Chapter 207

Jeilliris explained while fiddling with a joint ring.

“If Marcus donates a province to the Imperial Court, I will share the stake with you. Do not worry, it does not mean I will send you to Instrumentum.”

“Ah.”

“From here to here, the lands mentioned—villages, manors, lakes, cities, hamlets, and forests, including mines. That’s thirty percent of a great family’s Instrumentum. The administration will be handled by the governors I send, but officially, they will all belong to you.”

It was a territory roughly the size of a decent countship.

At that moment, I felt a disorienting sense of awe.

I was no longer a duke in name only with no land to stake a claim.

She continued, her white, neat teeth shining as she spoke.

“Taxes will rise every year. Most will come in kind, I suppose. If you wish, I can purchase them all at once and give you gold. You can rest assured the price will be fair.”

“Your Majesty, thank you so much.”

I received the certificates for a multitude of villages, cities, mines, lakes, and manors with an unreal feeling.

It was enough to fill an entire large document bag and then some.

Jeilliris smiled and retrieved a small box from her desk drawer.

“Now that you have land, you should also receive a title.”

“Your Majesty?”

“Extend your left hand.”

I willingly extended my left hand, and she delicately slipped a finely crafted silver ring onto my pinky finger.

A sensation like an electric current coursed through my fingertips as it touched my skin.

The ring radiated unusual magical energy.

With a serene smile, she said, “If you ever meet a capable wandering knight or a sword expert-level mercenary, you may recruit them as your knight.”

To recruit a knight, one had to provide money or land.

This meant I had also received the right to allocate the manors I had just gained.

Recruiting knights, appointing an administrative officer to manage funds, and building a castle.

We refer to such activities as ‘lordship.’

“Your Majesty?”

This was… an open permission for me to establish my own power.

Historically, for the first in the line of succession to give land, money, and power was utterly insane.

Though my loyalty had remained unchanged for over forty years and my guilt for over fifty, the human heart is like a reed—durable yet fragile, swaying in the slightest breeze.

However, Jeilliris, the emperor with an otherworldly beauty, leaned in slightly with a predatory smile.

Fangs peeked out and vanished between her crimson lips.

“I told you, I trust you.”

As I sat speechless, she pushed a pile of documents toward me.

“Therefore… I will give you this as well.”

This document was formatted as a gift of spoils from the emperor.

It was likely something Helena had captured from the collapsed noble alliance.

However, the weight of the name written on that document made it difficult for me to say “thank you.”

[Nibelungen]

“No, Your Majesty, this is… a vessel of Marcus, isn’t it? Even if you give this to me….”

It was a flying ship larger than a battleship.

It was a piece of equipment that required many of Marcus’s technologies and manpower to operate.

Even if I received this, I wouldn’t be able to manage it alone.

As I sat there, dumbfounded, trying to comprehend if my assumptions were correct, Jeilliris chuckled.

“You are always analyzing, aren’t you? Are you guessing my intentions? It’s not a bad feeling that people fear me. Humans tend to hesitate more when betraying someone they fear than someone they love, and those whom they do not fear cannot be loved. Yes. Providing assurance is my job. Your thoughts are correct.”

She paused for a moment before continuing.

“I will grant you the Nibelungen, Marcus’s mechanized knights, the Magic Cannon unit, and the research magicians from the workshop he has raised… all of them will be yours.”

For a moment, I thought I saw Jeilliris multiply before my eyes, only to merge back into one again.

* * *

I finally managed to catch my breath.

A tremendous amount of money and a vast army had come into my hands.

I could obliterate a decent-sized kingdom at once.

A bright voice rang ceaselessly in the office.

“I will also keep your maid by your side, as I mentioned before. You may grant titles freely.”

“I was convinced while preparing this oath of loyalty. I must not interfere in the affairs. My role is to select talent, place them in suitable positions, and trust that talent.”

“I have become too great to meddle in everything. Simply me stepping in becomes a glory for my opponent.”

If Jeilliris had stepped in when Cariosa invaded the imperial palace, they would have been subdued in an instant.

Then Cariosa would gain the reputation of being such a great lord that Jeilliris needed to intervene personally.

Since she was the vital cog necessary to guard the eastern sea, Jeilliris could not afford to kill Cariosa.

Doing so would only raise the authority of her political rival unnecessarily.

Jeilliris gazed at me with a dreamlike expression.

“I will leave pure magical research to the Ivory Tower. That is what they have long desired over the past thousand years, so I will grant it. My imperial magic workshop will focus on the commodification of magical technologies. And you will hold the reins over Marcus, coordinating relations with Sererassie.”

I felt a rush of overwhelming sensation, as if I had inhaled the Milky Way.

“Does this mean… I will be in charge of the magic engineering division created by Duke Marcus?”

“Precisely. I can no longer bear to see you suffer alone. Moreover, who else could I entrust such a task to? There are few with the fame and authority to handle Marcus, the Ironblood Party leader. The court nobles in the capital are inadequate. They must assert themselves, even if it’s through notorious actions.”

“I will surely repay your trust.”

However, for a moment I stumbled, intoxicated by the confidence she bestowed, but the instincts of a 40-year veteran administrative officer stirred within me.

“Your Majesty.”

“Speak.”

“I feel like I have received work rather than rewards.”

Knowing Sererassie well, I was acutely aware that once magic research truly began, it was a field that required endless funds.

The money from the provinces would clearly be spent entirely on maintaining the mechanized knights and the magic engineering research.

In other words, to put it differently, there was no excess money, but the workload was increasing!

I held onto the leash of the most dangerous great lord in the west.

And… if the leashed main dog causes a mishap, it’s the owner’s fault.

For a fleeting moment, Jeilliris’s face showed a hint of a dimple.

She seemed to be holding back a laugh.

“I will raise your salary.”

“!”

I decided to audaciously commit a blasphemy.

“The salary of my lord is still just the salary of my lord! My maid probably earns more as a palace steward.”

“Duke Valen. Do you dare to defy the emperor’s decree?”

Jeilliris unleashed an irrefutable argument.

I could only raise my hands in a plea for mercy.

However, mercy and Solletarass had nothing in common, and thus the supreme emperor’s decree remained unyielding.

She chuckled and continued speaking.

“Soon, Admiral Jeikije will send over the gold plundered from the southern dukedom’s Amir. That too must be divided according to the imperial share.”

“!”

“Thirty percent will be yours. It will more than suffice for research and maintenance costs.”

I bowed my head repeatedly.

“The grace of Your Majesty is as vast as a mountain.”

The atmosphere felt somewhat lighter.

Yet even amidst that, there was a nagging lump in my heart.

She had bestowed upon me power, riches, and the rights to maintain them.

While it was natural to receive rewards for loyalty, I couldn’t shake the concern that too much was given to me.

Before my return, I had given excessive power to my political rival and had eliminated them over minor mistakes.

Of course, I was sure that Jeilliris wouldn’t do the same to me.

No one plays tricks on someone they can crush with a finger.

But if I couldn’t bear the weight of this…

As I contemplated this, my mind became increasingly convoluted when Jeilliris’s voice rang out.

“You will do well, brother. You promised me, didn’t you? That you would become stronger.”

I jumped in surprise and looked up, and Jeilliris wore her usual arrogant and languid expression.

“You?”

She gave me a look as if questioning my astonishment.

I shook my head and replied, “No, it was just a misunderstanding.”

That sadistic, mischievous voice would likely stick with me for decades.

“Or it might not be?”

* * *

After receiving all the documents and completing the oath of loyalty, I thought I shouldn’t be idle for too long.

I had no intention of doing so from the start, but with work piling up like this, my shoulders felt heavy.

However, it was undoubtedly a monumental gain to have grasped Marcus and his knights.

Furthermore, I already knew how to utilize them, was aware of the importance of magic engineering, and understood how to achieve harmony with existing forces.

I thought no one could handle them as well as I could, and with that, my sense of responsibility swelled.

Looking out at the stars, I felt dawn would break in a couple of hours.

Just as I was about to say I would return to the twin palace, Jeilliris stood up and donned a shawl.

“Follow me.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Though I was curious about what else was left, her expression was oddly subdued, so I followed without question.

Jeilliris’s lips were set in a firm line, and her eyes were resolute to the point of being unyielding.

However, once she got into the carriage behind the main palace, I couldn’t help but ask a lighthearted question.

“Your Majesty, may I ask where we are going at this hour?”

“To the imperial magic workshop. The people there are always awake.”

“…….”

With my forty years of experience, I understood that it was her way of lightening the mood, attempting to relieve the tension in her own way.

“Your Majesty, that is a matter that should be commemorated!”

In other words, my words carried such weight that it was understandable she felt a bit awkward.

The imperial magic workshop was the only place that had reached as high as the Ivory Tower among the many magical workshops established by numerous sovereigns.

It was a veritable elephant that devoured immense capital, as well as the birthplace of foundational technologies that allowed the imperial family to gain an advantage over other great lords.

However, it held a bit of a different significance for us twins.

“…….”

“…….”

In the deep of night, the sounds of the wheels creaked in the carriage.

Jeilliris and I were a duke and an emperor, and we had visited the imperial magic workshop many times, both before my return and at present.

I met Lady Sorelazie every day in that massive tree, and Jeilliris would visit directly each week to receive reports from the magicians, scolding, brainstorming ideas, or commending them with added budgets.

However, we never went to the imperial magic workshop together.

Whether during the last year and several months or the forty years before my return, it had always been that way.

“…….”

The imperial magic workshop was a source of knowledge and power for Jeilliris and me, but it had an additional meaning for us twins.

I cursed inwardly.

Trying to erase the guilt and self-reproach that grew stronger.

“Come rescue me someday.”

However, the more I tried not to think about it, the more it surfaced, leaving me no choice but to put on a mask in front of Jeilliris.

…I wanted to burst my own head.

In the distance, I saw a colossal tree resembling a barrel.

The sight of that tree next to Jeilliris was like a museum displaying my sins.

Amidst it all, her words further unsettled me.

“We need to go a little lower.”

“!”

…That experiment had taken place on the lowest floor.

I felt my face pale as I nodded.