Chapter 142

He had preserved mountains of preliminary drafts, temporarily recorded before being copied into the official chronicle, not out of some noble sense of duty to historical records, like Professor Galle, but purely as a means to study and refine his own handwriting over time.

Thanks to him, Eugène was able to confirm many facts that had previously eluded him.

“The truth, it seems, is remarkably simple. You did not fail to press the plan forward because the imperial marriage had been denied. On the contrary, the plan was entirely nullified preciselybecausethe imperial marriage collapsed. What you sought was some lofty title of a second Duke of the Northern Marches, was it not? There was precedent, and had you used it as your pretext, it would not have been entirely impossible. What you planned with the Estates-General was an absurd ambition to obtain the right to raise troops under the pretense of being related to the imperial family by marriage. Were it not for that, you would never have dared to touch upon a sensitive law such as the prohibition of private armies once again.”

As he unraveled the story, Eugène’s voice gradually sank into a colder register. He seemed to make some effort to restrain excessive emotion, yet even that was insufficient to contain the rising intensity of his feelings.

Each word he bit out dripped with cold contempt, sharp as autumn frost. The Duke of La Mer could not offer a response to a man who already knew everything.

“You were so sure of yourselves that I thought you might at least have some righteous cause. But this is all that you were hiding? Treason… no, independence? You have wealth and power, and so you wished to crown yourselves kings anew? You knew perfectly well what it meant to raise a private army in the East, when that right was abolished for the nobility centuries ago. It meant you no longer intended to abide by the empire’s order. It was a direct denial of the Emperor’s lawful authority! Did you truly believe the imperial family would ever permit such a thing?”

It was no wonder that relations between the Eastern territories and the imperial family had deteriorated to this extent. The Eastern nobles had harbored an ambition reckless enough to shatter the empire’s entire order, and for Armand III, heir to the legitimate line of the Ardi imperial dynasty, such defiance could never be tolerated.

“You ask who was to blame for the Second Landrienne Campaign? The answer is clear enough. It was you people! Spare me the pitiful excuse that it was all because of the late Empress Mother Héloïse. If she discovered your scheme, her panic in rushing to the capital would have been only natural. Had your plan succeeded, the Renault March, the last stronghold of imperial loyalists in the East, would have been cut off completely, trapped between your fledgling ‘nation’ and the enemy realm of Shaak!”

“Such one-sided accusations. Does it ease your conscience to speak as though it were none of your concern? Among those ‘you people’ you so despise, your late father surely must be counted as well, must he not?”

Duke La Mer, who had remained silent for some time, finally spoke in rebuttal, his face pale. He seemed utterly lost amid the swell of deep shame and anger.

He had clenched his fists so tightly that the knuckles on the back of his hands, resting on his knees, had turned white. His mind was in turmoil. He felt an uncontrollable anger at the other person’s blunt criticism, yet at the same time, he felt ashamed of feeling such anger at all.

In truth, Duke La Mer knew it well. He knew that there was no true justification for their cause. When he was younger and far more scrupulous, that awareness had once driven him into such torment that he nearly ruined his own life.

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Unable to bear it any longer, he lashed back at Eugène. He had never expected a man like Eugène to take his side. However, he had not imagined that he would be condemned with such severity, either.

The blatant disillusionment of the man he had admired almost his entire life, and none other, was a profound psychological blow to Duke La Mer. To imagine that one would not be understood and to bedirectly rejectedbefore one’s eyes were two entirely different things.

He had long revered Eugène. But that vague, one-sided admiration had done nothing to help him truly understand the man called Eugène Lothair de Chastan.

“I had been meaning to ask you about that.”

Eugène’s voice cut in, firm and unyielding. Duke La Mer, who had only ever known him from a distance, had no idea what a ruthless opponent he could become in confrontation. As a man hardened by countless battles, Eugène never allowed his attention to waver. In a fight he was determined to win, there was nothing he would hesitate to do.

“I have long been aware that my father was not a prudent man. As a Margrave, he lacked the wisdom to keep a distance from the regional nobility, and he was so incompetent that he could not manage even himself, let alone his own family. His only virtue was that he remained steadfast to one principle he held dear. The Responsibility Doctrine.”

At the mention of the ‘Responsibility Doctrine’, Duke La Mer’s face hardened terribly. He looked at Eugène as though struck by a blade from someone he had trusted, unable to conceal his shock. Absurdly enough, there was even a faint trace of betrayal in his eyes, and Eugène, seeing it, could only click his tongue inwardly.

Even before he had reached the main point, he was already in that state… Eugène did not hesitate. Knowing that the weapon he had chosen struck at his opponent’s sorest spot, there was no reason not to wield it.

“When one thinks of Eastern nobility in high society, they usually picture those gathered in the Viscountess Gagnon’s salon. But up close, even there, factions exist. The mainstream consists of the d’Estuaire faction, who serve your family and cling to the old glories of the East. However, there are also others who, from time to time, make a fuss over the Responsibility Doctrine. You, however, appear to have no dealings with them at all.”

From Eugène’s own observation, the Responsibility Doctrine was deeply scorned even within the d’Estuaire faction. The claim itself was audacious enough to deserve contempt, yet when considered differently, one wonders why a handful of fallen nobles, left with nothing but honor, would stubbornly cling to such a petty pretext.

The doctrine offered almost no chance of solidifying political influence and was financially disadvantageous as well. Among the few Eastern nobles with any remaining means, the d’Estuaire faction held the lion’s share, yet those who championed the Responsibility Doctrine clung to their absurd justification even while being excluded by the mainstream.

“The essence of what they call the Responsibility Doctrine is as follows. Do not strip us of our titles over yesterday’s mistakes, but grant us the chance to regain our fiefs. Though I could not agree, I remember exactly the methodology they proposed, for it was my father’s lifelong wish. Grant them military rank commensurate with their title, yet defer the cost of that rank until they reclaim their lands. And if the imperial family wages a war to restore those territories, they themselves will take the vanguard. In doing so, they seek to atone for past sins and restore all to its former state… I thought it an absurd demand. Until I learned what you were truly scheming.”

Eugène swung his legs over the side of the bed with a clatter. Though his hands and feet were shackled in heavy iron restraints, he seemed utterly unaffected by their weight. The chains binding his manacles and fetters were as thick as a ship’s mooring rope, and the ends had been looped several times around the bedpost before being fixed to the center of the floor with iron spikes.

“Only now do I realize that it was them, not you people, who drew the line. In their own way, they were desperately asserting their innocence. They were not on your side. They respected the empire’s order and never once intended to disrupt it. And Empress Mother Héloïse, who knew the circumstances of the time better than anyone, did not punish them for their claims. She overlooked them, even left them be. More than that, she went so far as to desperately cover up the old transgressions you had committed.”

With every step he took, the chains dragging across the floor grew taut. Eugène continued moving until the invisible line between them had created a boundary.

“In fact, that was also perplexing. Why was a woman, who had every reason to hold a grudge against you than anyone else, so eager to conceal your crimes? Without knowing the exact circumstances, no amount of thought could make it comprehensible. Could it be, as you subtly suggested, that she bore some original sin herself? That in the incident when Landrienne was invaded, she had erred personally and thus felt compelled to hide it?”

When Eugène finally stopped, the space between them was only a couple of paces. Close enough to see every flicker of emotion in each other’s pupils, yet for Eugène, bound hand and foot, it remained a gap he could never cross.

But to Duke La Mer, it did not appear that way. He was pressed down by Eugène’s presence as if he himself were the one bound, not Eugène. Eugène was clad simply in a shirt and trousers. During the time he had been unconscious, any hidden weapons had been searched for, even his shoes removed, leaving his bare feet on the floor.

But he was immense, like a mountain, radiating sheer intimidation. Under the weight of his overwhelming presence, the Duke of La Mer, no, Oscar found himself unable even to breathe, staring at him.

“But the truth is, that is not the case, you wretched son of a bitch.”

Eugène spat the curse as though he could no longer bring himself to speak politely.

It is said that, during the early days of her regency, Empress Mother Héloïse grew tired of Sir Gromanic’s inquiries about why she did not punish their crimes. To punish what had already occurred is one matter, she explained wearily, but ensuring that those who witnessed it would not commit the same offenses falls into an entirely different realm.

That conversation took place after a political affairs meeting when only the two of them remained. After she finished speaking and fell briefly into thought, Empress Mother Héloïse asked the accompanying scribe to erase the record of it. As a result, there is no trace of that exchange in the Imperial Chronicles or anywhere else, appearing only as a passing mention in a preliminary draft the old scribe had left by accident.

“To call me a wretched son of a bitch? I—”

“Are you offended by so little as that insult? Then remember the crimes you people committed. You provoked Shaak’s invasion to manufacture a pretext for retaining military force, and you erased territories of all those who stood in the way of your aims to silence them. As a result, the whole nation was shaken, and the imperial authority collapsed. After the great war that cost a fifth of our territory, what was left for the Empress was a sickly husband on his deathbed and a child not yet ten years old. Do you truly believe a young Empress with no stable foundation could have actively executed the traitors in such a situation? Would she have wanted to hand other scheming nobles a clue that would spark the very idea of ’treason’?!!”

Eugène leaned toward the Duke with a thunderous outburst. Though he could not take a single step, he growled fiercely as if he would leap at him the moment he could.

“After committing such deeds, you would dare to frame others? And even more so, to repeat the same thing? After your reckless stunt left you chased by a tiger whose leash had been cut, you fled, having lost even your home. And yet you show no restraint! Was Shaak not enough, that now you even seek the Confederation of Five Nations? Then to whom will you betray your nation next? Kayediv? Hertha? Why do you never think of those who suffer for your crimes? All your actions reveal is a lust for power. But power for whom? For the people of the Eastern Territories who will be plundered by Shaak for decades? Or for the citizens of the empire who will be swallowed by the coming calamity and left with no security? If you had the guts, you would never dare claim to act for their sake. You are nothing but utter scum chasing after greedy desires without any rightful justification!”

The Duke faced Eugène, his complexion as pale as a corpse. The most scathing denunciations of his life poured from Eugène’s mouth. He was like a fire-breathing dragon or an enraged lion; his deep silver-gray eyes were reddened with intense fury. He roared so forcefully that even the nailed-up shutters trembled, clenching his fists and grinding his teeth as if he could strike at any moment.

“…I assure you, you will fail.”

Eugène warned, his voice hoarse from yelling at the top of his lungs.

“That will be nothing more than your wishful thinking.”