Honorary Count Deon Hardt left the banquet hall and the banquet was already coming to an end.
Among the nobles leaving the banquet hall one by one, Stave Illuster and Cruel Hardt were quietly strolling in the open garden of the nearby imperial palace.
Duke Illuster walked ahead and Cruel followed, and Stave, who was silently walking towards a deserted place for a while, stopped at some point.
"When you asked me to be your sponsor and claimed to be on my side─"
He turned and faced Cruel Hardt. Stave also had an unknown smile on his face as he looked straight into the solid green eyes.
"I asked you why."
"..."
"Was it for protection?"
The only two survivors of an extinct family. Cruel Hardt was the only survivor, except for Deon Hardt, who appeared to be the main culprit.
When he lost everything and came to Stave and asked him to become his sponsor, instead of immediately kicking him out or accepting, Stave asked why.
The answer was rudely short.
Just for 'protection'.
"What?"
It was a short phrase with no subject or object, but Stave didn't ask any more questions.
People who have something to protect become more faithful than anyone else. He wasn't stupid enough to kick a faithful dog that willingly came to his feet.
It may seem like you roughly know what the missing object is, but even if you don't, you will find out someday, so there's no need to ask and make them feel rejected.
And today, the moment he saw Deon Hardt's eyes, which went beyond hostility and were filled with murderous intent, he became convinced of what was included in the 'object'.
"Me. To protect myself."
Reason suppressed the instinctive cry that it didn't seem like that and that there must be something more.
"Was it to protect Cruel himself from Deon Hardt?"
"..."
All that came back was silence.
Duke Illuster chuckled as if that was enough. Cruel stared at him and quietly closed his eyes as if to chase away fatigue.
The Duke's soft voice could be heard vaguely.
"It's not something I would say carelessly as I don't know other people's circumstances, but... it's foolish."
If the goal was purely to survive, there would have been countless ways.
'Still, it was a welcome choice from my perspective.'
Stave laughed.
He was a Duke and the head of the noble faction. He has the power to overpower quite a few things, and there was also ample reason to eliminate Deon Hardt, the 'Emperor's Dog'.
No. 'The Emperor's Dog' was just an additional reason, even if you exclude that reason─
'Deon Hardt... is a person who must be killed.'
He was a cancerous being on this earth.
Stave touched the area around his heart and smiled lightly.
"..."
Cruel didn't bother to answer.
Before he knew it, the scene from that time was flashing back onto his retina. The entrance to the mansion that no one guarded. A hallway full of blood. And inside the room, he pulled out the dagger stuck in his father's heart and looked back─
'Brother.'
...Deon.
His own younger brother.
Cruel glanced at the bodies of his mother and father, who were relatively intact compared to the others who had been torn to pieces, and raised his gaze again.
The blood that flowed from the red-stained hair down the forehead beaded at the corner of the eye for a moment and then flowed down the cheek again.
Contrary to the tears that flowed down his face, Deon was smiling.
Blood dripped from the dagger in both hands.
'...You.'
The moment Cruel was watching him and was about to say something, Deon threw the dagger he was holding.
***
As soon as I left the imperial palace, I refused Sir Lien, who offered to support me until the end, and crawled back to the mansion on my own feet. For a moment, I forgot my face and rubbed my eyes.
I saw a lot of guys who shouldn't be in my house. Was this something strange with my eyes? He was not even wearing ordinary clothes, but a pure white knight's uniform.
Let's put aside the fact that those clothes look familiar.
'Why is the front yard of my house, which was fine until I left, on fire?'
Was this a hallucination? It must be a hallucination. I seem to be very stressed out these days. Or maybe I'm old.
"...That can't be possible. What the fuck is this!!"
The heat I felt on my skin couldn't be a hallucination.
At my shout, the guys who were huddled together on one side of the burning yard, surrounding something, turned around.
And I almost grabbed the back of my neck inadvertently as I saw their faces becoming brighter without understanding the situation.
"Captain!"
Oh, you damn bastards.
"Captain! Wow!"
"It's not the captain, it's the Count!"
"Count!"
"Coooount!!"
Oh, bother. My head hurt, so I placed my hand on my temple and scanned their faces with tired eyes.
Why are there rabid dogs in my house? Since when did my mansion become a dog kennel?
The Lofty Knights. No, the Murderous Knights.
All of those members were occupying my yard as if it was their natural habitat.
The gatekeepers were watching, sweating profusely.
'What on earth did you do to not stop them...?'
So there was no reason to have a gatekeeper.
I wonder if this absurd situation was a dream, but the events that happened today were too realistic to say so, and the heat of the fire and the presence of Sir Lien standing one step behind were also too vivid.
She was even yelling at them who were going crazy.
"Attention!"
"!"
Oh, look at how they lined up in an instant.
She shouted sharply, fluttering her neatly tied up hair.
"What are you doing now?!"
"Hehe, it's the Captain..."
"It's not the Captain, it's the Count. And if you see your lord, you should say hello, but what kind of mentality is it to cry out as if you were looking for a wife who has run away from home? Why is the Count's yard on fire!"
Puk puk puk.
The members were shocked by the merciless hand and belatedly said hello to me.
I took turns looking at the burning yard and the members, and called out to Sir Lien in a sighing voice.
"Sir Lien."
"Yes, Count."
"Beat them."
"All right."
"Yes? Oh no, just a moment! Count! Let's talk for a moment!! Keuuk!"
What is this?
I feel like I wanted to come out and beat them up myself. I held back because I thought if I did that, my wrist would come off first.
Anyway, what is this? I stared at them as they began to roll on the floor one by one under Sir Lien's merciless hands.
It's not like I'm complaining about anything in particular. I was curious about what on earth they were surrounded by.
Because of the heat, I couldn't get closer, so I just strained my eyes, and something that wasn't visible when they were huddled together appeared among them.
So, clothes with white birds on a blue background...
'The Revolutionary Army?'
Why is the Revolutionary Army in my front yard? Could it be that those mad dogs subdued them?
Now that I thought about it, those guys were trying to explain something earlier, I guess?
"Sir Lien, wait a moment."
"Yes."
I stopped her with the intention of hearing the whole story.
Sir Lien immediately stopped her actions like a knight, but because these damn bastards pretended to cry, she was able to hear the full story of the incident only after giving them a few more blows.
"This guy threw a bomb in my front yard?"
"Yes! We happened to see it and caught it right away!"
"Well... I understand for now. But..."
Confident eyes were focused on me as if there was nothing wrong.
I met each of their gazes and expressed my doubts without hesitation.
"Why were you here at that exact time?"
"Uh..."
"Why did the Revolutionary Army attack my mansion without me being here? There's nothing in my mansion that would attract them."
"That..."
Everyone turned their heads and looked the other way, and I wondered where those confident eyes from a moment ago had gone.
The guy who was unlucky enough to meet my gaze directly broke into a cold sweat and rolled his eyes back and forth.
"I can hear the head rolling."
"!"
Thanks to this, I was able to infer the cause to some extent.
It's a shame for these guys, but I'm not that dull.
"You were staying here before the Revolutionary Army came, right?"
"...!"
"How did you do that...!"
These guys didn't come because of the Revolutionary Army, but the Revolutionary Army came because of these guys.
The Revolutionary Army wants to cause damage to the Emperor, and to do so, inflicting damage on me would be the most effective way.
In order to cause damage to me, it would have been better to attack the Knights, who were my greatest force, and since the location was my mansion, there would have been no reason to hesitate.
I looked at the culprits of this incident with cold eyes.
I wanted to hit them in the back of the head right now and ask them why they came...
"...Let's clean up after ourselves first."
Put out that fire too.
Even though I kept my distance, my eyes felt a little sore.
I unconsciously raised my hand to rub my eyes, but I felt a foreign body in my hand, which should have been empty.
And a desperate cry was heard at the same time.
"Count!!"
"...?"
The only time Sir Lien shouts like that is when something unusual happens.
I stopped acting based on my instincts.
It was at that moment that I realized that I was holding something in my hand that wasn't there just a moment ago.
"...What is this?"
The familiar shape was quite ominous. Where did I see this?
...Ah, I remembered.
I threw it away almost immediately. Desperately, as if my only goal was to get this horrible thing out of my hands.
What I thought I had thrown upwards flew behind me, landed on the floor, rolled over, and came to a stop after hitting someone's feet.
Pow!!
"No, Count!!"
"Are you okay?!"
Sir Lien and the members came rushing in to check on my well-being.
Anyway, I stared blankly at the place where the explosion occurred.
'I almost died.'
Even if a bomb were to fly, I never thought it would fly right into my hand. I survived thanks to catching it by chance, but honestly, I'm not happy.
Sir Lien, who had somehow interpreted the meaning of my gaze, walked towards me, touched the charred corpse with his sword sheath, and said, "You don't have to feel guilty. This guy is a Revolutionary Army soldier."
"I never thought he would have a friend. It seems that while that guy threw the bomb and caused chaos, the other guy was planning to escape with his captured comrade... but you can see the result."
I followed with my eyes where Sir Lien's gaze was directed.
And at the end, I was able to see the old butler mercilessly overpowering the Revolutionary soldier who was running away while carrying his comrade.
...No, Remember?!
'Is it okay for a grandfather to be like that?!'
"Anyway, I was impressed."
"...Yes?"
"I was transfixed and thought something big had befallen the Count. But I never thought you would catch the bomb."
"Ah... That's..."
"As expected, you are amazing."
That's a coincidence.
The bright eyes were quite burdensome.
Unable to look her in the eye, I ended up running away, leaving only a few commands to sort out the situation.
"I will escort you."
"..."
Of course, she made even that difficult.
I think I need to start looking for stomach medicine as soon as I get to my room.
Shit.
***
"Damn it, even if I had to die, I should have killed the Emperor's dog…"
A voice full of regret flowed from the mouth of the Revolutionary soldier who had been completely suppressed.
There were several major obstacles on the way to bringing down the Emperor. If you were to pick just the most important ones, there would be around three.
Nemeseus was the Commander-in-chief during the Eight Year War and was currently the Emperor's personal bodyguard.
Prime Minister Ardal stabilized public sentiment toward the Emperor through excellent policies and financial management methods, both during the war and now.
Honorary Count Deon Hardt, who was the vanguard during the Eight Year War and was currently the Emperor's dog, accepting any order he gave without reservation.
The most annoying of these was Deon Hardt. The other two used sunny areas as their main stage, so their actions were limited, so they could be predicted to a certain extent and were easy to monitor, but Deon Hardt's main stage was in the shadows.
In other words, it was difficult to predict where he will go and difficult to monitor.
It started with the fact that they had no idea where he was going and what he was doing this time.
'Of course he didn't go there purely to subdue monsters...'
It would be difficult to keep losing track of him like this. Therefore, the Revolutionary Army was working hard to eliminate Deon Hardt, a dangerous variable.
Aside from regret, the members of the Murderous Knights paused for a moment and looked around at the voice that did not contain a single trace of regret.
The Count and their leader entered the mansion, and the butler was leading the manpower to put out the fire in the yard.
In other words, there was no one to overhear this conversation or stop their actions.
"Who is the Emperor's dog?"
Immediately the wild dogs showed their teeth.