The duke’s castle was vast and still in disarray. Even so, slipping out was no easy feat for Edward. Having barely escaped the castle, he made straight for the commoners’ quarter. After passing through several shoulder-width alleys, a young boy suddenly appeared.
The boy led the way to a shabby tavern. Descending underground, they came to a door, followed by a corridor barely wide enough for one person to pass. After traversing the winding path beneath the earth for some time, the boy smirked and pointed at a door.
Edward Rinko opened it without hesitation. Contrary to his expectation of a rank, moldy stench, the air beyond was rather pleasant. Edward instinctively surveyed his surroundings. A few candles softly illuminated the sealed room.
Then, he sensed a presence at his back. He turned to find the door opening and a stout woman draped in a black veil stepping inside. The gaze from beyond the veil was sharp.
Edward greeted her with a courteous bow.
“I am Edward Rinko.”
The Queen’s chief handmaiden brushed past him and seated herself on the sofa. The moment Edward sat before her, she cut straight to the point.
“I never imagined Leuven would fall so quickly. I hear the Duke of Richmond marched his knights through the outer and inner wards of the castle as though celebrating?”
Flourish was unnecessary in a secret meeting.
“Your house held the Duke of Richmond’s castle under its thumb for a decade, yet the moment the Duke returned, you lost all authority?”
At the stinging rebuke, Edward drew and released a breath, speaking in a low voice.
“The Duchess Eliza Richmond has awakened.”
“…Eliza Richmond?”
The chief handmaiden’s brow furrowed deeply.
“They said she had become a wraith!”
“She had not.”
But the chief handmaiden was a woman who had spent ten years in the imperial palace.
“Of course, the return of Eliza Richmond and the Duke is undeniably a threat. Whatever anyone says, they are the rightful masters of Richmond. Even so, it should not have been easy for the two of them to force their way in so suddenly?”
Power is the sanctioned right to command submission and dominion over others, and people wield their own power within their respective strata. For some, it is money; for some, love; for still others, deep-seated resentment that moves their lives. Because of this, the bait of power necessarily differs from person to person and situation to situation.
This is an unfathomable thing. Even an emperor who has seized overwhelming power cannot perfectly comprehend the tower of power, intertwined as sharply as warp and weft.
Therefore, the wise grant sufficient power to those they keep close, yet see through the motives that move those individuals as clearly as the lines on their own palms.
When such chains become entangled and intertwined, extending downward, the tower of power eventually takes the form of a structure tightly bound beneath a single chain, such that it does not falter greatly simply because one person enters or leaves within it.
“…….”
“In Richmond, the House of Count Rinko spent a decade building that tower. They must be entangled with one another. How could one easily penetrate such a tower? At such times, there is only one simple method.”
To smash the tower altogether.
But until now, the Duke of Richmond had not touched the House of Count Rinko.
Why?
The chief handmaiden reached a simple conclusion.
“Do the Duke of Richmond and Eliza Richmond currently lack the strength to topple Rinko? If they had such strength, they would have already used it. So in the end, what they possess is only one thing: the justification granted by their name.”
“…….”
“But if it is justification, Rinko has that as well. What I cannot understand is why Rinko has been driven so thoroughly onto the defensive.”
Edward spoke sharply, as though he could bear no more.
“You underestimate the justification granted by a name.”
He leaned forward and warned:
“When the master appears and asserts his rights, there is far less one can do than one might think.”
When the chief handmaiden glared at him from beyond her veil, Edward straightened and continued.
“And the Duke has reliable troops.”
“A mere five hundred?”
“Five hundred who returned alive from the Wall of Death.”
“…….”
“Moreover, using the transfer of duties as an excuse, they have confined key personnel from the major families who cooperated with Rinko, including Rinko itself, within the castle. As you can see, I had no choice but to slip out in secret.”
Edward roughly ran a hand over his face. The Duke’s blazing black eyes were seared into his memory.
“The Duke is not leaving Richmond untouched because he is unable to crush it by force.”
The chief handmaiden tilted her head, not comprehending. Edward was certain that she was someone who had never, not once, possessed anything of her own.
“He does not wish for Richmond to be reduced to ashes.”
The chief handmaiden, who had been silent, raised a different doubt.
“Be that as it may, when the Duke returned, Eliza Richmond was quiet, and the inner castle was under Rinko’s control. Yet in just over a week, what trick has the Duke employed to turn the situation so? Was there a trap?”
“Yes.”
“…A trap? Truly?”
“It was not a trap laid by the Duke alone.”
Edward recalled green eyes hiding a will of steel.
“Grace Taylor is currently at the Duke of Richmond’s castle.”
At the unexpected name, the chief handmaiden’s eyes widened.
“Grace Taylor?”
Blinking in confusion, she repeated in disbelief.
“That woman who was to marry the young Count of Sachsen?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my. That woman… she was stricken from the Ducal House of Taylor entirely. The wedding was broken off, and the Duke of Taylor was so ashamed to face Her Majesty the Queen that he had her expunged altogether. I heard the House of Count Sachsen was pursuing her, and you say she is here? For what reason?”
“The Duke introduced her as his lover.”
“…Oh my? …Hoh.”
As the chief handmaiden let out a hollow laugh and fell into thought, Edward carefully chose his words. Then, at the right moment, he broke the silence.
“The Duke, Eliza Richmond, and Grace Taylor have joined hands. Do not take this situation lightly.”
The chief handmaiden raised her eyes.
“Rinko is only the beginning.”
“…….”
“Once they subjugate Richmond, they will head for the capital. And they will move with thorough, precise purpose. As if to demonstrate that this is how revenge is done.”
Startled, the chief handmaiden glared with wide, white-rimmed eyes and snapped.
“Revenge! Against whom and for what would they speak of such a thing?!”
“Think what you will. Only, do not take it lightly.”
The chief handmaiden, who had seemed about to flare up again, fell silent instead and sank into thought. Edward endured her silence. After a moment, she asked in a low voice.
“What is the reason you asked to meet me?”
“Please help Rinko.”
“How?”
“I need an army. And… send them as well.”
“Them?”
Edward narrowed his eyes sharply, as though he knew everything, and whispered.
“The Unseen Ones, who toppled the tower of power over a decade ago.”
＊ ＊ ＊
A man in a black suit counted the carts laden with wheat and commanded coldly.
“The numbers will not match without one more cart. Fill one more.”
“Yes, at once!”
A man who had served as butler during the current Duke of Taylor’s baronial days had now become the Duke’s attendant. Acting as the Duke’s right-hand man, he smiled and bowed obsequiously, then approached the farmers standing nearby and snarled.
“Load one more cart!”
“No…! This is too much! What are we supposed to eat if you take everything?! Hey!!”
“Quiet!! Whose wheat is all this?! It belongs to His Grace the Duke of Taylor! His Grace has commanded that we hand over as much wheat as that man demands! Anyone who resists will be flogged, so stop your prattling and load!”
The attendant, his brows fiercely furrowed, dusted the wheat powder from his clothes with sharp pats and turned away.
“These lowly wretches will be the death of me, truly!”
Words like daggers stabbed the hearts of the sun-scorched men. A farmer who had been enduring humiliation with his head half-bowed raised his eyes.
“But did you know this.”
The attendant, who had been swaggering away, halted at the sudden voice. When he turned, the farmer spoke in a cracked voice.
“As you said, I am lowly, so I do not know who owns those carts carrying the wheat of House Taylor.”
“…….”
“But.”
The farmer’s eyes reddened fiercely.
“When the previous Duke was alive, this never happened.”