CHAPTER 59………………
“Tell me anything.”
“Who actually holds the real power in Ignas right now?”
“……”
“I looked into it, and there aren’t even collateral relatives left. Yet the family keeps running smoothly without any disruption.”
Noah had been neglecting the house.
Unless a third party was intervening, it was impossible for things to continue so stably.
“Ah, come to think of it, the butler seemed to be the one managing things. He’s the one who kept driving me out, too. But with this kind of information, Noah can really be brought outside?”
“Of course.”
There’s nothing more important than knowing exactly what cards I hold.
Linaria swallowed her words as she faced the still-bewildered August.
A solemn stillness hung over the Ignas ducal mansion.
As always, the servants bustled about, sweeping and scrubbing every corner.
And yet, no matter how much they cleaned, soot still clung everywhere, giving the estate a dreadful air.
“This meal is for the duke, right?”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
Bianca, one of the maids, approached the head cook. It should have been time for lunch.
“I’ve finished my own meal early and was feeling idle. I’ll deliver this one.”
“That’s usually the butler’s duty.”
“But he’s busy right now. I overheard that guests from Obel have arrived. Isn’t that so?”
“Everyone’s been saying that, so yes, I suppose it’s true.”
“Then it makes sense, doesn’t it? Since the butler can’t attend to His Grace at the moment, I’ll take it. I need to clean the floor where he stays anyway. Two birds with one stone.”
“…Fine. Go ahead.”
With the cook’s permission, Bianca pushed the trolley away.
Once out of sight, she drew a small vial from her clothes.
She sprinkled its contents over the food.
This is all I was told to do.
The divine beast Ignas was an object of reverence.
Anyone who had ever seen Ignas’s flames could not help but tremble.
But once I take the money and leave, that’s the end of it.
Bianca was afraid too.
But the promise of a vast sum let her swallow her fear.
A few days later—
“Fetch a physician! Quickly!”
The butler, alarmed at Noah’s refusal to eat at all, entered the bedchamber and shouted in shock.
“His Grace is not waking!”
The Duke of Ignas had fallen into a coma.
They tried to keep the news from spreading, but within a week most of the nobility already knew.
The first to rush over was his childhood friend, Lord Brimstone.
No one found it odd.
If not for an unexpected visitor to the ailing duke, the nobles would have been busy gossiping only about Ignas’s uncertain future.
“I hear Lady Obel went to visit Duke Ignas.”
“Lady Obel?”
“Not just for a day or two, either, apparently…”
In the ladies’ salon, her name came up as naturally as if it belonged there.
“She didn’t leave much of an impression at the last ball. Perhaps she’s seizing this chance to attach herself to Ignas.”
They were both young and unmarried. Naturally, people assumed romance.
Laughter spread among them.
At that moment, Veronica, Duchess Brimstone—recently returned after withdrawing her divorce suit—spoke up.
“I was told she visited on behalf of the bedridden head of house. But perhaps you all heard something different?”
“How can she stand in for the head, when there is an heir?”
“That heir is far away. They say she’s been entering and leaving wearing Obel’s signet ring.”
“There’s no need to go that far, is there?”
“Indeed.”
Everyone knew Brimstone and Obel had not been on good terms of late.
Since the duchess herself had sought divorce, some wondered if she was siding with Lady Obel.
“Ah, yes. I heard Obel and Ignas had begun a joint enterprise before the duke collapsed.”
“A business venture?”
“I don’t know the details.”
Veronica sipped her tea with studied nonchalance.
“But my husband was delighted, saying that if the Ignas title fell into someone else’s hands, Duke Obel would be put in a difficult position.”
Silence fell among the ladies.
Since the speaker was a duchess, they couldn’t probe into her family affairs.
Had she reconciled with her husband after canceling the divorce?
Recent events in House Brimstone were not a topic to raise openly.
“I fell for him first, after all. There’s nothing to be done.”
“Haha, I see.”
The ladies forced polite laughter and steered the talk elsewhere.
That should be enough to let the rumor spread on its own.
Just as Linaria had advised, Veronica had cast the bait and smiled faintly.
While rumors swirled around the duke’s coma, one man eagerly seized the chance to raise his voice.
It was Thomas.
“There’s a world of difference between being conscious and not! Until His Grace awakens, a regent is absolutely necessary!”
He pressed Ignas’s retainers relentlessly, insisting that he himself should serve as regent.
“As you know, I am the closest living relative by blood. How could anyone else take on the role?”
The divine beast’s power passed through bloodlines, so close kinship was a strong argument.
After persistent persuasion, Thomas succeeded in being named official “Regent of Duke Ignas.”
Everything is going perfectly!
It had already been a month since Noah fell into his coma.
The Ignas Assembly was convened again.
Though once meant for fellowship, today’s gathering was clearly to signal that Thomas now held the reins.
Nobles clustered in groups, murmuring about the duke.
“So it’s come to this. Do they know the cause of his collapse?”
“Not officially, but most likely the divine beast. People have speculated for ages.”
“Indeed.”
No one suspected Thomas.
Too many had long doubted Noah’s worthiness and conduct.
From now on, I am the true Duke Ignas.
Though technically regent, the power was his.
Even the sharp-witted butler who had opposed him before could do nothing now.
Obel is said to be meddling because of some business with Noah, but what can they really do?
The Obels had once held great sway, but now the duke was bedridden, his daughter acting in his stead.
In the past, Thomas would never have dared look Duke Obel in the eye.
But now, as good as Ignas himself, he found them easy to dismiss.
He felt unstoppable.
But even as Thomas basked in triumph—
Noah had already opened his eyes.
Thomas believed firmly that Noah had collapsed from the poison he arranged.
But the truth was otherwise.
“You must drink it after a full day has passed.”
The day he received the medicine meant to heal him, Noah stared at the sunlight pooling beneath the curtains.
When it deepened red and faded, night had fallen.
When it gathered again in a pool of brightness, he drank the potion.
“Ugh…”
His guts felt aflame, his limbs as though being torn apart.
Even as he gasped, he endured, sustained only by the glow of a luminous stone before him.
The stone was neither hot nor cold.
But held close, it filled the darkness with light, and he felt freed from the shadows.
“If the divine beast is nature itself, then Your Grace is nothing more than a human. A pitiable man caught in a disaster.”
Her words echoed in his mind whenever he gazed at the stone.
The divine beast Ignas was not himself. To believe it could be fully controlled was arrogance.
“Ugh—hkk.”
Noah retched violently, not knowing how many days he had endured this.
After long, weary vomiting, he collapsed.
It seemed he dreamed for a long time, though he remembered nothing—only that when he awoke, Anna was there.
“You’ve woken at just the right time. We must prepare.”
“…Anna?”
Even his own voice sounded strange—too deep, like he was borrowing another man’s throat.
Stunned, he listened as “Anna” said,
“Your Grace, Ignas is on the verge of being stolen from you.”
Why was her hair silver, and why did she wear a gown instead of maid’s dress?
What had changed in himself?
Questions crowded his mind.
Could this be a dream?
But Anna, calm and unreal, spoke again.
“It has already been a month since you lost consciousness. That is more than enough time for people to propose a regent, since there is no heir.”
“That’s… because I’m unfit…”
He muttered out of habit, heavy with despair.
But she answered firmly,
“Unfit or not, one must not try to kill for personal gain.”
“Kill?”
He blinked, confused. A dream?
“This is no dream—it’s real,” Anna said, as if reading his thoughts.
“Fortunately, the medicine seems to be working. You are not dead, and you are not dreaming.”
Still, it was hard to believe.
“They say if it hurts when you pinch yourself, it’s no dream. Will you try?”
Noah pinched his cheek hard.
The pain made him wince. Anna then handed him a mirror.
When he saw the face reflected there, Noah froze.
…That’s supposed to be me?
Something had gone terribly wrong.
