Chapter 48
“In common parlance, 「pillow talk」.”
Eisen explained seriously.
Though it is derided as a vulgar term, there is no surer move for changing the mind of an inflexible man in power.
Especially for a doting husband like the Northgard Grand Duke.
“There are two purposes. First, security.”
The count held up one finger.
“Because the conversation takes place in the most private of spaces, there is no concern that information that Lady Karla has abandoned Slokina and sided with Northgard will leak outside—to Slokina’s spies.”
“Ah....”
“Second, exoneration.”
The count’s voice lowered.
“By having Lady Karla do something only she can do, we ease her guilt... and create grounds for her to be protected as a 「coerced victim」 when all the facts are revealed in the future.”
“......!”
“If you want to save Her Grace, you must make her break her shackles herself. You must plant that courage in her, Young Master.”
Kairen stared blankly at Eisen.
A way to make his mother a victim rather than a criminal and save her.
And a way to break his father’s stubbornness and get his brother out.
All the pieces fell into place.
Vitality began to return to Kairen’s dying red eyes.
It felt as though his constricted chest had suddenly opened wide.
What he had to do.
And how to end this hell became clear.
“...I understand.”
Kairen clenched his fists.
“I will... persuade Mother. No, I will give her courage.”
“I believe in you, Young Master.”
‘Ha.... Coming here in person really was the right choice.’
Even just hearing Eisen’s plan beside him made me feel lighter too.
‘I really do need to keep moving. Waiting isn’t my strong suit.’
* * *
In the Grand Duchess’s bedroom, Karla sat before her vanity, staring into the mirror.
The woman’s face reflected in the mirror was unfamiliar.
Neither the wife who had once been loved nor the Grand Duchess who had once been respected remained.
She was nothing more than an ugly criminal who had fed poison to her son just to survive.
‘I want to smash it.’
Karla wanted to shatter the mirror before her.
And she wanted to pick up the sharp fragments and sever this wretched chain of sin with her own hands.
She thought that was the only way she could atone to Karl and Kairen.
Karla raised her trembling hand toward the mirror.
But.
“......”
Her hand dropped limply with a soft tap before it could even touch the mirror.
She could not muster any strength.
Was it because she had eaten the tart Karl had left behind every day?
Or had guilt gnawed at her soul until it paralyzed her body as well?
Karla despaired at her own weakness, at having not even enough strength left to break a mirror.
‘Even dying... I can’t even do that when I want to.’
Click.
Just then, the door opened and someone entered.
Kairen stood before the door.
Karla could not raise her head.
She did not even have the courage to meet her son’s eyes through the mirror.
She could not bear the look of contempt and hatred her son would send her after discovering her ugly, true self.
Karla lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut.
Step, step.
The footsteps drew closer.
And then stopped.
“...Mother.”
The voice was calm, contrary to her expectations.
Rustle.
Along with the sound of fabric dragging, Kairen knelt on one knee beside Karla’s chair.
He looked up at his bowed mother’s face, meeting her at eye level.
“Please open your eyes.”
“......”
When Karla struggled to open her eyes, her son’s red eyes looked back at her.
His gaze was firm.
The gaze she had so clearly shaken was now as steady and focused as Karl’s had been in his healthy days.
“Count Eisen has arrived.”
“...The count?”
“Yes. And... I told him everything.”
Kairen confessed calmly.
“The threats from Slokina, what you did, what happened to Brother. Everything.”
“Ah....”
The inevitable had come.
The family’s shame had been exposed.
Now everything would be over.
But relief came first.
‘I feel lighter.’
Days of living with what felt like a time bomb that could explode at any moment.
She had almost wanted to be found out.
She had almost wanted someone to stop her.
And Kairen had chosen.
Not to cover up his mother’s crime, but to expose it and set things right.
The path of becoming Northgard’s master, rather than Slokina’s puppet.
‘Thank goodness... truly.’
Karla thought through her tears.
My son is stronger than I am.
Unlike a mother who had failed even to become a monster, he had grown up to be a good person.
“Mother.”
Kairen took Karla’s cold hand.
“I have a favor to ask.”
“...Tell me. If you want my life, I will give it.”
“No. It’s not that.”
Kairen shook his head.
“I... love both Brother and you.”
“......!”
“I don’t want to lose either of you. So... Master Eisen found a way. The only way to save both you and my brother.”
Kairen explained the pillow-talk plan Count Eisen had proposed.
A way to put in a word to the husband agonizing over Karl’s recuperation, escape Slokina’s grasp, and secure grounds for exoneration in the future.
“Father loves you.”
Kairen spoke in a voice full of conviction.
“Tonight, please say just one word about Brother’s recuperation. We’ll handle the rest. Please... find the courage.”
Karla looked into her son’s eyes.
The little boy who had always hidden behind her and been protected.
But before she knew it, he had grown so much that he was now guiding his criminal mother.
Strength flowed from his firm hand.
‘Yes. For Karl’s sake...’
She could no longer hide helplessly.
Karla pressed her trembling lips together and slowly nodded.
“...I understand. I’ll try.”
Karla took a step forward of her own volition for only the second time in her life.
The first had been before she was commissioned to arrange an assassination.
It was the first step she had taken since telling a master craftsman she would learn to make desserts so she could let Karl taste grapefruit tart.
“And….”
Kairen added one final word.
“Mother, you are a Northgard.”
* * *
“Even if Grand Young Master Karl’s matter is resolved... we still have one more mountain to climb.”
Eisen spoke as he walked down the corridor.
The subject had returned to that troublesome dormitory problem.
“We clearly have the courage to cross a snow-covered mountain and make it this far, yet we can’t cross a stream for fear of getting our feet wet.”
“Indeed.”
I nodded bitterly as well.
“That reminds me, Sir Varg.”
Eisen glanced sidelong at me.
There was a mischievous glint in the corners of his eyes.
“Before coming to the grand ducal castle, I thought of one 「last resort」 on my own.”
“A last resort? Did you think of some groundbreaking legislation?”
My eyes gleamed with anticipation.
I thought that an idea from the Empire’s greatest administrator would surely be a legal or administrative solution sharp enough to exploit a loophole.
But.
“That wall-climbing you showed us before we left.”
“......What?”
I wondered if I had misheard him.
Wall-climbing?
The thing I had done in my haste when I went to say goodbye to Kara?
“What does that... have to do with the dormitory problem?”
“A great deal.”
Eisen began to explain, wearing a serious expression even as the corners of his mouth twitched.
“If the school’s opposition ultimately forces us to use separate rooms... Sir Varg will exercise that ability every night.”
“......”
“You love your wife so much that you climb walls, climb through windows, and sneak in while avoiding the guards’ eyes... You repeat such exaggerated lover’s antics.”
“......”
“Of course, it is an obvious violation of the school rules. You’ll get demerits. But it probably won’t be enough to expel you. If you cause a ruckus every day, passionately pleading, ‘I can’t help it because of love,’ and ‘My pregnant wife looks for me every night,’ what do you think will happen?”
Eisen concluded without managing to lower the corners of his mouth.
“In the end, won’t even the dean get so fed up that he gives up and says, ‘This is too much trouble! Just use one room already! I can’t sleep because of you lot!’?”
“......”
I stopped where I was.
Then I recalled Eisen’s performance as the dean from moments ago and burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! I never expected you to propose something so hooligan-like... no, so unconventional, Count. You were saying that to help me relax, right?”
A dignified nobleman proposing a nuisance operation.
It was certainly unexpected.
“Who knows?”
Eisen shrugged.
“It’s half joke and half serious... Just think of it as a 「last line of defense」 for when there is truly no other way. The Imperial Academy has a surprisingly soft spot for romance.”
“Romance....”
I gave a small laugh and shook my head.
‘Surely he isn’t seriously going to make me do it. Even for me, that’s a bit embarrassing.’
A barbarian scaling the women’s dormitory wall every night.
It was a perfect way to be mistaken for a perverted stalker and end up in handcuffs.
But Eisen’s expression remained relaxed.
“People often say the relationship between master and disciple is hierarchical. That instruction flows from top to bottom, like water.”
Eisen slowed his pace to match mine.
“But no relationship in this world is truly one-sided. The teacher learns too.”
“What have I ever taught you, Count?”
“I’ve learned a great deal. Especially... about unconventionality that shatters common sense.”
“Unconventionality?”
“Sir Varg, you are doing more than I ever taught you.”
‘Perhaps... unconventionality may be the real solution, rather than intricate plans and logic.’
The academy’s rules were too rigid for a direct approach to work.
To break through that sturdy wall, we might need an unconventional blow like a hammer rather than needle-prick logic.
But there was one condition.
‘That unconventionality must be wrapped in an unassailable justification... and the backing lending it weight must be solid.’
If backed by a massive power no one could challenge, any unconventional act could be dressed up as romance or special privilege.
Grand Young Master Karl’s recuperation.
And...
The prince’s consent.
With those two immense powers backing us, they could become an excellent bargaining chip for the dormitory problem.
Before we knew it, we had arrived in front of Karl’s office in the annex.
Before grasping the doorknob, Eisen leaned toward me and whispered quietly.
“Sir Varg. If this matter is resolved well... I have one way to resolve the dormitory problem, too.”
“A way?”
“Let me give you a hint.”
Eisen smiled.
“It is the technique of slipping the small act of audacity we want into the precarious gap between two irresistible acts of audacity.”
“......?”
“I’ll explain the details later.”
Leaving those meaningful words, Eisen knocked on the door.
“It’s Eisen. May we come in?”
* * *
Tension hung thick in Karl’s office.
Karl sat in his wheelchair.
And Fourth Prince Radiance was perched brazenly on top of his desk.
The two men were old friends, but the atmosphere between them was ominous.
“Don’t refuse, Karl.”
Radiance spoke with a serious expression.
“If not you, who else will carry out this momentous mission?”
“......”
Karl shook his head and looked away.
“Go back, Your Highness. I am already... a disgrace to my family.”
Karl’s voice trembled.
“What can a cripple who can’t even use his legs do at the academy? The students will only laugh at me. I’ll merely sully Northgard’s honor.”
“Haa....”
Radiance let out a deep sigh and swept his hair back.
“Don’t call me Your Highness. We’re friends... How long are you going to keep drawing that line?”
He climbed down from the desk and bent his knees to meet Karl at eye level.
“The Karl von Northgard I knew wasn’t a coward like this.”
“......!”
At the word ‘coward,’ Karl’s brows twitched.
But he could not refute it.
Because it was true.
Radiance gripped the armrest of his friend’s wheelchair and stared into his eyes with his golden eyes.
“What if you can’t use your legs?”
Radiance said calmly.
“Your mind is perfectly sound. No, it’s sharper than before. I can tell from how you solved every problem I sent you.”
“That was... just a pastime....”
“A pastime? My boy, those were problems that even the students I considered prodigies struggled with.”
Radiance chuckled.
“That talent you’re letting rot while you’re cooped up in your room... the Empire, and I, need it desperately.”
“......”
“Don’t hide in the dark, driven there by others and by your inferiority complex. That is a sin against you and the people who love you.”
Radiance’s hand came to rest on Karl’s shoulder.
“Come to the academy, Karl.”
“Your Highness....”
“Come and show the world that you’re still going strong, that your intellect hasn’t rusted.”
Radiance’s voice grew stronger.
“Even seated in a wheelchair, you’re still Karl von Northgard. No one can ignore you… because you’re my friend…”
“......”
“I, and the Empire, need you.”
At his friend’s heartfelt plea, the eyes that had been frozen began to waver.
‘Need me.’
The self he had thought useless.
The self he had thought abandoned.
There was still a friend who needed him.
There was still a younger brother who loved him.
And the benefactor and master who had saved his younger brother needed him as well.
The ember dying deep in his chest began to burn again.
‘Can I... start again?’
Could he help someone even with this ruined body?
At that moment, fear and hope crossed paths.
Knock, knock.
The sound of someone knocking broke the silence.
“It’s Eisen. May we come in?”
A familiar, reassuring voice.
Radiance grinned and rose to his feet.
“Perfect timing. Reinforcements have arrived.”
Karl wiped at his wet eyes and answered in a trembling voice.
“...Come in.”
The door opened, and Count Eisen and Varg entered.