The Mainhof daughter could have no warm feelings toward me. Her father’s death had set her family on the road to ruin, and the one who’d reaped the rewards of that fall was none other than me, the so-called Gale Knight.

The underbelly of noble society was woven through with envy and jealousy. Why would the Mainhof daughter be any different? It was entirely possible Vermeer’s disposition had shifted under her influence.

"And what about your own marriage talks, Your Highness?"

"That’s enough, Sir Streit. That question is out of line."

Vermeer cut me off, his face hardening.

Hold on—was it really sensitive enough to make him bristle like that?

The crown prince’s expression dimmed a little.

"Continuing the bloodline is the most important duty of the royal family."

"Lord Franz, you don’t have to..."

"It’s fine. I feel like venting now and then. With Sir Streit married, and now Leo getting engaged, my own match still hasn’t been settled. I don’t know what Father is thinking."

The crown prince ran through every marriage proposal that had been put on the table.

From the Duchy of Bavaria all the way up to the Habsburgs of the imperial house—just looking at the rank of the candidates, there were enough powerful houses that he should have had a crown princess long ago. That was how important Beren was as a region.

Anyone but the Habsburgs, maybe.

That family was a pit of hereditary disease, the very picture of the protruding jaw.

I had no idea what the Grand Duke was up to by blocking the crown prince’s marriage, but I doubted it was unrelated to the recent string of incidents. This was why men with conspiratorial dispositions were so hard to read.

The walk with the crown prince ended in less than two hours.

The crown prince wasn’t exactly a man with time on his hands, and the court clergy in charge of his education weren’t the type to permit long unscheduled outings. Their influence was considerable.

"Vermeer seems a bit off. He never used to be that sharp-tongued."

"Agreed. Not at all like the well-mannered young man I knew."

People could change. I could only hope that whatever had changed Vermeer wouldn’t end up casting a shadow over the crown prince. In any case, I’d secured a path to meeting the queen through the crown prince, so the outing wasn’t a wasted effort.

When I got back to Rosengarden, I found Bodo with a face full of fury and Anton looking absolutely worn out. I’d only sent for Bodo, so I hadn’t expected Anton to tag along.

"You leave me alone to manage cheese for ages, then suddenly snatch me up like this? What gives?"

"Maybe if I hadn’t caught you slacking off at the mill with Nora, I wouldn’t have had to."

Aha. Things must have been going well with that girl who’d been making her interest pretty obvious. When Anton blurted it out without batting an eye, Bodo nearly leapt out of his skin, sputtering and shouting. Anton’s snickering had me laughing too.

"Sorry to drag you away from that. Introduce her to me sometime."

"You want me to personally introduce her to the lord who chopped off the heads of those rich farmers?"

...She’d probably faint, wouldn’t she?

The fear people had of me was something time would smooth over.

Anyway, kid, there were bigger things than his love life right now.

"There’s a nasty rumor about me spreading, mostly through the slums."

Bodo’s big eyes blinked rapidly. He seemed to be processing.

Then he started losing his temper all over again, but for a different reason.

"What in the hell? What son of a bitch dared spread filth about you, Master?"

I calmed the bouncing Bodo down and explained the whole story.

Anton, listening beside us, choked at the part about the bastard child rumor.

"That’s vicious, deliberate slander!"

"Should I write up a list of every Hurensohn flapping their gums and bring it back?"

A list? Hmm, not a bad idea, actually.

I could probably put it to use later in one way or another.

Bodo’s blazing eyes, ready to compile a hit list, said clearly that anyone caught on it would be done for. He could be snippy with me when he was unhappy, but no one was more loyal than Bodo.

I told him to make the list, but to absolutely not act rashly.

I assigned Anton as Bodo’s bodyguard for the time being.

"The marquis still hasn’t returned?"

"No, sir. It’s been a while since he’s stayed away this long." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Aren’t you worried? Or is that the trust built up over decades?"

"That, and the marquis always sends word so I won’t have reason to worry."

The old man seemed to be enjoying his return to the active life he’d lived in his prime. So I carefully wrote down everything I’d uncovered so far on a scroll and sent it through Göring.

Ralph and Stella, without anyone telling them to, had been feeling guilty about being a burden and were learning estate management from Göring. People with an honesty (good) disposition really were a joy to have around.

They wanted to find the enemies who had hurt their family, but they knew their own strength had limits, so they relied on me completely. That was exactly why I was working to catch the real culprit now.

"My lord, someone has come from the royal palace."

"The royal palace? Who sent them?"

"It’s the Grand Duke’s chamberlain."

Now? The Grand Duke?

It was bad timing to meet him with the Guard’s surveillance still hanging over me.

But I couldn’t refuse a summons from the Grand Duke, so I headed straight for the palace.

The chamberlain didn’t lead me to the audience hall but to the parade ground inside the palace grounds. Then a tremendous gunshot rang out, startling me. What? A gunshot, of all things?

On the parade ground, surrounded by attendants, the Grand Duke was personally handling a firearm.

A thick haze of gunpowder smoke drifted through the air around him.

I’d previously inquired through the Chief Justice about introducing firearms to the royal armory, and it looked like I was finally getting an answer. The Grand Duke must have been quite interested in firearms, because he was demonstrating one himself.

I greeted the Grand Duke with proper courtesy as I approached.

"I was testing the firearms you requested. What do you think?"

"I hadn’t expected Your Highness to take a personal interest."

I’d assumed some armory bureaucrat would just hand them over.

This was an unexpected new point of contact with the Grand Duke.

Which would only fuel the bastard rumors all the more.

"It’s a fascinating piece of equipment. Within fifty paces, it can punch through even that armor you’re so proud of."

The Grand Duke handed me the firearm he’d been holding. The smoke smelled sharply of ammonia. So this was black powder? It was the prototype of the guns I knew, but the matchlock wick made it distinctive.

"Arkebuse. That’s what they call it in the north."

"Is it fired by bringing the matchlock wick into contact with the powder?"

"Correct. It seems you have some knowledge of these things. Care to fire it?"

The man tending the firearms handed me a loaded gun. The matchlock wick was fixed to the cock. I was told all I had to do was aim and pull the trigger.

I’d ended up firing a matchlock by accident, but I had experience handling guns, so I quickly settled into a stance and lined up the sight on the target. The attendant looked rather startled at how naturally I assumed the proper posture.

Crack!

A sharp report burst out as the ball flew. In that same instant, the cloud of smoke from the priming pan blinded me momentarily.

Between the gunpowder smoke and the stinging stench of ammonia, I started coughing.

Why was the smoke this awful?

"Cough, cough!"

"Hahaha, even you find it a tricky weapon, then."

"Direct hit, my lord!"

"...A direct hit, you say?"

The ball I’d fired had struck the dead center of the target.

The Grand Duke’s expression soured.