I’m Not the One Who Seduced the Grand Duke – Chapter 41

Author: isuzuuy

Hmm. What exactly is going on here…?

I blankly stared at the simple snacks laid out before me, then slowly raised my head.

Yes. In the end, my attempt to deny being the person they were looking for had failed.

The men in white uniforms were sitting around leisurely, chatting as though they had come to the middle of the garden for a picnic.

‘White uniforms with silver decorations… That means all of these people are knights of the Holy Knights. And judging by the fact that they call Leon “Commander”…’

“Marquess? Why aren’t you eating? Ah, perhaps we startled you too much? We’re sorry. We’re not suspicious people. We’re members of the First Order that was led by our commander… Ah, I mean, His Grace the Grand Duke of Bernstein!”

The red-haired knight, who had introduced himself as Juan Briar, grinned as he spoke.

“We heard that our commander had returned after such a long time, so we were on our way to greet him.”

“But then we heard that the High Priest had immediately summoned him, so we were waiting around, and then we happened to run into the Marquess…! Oh, here, try this. They’re snacks distributed by the Temple. They’re actually pretty good.”

“Ah, thank you.”

I had been craving something sweet anyway.

After thanking him, I grabbed a cookie and took a bite.

For something that looked so rustic, it wasn’t bad.

“So, all of you are knights of this Temple who trained with Leon?”

“That’s right. More precisely, we’re his direct subordinates assigned to carry out missions under the commander’s command.”

“That’s why we were all in an uproar. Our commander suddenly informed us that he had submitted an application for dismissal, not even a simple resignation… And we heard it from someone else, too.”

“Exactly. He just left without telling us a single thing! Isn’t that a little too much?”

The knights cried out in indignation.

Every single one of them looked as though they were absolutely heartbroken, so I nodded.

“I suppose so. That was wrong of Leon. But you’ve been comrades for years, so I think he should have told you in advance…”

Huh?

Why had it suddenly become so quiet?

Feeling an ominous chill, I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at the men in front of me.

It was amusing enough to see several men who were much larger than me sitting hunched over as though they were worried I might be frightened of them.

But even more amusing was the way their eyes sparkled as they looked at me.

“Please scold our commander for us, Marquess!”

“Why would I?”

“Because our commander won’t listen to a word we say, but he seems to listen to everything you say! We’ve sent him letters several times, and he hasn’t replied even once.”

The knights began making pathetic sniffling noises, complaining about how heartless he was.

Good grief.

They had spent three or four years traveling from one monster-hunting ground to another, sharing life and death together.

That did seem a little harsh.

So I said I understood.

“Well, I understand that you’re hurt and disappointed, but it’s not as though you’re unhappy that your commander is getting engaged. In fact, I’m completely in favor of it.”

“As you probably know, our commander was quite famous. As ‘the greatest false prospect in Orden history!’”

So that nickname had spread even to the Temple.

Well, I suppose that was only natural.

Looks? He had them.

Family background? He had it.

Ability? He had that too.

Wealth? More than enough.

He had every possible qualification and even exceeded them.

Except for one thing.

He had vowed to love only God, making him unable to marry.

A ridiculously overqualified false prospect.

“If I had that face and those qualifications, I would have thrown off my knight uniform and run out of there immediately. No, perhaps I wouldn’t have entered the Temple in the first place.”

The knight added that, considering all those qualities, their commander was the strange one for choosing the path of a priest despite having everything.

At those words, I paused.

Wait. Now that I think about it…

‘What if Leon really did want to become a priest? And what if everything went wrong because of me…?’

The thought suddenly occurred to me, and my mind became complicated.

“I’m sorry. I feel like I may have caused trouble for all of you as well.”

“Ah, no! That’s not what we meant!”

Sir Briar, his red hair bouncing, was startled and hurriedly waved both hands.

“Our commander has never been one to talk much about himself, so we didn’t know, but… He looks happy in the articles these days. We’ve never seen him make an expression like that before.”

“That’s right.”

This time, a blunt-looking knight spoke up, poking Sir Briar in the side with his elbow.

“From the beginning, we wanted our commander to return to the capital as soon as possible. Staying here only meant being used and exploited by the priests. Our commander himself…”

Huh? What did he just say?

“Used? Exploited?”

When I asked what he meant, the blunt knight flinched and clapped a hand over his mouth, as though he had just realized he’d said too much.

Then Sir Briar shouted.

“Exactly! That old geezer! That greedy old High Priest kept doing it whenever he got the chance. Our commander had such a hard time!”

“When the article about our commander being dishonorably dismissed came out, the Temple was in such an uproar. I felt so relieved, honestly.”

Oh?

This sounded like a rather interesting story.

“Could you tell me a little more about that?”

“Of course! You’re the person who saved our commander, after all, Marquess!”

At those words, the other knights nodded and eagerly joined in.

“To the High Priest, our commander was nothing more than a decorative piece to show off to other people.”

“He deliberately made the commander run pointless errands in front of everyone, as though he wanted to flaunt the fact, and then looked so damn pleased with himself while watching it. It made me sick!”

“That’s not all. He knew that His Majesty the Emperor cared deeply for our commander, so he would constantly request funds from the Imperial Family. And every time, His Majesty would provide an enormous amount of money.”

Good grief.

I had heard that recently, the Imperial Family had been reducing its financial support because it was concerned about the Temple’s growing influence.

So they had been squeezing enormous amounts of funding out of the Imperial Family by using Leon.

“Monster hunts were the same. Whenever our commander went out on an expedition, the Imperial Family and nobles would donate money for the hunt. So even when it wasn’t the season when monsters were active, they deliberately sent the commander out to hunt. That way, the donations would keep coming in.”

“Because of that, we went on monster-hunting expeditions at least once a month. We normally wouldn’t need to go that often.”

They added that monsters had periods of activity, so it was enough to hunt them during specific seasons. There was no need to go every month.

In other words, they had been sending these knights out on monster hunts simply to bring in donations.

The more I listened, the angrier I became!

“And it would be one thing if it ended there. The most disgusting thing was that he turned our commander into a business opportunity with the nobles!”

“Business?”

What on earth did that mean?

“As you know, our commander is rather famous. In the capital, noblewomen and young ladies alike go crazy just to exchange a few words with him. Servando took advantage of that. He would deliberately assign the commander as the guide priest to people who made large donations.”

Wait.

This story…

“That’s right. You saw the paintings over there, didn’t you? They were all received from nobles. That’s why we’re glad. With this, Servando won’t be able to use our commander to line his own pockets anymore.”

It was exactly the same as what Doresa had told me before.

The Temple was exploiting donations by putting Leon forward.

“Hmm. But there’s a problem.”

“Yes?”

“Actually, the reason we came to the Temple was because you didn’t give final approval to our Engagement Pledge. But after hearing the reason, apparently the High Priest decided to retract the Grand Duke’s dismissal.”

“What? That’s absurd. This is tyranny. The position of High Priest is supposed to represent God, not replace God, yet he’s using his authority to violate doctrine. Such a thing is absolutely unacceptable.”

“Exactly. He intends to keep exploiting our commander until the very end! So what did our commander say?”

“He said the two of us would have a conversation, so he asked me to step outside for a while. I came out in the middle of it.”

I said I didn’t know what had happened after that and was beginning to worry again when—

“Come to think of it, he should be coming out soon…”

“Excuse me, my lady.”

“……”

“Your back looks remarkably similar to my fiancée’s. By any chance, have you seen her around here?”

A playful voice came from behind me.

Startled, I turned around.

Leon was standing there.

I had no idea when he had arrived.

“What are you all doing here?”