“Count Shannon.”

Marquis Farnese, the leader of the aristocratic faction, called Count Shannon aside.

A strong wind blew, and an eerie sound echoed through the corridor. Marquis Farnese, lighting a cigar, pushed one toward Count Shannon as well.

“Thank you.”

Count Shannon accepted the cigar from Marquis Farnese, placed it between his lips, and lit it together with the marquis.

In the dim corridor, pale smoke rose like dark clouds between the small lamps, filling the space.

Through the slowly dissipating smoke, the eyes of the two aristocrats briefly met in the air.

The eyes of Marquis Farnese wavered.

“You said you never went to the battlefield after losing your wife.”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“Well, then that could be possible.”

The marquis slowly nodded his head and leaned against the wall.

“Two years ago, our son went to the battlefield in my place.”

The marquis spoke up.

Even during the time when the war was about to begin, powerful families received lower priority, but even that meant nothing over the seven years.

Unless there was a special reason, at least one male from each family was drafted into the war.

“It’s not just me. Whether it’s the aristocratic faction or the imperial faction, it doesn’t matter who gets mobilized for the war. The division of factions had no meaning either. When it was decided that our son would participate in the war, do you know where the most money was spent?”

Count Shannon glanced at the marquis and answered his question.

“It must have been the officer or official in charge of personnel affairs.”

“That’s right. You know it well. It was both of them. I bribed them to beg them to send my son to the unit where Duke Zenova was.”

“I heard that most of the aristocratic families did that regardless of whether they were from the aristocratic faction or the imperial faction.”

The marquis, removing the cigar from his mouth and scattering smoke in the air, chuckled.

“Do you know how much difference there is in casualties between the places where Duke Zenova is and where he isn’t?”

Count Shannon silently listened to the marquis’s question, which didn’t really require an answer.

The count showed that he was listening to the marquis’s story by exhaling cigar smoke into the air.

“In units where Duke Zenova is not present, the casualties amount to half of the total number of troops. Even though the battles led by Duke Zenova were not in the rear but at the front. But do you know how many casualties there are in the units where Duke Zenova is? Maybe one in a hundred. It’s an incredible number. Even the injured were mostly minor.”

Count Shannon nodded his head. He had heard about it, but he didn’t know how significant it was until now.

It was no different from buying lives with money, so everyone must have talked about Zenova, Zenova.

In addition, he realized why the aristocratic faction’s opposition to Duke Zenova was not so extreme during the ongoing war.

Shannon smiled slightly. It was only the men left behind who envied Duke Zenova’s growing prestige without participating in the battlefield.

“When our son went to the battlefield and came back, he said he wouldn’t get politically involved.”

“Your son?”

“This Farnese family, which had firmly maintained its position as the leader of the aristocratic faction for two centuries, became ridiculously weak just from the seven-year conquest war. My son, whose life was saved by the leader of the imperial faction, rejected the aristocratic faction.”

“It seems Duke Zenova saved your son’s life.”

“That’s right.”

Marquis Farnese exhaled smoke with a bitter face.

Count Shannon quietly stood and watched the marquis, then dropped his cigar to the floor.

The count, crushing the cigar with the sole of his shoe, stared at the marquis.

“Do you want to repay the duke for saving your son’s life? So you want to tell me to stay out of the relationship with the duke, don’t you?”

At Count Shannon’s question, the marquis chuckled.

“…No.”

However, the marquis, who also crushed his cigar on the floor, shook his head.

“The ultimate desire is the opposite. The power of the aristocratic faction has weakened too much. When one of the two balanced forces loses its balance, problems arise accordingly. While Duke Zenova was on the battlefield, the power we had been gradually losing completely collapsed as the duke returned.”

“It has collapsed even more than three years ago.”

“It’s not even comparable to three years ago when you were here. You see it today too. Among the aristocratic faction, was there anyone who could utter a single word? There wasn’t. That’s how great the duke’s position is.”

Count Shannon looked at the marquis.

The wind and rain raged, and the closed window rattled.

“However, that’s not it, Count.”

Marquis Farnese stared straight at Count Shannon.

“Shaking the opposing faction with such a thing would make the aristocratic faction look extremely ridiculous, wouldn’t it?”

“…Well. It wasn’t a statement with a political purpose in the first place.”

Perhaps it was an unexpected answer, the marquis’s eyebrows shot up.

“You… Don’t tell me, you still…”

At the marquis’s words, Jerard laughed.

“Obsession with unfulfilled love lasts longer than you think. It’s good. I don’t mind becoming a sufficiently dirty villain. If the opponent is shaken by such a thing, that would be nice. We’ve lost our balance, so does it matter if we look ridiculous?”

The lamp swayed in the wind.

The red candlelight flickered over Count Shannon’s face.

“…Even though they say marriage is just a contract for aristocrats, didn’t you have love for your late wife?”

The marquis, looking at him, asked with a hardened face.

“I knew my wife would die even before we got married. She said she wanted to get married just before she died. It was really amazing that she gave birth to a child with her fragile body, but I promised my wife I would raise the child properly and healthily. It wasn’t love, but our relationship wasn’t bad.”

“You knew from the beginning when you got married. You should have confessed to the duchess instead. Weren’t you on good terms with her since childhood? It seems it could have worked out well enough.”

“Sometimes I become a fool who is afraid of losing and doesn’t even try.”

“That happens at times.”

As the marquis nodded, Shannon slowly blinked his eyes.

“As she was dying, my wife told me that. She said every day was so precious to her. So she asked me to live for the child for three years after her death. And then she told me to pursue my own happiness for once. Facing death, she always made me aware of the finite life of humans. You only live once, so rather than living as a fool, let’s just go for it and see.”

Hearing Count Shannon’s words, the marquis let out a short sigh.

“Don’t you think it’s too late?”

“Where is it too late to live my life before I die? Don’t you need someone like me in the aristocratic faction right now? I want to have a chance to win Eriel. If you can help me with that chance, I will try my best.”

Count Shannon looked at the marquis.

The marquis closed his eyes tightly at Count Shannon’s words.

“…I’ll think about it.”

“Yes, thank you.”

*

The sky, which had been rising with dark clouds, became murky and soon brought tremendous wind and rain.

Thunder roared and lightning struck.

Damian was leaving the imperial palace corridor, and Charles followed behind him but paused for a moment.

“Duke, today all the aristocrats will sleep in the imperial palace and leave tomorrow morning. In this weather, even the coachman will refuse to drive the carriage because it’s dangerous.”

“It’s fine, we can ride horses.”

“It’s not about the carriage, you know that. Duke, it’s dangerous.”

“Even if it’s late, I told her I would go and come back.”

“…Pardon?”

Charles frowned at Damian’s words.

“I told Eriel I would go and come back.”

“What? No… Duke. Your leg hasn’t even fully healed yet. The duchess wouldn’t like you riding a horse to come in this weather either.”

“It’s okay. I rode a horse on the battlefield with my injured leg. And now, with my promise to her… I can’t back down.”

“Pardon?”

Charles tilted his head as if he didn’t quite understand and grabbed Damian’s arm.

“Duke.”

Charles, glancing at the wind and rain, shook his head.

Damian’s eyes, which he faced, were filled with impatience and urgency.

As always, there was also a firm determination in his decision.

“Count Scala will have a conversation with the imperial faction aristocrats. Would the count subtly talk only to the imperial faction aristocrats? Aren’t the aristocratic faction members also here together? We need to observe their movements.”

“The aristocratic faction will be fine for now. One of the knights I saved turned out to be the son of Marquis Farnese, the leader of the aristocratic faction. That son was one of the knights who was extremely loyal to me. They won’t make a move for a while. Count Scala will also move after the hunting festival, so it’s okay.”

However, even at Damian’s words, Charles couldn’t let go of his arm.

“That’s not all. What if you get hurt riding a horse in such heavy wind and rain? Seriously.”

“It’s okay, Charles.”

“Duke! Even if you go like this, the duchess won’t like it. I can really stake everything on this. The duchess was so worried about your safety, and she would be even more anxious about you riding a horse to the mansion on a day like this.”

At Charles’s words, Damian closed his mouth.

His blue eyes turned toward the outside where the wind and rain were raging, then returned to Charles.

“If I don’t go back, I’ll be anxious.”

Seeing Damian’s wavering eyes, Charles had no choice but to let go of his arm. Instead, Charles looked straight at his superior and said,

“Duke, please entrust the affairs of the imperial palace to me for the time being. The same goes for Count Scala’s matter. I will work a little harder. For now, please focus only on the merchant ships and the internal affairs of the ducal mansion.”

Charles swallowed and clenched his fists tightly.

“I beg your pardon for saying this, but the duchess has never had a day when she didn’t worry about your well-being. She worried about you more than anyone else and silently guarded the ducal mansion. Due to recent events, you seem more anxious than the duchess. It seems you are being shaken as Count Shannon’s matter is also involved.”

“…Charles.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I hope you will go and have many conversations with the duchess. I know that on the battlefield, a commander shouldn’t easily waver because it would disrupt the military discipline, so words should be spared as much as possible. But it’s not like that at home.”

Damian looked at Charles in silence.

His wavering eyes slowly returned.

Damian, grabbing Charles’s shoulder, nodded.

“I’ll leave the imperial palace matters to you.”

“Yes!”

Charles saluted Damian.

Damian quickly mounted a horse, breaking through the wind and rain.

The image of Eriel enduring while trembling her eyelashes came to his mind.

It dominated his thoughts throughout the 8-hour imperial palace meeting, and whenever he saw Count Shannon’s face as he objected, the image of him standing next to Eriel and smiling kept overlapping.

The fear of the 7-year gap kept rising.

Even the emperor who had been on the battlefield with him during Damian’s absence doubted him, so Damian became anxious that Eriel’s feelings for him might have also changed.

He began to worry that he was only now taking responsibility for that gap.

Recently, he had often raised his voice with Eriel. Although they had reconciled, he didn’t fully know her heart.

Because of that, he couldn’t shake off the thought that Eriel might already be wavering during the time he was away from the ducal mansion, being swayed by an old friend she met again after a long time.

As Damian broke through the wind and rain, he couldn’t stop his anxious heart.

He just wanted to go quickly and confirm that Eriel was at the mansion, even if she rejected him.

Please.

“…Please, Eriel.”