Chapter 91

"If you've got something to say, say it."

"Whatever choice I make — will you still be on my side?"

"Why, are you about to go to war with the emperor?"

"N-no! Of course not!"

"Even if you did go to war, I'd cheer you on. So don't worry about that."

"Right."

She must have had a hundred questions, but Iberin didn't ask.

She just guessed that everything he'd been buried in lately was for this.

Lyssel packed light and set out for the capital right away.

---

Lyssel was alone, and at a run he reached the capital quickly.

The reason he hadn't said a word about any of this all the way through was that he wanted to tell her once everything had worked.

He planned to come clean about the Lecashe family's secret to Iberin, too.

He might end up hearing her ask how he could have married her knowing that.

Even with her memories gone, the position of "Grand Duchess Lecashe" among the nobility meant exactly one thing — tribute.

She might be disappointed.

His mood sank as he imagined her reaction. But then Lyssel pulled himself back together, deciding he'd just have to work harder.

"L-Lord Lecashe?"

The chief attendant looked startled at Lyssel turning up out of nowhere with no message ahead.

"I'd like to see His Majesty."

"His Majesty is in a meeting at the moment. Would you be willing to wait?"

"I would."

"This way."

After however long he waited in the reception room —

The door opened and the emperor appeared.

"Lord Lecashe. What's all this, then?"

The emperor's tone was distinctly thrown.

Lyssel, who'd been through the emperor's two-faced scheming, looked at him with eyes gone ice-cold.

"What's brought you here with no word ahead?"

The emperor asked without taking a seat.

"Your Majesty."

Lyssel hadn't been expecting any kind of treatment, either.

This was the shape of the relationship from the start.

Not the head of a nation and his subject, but something useful being handled.

Lyssel met the emperor's eyes square-on and said the words he'd been preparing.

"I'd like to make a formal request. Withdraw my noble title."

"What?"

"Withdraw my noble title."

"Have you lost your mind?"

The emperor couldn't keep the disbelief out of his voice, and his tone went sharp.

"I haven't lost my mind."

"You're serious."

"Of course."

"Lecashe is bound to protect the Forest of the World Tree! How dare you—"

"There isn't a single line in the imperial code that states such an obligation."

"Hah."

A startled laugh broke out of the emperor.

He was right — it wasn't written into the law.

The emperor had simply taken for granted that Lecashe was a house sworn to the imperial line and to protecting the Forest of the World Tree. Lyssel had caught him flat-footed.

"If you're gone, who guards the forest!"

"Then why did you go after me, Your Majesty?"

"What is that supposed to mean."

The emperor played at ignorance.

"No rewards, only obligations. I'm done with that seat."

But Lyssel had been bracing for the emperor's reaction, and he didn't waver.

Admitting anything in this kind of moment would have been madness.

The emperor was floored by what Lyssel was saying.

That he'd just throw the title away of his own accord.

"You realize that's no different from abandoning the Forest of the World Tree, don't you?"

The emperor said it pointedly, trying again, but Lyssel's answer didn't shift.

"Yes."

How.

How was this answer possible.

"You, you…"

The emperor's eyes wavered, lost.

"If you'd like, I'll even put it in a written renunciation."

"No!"

"Your Majesty. Why are you so rattled."

Only then did the emperor see it.

He didn't know how it had been done, but Lyssel's hypnosis was broken.

"I won't accept."

"Even if I fail to carry out my duty?"

"That's—"

The emperor chewed at his lip.

This problem was more pressing than Cherity walking away.

The emperor, who hadn't imagined Lyssel coming at it from this angle, lost his poker face and didn't know what to do.

That was when the reception room door — which they'd thought was shut — slid open, and Cherity stepped through with several other nobles behind him.

"What's, what's all this?"

The nobles looked thrown, but Cherity alone was smiling with something close to enjoyment on his face.

---

The emperor, flustered, sent Lyssel away.

Lyssel withdrew without resistance, but he had no intention of bending.

"Talking about it later changes nothing."

"Lord Lecashe!"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Hh. Step out for now."

"Of course."

The watching nobles couldn't seem to make heads or tails of what was happening.

A pathetic lot.

Cherity laughed at them inwardly and looked at the emperor.

The emperor looked decidedly off-balance.

The man who'd personally ordered the Grand Duchess killed was failing to hide his face the moment Lyssel asked for the title to be withdrawn.

As Cherity had expected, Lyssel knew the emperor was the one behind it.

What else would have brought him here right after the assassination attempt to throw the emperor into chaos.

The moment Lyssel left, the nobles started talking.

"That one only eats because the Aleta Holy Empire exists, and he has the nerve to talk like that?"

"Maybe the ijet's gone to his head."

"All the more reason to hold the territory if there's ijet in it."

"Fair point. So what was that, then?"

"Honestly — does Lecashe even need to be the one guarding the Forest of the World Tree?"

"There aren't all that many monsters, by the sound of it."

The nobles were running their mouths to flatter the emperor.

The problem was that it didn't sit well with him at all.

The pieces each of them tossed in were thick with greed.

Even Cherity couldn't quite hide the contempt in his look.

"That said — he's a house that's served Aleta for a very long time. After the war, the Forest of the World Tree was apparently overrun with monsters; strong or not, it wouldn't have been an easy lot to take on. The Lord Lecashe wouldn't have decided to throw the post away on a whim. There's a reason for all of it."

Like any of you would've taken the job of guarding the Forest of the World Tree back then if you'd been told to.

The barb in it landed; the nobles' faces locked up for a second.

"You may be right. Truly, Duke Cherity, you have a deep regard for others. We're rather ashamed for having seen only one side of it."

Cherity ignored every word of them and turned to the emperor.

"Don't you agree, Your Majesty?"

The emperor caught the angle of the question and ground his teeth.

"Why are you all here? Did you have something to say?"

The emperor changed the subject and asked what they'd come for.

"Nothing in particular — we'd just hoped to share a meal—"

"You came for that?"

The nobles flinched under the frost in the emperor's eyes and shut their mouths.

The truth was that the meal had been a soft setup for slipping in a request to withdraw the noble-tax measure that had come up in the meeting a few days earlier.

Duke Cherity had no interest at all in the noble tax, but the other nobles had effectively dragged him along.

Thanks to that, he'd gotten to see an entertaining little scene, and he was glad he'd come.

"Ngh."

The nobles, meanwhile, had figured out that bringing the matter up now would get them nothing, and they clamped their mouths shut.

Sure enough, even without anyone saying a word, the emperor flushed a deep red and looked beside himself before bellowing,

"All of you, get out!"

The nobles scrambled out of the reception room like their tails were on fire, baffled.

Walking in on the Lord Lecashe being there had been their mistake, but it wasn't the sort of thing to spark a temper like that.

"Hmph. Strip the Lecashe title, send the forest monsters to be wiped out — it's nothing."

It was a thoroughly stupid line, the kind of thing only someone who knew nothing could say.

---

Lyssel thought about it for a moment.

He'd delivered his demand — should he head back to Lecashe, or try to see the emperor again before he went.

Pressing the point wouldn't change much, but the title couldn't be cast off without the emperor's approval.

It was an automatic strip only in special cases — a revolt, or an act severely contrary to noble dignity. Revolt was too dangerous, and the standard for "contrary to noble dignity" was vague.

Up to now there hadn't been a single case of a title being stripped on those grounds.

And then —

"Lord Lecashe. We meet for the first time. Duke Creona Cherity."

Cherity approached Lyssel first.

Does he have no shame?

Lyssel's brow drew together hard as he looked at Cherity.

If there hadn't been other eyes on them, he'd have drawn his sword right there.

"Going by your face — you've put it all together?"

"What is it you want to say."

"Now, now, no need to be so on edge. As it happens, I don't bear Lecashe any particular ill will."

"Even though I'm a cursed grand duke?"

"That part is a small regret, granted!"

The man had no shame and no apparent sanity.

"Shall I help?"

"Help with what."

"With your title being withdrawn, Lord Lecashe."

"No thank you."

Hard as it might be to throw off the title, he didn't want Cherity's help.

He'd already killed the head of Moana — he had no intention of letting Cherity walk either.

"Oh. Do you favor '{sweet pumpkin}(#mzps07tce0xm)'?"

"…"

"You're sharp as a knife — it suits you. Try one sometime."

Lyssel's brow furrowed.

"That was a joke. Apparently we don't share a sense of humor."

It was hard to imagine who would share that sense of humor.

The longer he listened, the more it started to feel like the man was actually trying to stop him; Lyssel didn't bother answering, and turned his back —

"Please don't despise me too much. I was acting on His Majesty's order. If you ever need testimony about that, please say so. Cherity is an open door."

"May I kill you?"

"Such a direct way to put it — that's a first. Not unpleasant, but I've only got the one life. A pity."

"May I kill you?"

"My, my. You really are angry. To plot for another day, I'll be on my way. As I said, one life — must spend it carefully."

Even saying it, Cherity was smiling, fully at ease.

Should I actually just kill him?

It would probably fall under acts contrary to noble dignity.

And there were witnesses everywhere.

A flash of ugly intent crossed his mind; demonic energy seeped out, and the bodyguards hidden in the surroundings reacted.

Even at that number, dealing with them wouldn't have been particularly hard.

"The moment I die, the emperor will find some way to bind you in place. Murder isn't an act contrary to noble dignity. It's the kind of thing that gets a leash on you instead. I'm worth a fair bit more than you'd think."

His thoughts had been read.

Lyssel held him in a coolly settled look, then turned and walked.