Chapter 231: Side Story 23

Arriving at the audience chamber, Tristan was puffing on a cigarette.

The Emperor sent a disapproving look at his unmatchable breach of etiquette.

“You really never change, do you?”

“People say it’s time to die when they change, don’t they?”

Tristan, recalling the servants and Black Hawks who followed him under the guise of an escort, curled his lips into a smile.

The Emperor had always found them inefficient and worthless, denying them entry to the main palace.

“In that sense, Your Majesty will live a long and healthy life. It seems you will maintain your current form until the day I die.”

Although it sounded like a compliment at first, it was a sarcastic remark implying that, like before, the Emperor’s mindset was rigid.

Of course, such criticism only worked if the other party was self-aware, so the Emperor felt no impact.

“Enough with the flattery, let’s get to the main point.”

At the words of Emperor Conrad II, Tristan replied with a peculiar smile, exhaling smoke.

“Do you know Allen Castaigne?”

The Emperor surely knew the name Castaigne.

It was a question asked with certainty.

“That’s something the Grand Duke would know better.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Weren’t you there at the scene? At the tender age of five.”

As the Emperor mentioned, Tristan at that time was excessively young, beyond mere description.

“But why did the Grand Duke bring you all the way to Roaz at the age of five?”

Observing a conquest war at such an age.

There were limits to early education.

“Well, he’s a man of few words. All I know is his way of throwing his children into danger.”

“Is that some kind of beast’s way of training?”

The Emperor was incredulous.

Tristan simply raised his red lips, offering no particular response.

The Emperor’s method of raising children was not much different, being almost fantastical.

“Getting back to the point, I witnessed the moment when Count Castaigne died. However, Allen Castaigne was not there.”

Had he been there, he would have been killed long ago.

“I believe Your Majesty must surely know of him.”

“Even if I do know, am I obliged to tell?”

“Of course not. But as you know, I am about to marry the lady of the Valois family. It’s certain that they are deeply connected to the Castaigne family. If they were harboring the seeds of rebellion, that would be a different story.”

There’s always a pretext to dig deeper.

Tristan, as if genuinely troubled, made a despicable face and flicked the ash onto the pristine marble floor, like a blemish.

“As you know, the Grand Duke was a man without mercy. I clearly remember the catastrophe that befell the Castaigne family that day.”

The main contributor to the fall of the Roaz Kingdom was Valentine.

For Valentine, the Castaignes were an obvious target for extermination.

They were one of the four strongest pillars supporting Roaz.

“It’s strange, isn’t it, that I was the only one who didn’t know Allen Castaigne had been alive for 15 years since that day?”

“……”

“The Count of Valois pushing his illegitimate child onto Valentine, the forced marriage – there are too many suspicious points.”

Tristan’s eyes flashed fiercely, as if he would take down the Valois family.

Forced to explain, the Emperor, deeply involved in the matter, sighed.

“The Duke of Valois said he didn’t know the man was Castaigne. How could he know, when a fallen noble from a collapsing country had deliberately hidden his identity?”

“Hmm, he knew nothing…”

“The man was receiving support from wealthy imperial sponsors, raising rebels in another country. But a long tail is easily stepped on. The Count noticed them before they could act, and I ordered their execution. That’s all there is to it.”

It was a strange affair.

Preventing the rebellion beforehand and saving the empire from danger should rightfully earn one rewards and praises.

‘But he kept the truth hidden, informed only the Emperor, and secretly gained benefits behind the scenes?’

Moreover, Allen Castaigne was treated as a sudden death, and his end was not made public.

Unless something was fishy, that sly man wouldn’t have concealed himself.

“Why did you hide it?”

“Is it something to be proud of, not knowing a rebel has been organizing a rebellion for 15 years?”

It was a very Emperor-like statement.

‘That’s probably the Emperor’s shallow reason. But the reason why Count Valois hid it… there’s only one.’

He wanted to eventually send the shameful illegitimate child to Valentine for disposal, fearing that the quick-witted Tristan might find out.

Because he committed something that should never be revealed to Valentine.

‘He planned it from the start.’

He used Allen Castaigne.

If it was Count Valois, he couldn’t have failed to recognize Castaigne’s swordsmanship immediately.

‘He was the only noble to participate in the Roaz subjugation campaign, aside from Valentine.’

Of course, Valentine monopolized all the glory, making the participation meaningless.

But he would know about Castaigne’s swordsmanship.

To a commoner, maybe not, but he was from the most famous swordsmanship family in the empire.

‘Yet he took Castaigne into his family, knowing this, and waited quietly for 15 years.’

He was waiting for the right time.

The perfect moment to boast to the Emperor about finding a rebel.

Tristan, who realized all these circumstances in an instant, let out a short laugh.

Thanks to this, Count Valois achieved everything he wanted.

‘Selling his daughter, pushing her to death…’

To Count Valois, Lady Valois was nothing more than a tool.

Less than human.

‘Well, I’m no different.’

To Sabina, both the Count and Tristan would feel equally horrific.

He forced her into a life where she was already at rock bottom, to a life of bearing a child and dying.

‘Why did I even have that impulse in the first place?’

Tristan lived a life of acting on his desires first.

But for the first time, he questioned his own impulses.

He couldn’t understand why.

‘If I was annoyed by the light that the lady had, I could have just snuffed it out. There were countless ways to keep her by my side. Why did I want to ruin her with my own hands?’

Where did this absurd impulse come from, wanting to make her hate him the most?

Hoping she would harbor murderous intent and kill him…

‘Anyway, she can’t kill me with a human body.’

If something happened to Tristan’s body, evil would roam the world, leading to its destruction.

He knew Sabina couldn’t kill him.

But why…

‘If she stays by my side, she’ll only hate me…’

He thought it would be better if that hatred reached its extreme, close to murderous intent.

Maybe.

But in reality.

‘…Did I just want to keep her by my side?’

Sabina, who always harbored a strong vitality at any moment.

Her soul, burning like a flame.

Maybe he was deluded that her light could even purify the evil of a god who only wished for human destruction.

“That’s love!”

Tristan suddenly recalled what Dwayne had said.

‘Absurd.’

It couldn’t be for such a reason.

He despised baseless hopes more than anything in the world.

Holding onto such things was for fools lost in delusions.

Tristan felt a wave of nausea and blockage, furrowing his brow and deeply inhaling the smoke.

His taste was disgustingly bitter and dry, making him feel increasingly unpleasant.

To the point where he wanted to grab and crush whatever was bothering him right in front of his eyes.

As the smoke obscuring Tristan’s view cleared, his gaze met the Emperor’s.

Conrad II involuntarily flinched when his eyes, resembling an abyss, met Tristan’s.

For some reason, he recalled the saying that for the Valentine bloodline, everything within sight was within striking range.

It was at that moment.

“Your Majesty! Please forgive my rudeness!”

Dwayne, who had been waiting quietly outside the audience chamber, rushed in with a face pale as death.

“What’s the matter?”

Normally, this would have warranted a severe reprimand, but the Emperor asked leniently.

He wanted to get out of the sinister Grand Prince’s sight as soon as possible.

Then Dwayne, as if his soul had been snatched away, spoke in a daze.

“Your Grace, you must return to the Grand Duke’s castle immediately.”

***

Sabina thought she must be dreaming or unconscious.

Otherwise, it was impossible for Tristan to show such an expression, such a look in his eyes.

Yet, he seemed completely unaware of the face he was making.

“Are you insane? Why did you do such a reckless thing? If evil were to be released from the Grand Duke’s body…”

Tristan, about to shout with veins bulging in his neck, looked down at Sabina, who seemed close to death, and clenched his teeth.

Now was not the time for this.

“Take her to the physician immediately.”

He ordered Dustin, who had come with him from the palace.

Dustin quickly took Sabina and ran as steadily as he could.

Sabina, limp and powerless, could only be carried in the arms of the knight.

Over his shoulder, she saw a scene unfold.

The Grand Duke Valentine, staggering to his feet, swung his fist.

The sheer force of the blow made Tristan’s long hair flutter as if in a typhoon, and his skin seemed to be slashed by a sharp blade.

Tristan, briefly rubbing his cheek with the back of his hand, twisted his lips.

He drew his sword to block the punch, spinning half around and swinging back at the Grand Duke.

As the Grand Duke twisted to avoid his strike, dozens of trees lined up nearby were sliced in half in an instant.

That was the limit.

She could no longer withstand the surging pain.

Sabina closed her eyes.

And lay motionless as if dead.

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