Chapter 70

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With blank eyes, Grace looked around the appearance of the ‘banquet hall’ in front of her, Arthur, Leon, and even the servants and maids were looking at her with surprised eyes.

Grace was forced out of that ‘fantasy’ again. She took a slow breath and spoke to Arthur, who was approaching her.

“… … Ah, this is… … .”

“Madam, why did you suddenly get up?”

“What?”

“Did you see something that I couldn’t see?”

Grace replied in a dazed voice to Arthur, who asked her, with a worried look on his face.

“……Yes. I saw. ‘The Duke of Snow’.”

“What? Madam, what do you mean by that?”

“Ah, that. That is. Arthur, Sally. Please call Sally!”

Grace was too flustered, she grabbed Arthur’s arm and shouted.

Sally said something to her when she started digging around for that ‘mysterious illusion’ that she saw after collapsing the other day. The fantasy she saw was probably of the previous Duke Felix.

When those words came to her thoughts, Grace’s mind was tangled up with what she had heard from Sally and the information in the notebook that she had stolen from Duke Alberton’s study.

‘If those were Arthur’s father and mother, the former Duke Felix and the First Lady Eileen……. And what if they used the same magic as the Snow Duke in the fairy tale?’

……..And what if her father, Duke Alberton, found that out? And what if he used that secret to dig into the weaknesses of the Imperial family?

When she connected her thoughts, she felt that she had finally found a clue to the “truth” about the curse of Duke Felix, which made her feel like she was walking in a fog cluelessly.

She needed to call Sally right away to make sure what she was told was right. So when Grace hurried to find Sally, Arthur held Grace’s shoulder in one arm and spoke.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but please calm down for now. Sally will be called to the drawing-room separately after we finish eating.”

“……But! I have something to confirm right now……!”

“Leon is very surprised to see my wife like this. And there are a lot of other people’s eyes here. So just take it easy for a second.”

“……Ah.”

At Arthur’s words, Grace felt that she had completely escaped the illusion.

After looking back at the servants and maids who were glancing at her with startled eyes, and Leon who was looking at her with teary eyes, Grace relaxed her body.

As Arthur said,  it was something they should talk about in a quiet place after she settles down. As she felt like she finally found a clue to the curse, she became impatient which made others confused.

Grace slouched her eyebrows and handed an apology to Arthur.

“…… I’m sorry, Arthur.”

“That’s all right.”

After that, Grace approached Leon, who was sitting there with teary eyes, hugged his small body and said,

“I’m sorry, Leon. You were surprised, right? I’m sorry.”

“…….The-, then did that curse come to you? I-, I, my brother, took off our masks…….”

“No! It’s not like that at all!”

Grace clasped the crying Leon’s shoulder with both hands and looked into the child’s eyes and said firmly. Leon then pouted his lips and soon raised his little arm and hugged Grace’s neck and said,

“……Really? And you’re not going to fall again like that day, right?”

“Yes! A little while ago it was, so… … . Well. I thought I figured out something important! So, that is why okay?”

“……… Something important?”

“Yes. It is very important.”

About the very powerful and mysterious magic and those who used it, which may have been the starting point of all these events.

Grace swallowed those words and patted tearful Leon on the back. At the same time, Grace said to Arthur, who was looking at her with a fear that the power of the curse might have been exerted on her again, as Leon said.

“..……I’m so sorry. I’ve ruined this dining place that you prepared for having a family dinner.”

“No, are you sure you’re all right? As Leon said, if there is another curse… … .”

“No. That’s not true. So, don’t worry. Arthur. And…….”

“……And?”

Grace answered Arthur’s question by standing up while holding Leon.

“After sending Leon to an annex to soothe him, would you mind giving me some time if it’s okay with you? And please call Sally.”

“All right. Then we should wrap the meal for now.”

Arthur nodded at her words with a stiff face.

After that, Grace watched the servants and maids who started moving quickly and cleaned up the dining table at Arthur’s words, and she kindly swept sobbing Leon’s back.

In the meantime, she was constantly organising her thoughts about what she has found and what she was going to do next. And some thoughts kept running through her mind. It was about “secrets” and “conspiracies” that still need to be discovered and uncovered for a long time.

───※ ·❆· ※───

A little past noon, after completing the inquiry and having an early lunch, the Emperor returned to the Room of the Sun and received a letter from the Chief Servant, Count Roche.

The correspondent was Duke Alberton. The letter, bearing the seal of an owl symbolizing the Duke of Alberton, had a courteous statement expressing his urgency to meet the Emperor today.

The Emperor, who was reading the letter with an inscrutable face, as soon as he finished reading it, held it out to Count Roche and said.

“What is this audience request? It must be a threat disguised as a request.”

Count Roche, who was listening to the emperor speaking to himself as if he was self-help, lowered his eyes as if getting awkward. The Emperor glanced at Count Roche and asked again in a sullen tone.

“So, our Grand Duke, where is Duke Alberton now?”

[T/N: I don’t know for sure who is he calling as the grand duke. A Grand Duke is a way higher position than that of a Count or a Duke. Whom is he planning on promoting, I guess it’s Duke Alberton or is it for Count Roche? What do you think? (⊙_⊙)？]

“I’ve just been informed that he has passed through the Imperial City Gate a while ago, so he will probably be arriving soon.”

“I’m looking forward to hearing what surprising sound will that burden’s senile heart make.”

The Emperor’s voice was cynical as if nothing was expected from this.

Count Roche quickly noticed the emperor’s discomfort and prepared a cup of hot tea on the table next to the emperor’s throne. It was the only consolation that Count Roche could offer to the emperor who was now upset.

“Try it, Your Majesty. This is the finest tea that the Empress has personally brought from her home, Grand Duke Bechet, for Your Majesty.”

“She didn’t have to but I need to thank her. Send a cheque to the Empress’s palace. Tell Maria to write down her desired amount to buy anything she wants and send it to the treasurer.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor slurped the hot tea served by Count Roche. The tea tasted quite good, perhaps that was why the Empress was willing to send someone to bring it.

It was not terrible to wait for the devilish Duke Alberton, who showed his lust for power without hesitation, confident that he could hold it and shake it as if he was the emperor himself.

Precisely, at that time when the Emperor asked for another cup of hot tea to relieve his discomfort.

Knock knock—

A brief knock was heard at the door of the tightly closed Sun Room, and then Captain Bayon entered.

He walked over, flapping a cape embroidered with a golden eagle on a black cape symbolizing the Imperial Guards, and knelt to the emperor seated on the throne and said.

“Your Majesty, the Duke of Alberton is asking for an audience with Your Majesty, what shall we do?”

“Let him enter.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

After listening to the emperor’s orders and bowing his head, Captain Bayon of the Imperial Guards rose and walked to the door of the Sun Room, and opened it.

As the door opened, the emperor stared coldly at Duke Alberton, who was walking toward him with an arrogant look.

Unlike being accustomed to the society of the Empire and the Emperor’s reputation since birth and not showing his true expression, this time it was blatant. Duke Alberton knelt in front of the throne and bowed to the Emperor with a smile on his face, as if unaware of the emperor’s discomfort.

“Duke Alberton is here to see you, Your Majesty.”

“Well, Duke Alberton, who was busy with other things, walked to the Imperial Palace himself today.”

The Emperor openly expressed his discomfort toward Duke Alberton, who politely showed his respect.

Duke Alberton’s brow frowned for a moment at the Emperor’s attitude as if he were dealing with the beggars of the slums, but soon, as if nothing happened, the Duke returned with a faint smile and said to the Emperor.

“I’ve brought you a news that you’d be delighted to hear, Your Majesty.”

“Huh, really? What is that news?”

“Finally, the curse has been placed on the offering.”

“What?”

“Now, by killing the sacrifice ‘once’, the ‘Imperial family Curse’ that Your Majesty has longed for can be lifted off.”

“Is, is it really true?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor’s face, which had been listening to Duke Alberton in a disconsolate voice all along, was brightened the moment he heard it.

Soon after that, the Emperor himself descended from the throne and held Duke Alberton’s hands, who was looking up at him looking up haughtily and spoke in an emotional voice.

“Thank you, Duke Alberton. Thank you very much.”

“It has been a really long time. Your Majesty.”

“It was. It really was.”

The Emperor, who seemed to sympathise with Duke Alberton’s words, recalled the past times when he had been trying to keep his son, Crown Prince Owen, secret and save him since his birth.

An heir who was not born for a very long time after marrying the Empress. An heir, who was born after a long wait, was a modest son as he hoped, but he soon came to know that his son would not be able to exceed the age of 20 because he was born with the ‘curse of the first god’.

When the emperor heard of the oracle from the priest, he despaired. It couldn’t be. He could not lose his only son in vain, who he barely received after 40 because of a curse of his ancestors. The Empress even told him to divorce her and get a new young and beautiful empress, but the Emperor couldn’t.

He had no intention of abandoning his beloved wife, who had suffered from infertility for a long time and looking for another empress. Moreover, the oracle also told the current Emperor that he would not see any more heirs after the death of the presently born young Crown Prince Owen.

That was why he held his hands even though he knew he shouldn’t. If this devilish Duke Alberton could make his only son safely sit on this throne in front of him. Then he was ready to use any method if the child could safely carry on the posterity of this empire and pass on this lineage that has been continued since the time the First God existed.

Even if that method was to destroy the duke’s family, whom his aunt married.

The emperor could not help but be moved by the fact that all those times of killing and deceiving someone like that has finally come to fruition.

Now the gage was in front of him. The Emperor spoke to Duke Alberton in an impatient voice.

“Then what should I do for taking off this burden now? What? Tell me, Duke Alberton.”

“Hurry up the marriage between my daughter Marianne and the Crown Prince, Your Majesty.”

However, the next words of Duke Alberton left the Emperor at a loss for words.

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