As Expected of a Duke, He's Good with Words

"The succession ceremony, or whatever it is."

I still don't know exactly what the succession ceremony means.

But I could roughly infer what it was from the nuance.

It was probably some sort of ceremony I had to perform to become duke.

"Didn't you say I had to receive recognition from the [Dark Shadow] you mentioned?"

The duke had clearly said that just before I fought Kaizen and Bella.

I glanced over.

Saying that, I turned to look at Mist, who was standing quietly behind me.

She, too, was a member of the [Dark Shadow].

That was why I had come to the duke—to obtain more accurate information.

I needed to know the number of [Dark Shadow] members, after all.

"... Huh?"

Was there something strange about my question? For a moment, the duke's reaction seemed slightly off.

"What, you didn't know?"

"Know what? I just woke up and came straight here."

The duke was looking at me as though I were someone who didn't know something he obviously should have known.

At that look, I clutched the side of my head, which was beginning to ache.

Seriously, what was this way of speaking where he cut out all the context and simply assumed I would know?

"Ah... I see."

At my reaction, the duke nodded as though he finally understood.

"My apologies. I assumed you had already figured everything out before coming to me."

"... There's no way that was possible."

I had no idea what he thought I was.

"That's why I came. First, I need to know about the members of the [Dark Shadow] you mentioned."

"Hmm..."

The duke silently looked at me, then raised his one hand, which had been reduced to nothing but skin.

Vmmm.

Soon, I felt the duke's mana.

"Ah, I'm not trying to attack you. Don't react."

"... You startled me."

I said that while scattering the smoke that had gathered in my hand almost instinctively the moment I sensed the duke's mana.

Honestly, if the duke hadn't spoken first, I might have attacked him immediately.

"Haha. Anything concerning the [Dark Shadow] is top secret of the highest order."

As he said that, the mana the duke released began to completely envelop the room.

"We can't have anyone overhearing us."

"..."

At the duke's words, I briefly looked around.

Blocking sound with mana was surprisingly difficult.

Mana thick enough to block sound required an enormous amount of mana, after all.

‘So he spread that much mana over the entire room.’

It was a feat I couldn't have imagined being performed by a patient who looked as though he might die at any moment.

"I'll start with the ordinary members."

Your maid, Mist.

And Karon and Nella, the butler and maid assigned to Kaizen and Bella respectively.

The head butler, Sebastian.

Those four.

"And finally, the boss who commands all of them. Those are all the members of the [Dark Shadow]."

"Hmm."

I quietly listened to the duke and stroked my chin.

I had more or less expected it.

I had expected that the people beside Kaizen and Bella would also be members of the [Dark Shadow].

But.

"That's surprisingly few."

To be honest, I had expected there to be at least two digits' worth of them.

It was called an organization, and the duke himself had said it would be difficult to take the ducal seat without their recognition.

Numbers were a group's strength, after all.

But who would have thought there were so few?

If so, there was only one answer.

"Then I suppose they're all far stronger than I imagined."

I said that as I took a sip of the black tea Mist had given me.

Grin.

"Correct."

The duke gave a slight smile and agreed with me.

"There is only one thing required to enter the [Dark Shadow]."

A special ability?

No, that wasn't it.

Then assassination skills?

No, that wasn't it either.

Assassination skills were merely something one naturally had to possess.

"That would be like praising a professional painter for being good at coloring."

Saying that, the duke raised his index finger.

The condition for joining the [Dark Shadow] was surprisingly simple.

[Assassinate a master-class powerhouse.]

"That is the condition for entering the [Dark Shadow]."

"..."

It was an extremely concise sentence. Yet even that concise sentence contained a word that could never be taken lightly.

A master.

For a knight, a sword master.

For a mage, an archmage.

As the times advanced, the training methods of those who wielded mana had grown more efficient, and the number of masters had increased compared to the past. Even so, they were still people proudly recognized as the strong among humanity.

"Huh... The condition for joining the [Dark Shadow] is assassinating such a powerhouse?"

Since he had said assassination, perhaps not every member of the [Dark Shadow] was a master-class powerhouse.

After all, the condition was to kill a master, not defeat one.

I didn't know the details, but I had heard that an outstanding assassin could assassinate someone roughly two levels stronger than themselves.

If that was true, the members of the [Dark Shadow] were at least upper- to peak-Expert level.

No, since the condition was to assassinate a master-class powerhouse, even at the minimum, they had to be peak-Expert-level powerhouses.

"That's right. Though I call it assassination, whether through an honorable head-on fight or any number of underhanded tricks, killing a master-class powerhouse—that is the condition for joining."

The duke said it calmly.

"Well, I can see why."

I understood why I had to receive recognition from the [Dark Shadow].

If they didn't recognize me, five assassins capable of killing masters would be left unchecked. Naturally, I needed their recognition.

Hearing that, the duke nodded and continued.

"Yes. But things have gone rather smoothly for you."

"Hmm?"

"After seeing your fight with the two illegitimate children, Sebastian and Nella sent me word that they recognize you."

Click.

The duke drank the tea Mist had given him through a wooden stem created from his materialized hallucination and spoke in a calm voice.

"I thought you had come to me knowing this as well."

"Hmm... But what about the intentions of that person you just called the boss?"

"..."

"You called it an organization, so isn't the boss's opinion the most important?"

At my question, the duke gave a slightly bitter smile and looked at Mist standing behind me.

"Haah... Yes. You'll find out eventually anyway, so I'll just tell you."

The duke looked at Mist for a moment, then sighed and began speaking in a tone that suggested he had no choice.

"... There is only one condition for becoming the head of the [Dark Shadow]."

[Only one who carries the blood of Nebula may sit in that position.]

"What...?"

Someone who carried the blood?

Wait. If that was true...

"The current boss of the [Dark Shadow] is someone who carries the blood of the Nebula family."

There had been one question I had held from the moment I arrived here.

The current Nebula ducal family was clearly in crisis.

All of its direct descendants had been wiped out in a slaughter where they killed one another.

And because of the unusual nature of the Nebula ducal family, there were no people who could be considered collateral relatives. They were hanging on at the edge of a cliff.

That was why they had summoned illegitimate children to carry on the ducal family.

But the management of those illegitimate children had been more than a little lax.

The tests to select them had been brutally difficult, yet the family didn't seem particularly eager to educate the illegitimate children who had been selected.

But what if I added one more assumption?

"She's my granddaughter."

The blood of Nebula—or, more precisely, the blood of its direct descendants—had not been severed.

That was why their response had been so relaxed.

***

Inside a dark room.

Click.

A dark figure moved from place to place around the room.

Bloop. Bloop.

A beaker was filled with a purple liquid that looked dangerous at a glance.

Standing before the liquid, the figure began carefully pouring in something yellow that contrasted with the purple.

Crack!

[... Ah.]

Before long, the mixture began emitting a radiance bright enough to blind anyone who looked at it.

Having discovered the cause of the radiance, she let out a quiet sigh.

At Karon's request, she had needed to increase the destructive power rather than the range, but the opposite had happened.

This was a failure.

--------!!!!

.

.

.

[An explosion of unknown cause has occurred in the Farion Plains.]

[Explosion radius: approximately 5 km.]

[Cause unknown.]

[Investigative authority transferred to the Empire nearest the Farion Plains.]

***

"Well, even so, she's a good girl, so you don't need to worry too much."

The duke said that, then continued after letting out a long sigh.

"If she is selected as the head of the [Dark Shadow], then barring some extraordinary event, it will be impossible for her not to become duke."

That was the tradition of the Nebula ducal family.

"But knowing those circumstances, she gave up all her privileges and entered the [Dark Shadow] herself."

Giving up privileges one had possessed from birth was more difficult than anyone could imagine.

The duke knew that well, which seemed to be why he reacted somewhat differently toward the head of the [Dark Shadow].

"From the beginning, unlike the other members of the [Dark Shadow], the head naturally serves the family head, so she doesn't need to receive recognition separately."

"... Then Karon is the only one left, right?"

"It would seem so."

At the duke's confirmation, I fell into thought for a moment.

Sebastian and Nella had declared that they would swear loyalty to me because of this fight. Unlike those two members of the [Dark Shadow], Karon had remained silent without saying a word.

As I wondered what to do about that man named Karon, the duke's voice reached my ears.

"Oh, and though I called it a succession ceremony, you probably won't become the family head immediately even if we hold it."

Flinch.

For the record, I wasn't the one who flinched. It was Mist, standing behind me, who reacted.

"It will merely be an announcement of the heir. It isn't a transfer of the position of family head."

Flinch.

Again, I wasn't the one who flinched. Mist was.

"Why not?"

"... Because given the current situation in the Empire, this will be less troublesome."

The duke explained the current situation in the Empire.

The emperor had entered his later years, and because the next emperor had not yet been decided, the situation was extremely chaotic.

Every noble was using any means necessary to ensure that the prince they supported became the next emperor.

"The only reason things are quiet is that my physical condition is like this."

Things were quiet only because they had the shield of the current head of the Nebula ducal family being in poor health.

"Isn't it obvious how troublesome things would become if a new duke appeared?"

A new head of the Nebula ducal family who was a man in his early twenties?

And one carrying the label of an illegitimate child?

That would be an irresistible target for the other princes, as well as the nobles, to look down on and latch onto.

"Ah, that makes sense."

At the duke's explanation, I found myself nodding.

And for some reason, when I nodded, Mist's shoulders seemed to lower slightly.