The first reason the North had become such a complete mess: my eldest and second brothers entered the academy and got swept up in the Central’s obsession with swords and honor.
The second: the knights the imperial family planted beside those two leaked information about the North, and the imperial bastards, licking their chops, passed that information on to the barbarians.
The third: wow, of all times, the Snow Ghosts invaded, and the Northern Grand Duke gave his life to hold them back and died!
The fourth: the moment the Snow Ghosts withdrew, the barbarians attacked. They provoked my brothers by invoking the honor they normally would not have cared a whit about—yay, off came their heads!
Lastly: the weak third son, expelled from the family for having no talent, returns, but is manipulated by knights from the imperial capital, and Blackheart Castle ultimately falls!
Seeking to save the collapsing North, Crown Prince Baron—one of the male leads—makes a grand entrance alongside the female lead! Normalization Beam for the North!
Or rather, that was how the novel’s story went: the Central takes over the North.
They turned the North into a bunch of idiots just to prop up the female lead and the crown prince. I remember tearing my family-register mate a new one over that.
I had even helped that family-register mate with a last bit of affection, yet he punched me in the face. May he rot in hell.
"This is unjust!!"
I looked down at Velos and the knights under his command, all forced to their knees before me as they protested their innocence, and smiled a rotten smile.
"Unjust? Then what is this letter, filled with every scrap of information about the North?"
"Th-that is..."
"Were you hoping to put a leash on the grand duke’s house that guards the Northern Wall?"
"Ah..."
"Tch. Jester."
"Yes, Your Grace."
"Retrieve every item issued to them and send them back to the Central."
"Yes."
"And."
I took out a letter and handed it to Jester.
"Go deliver this as well."
"This is...?"
What else would it be? A warning telling them to keep their children under control.
**
The empire that shone like the sun was the Pragh Empire, a nation that had unified the continent through honor and the sword.
It was an exceptional occurrence for the entire imperial family to be summoned over a single letter that had flown into the heart of the empire.
"You fools!"
Emperor Caesar Pragh berated the crown prince and princesses kneeling beneath him.
"It was not enough that you sent your own confidants to the North—you used them as spies? Have you all truly lost your minds?!"
The princes and princesses looked back at the knights prostrating themselves behind them, begging forgiveness.
They were the knights each of them—or one of their siblings—had planted in the North.
"Baron!"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Caesar summoned Baron, the crown prince, before him, then held out the letter in his hand.
"Read it."
"This is..."
"A letter sent by Viktor Walterheim, who has become the Northern Grand Duke this time."
The letter was lengthy, but its contents were simple.
[Deeply regret this incident. Trust in the imperial family has hit rock bottom. Hope nothing like this happens again.]
Crunch.
As Baron read the final passage, he bit down on his lip.
"The North is especially deeply concerned by the actions of Crown Prince Baron, who first requested information and incited the other princes and princesses..."
"You idiot!!!"
Smack!
Though it was a wrinkled, frail hand, Baron did not avoid Caesar’s slap.
"The rest of you are no better! At a time when you ought to be united, you cause this kind of discord? Have you lost your senses?! Do you think this throne will become yours if you manipulate the North however you please?!"
Bang!
Caesar slammed a hand against the throne, let out a long sigh, then rose and addressed the Imperial Court Count.
"Execute the knights expelled by the North, and tell the Northern Grand Duke that we will apologize for this matter."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"And."
Crunch.
Caesar glared at Baron, his firstborn son and the man he had been supporting as the next emperor.
"Baron, you severed your own ties with House Roienthal, and this is the best you can do?"
"..."
"I am profoundly disappointed in you."
Swish!
After Caesar departed, the princes and princesses left the hall, whispering among themselves and keeping their distance from Baron. Left alone, Baron drove his fist into the wall.
"Damn it!!!"
"Baron?"
"...Elysia?"
When Baron saw the girl with pale pink hair approaching from behind, he quickly hid his fist.
"I-I am sorry. You have seen me make a spectacle of myself."
"Baron, are you all right?"
"I am fine. But the salvation of the North you dreamed of will likely be delayed... I am sorry."
Elysia shook her head and pulled Baron into her embrace. Feeling her warm body heat, Baron’s eyes welled up.
"It is all right... If we all stand together, everything will surely work out."
"...Yes."
**
After confirming the insincere apology and compensation sent by the imperial family, I smiled.
"That’s right. Keep acting up, and I’ll pull a Wihwado Retreat on you."
That said, if I pulled a Wihwado Retreat now, it would not merely be the empire in trouble—the entire continent would fall. So first...
"I need to restore the North quickly."
I had removed the imperial lackeys my dead brothers had planted, but the North was still full of people connected to the imperial family.
If I did not clean them out, I had no idea when the crown prince and female lead might invade the North.
"Hah... My head."
"Your Grace."
"Jester."
Jester smiled gently as he poured me some tea.
"It is tea the former heads of the house enjoyed drinking."
"...Jester."
"Your Grace, as I have told you, I am already retired. In my youth, I would have subdued every man in that place. But now, even one is too much for me."
"..."
"My lifespan as a knight has come to its end. Therefore..."
"I understand, Butler Jester."
"Thank you."
Aside from the knights who had died following Father, the remaining knights of the North were far too young. At a time when they needed a central figure to lead them, Jester was declaring himself unable to return.
Hah. This is bad.
Just as I was wondering whether I should completely revise the plans I had made in my head...
"Your Grace, do you require a sharp sword?"
"No."
I tilted my head at Jester’s abrupt question.
"Then what sort of sword do you need?"
"A knight like you, Jester—one who obeys their master’s commands absolutely."
"..."
At my words, Jester nodded.
"There happens to be someone perfectly suited to the role..."
"Who would that be?"
There was someone like that in the North? Who could it be?
"My daughter."
"...Oh."
That could not possibly mean...
"Rushe von Helm. My youngest daughter, born late in my life."
My head began to throb. How could I have forgotten? She was the last knight of the North and the leader of the rebel army—the next opponent the female lead Elysia faced after defeating her first rival in love, the villainess.
I thought she was Jester’s distant relative’s daughter or granddaughter. She is his daughter born late in life?
Now I was beginning to understand the protagonist party’s fury toward Rushe. They had driven her father, who had fought to the end for the house he served after it ruined the North, to his death.
But for now, she is on my side.
"Good. Let us meet her."
"Yes. Then I shall bring her here at once."
*
"I refuse."
"..."
"Rushe."
"Father, I will not serve one who knows nothing of honor."
Ah, right. She had been gaslit by all that honor nonsense at the academy too.
"...Hah."
Raising children was this difficult. She had no idea how her parents felt and acted like that.
Then her father dies, the North falls, and only then she realizes it.
That honor was a luxury the North could not afford.
"If you insist."
Shing!
Rushe drew her sword and pointed it directly at me.
"Defeat me."
"Oh..."
An immediate challenge to her superior?
"..."
"Then I shall acknowledge you as—"
"You worthless fool!!!"
Smack!
"...What?"
Rushe stared in evident confusion at her father, Jester, whose flushed face was glaring at her.
"Father...?"
"I sent you to the Imperial Academy so you could help the North, and you fell for the drivel about honor those Central knights howl about, then dared point your sword at His Grace?!"
"I-I am acting honorably—"
Oh, Jester’s wrinkles deepened. I subtly took a step back.
"You still dare say that, you brat?!"
Smack!
"Ack!"
A clean hit. Jester’s slap landed squarely on Rushe’s face, sending her crashing into the wall right beside me.
It seems a shame for Jester to retire when he is still that capable...
"Huff... huff. Your Grace."
"Yes."
"Would it be all right if I took a week’s leave?"
Jester, who had served the grand duke’s house and remained in the Walterheim estate without missing a single day, was taking leave?
"I shall return after straightening out my daughter’s mindset."
"Why only a week?"
I grinned as I looked down at Rushe.
"Take a full month off. Winter is ending, after all."
"...Thank you."
Jester dragged Rushe out of the estate. In a month, a Jester Mk. 2 with a reprogrammed mindset would be delivered before me.
"Then, in the meantime..."
I picked up the envelope resting on the desk, stamped with the emblem of the Imperial Academy.
"Shall I study for the academy entrance examination?"
**
House Roienthal was a family of founding merit that had helped lay the foundations of the empire alongside its first emperor. For many years, the imperial family and House Roienthal had preserved their close relationship through political marriages. But then...
"Lady Cecilia."
"..."
"The duke wishes to see you."
Cecilia Roienthal, a girl with untainted silver hair and violet eyes like amethysts, rose from her seat and headed for the ducal house’s study.
Knock, knock.
"Father."
"Come in."
When the door opened, Wolfgang Roienthal—the master of House Roienthal and her father—was standing there, gazing out the window.
"Is something troubling you?"
"Do I appear that way?"
"...I apologize, Father."
"Whatever for?"
"Was it not because I was lacking that my engagement to Crown Prince Baron was broken?"
Before Cecilia had even finished speaking, Wolfgang frowned.
"How many times must I tell you that was not your fault?"
"Father."
"Enough."
Cutting Cecilia off, Wolfgang sat down and looked at her. She was a daughter dearer to him than his own eyes, the jewel of House Roienthal.
Remembering the humiliation she had endured, Wolfgang’s eyes began to sharpen with the venom rising from his very toes.
"Hoo..."
He could not show such a side of himself before his kind daughter. It was a parent’s wish that a child who had endured such things would see only good things for the rest of her life.
"Cecilia."
"Yes, Father."
"You need not follow Crown Prince Baron’s orders."
"..."
"The crown prince is no longer your fiancé."
"But..."
"Are you afraid?"
"..."
"Hah. If only I... if only I had realized sooner..."
"No, Father."
At Cecilia’s words, Wolfgang felt as if his heart were being torn apart. He wanted to drag in the crown prince and his cohort, who had branded such a kind daughter a villainess and ordered her banished from the imperial capital where he lived, and tear them apart with his teeth that very instant.
"All right. Then..."
For countless years, House Roienthal had been a staunch ally of the imperial family. But it was the imperial family that had broken that relationship first.
"Go to the North."
"What?"
"The North will protect you."
And so Wolfgang resolved to stake his daughter’s fate, and the fate of House Roienthal, on the North, where a new wind was beginning to blow.
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