GDTEA Chapter 134

Marquis Knocharff’s Domain

The entertainment district of the Great Empire of Neweiton, Bladi Street, was perpetually crowded with people seeking gambling, alcohol, and pleasure.

And Gederus Knocharff, who never turned down any of those indulgences, was a well-known figure on Bladi Street.

“You wretches! Do you have any idea who I am!”

“Eek! M-Marquis.”

“How dare you insult me? Me, a man who holds the title of Marquis?!”

Thwack! Thwack!

Gederus didn’t hesitate to kick the employee who had disrespected him at the gambling hall.

The employee, grabbed by the hair and stomped on, begged for his life, but the drunken Gederus didn’t stop the violence.

“These damned worms don’t know their place!”

The people nearby stifled their snickers at Gederus’s disgraceful behavior.

He had sold his homeland to the enemy, prostrated himself flat, and received nothing but a hollow title—yet every time he heard the word “traitor,” he threw a fit like this.

It was quite entertaining to watch him flail about, trying to salvage some pride in place of the conscience he had discarded.

“S-sorry, for-forgive, please, sp-spare me, ugh……!”

Before the merciless violence, the employee was eventually hauled away, reduced to a bloody mess.

“What are you looking at!”

Gederus hurled his wine bottle and staggered back to his seat.

As if waiting for this, a courtesan immediately poured him a drink.

The dealer promptly offered Gederus cards, resuming the game.

No matter how much trouble Gederus caused or how violent his words and actions were, no one stopped him or threw him out.

There was no place that would refuse a customer addicted to pleasure and spending money lavishly.

“Hehehe……. Good, this time I’m going all in!”

“Oh my~ It seems our Marquis has gotten a good hand. I’ll fold.”

“Come now. Then our Marquis won’t win much, will he? I’ll try following along.”

The nobles who had been mocking Gederus just moments ago now united in flattering him.

Gederus seemed immediately cheered by the nobles’ fawning, and he gulped down the drinks the courtesan offered him.

“—Marquis Knocharff wins.”

“Oh dear, it was too much for me after all. Impressive, Marquis.”

“You’ve won quite a bit, Marquis, shall we stop here for today?”

“Wha—, no! Hic, we must continue! I’m just getting started!”

Gederus, who had always been unable to assert himself among the noble faction, didn’t want to miss this moment of being the center of attention.

“Haha, then we’ll need to get more chips.”

“Same here.”

As if they had been waiting for it, the nobles all went to exchange chips at once.

However, they exchanged four times the amount they had started with—more than what Gederus currently had.

“Ah, when the Marquis shouted all-in just now, you looked so magnificent. I got a bit carried away.”

“Haha, gambling is only fun when you bet big and win big. Isn’t that right, Marquis Knocharff?”

Gederus, his face flushed red from the alcohol, glanced between his chips and the opposing nobles’ chips.

If the difference in chips was too great, they couldn’t even have a proper showdown.

Gederus drained his entire wine bottle and cackled.

“Just wait, hic, a moment! I’ll go exchange some too!”

“Ah, don’t overdo it, Marquis. I heard your finances haven’t been doing well lately.”

The opposing noble stopped Gederus with a concerned expression.

Eyes like a serpent, hiding their greed behind a worried performance, curved like a crescent moon.

“That’s right. Even the entry fee for our gatherings and the admission fee for Bladi Street must be a burden.”

“What are you talking about! Urp, there’s absolutely no problem!”

Gederus snapped and denied it.

“The wealth of I, Gederus Knocharff, shall never diminish!”

Declaring this with confidence, Gederus rose from his seat to exchange chips.

Standing before the chip exchange, he grinned so wide his gold teeth showed.

“Put a thousand gold on the House of Biyan’s account.”

“Yes, Marquis.”

Having instantly exchanged a thousand gold for chips, Gederus gazed at the hefty stack of chips with gleaming eyes.

‘What would those fools know……. My fiancée is none other than the Princess of the Krianet Kingdom!’

The House of Biyan was a family that Arisviyan had casually created for the purpose of laundering her identity, and thanks to the vast sums of money spent, it had become a legitimately existing noble house within the Great Empire of Neweiton.

Built on such a foundation, the House of Biyan consisted entirely—immediate family, direct line, and collateral branches—of Krianet nobles who followed Arisviyan.

‘I hold that secret, and I’ll soon be wed to the Princess! Which means all that wealth is as good as mine!’

All of the Krianet royal assets that Arisviyan had siphoned off had become the property of the House of Biyan.

In terms of wealth alone, it ranked among the top five in the Great Empire of Neweiton.

However, because eyes were watching, Arisviyan had been living all this time as a noble lady without a backer, using only the Marquis Knocharff family’s wealth.

‘But I’m different!’

Arisviyan was merely a noble lady, but Gederus was none other than a Marquis of the nobility.

This level of extravagance was only natural for a Marquis.

Cackling to himself, Gederus returned to his seat.

The nobles showered Gederus with admiration for having procured a thousand gold in an instant to exchange for chips, lavishing him with praise for his capabilities.

The gazes of the nobles who had been watching Gederus—utterly lost in drink and women—shifted discreetly to something beyond him.

“…….”

A woman who had been looking down at the noisy and squalid gambling hall with her face hidden behind an ornate fan quietly disappeared.

Before leaving Bladi Street, the woman gestured to her trusted subordinate.

“Keep a good hold on him until I give further instructions.”

“Yes. What shall we do about the money?”

“Let him spend freely.”

Tap. As the woman boarded the carriage and closed her fan, vivid red eyes darker than her crimson-painted lips were revealed, along with the tear-shaped mole beneath them.

The carriage set off, and Arisviyan gazed at the receding Bladi Street with a slight smile.

“Thank you for your help, Marquis.”

In the dark interior of the carriage where quiet dawn had seeped in, Darhan Bridend, seated across from her, smiled gently.

“Are you truly alright with Knocharff using your family’s assets however he pleases?”

According to the reports from nobles that Darhan had planted, the amount Gederus spent on Bladi Street in a single day was no small sum.

Darhan had been shocked to receive reports that all of that financial support was being generously provided by the family of the ‘Eris Biyan’ sitting before him.

That the value of ‘Eris Biyan’ would rise considerably was simply a bonus.

Reading Darhan’s gaze, Arisviyan smiled shyly with her eyes.

“What could there possibly be to worry about. There is the Marquis Knocharff domain, after all.”

“Ah.”

Arisviyan rose slightly and sat beside Darhan, linking her arm through his.

Leaning her head softly against his shoulder, Arisviyan spoke as if humming a song.

“Marquis, is there still no news from the Chelonar County?”

Darhan silently met Arisviyan’s gaze.

To her, Darhan’s cold-looking eyes appeared attractive.

“Marquis, even if it’s not formal adoption into the family, I wish to become someone who stands closest to you and serves as your greatest strength.”

The voice whispering of love was truly dizzying.

Darhan, drawn in by the rich fragrance of a rose full of thorns, revealed the greed he had kept hidden until now.

“Then, could you poison the Emperor?”

In a moment of quiet stillness, Arisviyan smiled more beguilingly than ever before.

“Kiss me.”

“Gladly.”

Filthy and ugly desires intertwined, ultimately giving birth to a great evil.

They reached out with blood-stained hands, firmly believing that at the end of it all, only glorious triumph would await them.

It was a foolish, futile human dream.

****

Like consciousness submerged in water being hauled up to the surface all at once, awareness surged back in a rush.

Gasping a breath and snapping her eyes open, Sharti felt her heart pounding.

Dark red eyes that had been vacantly staring at an unfamiliar ceiling while taking in the cool dawn air slowly began scanning the surroundings.

‘Where am I?’

She was lying alone in a bed in a room she had never seen before.

Blinking, Sharti tried moving her fingers first.

Contrary to her expectation that they would be stiff, each joint of her fingers moved smoothly.

Carefully touching her throat, Sharti squeezed her eyes shut.

‘My throat hurts.’

She couldn’t tell whether screaming had worsened her condition again, or whether she was simply thirsty from waking up after fainting.

Sharti slowly sat up.

“……?”

Her body felt better than expected.

There were no aftereffects from the seizure whatsoever.

On the off chance, she tried applying force to her throat.

“My voice is fine too……?”

She had expected her voice to be hoarse, even if it hadn’t returned to its former sound.

“……Could it be, the seizures are gradually growing weaker?”

Her heart fluttered at the hopeful state of things.

“Ren?”

Sharti got out of bed to look for Ren, who was still nowhere to be seen.

Her legs were weak, but walking slowly was manageable.

Click. Stepping out of the room, Sharti realized this was an inn.

‘I was wondering if we’d made it out of the wasteland—looks like we did. Which domain were we supposed to arrive at next?’

She was fairly certain it had been called a Marquis’s domain.

“Oh, you’re up?”

An inn employee who spotted Sharti heading outside greeted her in recognition.

“Your lover was making quite a fuss about you not waking up for two whole days.”

“Pardon? Two days?”

Sharti was startled to hear she had been asleep for two entire days.

Despite having been unconscious for two days, she felt no particular difficulty moving her body.

“You picked a good lover, didn’t you? Your lover stayed by your side the whole time, rubbing here, kneading there—absolute devotion.”

“Ah…….”

Ren had been massaging her the entire time to ease her body, which had collapsed from the seizure, and that was why she felt this well.

Realizing it had been a false hope, Sharti set aside that thought and, while turning the silver ring on her finger, asked about the location she had been curious about.

“This is Marquis Knocharff’s domain.”

There was more she wanted to ask, but she couldn’t keep holding up the clearly drowsy employee.

Sharti headed outside the inn for now.

Only after seeing the merchant group’s cargo wagons parked behind the inn did she feel relieved.

‘I was worried because it seemed like there had been a large fire, but it looks like the damage wasn’t extensive.’

Sharti shook off the lingering afterimages of the shock that kept surfacing and rubbed her arms.

Having come out without properly putting anything on, the cold dawn air quickly bit into her skin.

Her body, which had been unconscious for two days, shivered as it met the cold air.

“—Sha!”

Ren burst out of the inn and called out to Sharti urgently.

“Ren, were you in the inn?”

“Ha…….”

At the unexpected question, Ren let the tension drain from his body and scrubbed his face with his hands.

Sharti quietly observed his mood.

“You weren’t by my side, so I came out to look for you.”

“If I’m not by your side, wait. Do you know how startled I was?”

Ren, who had roughly pulled off his hood as though frustrated, glared at Sharti.

At his clearly furious expression, Sharti fidgeted with her fingers.

Then, the coat he had been wearing was draped over her shoulders.

“No matter where you go, I’ll come looking for you—but if you can’t see me, wait first. If you stay in that spot, I will come back to your side, Sha.”

Brow furrowed deeply, Ren carefully fastened each button for her.

“……I’m sorry…….”

As she whispered in a small, fading voice, Ren crouched down in front of her.

And then he wrapped his arms tightly around her lower body.

“I’m not angry. I was startled and worried. Sha. I stepped away briefly to get water, and you were gone……. I was so worried you might be in pain somewhere, or collapsed somewhere.”

Because Ren had his face buried against her, his voice came out muffled.

“I’m sorry……. I won’t do it again. I promise.”

Sharti slipped her fingers through the gap between buttons and patted Ren’s hair.

After a long moment, Ren’s head nodded.

Afterward, Sharti went for a dawn stroll on the pretext of conversation, partly to lift Ren’s spirits.

Ren’s coat was so large that she looked a little comical, but since he seemed pleased, Sharti stayed quiet.

“By the way, if I was unconscious for two whole days, we must have gotten out of the wasteland really quickly.”

“…….”

“Did you hurry because you were worried there might be another attack?”

“……Something like that.”

Ren subtly averted his gaze.

Neigh—!

Just as they were about to head back to the inn, Ren pulled Sharti into the shadow of a building at the sound of horses approaching from a distance.

A lavish carriage passed by accompanied by the sound of carriage wheels.

It was a carriage with all its windows covered in black cloth, suggesting a noble was inside.

‘……I think I saw a scorpion emblem.’

Sharti squinted with a sense of unease.

The recurring presence of the scorpion emblem felt ominous.