Getting rid of Orian wouldn't do him any good. If it was to be eliminated anyway, it was better to get rid of someone like a thorn in the eye.

"Who?"

"The saintess who did Annabelle Rainfield's paternity test."

The tip of Carlon's lips rose subtly. It meant he liked his opinion.

"So her strength is guaranteed, and she's a small woman, so she's easy to subdue, and she doesn't have any relatives. Besides, since she stays in the capital, wouldn't it be much more comfortable getting things done quickly?"

"Okay."

Carlon nodded his head slowly.

"But it said that we needed her consent to transfer her powers."

Of course, the 'consent' he was talking about was a threat.

"I was thinking of holding a loved one hostage. If she has no relatives, who will we take hostage?"

"Aaron Rainfield is her lover."

Carlon didn't know much about the love history of commoners. But he knew that Rainfield was Annabelle's surname.

As his eyes narrowed, Bellinock reiterated his hopes that he could handle Cessianne.

"Although he is the lieutenant of the Knights of Wade... He doesn't appear at swordsmanship competitions at all. It won't be that difficult to take him as the hostage."

"Even Annabelle Rainfield will run into trouble."

Carlon carefully frowned.

"It is safer to get the former High Priest..."

Lagian, who stood behind Carlon as an escort, then spoke.

"If it's Annabelle Rainfield, I can subdue her. Don't worry about it."

"..."

A slight suspicion crept into Carlon's eyes. He lost last time as well, but he was wondering if he could really believe it.

"It was an official duel, so there were a lot of things to be concerned about."

Lagian said confidently.

"If you are in a position where you can run wild without being aware of other people's eyes, you will win unconditionally."

Bellinok glanced at Lagian and then nodded his head as if in agreement.

Annabelle was incomparable to his size, and the intimidation given only by his appearance was enormous.

"Even then, because Richard collapsed..."

Lagian said, threateningly striking the sword behind his back.

"It would never have been possible to give away a victory like that in vain."

Carlon let out a soft sigh. He felt like he was being pushed, but he had no choice.

He said that people believe what they want to hear.

"Okay, then it's decided."

Carlon said grimly.

"Aaron Rainfield as the bait to somehow lure Cessianne. After taking away her divine powers, find out the origin of the black magic, and then kill her immediately."

"Yes."

Bellinock was excited and nodded his head.

He really hated Cessianne. How much shame he suffered because of her in front of others.

"Aaron Rainfield never leaves the Wade duchy, but there is a way."

The thought of getting rid of Cessianne made Bellinock forget all the unpleasant things he had been doing.

"I can have her write. With a letter of her handwriting, it'll lure him out easily."

"Great."

Carlon gave a brief applause and said.

"I'll designate an appropriate time for you, so let's do it right away."

"Yes?"

Bellinock asked, blinking his eyes.

"Didn't you tell me about the audit of the Treasury of Finance earlier?"

"Yes."

Carlon replied with a snake-like grin.

"There are better times. I have to look a little further."

There was no way to know what he was thinking inside.

A few days passed like that.

Meanwhile, Carlon gave orders to his people among the Imperial Knights mobilized to escort criminals. It was to kill Lanella and Rayburn.

The dead could not testify.

And finally, on the night that Carlon designated, Lagian easily succeeded in kidnapping Aaron Rainfield.

~*~

That night, Braden was alone with the Emperor. To be precise, the Emperor had secretly summoned Braden.

"Please, Duke Wade."

The Emperor poured the drink directly to Braden and said.

"I can't keep the Empress of the Empire like this forever. There is only one way out of this situation."

"...Leslie."

In fact, Braden had been paying attention from the moment the Emperor called him.

The Empress was now in custody over rumors that she had deliberately tried to exclude Annabelle from the banquet.

The current financial situation of the Imperial Family was quite bad, and it seemed that it would not be easy to solve without the cooperation of the commoners' assembly.

"Yes. If the Empress and Duchess of Wade are being shown getting along, wouldn't the rumors that the Empress is a classist be a little less?"

Leslie was a duchess of commoner descent.

Therefore, it was the Emperor's duty to show the good relationship between the Empress and Leslie externally.

Braden rolled his eyes and drank quietly.

Of course, he was reluctant to grant the Emperor's request at once.

When he married Leslie more than 20 years ago, the capital's social circle had once turned upside down.

The question was how could a commoner be made the wife of a duke, no matter how high the common people's human rights were.

There was a public saying that Wades, who had a deep family history, took the lead and undermined the rules of the country.

It goes without saying that at all social gatherings, Leslie was subtly ignored and pressed down.

Braden was able to do everything for Leslie, but he couldn't do anything about such subtle bullying that had no substance.

Leslie attended a few formal social gatherings in the early days of their marriage, and then she thought, 'this isn't it', and immediately cut out the social circles altogether from her life.

Being independent, she laughed cheerfully, saying that she would eat well and live well even if she didn't meet them anyways, but Braden used to be heartbroken when he saw that she didn't really care about those things except for food.

For some reason, it seemed as if he had put her in the duchess' seat for nothing, and put her in a place she didn't deserve.

Of course, if he was going to say that, Leslie would beg him to spend more money to keep the Rainfield restaurant's chef.

So when Leslie said she was teaching Annabelle, she seemed to have found something meaningful to do besides eating, and he was delighted.

However, it felt strange in his heart when he heard that the Empress even targeted Annabelle at the banquet.

Last time, he saw Leslie humming while looking at the newsletter issued by the commoner's council about the Prince and Annabelle.

'Ian must stay strong. Obviously, Annabelle likes Ian too, but there must be something on her mind. It sounds like she has something to say in that statement that she might be a worse kid than I would think of her.'

No matter how much he thought about it, he wanted her as his daughter-in-law, and he didn't know what to do.

However, he was summoned by the Emperor and asked to do this.

Even though they had never had a very good relationship in the past, it was difficult for him to turn down the Emperor's private request to allow their wives to have a good time.

"Then there is a way."

Of course, Braden was a man who could handle this situation fluently.

"Right now, Leslie is staying in because of the leg pain that comes every year around this time. The Empress should come see her in person."

The Emperor, who thought it would be nice for them to have a friendly tea time in front of others in the palace, kept his mouth shut.

As a swordsman fanatic, he was of course aware of Leslie's leg injury.

Therefore, he could not tell her to come directly.

Still, it was unlikely that the Empress would visit the commoner duchess directly.

"...I will talk to the Empress."

"Yes. It will be a very nice picture. And the classist rumors that Her Majesty is concerned about will dissipate."

The Emperor sighed inwardly at Braden's sad words.

'That fox...'

He was also the schemer of the century. The Emperor just smiled and agreed. It was hard to say anything.

"Still, since the Empress is also on probation, she can later enter the palace once her leg injury is healed."

"If she is not particularly busy, then she will do it."

"Why will the Duchess of Wade be busy?"

"Well, to see her daughter-in-law."

"Ah."

The Emperor shrugged his shoulders and then it struck him.

"Ian Wade is getting married? Isn't he already married to the sword?"

"..."

The Emperor, who finally realized, added excitedly.

"Do you expect him to marry a woman by any chance? Marriage would not be easy for him due to his uninteresting personality. Unless the Duchess stepped in to help."

Braden couldn't help but resist the phrase 'uninteresting personality'.

"Before that, the marriage of the Imperial Family would be faster. Actually, I had a conversation with the chairman of the commoners council."

"...Of course I agree that my kid is extremely boring. But still, I feel..."

"Heh, heh. Some people say they have children who get married by..."

"This is the feeling of Braden Wade, Your Majesty."

Braden, who had already declared that he would not send Leslie to the Imperial Palace, was disgusted, and the Emperor pushed forward as if teasing him.

"Well. When was my enemy Braden? Besides, you can't do things your own way."

The emperor was obviously trying to push Annabelle and Robert from the comment about the commoner's council talk...

"Would you like to make a bet then, Your Majesty?"

Braden smiled and said.

"Who becomes the father-in-law first?"

"I am confident. You didn't come to Robert's birthday banquet this time, so you didn't know the atmosphere."

The Emperor raised his chin and said.

"Ian didn't dance with anyone... Do you really want to bet?"

"Sure."

"It's a good thing the Imperial Family is short of budget these days. I'll get rewarded big."

"I'll be able to give my daughter-in-law a pretty big wedding present."

The two men who had gathered that night because of Leslie ended up putting quite a lot of money on Annabelle.