He’s My Real Brother, Duke – Chapter 113

Author: Nikss

At last, I met the Empress’s gaze locked on mine.

“I dare to ask Her Majesty a question.”

The Empress didn’t react to my unwavering voice, but a thunderous roar erupted from her side.

“To what lengths do you dare!”

It was the Marquise Melania, and she tried to restrain me, but I kept my eyes fixed on the Empress. After all, it wasn’t the Marquise Melania I had to deal with now, but the woman in front of me, Empress Veletha.

“Your Majesty, does the cake fit to your palate?”

Unable to take it anymore, the marquise raises her fan and tries to holler again, but the empress finally purses her lips.

“Enough.”

The atmosphere turned even more chilly at the Empress’s words. The Marquise, sensing she had the upper hand, whistled louder.

“Yes, you. Now that the Empress has told you to stop, you know the subject and-“

“Melania.”

When the Empress interrupted the Marquise to call her attention, the exasperated woman turned her head in surprise and asked, “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I was speaking to her. That’s enough.”

As she spoke, to the Marquise’s dismay, the Empress was smiling. It was a smile that was often seen on her face, but it was the first time she had ever seen her grin so wide and the Marquise’s lips dropped open.

“Yes, Your Majesty…? What does that mean…”

Though she may have acted rather insensitive today, the Marquise had been the Empress’s assistant for more than a decade, a woman who had become her hand and feet.

The Marquise was perceptive enough to realize that the Empress was not at all uncomfortable at the moment.

“Does this cake fit your palate,” she asked.

The Empress set the fork she still held down on her plate and stared at me warily. It didn’t take long for her to break the silence.

“This is the best cake I’ve ever tasted…”

Her calm voice had an air about it that made my hands sweat. But I knew, she would give me an affirmative answer.

“…It was the best I’ve ever tasted.”

A look of disbelief appeared on the Marquise’s face. I smirked inwardly and bowed to her.

“That is the highest compliment, Your Majesty.”

“Now… what did you say were the ingredients of this cake?”

“It has lilies, vanilla beans, and serrate leaves, all harmless ingredients that are also used as medicines.”

“Not as medicine?”

I shrugged, trying to look as natural as possible.

“It does help you relax, but I’ve made a special drug out of simple ingredients that all you dessert lovers will recognize.”

Slowly, I became convinced that I was winning the Empress over.

“It’s not like taking a pill. My head is clear and I don’t have a headache. I’ve never felt like this before…”

The Empress inhaled, looking straight at me.

“Not in decades, not ever.”

There was a moment of silence in the room at her words.

Everyone’s mouths dropped open, even the pastry chefs, who were fidgeting restlessly in the kitchen at the back of the café, looking out into the tumultuous hall.

Rushing to the Empress’s side, I whispered softly in her ear.

“I’m actually a healer.”

“A healer?”

“Yes. I’m the one who cured Lord Ricardo of the Jaguar family, who was said to be cursed by the gods.”

At my confident words, everyone’s eyes shifted from me to the Duke of Anais.

It was to my advantage to have all eyes on him, for while they might not trust my word as a commoner, they would certainly believe the opinion of the Duke as a guardian.

The Duke slowly cleared his throat and said, “Do you need proof?”

The Marquise nodded.

“If the Duke can prove this commoner’s word in the name of House Anais, that’s fine, but otherwise, how can we trust the word of a lowly commoner?”

He smirked, but was silent for a moment. He seemed to be choosing his words carefully.

I had secretly hoped that the Duke would be willing to be a witness, but his delayed response made me impatient, and I clasped my hands together.

“The name of House Anais is too insignificant to be worthy of the name.”

Everyone stiffened at the unexpected words. The Duke spoke up, his face more determined than the others.

“Why don’t you put the whole north on the line to prove it?”

A groan of surprise escaped my lips.

‘…That’s too much, Duke!’

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one surprised, the Marquise couldn’t contain herself and her mouth gaped open to reveal her uvula.

The Duke’s calm assurance that he would back up everything I said and did make the Marquise squirm for a moment.

After briefly dismissing her objections, the Duke turned to me, his eyes languid. I almost burst out laughing at his seeming desire for praise, but I swallowed hard and spoke again.

“Thank you for your confidence in my abilities.”

The Marquise frowned and chuckled, then added, “Your Majesty, just in case. This cake must be examined by the imperial physician, and perhaps bring along a piece of interest.”

…I waited for those words!

Grinning broadly at the Marquise, who moved as I intended, I nodded my head vigorously.

“Yes, I would love to see the Imperial Physician!”

It was that moment. My brother, who had been peeking out of the window worriedly, grinned at me.

He couldn’t hear what we were talking about from the outside… but it was heartwarming to see him try to reassure me as soon as our eyes met, without really knowing what was going on.

Maintaining my smile, I shifted my gaze to the Empress, hoping to put my brother’s mind at ease.

“As you wish.”

The Duke whispered, his voice firm, and the Empress nodded her head slowly.

🐾

At last, I made my grand entrance into the drawing room of the Empress’s palace.

I was led through the ornate hallways and into a small parlor, where I was led straight to the front of the Imperial Court with my cake.

To inspect the cake, Empress Veletha, the Marquise Melania, the Imperial Courtier, and I. The four of us sat down.

“So this is the cake in question.”

“Yes.”

Unfortunately, the odds were stacked against me.

The Empress’s imperial physician came from a noble family and was quite close to the Marquise Melania, who disliked me.

As I was thinking, I made eye contact with the Marquise.

She snorted in my direction and turned away quickly, obviously not pleased about my presence.

‘I don’t think she’s been bought, but I’m sure she doesn’t have a good impression of me.’

Instead, I smiled sweetly at the Imperial Courtier, but his expression was grim.

The way the Marquise and I exchanged glances, I knew I had to let my guard down.

I handed the cake to the courtier, then shoved my hands into the inside pockets of my dress, pretending to think.

“What do you think?”

“Let me see, a commoner…”

It was just the Empress, me, and the Imperial Courtier. We took a moment to smell the cake, take a bite, and check the ingredients.

I stared at the imperial courtier, not at all nervous.

“The cake, isn’t it good?”

Pulling my hands casually out of the pockets of my dress, I smiled sheepishly.

The Empress remained calm the entire time, and when the Marquise Melania snickered, she grinned.

“What a perfect cake!”

The imperial physician exclaimed with sincere admiration.

For a moment, I was worried, but I needn’t have worried about whether the imperial physician treating the Empress would be a creep of the Dark Villain.

‘I’m confident I can subdue them quite easily.’

The Marquise pressed the imperial physician with a look of incredulity, but the imperial physician merely shrugged his shoulders, his face clouding over as though he had never tasted this before.

“I’m glad you think so.”

Now that I’d won the imperial court physician’s heart, it was only a matter of time before I won the empress’s.

I turned to the Empress and spoke, giving her a benevolent look.

“Do you think Her Majesty will believe in my innocence now?”

“What the…”

The Marquise gave me an incredulous glance. She quickly composed herself, as noble as she was, but I could tell she was forcing her emotions down.

I kept my expression harmless as if I knew nothing, I thought to myself.

‘Sam’s fraudulent artifact. Thank you, Mr. Villain.’

…The reason for the imperial physician’s sudden change in demeanor upon seeing my cake.

‘I’m in a bit of a pinch to leave it all to the imperial physician’s conscience.’

There’s a chance that the imperial physician might strike me down under pressure from the Marquise, so I had to use a deception artifact to make sure.

Fortunately, the artifact created by the Final Villain was working well within the palace.

“Then head out. I’ll check on the Empress’s chair and help you get a private audience with her.”

“Thank you, Madame.”

Admitting defeat, the Marquise frowned slightly and nudged the maid.

“Go to the reception room and wait.”

As soon as the door opened, Cassian, who was temporarily the Empress’s knight for the day, stood outside.

“I will escort you.”

The way he looked at me, it was like he hadn’t seen me in a decade. At the same time, I felt a twinge of delight.

He seemed to think this would be a good time to be alone with me while the Duke was away.

🐾

The moment she was escorted by her knightly brother was less than expected.

Rather unbecoming of Lord Cassian Gray’s rumored reputation on the continent, he seemed a little nervous.

The reason for this was quickly revealed.

As soon as we stepped inside the reception room, he slipped a small note into my hand, pretending to kiss the back of my hand.

‘Read it,’ he mumbled, and then added a warning, ‘The Duke of Anais is a madman.’

After dismissing my brother, who had to return to work, I sat down in a chair in the reception room and opened the small note and torn paper he had handed me.

[Found in the Empress’s handwriting on a pamphlet in the Four Cafés, underlined repeatedly with the word ‘Labyrinthos’].

True to his word, the torn paper was a pamphlet of my own making.

‘Labyrinthos’ was underlined, and there were question marks and something else unrecognizable, written in the handwriting of a high noblewoman.

‘He doesn’t know about Labyrinthos, but he must have found the note in the pamphlet suspicious.’

I checked my brother’s note and thought quietly.

‘Come to think of it… the Empress herself came to me. It seems unnatural that she simply heard rumors from the nobles. It was far too quick and sudden for me to assume that.’

Even if she was intrigued by the café, it wasn’t something that she’d be visiting anytime soon.

Biting my lip, I stuffed the note my brother had handed me into my pocket, clutching it tightly and crumpling it.

A hint of Labyrinthos had been placed in hopes of finding a witness.

And it was the Empress who took the bait.

A completely different train of thought occurred to me, maybe she was the witness.

‘If we play our cards right, we can kill two birds with one stone.’

Knock, knock—

After a small knock, Empress Veletha appeared in the doorway, elegantly dressed.

As I watched her enter the door, I pulled my hands out of my pockets and rose to face her, bowing briefly.

EmpressVeletha, if you were a witness to the attempted murder of the Count and Countess of Vietry…

“Now that I think about it, there’s something a little odd about that.”

…I think you should side with me.