Chapter . 127
The dragging hem of the cloak and the trailing skirt soaked through and wrapped around the Empress’s body. When the sable fur and the gold thread drank in water, they beca as heavy as if stones had been tied to them.
The cloth coiled around her like a snake, binding her legs and her whole body, and pulled her down.
Water splashed and her hair beca tangled, and her entire body was drenched. If she did not want to go under, she had to thrash with all her strength, pride be damned.
No one helped her, and while everyone only stared with their mouths open and watched, Rhiannon thrashed like a madwoman and chased after the crown.
She clenched her teeth and tried to activate the layered summoning magic and every curse she had set, but the crown did not react at all, as if it had undone every single sche.
The curse that would lt flesh if anyone but her touched it, and the curse that would spew poison unless it was handled in a specific way, were all useless.
Rhiannon finally collapsed. The clothes and cloak were so heavy that they dragged her beneath the water.
“Pull out! Pull out, I said!”
“My goodness, she beca the Empress and then jumped into the lake to grab her crown!”
Only then did people co to their senses and pull Rhiannon out of the lake.
“Let go! You disloyal wretches! Do not lay hands on my body!”
The mont she reached the shore, Rhiannon struggled and scread. When people stepped away from her, she lay there, utterly spent, and stared only at the crown the falcon carried in its beak.
The crown that had undone every curse and spell she had placed, and had left her behind.
She had lived for that alone, and at last obtained it, and so she had begun to dream beyond it.
As long as she clung to that alone, she had believed she could sohow start again.
Before she knew it, the falcon had left the lake, flew on, and vanished from Rhiannon’s sight. Along with her crown.
“No!!!!”
Drenched and tangled in water plants, the Empress sank to the ground and wailed.
“AAAAAGH!”
“Oh dear, for a knight to be that weak.”
“Ha-ha, it is thrilling and exciting!”
Torture and executions were taking place in the largest square in Elan. Nobles paid huge sums and took over all the houses surrounding the square.
From balconies, from beyond windows, they looked down on the scene where blood flowed like a river and toasted with red wine, and along with the spectacle of executions, they enjoyed sex and delicacies.
Beneath them, they laughed as they looked down at commoners who fought like a flock of crows over pieces of corpses.
It was not a culture unique to Armatia. It was a long-standing tradition in many countries, including Roncer. Yet Prince Leontes and his people were nowhere to be seen.
Courtiers, who had expected them to hold a grand banquet in the best place to watch the executions, were disappointed.
They had planned to flatter Prince Desmond by gossiping that he had secretly rented a small room and wept while watching relatives die at the scaffold.
However, so people praised Prince Leontes’s attitude as the noblest and most elegant attitude of a victor.
“He is also an incredible politician.”
Once the river of blood stopped, people’s interest shifted to Prince Leontes rather than the horrifying incident of an attempted assassination of the Prince.
He had nullified the Empress’s command authority, accused the duke, and subdued a rival Prince, his half-brother.
Things that would have been hard to achieve even one of, and he had accomplished them all at once.
“Prince Leontes punished those who insulted Your Highness at Montova Castle severely, and drove them out of the territory to display his power. They say he built a wall out of shields taken from the raiders of his territory.”
“Sir Rolf, infamous as the Cerberus of the Second Prince, Michelon who is already a Sword Master, and of course the two mages who subdued the other mages all at once, as well as Count Montova of a distinguished noble line and Jero de Lagardie, are also said to have contributed greatly. The Knights of Saint Romola cooperated as well.”
“Even so, it should not have been a battle that ended that early. I have heard that His Highness displayed the miracle of the Armatia Imperial Family…….”
And the Emperor carried out the promise he had already made.
“Those who rescued my son, Prince Leontes, you faithful subjects of Armatia, I shall bestow great rewards upon you!”
Because only then could he also wash away the disgraceful matter that those he had sent to rescue his son had instead insulted his son who returned alive on his own, and plundered his son’s territory.
“To Michelon, who saved Prince Leontes, I grant the title of count and a territory. From this day forth he is the founder of the House of Petrafis, and I na him Count Michelon Leontes de Petrafis.”
With faces full of interest, people whispered.
“I thought he would be a baron at most, but a count? He is a commoner without even a na, and he did not save the Emperor’s life.”
“But is not the territory the village below Mount Petrafis? There is no castle. He simply granted a new count title and attached a territory that can hardly even be called a county.”
“It is because he insisted on a count title. Originally, His Majesty intended to grant an existing barony title and the barony that ca with it, but they say Michelon himself demanded a count title, and even a new comital house with a new na.”
“I understand wanting to be the founder of a new comital house since he was a commoner with no na, but will his descendants truly like it?”
“What a foolish choice. Count of Petrafis, it is so obvious it is a surna never heard of in genealogy.”
“Even so, since Prince Leontes separately rewarded him by granting Mount Petrafis, the territory itself is vast, and he even added His Highness’s na to the castle, so as an origin for a founding ancestor, it is outstanding.”
“Everyone worries about the strangest things. He is young, handso, rumored to be a Sword Master, and the Prince’s one and only close friend, so he is the best marriage prospect. If he makes rit like this, his territory will soon expand, and above all, for marriage, a count title is far better. He is a clever young man.”
“And besides, Duke Lauderdale’s duchy has beco Prince Leontes’s property. I guarantee the new count will beco the acting castellan.”
When the Emperor granted a title to Michelon, who appeared today in an even more dazzling form, cheers surged at the birth of a young and handso new count.
Michelon smiled brightly and responded, but among those who envied the court’s new favorite, he was already being judged arrogant, as if he had been born a noble.
They said that all of us had been deceived until now by a man who only pretended to be humble, and that you could tell just by looking at his face.
“Sir Rolf has made great rit as Prince Leontes’s escort knight, so I grant him the forr title of Baron von Graf and that barony. From this day forth, I na you Baron Rolf von Graf.”
The investiture ceremony for Sir Rolf also drew a strong reaction.
“Even though his rit was greater, for Michelon, no, Count Petrafis, who was still a commoner, to receive a higher title. I thought Sir Rolf would beco a viscount. Since he is an escort knight and His Highness was kidnapped, they could not give too great a reward, but he was away carrying out the mission under His Highness’s command, wasn’t he. Sir Rolf, no, even the baron must be disappointed.”
“No, is that the issue right now? Sir Rolf took the whole title and territory of that infamous Baron von Graf.”
“That is true. They say Harald von Graf vanished and died, and even if he is alive he has not returned, so there was an attempt, at the request of a distant cadet branch, to restore the barony. But it ca to nothing because that baron also died without an heir.”
“At the ti there was no barony territory, so what good would a new baron alone do. But did not the barony territory, by a will that was not a will, already beco a direct territory of the temple?”
“Then what can be done? Even if it was the work of a single Cardinal, it was entangled in the attempted assassination of the Prince, so can they just let it go. Of course the Holy Emperor must give sothing up.”
“The Barony of Graf is a pri territory, adding even the dead wife’s territory and her forr husband’s territory. For a plain knight, it is quite the rise.”
“But what happens if, by so chance, Baron Graf returns alive? He cannot demand the territory back since he donated it himself, but what about the baron title?”
“According to rumors, Baron Graf was involved in the disappearance of Jero de Lagardie. Then it might be better if he never returns at all. He was soone who threw away both title and territory and left in the first place, so he likely does not have much attachnt anyway.”
“Sohow, it feels like, under Prince Leontes’s hand, matters that had been chaotic without any conclusion are being brought into order one by one.”
“But the new count smiles just fine, so why does the new baron still have such a blunt face. He really is Prince Leontes’s Cerberus.”
When the investiture ceremony of the new baron, who was not as flashy as the new count but was dressed splendidly, ended, it was next the turn of the Count of Montova, whose rit was great after them.
He was third in order, but the old lady, his son, and her maids and vassals all attended, and they were imposing.
“Count Giuliano della Montova has also made great rit, so I bestow upon him the Montova territory.”
“Oh, the young count is restoring his house.”
“Honestly, it was not pleasant to see a native noble like Montova fall into becoming the acting castellan of that old territory.”
“There were widespread rumors that since his wife died, he would be driven out even from that position, so this is truly good to see. And the baby heir is adorable as well.”
“Wait, is not the Montova territory Prince Leontes’s territory? His Majesty the Emperor is granting that to Count Montova as a reward?”
“His Majesty the Emperor originally had another territory to grant, but at Prince Leontes’s request, he bought Montova instead of that territory and granted it to Count Montova. His Highness did receive gold as the price for selling the territory, but he did not need to go that far, and yet he looked after a newly gained subordinate.”
“And besides, His Highness has now taken Duke Lauderdale’s territory into his hands, and His Majesty has taken the Empress Faction’s territories except for Prince Desmond’s, so that much is nothing.”
“It is no wonder His Majesty’s favor toward His Highness deepens by the day. His Majesty gained the greatest benefit from this affair.”
Next ca Jero de Lagardie. His entire Lagardie family ca up from his hotown to watch. They looked like Jero, but they were rural nobles who seed far more simple and naive.
Their faces looked as if they still could not believe that the son and brother who had returned alive was real, and then the mont he received the title of Baron Lagardie, they all burst into tears.
In order to console them for the fact that his father had died due to Jero’s disappearance, Jero’s older brother was even appointed as Viscount Renoit, and that made it all the more so.
Of all those who received titles thanks to Prince Leontes, he was said to look not only moved but dazed. Along with sneers that, when you thought about it, it was only natural he would be the most moved, since he received a title without having done anything at all.
“I have heard that the Emperor Faction was also involved in Baron Lagardie’s disappearance, so it is consolation to silence him. It must be a rumor spread by disloyal wretches.”
But without any trace of such a dark past, Baron Lagardie smiled as brightly as a flower, and he laughed alone even when his family wept. If not for the wolf-fur cloak he wore like a signature, it was hard to believe he had lived as a wolf.
Even so, he spoke of that fact more excitedly than anyone, drawing the attention of noblewon, saying that during the ti he had been a wolf he had been so lonely that he had co to cherish conversations with people.
“Prince Leontes and Sir Rolf were both difficult to approach, and Michelon, who smiled more, was a commoner, and in the first place there were so few people in Prince Leontes’s faction, but now not only Count Petrafis and Count Montova, but even soone with such rich sociability has been newly added. That is desirable.”
“That is true. It is natural that a faction opposing the Empress Faction has ford, but if they are difficult to approach, it is not good for either side.”
“As soone who knew Jero in the old days, I say this. If that capable but timid bureaucrat has been through every hardship and even beco slick, he is not an opponent to take lightly.”
But what happened next made even those who had been chattering fervently gasp and fall silent.
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