“…Ugh.”

Thereze, unable to endure the pain like me, looked at my mother while letting out a sound.

It was a miserable sight, my mother enduring with all her might, her face flushed red with swollen veins.

It was the first time in my life seeing my mother so helplessly swayed.

At this rate, both she and my mother would die.

My stubbornness could put my mother in danger as well.

So when Lena couldn’t hold back and let out consecutive groans, Thereze surrendered.

She crawled on the floor like a worm, bowed her head at Magnus’ feet, and pledged loyalty with tears dropping.

“I, Thereze Aquila, pledge unwavering loyalty to Prince Magnus.”

“…This is such a joyous occasion. A family head and their heir pledging loyalty together, it’s a glorious moment that will never come again.”

Only after the pledge made through sheer force ended did the terrible pressure disappear.

Although the pain had ceased, Thereze still couldn’t easily stop her tears.

It would be a humiliation she couldn’t forget until the day she died. A day of disgrace that would trap her in nightmares for a lifetime.

It was Lena who stepped forward to embrace Thereze, who couldn’t even take a single step from where she had pledged loyalty.

Steadying her rough breathing, Lena willingly bowed before the lord who had just tried to kill her daughter.

Comforting the shocked and despairing Thereze was not the priority.

As the head of the Aquilas, she had to prioritize establishing more definite merits and solidifying the Aquilas’ position.

Wouldn’t it be natural for the Aquilas, who pledged loyalty first, to gain a higher position and stronger power than the other five?

“Your Highness. How can my family be of help to you in the future? Please tell us if there is anything you desire. I will bring you anything for your sake.”

At those words, Magnus laughed, and Lena, who had spoken, also smiled.

They perfectly read each other’s intentions with just an exchange of glances.

“In that case, I suppose I won’t need the loyalty of the other five?”

Now that he had the Aquilas’ loyalty, what remained was the loyalty of the five. If they rebelled, he could press down on their lofty knees with his power, just as he had done today.

Exactly as he had done to Thereze, in the same way as before.

“As the king has suddenly passed away in an accident and you are the only remaining royal in this land, you should rightfully become the owner of the next throne. So we must have the heads and heirs of the five families come to this palace to pay their respects to you.”

Your Highness, Lena said, prostrating with her forehead to the floor.

“Give the order. For the heads and heirs of the five to enter the palace, to pay their respects to the new king inside. If you command it, as your vassal and subject, I will gladly assist with that task.”

The long speech came from Lena’s mouth, but in the end, it was no different from a seed to rationalize and justify the forced and coercive summons Magnus would carry out.

Now that his subordinate had laid out those useful excuses, what Magnus had to do was concise.

He simply smiled and announced the conclusion very monotonously.

“Do so.”

With that brief single word, barely even a sentence, the entire kingdom was noisily turned upside down.

The prince who killed the king and massacred all the royals, thus finally becoming the only one, summoned the heads and heirs of the five families. And he added this one line,

“Disobedience is treason.”

Treason is a grave crime, and the severed head should be hung on the castle walls, so unfortunately, the options for the five families were extremely limited.

“Prince Magnus may seize control of the palace and attempt treason. So if you are with Merche, run away with that child.

If time is short and there is nowhere suitable to go, it would be best to hide in Lupinus Castle.”

“…Did our mother suddenly learn some great divination?”

Rude folded the brief letter and put it down, cracking his neck with a crisp sound.

He neither loved his mother as a mother nor gave her affection, but he somewhat acknowledged her as a person.

Indeed, she had personally taught Merche when she was young. Elizabeth Lupinus was truly a brilliant strategist to bear the fruit that was Merche.

Otherwise, how could she send such an accurately timed prediction at the exact right moment?

“……”

However, even with his mother’s message, which was both a prophecy and a countermeasure, in his hands, Rude couldn’t bring himself to call out to Merche.

That was the problem. Merche was extremely unstable at the moment.

At a glance, she seemed calm and indifferent, as if she had quickly erased her sadness, but she still frequently skipped meals and wandered around Mariette Venenum’s office and grave every night like a sleepwalking patient.

A glass bottle that would shatter into pieces if not paid even the slightest attention to.

That’s how Merche appeared in Rude’s eyes.

“Yo-Young Master…!”

…Which damn bastard is making a loud noise at this time?

Rude turned his head with the eyes of a ferocious beast, accompanied by hurried footsteps rushing toward him.

The servant flinched and trembled greatly at the gaze that seemed like it would cut him into pieces.

“How many times have I told you to lower your voice, to act like a crawling rat? You can’t understand even that? Why do you carry around a head that can’t even understand that much?”

A useless lump of rock, should I remove it for you? The servant’s head automatically bowed at the sharp gaze.

“Th-That’s because urgent news just arrived. It was news that had to be quickly reported, so I momentarily forgot your instructions…”

“What urgent news. Did that prince bastard do something again?”

“Yes, something truly vile! That crazy prince claimed that Lady Merche was the culprit who exterminated the Sarnos, and that she should be immediately arrested and given the death penalty!”

“…What culprit?”

The servant raised his voice again and shouted, but it was too intense to point that out right now.

Rude’s neck turned unnaturally, like the jerky movements of a wooden doll.

“The culprit who exterminated the Sarnos. He did it himself, but he’s shamelessly pinning it on Lady Merche…, and he issued a wanted order for Lady Merche! He said he would give a huge reward to anyone who captures her!”

That crazy weasel-like bastard.

It was so absurd that the back of his head felt numb. Rude couldn’t hold back and burst into hollow laughter.

“I really don’t understand why that prince is so desperate to get his hands on the young lady. Seriously, I have no idea, Young Master.”

“Why? Because his ass is on fire, that’s why.”

“Excuse me? His, his ass?”

The servant gaped at the blatant and childishly crude choice of words.

Ass, for the prince. A noble royal who might become the next king, and ass….

The servant’s mouth twitched at the combination that was irresistibly amusing.

But Rude, who made that statement, just clicked his tongue indifferently.

“That weasel bastard knows it too, that he’s the fake and Merche is the real one. Knowing that, he’s trembling in fear that Merche might steal the king’s position from him.”

Originally, the thirsty one digs the well, and the one chased by anxiety thrashes about, digging their own grave.

Merche didn’t seem to understand why Magnus was so intent on killing her, but in Rude’s eyes, Magnus’ state of mind was as transparent as a mirror polished with great care.

Magnus hated Merche, but at the same time, he feared her.

The dominance he boasted about with his own mouth as the power of royalty was a facade.

Wasn’t it just an old legacy left behind by the long-dead former king?

When various pretenses and well-crafted lies were removed, there wasn’t much left for Magnus.

The power Magnus was truly born with and could proudly possess was neither special nor great enough to surpass other royals in an instant.

“…Young Master, do you believe that Lady Merche is the protagonist of the prophecy?”

“Can’t you see? Anyone can see that Merche looks more like a king than that bastard.”

Noble, merciful, and elegant, therefore someone who would be well-suited to a higher position than anyone else.

In Rude’s eyes, Merche only appeared as such a being.

Also, Merche didn’t seem to know well, but in fact, dominating and overwhelming someone suited her.

He reminisced about a certain day that had once plunged him into hell.

On a night with terribly cold winds blowing and snow pouring down, Merche, who had finally brought him to his knees and ordered him to stop.

For Rude, that moment of losing Merche was just damn miserable and hellish, but in any case, he couldn’t deny the fact that the woman dominating him at that time seemed quite natural, as if it was a predetermined fate.

Yes. It was natural for Merche.

……But what about that weasel-like prince?

“If that bastard becomes king, the country and everything will turn into a mess. I guarantee that if that bastard becomes king, everyone and their dog will riot, claiming treason, and the country will be in tatters.”

Rude was convinced.

Of course, he and anyone with properly functioning eyes wouldn’t be able to just watch that happen.

− A ruler must have an innate presence and appearance. The power and charisma to make anyone prostrate before them and shout loyalty on their own. Without that, they become a lousy shell of a ruler who only breeds swarming traitors.

The presence and appearance, power and charisma that the veteran scholar who once taught him had repeatedly emphasized… Magnus had none of that.

So that bastard was a ‘shell ruler’. Only the exterior was plausible, but the inside was rotten, eventually crumbling away as a fake.