A Livid Lady's Guide to Getting Even: How I Crushed My Homeland with My Mighty Grimoires Volume 1 E-Book

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• Herausgeber: J-Novel Heart
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: A Livid Lady's Guide to Getting Even: How I Crushed My Homeland with My Mighty Grimoires
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 272

Beschreibung

Elizabeth Leiston, daughter of the influential prime minister, is a picture-perfect lady on the path to becoming the future queen of the Kingdom of Haldoria. But her life takes a sudden turn for the worst when her fiancé makes a show of publicly calling off their engagement. Soon after, he throws her in jail and starts spreading nasty rumors about her.

The encouragement Elizabeth receives from her loyal waiting maid, Mireille, and her inner fury are all she needs to reconsider her goals. Why should she continue devoting herself to a country that doesn’t respect her when she can trample over it instead? She will get even with those who wronged her and bring down the damned kingdom, even if it’s the last thing she does! Luckily, Elizabeth is no damsel in distress and has seven powerful magic grimoires she won’t hesitate to use. Get ready because this ruthless lady is out for blood!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Prologue

Chapter 1: Escape

Chapter 2: The Traitre Commercial Firm

Chapter 3: To the Imperial Capital

Chapter 4: War Knocks on Lebrick Viscounty’s Door

Afterword

Color Illustrations

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Color Images

Table of Contents

Prologue

I knew I sang high praise of myself, but I had to admit I was outstanding.

As the daughter of a duke, I stood at the top of the nobility. I had long silver hair that glimmered in the sunlight, deep ocean-blue eyes, and unblemished skin as fair as snow. If you asked a hundred people to assess my appearance, they’d all give the same answer: I was beautiful.

I was educated and had always shown great talent in academics, etiquette, martial arts, and magic. Most people would agree that the gods had blessed me.

As far as I could remember, I had been engaged to the crown prince and was to become the future queen.

Never did I have qualms about my situation. Even if I had not chosen this path, I was aware of my duty as a noble lady to dedicate my life to the well-being and happiness of my people.

Or at least, that’s what I thought until that fateful day.

◇

“Elizabeth, I cannot keep forgiving your wicked deeds!”

A man’s voice suddenly interrupted the refined music played by the orchestra of the royal family and echoed in the dance hall. The music and idle conversations stopped at once. All heads in the formerly perfectly peaceful hall turned to stare at both the speaker and me, Elizabeth Leiston.

Those gazes were unpleasant, but I deliberately did not let my feelings show. I remained calm and addressed the man who had blown up at me out of the blue—my fiancé and the crown prince of the Kingdom of Haldoria, His Highness Prince Friede.

“Prince Friede,” I started. “We’re welcoming important guests to celebrate the founding of our kingdom tonight. I’d appreciate it if you could please leave the jokes for another time.”

Today was the anniversary of the occasion I’d mentioned, and we had invited eminent nobles and officials from neighboring countries.

Under normal circumstances, His Majesty the King should have hosted this event, but he’d left the country to attend a meeting regarding a monster attack that had occurred a couple of months ago.

The crown prince had stepped in as his proxy and, for some reason, deemed tonight to be the perfect moment to condemn me publicly. His behavior was so disgraceful that I couldn’t even begin to describe it as anything but scandalous.

Regardless of what Prince Friede hoped to achieve by airing his dirty laundry aloud, I had to resolve this matter quietly.

“Come now, let’s forget about this,” I said with a smile, hoping to ease the atmosphere. I extended my hand toward the prince. “Would you care to dance—”

But the one who took my hand instead was Robert Arty, the son of the knight commander.

“What are y—”

I tried to complain, but Robert didn’t allow me to finish my sentence. He twisted my arm and brought it behind my back, forcing me to kneel.

Then, I let out a surprised groan. Although I could have resisted, I didn’t want to create a greater commotion. That would be unwise, considering the circumstances.

Prince Friede didn’t seem to agree.

“Elizabeth, I know what you did to Sylvie!” he declared passionately—and loudly—as if he were an actor onstage. “You’ve gone too far this time!”

My eyes instantly went to the young lady standing behind him. A group of young noblemen surrounded her, eager to protect her.

Her name was Sylvia Lockit, and she was Baron Lockit’s illegitimate child that he recently took in.

Sylvia was a year younger than the prince and me. Even though she wasn’t very popular with the ladies, many gentlemen had taken a liking to her outspoken nature. They considered her candid behavior a breath of fresh air in the constraints of high society.

Prince Friede and Robert fell for her charm too.

Who the prince took as his second wife was none of my business, and I did not mind if he surrounded himself with an army of mistresses. After all, siring as many heirs as possible was his duty as a future king.

However, there was a proper way to go about these things. Order was important, since the conflict between his heirs could lead to a war if they handled things poorly. It was also crucial that a future king found suitable, cultured ladies.

I’d done my best to convey that to Sylvia, advising her several times not to mingle with other men if she was to have a relationship with His Highness. Considering the swarm of men around her, she hadn’t heeded my warnings.

“What do you mean by ‘this time’?” I asked. “I don’t recall doing anything worth this treatment.”

Robert still held me down as I hoped to sort this out so he’d unhand me. But my words only seemed to irritate the prince even more.

“How dare you ask what I mean?! You let your ugly jealousy take over and pushed Sylvie down a flight of stairs!” he roared.

I paused for a few seconds, confused, before answering. “Please calm down, Your Highness. I’ve never—”

“Shut up! Sylvie told me everything! She’s far too nice, so she keeps covering for you but I won’t let you bully her anymore! Guards! Take her to jail!”

The guards approached me to follow the prince’s command, yet they did not touch me. I could see the confusion on their faces.

“What are you doing?! Drag her away! Now!”

“B-But...” mumbled a guard who looked at the prince, then at me.

I understood his reaction. While the prince spent his days idling away, I helped the king and my father with their work and used most of my time cleaning up the prince’s messes. It was clear who the guards saw more often and preferred.

Still, it would have been unwise to drag this out in front of so many prying eyes.

“It’s all right,” I said.

“Huh?” answered the guard.

“You can’t disobey a royal command, can you? Come on, let us go.”

“Y-Yes. I apologize, my lady.”

Robert let go of me, and the guard took my arm before leading me to the dungeon. As we stepped out of the dance hall, I heard Prince Friede proclaim the end of our engagement and say that he’d take Lady Sylvia as his fiancée instead.

I couldn’t believe he’d pulled this in the middle of a party. How did he intend to deal with the consequences of his actions?

“Forgive me for bringing you to such a terrible place, Lady Elizabeth,” said the guard.

“There’s no need to fret. You’re only following the prince’s orders,” I said. “Could you tell me if they informed the king and my father? I’m sure they will fix this mess upon their return.”

I bade the guard farewell and sat on the moldy wooden chair that decorated my cell in the humid and smelly dungeon.

Afterward, I sighed and said, “To think this happened at a time when no one was here to talk back to Prince Friede... No, I suppose he chose this moment on purpose.”

High society was cruel. Once rumors started spreading, your reputation would suffer because it didn’t matter whether they were true. If the prince wanted to remove me from the picture entirely, he’d definitely picked a good time.

Well, I’m sure His Majesty and my father will rush home as soon as they hear of it.

I was forced to wear an antimagic collar around my neck. In the days of the Old Kingdom, they used such restraints on criminals to prevent them from using magic. This long-lost practice had recently resurfaced in old records. The crown prince ordered that they use one on me because of my strong magic.

“Good grief,” I said, tapping on my collar.

I let out a deep sigh.

◆

“What?!” a man roared.

The room he was sitting in had lavish decorations, as did the rest of the sumptuous residence he and his delegation occupied for the international conference.

“Is this true?!” he questioned.

“Y-Yes,” the messenger answered sheepishly.

Bulat Haldoria, king of the Kingdom of Haldoria, gnashed his teeth in anger and frustration. Despite his age, he was still an imposing and muscular man. The king, who used to be known as the fearsome God of Thunder on the battlefield, wore his countless battle scars as decorations.

Faced with the rage of such a formidable man, the messenger shook with fear. He could not help that his teeth chattered.

“Please calm down, Your Majesty,” said the man sitting beside the king.

“You’re right,” said Bulat, looking at the messenger. “My anger got the best of me, and I am sorry. Thank you for delivering this message to me. Go rest.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

The messenger scrambled out of the room.

“That idiot just won’t stop causing trouble...” the king lamented.

“I agree that His Highness the Prince is a bit of a handful,” said the companion with a sour face.

The man in his prime who sat next to the king was Duke Sieg Leiston, the prime minister of the Kingdom of Haldoria.

While the men were away to attend an international conference, the crown prince called off his engagement and chose a new fiancée. Even worse, he’d announced it at a very public event.

One of them was initially supposed to remain in the kingdom, and unforeseen circumstances had forced them to attend this meeting. This situation left the prince to rule in their absence.

“I thought that everything would be all right since Elizabeth was with him. Who would have thought he’d do something like that?” said the king, sighing.

“Even though she’s been jailed, I’m sure Elizabeth will find a way to fix this,” responded Sieg.

“That’s fair. Your daughter is quite exceptional, after all.”

“She is outstanding.”

Bulat nodded. “All right. We’ll leave this to Elizabeth, then.”

Both men sipped on their wine and complained about Friede’s lack of wit. Neither of them spared another thought for Elizabeth.

No one noticed that the maid standing right outside the door suddenly disappeared.

◇

A month went by since my imprisonment.

Piles of tax documents, administration materials, and reference books that civil officials had brought to me covered the crude desk in my cell. Ever since the party, Friede hadn’t visited me once.

“Does he not worry about the confidential information in these documents leaking in the dungeon?”

I flipped through the papers facing me, fed up with the prince’s irresponsibility.

“Though I always knew Prince Friede wasn’t the most meticulous, I never would have thought he could be so careless...” I whispered to no one in particular.

My voice echoed softly in the dungeon.

“Oh?” I whispered.

A few hours passed, and I held a crimson book as I stood up.

“Excuse me,” I said louder.

“What can I do for you, my lady?” asked the guard monitoring the dungeon in a polite manner.

I could tell he was clearly unhappy to see me behind bars. He had no choice but to obey the prince, currently the most powerful person in the castle.

“Could you come closer, please?”

“O-Of course.”

Just then, the man followed my request and walked up to my cell. He was neither wary nor able to react in time. I extended my right arm and snapped my fingers, to which his eyes went hollow as his face relaxed. He appeared to be in a daze.

The dark attribute spell I’d used, Hypnosis, wasn’t all that difficult to counter. Why did the guard fall for it so easily, then? Perhaps because he had been far too careless.

He would never have imagined that a helpless, considerate young lady such as myself would attack him when wearing an antimagic collar. Besides, many knew my proficiency in water magic. This guard had trained with the knights several times and witnessed me freely wielding water and ice.

Everyone knew that, excluding fundamental spells, people could only use attributes they had an affinity for. As such, that guard couldn’t have expected me to cast a dark attribute spell.

“Go back to your seat and forget everything you’re about to see,” I said.

“Yes... Certainly, my lady...”

The guard wobbled back to his chair and sat down, staring at the air with a vacant expression on his face.

“You can come out,” I said.

There was an unnatural distortion in front of my cell, then a maid about my age appeared.

“I apologize for the wait, my lady,” she said.

“It’s fine, Mireille. Thank you for coming.” The crimson book I was holding disappeared into thin air.

Mireille was my waiting maid, as well as my confidant. I’d asked her to follow the messenger to check His Majesty’s and my father’s reaction.

“So, how did it go?” I asked.

“Well...” she started.

As I listened to Mireille recount what she’d heard, I felt a dark rage surge inside me. They were perfectly aware of how serious the situation was, yet they left me to deal with the aftermath.

When I thought about it, this had been happening often recently. King Bulat summoned me anytime Prince Friede got into trouble to fix it. My father was the same, telling me it was important to uphold Friede’s image for the good of the kingdom; I had to do all the prince’s work and ensure he got all the credit.

Mireille seemed worried for me but continued, “After returning, I found out that rumors that may tarnish your honor were spreading, my lady.”

“Rumors?” I repeated.

“Yes. People are saying that you tried to murder Lady Sylvia out of jealousy and that you’re getting involved in politics to seize the prince’s power. They are undoubtedly groundless accusations, but they are spreading nonetheless.”

“Did you learn the source?” I asked after a pause.

“I got some of our people to investigate and pinpointed a few merchants and nobles. They all have ties with that waste of spa— Erm, I mean His Highness.”

“Right,” I said with a brief sigh. “How widespread are those rumors?”

“I’m afraid getting rid of them entirely will prove impossible. The merchants and nobles who know you don’t believe a word. But many people already believe them to be true.”

“I see.”

“As for your firm, my lady...”

Mireille referred to the firm I managed. After pushing for relief policies and seeing those projects fail due to a lack of funding, I set up a firm when I was twelve to earn money I could spend freely.

Over the years, my firm became one of the most influential businesses in the kingdom. I used it to give jobs to as many people as I could while running a different charity, helping to reduce inequality.

“The prince has ordered an investigation into it after deeming you a traitor to the nation. He is also actively placing merchants and nobles under his control in key positions at the firm.”

“This is ridiculous! Even if I’m the suspect of planning a coup, they should only remove me from the firm! What right does the government have to mess with the personnel? There is no legal basis for this, is there?!”

“There is none. Prince Friede has been misusing his authority and forcing everyone to comply. The executives are standing up to him as much as possible, but they cannot keep the crown prince in check.”

I clenched my teeth.

A shadow passed over Mireille’s face as she hesitated momentarily. She looked straight at me and said, “I know it’s not my place to ask, but... Why do you devote yourself to this country, my lady?” She struggled to conceal the anger in her voice.

“Why, you ask?” I said, then paused. “That’s because I’m a noble lady...”

“Do you believe it is worth it even when they have treated you like this?” she asked. She gritted her teeth in frustration and continued, “My lady, I... I respect you. You saved me when my house fell to ruin. Without you, I’d be a slave or a beggar, yet you made me your trusted confidant.”

“Mireille?”

“I—!” she suddenly exclaimed.

It surprised me to hear her shout, so I quickly cast Silent—a soundproofing spell—over the entire dungeon.

“I despise this country! The nobles treat you like a convenient tool they can discard whenever they please! I hate the masses for turning their back on you after hearing absurd rumors when you’ve done nothing but help them! And I despise the king and Duke Leiston for relying on you all the time and ignoring you in your most dire moment! Above all, I loathe the prince!”

Mireille’s voice echoed in the freezing dungeon.

I didn’t know how to react. Mireille was always by my side, discreet like a shadow. She had presented herself as a levelheaded person, and I’d never seen her let her feelings take over like this.

The echoes quieted, and her anger permeated my heart. Every emotion I’d repressed all these years, unaware they had existed, exploded like a raging volcano.

“You’re...right...” I said with a sense of realization.

As if answering Mireille’s outburst, the rage that had welled inside me made my entire body shake. I could feel a fire spreading through every nerve. The anger I’d felt earlier was nothing but a small ripple. But this overwhelming feeling was my true fury.

“Why?” I whispered. “Why did I...”

Since I came into this world, I’d devoted my entire life to this nation and Prince Friede. As I was his future queen, my duty was to support this country. I wasn’t allowed to make friends and had to study martial arts, magic, and etiquette relentlessly.

What was the point of it all?

The person I was ready to dedicate my life to had trampled over me, the nation I’d worked so hard for had abandoned me, and those I’d done everything to protect had betrayed me.

I smashed my bare fist into the wall of my cell, which made a large crack appear with a thunderous noise.

“Why did I do all this...? What was the point...?”

“My lady! Your magic!”

Mireille’s voice brought me out of my trance. I noticed my mana was leaking uncontrollably and took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down.

“Thank you, Mireille,” I said. “You’ve opened my eyes.”

“My lady...”

“Let’s leave this damned country!”

“Leave? But what will you do, then?” she asked.

I gave her a smile that came from the bottom of my heart. The raging inferno that was burning in my chest had settled down into a cold fury. Now, I was ready to announce my intentions to the world and make a vow.

“I’ll take revenge.”

Chapter 1: Escape

I’d take revenge on my homeland.

Having made up my mind, I needed to act promptly. I gave Mireille several tasks to complete before we could make our escape.

“That should be all we need,” I concluded.

“Understood, my lady,” stated Mireille. “What about the firm? How should I deal with it?”

“Let me think...”

His Highness the Prince—actually, there was no longer any need for me to respect that scumbag. Friede was replacing my people with his own, obviously seizing control over my firm.

In that case...

“Let him replace our people. I’m sure he’ll dismiss or demote most of those who are loyal to me,” I added. “Tell them to leave the country when that happens. They should use different routes at different times to be careful. Our most influential executives and skilled experts are crucial, so have them lie low for a while. Once I’ve established myself abroad, I’ll contact them so we can move forward.”

“Certainly, my lady. I’ll pass on your orders.”

“While you are at it, ask a few of our trusted partners to remain in the capital. We’ll need them to gather intelligence.”

“Naturally. I’ll ask him to select a few suitable individuals for this task.”

I nodded. Seeing that I had no links with that man, I doubted anyone would make a connection and knew he could handle it.

“We’ll leave in five days, Mireille,” I said. “Right before the king and his retinue return. I’ll leave the preparations to you.”

“Yes, my lady. May your new journey be blessed,” she said with a detached tone before bowing.

I almost couldn’t believe a woman like her had lost her cool entirely earlier. Instead of leaving, though, she stared at me without saying another word.

“What is it, Mireille?” I asked.

“With all due respect...I suggest you do something about that,” she said, gesturing at the hole I’d punched into the wall.

“Right...”

I completely forgot how I’d hit the wall with mana concentrated around my fist. Unless I did something to hide it, the guards would notice immediately.

My decision had agitated me more than expected, and I needed to be careful not to make any mistakes. I couldn’t reveal myself until I made my escape.

“I suppose I’ll have to fix it,” I said. Hence, I stimulated the mana in my body and gathered it in my left hand.

In this world, all living beings had mana. The ability to control it using reason and theory was called magic. A magician’s training culminated in the creation of a Divine Artifact.

Since one materialized their inner mana as a Divine Artifact, everyone had different powers and appearances based on the magician’s preferences, personality, experience, and other factors. In most cases, it took the form of a weapon or armor.

Most magicians who reached the necessary level had to create a Divine Artifact because they were knights or adventurers—basically, people who needed to fight. The exceptions were overzealous researchers and the occasional gifted noble child who’d trained from a young age.

While Divine Artifacts were usually considered weapons, sometimes items with no fighting potential would appear. My Grimoire of Wisdom was one such exception, as it took the form of a tome and recorded all the information I’d seen at least once. It could also decode and translate documents for me.

Or so I’d told everyone around me.

I had kept the true nature of my Divine Artifact a secret—even from my father and the king. Recording and analyzing data was only a fraction of what I could do.

In truth, my real Divine Artifact had taken the form of seven powerful tomes: the Seven Grimoires.

Keeping an ace up one’s sleeve was one of the basics of high society. And so, I hadn’t even told my father—no, I should call him the duke. Someone like him isn’t my family.

Still, I hadn’t told the duke the truth about my abilities. Even Mireille, the person I trusted the most, only knew about four of my grimoires. I hadn’t realized it before, but I seemed to have developed trust issues along the way.

“Grimoire of Beelzebub,” I said, then a crimson tome appeared in my left hand.

The Grimoire of Beelzebub was one of the Seven Grimoires, and it let me record other people’s magic spells. I could cast them even if I didn’t have any affinity with their attributes. That was how I’d been able to use the dark attribute spell Hypnosis when I only had an affinity for water spells.

I flipped through the pages of the Grimoire of Beelzebub until I found the right one.

“Stone Wall,” I recited. Thanks to my Divine Artifact, I could activate this earth attribute spell without issue. “That should do it.”

Once I concealed the hole I made on the wall, I dismissed Mireille and made sure she was gone to lift the effects of Hypnosis. The guard tilted his head to the side with a puzzled look, probably having very fuzzy memories of the past few moments.

I sat back down and started planning my revenge.

◆

“It feels good to be home,” said King Bulat.

“Indeed, Your Majesty. I’m sure Elizabeth took care of government matters in our absence, but that doesn’t change how you’re needed here,” responded Sieg.

Bulat laughed, saying, “My officials always tell me she does a better job than I do, don’t they?” The king was a warrior at heart and aware he wasn’t the best politician.

“So, how is Friede?” asked the king to one of the officials tasked with supervising Elizabeth and Friede in his absence. “I bet he’s somewhere sulking because Elizabeth gave him another earful.”

“W-Well... The thing is...” said the official, hesitating. “The prince left to, erm...inspect a territory...with Lady Lockit.”

The official had made up that excuse on the spot. The truth was that the prince actually took a little trip with his lover.

“What?! How dare he when he knew we’d come back today? What is Elizabeth doing?! Managing Friede’s schedule is her job!” the king roared.

“L-Lady Elizabeth is in the dungeon...under the prince’s order...”

Duke Sieg yelled in astonishment, “Are you saying that Elizabeth is still in jail?!”

No hint of anger or worry lay in his voice. He wasn’t mad that his daughter stayed in the dungeon for over a month; it surprised him to hear she had yet to get out.

“Take us to Elizabeth!” exclaimed Bulat.

He and Sieg followed the civil official to the dungeon in a hurry, where they found an utterly confused guard. The guard snapped out of his daze, then greeted the king and prime minister to the best of his ability.

Although Bulat was in a sour mood, he knew the guard wasn’t to blame for Elizabeth’s imprisonment and refrained from doing so.

“Where is Elizabeth?” asked Bulat instead.

“Sh-She’s in th-this cell,” he said, pointing at it. “B-But...”

“What is it?” Sieg pressed the slurring guard.

Due to Sieg’s position as the prime minister and Elizabeth’s father, the guard couldn’t easily explain the situation.

“W-Well,” he said with an apologetic look. “Lady Elizabeth hasn’t moved from that chair in two days... She hasn’t examined the documents we brought her, and she won’t eat anything!”

“What?!”

Bulat and Sieg rushed to Elizabeth’s cell, only to find the young woman sitting quietly with her back facing them. They called out to her, but she didn’t respond.

Despite the guard’s comments about Elizabeth not eating, her complexion looked healthy enough from what they could see.

“Elizabeth! Why aren’t you answering?! Guard, open the door,” ordered Bulat.

“I-I’m terribly sorry, Your Majesty, b-but Prince Friede took the key to Lady Elizabeth’s cell with him...”

Bulat clicked his tongue in anger, then lifted his right hand to make a whirlpool of mana, dense enough to make the air shake, appear. The king condensed it into his palm to turn it into a lightning blade.

“Divine Artifact,” chanted Bulat. “Glazermierch!”

The God of Thunder swung his large blade, making a flash of lightning illuminate the room as a blaring roar echoed. He’d cut right through the cell’s steel bars, which were as thick as a woman’s arm.

Bulat dispersed his Divine Artifact and walked with Sieg to see Elizabeth. Even with the uproar, she hadn’t moved a finger.

“Elizabeth,” called out Sieg, extending his hand to touch his daughter’s shoulder. “She’s...cold?”

Cracks started spreading through her body until Elizabeth’s figure shattered within seconds, and pieces fell to the ground.

“Wh-What in the world is going on?!” shouted Bulat.

“Is that...an Ice Doll?!” exclaimed Sieg, picking up a shard of ice. “I can still feel her mana. She must have placed this doll in her stead two days ago, when the guard said she stopped eating.”

“Where’s the real Elizabeth, then?!”

Neither Sieg nor the guard had an answer to offer their king.

Bulat’s face went pale. His reaction was justified, as Elizabeth was deeply involved in his kingdom’s government. She partook in everything, from administration to military affairs. Her disappearance could have terrible consequences.

Moreover, her Divine Artifact, the Grimoire of Wisdom, had recorded countless state secrets throughout the years. That knowledge included top secret military information such as maps and population details, secret techniques from the castle’s forbidden collection, and ancient texts that dated to the Old Kingdom.

“Find her! Find Elizabeth at once!”

◇

On the day of my escape, I busied myself with the final preparations in my quite familiar cell. I had already used Hypnosis on the guard and was ready to proceed with the plan.

“Ice Doll,” I chanted, creating an icy copy of myself.

While I’d used plenty of mana, I was confident the doll would hold for around ten days if no one touched it. Two days remained until the king and the duke returned, and I doubted anyone else would dare touch “me.” No one would figure out I was missing until then.

“Oh my, I almost forgot,” I said, looking at the Ice Doll.

I gathered some more mana and added an antimagic collar around the doll’s neck. Friede had ordered the guards to put one on me to seal my magic, yet those things were not useful on me. I had made them, after all.

Since I’d rediscovered and analyzed forgotten records from the castle’s forbidden book collection, I anticipated someone might one day use these artifacts against me. I’d modified their structure a little so that they’d immediately stop working when they came in contact with my mana.

“Shall we go, Mireille?”

“Yes, my lady.”

Once I stepped out of my cell, I asked the guard a few questions and learned Friede had the key to my cell. That wasn’t an issue, though. A touch of ice magic was all I needed to create a duplicate.

I closed the cell behind me and left the dungeon with Mireille. The guard would snap out of my Hypnosis in a short while.

Mireille and I climbed the stairs and arrived at a door leading us to the corridor. I hadn’t been up here in a month.

I could feel my anger churning inside. Ever since Mireille had helped me come to terms with my feelings, I was much more self-aware. According to her, I was learning how to express myself.

“Mireille.”

“Yes, my lady,” she said, then prepared a spell. “Illusion.”

Mireille had an affinity for light attribute spells. The one she had cast, Illusion, allowed you to manipulate the light to trick others. You could use it to conceal yourself or assume the appearance of someone else.

“Let’s go.”

Now that we were invisible to others, we sneakily walked through the corridors and exited the castle.

◆

Having just finished his last report, Lucas Lebrick rested his pen on his desk. He brought his hand to his face and massaged his forehead, closing his eyes.

He then sipped black tea, hoping to get over his tiredness.

Lucas sighed and said, “I can finally go home.”

As a viscount, I had to serve as an ambassador to my country in the Kingdom of Haldoria. My homeland, the Yutear Empire, was a young nation founded only a century ago. Nevertheless, it had successfully expanded far beyond its original borders and had several nations under its control.

The Kingdom of Haldoria was the only nation on this continent that could rival the Yutear Empire with military power.

Our nations had been at odds for a while, though a distressing war led to the signing of a truce five years ago. The Kingdom of Haldoria and the Yutear Empire were now on friendly terms—publicly, at least.

My father, the previous head of the family, had suddenly passed away in an accident. This situation forced me to succeed him at the young age of sixteen. At the time, I was but a noble of the robe—a measly baron with no land.

After I turned twenty, the emperor summoned me and granted me the title of viscount along with a territory. The land was bigger than any other viscounty and located on the border with Haldoria. He said it was a reward for my hard work.

While it might sound like a dream come true for a young aristocrat, the truth differed. Tensions with Haldoria were rising, so the emperor used me, a young and insignificant noble with no backing, as a shield. Despite my inexperience, I understood that my newly gained territory was but a buffer zone in the eyes of the emperor.

This time, I received orders to attend the celebration of the founding of the Kingdom of Haldoria.

After traveling through the wasteland that was an actual buffer zone inside a carriage until my arse started hurting, I’d reached the royal capital. I’d proceeded to make small talk with the detestable nobles of the kingdom at the party. Though our words were refined and cultured, our exchanges resembled children’s petty arguments.

I’d dreamed of becoming a proud nobleman like my father, but my ideals had long deserted me. All I ever did as a viscount was bicker or offer empty flattery.