Although it was a sudden question, Kardiel’s head tilted with unnecessary anxiety.
Euphemina’s question continued.
“Last time I saw, were there about twenty? Thirty of those thugs? You and the Imperial Grandson each dealt with half, right?”
“……”
“Is it stronger than that now? How many such people can you handle?”
It was unclear why she was curious about such things.
However, it was also true that there was no way to resist when his sister asked with those big eyes wide open.
“Well. I’m not sure about that unless the time comes to see it……”
After pondering the answer for a moment, Kardiel soon gave an honest response.
It was a conclusion that it would be better to tell the truth even if it didn’t fulfill his sister’s fantasy.
“……I was lucky then.”
Euphemina believed that Kardiel had dealt with half of the thugs, but that wasn’t actually the case.
Without Imperial Grandson Raphael, it would have been difficult to handle even a third, let alone half.
“In fact, I was quite injured that day.”
Thanks to everyone keeping their mouths shut, Lieselotte didn’t find out.
But in reality, Kardiel was bedridden for ten days due to that incident.
“If Imperial Grandson Raphael hadn’t been there, I would have been the one to die then.”
A bitter voice recalled the events of that day.
The dawn when Mistress Dorothea and the thugs surrounded the carriage.
That day was the first time Kardiel experienced something close to real combat after learning practical swordsmanship from Joseph.
But as with everyone, it’s difficult to perform well in the first real battle. It was the same for Kardiel.
‘Truly, if Raphael hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have been able to protect my siblings that day.’
It wasn’t a matter of skill.
In fact, objectively speaking, the skills of the two were quite similar.
But there was a crucial difference between Raphael and Kardiel. It was combat experience.
Imperial Grandson Raphael had a lot of experience.
Having gone hunting with His Highness the Crown Prince, he had indeed developed a sense of dealing with critical moments through consistent experience.
No, more accurately…
‘He was someone trained to maintain rationality even in crisis situations where blood was rampant.’
Kardiel lacked precisely that kind of experience.
No matter how much practical swordsmanship he had learned, he couldn’t have experienced actually taking a life.
Yes, the first kill.
That day, Kardiel took a human life for the first time. It was the moment when someone broke through the few guards and entered the carriage he and his siblings were riding in.
At that time, Imperial Grandson Raphael wasn’t in the carriage.
As soon as he grasped the situation, he immediately grabbed his sword and jumped out of the carriage.
It was to save Sergei who was in another carriage.
Chersion screamed and shut his eyes tightly.
Euphemina was just blinking her eyes as if frozen. Who else was there to protect the younger siblings?
At that moment, Kardiel’s learned senses moved instinctively.
He drew his sword as Joseph had taught him, and swung it. In an instant, the inside of the carriage was covered in red blood.
That’s when it started. Kardiel began to confront the thugs, bursting out of the carriage like a blood-thirsty demon.
Experiencing his first life-or-death battle, Kardiel couldn’t distinguish friend from foe at that moment.
‘The one who brought me back to my senses was Imperial Grandson Raphael.’
He owed a lot to Imperial Grandson Raphael.
Giving a large sum of money to buy ointment, willingly risking his life to fight together to avoid a crisis, calming him down when he was excited.
It was all him. It was thanks to him.
“I see.”
After hearing Kardiel’s words, Euphemina showed that innocent smile of hers.
“Come to think of it, I heard the Imperial Grandson wrote a letter to His Majesty the Emperor. You must have become quite close.”
“Ah.”
Right, that did happen.
From a few days before Kardiel took the Academy entrance exam, Imperial Grandson Raphael seemed quite troubled.
He suddenly asked Sergei about the mid-term admission process.
‘He showed interest in Academy admission.’
Then, two weeks ago, he urgently sent a letter to the imperial capital.
Recently, he’s been shutting himself in the Daiern Castle library, suddenly throwing himself into studying.
‘……It might be quite enjoyable to attend the Academy together with the Imperial Grandson.’
Such a thought suddenly occurred to him. If this is what having a friend feels like…
No, it’s too early for such imagination. Kardiel quickly came to his senses.
There are still many things to resolve, so he shouldn’t be consumed by pleasant feelings just yet.
“I have no intention of leisurely cultivating friendships with anyone. By the way, Euphemina, didn’t you have something to tell me and Chersion?”
[This is the timeline separator]As per Euphemina’s wish, the siblings gathered alone for tea time the next day after a long while.
Until then, they couldn’t have an intimate time together because Miss Ernestine or Imperial Grandson Raphael had been present.
After sending even the nanny away, Euphemina got straight to the point with her question.
“Elder brother Kar. And Chelsi. What we talked about then, it hasn’t changed, right?”
“What we talked about then?”
Unable to recall immediately at the vague reference, Kardiel asked back.
Fortunately, Euphemina didn’t seem to intend to make it a riddle, and continued right away.
“You said mother won’t be able to marry.”
“Ah.”
“You said the engagement to Sir Joseph is just for show. You said she won’t actually marry, that we just need to wait for three years. Until elder brother Kar becomes the Duke.”
“That’s right.”
“Mmm……”
“Mother agreed to this too. Right?”
Well, there are several issues with that…
Anyway, Kardiel still agreed that Lieselotte shouldn’t marry Joseph.
Of course, he knew that Sir Joseph was objectively a great person, and certainly not someone who would covet the position of Duke Daiern.
‘But that’s a separate matter.’
Becoming Lieselotte’s husband also meant becoming the siblings’ new father.
He disliked that above all. It’s not like they absolutely needed a father figure.
Rather, it might be better not to have such a person.
Kardiel furrowed his brow, recalling his father who had been no different from a demon.
“But a problem has arisen.”
As the two brothers showed positive reactions, Euphemina’s voice suddenly turned cold.
“I think mother is misunderstanding something.”
With a completely erased smile, she slowly moved her lips.
[This is the timeline separator]The magic gondola glided smoothly through the sea cave filled with thick fog where one could not discern even an inch ahead.
How much time had passed?
The thick fog seemed to cast a spell that scattered time and senses.
We, who had maintained silence in the mystery for a long time, were finally able to relax our tense muscles when the gondola came to a stop.
The surroundings were still filled with fog.
If it weren’t for the lantern pushing away the surrounding fog, I wouldn’t have been confident about where my steps were landing.
The ground continued as an unpaved path, just like where we had ridden the gondola.
Walking a bit along the path, a huge door of the same shape as the entrance revealed itself through the fog.
As written in the will, I hung the lantern staff I had brought on the designated spot.
Then finally, Landgritz’s legacy awoke from its slumber. That was just a few days ago.
“Hmm.”
The problem was that the amount of the legacy was more than I had thought.
Especially the documents.
“It seems it will take a full month just to read through everything.”
That’s right. It’s disappointing for me who had imagined a grand treasury when hearing about the Mado Emperor’s secret legacy, but most of what filled it were books.
Records of the Mado era and the Mado Emperor’s family tree…
It was truly disappointing for me who had hoped to at least find one more ointment that could treat Sergei’s eyes.
Well, I should have noticed when the ointment Nergal last put out in the black market was used.
‘Come to think of it, it’s infuriating.’
Having already sold most of the expensive items in the black market, he says he’ll bequeath all the remaining legacy to me?
Even now, the books were being neatly loaded onto carriages.
It seemed like the size of our party, which had set out modestly, would more than double thanks to those books.
By the way, there weren’t many things among them that could be classified as treasures. At most, maybe one carriage worth?
That rascal Nergal. No wonder he handed it over so easily.
“Lady Duchess!”
But even in this situation, there was one person with a completely flushed face.
“I quickly checked the documents… It’s truly amazing!”
Yes, as anyone could guess, it was Sergei.
“This level would overwhelm the Mado era-related documents held by the Tower of Honor!”
Male lead reborn without memories — but he still falls for her.
The person he finds displeasing in this life turns out to be his cherished wife-master in previous life…
Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.
Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.
The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”
When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…
The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced
