Chapter 50
#50화 Servant Cedric (16) - Family Affection
After Cedric had left.
An infernal silence descended upon the garden.
Marquis Redbell remained motionless, lost in thought for a long time.
One of the vassals, cautiously gauging the marquis's mood while furtively exchanging glances with the others, finally stepped forward and opened his mouth.
“My lord. Shouldn't that man's impertinence be punished?”
Marquis Redbell was one of the three most powerful figures in the kingdom.
What on earth had Cedric, a mere servant, said to a great man whom even the princes of this country could not casually treat disrespectfully and had to carefully watch their step around?
Even if a noble's generosity lay in forgiving and embracing the ignorant when they occasionally made mistakes, Cedric had crossed that line of forgiveness by a considerable distance.
If not for the marquis's extreme hatred of his subordinates acting on their own under the pretext of doing something ‘for their lord,’ the vassals under him would already have stepped in and punished Cedric.
“Impertinence... Well, he certainly was a seriously insolent bastard.”
“In that case—”
“Enough. Leave him alone.”
“Pardon?”
The marquis turned up the corners of his mouth mischievously at the vassal who had widened his eyes.
“I said to leave him alone. I doubt we'll see anything good if we lay a hand on him.”
“……”
Not only the vassals who had raised the matter, but the others nearby as well, all wore complicated expressions.
They clearly had plenty they wanted to say, but since the marquis had made his decision, they could not argue with him and were left stewing in frustration.
It was an exceptionally rare sight for the main house's vassals, who generally did not readily reveal their emotions on their faces.
‘Well, this is quite unlike my usual behavior.’
Even as he thought that, the marquis did not believe this judgment was mistaken.
‘I had vaguely suspected it even before meeting him, but he is definitely not some ordinary commoner.’
His vocabulary, the accent in his pronunciation, the natural way he managed his gaze, and his confident bearing.
Though he deliberately covered it all up with comical behavior and remarks, Cedric exuded the various airs peculiar to an educated man.
‘Magic is advanced knowledge in the first place. If all you're doing is learning and using wandering spells as they are, even a mere adventurer can manage it. But modifying spells—especially a family's secret technique—to suit your own tastes is something you could not even attempt without exceptionally systematic education.’
If the blood beast modification Cedric had described was truly real—or even if it possessed only half the claimed performance—the marquis was willing to pay a fortune for that technology without hesitation.
A powerful escort comparable to a knight was certainly attractive, but how could it compare to a security system on the scale of an entire nation?
If an individual had truly developed it, that meant he was an unprecedented superhuman who would leave his name in history; if it were the achievement of a group, then they were surely a great power with authority surpassing even House Redbell.
The marquis decided that the latter was the correct answer.
He was a rational and intelligent man, so he could not possibly arrive at the conclusion that ‘the Crown Prince of the Aizern Empire, exhausted by endless work, is playing servant under my youngest daughter as a hobby and tinkered with the secret art all by himself thanks to an unusually gifted knack for gift-giving.’
In fact, if he could arrive at that conclusion right away, it would belong to the realm of divine revelation rather than deduction, so judging the marquis incompetent over this would be excessively harsh.
Without realizing that he had fallen into a subtle misconception, the marquis began planning what to do next.
And the first move he made was…
***
“─The family head is not feeling well, so he said he would like to postpone seeing everyone face-to-face until next time. You may return once daybreak comes.”
At the main house's head butler's words, the expressions of the four children changed grotesquely.
They had been summoned to the main house on the pretext that their father wanted to see them after such a long time, yet he did not even show himself and was instead ordering them to leave. Their reactions were only natural.
Who did not know that his claims of feeling unwell were merely an excuse?
The most serious reaction of all came from the eldest son, Armin.
He had originally planned to use this family meeting as an excuse to keep Claudia at the main house.
Unlike Claudia, who had no one who could properly be called an ally outside the family, Armin only had to keep her here, and the Second Prince's side would push the marriage arrangements forward on its own.
Armin had calculated that even if Claudia hurriedly began moving to resist, by then everything would already be over.
And surely the marquis could not have failed to see through this calculation of his.
After knowingly letting it pass until now, was he going to bring it all to ruin like this?
‘...His mind has changed.’
Armin's face stiffened hard.
The marquis had not taken any clear action that could be interpreted as helping Claudia or hindering Armin.
If anything, it was closer to the attitude of a bystander who had decided not to interfere, no matter which way things went.
Of course, even if the marquis did not support him, the fact that Armin remained in the advantageous position was unchanged.
In a contest that had been practically an assured victory for him, Claudia's side had merely gained a faint chance of winning—so faint that one could hardly tell whether it existed at all.
However, as someone so cautious that he tested a stone bridge repeatedly before crossing it, Armin found the mere possibility of losing deeply unpleasant.
‘Should I withdraw from the plan even now?’
Withdrawing was not easy, either.
That might have been different if he had led the matter alone, but the royal family was involved this time.
If he unilaterally canceled a plan that had been proceeding according to both sides' interests, he would incur a considerable debt to the Second Prince.
After much deliberation, Armin made up his mind.
‘No. I'll see it through.’
He had not made this decision simply because he feared suffering a political loss.
If he could secure final victory, Armin was the sort of person who could endure and remain patient for as long as necessary.
However, he absolutely could not overlook the fact that the marquis had shown Claudia even the slightest hint of a favorable attitude.
This time, it had merely leveled the scales, but there was no guarantee that the marquis would not openly side with Claudia next time.
Armin knew very well what kind of person the father who had sired him was.
No matter how many achievements Armin accumulated or how many results he offered the marquis, if his father judged Claudia more useful than Armin, he would abandon Armin without mercy.
Armin's eyes turned cold.
To him, Claudia was no longer merely a younger sister who was inferior and lacking compared to him, but an obvious rival.
***
“The royal family, representing legitimacy; House Redbell, representing wealth; and House Sarnos, representing military might. These three are the three great powers that lead the Birka Kingdom.”
Some time later.
In the office in Eched Territory, Cedric was giving Claudia a private lecture.
“However, the royal family currently has many problems. The king is old, so the next king will soon have to be chosen, but the First Prince, who was originally the legitimate heir, suffered a severe fever and became an imbecile. House Sarnos supports the king's brother, who has many achievements, while House Redbell is supporting the Second Prince.”
It was a bizarre sight: a mere servant referring to the ruler of the kingdom not as ‘Your Highness’ or ‘Your Majesty,’ but bluntly calling him ‘the king’ while explaining the kingdom's political situation. Yet Claudia did not point it out. She had already come too far for that to matter.
“Frankly speaking, from the perspective of a straightforward power struggle, Redbell has the upper hand. The Count of Sarnos is no match for the marquis in terms of political power. However, Redbell has a weakness of its own, namely that it has relatively little military strength.”
“The Sarnos side is inferior to Redbell in most aspects of territorial administration, but its military strength is enormous. Redbell has plenty of money, so gathering people would not be much of a problem, but the quality of its commanders and knights cannot compare. This is a serious problem both for Redbell and for the Second Prince, who has Redbell's support.”
“The Second Prince is trying to recruit an ally to solve this problem, and that ally is House Beliar. It possesses enough power to rank among the kingdom's top ten forces even if it does not quite reach the level of the three great powers, has strong military might, and occupies an especially delicate position between Redbell and Sarnos.”
“If the young lady ends up tied to House Beliar, the Second Prince and Redbell alliance will gain the military strength it lacks while also obtaining a powerful shield in geographical terms. Since you are a member of Redbell but also carry royal blood, there would be little concern that the balance between the allies might collapse. In other words, it is a marriage arrangement that both the Second Prince and House Redbell would be satisfied with.”
“On top of that, House Beliar's territorial finances are steadily drying up, so without support from the royal family or Redbell, it is even struggling to maintain the military strength that is its only advantage. That means they can hold House Beliar by the leash, and the moment the young lady marries into House Beliar, that leash will become a leash around you as well.”
Cedric's hand, which had been moving busily across the blackboard, came to a stop.
At Cedric's gaze, which seemed to ask whether she had understood everything up to this point, Claudia frowned and nodded.
“So basically, they want to sacrifice me so the Second Prince and Redbell can feast and prosper. That's really funny.”
“That is a simplistic understanding, but it is sufficient.”
“So what do I do next? I hate being sold off without any regard for my wishes. Every time I hear rumors that people outside are moving ahead with my marriage arrangements however they please, I get chills down my spine.”
Her tone was brusque, but her voice was earnest.
Cedric answered Claudia, who was looking at him with a desperate, pleading gaze.
“Of course, there is a way.”
“R-really!? That's why you're Cedric! What is it?”
“Stab the Second Prince in the back.”
Silence fell for a moment.
Claudia tapped both her ears with her hands, then asked again.
“Sorry, I didn't hear you properly. Could you say that again?”
“Of course, it is possible, young lady.”
With a face as gentle and docile as a puppy's, Cedric calmly continued speaking.
“Bring the king's brother over to our side and stab the Second Prince in the back.”
Claudia stared blankly at Cedric's face.
His eyes were exceptionally clear, gleaming with a strange radiance.
Claudia carefully forced out her words.
“Um, uh, didn't you say a moment ago that the Second Prince was an ally and the king's brother was an enemy?”
“The Second Prince is an ally of ‘Redbell,’ not your ally. If he were your ally, he would not proceed with something like this without even confirming your wishes. Conversely, the king's brother is one of the people who would be most troubled if this arrangement succeeded. As long as their interests align, enemies and allies can change places as often as necessary in politics.”
“You'd be supporting a political rival and stabbing the Second Prince in the back. Do you think he'll just sit still?”
“Young lady.”
Cedric spoke in an exceptionally calm and gentle voice.
“The eldest son will handle that himself. Aren't we a family that can rely on one another?”
“……That's true!”
Claudia decided to let go of everything.
A great peace came over her heart.
The trust one could place in family was truly magnificent.