“We are sorry.”
“We apologize.”
Count Olsen and Count Marcus, whose families held the most power and could thus afford to speak the loudest, bowed their heads first.
At that, the rest of the nobles quickly followed suit and lowered their heads. Though they lacked the authority to speak as freely as those two, they were still permitted to raise their hands and voice their opinions.
“Lately, that thought occurred to me as well. Perhaps my nephew’s life isn’t so resilient, but rather, the blade meant to sever it is simply dull.”
“Please, do not doubt our loyalty.”
Count Marcus, who had been carefully observing Henrik’s mood, spoke up. Count Olsen chimed in as well.
“Dane Schmaichel is only human, too. How could a person be perfect at all times? When one’s nerves become frayed, even the most careful can make mistakes. We will doggedly hound him, so please do not worry yourself too much.”
“One month.”
The atmosphere turned frigid once more, as if a bucket of cold water had been splashed over them by Henrik’s short, heavy words.
“With barely a month left until that bastard’s birthday, you spout such relaxed nonsense?”
The reason they were gathered here. The reason they were hiding in the dark like rats to discuss their schemes.
It all boiled down to a single point. In just one month, Dane Schmaichel’s succession ceremony would take place, and even the king would have no choice but to acknowledge him.
They had to finish him off before that could happen.
“······.”
The people dropped their heads to avoid Henrik’s icy gaze.
It wasn’t as if they had any brilliant plan to offer at this point. That was exactly why they had absolutely nothing to say.
“...Recently, my nephew did something quite out of character.”
Henrik swallowed the sigh bubbling up inside him and changed the subject.
He hadn’t expected much from these hyenas in the first place. Above all, the more achievements they racked up, the greater their greed would become.
He needed to claim that delicious slab of meat known as Schmaichel all for himself. It was his by right, after all.
He was already steadily carrying out a secret plan.
This was what 'He' desired. Henrik had to prove himself as His loyal servant.
Kkadeuk.
As Henrik jerked his chin, everyone’s gazes followed the motion.
“Ahem, humph.”
Viscount Vikander stood there, nervously fidgeting with his hands.
“We have a first-timer in our midst today. Let me introduce him. This is Viscount Vikander.”
“Ah, hello.”
Viscount Vikander instinctively began to bow ingratiatingly before catching himself and straightening his posture. However, he couldn’t stop his eyes from darting around as he observed his surroundings.
Henrik swallowed a sneer as he watched the man.
“Who?”
“Have you heard of him?”
“First time hearing that name.”
The crowd’s reaction was ice-cold. Count Olsen, however, let out an “Ah,” of recognition.
“I know who he is. A daughter of the Vikander family recently became Dane’s eighth wife.”
“Ah, that Vikander family.”
Only then did everyone nod as if they finally understood who Viscount Vikander was. However, their eyes were still brimming with doubt.
The question of why a noble from such an insignificant family was attending this meeting.
The Vikander family’s name and power were far too meager to warrant a seat at this table. They simply dismissed it, assuming he was only present because Henrik, the host, had invited him.
“I heard some interesting news from the Viscount.”
Henrik spoke with an intrigued smile playing on his lips.
“My nephew is sharing a marital bedroom with your daughter?”
In an instant, the look in everyone’s eyes changed. Viscount Vikander swallowed hard under the wariness, curiosity, and tension reflected in their gazes.
“The maid I sent with her brought news that my daughter has been entering the marital bedroom with him.”
“Are you certain of this information?”
Viscount Olsen voiced his doubts.
“Are you sure the maid reported correctly? My own daughter stayed in that castle, and she said Dane never once stepped foot into the marital bedroom.”
“W-Well, that is······.”
Viscount Vikander broke into a cold sweat. He was merely relaying what his wife had told him.
“It is certain. I sent a gift to my nephew to confirm it.”
Henrik answered on Viscount Vikander’s behalf. His blue eyes gleamed coldly.
“The marital bedroom proved quite difficult to infiltrate. I even had to purchase an expensive Magical Device.”
The glass in Schmaichel Castle was custom-made and could not be broken by conventional means. It was a type of glass that repelled attacks with a counterforce proportional to the strength of the impact applied to it.
Therefore, he had opted for a method that applied extremely gentle, microscopic pressure to slowly cut through it.
It had taken quite a bit of time to figure out this method. He had only discovered it after tracking down and torturing a specialist glass artisan.
“Naturally, my dear nephew refused the gift. Which means it is certain that they are sharing the marital bedroom.”
Emboldened by Henrik’s backing, Viscount Vikander chimed in.
“Yes, and according to the maid... Rose, that is, my daughter. She said he even spent the night with Rose.”
This time, no one questioned Viscount Vikander’s words. Instead, everyone’s eyes widened in sheer astonishment.
“What? That blockhead?”
“Hah, so the man actually has blood pumping through his veins.”
“The daughter of your house must be quite a beauty.”
Count Olsen was particularly persistent with his questioning. His eyes blazed with such intensity that Viscount Vikander stammered as he answered.
“N-No. That is not the case, but...... She is a truly unremarkable girl. Just plain ordinary.”
“Right, there is no way my nephew would suddenly awaken to the charms of women at this point.”
Henrik knew his nephew all too well.
Dane was the type to sooner kill a woman than bring her into his bed. He was infuriatingly aloof and had such impossibly high standards that he had never once looked twice at a woman.
Therefore, for this unprecedented event to occur, it was clear that the variable named Viscount Vikander’s daughter had played a part.
He was genuinely curious about it.
“Viscount, think carefully. What about your daughter could have possibly piqued Dane’s interest? Are you certain there was no prior connection between them?”
“Pardon? But she is truly... truly an ordinary girl. Her looks are completely average. Ah, though her personality is a bit eccentric.”
“How so?”
“She wasn’t originally like that, but it seems she was deeply displeased when I took a second wife. She started going off the rails ever since her younger sibling was born.”
Viscount Vikander let out a heavy sigh.
“She would attend tea parties and spill drinks on her sister’s dress, steal her sister’s jewelry...... I truly had no idea raising a daughter would be this difficult.”
“······.”
Henrik and the others listening to him thought.
‘Is he an idiot?’
‘Did he come here just to complain about his lot in life?’
‘Is he implying that brat is somehow worse than my own daughter?’
While everyone was entertaining their own respective thoughts, Henrik asked with a scowl.
“I understand that you were lax in her etiquette training. What else?”
“Ahem, humph. And... she threw such tantrums about attending the academy that eventually I cut into the household budget... no, sent her there to study. But recently, I made her take a leave of absence and brought her back.”
“Did she have any contact with Dane there?”
“I am not quite sure about that. I believe she kept to herself at the academy.”
Henrik was well-aware of how Dane spent his time at the academy. And the name Rose Vikander was nowhere in that information.
“What department was she in?”
“The Department of... Department of Magical Scholarship? I believe so, perhaps.”
Only now did the mystery seem to clear up a little.
As the absolute authority over the magic stones of Kalmar, Dane had been passionately supporting and recruiting talents related to magical scholarship.
‘Of all things, the Department of Magical Scholarship?’
Henrik furrowed his brow.
If the spy he had planted inside Schmaichel Castle was doing his job properly, Dane should have already been poisoned by now.
And there was absolutely no antidote for it through conventional means. It required magical knowledge that was not yet widely known to the world.
Henrik had paid a hefty sum to employ this very method.
Could it be that Dane had caught on and was making a move?
‘Impossible.’
He had poisoned Dane through a cunning method that he could never possibly deduce. Unless the spy sold him out, there was no way for him to figure it out.
Henrik was confident that this spy would never betray him. Paternal love was an incredibly venomous and clingy emotion, after all.
‘Is it simply an interest in a magical scholarship talent?’
Until now, all the women who had tried to enter Dane’s bedroom had been utterly ordinary, save for the fact that they came from prestigious families.
So perhaps the novelty of a female Magical Scholar had piqued Dane’s interest. There was no other way to explain it.
However, Henrik’s instincts told him that the meeting between Dane and Rose was anything but ordinary.
“I see. Then, does your daughter listen to you well?”
“Yes, well. Sort of.”
Looking at Viscount Vikander’s awkward smile, Henrik realized that the man barely knew his own daughter. In truth, he had sensed as much from their earlier exchange.
A father sending his precious daughter into a situation with such a high probability of death... It was a premise that simply did not make sense.
“Then she wouldn’t be able to refuse a request from her father.”
“Y-Yes, that is true.”
However, there was definitely a use for this bumbling fool.
‘Alright, then......’
Henrik began contemplating how to put this man to effective use.
Dane’s unexpected and erratic behavior brought Henrik immense joy. It seemed his nephew, who only had a short time left to live, was offering him a final gift.
The wine he held in his mouth suddenly began to taste sweet.
‘Dane falling in love…….’
That seemed just as impossible a phrase as Dane sending an assassin after him.
The Henrik of the present did not know.
That the very event he had declared absolutely impossible would soon come to pass. And that by the time he realized it, it would already be too late.
**
Ttang, ttang.
The laborers pounded the floor flat and even, then laid stone slabs over it.
Deolkeodeong, deolkeong.
A massive desk, chairs, and various other pieces of furniture were hurriedly carried in and arranged.
Teolssok.
“Hmm.”
I surveyed the entire room with a sharp gaze.
It was a large space created by tearing down the wall between two previously empty rooms. It was going to serve as Rose’s laboratory.
“How is it?”
Andersen, who had been overseeing the entire construction of the laboratory, rubbed his hands together.
“I wouldn’t know.”
I left the answer to Rose, who was standing beside me.
“What do you think, Madam?”