Chapter 262

Joyce opened his eyes in a daze.

Against the familiar ceiling of Parrish Castle, Dianne’s face came into view. His sister looked as cute as ever, but now she was tearful, and it made him feel sorry for her. He thought blankly.

‘Ah, the panorama of my life isn’t over yet. There’s no way my baby sister would be here.’

He felt empty, but it wasn’t bad. The most beautiful sight he knew in this world was everyday life with Dianne’s face. Wouldn’t it be nice to see the most beautiful thing in the world before he died?

If he was going to see his sister’s face for the last time, he wanted to say everything he hadn’t been able to say. Joyce fiercely fanned the flickering flame of life and barely forced out a voice.

“Di, I love you…”

Dianne’s eyes widened. Tears dripped from those eyes. Joyce couldn’t help but smile faintly at the sensation of truly warm tears falling onto his face.

“I must miss you so much that I can see your face now. I’m worried, Di… I wonder if someone will appear who loves you as much as I do, even when I’m gone. Of course, everyone can’t help but love you, but not even for a moment should you live without someone who loves you the most in the world.”

Dianne’s expression slowly twisted. The tears vanished from her still-round face.

‘That expression is exactly like the real Dianne.’

Joyce admired it, and continued saying what he wanted to say.

“You really… brought light to this world from the moment you were born. There was no baby sister prettier than you anywhere. To leave you, who are so lovely… but please don’t be sad and live happily…”

In the end, the face of Dianne in the panorama of his life crumpled completely.

“Seriously, shut up, Oppa! You’re being so loud, it’s interfering with the treatment!”

Slap.

Somewhere, a rough hand struck Joyce’s mouth without restraint.

‘Uh, this sensation feels real…?’

The consciousness that had been hazy even after waking—because he had fainted after being hit on the head—snapped back into focus. And at the same time, a terrible headache came crashing in. Joyce groaned as he lay there.

A strange man with a monocle, bandaging his head, let out a sigh.

“He seem fine. I told you, he just fainted.”

“But I was worried, just in case.”

Dianne, surprisingly, spoke to the man with the monocle in a friendly manner and smiled sheepishly. Then she glared at Joyce as if she were embarrassed.

“Do you know how worried I was? Either defeat those bastards quickly, or get up nicely if you faint! Why are you talking nonsense as soon as you wake up? Where are you going? How old are you, Oppa?”

The moment the word “going” left her glaring eyes, tears welled up again. Joyce groaned once more and forced himself to sit up.

He was lying in one of the bedrooms of Parrish Castle. The surroundings were clean, and the sound of battle horns could still be heard faintly in the distance. The only people in the room were him, Dianne, and the man with the monocle, and he couldn’t make sense of this combination.

Joyce asked, bewildered.

“Di? Is that really you, Di? Why are you here?”

“I came after hearing you were in danger, Oppa. I came out of concern, but I guess it was a good thing I did. We would’ve been in big trouble if we’d been late. Seriously, what were you thinking, not having any guards around you? Did Riz tell you to do that?”

“No. I was told to have guards, but I was playing the role of bait properly…”

“Are you crazy!”

Dianne slapped Joyce’s arm, furious. It had only been a few weeks since they’d last seen each other, but Dianne’s hand strength was stronger than before. It hurt a little, but Joyce’s mouth opened in delight.

“My baby sister came because Oppa was in danger? Then is this person here sent by His Highness the Grand Duke?”

Not knowing the man’s identity, Joyce spoke respectfully. The man with the monocle replied indifferently.

“I don’t think we’ve met before, Viscount. I’m here to serve the Countess at the behest of Grand Duchess Moriah. Those guys dispatched by His Highness the Grand Duke are currently outside doing headstands for incompetence.”

“Ah, is that so?”

Joyce lowered his tone slightly, assuming the other man’s status was low because of the word “serve.” However, he didn’t treat him as casually as one of his own servants. If the Grand Duchess had sent him directly, the man would have a certain standing, and above all, it seemed the person who had just saved his life was likely him.

‘Di’s friendly attitude is subtly bothering me, though.’

‘And somehow, this man makes me feel bad… like he’s aiming for something very precious to me…’

Well, Nerys had attached him, so there couldn’t be anything wrong. Joyce decided not to worry about it.

After a while, Dianne asked seriously.

“Oppa, His Highness the Grand Duke is fighting right now. Are all of our family’s soldiers there too?”

“Yes. It seems it was an Imperial Order for Count Wicaster to take them all.”

“Does the Count know that you’re in this situation right now, Oppa?”

“Since they made a fuss when the assassins attacked earlier, they probably know the Maindulante army sent a separate unit to attack me. There will also be someone in our army spreading rumors that I was attacked and killed by the Maindulante army.”

This was the kind of thing he couldn’t speak about carelessly, even if he’d foreseen it. If the other side realized they were prepared, Joyce couldn’t play the role of bait.

“What should we do! Aren’t our soldiers going to die attacking His Highness the Grand Duke?”

“That’s exactly what the enemy is aiming for. It’s okay. Don’t worry.”

The green eyes, slowly adjusting to the headache and regaining their clarity, sparkled.

“Now that I’m alive, there’s nothing more they can do. His Highness the Grand Duke won’t touch our soldiers any more than he has to, so we can join them appropriately when the other side’s victory report rings out. Got it? We fought our best, but we lost and were captured. Like many other soldiers of the Maindulante army. The Imperial Family has no justification to punish the mothers and fathers of the County.”

And judging by how the distant sounds of battle were gradually fading, it seemed they wouldn’t have to wait long.

Joyce smiled.

“I can finally show what a family with only money can do. I’ve laid out a lot of soldiers on our way, haven’t I?”

❖ ❖ ❖

Tropur was uneasy.

It couldn’t be helped. Lord Tropur, the lord of the domain who had been strutting around here until last winter, had died in a disgraceful manner. At the same time, inter-ethnic conflict, which had not been apparent until then, became a topic of discussion in earnest, and an atmosphere of suspicion and vigilance formed among the people of the territory.

Even after Grand Duchess Moriah—a noble member of the Imperial Family and the ruler of a vast territory including Tropur—came down in person after a long time, the situation did not improve. No, in some ways, it was even worse.

Especially since the Grand Duchess completely ignored the demands of the Imperial Army, which had come down to take her to the Imperial Capital.

“Grand Duchess! It is not good for you to do this! The Imperial Family has already issued a strict order! If you continue to refuse the order, they will tell me to bring you by force! Do not make me commit rudeness!”

For a week, the Imperial Knight had been shouting in front of the gates of Tropur.

The historic Tropur Castle was half a fortress. The land enclosed by high walls alone could accommodate a considerable number of soldiers, and if the drawbridges on all four sides were raised over the still-functioning moat, it would be easily isolated from the outside. As befitting an old land, a fairly large residential area had formed outside the castle, but all the truly important facilities were inside the walls, so they could let people in and lock the doors as they were doing now.

As had been the case for a week, no answer came from the castle. The Imperial Knight felt like he was going insane.

He came from a family that had been loyal to the Imperial Family for generations. That was precisely why he had been entrusted with such an important mission, but at the same time, it weighed heavily on him. What if the Grand Duchess truly didn’t come out and he had to break down those gates and go inside…?

For him, who had received a proper education all his life, the idea of breaking down a woman’s door—an old woman at that, and a member of the Imperial Family—was as unrealistic as an order to cut off his own arm.

‘But it’s their own fault.’

Anyway, an Imperial Order had been issued, hadn’t it? The Emperor was lying down, so they were simply calling the Crown Prince’s order an Imperial Order. Whether he cut off his own arm or his neck, he had to do it if the order was given. Nevertheless, he had wasted a week here because of a reluctance he couldn’t shake.

“Grand Duchess! You know very well you can’t hold out inside forever! I sent back twenty merchants who came to trade today on my own!”

Tropur was a city that lived off trade. And for traders, money always had to flow like blood. To close the doors to the Imperial Knights—who were free to pass through and enter a fortress with no cultivated land—was just the right way to starve to death, wasn’t it?

In many ways, he couldn’t understand the other party’s actions, but the knight was confident he would not fail in his mission. Seeing the guards on the castle walls merely looking down at him without any change in expression, he finally made a difficult decision.

“Attack. Even if she is an elder of the Imperial Family, she has disobeyed the Imperial Order, so she is a traitor. Do not forget that we have nothing to be afraid of.”

“Yes!”

The knight’s order was quickly conveyed to the Imperial Army he had brought with him.

Booo.

A short horn sounded.

The attack was carried out in two directions. The group that would swim across the moat jumped into the water, and the group that would use ropes loaded ropes with hooked ends onto a giant crossbow.

Whoosh!

With a whistling sound, the hook shot toward the top of the castle wall.

‘Yes. Now we must not see her as an elder of the Imperial Family, but as a dangerous person who refuses the Imperial Order even in a national crisis.’

Hadn’t she already refused an Imperial Order once in the Imperial Capital and fled here? Watching the brave soldiers quickly close in on the castle, the knight steeled his heart.

However, what met his eyes the next moment was not the splendid sight of Imperial dignity being reestablished.

Swish!

For an instant, he had the illusion that the sky was being covered in black. Only then did the bewildered knight realize the objects pouring down were arrows.

Screams erupted.

“Shields! Shields over your heads!”

The well-trained soldiers raised their shields at once. However, not everyone managed to do so in time.

“Aaaagh!”

The soldiers trying to hook the wall screamed. The moat turned red. Even if they didn’t have shields, they certainly had equipment—helmets, armor, gambesons… But those who had gone forward now were only lightly armed, meant to swim and climb ropes.

The rear wasn’t safe either. The knight gritted his teeth and looked up at the castle wall as his adjutant screamed after an arrow slipped through a gap and struck him.

“Attacking the Imperial Army!”

The guards who had been indifferently looking down at them for the past week now smiled slyly. A new figure revealed himself among them.

The man looked to be, at most, in his early middle age, but there was a deep, unfitting crease in the center of his forehead, as if he had suffered in the past. The knight shouted at him.

“Does the Grand Duchess intend to revolt against the Imperial Family! Not only did she disobey the Imperial Order, she even attacked the Imperial Army—a crime for which she deserves to be executed immediately!”

The man laughed and shouted back.

“Do they pick Imperial Knights in order of stupidity these days? Why are you expecting something when you’ve already said all the answers yourself?”

The knight’s mouth fell open. The Imperial Army soldiers with him were the same. Harsh words continued to rain down from the wall.

“Why, can’t you imagine an Imperial Knight being ignored? We don’t have many memories of being protected by the Empire. If you can’t get a trial but you hear the sound of paying taxes all your life, you become guys like us who have no respect.”

Only then did the knight realize who the other party was. He trembled and shouted.

“Redeng!”

Weren’t they the immigrant bastards living off the Empire? At the knight’s words, the Redeng man bowed exaggeratedly like an actor.

“Congratulations on finally realizing it, sir. Did you come to impose taxes again, like you entrusted money to us?”

Well, that was the ultimate goal of this operation. The Redeng man coldly glanced at the knight’s gaping mouth and raised his hand.

“Keep shooting. We can’t let outsiders stir up the land where we live!”