Chapter : 16
“I heard Joseph got beaten without even managing to resist Sirius once.”
“Yes, Father. I heard the same from the head butler a little while ago.”
“Tsk. I personally trained him for years, and that’s all he amounted to.”
The Duke of Rode clicked his tongue in clear displeasure.
At that sound, Courtney’s body flinched on its own. When the duke let out another sigh, the trembling only grew worse.
Whenever something displeased him, the one who had to endure his anger was her.
Clang!
The moment she braced herself, a heavy candlestick came flying.
The ornate platinum candlestick skimmed past Courtney’s forehead by a hair’s breadth before crashing into the wall.
Her chest chilled, but she immediately straightened her posture and stood properly before the duke.
Even if it meant living as though she were walking on thin ice every day, she did not want to give up her place right beside him.
It was said that only those who occupied the position of closest aide were struck by the flying sparks.
Moreover, the duke giving up the seat at his side meant the chances of that person becoming the next heir were high.
She desperately wanted to become the next Duke of Rode. No matter what, she wanted to endure and claim all the sweet fruits for herself.
The vast Rode territory, the immense wealth that even emperors might envy, and the endlessly stretching magic stone veins—all of it had to belong to her.
And above all, what she coveted most was the authority of the family head, the power to crush everyone beneath her.
Courtney feared the cold-blooded, merciless duke, yet at the same time she wanted to become like him.
However, the duke, pressing his fingers to his forehead, was unusually revealing his inner thoughts.
“Not even able to counter a single attack—utterly pathetic.”
The people of the Rode family were, by nature, almost forbidden from showing emotions or speaking their true thoughts.
They were already exceptionally skilled at reading others’ inner feelings with their golden eyes.
Showing a difference between one’s exterior and interior only served to sour relationships.
Whether they wanted to see it or not, they were bound to see through one another anyway.
Naturally, their relationships were generally poor.
Even if they pretended otherwise, it was no different between the duke and Courtney.
“I almost wish Sirius were my son instead.”
After glancing at Courtney, the Duke of Rode muttered this under his breath. At those casually spoken words, Courtney’s eyes widened.
Though it sounded like an offhand remark, it was clearly meant for her to hear.
“Sirius has, without question, the greatest potential of anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Sirius possessed innate swordsmanship talent and sharp perception, absorbing everything rapidly as his own.
From observation, he seemed intelligent, with remarkable stamina and grit as well.
But what the duke valued most was that Sirius rarely showed his emotions.
Even when examined with golden eyes, Sirius’s state was usually nothing but calm.
The inability to read anything at all caused a reflexive irritation, yet the duke liked Sirius.
It felt as though he had finally found a human who could become similar to his own noble self.
But what of it? The duke clicked his tongue.
“It’s a shame he doesn’t carry our family’s blood.”
In the Rode family, there were several family laws passed down like unwritten rules.
One of them was that the successor must possess golden eyes.
No matter how outstanding one’s abilities were, if one did not inherit the bloodline, one could never succeed the Rode family.
Yet the duke liked Sirius enough to want to break even that rule.
To Courtney, this was far from welcome. It meant that even she, the closest to the position of heir, was still not satisfactory in his eyes.
“Courtney, what do you think?”
“…I agree with Father’s thoughts.”
Despite her true feelings, Courtney answered in a way that matched the duke’s opinion.
The duke let out a knowing snort of laughter and let it pass.
The people of the Rode family lied to one another as naturally as eating meals.
Ability was judged by how well one concealed those lies.
“No matter how I think about it, it’d be a waste to kill him.”
“……”
“I find myself wondering whether I truly need to carry out the emperor’s request.”
“Father does not need to obey anyone.”
“Yes. That is how the master of Rode should be.”
Until now, despite possessing the power of golden eyes, Rode had remained beneath the Hyperion imperial family.
No matter how adept they were at reading emotions, it was not easy to overthrow Hyperion, where a demigod was born periodically, and succeed in rebellion.
But for a long time, Hyperion had grown weak, as no one inheriting the blood of the wolf had appeared.
And Sirius, born as the incarnation of the wolf for the first time in three hundred years, was practically under the control of the Rode family now.
There could be no better timing than this.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of the Duke of Rode’s lips.
“There’s no choice but to make Sirius one of Rode’s own.”
The duke murmured languidly.
The simplest way to make Sirius part of Rode was marriage.
Coincidentally, he had one daughter… no, two.
He suddenly thought of Elena and slightly furrowed his brows.
The child he once thought of as a stroke of luck now filled him with endless displeasure just to recall.
At that moment, as if she had read his thoughts, news arrived that Elena had come to visit.
“Who wants to see me?”
“Prince Sirius and Miss Elena.”
“Let them in.”
Had it been only Elena, he would have refused, but Sirius was with her.
After giving the order to the servant, the duke spoke to Courtney.
“You may leave now.”
“Yes. Have a pleasant evening.”
Though she looked curious about why the two had come to visit the duke at such a late hour, Courtney could not object to the dismissal and left the duke’s study.
Her nerves sharpened on their own.
As she exited, she briefly crossed paths with Sirius and Elena, but from that alone it was difficult to find any clue as to what such small children might be plotting.
“I greet my master.”
“…I greet Father.”
So tense was Elena that she failed to notice Courtney glaring at her as she passed.
She followed Sirius in greeting and clammed up like a shell.
Before coming here, Sirius had told her he would explain everything himself.
My heart feels like it’s beating so loudly it might burst out of my chest.
Sirius had told her to trust only him before meeting the duke, but that was far from enough to calm Elena’s heart.
Thinking back, what kind of madness had she expected him to pull that she accepted those words without hesitation?
But having come this far, she had no choice but to continue trusting him.
“I apologize for visiting so late.”
“There’s no need to apologize. If I hadn’t wished to see you, I would have refused the visit.”
With a faint smile, the Duke of Rode observed Sirius.
Most people shrank back and could not even meet his gaze when standing before him, but this child showed no fear.
“It’s unusual for the two of you to visit me together. Who initiated this?”
“I suggested to Elena that we come see you together, Master.”
The duke glanced at Elena standing beside Sirius.
She was tightly clasping her fingertips together in apparent anxiety, yet even when he used his golden eyes, he saw nothing from her.
It wasn’t that Elena wasn’t afraid like Sirius—his ability simply did not work on her at all.
Once, he had even considered her special because of that…
Frowning, the Duke of Rode looked away from Elena and asked Sirius,
“That aside, what business brings you here?”
“I’ve come to receive a reward for something I desire.”
“A reward?”
The duke echoed the words before recalling what had happened earlier that day.
“I did say during training today that I would grant you a reward. It hasn’t been long, yet it seems you’ve already decided what you want.”
The day before, Sirius had suffered a deep wound to his side at the hands of Joseph.
Joseph, who violated the sparring rules, was punished with confinement, while Sirius staggered back to his room as if he might collapse.
The Duke of Rode had thought that Sirius might die from blood loss.
He did not send a physician.
If Sirius died, it would simply mean fulfilling the emperor’s request—hardly a bad outcome for him.
Yet the next day, Sirius was still alive, and he hadn’t even missed training.
The duke was, quite rarely, deeply impressed.
Sirius’s vitality was tenacious enough to deserve praise.
The duke found himself wanting Sirius more and more.
Thus, he had ensured Sirius was given proper meals and promised to grant him one wish in reward for keeping up with training despite his injuries.
“I heard that you plan to assign me a private tutor.”
“Yes. You’ve neglected your studies aside from swordsmanship. You’ll soon have a teacher.”
As soon as the duke finished speaking, Sirius opened his mouth with a resolute expression.
“I want Elena to attend the lessons with me. That is the reward I ask for.”
Together with Elena? The Duke of Rode looked at the two with interest.
He had already found it suspicious that Sirius had been holding Elena’s hand, and now it seemed Sirius had found someone to grow attached to within the Rode estate.
The duke leaned deeply into the sofa. To him, this was a stroke of luck.
Hadn’t he just been thinking of binding Sirius to this family through marriage?
It was obvious that a relationship founded on affection would bind Sirius like chains far more effectively than a purely political marriage.
At last, Elena—whom he had long considered useless—had found a role to play for the sake of Rode.
The Duke of Rode pulled his lips into a smile.
It was a satisfying outcome.
Otherwise, killing Elena’s “real father” would have been a pointless act.
