The maid and attendant roles are more akin to secretaries for the bourgeoisie than to servants, and the head attendant of the main palace is given a high-ranking title equivalent to a Marquis. Vinea, the maid attending Jeilliris, also comes from a prestigious court noble family.
Thus, it was not at all strange for Rudi, serving the Duke Valenciaunos, to receive a title.
Rudi also had heard tales, almost like legends.
Throughout the Empire’s long history, there have been a few Dukes or Empresses who originated as maids.
However, he never expected to be the protagonist of such a legend, and he looked at Valenciaunos in a daze.
His green eyes and soft cheeks trembled slightly.
“If it’s a title… then it must be a Baron, right?”
Valenciaunos narrowed his eyes as if he could not believe he had heard such nonsense.
“A Baron? Are you saying you want to serve a Baron to His Grace the Duke?”
His brow furrowed, and his white eyebrows scrunched together.
Calmly, Rudi brought up a higher-ranking title.
“Then, it must be a Viscount. Yes. Originally, a Viscount is something like a Count’s subordinate, so it seems just right for serving Lord Valencia.”
“If I were a Count, that would be the case. I am not.”
Rudi felt his mind go blank.
“Then… is it a Count?”
The Count was a rank far above that of the lower nobles.
A full-fledged Great Lord, a Count could maintain his own “court” and ennoble others.
Of course, Rudi was Valenciaunos’s maid, and originally, Valenciaunos was also a member of royalty without even a patch of ground to pierce a pin into, so whether it was a Count or a Marquis, it was merely an empty title from which he would only receive a pension. Yet, even so, a Count was still a Count.
Valenciaunos slowly nodded his head.
Beneath his arrogant gaze, a subtle tremor that had been hidden began to rise and then subside.
Only then did Rudi realize that he too was discreetly tense.
Valenciaunos cleared his throat and said cautiously, “Would you like to receive a Marquis title?”
It seemed that Rudi’s state of mind upon hearing Count was not what he hoped for.
“W-well, if I reach the rank of Sword Expert, I could give you a Duke title, but…”
Rudi felt his mind completely shatter under the bright flush.
Some had received titles only after charging into the Imperial Palace, and he wondered if it was really okay for such titles to come so easily to his lips.
“No, no. A Count… I-I’m not worthy of even a Baron. Besides… Lady Trentia is a knight…”
Rudi babbled incoherently, glancing towards Trentia.
If she were to receive even a Baron title, it would elevate her noble rank above his.
However, Trentia shrugged her shoulders as if it were of no concern and laughed lightly.
“Rudi, nobles are born, but knights are made. This is the position I earned.”
Strictly speaking, the knight title was not hereditary like noble titles.
Even the son of a Duke could not receive an appointment unless he became a Sword Expert.
Thus, powerless court nobles mutually respected knights regardless of their titles.
Even the elderly court noble, the Court Official, was a Duke, but he first offered coffee to Trentia and treated her with a level of respect, which Trentia accepted as natural.
“Or did you secretly want to hear me respect you? Count Rudi?”
Trentia tilted her head slightly, casting a shadow under her red hair.
“N-no, I didn’t.”
Rudi’s pale face flushed as red as Trentia’s hair.
Trentia responded with a bright laugh.
“Then there’s no problem. It’s a grace bestowed by my lord. Refusing would be disrespectful. Accept it graciously and enjoy it fully.”
Rudi bit his lips a few times, trying to regain his composure.
A Count, a Count, indeed.
Soon, she spoke again with a calming voice.
“If you give me such a title, people will slander Lord Valencia. With thousands of soldiers from the East fighting in the capital, they’ll say I just play around with maids.”
Valenciaunos laughed arrogantly and whispered, “I would actually like for Rudi to share the blame with me.”
Rudi responded with a gentle smile, “Yes, Lord Valencia. I will always be with you.”
With a determined will reflected in his crescent-shaped green eyes.
The Duchess Sererassie, who was admiring her half-brother and his maid, twisted her face into a sulky expression.
“Are you both insane?”
It was a statement she could hardly comprehend.
As the Empire’s high nobles began to gather in the capital one by one, the summer night deepened.
In the annex, the partially opened large first-floor conference room was, as always, engaged in a war against work from the morning.
Administrative Officers and Constables constantly came and went between the columns to report on the situation.
Valenciaunos had returned after a deep sleep and wielded his wicked charisma to deftly handle the piled-up tasks.
He was a 40-year veteran sword magician and also a 40-year veteran bureaucrat.
“Lord Valenciaunos, the commoner representatives from the capital have requested that the court cover the costs for repairing the streets damaged by the fighting among the Eastern Lords!”
“Get the court nobles to immobilize them in the council for now. If we spend more cash here, it will cause issues with administration.”
“What about the 500 gold coins we’ve held onto…?”
“That’s for hosting Seberik when he arrives. Wait a moment. Why is that still in cash? I think I ordered you to buy a magic tool for a gift from the Ivory Tower!”
“I will take care of it immediately!”
He made necessary judgments at the needed moments in this war-like situation, and Hadrian observed that ability closely, quickly absorbing it.
What Hadrian needed was an experience that would fully develop his genius, and Valenciaunos delivered that experience in a concentrated manner.
“The Duke Seberik is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Clear the canal completely by tomorrow. We can’t keep His Grace waiting.”
“Yes, Your Grace. But what about the merchants’ protests…?”
“Suppress them. Seberik’s convenience comes first. However, for food products from the meat processing sector, ensure they are unloaded from the outer harbor and enter overland.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Valenciaunos had the courage to be hated, and he managed many affairs using his name.
“Your Grace, rumors have spread that you have turned a blind eye to the Eastern nobles’ brawl. But… is that okay?”
“We can’t let rumors that His Majesty turned a blind eye spread. The council will be controlled by the court nobles, and the church has already been criticizing me harshly, so it’s meaningless to draw more condemnation. Then nothing happens.”
“No, I meant…”
Valenciaunos pushed away the hesitating bureaucrat with a wave of his hand.
“Is there anyone who knows how far the Fire Elemental and the Admiral have come?”
“According to the Foreign Affairs report, there are 30 minutes left! Please wait just a moment—.”
“I’ll give you 10 minutes.”
“Ahhhh!”
The bureaucrats screamed, while the Emperor was about to meet Hadrian, who had previously dallied as an illegitimate child, and received reports that the young Dukes Gremoryus and Purioaito were expected to arrive within two days, while also managing to hold priests and Ivory Tower magicians who seemed to be fleeing the Imperial Palace under the pretext of a tea party.
“Have they come this far already? Royal Guard!”
Providing relief funds to the citizens who suffered losses from market closures and street damages, calling the Student Union President Jin to manage the college ruffians, hiring more workers in the slums through Konel to make the streets look clean, and burning all suspicious tobacco sellers captured by the red masks through the church…
The gigantic gears of the Imperial Court of the Empire turned and turned.
Valenciaunos stood at the center of it all, arrogantly smiling and managing a multitude of tasks like a conductor of an orchestra.
Dressed in a splendid white uniform, with a sword at one side of his waist and a seal at the other, the Bandit Duke.
From his mouth and hands flowed a performance that was impoverished yet arrogant, and precarious yet brilliant.
“Little brother, there’s a magic tool created through joint research between the Royal Magic Guild and the Ivory Tower.”
A magician approached the performer.
Administrators dressed in black suits parted to make way.
Sererassie was pleased to talk about magic after a long time, wearing a satisfied smile on her previously aloof face.
The woman in the long hair, a dark blue robe, and a dark blue pointed hat, leaning on a jeweled staff, looked a bit out of place amidst the crow-like officials in the palace, but no one viewed her with such eyes.
Just yesterday on the palace rooftop, all officials had submitted their reports to her before even realizing that she was the one who summoned dozens of lightning bolts.
Valenciaunos looked at Sererassie and smiled.
“Oh, what kind of magic tool is it?”
Sererassie replied in a proud tone.
“It’s a sharper spear. Until now, to catch a fully powered infiltrator, we had no choice but to directly expose it to divine power, right? But our great magicians can’t keep relying on those vile priests forever. We have continued our research in our own way.”
“Vile?”
“Yeah, vile. Do you have a problem with that?”
“… No. So?”
“This one triggers resonance to stimulate the corrupted area and detects the infiltrator’s reflexive backlash to ascertain the infiltrator’s location. To explain the detailed principles…”
Valenciaunos knew that those detailed principles would amount to about three volumes of grimoire.
Of course, having a conversation with the even more elegant Sererassie, adorned with pearl earrings, was a very enjoyable experience for him, but he didn’t have the time.
“Show me how it operates.”
“W-what?”
“Show me how it operates.”
As Valenciaunos stepped closer to speak, the brim of Sererassie’s pointed hat was pushed down lightly.
She clicked her tongue and took out a magic tool that looked like a pocket watch from a wooden box.
“You lack patience, little brother. Yeah. You have no interest at all in such mysterious principles and only get thrilled about mere phenomena. Such people should not be allowed to use magic tools…”
While she hurled such remarks, she lightly infused mana into the magic tool.
The needles began to spin around, and the magic tool glowed faintly.
Trentia and Valenciaunos, who were sensitive to mana, could feel the fine powder-like mana dispersing in all directions.
“If there’s an infiltrator within 100 meters, the needle will stop in that direction, and it will light up in the number section. It can detect up to 10 targets at once. It’s safe right now, so it won’t stop… huh?”
Ding, a clear sound rang out as the needle halted.
Trentia tried to suppress her laughter for a moment, and Sererassie’s two differently colored eyes twisted.
She dropped her staff, knelt on the ground, and tugged at her long dark blue hair with both hands in lament.
“How could I be so humiliated! This is nonsense. It worked perfectly in the underground laboratory… who on earth carved the circuit this way? Those inferior fools…”
Valenciaunos squinted his golden eyes, looking at where the needle pointed.
“Lady Trentia.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“That’s a child, isn’t it?”
A boy with white hair, appearing to be around 15 years old, was leaning against a pillar at the palace’s outskirts.
“Yes, it’s indeed a child.”
“Where is a child doing in the Imperial Palace right now?”
The next moment, green flames erupted from the boy’s hand.
The flames clustered together, forming a fireball that fell amidst the administrative officers.
Valenciaunos instinctively pulled Sererassie to him and threw himself to the ground while Trentia lowered her veil and rushed in to cover the flames with her body.
Whoosh!
In an instant, the entire conference room was engulfed in flames.
*
Fortunately, there were no fatalities among the administrative officers.
The explosion was powerful, but it was not enough to penetrate Lady Trentia’s armor.
Without me needing to step in, the guards quickly rushed out.
And 30 minutes later, an absurd report came in.
“We were unable to capture him. We apologize.”
The guards and Platinum Knights bowed their heads.
I asked in disbelief.
“You couldn’t catch him? How many knights and combat mages do we have here that you couldn’t catch him?”
While it wasn’t even a pursuit specialist, it was hard to believe that knights could not capture a single infiltrator who possessed a child’s body.
“It seemed he had ‘Spatial Magic’ and a ‘Transparency’ magic tool. He also used Blink Magic. Despite that, he did not use mental waves.”
“Get to the point.”
“It seems he came fully prepared.”
