Chapter 76
After the meeting ended,
"Duke Oppenstadt, right now perhaps..."
"I'm sorry, but I have urgent matters to attend to. Could you contact me again later?"
"...Alright."
Theodore politely but firmly dismissed the nobles gathered around him, then walked alone towards his office.
His expression, which had maintained composure,
-Thud. Thud. Thud.
"..."
As the gazes around him diminished, gradually twisted into a sinister grimace.
Finally, upon reaching his office and closing the door,
"Aaaaargh!"
-Bang!
He vented his anger by throwing whatever he could grab.
"Why! Why, why!"
-Bang! Bang!
Theodore had built up power taking advantage of Louise's lack of interest in state affairs after ascending to the throne.
As the previous Louise was sufficiently satisfied with just regularly providing new talent, it was essentially Theodore who led the empire by conducting meetings.
Apart from being captivated by Louise's appearance, he thought she was just a woman who came up from the countryside.
He thought it wouldn't be difficult to have her just by becoming the leader of the pro-empress faction.
However, the power he gained quickly shrank when Louise actively entered politics.
"Pro-empress faction, my foot! Damn it all!"
The 'pro-empress' label attached to him kept following and tormenting him.
Now Louise conductws most meetings herself, and the agenda items that come up for meetings go through her judgment.
Especially recent decisions on territory distribution, territory management, military expansion and movement were made in a direction that greatly strengthened the empress' authority.
As long as it wasn't an agenda that seriously hindered the pro-empress nobles including himself, he, bearing the name of the pro-empress faction, couldn't actively oppose the empress' will.
Gerhart was already emerging as a leader of the pro-empress faction to replace him, and the noble faction he had trampled on wouldn't accept him after losing power.
After relieving stress by smashing furniture, he threw himself into a chair and,
"Hah..."
To control his boiling anger, he picked up an elegant frame placed on the desk.
The frame contained a portrait of Louise, a work he had re-ordered from the artist after seeing the smile Louise had shown before.
"...Heh. Hehehe."
He let out a gloomy laugh while meeting eyes with Louise in the picture, who was smiling brightly.
Since falling for her at first sight, he calmed himself by looking at her portrait whenever his emotions ran high.
The power he had eagerly coveted was merely a tool to stand beside Louise, so it didn't matter much to him that she was taking power from the nobles to build her authority.
"..."
So, it wasn't Louise who angered him.
"...Viktor."
His anger was entirely directed at Viktor, who monopolized Louise's attention.
"..."
He thought while caressing the portrait through the frame.
Recently, he hadn't seen Louise's smile directed at him.
She only looked at him with the same dry gaze as other ordinary nobles, her smile always directed at Viktor.
"You're the problem, Viktor. You... you're the problem!"
-Thud.
Annoyed by the thought that even this smile painted by the artist was directed at Viktor, not himself, he put the frame down on the desk.
He couldn't help but think that all this misfortune was entirely because of Viktor.
Since Louise changed after Viktor joined the empire, this thought gradually grew larger.
"This can't go on. I must protect Her Majesty's side..."
However,
With even moving the military to achieve merits blocked by Gerhart, Theodore didn't have many cards left in his hand.
And with little reason left, he kept eyeing the most dangerous card among those remaining.
"...I could lose everything. No, I can't."
The sliver of reason left tried to stop his hand from reaching for the drawer, but,
"...Everything, huh. What do I have left?"
Jealousy towards Viktor and the sense of powerlessness felt in the meeting room urged his decision.
"The one who should stand beside Her Majesty isn't a commoner like Viktor, but me."
The deliberation wasn't long.
-Rattle.
Theodore, who had been alternately looking at Louise's portrait and the drawer, finally took out paper from the drawer.
Having made up his mind, he held the pen in his left hand as a safety measure and scrawled out a letter.
The contents of the letter started with Viktor's plan spoken in the meeting room and included important information such as the combat power of the Red Dragon Corps armed with new weapons.
Though his fingertips trembled, he wrote diligently and,
"...Hmm."
A moment later, he put down the pen.
After checking the contents of the letter one last time, he carelessly stuffed the completed letter into a cheap envelope.
On the outside of the envelope, he wrote the name of Count Sancho Gonzales of the Esperia Kingdom, with whom he had connections.
Before leaving his office with several envelopes made in the same way tucked into his bosom and a hood to cover his face and body,
"..."
He picked up Louise's portrait he had put down on the desk again and observed it for a long time.
"Hah, hah..."
His breathing became rough, and his heartbeat gradually quickened.
He sat down again and,
"Louise, it's for her... Hmm..."
After about 5 minutes, he left the office with a slightly flushed face.
---
"To launch an offensive, the 5th Corps will need supplies too. ...I'll provide this much, could you take it along to where the 5th Corps is?"
"...Haha. Thank you."
"No need for thanks, it's natural for me as Grand Marshal to oversee the 5th Corps' supplies."
After receiving an amount of supplies that the 5th Corps could never use alone from Gerhart,
"...Hmm."
"What's wrong?"
"Ah, it's nothing. I'll go prepare for the expedition now."
"Hmm, I too am looking forward to your achievements."
Suddenly, the mini-map flashed red, so I sat in the office observing the mini-map.
I could see a red dot moving alone without any gray dots.
Knowing which room that dot came from,
"...Theodore."
I could guess who the dot was representing.
As Theodore's behavior of leaving the audience chamber alone, leaving behind the nobles who had been with him, was suspicious, I continued to watch the movement of the red dot presumed to be Theodore on the mini-map.
After leaving his office, he was with gray dots for a while, then left the imperial palace alone.
"I'll go meet the craftsmen for a moment."
"Ah, then I'll hurry and finish up too."
"No. I'm just going to check on the progress briefly, I'll be back quickly."
As I was about to go out, grabbing my uniform and a brown coat to cover my face,
"Alright. Still, please make sure to carry this."
"...Hmm."
Anna took out the wheellock pistol for self-defense received from Dominic and held it out to me.
"I'm not sure if I need something like this just to see the craftsmen."
"You must carry it."
"...Alright."
I put the gun in my bosom and leisurely left the office, then moved swiftly towards the red dot with my uniform covered by the coat.
Although I couldn't borrow a horse because the situation was urgent and had to be secret, I was able to catch up to the red dot quickly by moving with the help of the mini-map.
"..."
As expected, the red dot that left the imperial palace was Theodore.
Although he was covering his upper body with something like a hood, it wasn't difficult to identify him just by his excessively fancy shoes and pants.
He headed towards the slums, stopping every few steps to look around, and I carefully followed behind.
The red dot moved thoroughly, twisting its route to ensure no one was following, but it couldn't deceive my eyes checking the position on the mini-map.
The red dot, gradually slowing down, stopped in a deserted place as if waiting for contact.
I was planning to run away if he met with multiple other red dots, but what approached him was a single gray dot.
The two dots that stayed together for a while, perhaps having a conversation, separated after about 5 minutes.
Before mixing with others, I quickly chased the gray dot moving slowly.
"...Huh? What, what...!"
Thanks to moving while checking his direction of movement in real-time,
-Thud!
"Argh!"
I was able to pounce on a man in shabby clothes presumed to be the gray dot that met Theodore before leaving the slums.
After sitting on him, who had almost nothing but bones on his body, I took out the pistol from my bosom and held it like a blunt weapon.
As guns weren't well-known yet, I thought this would be more effective than aiming.
"If you scream from now on, I'll crack your skull right away."
"...Eek."
Fortunately, the man just trembled while covering his face with his hands, seeming frightened.
With newspapers and such not widely spread yet, he doesn't seem to recognize my face.
"Who did you just meet, and what conversation did you have?"
"...That's."
"Do you need one side of your head cracked to talk?"
While pressuring the man, I kept watching the mini-map.
There were no dots approaching me, and Theodore stopped to meet someone else in another part of the slums.
"Uh, uh... I, I don't know anything!"
"...Can't be helped."
"Eek! Mail, he said to send mail...!"
"Quiet."
"...He said if I deliver the mail, he'd give me money, money."
"Stay still. If you don't want to get hurt."
Searching his body, I found a letter in a cheap envelope and two gold coins.
Thoroughly prepared, the gold coins had their year of issue and mint marks erased.
"You, you can take it all! If you just spare my life...!"
"...Is this everything?"
"Yes, yes! That's right! There's, there's nowhere to hide anything!"
To the man waving his hands wildly as he spoke, I threw back the gold coins and was about to get up, keeping only the letter envelope, when,
"...Go. Ah, don't reveal to anyone that you met me."
"Gasp, my lord! Thank, thank you!"
I took out one more gold coin from my bosom and threw it to him.
Ignoring the man running away in a hurry, I took out the envelope and checked its contents.
"...Hmm."
The letter contained military secrets such as information about me and the Red Dragon Corps, written in handwriting that could only be called terrible.
The recipient was written as Sancho Gonzales, who, given the circumstances, must be someone from the Esperia Kingdom.
Probably, the reason Theodore keeps stopping and moving repeatedly even now is to deliver this letter to multiple people.
That's probably why he's meeting with only one gray dot at a time.
"..."
I don't think the situation will change greatly even if such content is delivered to the Esperia Kingdom.
As Theodore isn't a soldier, he wrote vaguely about me and the Red Dragon Corps, like 'They introduced new weapons. It's a long-range projectile weapon.'
As for the operation plans, they can be modified before execution anyway.
So, I don't intend to follow the others who made contact with Theodore.
For this letter in my hand to have the power to bring down Theodore, the letters they received need to be properly delivered to the Esperia Kingdom.
We might even be able to gain an advantage by utilizing the fact that this information was given to the enemy.
"...Hah."
Thinking that there would be one more spoil of war, I felt quite good.
Especially since it would be difficult for Theodore to anticipate this.
"...Didn't you say you were going to the workshop? Dirt is one thing, but the smell... You need to wash quickly."
"..."
I returned to the office, carefully hiding in my bosom the letter that would decorate Theodore's end.