Chapter 20

The Marquis Clemens von Rotner was a gentleman with a neat, aristocratic face and a gentle demeanor.

His hair, which had been golden in his youth, had now turned white and covered his head richly, and his wrinkled face was always smiling softly.

He seemed to be a man of character, worthy of bearing the dignity of God, with the ability to unravel people’s hearts and the qualifications of a bishop.

— At least on the surface.

‘Oh, dear, another call. You stupid prince.’

Clemens cursed inwardly as he stepped into the first prince’s apartment with perfect composure on the outside.

But the key was that Prince Felix was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, a relieved-looking maid furtively moved towards him.

Her tone was flat as she explained the circumstances to Clemens.

“Forgive me, My Lord. His Highness called on me and suddenly wanted to redecorate the room. I tried to stop him, but he forced me to rearrange the paintings, jewelry, etc. Now he is in the middle of rearranging the wine shelves, covered in dust. I apologize for not being able to stop him at short notice and being forced to redecorate.”

“No. You’ve been through a lot.”

Clemens had a gentle way of speaking to everyone.

It was not because he was of a truthful and meek nature, but because he did not let the irritation and contempt abounded in his body show outwardly.

This maidservant was the daughter of a distant relative of his and had recently been made into the Prince’s maid.

With the day of Felix’s accession onto the throne approaching, the vassals, chambermaids, and maidservants were gradually being “replaced” with those of his own, but they were not used to the First Prince’s mediocrity, and it wad only annoying that they faltered every time they had witnessed it and that they even bother Clemens.

‘But, well, it’s impossible to expect insects to function like humans do. As the patriarch of the Lotner family, you must be able to cook them well, including during these events.’

The Marquis of Lottner was one of those who have been parasites on the Kingdoms bosom since the days of the previous Kings and have sucked the sweet juices of the kingdom aplenty.

In the light of Clemens’ experience, the more foolish the King and his servants, the better.

‘We don’t need puppets, minions, or thinking heads.’

–As it should have been.

“Hey, Clemens! You are too late! What the hell have you been doing here when I needed to talk to you immediately? Thanks to you, I’ve started redecorating my room.”

Clemens almost recoiled at the slippery, childish frustration in his voice.

Turning around, a young man stood in front of him, his beautiful clothing stained with dust.

He was a nobleman in appearance. He was Felix von Ludendorff – the first prince of the country.

He had the blonde hair and green eyes of the queen and a slender body.

And so far, that’s all the nobility there.

However, his posture destroyed his center of gravity, and his expression was loose and unintelligent.

Every time he talked to him, it seemed as if the stupidity was coming back to him. Thus Clemens was always bored.

He could not help but moan that he had to call such a fool of a puppet his King.

‘To prepare for your coronation. You wanted to have a big night out, you know.’

Sniffling inwardly, Clemens bowed his head apologetically.

He knew that if he argued poorly here, he would only complicate things.

Felix had said in his earlier “Grand Appointment” that he wanted to invite all the people in the country to a grand ball. That was absurd.

Clemens, who was perceived as Felix’s Right Hand, stood between the idiot prince who said what he wanted and the dumbfounded nobles that were stunned and couldn’t say anything. Thus he had to reduce the Prince’s wishes to a level that was feasible without a hitch.

In other words, he replaced “all the people of the country” with “men and women of all ages and backgrounds, regardless of their nobility or origin.” The epitome of this is “the servants of the court,” and he even invited them to the coronation ball.

At the same time, he promised to open only the outer walls of the castle to the public for the three days following the day of the coronation.

With this, the noblemen, who had been struggling with security issues and budgets, were finally relieved, and Felix was satisfied. When Clemens made his report, the Prince smiled and said, “I hope everyone is happy.”

What do you mean, “I hope everyone’s happy?”

Once again, Clemens remembered the confusion surrounding the ruckus and spat bitterly inwardly.

An ordinary and foolish monarch is desirable, but an ordinary and strong-willed man was no good.

The King, always looking at Rotner’s face, said, “What do you think we should do?” They had to be able to come to a decision.

–like the earlier King.

‘King Werner was brilliant in that regard.’

He was unwilling, feeble, and without any sense of responsibility or accountability.

Lottner merely whispered softly to him and got his wish without getting his own hands dirty at all.

It was his own effort to do so, though.

The primary source of his power was Walter Prison.

By bearing the cost of construction on behalf of the neighboring countries and actively hosting “criminals” who were too much for the smaller nations to handle, he was owed a debt of gratitude from the royal families and influential institutions of all the countries.

Even within Luden, inconvenient people were falsely accused and imprisoned without mercy to keep them quiet.

The guards have Guru, who reported to Clemens breathing down their necks.

He looked like a pig on the outside, and he was not very smart, but he was a useful pawn who didn’t complain that he had been in charge of a prison for over fifteen years now.

Or maybe he threw in with a hooker with a reputation for beauty when he arrived, and he liked it.

Walter Prison was hell on earth.

The prison was filthy, full of vindictiveness and the prisoners’ screams who have been subjected to horrific torture.

The reports that came up every month were sour to read, and Clemens was pleased with them.

Inconvenient truths get lost in the voices of despair behind bars and never make it to the surface.

However, when he thought about it so much, he couldn’t help but associate it with the second prince, Lucas, and he almost twisted his mouth.

Lukas von Ludendorff.

An eccentric man of color who showed no interest in politics or power and took the path of the sword.

Until now, he had left it at that, “Foolish man that you don’t understand the delicacies of domination,” but when he pardoned Elma on his behalf, the situation changed.

Clemens’ sanctuary and source of power was the Walzer Prison.

The inner workings of it, an inconvenient truth, that perhaps had been exposed.

‘So far, they haven’t mentioned any false convicts or the fact that abuse is rampant in the prison system.’

It would be too shallow an idea to say that the guards were doing so well that they didn’t notice it.

Maybe it’s because they have a hunch about something and are thinking about their next move.

The second prince seemed to have some wisdom.

‘The fact that he carried out his great desire for a pardon by himself, without relying on our vassals, is proof of this. At least he seems to be more capable than the First Prince. Hmph, if it weren’t for the Prince, I’d make him into a coddler, but as it stands, he’s just in the way.’

And it was Clemens’ way of eliminating unwanted pieces from the board with equally unwanted pieces.

Initially, he wanted to make Felix a puppet, but his stupidity and rashness irritated Clemens too much.

In the days of the previous King, he had brainwashed his opponents at every “counseling” – that’s precisely what Clemens was capable of – but when he faced Felix, he didn’t know what he was saying or doing. However, it was a big deal because he was going to get sick of it first.

Let the First and Second princes act out the attempts at each other’s lives and then get rid of them.

It didn’t take long for Clemens to begin formulating that plot.

But–.

‘Failed to get the brooch from the Baroness of Graz. Failed to isolate the new head chef, too. Apparently, I’m not getting around lately.’

At first, Clemens tried to spread the theory of assassination by the second prince by obtaining the head maid’s brooch, who was well acquainted with Lucas and placing it at a scene where Prince Felix had been harmed.

But the plot had to be abandoned because the gardener’s boy had foolishly failed to do so and, for some reason, remained stubbornly silent about the circumstances.

There was no way he could have realized that he was about to be implicated in the prince’s assassination, but he was strangely frightened.

‘So I thought I would go the other way and have the first prince murder the second prince, so I was going to cause a poisoning incident by using that new head chef of Felix’s, but when I isolated him as a prelude before I knew it, the direction of the wind had changed and the kitchen was full of life.’

It was hard to take advantage of a cohesive organization.

At the extreme, it was the recent Dennis one.

Even though he had gone out of his way to show the first prince’s collection to a Baron’s son to imprint the existence of the horseshoe in his mid, the fool hadn’t even insinuated to those around him that the spell gear was sent by the first prince.

The information would have to be disseminated without going through Clemens, though.

Clemens was irritated.

‘We need a stage. A grand stage where the “fact” that the two princes are attempting to kill each other is the plain and ugly truth.’

“Yes.”

For example, a coronation or a ball.

‘How about poisoning them in the middle of a ball?’

Looking at the vintage paintings hanging in the prince’s apartment, Clemens suddenly had an idea.

In the painting, the country’s founder served wine with his own blood in it to those around him, making them pledge their allegiance.

This scene was called the “Cup of Confederation,” a ceremony that is still reenacted on the eve of the coronation.

For example, suppose that at the ball, the second prince falls from the wine served by the first prince.

If the rumors of the spell gear were also passed around there, the “First Prince’s Intent to Kill” would be considerably more believable.

This was a pretty good move since a public outcry would be inevitable if the sacred pact was defiled.

However, it’s difficult to get toxins into a wine that is opened on the spot, so in practice, it might be more practical to just 'stick a poison needle” in the wine at the right time before others drink it.

Clemens thought about this as he looked at the prince’s jewelry collection next to the paintings – the ring with a needle from a former queen who was famous as the “Queen of Poison.”

“I want to talk to you about that, Clemens. On the day of the ball, you still need to have a certain amount of pomp and circumstance besides the leading man, don’t you? I want the nobleman’s cleanliness to be out of touch so that he’s basically a maid by my side. Otherwise, that Lucas guy, he’s going to kidnap the women right away without leaving any for his brother.”

“Your Highness. I suggest that we fortify the Second Prince’s side with a group of servants to prevent the ladies from approaching.”

While he was thinking, Felix made a dumbfounding request.

He doesn’t seem to realize that Lucas wasn’t stealing women; Clemens just doesn’t want women to get close to the First Prince, who had a reputation of being a fool.

He almost looked up at the heavens to see that the “consultation” was so childish, but Clemens changed his mind and decided that he should take advantage of that as well.

Let one of the servants take the role of planting the poisonous needle in the second prince’s wine.

If beautiful women gather around Felix, even if he’s a dull prince, some attention will be paid to him – which means more witnesses.

If he serves Lucas a glass of wine at the right moment and the second prince suddenly falls, it’s not too much of a stage frenzy.

“Also, I’m organizing this ball. I want to make sure it’s of high quality and will go down in history. I want to invite the best musicians from Yale-Delud, the arts’ capital, not the orchestra we have in place. You see. We’ve heard of him. Uh, Svaldo? You know, there was a musician like that.”

“Are you talking about Göran Svart? But he’s…”

“A violinist extraordinaire, beloved by God, isn’t it? It would be the perfect complement to my ball.”

It is unlikely that a genius violinist who boasts of superb technique and is rumored to be a 'solitary” one at that would want to keep on churning out immersive waltzes as a garnish to a dance.

A ball was not the same as a music concert.

Clemens almost screamed at the back of his throat, but he held back.

“We’re going to use this to our advantage, too.”

“Let’s give Svart a chance to play an active role.”

Clemens signals to him, and at the same moment that Svart makes his landmark sound, the servant poisons the second prince with the poisoned needle.

With Svart between them, Clemens wouldn’t even have to make eye contact with his servant, so people would be less suspicious of him.

Competent people are the ones who factor in even ridiculous demands to secure their own interests.

‘Say what you like, prince stupid. Your last wish, I humbly grant it.’

Here in Louden, killing royalty is not legal, even for kings.

If the second prince was murdered, it might be possible to strip Felix of his throne, or even imprisonment in Walzer, for that matter.

Then it will be the next generation and still be under Clemens’ heaven.

The old marquis, a hard-working man, obeyed the prince calmly on the surface, while in his heart, he was busy making all the arrangements.

“Uh, Your Royal Highness Prince Felix.”

After Clemens left, the maidservant looked at Felix, who was reaching again for the painting he had just hung up and called out to him fearfully.

“If you’d like to adjust its position, I’ll do it myself. You can’t do this kind of work any longer.”

“I’m not adjusting. I’m throwing it away.”

“What?”

“I’ve taken the trouble to drag the vintage paintings out to a prominent position, and now I’m going to throw them away.”

Felix laughed lightly and replied to the maidservant, who raised her eyebrows, unable to grasp the truth of it.

“I don’t think he’s going to be around much longer.”

“What?”

‘As usual, I have no idea what he’s talking about.’

Despite the bewildered maidservant, Felix even rolled up his arms and resumed redecorating.

This time, he planned to gather up all the things he doesn’t seem to need in the middle of the room and throw them out thoroughly.

“Among the disposables are the painting I mentioned earlier and even a ring with an expensive gemstone on it.”

“Excuse me, Your Highness! Please, please, I’m begging you.”

“Ehh. Oh, no.”

As the maidservant seized upon, Felix continued in the same interminable tone as ever.

“I hate tidying up, but when I do, I’m the kind of person who wants to get rid of all the garbage.”

Green eyes that seem to be looking somewhere in the distance, unable to settle on a point of view.

But if you look closely, there seemed to be a horrifyingly bright light floating deep inside.