Chapter 189: Dark Blood

In her daily life, Lily wore the three dresses I’d bought her. I’d picked them to suit Hilda’s taste, so they were far from flashy, but Lily seemed to love them and rotated through them every day.

"Just a little more polishing and it’ll be done! Thank you, brother!"

"I understand you want to publish a book, but honestly, do you think it’ll sell around here?"

"It’ll definitely sell well! Isn’t it way more fun than those difficult Bibles?"

For the record, the current book market was dominated by the Bible and Greek humanities texts. I didn’t know about other countries, but this region was so stiff and serious that I couldn’t guarantee a romance novel would catch on.

And instead of hand-copied manuscripts, Lily wanted printed editions that ordinary citizens could afford. But the print quality was shockingly poor. Humanist scholars were so unimpressed they insisted manuscripts were the only true books.

Manuscript books typically traded for fifty silver coins and up.

Printed books were around fifteen silver coins.

Honestly, at that level of quality, fifteen silver was outrageously expensive. I wouldn’t take one for free, but for knowledge-starved citizens, it was like rain in a drought. So they actually sold better than expected.

Hmm? Maybe I should get into the printing market myself.

If it were on my territory, I could probably improve the quality.

Come to think of it, most Bibles were in Latin, and German-language Bibles didn’t really exist as a separate category. Latin was revered as God’s language by the theological establishment, which explained that.

But if I translated it into German and supplied it, wouldn’t that turn a decent profit?

What if I brought in printers and created a Feuzen publishing house?

"Bodo! Read it properly! Stop trying to run away!"

"Have mercy! I’d rather read the Bible in Latin than this skin-crawling novel!"

It seemed Bodo had become her latest target.

A bolt from the blue for the cynical Bodo, but hey—take one for the team.

Anyway, I was currently preparing to return to Feuzen. There was still time before the declaration of war, so I was heading back to see my lovely Hilda. Inspecting the territory was just a bonus.

Before that, I’d tried to visit the crown prince, but was refused.

It seemed the crown prince didn’t want to see anyone right now.

I understood his wounded heart, but I was starting to worry. If he couldn’t pull through, wouldn’t the Grand Duke’s entire plan fall apart? The heir’s fragile mental fortitude was a problem too.

"I never imagined I’d be meeting you under these circumstances."

I was granted permission to visit Leo von Vermeer.

He simply stared at me, his mouth clamped shut as if it were bolted closed. I wasn’t here to interrogate him at this point. If he answered my questions, great. If not, fine.

"Remember the day you sparred with the crown prince’s guardsmen?"

When we’d first met, he’d been a man with a gentle face and a remarkably kind demeanor. He had rare red hair and was one of the few men I’d genuinely thought was handsome—a true pretty boy.

"I also remember the Mainhof banquet hall where Hilda was. That time you came to pick Hilda up..."

"I was going to propose to Lady Hilda."

"..."

What the hell.

No warning at all?

Don’t just drop a bombshell like that.

First the crown prince, now Vermeer.

I had no idea Hilda was this popular.

"You don’t seem very surprised."

"His Highness also had feelings for Hilda, so nothing shocks me at this point."

"I’ve resented you all this time."

If I’d known this would happen, I should have checked his mental state more carefully.

I was used to the Scouter now, but back then I wasn’t experienced enough and missed quite a lot.

"Sorry to hear that, but I never imagined I’d end up with her either. I knew my place back then. But could I really have pushed Hilda away when she came to me first?"

A woman that lovely and beautiful?

A flash of displeasure crossed Vermeer’s face.

Whether he’d liked her or not, she was already mine.

She was my wife. Nobody could lay a hand on her.

If anyone tried, my big, beautiful longsword would trace a crescent arc across their neck. Whatever else might not get to me, Hilda had become my absolute limit. Ever since that Imperial Knights commander tried to pull something.

"I heard you’re engaged to Lady Mainhof? Be faithful to your fiancée. Don’t let your eyes wander."

An awkward silence pressed down on the cell. I subtly signaled the guard with a glance, and the guard, looking troubled, eventually left us alone. Quick on the uptake, that one.

"Was trying to kill Prince Louis really all for His Highness’s sake?"

"Everything was for Lord Franz."

There was that familiar madness again.

Did this damned palace have some kind of insanity passive buff? One thing had become crystal clear. Two kinds of people existed in this palace: the insane and the soon-to-be insane. Vermeer was the latter.

At least it was a mercy that the crown prince hadn’t gone mad despite living in this environment.

"I’m told the Queen was caught in a trap largely thanks to your confession."

"You don’t know anything."

I didn’t know anything?

"The one Prince Louis tried to assassinate wasn’t the Queen."

"...You can’t mean..."

"The assassin’s target was Lord Franz."

Shock washed over me. This was a completely different story from what I’d been told. I verified it through the Scouter, and it turned out to be the truth. The real target had been the crown prince. Was Louis trying to claim the position of heir in one swift move?

I see.

What Louis was after was to cooperate with Duke Radensdorf while quickly eliminating the crown prince—their supposed justification—and seize the crown prince’s position for himself. So that was his hidden card.

He was going to leave the Duke high and dry.

It wasn’t the Queen he’d been targeting.

The Grand Duke had known and hadn’t told me.

Since the result was that civil war would break out anyway, exactly as the Grand Duke had planned, he probably just hadn’t bothered mentioning the minor details. If he’d wanted to keep it hidden, he would have blocked my visit with Vermeer.

Goddamn scheming bastard.

Just as I’d thought, he wasn’t a man to be trusted.

The reason Louis’s plan fell apart was because of an irregular element named Vermeer. The poisoning attempt had failed, but it had redirected the assassination from the crown prince to the Queen.

Hoenir must have approached Vermeer. That’s what I’d assumed, but Vermeer had no knowledge whatsoever of an organization called Hoenir. If that was the case, there was only one person left to suspect.

Lady Mainhof.

Vermeer’s fiancée.

"Lady Mainhof was the one who told you about the plot."

"..."

Vermeer’s face showed no visible reaction.

But the Scouter never missed the truth buried deep within someone’s heart.

His inner state had already given me the answer.

Since Vermeer had confessed willingly, the Grand Duke hadn’t taken any measures beyond imprisoning him for saving the crown prince’s life. That meant he had no intention of executing Vermeer.

Could the Grand Duke have been unaware of the relationship between Lady Mainhof and Vermeer?

With Hoenir in his employ, there was no way he didn’t know. Especially when it came to people close to the crown prince. I’d been wary of the unsettling connection with Lady Mainhof for a while now. Her father had died during the fierce battle with Klugen.

"Lady Mainhof is a formidable woman, Sir Streit."

The woman entering the prison cell was Clara, the head of Hoenir.

Why was she here all of a sudden? Seeing me full of questions, Clara flashed a smile.

"And she bears a grudge against you."

"...I’m sure she does. I was the one who benefited in the end."

"Attractive men tend to be popular, don’t they?"

I only wanted to be attractive to Hilda.

Vermeer glared at Clara with eyes full of wariness.

"Wolfgang Ritter von Streit is the Grand Duke’s illegitimate son. Who do you think started that rumor?"

"I assumed it was something Prince Louis’s faction cooked up to smear His Highness."

"Not at all. That rumor actually accelerated their plans."

Accelerated their plans?

"The tale of a rapidly rising knight is the kind of juicy material anyone in Breisburg would take an interest in. So when rumors about you started circulating, Prince Louis felt a sense of crisis."

Afraid the other rumor would get buried.

So they bundled it together with yours.

Clara’s lips seemed to move with an almost bewitching quality.

Behind what I’d assumed was a straightforward sequence of events, a very different truth lurked beneath the surface. A den of vipers couldn’t be worse. Let your guard down for a moment and your head would be separated from your body in an instant.

I asked calmly.

"Then who spread that rumor?"

"He’s right in front of you. Sir Vermeer."

A heavy silence settled over the room.

When I turned to Vermeer, he was biting his lip.

Hard enough to draw dark blood. The moment a secret he’d kept hidden from everyone spilled from Clara’s mouth, a deep killing intent flickered in his eyes. This wasn’t the Vermeer I knew.

"...Who are you?"

"Pleased to meet you, Sir Vermeer."

I’m Clara.

Lady Mainhof’s other enemy.