Disguised as a Male Servant in the Duke's House (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 148

It was the only piece of evidence capable of strangling the Grand Duke, yet he had refrained from revealing the letter to the imperial court—precisely because of its contents.

The letter was an informal, hastily written last will left by the late Emperor just before his passing.

At the time, the Emperor had been ingesting an extremely minute quantity of a deadly poison—one that did not even react with silverware—and as his condition deteriorated without any clear diagnosis, he sensed his life was in danger and secretly penned this unofficial testament.

He entrusted the letter to Count Bernas, then a loyal soldier and general devoted to the imperial house.

Until that moment, the Emperor had hesitated to openly suspect the Grand Duke, for Rubelio had long ago voluntarily relinquished his claim to the throne.

But if every imperial heir were to perish, the situation would change entirely.

Only in his final moments did the Emperor grasp the Grand Duke’s ambition. However, by then, the Grand Duke had already seized control of the imperial court after years of the Emperor’s illness, and to make matters worse, the Crown Prince was still far too young.

Thus, in his dying breath, the Emperor hastily wrote the letter—not to the Grand Duke’s agents who now dominated the court, but to Count Bernas, a soldier he could truly trust.

The Count’s gaze deepened as he gently stroked the edge of the aged letter.

In truth, the Count had once captured a maidservant sent by the Grand Duke to administer poison and dispose of the vial, extracting a confession from her. The problem was that she was murdered before ever standing trial.

Since the poison vial alone was insufficient to accuse the Grand Duke outright, the Count at the time concealed its existence, waiting for more concrete proof—and so the late Emperor’s death was ultimately recorded as natural causes.

He could have revealed the contents of the final testament immediately after the Emperor’s passing, but the late Emperor himself, worried about his young and vulnerable heir, had implored in the letter that the testament be disclosed only once the Crown Prince had come of age and could defend his own throne.

Time passed, and the Crown Prince matured—but the Count still found himself unable to act.

The letter’s contents held enough explosive force to place the Crown Prince directly on the throne, yet in the Count’s eyes, the prince simply was not fit to rule.

Would an emperor forged by rage and suspicion truly be able to govern the empire in peace? He harbored serious doubts.

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