The Villain’s Aide Has Run Away - Chapter 17.2
Leslun drew in a small breath. He looked up, still seeming confused, and when Kailos saw his face, his brow furrowed.
His expression was better than expected.
“Thank you.”
“Do you not understand the situation? I haven’t yet decided whether I’ll bring your parents here.”
“It’s such a relief that they’re alive.”
Kailos was briefly at a loss for words at Leslun’s reply.
“Did you not hear me? I’m telling you I can use your family as leverage.”
“Even just once, I wanted to see them. If I could only confirm they were safe, I thought it worth staking everything I have.”
Silence followed as Kailos closed his mouth. He was more unsettled than he’d expected, suddenly unsure how to handle Leslun before him.
“I’ve never met anyone this exasperating.”
Kailos rose from his seat.
Leslun blankly watched the Crown Prince’s retreating figure as he walked away.
***
Count Maven sat upright in the hushed waiting room.
On the walls, golden panels were set in orderly rows, engraved with spare patterns. The floor was covered by a carpet bearing the lord’s insignia.
Though quiet, the air was not comfortable. It was the kind of atmosphere where even a glance, even a breath, was not to move without permission.
The Empress sat across from him. Her attire was not ostentatious, but her mere presence at that place pressed down with suffocating weight. Only the teacup lightly held between her fingers moved within the silence.
After faithfully reporting to her the conversation he’d had with the Crown Prince, Count Maven stared at his cooling black tea.
“Baron Kelly, you say. The Crown Prince is being recklessly bold.”
“It seems he’s bothered by the fact that Viscount Vincent is related to Your Majesty.”
“To topple the tower he’s built over a single point like that… what a pitiful thing for a mother’s heart to witness.”
She had likely never once thought of the Crown Prince as her son, but her expression suggested she truly felt regret.
“When a son strays onto the wrong path, it’s also a mother’s role to set him straight. What choice do I have?”
“Then the Headmaster position will go to Viscount Vincent…”
Count Maven’s tentative suggestion was silenced by the Empress’s chastising gaze.
“Didn’t the Crown Prince request Baron Kelly? Then that is what we must give him.”
Having only recently aligned himself with the Empress’s side, Count Maven still struggled to follow the flow of her thinking.
“Put forward Baron Kelly. Add that the Crown Prince recommended him specifically.”
“That would be granting him exactly what he wants.”
Unable to understand how that could be considered the “right path,” he voiced the doubt, and in response the Empress gave one of her rare smiles.
“Once it becomes clear how useless an academy is under Baron Kelly’s leadership, it won’t be too late to act.”
“Ah, so that’s it. I was shortsighted.”
She intended to bide her time until the results played out, then seize everything at once: expose the Crown Prince’s failure, remove Baron Kelly, and elevate Viscount Vincent.
To crush the Crown Prince while also seizing control of the academy’s influence—that was the Empress’s plan. Count Maven obediently bowed his head.
“I hear he has taken in someone new?”
“Yes. They say he has appointed an aide.”
Catching on quickly to whom she referred, Count Maven reported the information he had gathered.
“He was with Robin. He looks young, not large in stature. Give me time and I can find out more in detail.”
“There’s no need.”
When the Empress rang a bell, the door opened and a man entered.
He acknowledged Count Maven with a glance, then sat down near the Empress.
“Count Camilo.”
Count Maven acted as though he recognized him. All the same, he could not understand why the man, who should have been in the borderlands, was here.
The Empress sent Count Robert Camilo a gentle, welcoming look.
“That child you were searching for—it must be him, yes?”
At her words, Count Camilo slowly inclined his head.
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