joseph?!!”
The second son, appearing for the first time in over a decade, showed up like a thief in the night and dragged him and the eldest son to the Ducal castle.
“It’s urgent, it’s urgent! Come, come, go inside now!”
“I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s wait until morning and do this properly…….”
The muttering of Viscount Lexton, who had practically been dragged into the castle, faded the moment he was pushed into an enormous room.
“…….”
“…….”
The Lexton father and son, excluding the second son, were at a loss for words at the sight inside the room. An enormous amount of documents that clearly looked plundered were piled as high as a grown person. And between the stacks, shadows flickered as if people were moving among them.
While they looked around as if entranced, Joseph—who had escorted(?) his father and brother—triumphantly called out to someone.
“Miss!!”
Miss?
While the surprised Lexton father and son turned to look at their blood relative simultaneously, Joseph nimbly maneuvered his bulky frame this way and that, slipping out between the stacks of documents.
“What would you do carrying something like this? Give it here! I just need to put it over there, right?”
“Thank you, Joseph.”
Even the gentle voice coming from beyond the documents. They stood there flustered, unable to make heads or tails of the situation, when someone appeared to clear their heads.
“How could you be the last to arrive!”
“Ack! D-Dear?!”
“Really!! I boasted to the Duchess that you and Gilbert would be the first ones here! And now you’re the last to arrive!!”
Lady Lexton appeared carrying a teapot with steam billowing from it and fumed in a thoroughly hushed voice.
“Get a hold of yourselves! Hurry and follow me!! Gilly, button up, and you, comb your hair properly!”
Following her as if entranced and looking around, the Lexton father and son belatedly realized that this was the Duke’s chamber. And surprisingly, they were not the only ones who had been suddenly summoned at this late hour.
“Lotus?”
As Viscount Lexton muttered his friend’s name, the man who had been buried nose-deep in documents raised his eyes slightly and smiled. Moreover, familiar faces could be seen here and there among the piles of documents.
“Didn’t I tell you? You’re the last to arrive!!”
Her expression, which had been fierce as a leopard, changed the instant someone emerged from the piles of documents blocking the view.
“Oh my—Miss, shall I bring you a cup of tea?”
“No, Lady Lexton. I’ve had plenty. Thank you.”
“Do take it easy. You’ll hurt yourself. Now that these people have arrived too. Ohohoho.”
Lady Lexton grabbed her son and husband by the scruff of their necks with brightly smiling eyes. Then their gazes met with the person who had turned the Ducal castle upside down.
In that moment, the Lexton father and son vaguely recalled a vast golden wheat field. They seemed to smell the scent of wheat carried on a green breeze. Hair so blond it might as well have been gold sparkled in the light of thousands of flames burning from the ceiling, and green eyes like fresh leaves looked clear.
“What are you staring at blankly for?”
The faces of the Lexton father and son, who turned their heads simultaneously toward the direction of the voice, twisted as if they might weep.
“…Your Grace!”
Eliza laughed while leaning comfortably back on the sofa, and the Lexton father and son quickly rushed to her and knelt on their left knees. Eliza pulled her lips into a smile and affectionately patted their shoulders.
“Richard, you haven’t changed. Oh, Gilbert. You’ve become an adult since I last saw you.”
“Your Grace…….”
As Richard Lexton’s eyes reddened, Eliza shook her head slightly. It would take several days to fully unburden their old feelings. The first thing that needed to be done this night was not catching up on old times.
“I need your help.”
At that, Viscount Lexton’s eyes changed.
“I have been waiting for nothing but those words.”
Liking that firm gaze, Eliza raised them herself. Then she gestured with her eyes to Grace, who had been waiting to one side. As Grace approached, Eliza introduced Viscount Lexton to her.
“This is Viscount Lexton and his son. The Viscount managed the archives during the previous Duke’s tenure, so he will be more help than anyone.”
Grace extended her hand to the Viscount.
“Pleased to meet you, Viscount Lexton. I am Grace Taylor.”
“I am Richard Lexton. Please let me know if there is anything you need. I will do my utmost.”
After the three exchanged light greetings, Eliza prodded them forward from behind.
“Come now, get moving.”
As the Lexton father and son moved to either side of Grace, Grace began to move as if she had been waiting and explained the necessary details to the two of them.
“The most important thing we must find out from this vast amount of documents is where Richmond’s gold has disappeared to.”
“I had hoped against hope, but it seems he finally laid hands on the gold.”
Grace Taylor twitched her eyebrows as if to say “of course,” then briefly explained how the contents organized so far and the divided tasks would be brought to a close.
As the saying goes, it takes one to know one. When it came to paperwork, Viscount Lexton, who was a master, saw through that Grace Taylor was no less a master than himself at handling documents.
And after several hours had passed, Viscount Lexton became convinced that he could stake his life on the fact that she had, at the very least, overseen all documents of House Taylor.
Grace had a huge desk brought in and removed all the chairs. Then she placed the documents the officials had brought onto the desk one by one and began back-calculating Richmond’s past ten years. The air emanating from her slender figure was cold and piercing.
“You found it well. Put this document over there.”
“Sir Gilbert Lexton. Could you summarize these documents onto one sheet?”
Just as a general’s ability greatly influences victory or defeat in war, the ability of the person in overall command was extremely important in the bureaucrats’ war against documents.
During the previous Duke’s tenure, their direct superior had been none other than Count Rinco. Everyone had inwardly worried about who would give them orders in Count Rinco’s stead, but it was a truly needless worry. The officials, who had initially been daunted by when they would ever get through this massive volume, were inspired by Grace’s calm and composed attitude in uncovering the truth.
“Miss, I found it!!”
“Here it is!”
“Oh, so these documents connect?”
While taking a brief rest and watching Grace, Viscount Lexton spoke to his wife, who approached his side.
“I’ve been thinking, dear.”
“Yes?”
“Count Rinco must be quite flustered.”
“Why?”
“To seize the Ducal castle, you need three things, you know? Troops, administration, and domestic affairs.”
“Right?”
Viscount Lexton smirked.
“His Grace has the troops, Her Grace the domestic affairs, so the one thing left is the administration that controls bureaucrats like us.”
Lady Lexton followed his gaze and looked at Grace. Elderly officials were so busy holding documents and talking around her that they had no time for anything else.
The wrinkles at the corners of her mouth curved into an arc.
“That person is taking care of that.”
“Count Rinco must be burning inside.”
The Lexton couple’s small whispers seeped into the damp air and disappeared.
* * *
Viscount Lexton was wrong.
“Damn it, goddammit!!!”
Because Count Rinco’s insides were not just “a bit” burned—they were overturning.
“Y-you treacherous worms!!”
The Duke was slowly strangling him. Count Ruwen had marched on the castle with armed knights immediately after being stripped of his position, and they had been let inside.
There was no way to stop them. Because Count Ruwen, who had commanded the defense forces and knights, had been stripped of authority, all command had passed into the Duke’s hands. The defense forces and the soldiers under them, as well as the castle’s internal knights, were said to have sworn allegiance to the Duke.
Of course, some of them were still in the Count’s grasp, but the problem was that the tide had turned. It was obvious as daylight that the insignificant nobles would take this as an opportunity to side with the Duke and the Duchess’s faction.
Moreover, what was even more shocking was that following the Countess’s maids, even his own attendants had lost their authority inside the castle. Now, not a single maid or servant in the castle worked for House Rinco.
And his officials came one after another, wailing and crying.
‘My Count! You must protect me at all costs.’
‘My Count, I am so frightened. What shall I do? Yes?’
The Count’s head was like a volcano on the verge of erupting. He felt hot, burning, and suffocated, as though lava were filling his body. He wanted to beat them all up and throw them out.
“You should do some thinking before coming to me!! To think you can’t even say something like ‘let’s somehow get through this crisis’!!”
Just as his throat was growing stiff from his rage, his son came to find him.
“Father, I have something urgent to tell you.”