86 - The Evil Husband (15th Anniversary Edition) Chapter 86
86
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The Parbellini Dukedom owned one of the most expensive mansions in the capital. It was a grand residence passed down through generations.
The mansion of a prestigious and historic family possessed a classic exterior imbued with the marks of time, but its interior led the latest trends.
The Parbellini Duke's Residence in the capital, a blend of cutting-edge modernity and classic tradition, was, along with the platinum blonde hair, the pride of the Parbellini family. It was proof that the Parbellinis were the root and center of the Traon Empire.
Parbellini Duke Asef, in the car heading towards the mansion, looked out the window at the Duke's Residence and wore a satisfied smile.
Had he drunk a bit too much at the social gathering tonight? A sense of pride that he was a Parbellini welled up anew.
"Yes, no matter how much that bastard frolics about..."
The Parbellinis would be eternal. Even if the Imperial Family changed, the Parbellinis would continue their history like a giant ancient tree.
Asef reached into his coat and took out a cigar case. He opened the window and was about to light a cigar when.
The car lurched violently and braked suddenly. The cigar case he had placed on his lap fell to the floor. He also dropped the one he was holding, and the finest cigars scattered all over the carriage floor.
Tsk, Asef clicked his tongue briefly and raised his voice slightly to the driver.
"What's going on!"
The driver was skilled, so he wouldn't have braked so suddenly unless something major had happened. He would have let it go leniently, but for some reason, the driver didn't answer. He was just staring ahead with wide eyes.
As Asef tried to look ahead following the driver's gaze, he squeezed his eyes shut. The headlights of the car opposite flashed on, blinding him.
Soon the light dimmed, and when he slowly opened his eyes again, he swallowed a hollow laugh at the scene before him.
Armed soldiers were surrounding the car. In front of the soldiers, who were pointing their guns with expressionless faces, stood a tall man in a formal suit.
Asef, meeting the crimson eyes, muttered a curse he hadn't uttered in a very long time. Knock, knock. There was a light knock on the car window. A soldier with a huge build commanded from outside the car door.
"Get out."
It was Archduke Erzeht's knight. Rohan, perhaps, was his name. Recalling the name vaguely etched in his memory, Asef opened the door himself and got out of the car.
As he set foot on the ground and stood fully outside, he felt the cool air. Asef belatedly realized that the reason the outside air felt cold was because of the sweat he had broken out in. Swallowing hard, he approached the Grand Duke.
The Grand Duke was wearing a semi-formal suit, not the Imperial Army uniform. Nevertheless, he made people more nervous than the soldiers pointing their guns. The stench of blood and iron wafting from him on the night breeze made Asef's lungs shrink.
"Good evening, Parbellini Duke. The moon is bright."
The Grand Duke, who had his hands in his pockets, greeted him in a casual tone. Listening only to his tone, it was as if they had happened to run into each other on a night walk. Asef ran his tongue over his parched mouth.
After rising to the position of Duke, there was hardly anything to fear or be afraid of... This sensation that made his legs tremble was fear. The primal emotion that gripped his heart was unfamiliar.
Archduke Erzeht must not kill the Parbellini Duke. He couldn't summarily execute him like this, without even the minimum legal procedures. The Parbellinis were a meritorious family of the Empire.
But even embracing that clear fact, he couldn't be sure that he wouldn't kill him. He might, in a fit of madness, turn him into a beehive on the spot without thinking about the aftermath. Especially when he recalled the silent slaughter the man before him had been committing lately.
"...Your Grace, the Grand Duke, what brings you here at this hour?"
He couldn't raise his voice for fear that Archduke Erzeht would order the trigger to be pulled. He carefully chose each word, and the Grand Duke stared intently at Asef. His spine chilled at the gaze that seemed to know what he was afraid of.
"A rat was sneaking into my wife's laboratory, you see."
"...!"
Asef barely managed to contain the agitation that flashed across his face. When he heard that an outsider had entered the Grand Duke's Residence, he had simply picked a young, easily manipulated scholar.
He ordered him to observe what the Grand Duchess was doing and to seize anything that could be a weakness, promising him wealth and fame.
He had also received reports that surveillance would be much less strict since he was entering as a guest of the Grand Duchess, so he had taken the risk and carried it out.
But the guy, who he thought would be quite clever, had been caught immediately. Or perhaps it wasn't being caught, but.
'Could it be that the Grand Duke was waiting? Setting a trap...'
Just waiting for Asef to make a mistake. As Asef's mind raced, the Grand Duke asked.
"Is Lady Parbellini doing well?"
He didn't bother to press Asef about his crime. He simply strangled his breath with a single word. Unable to withstand the elegant threat, Asef let out a deep groan. Political calculations swirled in his head, but at that moment, he answered not as the Parbellini Duke, but as a father.
"Your Grace... I was foolish. Please, have mercy."
He was a man who would come to the Parbellini Duke in the middle of the night and point a gun at him. There was no guarantee that he wouldn't lead the soldiers and storm into the Duke's Residence right now, intimidating Ornella.
His daughter, who had grown up seeing only the most precious and best things as the lily of Traon, could not withstand gunpowder and blood. As Asef begged for forgiveness and bowed his head, the Grand Duke graciously accepted.
However, he made an unexpected offer as a condition for overlooking today's events.
"Give me the Lion's Feather."
He demanded that the Sacred object kept in the Parbellini family be handed over. The Parbellini's Sacred object was a golden feather said to have fallen from the Winged Lion that appeared in the founding myth.
Whenever Asef saw that feather, he ridiculed it, saying that it was impossible to know whether it was really from the Winged Lion or just a feather plucked from some unknown bird and painted gold.
But for Archduke Erzeht, of all people, to ask for the Lion's Feather, he was dumbfounded. It was well known that he was a disbeliever who did not believe in God and hated superstitious acts.
Of course, he would give up the feather if it meant living, but Asef couldn't resist the sudden urge and asked the Grand Duke.
"What is it that Your Grace desires?"
He had been curious about his intentions ever since he heard the news that Archduke Erzeht had beheaded King Kalpen.
Beheading the King was the worst choice. He couldn't not know that keeping the King alive and negotiating was the best option, so he wondered what he was going to do about the aftermath of acting like that.
But it was confidence, not arrogance. As soon as the Grand Duke beheaded King Kalpen, he immediately annihilated the resistance forces centered on the Kalpen Crown Prince.
Originally, they should have been dragged around by the resistance forces for at least half a year. But the Grand Duke knew exactly which nobles inside Kalpen were cooperating with the resistance forces, how the resistance forces were procuring supplies, and where they were stationed.
The Kalpen resistance forces were literally played in the palm of the Grand Duke's hand and were wiped out in less than a month. The unbelievably swift disposal was impossible without God's help.
Or he himself had become God.
He had felt fear towards the Grand Duke in the past, but it was nothing compared to now. The current Grand Duke seemed to have realized all the principles of heaven and was seeing the future. It was so absurd that Archduke Erzeht was the protagonist of the world that he was about to laugh.
The Grand Duke's actions, which were no different from foresight, continued even after he returned to the Empire. The nobles of Traon were helplessly defeated by the Grand Duke, who saw through the future.
The Grand Duke not only broke the power of the nobles but also eliminated them one by one. Many nobles were dishonorably stripped of their titles or quietly murdered in various ways. Most of them didn't even have proper funerals.
But why?
There was no reason for all these actions. It was difficult to say that he wanted to seize the Empire and usurp the throne. Because even those who were clearly helpful to Archduke Erzeht had shed blood. The Grand Duke was simply repeating unnecessary slaughter.
For whom was the silent massacre, the criteria of which were unknown? Asef was truly curious about the Grand Duke's intentions.
"...What I desire."
The Grand Duke, who had been contemplating quite seriously, gave an answer as if talking to himself.
"If I had to say, it's peace."
Asef immediately distorted his face. It was because he thought the Grand Duke was mocking him. For a man who led a bloody storm to truly desire peace.
The Grand Duke, reading Asef's thoughts, slowly continued.
"If I didn't desire it."
Holding Asef in his blood-like eyes, he drew a twisted smile.
"It would have been difficult for the Duke to be standing perfectly in front of me right now, wouldn't it?"
