“Your Grace!! Who is the owner of that dagger embedded in Flora’s chest?! Please tell us why that powerless girl had to meet such a death here!!!”
The Marchioness, who had been wailing, also stopped crying and stared at the Duke.
Ares spoke to the soldiers who were scrambling about to extinguish the fire from the invisible ones.
“Be careful not to let it spread. It will never go out until everything is burned away.”
“The thing is… we can’t tell what’s burning, the flames just keep shooting up.”
Ares looked over at Ivanka as if glaring at her and muttered.
“Of course. Because they’re invisible ones.”
Ivanka furtively rolled her eyes to avoid Ares’s gaze, and the nobles watched the fire burning the carpet with blank, bewildered faces.
“Flora Rinko entered the office accompanied by invisible ones.”
At Ares’s calm voice, the Marquis spasmed.
“What are you saying?!!”
“But their goal was Flora Rinko. Because they wanted it to look as though she died at Grace’s hands. Isn’t that right, Edward Rinko?”
“…….”
“Grace blocked the attack on Flora Rinko with her body. When I entered this room, Flora Rinko was trying to plunge a knife into the back of Grace, who had been protecting her from the invisible ones.”
“Your Grace!!!”
The Marchioness sprang up from her seat as if she could endure no more.
“Please, speak sensibly!!! How can Your Grace treat the House of Marquis Rinko like this?!!”
“…….”
“Why did Your Grace cast out Leuven?! Flora is the daughter of Count Leuven, who was desperate to find the invisible ones by any means!! And yet, Flora would join hands with them? How!!”
As the Marchioness, who had been thrashing about like mad, swayed as if she would faint, the Marquis supported her.
“You cannot do this. You cannot. Even if you sought to frame our house through Flora, this is not right. *Sobs*. Is this the reward for loyalty, Your Grace!”
As the Marchioness began to sob, the Marquis also cried out toward the Duke.
“I cannot accept this, Your Grace!”
Ares shook his head slightly.
“This is not a matter requiring your house’s acknowledgment.”
The Marquis breathed roughly and then cried out toward Ivanka.
“Inspector, proxy of His Imperial Majesty, I beg you to arbitrate!!”
The moment Ivanka turned to him with a *hmm*, Ares laughed. Like red blood flowing from a pounding heart, a hot and vivid laugh made everyone shudder to the bone. After laughing briefly, he swept his hand down his face. Grace’s blood stained his face red.
“Leave. I will not stop you.”
The Marquis flinched.
“As you put it, the reason you staged this absurd farce was to create a pretext to leave the castle, was it not?”
Edward’s grey-brown pupils trembled very faintly. Ares, standing askew with his hand thrust into his pocket, turned to look at him and snapped coldly.
“You should have just asked me. To let you out.”
“…….”
“Crimson. Open the eastern gate.”
At the words *eastern gate*, all of Edward’s movements ceased. Ares looked at him and smiled cruelly.
“What are you so surprised about. You need to go out that way to ‘happen’ to encounter the reinforcements who ‘just’ appeared through the Samer underground caves, and carry out ‘revenge’ for your dead younger sister.”
The great black tiger that had seen through everything finally bared its fangs.
“Isn’t that so?”
The sharply built-up tension turned into fear and devoured Edward’s entire body.
“It is not.”
“…….”
“It is not.”
Repeating the same words, Edward walked toward his father and mother. Just then, as he muttered inwardly, trying to compose himself—*Don’t be shaken by the unexpected, walk calmly*—
“Do you intend to leave your sister’s corpse here?”
“…….”
“You should take her with you.”
Would the wind said to blow beyond the wall of death be like him?
Not only Edward but all the gathered nobles held their breath. Ivanka Tyrien gulped dryly, and the Marquis bit his lip.
Against a backdrop like a cross-section of hell—the acrid stench of burning, the fishy smell, and the black soot vomited by the flames not yet extinguished—Ares opened his mouth toward the nobles.
“Those who defy my judgment as well—leave the castle now with Marquis Rinko. I will not stop you.”
Then, from the crowd that had been motionless like ice crystals, someone knelt toward Ares. It was the point where ice began to melt. As one person knelt, another knelt.
Their actions came as a crushing burden to Marquis Rinko. The Marquis turned his body hurriedly with a pale face.
“Out of the way, out of the way!”
The Marchioness also hurriedly turned to follow her husband, and the nobles who had pledged loyalty to the Marquis were thrown into confusion trying to follow him. As they pushed through the kneeling people, they were like weeds of different heights sprouting up over a lawn.
“Dear! L-let’s go together!”
Paying no heed to whoever called, the Marquis, who had hurried down the stairs as if fleeing from an evil spirit, came to a dead halt before a silhouette standing motionless at the main gate of the inner keep.
Eliza Richmond, with six maids behind her, stood ramrod straight and watched him. She neither showed anger nor asked what had happened. She merely stared blankly, as if piercing through all his time with jet-black eyes.
As the Marquis hesitated, several pale-faced nobles halted behind him.
Eliza scanned them thoroughly, then took one step to the side. As if they had been waiting, they brushed past her and dashed outside; behind them, Ares revealed himself.
“Please wait. I shall go and clean up.”
“No.”
Ares, brushing past her, stopped.
“I wish to clean it up myself.”
Ares let out a barely audible sigh and added in a detached tone.
“Then please dress warmly.”
Eliza followed Ares.
The blackened sky vomited sleet, and a wind incomparably colder than during the day clawed at their faces.
Grace stood by the window, watching Ares and Eliza cross the darkness. While Jessie was preoccupied treating her hand, Eric whispered the information he had found.
“The troops that secretly entered through the Samer underground caves are estimated at roughly two thousand. Half have exited the caves, and the remaining half appear to be waiting inside.”
It is said that in a siege, the attacking side requires three times the troops of the defending side. Provided, that is, there is no qualitative difference between the two.
Behind Ares, knights clad in black armor began to gather one by one. He walked and donned the armor a knight brought.
Baron Rexton, who had approached behind Grace, reported on the state of the documents.
“I have checked all the documents you mentioned. None were burned or lost.”
“Thank you for your hard work. And……”
Grace gazed at Flora’s corpse, which had been set to one side.
“Please recover her and take her to the underground funeral chamber.”
Baron Rexton nodded with a dark expression.
“Yes.”
* * *
The ducal castle was vast.
Beyond the ducal castle, which served as both the Duke’s residence and administrative district, lay an even wider residential area where the people of the duchy lived. Only after passing through that area did the castle walls appear, and only after crossing the walls could one truly be said to have left the castle.
Marquis Rinko galloped on horseback. As he galloped down the avenue stretching toward the eastern gate of the walls, the people passing by screamed. But the Marquis did not slow down. To shake off the fear clinging to his back, he had to leave this castle as soon as possible.
“Out of the way, out of the way!!”
The Duke’s command to leave seemed not to have been a lie, for nothing blocked him. Even when he reached the eastern gate, the gate was wide open.
“We’re here, we’re here!”
The Marquis escaped from Blue Eagle Castle, which he had always desperately coveted, as if fleeing. After passing the massive castle walls and deep moat, the weight pressing on his lungs seemed to disappear.
To the east of the ducal castle lay a dense, thick forest. It was terrain perfectly suited for stateless mercenaries who specialized in clandestine affairs to hide. After crossing the plain in the wind-driven sleet for some time, eyes fused with the darkness captured the desperately awaited movement.
“It’s done, it’s done!!”
The Marquis cried out in joy and relief.
Mercenaries who followed only the god of money revealed themselves before the Marquis. It was a mercenary corps said to appear without fail wherever there was a territorial war. A man covered in grey stone dust spat on the ground and vented his anger.
“Damned caves are long and narrow. The dust is unbelievable. Ah, why are all the horses you prepared in such shape?”
The Marquis looked behind him fearfully and spoke quickly.
“Prepare them. Hurry!”