The Grave of Life
"Welcome back, Priscilla."
Heinkel's voice greeting her saved me.
"To return without even sending word first. Unexpected."
"That's because something urgent came up. And besides...."
As Priscilla trailed off and shifted her gaze, the servants nearby visibly flinched.
"Sometimes a surprise inspection is necessary too, don't you all agree?"
At those icy words, the maids and servants swallowed nervously.
'It's not like they're bad at their jobs, but....'
Leinrant was a group of warriors to the bone.
As long as the food was good and the clothes were clean, they were happy—muscle-brained idiots through and through.
Priscilla, who lived in the imperial capital, was the one responsible for somehow making those people resemble nobles.
"Everyone, attention!"
Clapping her hands to gather the servants' focus, Priscilla—who apparently had already inspected the estate inside and out—called over the head maid and immediately began firing off instructions.
The shape of the gardens, the color of the wallpaper, even changes in etiquette for handling guests from different regions.
The overwhelming presence of someone who seized control of the estate within less than five minutes of arriving from the Empire.
...Just watching it made my stomach hurt.
"I heard on the way here that a young lady from the Ailasis ducal house has arrived?"
The servants and maids looked utterly dazed by the flood of up-to-date information.
"Berkman. You can have everything prepared within the week, correct?"
The only person who maintained his composure was Head Butler Berkman.
As though this were routine, he bowed his head and answered.
"It will be done, my lady."
Leinrant was a warrior clan to the marrow.
As long as they ate well and wore clean clothes, they were satisfied—simple muscle-brained people.
And Priscilla's role, living in the imperial capital, was to make them look at least somewhat like proper nobles.
"Now then, everyone, pay attention!"
Clapping her hands again, Priscilla summoned the servants' attention and continued issuing countless orders to the head maid, as though she had already examined every corner of the estate.
From the arrangement of the gardens to the wallpaper colors, even how guest etiquette differed by region.
The sheer force with which she took command of the estate less than five minutes after arriving from the Empire.
...Honestly, even I felt overwhelmed watching it.
"I heard on the way here that the young lady of the Ailasis ducal house has come to visit?"
The servants and maids looked half out of their minds from the torrent of information being thrown at them.
"Berkman. You can have everything prepared within the week, yes?"
The only one who remained calm was Head Butler Berkman, who bowed as though accustomed to this sort of thing.
Then her attention turned toward me.
Straightening my posture immediately, I answered her question calmly.
"We were touring the city of Leinrant together and only just returned."
My voice came out stiff and rigid.
Hearing it, Priscilla narrowed her eyes slightly before nodding.
'This is absolutely killing me.'
Priscilla Elcryer Leinrant.
The official wife of the Duke of Leinrant.
One of the Empire's Five Chancellors. The Iron Lady who protected Leinrant.
She possessed countless other titles and honors as well, but none of them mattered much to me.
What mattered was the relationship between us.
The painfully uncomfortable relationship between the duke's legal wife and the son of his concubine.
"I also heard there was an attack. What happened?"
"They were mages dispatched by the Ailasis ducal house. We confirmed the use of fire magic and have apprehended and imprisoned them."
The response came from Dunkel standing behind me.
"Using fire magic in the middle of a northern city. They've got some nerve."
Heinkel's voice carried obvious anger.
Priscilla made no effort to hide her own fury either.
"They caused trouble in the middle of the North. We can't simply send them back safely, can we, Priscilla?"
The moment Heinkel called her name, she answered immediately.
"There's no need for Your Grace to personally intervene. I'll send an official protest letter to Ailasis under my own name."
An official protest from one of the Empire's Chancellors.
Even one of the Three Great Ducal Houses could not ignore that lightly.
"Tell them we'll deal with the criminals ourselves."
"And we should bill them for the damaged city property as well."
"Please do."
The duke's authority and the chancellor's political practicality.
As I watched the couple coordinate flawlessly, Priscilla's gaze shifted back toward me.
'No, why is she staring at me like that?'
Seeing Priscilla staring straight through me made my stomach churn.
'Come to think of it, she's probably the person in this house with the most reason to dislike me....'
She had never directly persecuted me or treated me unfairly.
And even if she had wanted to, Heinkel wasn't the sort of man who would allow it.
Even so, the discomfort remained because I knew almost nothing about her.
When I was born, she was in the Empire.
By the time she returned, I had already been sent to the correctional facility.
And even after I returned, I'd intentionally avoided her whenever possible, making situations like this—standing face-to-face—extremely rare.
'Though I did that intentionally to some extent....'
The legal wife and the son of a concubine.
Politically, I'd judged that meeting her carelessly could only lead to trouble.
And personally, I'd assumed nothing pleasant would come from it anyway.
That was why the information I knew about her was only fragmentary.
That she acted as Leinrant's voice within the Empire.
And that thanks to Chancellor Priscilla, Leinrant had managed to resist the Empire's attempts to seize the family's interests all this time.
"He really does look exactly like him."
Her voice was so soft I might've missed it if I weren't concentrating.
Before I could even ask what she meant, Priscilla addressed me.
"You've accomplished quite a lot during this time, Young Master Klein."
"Ah, yes."
As I answered, one of the officials lined up behind her handed over a document.
"Count Cornwell, Hector, and even the Wall."
A report summarizing everything I had done so far.
Reading through it once more, Priscilla continued.
"You dismantled a portion of the branch family's power and even disrupted the succession structure.... It's difficult to believe all of this was accomplished in such a short time."
Several months had already passed since I resolved to rebuild this family.
My plans to eliminate the branch family—the greatest problem within the house—were steadily progressing.
'Still, her information network is impressive. She already knows about what happened at the Wall.'
Surprised once more by her speed of intelligence gathering, I carefully chose my response.
"I merely did what I was capab—"
"However."
At that single word from Priscilla, tinged with restrained anger, I abruptly stopped speaking.
"Because Count Cornwell suddenly went insane, his territory fell into complete chaos."
The unexpected criticism left me momentarily dumbfounded.
"As a result, our administrators had quite a difficult time cleaning up the aftermath."
In other words, she herself—who commanded those administrators—had suffered through plenty of hardship as well.
The officials standing behind her were glaring at me viciously.
'Was it you?'
'You're the reason we had to work overtime like mad?'
'So it was you?'
...Their eyes practically cursed me aloud, and I did my best to endure the barrage in silence.
'Wow, those looks could kill someone.'
While the administrators and I silently exchanged glances, Priscilla's merciless evaluation continued.
"And thanks to Young Master Hector's death, the burden on the border region with the Paul wyvern territory has increased as well."
"Ugh."
"And the resources spent defending you at the Wall were considerable too, correct?"
"Urgh...."
Since they were all consequences of the things I'd caused, I couldn't exactly refute any of it.
"In the end, the gains greatly outweighed the losses. But next time, make sure to consider the chaos your actions will create as well."
"I understand...."
Her precise calculations and evaluations were on a completely different level from my clumsy attempts at political maneuvering.
The insight of a seasoned politician who had survived countless real battlefields naturally overwhelmed me.
"...That's enough lecturing for now."
After watching me slump my shoulders in defeat, unable to answer back, Priscilla paused briefly before speaking again.
"For stepping forward so boldly for the sake of this family. And for growing into someone this remarkable."
"...?"
The same soft voice as before reached my ears.
"As the Marchioness of Leinrant, I am proud of you, Klein."
When I raised my head, I saw Priscilla smiling faintly at me.
"Thank... you...."
Satisfied, yet somehow wistful.
I awkwardly replied to the smiling Priscilla, and she moved toward her son Delline, lightly patting his shoulder.
'...What is this, giving poison and medicine at the same time?'
Before I knew it, Priscilla and Delline were chatting together with bright expressions.
As I watched the mother and son—
"Come to think of it, Klein?"
As if something had just occurred to her, Priscilla turned toward me.
"You said Lady Ciel is currently staying in one of the guest rooms?"
"Ah, yes...."
The sudden question.
A strange sense of unease made my response come a beat late.
"In that case, I should meet her as soon as possible."
"...Meet her?"
Ciel was technically here as my guest.
So why would the Marchioness personally...?
Still confused, I asked back, and Priscilla answered calmly.
"I was thinking we should discuss the wedding date and ceremony arrangements."
What?
Wait a second. What do you mean by that...?
"What do you mean? Surely Lady Ciel already told you?"
"Told me what?"
No, wait.
Then the reason Priscilla suddenly came here without warning was also...?
As my thoughts spiraled—
As though driving the final nail into the coffin, Priscilla looked at me and said:
"I came all the way here from the Empire to meet the person who will soon become family. Shouldn't we discuss the details properly?"
Priscilla lightly covered her mouth as she spoke.
Watching her, I became certain.
Ciel's sudden visit.
Priscilla's own arrival.
Even the mansion constantly being rearranged at this very moment by the bustling servants and maids.
'They already coordinated everything with Ciel beforehand... and set the entire board in place...?'
The moment that realization hit me, I sensed someone behind me and turned around.
There stood Ciel, lifting the hem of her dress gracefully with a radiant smile across her face.
The moment I saw that smile, my mind genuinely began to spin.
"Marriage? Since when were such matters discussed?"
The exchange between Ciel and Priscilla had actually been shorter than Klein expected.
Nothing more than simple greetings and inquiries after each other's well-being.
Which either meant they had little to say—
Or that they had already discussed plenty beforehand.
"She contacted me about a month ago. She showed up without any warning, saying it was urgent."
Muttering like a complaint, Priscilla raised a hand to her lips and tapped them twice.
"...."
It was a signal between Heinkel and Priscilla.
A sign that she was about to discuss top-secret information acquired from the Empire, and that everyone else should be dismissed.
'As expected... there was another reason she came here.'
Thinking that, Heinkel nodded and entered the study together with Priscilla.
"What happened?"
Now that the ducal couple had entered together, the room had become a forbidden area that even Head Butler Berkman could not enter.
Only after personally confirming several times that there were no magical surveillance devices did Priscilla finally speak.
"You already know that Paul wyvern is preparing for war, correct?"
At Priscilla's words, Heinkel nodded.
Knights had already been stationed along the border, and strategies had already been prepared.
And yet despite knowing all that, Priscilla's expression remained grim.
"The Empire has dispatched a large-scale necromancer corps there."
"Hm."
Imperial necromancers.
The Empire's war machines that expanded their forces through the corpses of the dead.
"We'll need to revise our battle plans. Inform the commanders—"
"That's not it."
Priscilla interrupted Heinkel.
"Their mission isn't combat. They're supplying mana and blood to something."
"Mana... and blood?"
"Yes."
Were all those necromancers collaborating on some massive ritual?
As Heinkel thought that, Priscilla spoke a single name that forced his eyes wide open.
"And the name of the 'something' they are feeding with mana and blood is... Helian."
For a long while, Heinkel couldn't speak.
Only after some time did he finally ask Priscilla in a strained voice:
"Then... does that mean Sister is already...?"
To Heinkel, whose throat had gone dry, Priscilla delivered her answer like a death sentence.
"She is either dead... or she has become a monster that can no longer be called human."