#51 The Servant Cedric (17) – Great Uncle

‘Claudia running wild on her own isn’t scary, but if she bands together with neighboring lords in a cooperative relationship and raises her voice, it could get a little tiresome. Should I subtly use the Second Prince’s name to keep them in check?’

‘I need to implement assassination countermeasures too. Blocking assassinations on the second and third sons means they’ve got some damn good swordsmen protecting them. There’s a chance they might desperately try to take my head, so I need to guard myself thoroughly.’

‘I also need to clearly communicate the benefits Redbell will gain from Claudia’s marriage. If I create a flow of expectation for the marriage all around, Claudia’s pathetic attempts at public opinion manipulation will just get swept away by the tide.’

Armin Redbell’s political maneuvering was truly meticulous.

Despite Claudia’s forces being relatively weaker, he didn’t let his guard down, and systematically blocked every means and method she could use.

Instead of haphazardly throwing in troops like his younger brothers, he aimed for a shutout from the beginning, a sight that seemed to show why he had solidified his position as Redbell’s successor so early on.

However, the one thing Armin was unfortunate about was that he judged his opponent within the realm of common sense.

“Armin Redbell!! You dare stab me in the back!?”

So, when the Second Prince, his face flushed red, stormed into his territory, Armin couldn’t grasp the situation and could only panic.

“Calm yourself, Your Noble Highness. A stab in the back? How could I ever do such a disrespectful thing to Your Highness? Let’s talk calmly first…”

“Calm? Calmly? Do you think I can be calm right now! Do you even know what Bartholomew, that b*stard, told me!?”

Grand Duke Bartholomew.

Hearing the name of the prince of the Virka Kingdom and a powerful figure aiming for the next king’s seat, Armin’s face hardened slightly.

He instinctively felt that the Second Prince’s rage wasn’t just a simple misunderstanding or a happening.

And that premonition became reality with the words that followed from the Second Prince.

“That b*stard told me, ‘Your Highness, I understand you are impatient in many ways, but still, to sell off your family’s young child to do business. I cannot help but doubt your character as royalty.’ Now the rumor is spreading throughout the entire royal family that I was trying to grow my power by selling my niece!! And that Claudia woman is going around with Bartholomew, testifying that this whole thing is my conspiracy!! Are you still going to pretend you don’t know!?”

“That’s absurd…”

Armin unconsciously staggered.

His head throbbed as if he’d been hit hard with a hammer.

‘Knowing that the Redbell family bet on the Second Prince, she sided with the prince? Is she crazy?’

The Redbell Marquis and the Sarnos Count families are respectively supporting the Second Prince and the Prince, and are pouring a lot of effort into winning.

The winner will get more as the first-class merit of the throne battle, but the loser will lose as much.

If the Prince wins, he will not try to let the Redbell family, who supported the Second Prince and interfered with him, go.

The Redbell family is so prestigious that it is impossible to drive it to ruin at once, but if the royal family and the count family, which are the second of the three major powers of the kingdom, cooperate and push the marquis family, the damage will be unimaginable.

But, in that situation, she clings to the enemy and stabs Redbell in the back? Just because she doesn’t want to get married?

‘Th-This idiotic woman…!! There’s a limit to being immature!!’

No matter how thorough and cautious Armin was, or rather, because of that personality, he never even imagined that Claudia would use such a method.

Yes, she might be able to avoid the crisis for now.

But what comes next?

If the Second Prince wins, he definitely won’t leave Claudia alone, and if the Royal Younger Brother wins, Claudia’s usefulness plummets as soon as he does.

Governing Redbell with Claudia as a puppet? Would the retainers willingly accept a traitor to the family?

Judging by Armin’s common sense and knowledge, Claudia’s latest move was like burning down the house itself because she didn’t like the bugs infesting it.

It might be okay somehow in the summer, but in winter, it was a suicidal act that would lead to freezing to death.

The problem was, Armin was about to get swept up in that suicidal act.

“Don’t misunderstand, Your Highness! This is Claudia’s sole action! It’s absolutely not some conspiracy plotted by our family!”

“You’re telling me the mighty Redbell family had no idea one of their young ladies ran away from the territory and contacted the Royal Younger Brother? You expect me to believe that? Don’t even think about spouting that you just left your tool for a political marriage unattended, without even monitoring her properly!”

“That is…”

Armin gritted his teeth.

He had clearly ordered his subordinates to monitor Claudia, but not a single one of them had reported that such a situation had occurred, or even that Claudia had shown any movement.

It was proof that no matter how thoroughly you planned at the top, it was all for naught if the people in the field didn’t follow through.

Of course, his subordinates also had an excuse.

Was it their fault that the servant Claudia hired was actually a capable illusion mage?

“And even if all of this was that b*tch’s sole doing, it’s still a problem!! In the end, it’s still the same thing as Redbell stabbing me in the back!!”

A world where guilt-by-association was taken for granted.

Whether Claudia’s actions were her own or not, as long as it was a fact that she was born of the Redbell bloodline, Armin Redbell could not avoid the responsibility.

He had become the team leader of a damned group project tied together by blood.

No, in a way, it was even more miserable than that, because the real leader was too big to touch, and Armin, the relatively easy target as the assistant leader, was being reamed out instead.

While desperately appeasing the raging Second Prince, Armin seethed inwardly.

‘Claudia, I will repay this humiliation…!!’

*

“Hahaha! The little brat’s face, how it turned red and then blue, it was the best sight I’ve seen lately!”

A middle-aged man with striking, flecked platinum blonde hair burst into laughter.

The Royal Younger Brother (王弟) of the Virka Kingdom, and Claudia’s great-uncle.

Claudia smiled at Grand Duke Bartholomew.

“I’m glad if I was of assistance to Your Highness.”

“No need for stuffy expressions like ‘Your Highness,’ just call me great-uncle.”

“Then I’ll call you great-uncle, I guess.”

“Huh, usually they’d feign humility and ask if they could, but you just take it right away?”

“I’m just a little…blunt, you know?”

“Hahaha! Good, good! I’m so relieved you don’t resemble that Redbell Marquis…that slimy b*stard!”

Claudia’s words were remarkably unreserved.

Even for a reckless woman like her, she wouldn’t outright speak informally to a royal and her great-uncle, so she at least used the bare minimum of honorifics, but that was it.

But the Grand Duke seemed to like it, displaying a constantly cheerful demeanor.

“When my brother decided to give your mother, my niece, to that Marquis b*stard, I was secretly very dissatisfied. Giving that young girl, who wasn’t much younger than me, as his second wife…I wondered if it was really the right thing to do. Especially since she was already so frail.”

“Political marriages and all that…they’re a real nuisance for the person on the receiving end.”

“Rest assured. I won’t let you suffer the same fate as your mother. I’m not that shameless son-of-a-b*tch who’d sell off his own niece.”

Claudia didn’t take the Grand Duke’s grand declaration at face value.

He acted like a jovial grandfather who missed his niece and was kind to her child, but he was a politician who wouldn’t hesitate to use schemes and power struggles to seize the throne of this country.

Just look at how he dragged Claudia around, having her testify about the incident, all to directly attack the Second Prince.

He was acting friendly now because Claudia was useful to him, but it remained to be seen if he’d maintain the same attitude when her usefulness waned.

‘Well, I don’t care. I’m using him too, after all.’

Someone like Armin would probably be cursing her out for acting stupidly, but Claudia thought differently.

Even if she switched sides to the Grand Duke and supported him, Redbell and the Second Prince wouldn’t collapse so easily.

The Redbell Marquis had already reaped a lot of benefits.

A sluggish fight would likely continue for a while, and it would be a long time before Claudia’s usefulness disappeared.

And if she only had ‘time’, she was confident she could become someone capable of settling the very succession dispute itself, far beyond the level of whether or not she was useful.

The improved arcane art Cedric had newly gifted her was that ridiculously amazing.

Even if she abandoned Redbell entirely, given a bit of leeway, she could create a new power that was just as good.

Of course, that didn’t mean she needed to throw away what she already had.

“Great-Uncle, you haven’t forgotten, have you? The mastermind behind this incident is, after all, just the eldest son, Armin, acting in collusion with His Highness the Second Prince, exceeding his authority. It’s not Redbell’s will itself.”

“Hmm, wouldn’t it be better to take this good opportunity to beat them all at once? Especially since the Sarnos family is raising hell, insisting we take advantage of this opportunity.”

“Which would leave a bigger wound, stabbing a single point with the tip of a sword, or using the flat of the blade to slap it sideways? The more places you try to hit, the more the strength is dispersed.”

“Haha, you certainly have a talent for gently packaging the idea of cutting out the troublesome eldest son and leaving the rest for you to eat! Certainly, if the attack is directed at ‘Armin Redbell’ personally, rather than ‘Redbell’ as a whole, the retainers will have less resistance.”

“If Great-Uncle gains a new supporter because of that, wouldn’t that be good for him too? If your only supporter is the Sarnos family, you’ll have to respect their opinions even after ascending to the throne. But if you have two supporters, me and the Sarnos family, you can make us compete with each other to your liking, right?”

“Hmm.”

The Grand Duke’s eyebrows twitched at Claudia’s words.

A smile still lingered on his lips, but the emotion contained within that smile was markedly different from before.

“I might have to take back what I said earlier. Your appearance may resemble your niece, but your inner self definitely has the blood of that Marquis flowing through it.”

“…Could you take back those words?”

Claudia’s face began to visibly sour.

At that blatant, yet strangely human, reaction, the Royal Prince burst into laughter once more.

In the corner of the room where the two were conversing.

While waiting like a shadow, just like the other servants, a satisfied expression was visible on Cedric’s face.

It was true that Cedric had set the general direction, but it was Claudia’s ability that filled in the details and showed improvisation on the spot.

The naive noble lady who was treated like a troublemaker even by the servants of her own mansion, had grown enough to discuss the future with a prospective future king.

This was just a week before Cedric’s contract expired.