GDTEA Chapter 121

The Noble Assembly

The noble assembly held in the imperial palace was a grand council attended by every noble in the Great Empire of Neweiton.

The Emperor sat at the head of the table, and on either side of him were seated the nobles of greatest influence after the Emperor himself.

The grand council proceeded by raising key agenda items and dividing into factions for and against — though in practice, it was little more than a contest of dominance between the various factions.

In a noble assembly where the political dynamic between Grand Duke Gwendhill — who was practically the Emperor’s own hands and feet — and Marquis Bridend, the leader of the noble faction, was most plainly on display, the presence of the neutral faction carried little weight.

But the death of Grand Duke Gwendhill had changed everything.

“Baron Hubel of the noble faction came to see me. He asked that we stand on their side at this assembly.”

“I received a private letter from the imperial palace. It seems His Majesty still cannot let go of Gwendhill.”

“Good grief, and that’s exactly the problem, isn’t it. To think that His Majesty, once so wise and sharp, cannot release himself from that traitor.”

“Even so, we cannot leave the matter of the House of Gwendhill’s disposition entirely in the hands of the noble faction at this assembly. If power tilts completely to one side, what will become of the Empire?”

The moment the body of the traitor Leodelt Gwendhill was discovered, the noble faction moved without hesitation.

They pressured the Emperor into convening the noble assembly and immediately prepared an agenda item concerning the disposition of the House of Gwendhill.

The vast wealth and fertile lands of the House of Gwendhill — which had protected and sustained the Empire through long years — were on the verge of being carved up to suit the noble faction’s appetite.

“Then would you take the Emperor’s side? Do you think Marquis Bridend would let that stand?”

“Count Dohemian, whom I met the day before yesterday, was saying that the compensation offered by the noble faction is quite considerable.”

“Well, if we help Marquis Bridend at this assembly and the House of Gwendhill comes crashing down, there will be quite a lot trickling down to us as well.”

Even the Emperor could no longer manage to hold on against the tide of political upheaval.

Naturally, sentiment within the neutral faction had also begun shifting toward support of the noble faction.

The quiet tightrope walk had begun.

“Count, should you not arrange a separate meeting with Marquis Bridend before the assembly?”

“Quite right. You ought to sound out their intentions in advance.”

The neutral faction nobles who had gathered in the imperial palace waiting room ahead of the noble assembly each pressed Count Chelonar for their own separate reasons.

Count Chelonar, whose head already felt ready to burst on account of Darhan Bridend, chewed down a painkiller for the throbbing in his temples.

“And what intentions am I to sound out?”

At Count Chelonar’s hollow, sunken gaze, the nobles exchanged glances and cleared their throats.

“However one looks at it, this is now Marquis Bridend’s era. There is nothing to lose by making a good impression.”

The moment his eyes met those of the neutral faction nobles who murmured with subtle undertones, Count Chelonar let out a dry, hollow laugh.

He saw in them a naked hunger for power — something he had never once witnessed in all the years Grand Duke Gwendhill had been alive.

Count Chelonar’s weary face was still as he slowly rubbed his hands over it.

“Is this what all of you think?”

Most of the nobles quietly averted their eyes. The sentiment and the tide were flowing so thoroughly toward Darhan Bridend that no one dared voice an opposing opinion openly.

Count Chelonar’s clenched hand trembled.

‘This is no coincidence.’

Count Chelonar was, in his own right, the leader of a noble faction with considerable influence.

He had always sought a life far removed from political schemes — yet that did not mean he was blind to a plot so plainly visible before him.

‘To take Eryl hostage!’

Though every part of him wanted to grab Darhan Bridend by the collar and drive his fist into that face, his legs could barely hold him upright.

Darhan’s scheme had succeeded. So long as his one and only daughter was held hostage, Count Chelonar had no means of escaping his grasp.

It was a transparent and contemptible trick.

‘But, but……’

If he did as Darhan Bridend wished and lent his hand to the noble faction at today’s assembly, perhaps Eryl might be spared.

Foolish paternal love clung even to the faintest sliver of hope.

Knock, knock.

“Count Chelonar, His Majesty the Emperor summons you.”

At that moment, the chamberlain arrived at the waiting room and called for Count Chelonar.

Beneath the gazes of all those around him, the Count straightened his clothes with trembling hands. Count Chelonar called Eryl’s smile to mind as it drifted before his eyes and forced himself to take one heavy step after another.

“I pay my respects to His Majesty, sovereign of boundless and glorious honor.”

“Come in, Count.”

The Emperor, who received Count Chelonar in his private chamber, smiled with a knowing expression and gestured for him to be seated.

At the Emperor’s gracious manner, the Count’s throat burned as though he had swallowed sand.

Seated close to the Emperor, Count Chelonar stared blankly at the floor.

“You seem uncomfortable in your seat.”

“……”

“Count Chelonar, I shall ask you one thing.”

“Please speak, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor did not ask his question immediately, and a moment of silence passed between them.

The Emperor’s wordless gaze rested upon the Count’s bowed head like a stone laid upon it — he found it utterly impossible to lift his eyes.

Then the Emperor’s hand gently covered the Count’s fist where it rested on his thigh.

“It seems my summons has put you in quite a difficult position, Count.”

“……”

Even with the influence of his past lessened by the loss of Grand Duke Gwendhill and the pressure from the noble faction, the Emperor before him was still the master of the Great Empire of Neweiton.

His facility for appeasement and persuasion, his extraordinary talent for tactics and stratagem — all of it was testament to the sharpness of his mind.

“They say there are whispers going about that my authority has weakened of late. That the nobles who used to come running to the imperial palace the moment anything happened have, at some point, begun flocking elsewhere — that too must be the reason.”

The Emperor’s voice was firm as he laid out only the facts.

What was weak was the Count himself — unable to form a single proper word in the face of that firmness.

The Emperor clasped the Count’s hand tightly.

“Count, do you truly believe that Grand Duke Gwendhill committed treason?”

“……”

“If we allow Grand Duke Gwendhill’s honor to be ground into the dirt just as it is, who in the future would dare step forward to protect me and the imperial family — to defend this Empire?”

“……Your Majesty.”

“I understand your position, Count. I know what feelings led you to refuse the marquessate. But for me, there is no option beyond you, Count.”

Count Chelonar wavered.

In the face of the Emperor’s sincere appeal, even a loyal subject might have wept.

“The sacrifice of Grand Duke Gwendhill alone is enough. Should we not prevent any greater sacrifice?”

“……”

And yet in the end, Count Chelonar left for the noble assembly without having given the Emperor any definitive answer.

Right now his mind was filled entirely with Darhan Bridend.

“Oh, everyone has gathered early, I see.”

And at last, when Darhan appeared in the assembly hall, the Count nearly leapt to his feet without thinking.

Hatred and desperation pressed down upon him simultaneously, and his legs trembled too badly to stand.

At that moment, Darhan, brushing aside the flood of flattery from the assembled nobles and making his way to his seat, turned his gaze with practiced ease.

“……!”

“It has been a while, Count Chelonar.”

[It has been a while, Count Chelonar.]

The moment his eyes met Darhan’s, Count Chelonar’s face contorted sharply.

That shameless, utterly unperturbed manner of his made the Count’s stomach turn.

Darhan shifted his gaze away from Count Chelonar, who could do nothing but tremble with rage.

“The assembly is about to begin, yet the Tower Master is nowhere to be seen.”

The Tower Master, whom Darhan had considered the greatest obstacle at today’s assembly, had not shown his face in the hall.

The noble faction made no effort to conceal their sneers at the Tower Master’s absence — he who, at this juncture, would have been the greatest source of strength for the Emperor.

“Well, of course. As if someone not even born of the Empire would dare set foot in a grand noble assembly.”

“Ha ha, if you put it that way, what do you suppose Marquis Knocharff thinks?”

“Ah, please don’t misunderstand. Marquis Knocharff is at least of noble birth, is he not? There is simply no comparison.”

“Yes, well…… Ha ha.”

Marquis Gederus Knocharff, who had been swift to align himself with the noble faction, laughed it off along with the others, reading the room.

“His Majesty the Emperor has arrived!”

The inner doors of the assembly hall opened, and the Emperor appeared.

The Emperor took his seat directly without sparing so much as a glance at the nobles bowing before him.

“We shall begin the assembly.”

Every seat was filled except for those of Grand Duke Gwendhill and the few nobles who had followed him, and the Tower Master’s seat.

Count Chelonar sat in the seat beside Grand Duke Gwendhill’s, which now stood empty.

It meant he had no choice but to meet the gaze of Darhan directly across from him.

“The agenda for this assembly concerns the formal processing of the death of Leodelt Gwendhill, who plotted treason, and the disposition of the House of Gwendhill.”

The moment the chamberlain finished reading aloud the agenda on behalf of the assembly, one noble shot to his feet.

“Your Majesty! I have heard that the body said to have been discovered was in a state of considerable decomposition. The claim that this body is Grand Duke Gwendhill lacks credibility.”

“The body has already been confirmed through identification by the direct bloodline of the House of Gwendhill. All that remains is to formally announce the death of the traitor.”

“Precisely. Accordingly, the members of the House of Gwendhill, who dared take part in treason, must be investigated one and all, and made to pay the price for their crime of treason!”

Since the charge was nothing less than treason, the noble faction raised their voices without restraint, and it was no easy thing to shield the House of Gwendhill — let alone to argue for their innocence.

The Emperor watched the assembly grow increasingly noisy with rising voices, his expression blank.

The whole of this situation felt like nothing more than a kind of theatre staged by Darhan Bridend.

Count Chelonar felt the very same.

‘He is waiting.’

Watching Darhan with his unhurried composure, Count Chelonar laughed inwardly with exhausted resignation.

Darhan was signaling him right now.

Was it not time, as the leader of the neutral faction, to open his mouth and speak?

‘Once I begin, the neutral faction nobles will all open their mouths in unison.’

And then the neutral faction nobles would gleefully prattle on about stripping the House of Gwendhill of the grand ducal title, carving up the territory into dozens of pieces and turning the people of those lands into laborers — whatever proposals would please the noble faction to hear.

‘Eryl……’

It had already been several days since he had left Eryl’s side.

He did not even want to imagine how much her condition might have worsened.

Letters were still being exchanged with the Chelonar County estate, but because of the distance from the capital, he had no way of receiving swift news.

“……”

Count Chelonar swallowed dryly and lifted his gaze.

Darhan, who had been watching him all the while, curved the corners of his eyes upward.

If there was a devil, if there was a monster wearing a human skin — surely it would look like this.

“……Your Majesty—”

The moment Count Chelonar opened his mouth, the hall fell silent in an instant.

The Emperor simply looked at him, composedly and without expression. Beneath that gaze, the Count’s bleary vision — sleepless for days — wavered just for a moment.

Count Chelonar faced Darhan directly and spoke with a sigh.

“It seems the atmosphere on both sides has grown overheated over this sensitive agenda item. Perhaps it would be best to take a brief recess.”

“……”

For a fleeting instant, the amusement vanished from Darhan’s eyes.

The Emperor nodded and permitted a brief recess before leaving his seat first. The assembly having unexpectedly paused, the nobles too took their cues and filed out of the hall one by one.

“Count Chelonar — let us go and wet our throats for a moment.”

At last Darhan himself called out to Count Chelonar first.

Count Chelonar followed Darhan into a waiting room not far from the assembly hall.

Thud. The moment the door closed, Count Chelonar grabbed Darhan by the collar.

“What have you done to my daughter!”

“Done, you say?”

“Don’t you dare play innocent! Ever since you visited and met with Eryl——!”

“Making such a fuss already over a mere nightmare — this is going to be a problem.”

“……!”

Count Chelonar faltered, and Darhan brushed away his hands with a cold smile.

The two hands that had been filled with fury fell limply away.

Darhan smoothed out his wrinkled collar and drew a scroll from within his robes.

Like a devil, Darhan whispered sweetly into Count Chelonar’s ear.

“If you wish to save your daughter, there is still an opportunity.”

What the devil held out — that vile and ruthless creature who concealed his true nature — was a magic oath scroll.