He’s My Real Brother, Duke Chapter 134
✨
The next morning. Arvent Square was packed with people as usual.
Stalls with all sorts of goods, loud pitches to sell one more thing. And all sorts of promotional material plastered on the walls behind them.
It was a very normal sight.
No one in the area seemed to pay any attention to the plain flyers on the wall.
But hours passed, and it was noon.
As soon as the clock tower’s bell rang out with the distinctive ‘ding, ding, ding’, the situation changed.
Bam—
A woman selling fruit at a stall on one side of the square pointed curiously at the solid wall surrounding the fountain and clock tower or, more precisely, at a flyer on the wall.
“What is that?”
The other woman, who was carrying fruit in a basket beside the surprised woman, shrugged her shoulders and asked.
“What is it? Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost…”
Her gaze shifted to where the tip of her index finger was pointing, and she dropped the apple.
Sure enough, the wall there was plastered with advertisements of all sorts.
Promotions for miscellaneous goods stores, dried fish stores, newspapers, lost and found items, etc…
But this time was different.
They were uniformly replaced with the same flyers.
「The Crown Prince, heir to the throne, is trying to kill the Emperor!」
Hundreds of them, each with large red letters on a black background, blacker than the night sky.
“What the…!”
It wasn’t just the woman with the basket, everyone in the hall was stunned.
After a moment of silence, everyone spoke up.
“What is that?”
“The Crown Prince wants to kill the Emperor?”
“What the…”
“No way, is it about the attack on His Majesty the Emperor?”
New gossip was thrown into the square, where the scene was boringly the same.
The crowd in the square was bustling with people talking about the strange situation, and examining the flyers.
Sensing the commotion, the plaza’s guards rushed out and shouted at the top of their lungs to calm the atmosphere.
“Hey, gentlemen, keep your hands off that blasphemous thing!”
The guards tore down the flyers from the wall, trying to remove them along the way.
But some kind of adhesive spell had been used, and it wouldn’t come off with human hands.
“What kind of magic did they use… It won’t come off!”
All the commoners in Arvent Square witnessed the whole scene, even the nobles who were passing by in their carriages.
Of course, the idea that the Crown Prince was trying to kill the Emperor was, of course, a delusion, with no basis whatsoever
However, the idea of a Crown Prince who might or might not be eligible for the throne was a highly sensationalized issue.
The public reacts to things that are triggering and sensational.
From that point on, doubts and questions about the Crown Prince began to spread secretly among the commoners.
✨
“Have you heard the story?”
“What story?”
“Well, it’s rumored that His Highness the Crown Prince is a traitor!”
What happened at noon, at six in the afternoon, the rumor had spread to the treatment barracks in the middle of the Demon War field.
I swallowed hard at my satisfied laughter and gave a look of disappointment.
“Oh, no.”
‘It’s an effective strategy, the magic of the flyers changing all at once. I’ll never forget it!’ I smirked to myself.
If that kind of rumor spreads even here, where we’re on edge about the state of things with the fiends, there must be a lot of buzz in the capital.
‘I wonder how the Crown Prince’s palace is feeling.’
A peek would suffice.
After carefully placing the gauze over the bedridden patient’s wound, I entered the room at the back of the barracks.
‘Good, there’s no one here.’
Straight away, I clutched the butterfly brooch in my pocket and closed my eyes. Slowly, their forms began to come into view.
Once news of the Crown Prince’s involvement in the Emperor’s murder spread, the palace was shaken.
The Crown Prince summoned his entourage to the round table.
“I killed the Emperor, is that what the rumors say?”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t it better to ignore it?”
“We cannot ignore the public opinion of our people.”
Cornwall added in a low voice, “Isn’t it the power of rumor that we have used to destroy the House of Vietry?”
“…So, are you saying that I am now being treated the same way those traitors were?”
As soon as the proud Crown Prince’s expression turned sour, the atmosphere at the round table suddenly turned cold.
Glancing around at the warlock sitting with the Crown Prince, Cornwall spoke up.
“They’re just a bunch of bastards who need to be tied up and killed.”
“Yes, well, that’s another matter.”
The Crown Prince nodded toward the warlock.
The female warlock shook her head, then spoke in a formal tone, “It seems that the spies I have planted in the demon extermination squads are being dealt with one by one, and I have not heard from any of them.”
The Crown Prince frowned repeatedly as he lit his cigar.
“Nothing’s working, hell!”
But unlike the impatient Crown Prince, the Duke of Cornwall still wore an odd smile.
“But the heavens seem to be helping us.”
Cornwall pushed himself up and opened the door to the chamber.
Through the doorway staggered a small young man with one side of his face half-ravaged and a bloody nose.
“He says he saw Cassian Gray in my manor the day I was killed by that beast, I’ve read his memories.”
At this moment, I couldn’t tell exactly what Cornwall’s expression was, but I could tell that his hands were trembling as he came into view.
He was clearly furious.
“That girl and Cassian Gray, they must be connected in some way.”
The Crown Prince muttered lowly, his jaw clenched.
“Is he part of the Count of Vietry’s family?”
Cornwall nodded his head repeatedly with a grin.
“Correct!”
Cornwall spoke again, his hands running through his hair like a madman.
“So, I think we’ll just have to deal with Cassian Gray and that wench, and then kill the Duke.”
…Oh, they were going to take down the three of us?
With great interest, I eavesdropped on their conversation.
“Alright, let’s hear the plan.”
An important plan was leaking out. Finally, my hands were sweating.
“First, we’re going to kill Cassian Gray, using the spies in the squad.”
But at the crucial moment, the vision was blurring. The time limit, five minutes, was coming to an end.
My heart thudded in my chest with nervousness.
But I was only doing what I could do. Staring through my slowly blurring vision, I squinted, trying to hear every last word of the story.
Within her gaze, the Crown Prince spoke, “So… How do you plan to kill him?”
In the middle of the conversation, the Crown Prince spoke. I was so focused that I felt dizzy.
Then, at the last moment, a small voice whispered in my ear.
“So… me…”
Whether I heard it right or not, I wasn’t sure.
✨
That same day, at sunset.
Two warlocks who had been recruited by Cornwall to spy for the Demon Extermination Corps gathered near the rear of the sparsely populated treatment barracks.
They activated the binding tool Cornwall had crafted.
A simple circle was drawn around them to hide them from prying eyes.
A woman in a healer’s uniform, Julie, spoke, “We’ve been given a message. They want us to kill the key figures first.”
The man in the knight’s robes shook his head and answered bluntly.
“I don’t think the two of us can do it, not with all the others dying one by one!”
Julie, biting her nails, narrowed her eyes.
“Astel, it’s her.”
The spies hiding in the squad were being eliminated one at a time, and the Knights’ power, far from being weakened by the poison, was being revitalized.
“Yeah, right.”
They stared at each other, frowning. Julie spoke first.
“Whatever, let’s move on. I’ve got the lethal poison ready. Any bait to provoke the beast?”
“Already prepared.”
“We’ll take out the most important ones first. Then we’ll wake him up sooner than expected.”
They met each other’s gaze and nodded.
They recalled Cornwall’s words from just a few hours ago, broadcast through the video sphere.
~ ‘This is not going well, so let’s start by killing them.’
~ ‘Got it.’
~ ‘The lethal poison I am sending through the sphere is the ultimate poison. It can’t cure anyone, and it will kill them instantly.’
~ ‘Yes.’
~ ‘Even if someone is a genius with poisons, they will not be able to create a cure for this poison.’
~ ‘Even if the gods themselves come, they can’t cure it?’
~ ‘Even if the gods were to come. I guarantee it. There’s no cure. Once the poison is ingested, it’s over, even if the divine father comes, it’s finished.’
If Cornwall said so, it must be true.
“Those in danger are Knight Commander Ropa Shelind, Healer Astel, Knight Cassian Gray, and Duke Anais. That makes four, I believe. Including Lord Meyer and Lord Retro.”
“I see how to awaken the beast, but how do we feed him the poison?”
The lesser knights and healers had no chance of meeting the Duke.
Meyer and Retro were frighteningly vigilant, and Astel was equally timid and meticulous.
They were trying to figure out how to administer the poison directly
“What are you doing there?”
When the binding magic wore off, Cassian Gray, of ‘Flower of the Capital’ fame, stood before them.
“It’s nothing, the knight said he was sick.”
Julie smiled, not awkwardly, but naturally.
A healer and a knight meeting near the barracks wasn’t exactly suspicious.
“Well, shut up and get to work, then.”
But Cassian Gray’s intimidating look was terrifying.
The knight, familiar with his prickly personality from sharing the same barracks as him, ducked his head and fled first.
“Ah, yes. I’m off then, Julie, bye!”
“Goodbye.”
Julie, on the other hand, watched Cassian’s face and thought about his reputation.
She’d heard he was a man who wouldn’t take no for an answer from a woman. If so…
She called his name, faking a soft, sweet voice.
“Lord Cassian Gray.”
“…What?”
His demeanor was somewhat stiff and his expression dry.
For a man who was so interested in women, she was confident she could seduce him.
Julie grinned seductively and turned to him, asking daringly.
“Tomorrow, just before the Battle of Devly’s Territorial Seas, would you be willing to meet for a moment?”
Tomorrow, she meant, before breaking the ice of the Devly Sea and awakening the beast. Cassian raised an eyebrow and smirked.
“What is it? A date?”
‘I’m pretty sure it’s a date request, as usual.’
The flower of the capital, and yet so frivolous.
Apparently, the rumor that anyone with a skirt was a woman was true. Confident in her appearance, she smiled with a twinkle in her eye.
“Yes, that’s right, I’m asking you out.”
She blushed shyly and held out her hand toward him. She meant for him to escort her.
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