She had predicted everything until this point. The fact that she had escaped from her quarters in the castle meant that she had already accounted for her spy’s identity becoming known. However, she hadn’t thought that Marcus would come barging into her room, and her lady’s maids getting spooked and trying to kill him had been unexpected. If Marcus hadn’t been where he was just then, he would’ve even felt a degree of sympathy for her for how foolishly her lady’s maids had acted.
Still, no matter how resourceful Juliette was, her plans would always come apart at the seams, and her subordinates would remain foolish as long as she treated them like pawns to be sacrificed. There was no better demonstration of this than how Marcus and the subordinates he was so proud of had worked together to take down the criminal organizations Juliette had entrusted to others.
All of that brought Cesia to Marcus’s mind. Over the past year, she had given it her all, and her efforts had borne incredible results. He loved her as a woman, but he was also proud of her growth as his student.
She used to have trouble with drying magic, but now, she could probably hold her own in a bout against one of the castle’s casters. I have to make sure to tell her to turn down any recruiters from the knights. The corners of Marcus’s mouth ticked up slightly.
“What are you smiling about, Prince Marcus? Do you not know the situation you’re in?” Juliette said irritably. She seemed annoyed. Then again, her annoyance was only natural, considering the time and money spent preparing her plans and how Marcus’s meddling forced her to change them.
“You know, I think this is very unfortunate, too. And here I was, thinking that our marriage was a good deal for both of our countries, only to have something like this done to me,” he said.
“Oh? You were wrong,” Juliette said. “There was never anything in the marriage that would have benefitted Emeroade. I was going to turn this country into a vassal of my own, with you, my husband, as its king.” She smiled.
Her girlish, light pink lipstick didn’t suit her. Marcus thought a sinister, darker color would be much more fitting for a woman like her. “How stupid,” Marcus said. “Even if you did control the king, we’re a constitutional monarchy. You can’t just do whatever you want.”
The royal succession was as if carved in stone. The crown prince enjoyed universal support. A supporting role suited the second prince, and the third prince was still young. And, after each of the beautiful princesses of the country got married—probably for some political reason or another—none of the citizens doubted that Emeroade had a bright future ahead of it. Even so, there had been times when some foolish people had tried to dangle the throne in front of Marcus. Just like Juliette, they had the shallow dream of taking control of the country through him.
However, the monarchy existed for the people’s sake; it wasn’t something a single person could exploit for their own self-interest. The person on the throne wasn’t the one with the most power; they were the one with the most responsibility. Even if Marcus were to replace his older brother, he couldn’t simply do whatever he wished.
Juliette looked into Marcus’s reproachful eyes, then chuckled. “Then, when the country is mine, I can just change it.”
In their two countries, being king meant different things. In Gwyllt, the king was an existence second only to God and held the most power in the country. That was why Juliette could come to Emeroade to try to establish her own country and why, to her, the beliefs of people like Marcus sounded like nothing but the opinions of weaklings.
“Oh, well. My plan has been moved up a bit, but I was going to bring you here anyway. Enjoy your heartfelt reunion,” Juliette said. She snapped her fingers, and a man opened the door and entered the room. Judging from his build and the way his movements left no trace of his presence, Marcus intuited that he was the man who had hit him from behind in Juliette’s quarters.
“Count Dawson Peck, right? So it was him. That’s the name of Gwyllt’s diplomat,” Marcus said.
“What about Count Peck?” Juliette asked, playing dumb.
The man, who appeared to be a diplomat, wore a flamboyant mask as if he was about to attend a masquerade ball. Marcus had thought it was odd that Juliette had just been complaining about her lady’s maids’ failures but hadn’t mentioned the man who had hit him, but it appeared that this man wasn’t a sacrificial pawn like Anita and the lady’s maids were. Marcus had seen the count’s face once before but had no way to prove it was him, so Juliette seemed committed to concealing the count’s involvement. At the same time, that could also be taken as evidence for how far Juliette had been backed into a corner—she’d probably never intended to use the count.
Marcus’s internal deliberation stopped when he noticed what Count Peck held in his arms, and his eyes widened in surprise. “Ronald!” he shouted. Judging from the count’s smooth movements, he seemed closer to an assassin or a secret agent than a diplomat. He was probably the one who’d pulled off the impressive stunt of swapping out the baby Ronald right from under his mother’s nose.
“Yes, it’s the cute baby prince. And look, he’s still alive. Isn’t this wonderful? Aren’t you overjoyed to see him?” Juliette finally smiled cheerfully.
Marcus moved, and the heavy magic cuffs rattled.
“Oh, please don’t think about doing anything stupid. You don’t want your cute nephew to be killed, do you?” Juliette said, laughing and showing off the sleeping Ronald. He looked as if he had been put to sleep with magic.
“You’ll kill him even if I don’t do anything,” Marcus said. Ronald was farther ahead than he was in the line of succession and would be an obstacle in making Marcus the king. Marcus didn’t know why Juliette had kept Ronald alive, but ultimately, Ronald and Reynold would have to die for her plan to succeed.
“You aren’t so cruel as to quicken the death of an infant who isn’t even a year old, are you?” Juliette cooed. “Lord Marcus, do you know what puppetry magic is?”
Ronald’s double had been a magic item, crafted using forbidden black magic, undoubtedly by someone in Juliette’s camp who was well-versed in the practice. Earlier, Marcus had only been able to guess what she was after, but now that he knew that she wanted to make him king, the details of her plan became more apparent.
“I see. To protect Ronald’s life, you want me to agree to puppetry magic,” Marcus said.
As royalty, he had been taught to a certain degree about black magic. Puppetry was a twisted form of magic that let a person manipulate someone after destroying their spirit, with the added perversion that the target had to agree to the magic themselves for it to work. That meant that Juliette wanted to install Marcus as a literal puppet on the throne of Emeroade, and she was using the chaos of the ongoing celebrations to get rid of one of the barriers to that plan, Ronald.
No matter what he did, she would kill Ronald. His brother and nephew were both higher in the line of succession than he was. However, that didn’t mean that he could just sit by and let his nephew be killed right in front of him. So, while Juliette planned to have Ronald killed eventually, he was still a hostage that she could use to force Marcus to do what she wanted.
“Oh, how scary. I’ve heard that, besides magic, you’re also quite a skilled swordsman and martial artist. If you do anything unwise, I’ve ordered him to cut this baby’s throat without hesitation,” Juliette said, smiling.