Chapter 99

Rodella flinched and looked out the window, but she couldn’t see anything from where she was sitting.

“What was that just now?”

However, Duke Benerix was calm, as if he hadn’t even heard the explosion.

Instead of answering, he took out a piece of paper from a box beside him.

“It’s a magic contract. The price for breaking it is death.”

What? Rodella froze.

“If we become a community of shared fate with this, you can save your followers, the innocent citizens of the empire, and even the unfortunate fate of Duke Royden, who is forced to follow an emperor who is no different from his father’s enemy.”

—Rumble!

This time, the building vibrated.

The source of the explosion was rapidly approaching.

It was clearly the sound of a fight.

Rodella was about to get up when.

—Smash!

Duke Benerix slammed the glass he was holding onto the table.

—Crack! Shatter!

The red wine splattered along with the shards of the broken glass.

Rodella was stunned and froze.

The wine that had spilled from the glass, or perhaps the liquid that came from Duke Benerix’s hand, flowed onto the contract.

“Don’t turn away. This disturbance will disappear once you sign the contract.”

“What are you doing?”

Rodella asked, trying her best not to look at the liquid.

“It seems the escort knight you brought has a bit of a hot temper. He can’t even wait for his master’s conversation to finish.”

“…Didn’t you say you would let me leave the mansion safely on the honor of Benerix?”

The explosion, on the contrary, was chilling her head.

A position as chancellor, obtained easily without any checks?

If she had wanted something like that, she wouldn’t have gotten engaged to Aivert in the first place!

She could have just chosen one of the many arranged marriage opportunities she had!

Ultimately, it was useless to become chancellor with someone else’s power.

Thinking that, she had no intention of accepting the offer from the beginning.

But did Duke Benerix think she could be persuaded?

He seemed displeased.

“My condition was to send you off safely ‘after the conversation ended.’”

Was she supposed to keep listening to this nonsense?

In a situation where she didn’t even know what was happening downstairs?

But Duke Benerix was speaking as if nothing was wrong.

“Are you going to let blood be shed unnecessarily, when it can be stopped with just one contract?”

Moreover, he was making it sound like it was Rodella’s fault.

But the political strife to come, and the loud explosions and commotion right now, would never have happened in the first place if Benerix hadn’t made a move.

“I have no intention of harming you yet.”

Duke Benerix wiped his hands on a napkin.

A red handprint was left on the pure white cloth.

The word “yet” sounded like he would harm her soon.

No, in the first place, Duke Benerix had already tried to harm me.

Aivert had said so.

That Malik Bran had sent an assassin.

Could Duke Benerix have not known that he was sending an assassin?

Rodella looked at the contract offered to her.

Since it was a magic contract with a special treatment, the red wine only flowed over it and didn’t soak the paper.

The content of the contract was short.

[In exchange for Rodella Syveric becoming a chancellor friendly to Duke Benerix, Duke Benerix absolutely guarantees the safety of Chancellor Rodella Syveric.]

Since the price for breaking it was death, if she signed it, her safety would be guaranteed for sure.

But would Benerix have offered her a contract like this if he was in an advantageous situation?

Most of all, the shorter the contract, the more loopholes it usually has.

“You’re lying.”

Rodella opened her mouth.

“About what?”

“You couldn’t have not known that Malik Bran sent an assassin after me.”

Rodella took her eyes off the wine that looked like blood.

“And I punished him for it.”

Duke Benerix answered without even batting an eye.

But what he said next was far beyond Rodella’s scope of understanding.

“If you’re not satisfied, I can even send you his corpse.”

Rodella was dumbfounded by his words, which sounded like she could do whatever she wanted.

“I don’t need it. There’s no guarantee that such a thing won’t happen again.”

“This contract will provide that guarantee.”

Duke Benerix said.

But Rodella shook her head.

“No, this contract only talks about me.”

It says nothing about the people around me.

Rodella’s lips were pressed into a firm line.

Aivert had already been protecting her from a place Rodella didn’t know about, and thanks to that, Rodella had been living under the assumption that her surroundings were peaceful.

But just because the surface was peaceful didn’t mean everything was.

“I also don’t want to sign a contract with someone who has already put a knife to my throat. So,”

I refuse.

It was the moment she was about to say that.

—Bang!

The office door was flung open.

Aivert had no idea what state of mind he was in when he ran to Duke Benerix’s mansion.

[Lady Rodella Syveric is heading to Duke Benerix’s annex.]

[Suspicious troops are gathering around the Syveric family estate.]

[Currently, Rodin has gone into the duke’s mansion with her…]

The discreet reports were all enough to make him lose his composure.

Aivert accelerated.

And the people of Duke Benerix’s mansion were flustered by the unexpected guest, or more precisely, the guest who arrived too early.

How did he get here so fast?

They had summoned Rodella Syveric while Aivert Royden was away from the headquarters of the Azure Knights, so they couldn’t help but be flustered.

It meant that Aivert Royden was far beyond their intelligence network.

“Open the gate.”

Ignoring their panic, Aivert said as he dismounted his horse.

He was alone, with no one accompanying him.

“You, you need to request a visit.”

“Is that necessary?”

Aivert asked again. If they said it was necessary, he looked like he would cut their throats instead of requesting a visit.

“You must follow the proper procedures.”

But the people of the duke’s mansion, trusting their master’s influence and power, said so.

Aivert’s lips curled up.

“Do I need a procedure even when I’ve come to escort my fiancée? Or,”

His words were filled with killing intent.

The moment the people of the duke’s mansion flinched.

Aivert took something out of his pocket.

“Will you let me pass only if I give you this toy that was attached to the bottom of the carriage Rodella was going to ride in?”

“…!”

At his words, the faces of Duke Benerix’s knights hardened.

How did Aivert Royden know about that and have it with him?

They had just received the order themselves to eliminate Rodella Syveric on her way back, if the ‘conversation’ with her went wrong.

But there was no time for further questions.

Aivert lightly threw the artifact, as if any more words were a waste.

As the knights watched in horror as the explosive artifact flew in an arc,

—Hum!

An ominous light flickered in the artifact.

It was a sign of an explosion.

“…!”

“Get away…!”

The terrified knights quickly tried to swat the artifact away.

—Bang!

At that moment, a huge explosion occurred, and the entrance of Duke Benerix’s annex was completely destroyed along with the knights.

A cloud of dust rose, and the knights were in a panic, running around in confusion.

Aivert quickly entered through them.

“Stop him!”

And he ignored the knights who were rushing to stop him, practically stepping on them, and gestured to Rodin.

“Clear the way.”

“Yes, sir.”

Rodin clenched his fist.

He was the first to see the explosive artifact attached to the carriage while his master was inside.

In the midst of thinking of the best route to protect Rodella upon sensing the suspicious movements of the Benerix knights, Aivert’s invasion made such a route unnecessary.

All that was left was to create a path for his master and the head of the family to come out safely.

The opponents were many, but he had no intention of disappointing Rodella a second time.

And leaving him behind, Aivert, who had stormed into the mansion, immediately kicked open the door to the reception room.

—Bang!

“Rodella!”

Inside, Duke Benerix and Rodella were facing each other with a piece of paper between them.

And on that paper, a red liquid was flowing.

Aivert’s eyes were fixed on it.

His breath stopped.