“L-Lady Frederica... I think you should pace yourself. You already seem quite drunk,” the bald man, Lord Edward, cautioned the elderly woman as they sat opposite each other. The other vassals of the council gathered around the tavern tables also looked on with expressions of concern.
“Get lost, Lord Edward! I don’t need your chastising today, especially after you dragged me right into the line of fire from his Lordship this morning!” she snapped back, her voice thick with the fierce anger of what had transpired earlier. “It was you who couldn’t keep his mouth shut right in front of the Viscountess, but the moment you were questioned, you pulled me down with you!”
“That’s right! If you were sinking, you should have sunk alone, Lord Edward,” one of the youngest vassals commented. He had bright blond hair, a remarkably handsome face, and a sharp glint in his eye.
Lady Frederica lifted her wine glass toward him with a sloppy grin. “See? Even our youngest member has a better wit than you.”
“Urgh... fine! If you want to drown yourself in drinks, more power to you. Just stop ganging up on me!” Edward replied, thoroughly annoyed. Snatching his overflowing glass from the table, he turned on his heel. “I’ll go sit with the others. Enjoy choking yourself on wine, you old hag.”
“Get going, baldy,” she shot back as he walked away.
The handsome young blond man then slid into the empty seat, offering a smooth smile. “Would you mind if I were to share this table with someone as profoundly experienced as you, Lady Frederica?” he asked politely.
Lady Frederica chuckled, clearly charmed. “My, my, look how polite he is, too! You are Lord Kevin Libert’s son, right? The new head of the Libert family?”
“Jeckson Libert, yes. Due to my father’s unfortunate passing last month, I did have to step into his position long before I was truly worthy of it, I'm afraid,” he replied humbly.
Lady Frederica shook her head dismissively, tilting the bottle to pour him a fresh glass. “Rubbish! Even that old man Kevin wasn’t sound-witted enough to realize what a loose cannon Lord Edward’s mouth was. But you...! You just voiced it so effortlessly!”
“You praise me far too much, Lady Frederica... Truthfully, I don’t even understand where everyone stands, or why the council is so fiercely against our Lordship at all. I still have a very long way to go,” Jeckson replied, taking a polite sip from his cup.
Lady Frederica scoffed loudly. “Pfft! Are you really losing sleep over just that? Well, let this old lady do a favor for our youngest member then, Lord Libert.”
“I would be eternally grateful,” Jeckson smiled, drinking another glass poured by her hand.
“So, what does our little greenie want to know first?” she asked, pouring herself another heavy serving.
“Well... the most basic thing, I guess. Why exactly do you dislike Lord Miller Ironwood so much, Lady Frederica? I’ve noticed that the entire council is rather passive-aggressive toward him.”
The moment he finished asking, the elderly noblewoman slammed her wine glass onto the wooden table with full force. “The question is not why we don’t like him! The question is, what possible reason would we have to respect a commoner-turned-Lord?!”
“Bu... but didn’t His Majesty himself officially bestow the title and the territory upon him?” Jeckson asked innocently.
Lady Frederica scoffed bitterly. “So what? Do you even know how the Imperial family managed to acquire the title of a place known to be completely impenetrable? The Ironwood Viscounty has never lost a single military battle in its entire history!”
“How?” Jeckson asked, his curiosity genuinely piqued.
“The previous Lord: that absolute idiot! He sold the title directly to the Imperial family for a handful of Shellas just so he could go live a lazy life away from here,” Lady Frederica fumed, her face flushing with pure anger. “If only that fool had consulted me beforehand, I would have gladly taken the title off his hands for the exact same price and ruled over this land myself!”
“Wait... so you could have been the reigning Lady, Lady Frederica?” Jeckson managed an expression of profound surprise, before tilting his head. “Even so, why would you want to burden yourself with a failing territory? Even his Lordship, Miller, is currently unable to overturn its fortune easily.”
“What do you mean, overturn? He is the exact reason why the territory is struggling right now!” Lady Frederica countered, slamming her glass yet again. “You must have been away studying in the capital, so you don't know the truth, but this Viscounty was doing decently enough before Lord Miller was handed the title a year ago.”
She leaned in closer. “Even with his terrible gambling habits and unreasonable tax rates, the previous Lord at least ensured that we maintained steady trade routes with the outside world. But now? Under Lord Miller, we can’t even manage that.”
Jeckson nodded slowly, but a look of confusion crossed his handsome features. “Why... Why is that Lord Miller’s fault? Is it because of his specific policies?”
“No... no, it’s not his policies. It’s Lord Miller’s mere existence itself,” Lord Edward chimed in, suddenly pulling up a chair from the neighboring table to slide back into the conversation.
“You see... where should I even start with this...” Edward mused, tapping his chin thoughtfully.
Lady Frederica interjected, thoroughly annoyed by his stalling. “Just begin with the Imperial Family, you fool!” She slammed her wine glass down yet again, and this time, a sharp crack split across the fine crystal.
“Ahem... fine,” Lord Edward cleared his throat, ignoring her glare as he leaned in. “You know how the Third Prince was born, right, Lord Libert?”
Jeckson nodded, trying to find a delicate way to phrase the scandal, but eventually gave up and spoke bluntly. “During His Majesty’s diplomatic visit to the neighboring Gelen Empire, around the time the Second Prince was celebrating his fifth birthday... the Princess of Gelen forced her way into the Emperor's bed and fell pregnant.”
“Exactly,” Lord Edward nodded, not caring at all how direct Jeckson's phrasing was. “The Emperor and the Empress shared an extraordinarily deep bond, so much so that he refused to take a single concubine, even though imperial law fully allowed it. But after that scandalous incident, he had no choice but to take the Gelen Princess as his official consort. It permanently fractured his relationship with the Empress.”
Lady Frederica let out a heavy, solemn sigh. “His Majesty could have been stern and denied the child altogether. But due to complex diplomatic pressures, and his own sudden sympathy for the Gelen Princess, who had taken such extreme measures just to escape her deeply abusive family, he ultimately decided to bring her back to the Inidal Empire with him.”
“But she ran away the moment the Third Prince turned a year old, didn’t she?” Jeckson added, recalling the rumors surrounding the current state of the fractured Imperial Family.
Lord Edward downed his entire glass of wine in a single, heavy swallow. He nodded grimly. “Furious that after all his generosity, which had cost him his beloved’s love and his happiness, the consort would commit such a massive betrayal, the Emperor made a cold decision. He moved the Third Prince to an isolated annex and ensured the boy would grow up living as nothing more than a shadow within the imperial palace.”
“And on the boy's fifteenth birthday, the Emperor took an even more drastic measure to guarantee that only the Empress’s bloodline would ever be in contention for the throne,” Lady Frederica added, waving a hand to call a tavern servant over to replace her cracked glass.
She looked back at Jeckson, her eyes narrowing as she delivered the final detail. “He handed the boy a sword, and sent him straight to the front lines of the war.”