When I entered the royal palace, I spotted Karlstadt, the royal palace gatekeeper.

The moment he saw me, he waved me through.

"...When you came bearing news of Lydia’s death, the palace was still at peace."

"What was bound to happen eventually simply happened a little sooner."

"It’s disheartening to know that you understand the palace better than I do, when I’ve spent my whole life guarding it."

The old gatekeeper’s face seemed to have aged even further.

Feeling disillusioned? That made two of us.

"I’m thinking of stepping down from my post. I’m just too old now."

"That’s a shame. Let’s hope a tragedy like this never happens again."

"Perhaps even the late king... No, it’s nothing."

Was there something involving the late king too?

All I knew about the late king was that he’d been quite a violent man but a devout believer. There was nothing particularly notable beyond his sudden death, which had led to Karlus’s ascension to Grand Duke three years ago.

But after seeing the state of the Altringen royal family, even that death seemed suspicious now.

The Grand Duke’s Guard was stationed throughout the palace, but the guard commander was nowhere in sight.

"You’ve arrived."

Grand Duke Karlus greeted me calmly in his private study rather than the audience hall. Despite the chaos that had erupted in the palace, it didn’t seem to have dealt him much of an emotional blow.

I presented the letter I’d received from the Marquis.

The Grand Duke read the letter, then tossed it carelessly onto his desk.

"I assume you’re already aware of the major incident at the palace?"

"I heard there was an assassination attempt."

"The Queen tried to kill Louis, and Louis tried to kill the Queen."

The Grand Duke let out a smirk, his eyes gleaming with a sinister light as he added:

Quite the entertaining situation, isn’t it?

Yes, quite entertaining indeed.

That was precisely why I couldn’t leave Lily in a place like this until things settled down.

"I’ll keep the future crown princess under my protection for the time being."

"Fine. You can look, but don’t touch. And don’t get her pregnant."

He didn’t want any illegitimate grandchildren, after all.

The Grand Duke wore a faint, mocking smile.

He was cracking jokes like that at a time like this?

I could feel a murderous edge creeping into my gaze before I even realized it.

"It was a lighthearted joke, but the mood’s gotten rather deadly. I apologize."

"...Your Majesty, I’ll let it slide this once."

"Good. That’s the kind of backbone I’d expect from a knight I trust and rely on."

The Grand Duke stood by the window with his hands clasped behind his back.

I had no idea what was going through his mind. That quip had obviously carried a barb, and in this situation it was deeply unpleasant. As expected, there was no reading the thoughts of someone with such a conspiratorial nature. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Understanding his way of thinking completely was impossible.

The very act of understanding would prove that I shared that same conspiratorial nature.

"Political rivals attempting assassination to eliminate each other isn’t all that rare. Do you really think it couldn’t happen between family members? This was already foreseen."

"Then why did you stand by and watch, Your Majesty? When you knew everything!"

"If stopping it would have solved anything, I would have done so long ago, Sir Streit. Once a dam starts crumbling, you can’t shore it back up. It’s better to let it break and build a new one."

Did the Grand Duke want the Altringen dynasty to crumble?

Even if it meant standing by while a dangerous political scandal unfolded?

"Didn’t your cute little retainer report to you? About a new organization being formed in the slums."

"Don’t tell me the one who created it was..."

"Louis created it in secret. To hide something."

That something was assassins.

I’d been too busy with my own affairs to dig into that organization.

I’d only been vaguely thinking about dealing with it someday.

"Karsten risked his life to stop the assassin."

"So the Grand Duke’s Guard commander saved the Queen’s life."

"And what do you suppose it means that the guard commander was in the Queen’s bedchamber at that late hour?"

The Queen’s survival had been sheer luck.

The Grand Duke clicked his tongue and told me she’d always been that kind of woman.

So Karsten wasn’t merely a knight devoted to the Queen but her lover.

No wonder he followed her so blindly.

He must have been that desperate for the old fox’s body.

Yet the Grand Duke was calmer than I’d expected.

He might condemn the affair, but it clearly hadn’t shocked him.

It was likely one of many things he’d uncovered through Hoenir’s surveillance of the Queen’s every move. And he didn’t love the Queen. He seemed utterly indifferent to whom she shared her bed with.

If anything, he’d probably been viewing such relationships as tools to exploit. The corruption of the Queen, who had once been Baron Constance’s woman, was simply grotesque by now. Or perhaps it was the Altringen family that had driven her to madness.

"Aren’t you curious about who actually carried out the poisoning attempt on Louis?"

"Not really. I can’t even begin to guess."

"It’s a friend you know quite well."

"Vermeer."

...What?

Unless I’d misheard, he’d clearly said Vermeer.

But that wasn’t the kind of thing Vermeer would do.

"Are you certain it was Leo von Vermeer?"

"Is there anyone else in this palace with that surname?"

"Then Vermeer is currently..."

"He confessed willingly and is sitting quietly in prison."

Truly staggering things had happened one after another while I was away.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine how devastating this must have been for the crown prince.

The family tragedy, and now even a friend he’d trusted...

"Is His Highness the crown prince all right?"

"He’s resting and stable for now."

The Grand Duke wasn’t the crown prince’s blood father, but had he comforted his son as one? Or had he placed the boy under house arrest under the guise of protection? The latter seemed more likely, but I also got the feeling the Grand Duke genuinely cared about the crown prince.

"Why on earth would Vermeer try to poison Prince Louis?"

"The Queen must have persuaded him. Told him that as long as Louis lived, the crown prince’s position would be under threat."

But the scheme to use Vermeer as a scapegoat and frame him as an assassin had actually been Hoenir’s trap. In that moment, I thought of Clara—the woman consumed by a mad desire for revenge against the Queen.

The reason Vermeer had confessed so willingly, and the reason evidence had been left behind, was all Hoenir’s handiwork, designed to implicate the Queen. That was why the Queen was now under house arrest and barred from seeing the crown prince.

But would Clara really be satisfied with just that?

She’d been dead set on killing the Queen.

The Grand Duke didn’t give me time to collect my thoughts.

Like a raging storm, he laid out his next plan without hesitation.

"Louis will be escaping soon."

"Escaping? You’re letting him go on purpose?"

"That’s the only way to draw out those eastern lords who have been a thorn in my side. Wouldn’t rallying behind Louis, who carries true Altringen blood, and calling for the removal of the illegitimate crown prince give them just the justification they need?"

Regardless of my father-in-law’s fears about civil war, the Grand Duke had already been hoping for one. It had started the moment the Capital Sentinel Commander took charge of Breisburg’s security.

Most likely it was to round up spies planted by the east or arrest nobles with eastern ties. Internal cleanup before a war was essential. Neglecting it could lead to a devastating blow.

But I still couldn’t shake the fundamental question.

Why did the Grand Duke want civil war so badly?

"Isn’t Duke Radensdorf your brother, Your Majesty? I don’t understand why you’d provoke a rebellion like this just to go to war with your own brother."

"Simple logic. We’re not loving brothers. We’re enemies who have tried to kill each other."

The Grand Duke gave me a brief account of his relationship with the Duke. I realized that this absurd web of royal intrigue had begun the moment the Grand Duke took the throne. The image of devoted brothers had been nothing but an illusion.

The two brothers, whose outward appearances belied their true natures, had been putting on an act of fraternity while waging a fierce covert war beneath the surface. It was no coincidence that Count Mainhof, who had supported the Duke, had attacked the Grand Duke.

Perhaps the Duke had been pulling the strings all along, using Mainhof as his pawn.

Had Old Man Bertheim known about all of this?