Chapter 19
#19. Sisters with a Special Bond
The Central Continent.
The secret villa of Luluen von Valdemar, the Empire's Third Imperial Princess.
In the reception room, where the atmosphere was murderous, Günter was prostrating himself and begging for mercy.
It wasn't enough that the moneylenders had kicked him around; the knights at the villa had also beaten him half to death.
"We only meet at the place and time I permit. Wasn't that the rule between us?"
Luluen coldly spat the words as she elegantly set down her teacup.
"The fact that you broke that rule means I can take it as a betrayal, Günter, can't I?"
"H-how could I, Your Highness the Princess!"
Günter went deathly pale and slammed his forehead against the floor.
"If I go bankrupt like this, I won't be able to support Princess Luluen any longer! That is the only thing I was worried about, which is why I came here risking my life!"
"Your words flow so smoothly. If you had waited quietly, I would have sent someone to you on my own."
Luluen opened her fan and hid her lips behind it.
'What a useless man.'
She wanted to order them to cut off Günter's head immediately, but she couldn't.
The position of Third Imperial Princess was truly an ambiguous one within the imperial family. Above her stood the First Prince, who occupied the pinnacle of military power, while below her, clever younger siblings favored by the Emperor were steadily rising.
To survive the struggle for power and expand her own faction, she had no choice but to rely on the power of 'money.'
That was why Luluen had joined hands with merchants and painstakingly amassed wealth from a young age.
She couldn't afford to lose Günter, her greatest source of funding at present.
"So. You're saying you're building structures with monster materials? Is that even possible?"
"I-I couldn't believe it either, so I sent several people to investigate… but it's definitely true! How can something this absurd be happening in the world!?"
Günter pleaded with an aggrieved expression.
Luluen furrowed her brow.
She had certainly heard rumors that some of the Empire's walls used slime mucus as a material, making them terrifyingly sturdy.
But even if it were one or two special buildings, was it really possible to procure enough materials to cover an entire enormous city?
That was impossible even for Father… the Emperor.
There was no way it could be possible in the barren North.
Even without knowing the details, it was obvious they were overextending themselves considerably.
'So that Monster Grand Duke is going that far… I was shortsighted.'
Luluen had no choice but to admit her mistake.
To be honest, she had underestimated Eleanor far too much.
A bastard daughter despised by everyone in the imperial family and shut away in the academy library.
When she had first married Eleanor off to the North, she had expected her to spend her days trembling in some back room, hated by the Monster Grand Duke in a place where she had no one to rely on.
But the rumors she heard were different.
Whether that lowborn thing had flirted with him, or whether she had proven her usefulness with the laughable knowledge she had picked up in the library, apparently she was receiving quite a bit of affection from the Northern Grand Duke.
'How dare she be so presumptuous.'
Luluen trembled with jealousy, but soon sneered.
She assumed that whatever kindness the Northern Grand Duke showed her was nothing more than shallow curiosity or pity.
With one small incident, their relationship would surely fall apart.
That small incident was 'the skyrocketing price of construction materials caused by a national disaster.'
What if the bastard princess recklessly launched a new-city project, only for construction to halt and leave her saddled with massive penalties?
Her relationship with the Northern Grand Duke would become irreparable.
It would have been such a neat and beautiful picture.
'It looks like that lowborn bitch managed to win the Monster Grand Duke's favor in that short time. What a lowborn bitch. Her talent for wagging her tail must be exceptional; she takes after her mother.'
Luluen gripped the handle of her fan so tightly that it creaked.
"This is troublesome."
"Your Highness! Please don't abandon me! If I can't dispose of these materials, I…"
"Shut your mouth!"
The Northern Grand Duke, Kylan Winterwald.
The Empire's strongest Sword Master.
If he truly cared for Eleanor, rashly touching her would be an act of suicide.
The more delicate the matter, the more discreetly it had to be carried out without revealing one's true intentions.
There was only one way.
'I'll play the part of a benevolent older sister who dearly loves her younger sister.'
There probably wouldn't be any major problems.
How could that library-bound idiot of a younger sister possibly know that Günter was connected to her?
'I can deceive her completely. Because… Eleanor and I were actually quite close!'
The most she'd done was shove Eleanor lightly from behind, spill wine on her dress at social gatherings, and encourage people to gossip about her behind her back.
She had slapped her once in a while when she was bored, but she swore she had never once tried to poison her or sent an assassin to kill her.
Compared with the cutthroat battles among other blood siblings, who secretly poisoned one another's wine and sent assassins to slit each other's throats whenever they got the chance…
Her relationship with Eleanor could actually be called an extremely wholesome and affectionate sisterly relationship!
'By imperial standards, this counts as harmonious, surely.'
What on earth was going on inside her head?
Luluen von Valdemar, the Third Imperial Princess, arrived at the miraculous conclusion that her relationship with Eleanor was actually quite amicable.
"I'll go to the North myself. As her older sister, shouldn't I guide my younger sister's dangerous business onto the right path?"
That's right.
She was going only because she was worried about her younger sister and wanted to help her.
It would be a disaster if the buildings collapsed because they had been constructed recklessly.
It was only right to proceed with the new-city project using proper construction materials, not foul-smelling monsters picked up by a Sword Master on his way there.
Luluen could also line her own pockets in the process, so it was mutually beneficial.
'As I thought, we're sisters with a special bond.'
"Oh! Thank you, Your Highness!"
"And you, Günter."
"Yes, Your Highness the Princess!"
"If you come here one more time without permission… I will kill you with my own hands before the moneylenders get to you."
"…Yes. I'll bear that in mind…!"
***
The lord's study in the North Grand Duke's castle.
Eleanor, who was always full of life, came to see Kylan with an unusually dark expression.
To see her with an expression like that…
It surely had to concern the imperial family.
"Your Grace."
"What is it, my love? You don't look well."
"The Third Imperial Princess Luluen sent me a letter."
Kylan laid down his quill, accepted the letter, and read it.
In summary, it read as follows.
[I want to see the face of my beloved younger sister Eleanor, whom I cherish, after such a long time.]
[I know you must be very busy, but if you could perhaps make time, I will personally come to meet you anywhere in the North.]
It was such a heartfelt letter that anyone unfamiliar with the situation might mistake it for proof that Luluen loved Eleanor dearly.
No one could write something like that unless they truly believed they loved Eleanor.
She was a born liar.
Of course, Kylan wasn't fooled.
He had heard plenty about how Eleanor had been treated by the imperial family.
It had been the Third Princess who had pushed the innocent girl down the stairs when she was young, and who had orchestrated her ostracization when she first made her debut in high society.
So there could never be a more loathsome letter in the world.
"That wicked woman who tried to ruin your new-city project using some piece of trash named Günter wants to come here."
"So it seems."
Eleanor nodded bitterly.
"His Highness the First Prince casually passed that information on to me, so I'm not certain that Günter and Princess Luluen are deeply connected… but after seeing this letter, I'm convinced."
Ludwig von Valdemar, the First Prince.
As the commander of the Empire's First Order of Knights, he was a haughty and straightforward man who contributed to the Empire solely through overwhelming martial power and did not even consider the other heirs his competitors…
That was what everyone in the Empire believed.
But reality was different.
Behind the scenes, Ludwig controlled the imperial intelligence bureau and secretly investigated his siblings.
Then he passed the information he acquired on to other siblings, making his rivals bring one another down without getting a single drop of blood on his own hands.
All while outwardly presenting himself as an aloof prince and a brave warrior.
"The fact that she's coming all the way here makes it certain that the Third Princess is Günter's backer."
"Yes. She'll probably show up with some fussy construction safety inspector from the Central Continent in tow, under the pretext of helping her adorable younger sister."
Kylan gave a hollow laugh at Eleanor's calm reply.
"It seems she wants to unload Günter's dead stock somehow."
"Does a mere safety inspector dare pick a quarrel with me over a project my wife personally oversees? Does she have no regard for her life?"
When Kylan clenched his fist, frost formed throughout the lord's study that had always been warm since Eleanor's arrival.
The Sword Master's blue aura blazed so fiercely that it seemed capable of blanketing the entire Grand Duke's castle.
'How dare she interfere with my precious shop security deposits and rent?'
The sudden chill sent the servants outside the study into a panic.
- Aaaah!?
- The Grand Duke is enraged!
Only after Eleanor took his hand did Kylan slowly withdraw his aura.
"She seems to think Winterwald's new city is nothing more than a precarious building reinforced with monster corpses because of a shortage of materials."
"Then we should tell her to come."
"Your Grace?"
Kylan leaned deeply back in his chair and curled his lips into a wicked smile.
"Don't you want to see it too? The face of the woman who looked down on you, gritting her teeth and fuming after you cut off her source of money. I want to etch that foolish expression into my eyes."
Eleanor was startled by Kylan's mischievous expression for a moment…
Then an impish smile spread across her lips.
"……If possible, I would like to watch it from up close, Your Grace."
In front of her husband, who trusted her and was her staunch ally, Eleanor felt no need to pretend to be a good younger sister.
Seeing that smile, Kylan laughed heartily and rose from his seat.
"Haha! As expected, I think we're a wonderfully compatible couple!"
The couple walked side by side through the castle grounds and planned how they would welcome the unwelcome guest who would soon arrive.