I couldn’t even laugh because of its farce. After tearing up the crumpled letter in my hands, I turned to Lancel, who faltered because he was startled by my actions.

“It’s a letter that was mistakenly delivered here. There’s no need to bother about it. It didn’t come to Dietrich, did it?”

“Yes. This is all the marriage proposal that came to the mansion.”

“Then you don’t need to report about what happened earlier.”

At my request to hide it from Dietrich, Lancel had a puzzled look but he nodded his head.

“I will now take my leave.”

I let out a sigh that I had been holding back once Lancel left.

‘Are they already planning to unite Euclid and Valliere?’

The empire would eventually fall into Euclid’s hands, but the rose war hasn’t ended yet and it was too early.

Since Lagrange wasn’t moving according to Euclid’s taste, it seemed that they were planning to collude with the imperial family. After all, there was no way they wouldn’t know that the Northern nobles were joining forces unlike before.

‘Very well. It wasn’t an unexpected direction.’

But to think they would use me to join hands with Valliere.

When was it when they abandoned a helpless baby simply because she had no abilities?

I could only click my tongue because it was a waste to even say they were shameless.

“Really, who exactly is the villain here?”

I kicked the shredded papers with my feet.

────── 〔✿〕──────

“You have a knack for talking nonsense in human language.”

A letter written by Duke Euclid, who was called the sun of the empire, fluttered in the air in fragments.

Viscount Sommer, who brought Euclid’s letter himself, watched the scene in a daze and then opened his mouth in surprise.

“What kind of rudeness is this, Grand Duke!”

Instead of answering him, Dietrich lowered his head and picked up his paperwork.

In his insolent manner, as if he didn’t even need to listen to him anymore, the Viscount reminded Dietrich that the Duke of Euclid was like his own son, with his veins popping on his neck.

“A person is t-talking right now. Are you ignoring me?”

“………….”

“It’s already revealed that the Grand Duchy of Lagrange kidnapped Euclid’s daughter. If you don’t concede now, we’ll have no choice but to take legal action!”

Viscount Sommer was the cousin of Duchess Dona Euclid. Although it was a humble family, they were in-laws with the Duke.

For that reason, Hermann, the Duke of Euclid, treated the Viscount with respect as an adult.

Although his title was Grand Duke, when Dietrich, who looked young ignored him, the Viscount screamed.

“Grand Duke! Have you gone deaf?!”

“Oslo.”

The Viscount continued to spew on finding his cousin’s daughter who was his niece, but whether his face was going red or not in his outburst, Dietrich only attended to his paperwork and called for a knight on his side.

A knight dressed in magenta armor stepped out in front of him.

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Remove that thing.”

“Command received.”

The Viscount, who was treated as an object right in front of him, became startled and hid behind a Euclid knight he had brought in with his eyes wide.

“A-at least let me see her! Is she not my niece? I’m that child’s family!”

It was the former Duke of Euclid who paid off the enormous gambling debt that the Viscount made when he was young.

In addition, he couldn’t help but come forward as a brother to poor Dona, who shed tears, saying that her daughter who was lost as a baby, was raised in the hands of the vicious Lagrange.

After the Viscount tried to pluck up his courage, Dietrich finally stood up from his seat. He walked towards the Viscount whose eyes were shining thinking they would finally have a good talk.

“Family?”

The young Grand Duke, who smiled wryly, was truly a devilishly handsome man.

“That is…right. I am the Duchess’ cousin, so I’m a relative of Princess Anissa.”

“That blood which wouldn’t mix even with a few drops no matter how much you wring out the corpse didn’t seem that important when you threw it away.”

“What do you mean throw away! Didn’t your mother kidnap the baby Princess?!”

The Grand Duke Lagrange was a man who was exquisitely handsome as if painted with a brush, yet possessed the characteristics of a northerner including his large size.

When he got closer, he was larger than him by a head, and his dark red eyes were filled with bloodlust that he automatically lowered his head.

“W-why are you coming closer? Sir Chiron!”

Euclid’s knight grabbed the sword to protect the threatened Viscount. The Viscount raised the corner of his lips as if thinking that it was a mistake for him to allow them to bring weapons inside the Grand Duke’s office.

“Sir Chiron is an excellent knight who can compete with Hermann with a sword. I feel extremely assured!”

“If you come any closer, I have no choice but to raise my sword.”

Dietrich chuckled at the triumphant words of the Viscount.

“Go ahead.”

The knight frowned at his plain tone as if he was ignoring him. He was a warrior who held a sword all his life.

Although it wasn’t the shadow’s ability, he had been experiencing the ability of the sun god all along, and he also prepared an artifact for the ability of the Grand Duke.

“I am not making a jest. I have already received permission from Her Majesty to rescue the princess, even by force.”

“Do I look like I’m free enough to exchange jests with you? Put it up.”

The knight, who disregarded Dietrich’s unseemly permission, drew his sword in anger. No, he tried to pull it out.

Bang!

Dietrich’s hand moved before the knight could pull the sword. It wasn’t that he couldn’t see the movement with his eyes, but it was too fast for his body to react.

“The he-helmet!”

It wasn’t a hard helmet used on the battlefield, but still, the helmet made of iron was crushed at once.

Bang, bang!

The head of the knight, with his helmet on, was rammed into the wall and he dropped his sword.

Clang. The well-hardened iron made a metallic sound.

“What are you doing, Grand Duke!”

The terrified Viscount looked at Dietrich and Chiron alternately in astonishment.

If you’re not reading this at blogspot, you’re probably reading from an aggregator site. Read this translation at /.

“You don’t even know a knight’s honor?!”

If the opponent held a sword, it was right to deal with a sword. The North was no different.

However, Dietrich kicked the knight in the face whose eyes had rolled as if he were an inferior mercenary.

“Heuk.”

Dietrich removed the knight’s helmet and grabbed his head with one hand. The hair that came through between the fingers drooped helplessly.

“If you can put it up, then do it. Your sword.”

“Aaak!”

Dietrich picked up the knight’s sword that fell to the ground and cut off his hand. The knight who dared to enter the Grand Duke’s office and ran wild finally lost consciousness.

He was still breathing, but even when he woke up again, he wouldn’t be able to live as a knight.

Dietrich flicked the severed hand at the Viscount. Blood instantly splattered on the clean floor.

“You brought it, so you take it with you.”

“……….”

The young Grand Duke didn’t even particularly look angry. The well-groomed forehead remained the same, but the Viscount took a step backward in the face of his chilly gaze.

“It’s not even in the middle of a b-battle and yet you’re planning to cut my throat?”

“I didn’t say I was going to kill you.”

Didn’t he also leave the knight’s neck intact? If he had intended to kill him, he would have broken his neck at once, and considering the strength of his grip, it wasn’t a difficult task.

“I’m letting you live so go back.”

“…Why? Why aren’t you killing us?”

“Why?”

Dietrich asked back, crookedly tilting his head. That was because he had started thinking about whether he should let him live or kill him.

He didn’t have the same ability as Anissa, so it was impossible for him to read other people’s minds. He tried to knit his brows and thought about it for a second, then quickly gave up.

He was already struggling as it is because he couldn’t even grasp the heart of the person he really wanted to find out, but knowing the Viscount’s feelings was more meaningless than a dog passing by so there was no reason to find out.

“To think you treated Euclid’s knight like this. Do you think if you let me live I won’t report this right away to Her Majesty and the Duke?”

If Euclid’s Princess and the Crown Prince were to be married, the two families would now be completely merged.

No, it would be the same even if Anissa didn’t come back to the South.

The throne was actually on the verge of being handed over to Euclid in the South, who was the real power of the empire.

“The next emperor might be the Duke of Euclid and not the Crown Prince. In that case, you won’t just end up kidnapping a ducal princess, but an imperial family member.”

The Viscount suppressed his fear and provoked the young Grand Duke by reminding him of this fact.

“That’s why I’m saving you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Go back and cry your heart out. Even if you bring a hundred or thousands of knights, I will cut off their hands just like earlier and feed them to the dogs, and then I will sever their heads and hang them by the castle walls.”

“Wh-what did you say?”

Why would I go that far?

“Because it’s pissing me off just seeing those little bastards drooling, f*ck it.”

Finishing his conversation with the Viscount on his own, Dietrich returned to his seat, reciting a low curse.

The bewildered Viscount closed his eyes tightly and opened his mouth.

“Did you know that I’m not simply asking for her back? He said that he would give all of Euclid’s central territories on the condition of simply bringing back one princess!”

Then, won’t the food problem that the North was suffering from be resolved?

The Viscount continued to wag his tongue at the cruelty and stupidity of the Grand Duke when he frowned as he realized something strange.

If the Princess was simply a hostage to intimidate the Euclids, there would be no way that she wouldn’t appear.

“That’s not possible….”

Was it called a half-man, half-horse? They were the ones who sacrificed everything precious to become a Grand Duke and have nothing to fear. [1]

Note:

[1] Half-man, half-horse are the Centaurs, but the name didn’t seem to fit from the mythology so I didn’t use it.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep