“Please come aboard, Your Majesty.”
Heinrich hurried to get him on board. Fortunately, all the boats were gathered at the opposite dock. There was not a single boat left to chase him, which was a great relief.
Winston frantically kneaded his increasingly stiff limbs, trying to keep his wits about him. Once he reached the village, there would be a doctor there, where he could get an antidote.
“There’s medicine, there’s medicine... I can’t die like this! Hey, speed it up a bit!”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Hey, hurry up and go. Hurry up...”
The boatman quickened his movements. Winston looked anxiously toward the mansion. The guardsmen, still conscious, seemed to be engaged in a skirmish with the Blackwells. There was a loud commotion of fighting and screaming, and the torches at the top of the stairs flickered frantically.
How could this happen...? How could I be treated so absurdly!
It was the worst of the worst. He ground his teeth. When he returned to the palace, he planned to immediately send all his troops here and burn that damned mansion to the ground. That was when he thought of Kyle. Now that he thought about it, where was that guy...?
The Duke had changed his plan just before departure, saying that he would disguise himself as a private soldier instead of a bodyguard in case he was noticed. The last time he was seen was when he was heading to the banquet hall. Kyle had said that he would check the surroundings and return alone, and left. As soon as he thought about it, the wind blew hard and the boat rocked slightly in the middle of the lake.
“Is the water deep here? Not deep enough to drown you in, right?”
Winston shivered in fear. The boatman answered coolly, his teeth missing, his mouth twitching.
“What is this, Your Majesty? Even though it looks like this, the water is quite deep. Isn’t Lake Te Deum the deepest lake in Trieste... Hahaha.”
Winston blinked at the unsuitable magnanimity. Now that he thinks about it, the boatman's attitude was a bit strange from the beginning. He was calling him "Your Majesty" instead of "His Royal Highness" like before, but he felt a strange feeling. Winston rubbed his increasingly stiff legs and stared at the boatman.
"You..."
“Be careful, Your Majesty. This is the deepest point. If you’re not careful, you could fall in in the blink of an eye and never be able to get back up.”
The boatman slowly raised his waist. The large oars he was holding in both hands also rose. When the oars stopped, the boat stopped in place. The chilling wind seemed to have stopped, and only silence remained.
“That’s exactly what it is.”
A splash, a splash, and a terrible cold air came rushing in. Winston couldn't even scream and just struggled. He couldn't believe that he was on the boat just a moment ago and was suddenly in the water. The water poured into his nose and mouth without mercy, blocking his breathing.
“Hey, Save, Save... Ugh! Ugh!”
The moment he barely managed to defy gravity and raise his head above the water, he saw the inside of the boatman's mouth, which was wide open like a dark cave. Heinrich held one oar in both hands and lifted it up over his head with all his might. In that brief moment, Winston knew that he was going to die. At the same time as the realization came, a dull shock struck the top of his head.
The smell of blood flowed over the cold and the loud bubbles. The taste of his own blood on his tongue was salty. That was the last sensation that Grand Duke Winston felt. The unconscious body slowly began to sink, unable to overcome gravity.
The lake, like a quiet swamp, quietly sucked in and swallowed the body. The ambitious man who had killed his brother and coveted the throne of the Emperor, the man who had dreamed of immortality, met his end in silence.
Heinrich waited a moment for the water to subside before rowing again. A bitter smile escaped his face as he thought the second-in-command of a country had met such a pitiful end.
The boat quickly headed back toward the mansion. At that moment, a huge noise came from the opposite dock. The sound of carriage wheels, horse hooves, and horses neighing made him startle in an instant. Heinrich was startled and stopped rowing.
Armed policemen in uniforms were boarding boats at the dock, led by the village boatmen. The badges of the Royal Police Department of Vintergar, the holsters of their guns and swords on their belts all gleamed menacingly in the moonlight. Heinrich's eyes widened.
Not the Royal Army of Trieste, but the police department of Vintergar? Why on earth?
He rowed as fast as he could and arrived at the mansion first. He didn't know what was going on, but he felt he had to tell Mrs. Dunst first. But the men in uniform were a little faster than him. In an instant, they ran up the long stairs, opened the mansion door wide, and stepped inside.
“I apologize for the unexpected visit. I have come to escort Kyle Rodan Blackwell.”
“His Highness is currently imprisoned in the Imperial Prison in the capital on charges of assassination of the Emperor and treason! You must be aware of this, right?”
The helpers, led by the chief steward Jasmine, stepped forward. Jasmine quickly turned to the butler and gave him a silent nod. It was an order to quickly finish the carnage in the hall and bring in Louis Dunst.
“By what authority does the Royal Police of the Vintergar have to arrest the Duke, a citizen of the Trieste Empire?”
Jasmine looked genuinely perplexed. This was clearly a nonsensical situation. The police chief, standing at the front of the group, pulled out a scroll of letters with the royal seal on it.
“This is a warrant for arrest from the Royal House and Council of Vintergar. As you may not know, Lord Blackwell has already been pardoned for lack of evidence. We came here only because he is here. He is said to have been released here, but we must arrest him and conduct our own investigation.”
“If you pardon him for insufficient evidence...? Is that true?”
“Even so, why are you taking him away from Vintergar?”
Jasmine and the butler were still shocked. The pardon alone was surprising enough, but they couldn't understand why foreign authorities were involved. The police chief had a frustrated expression on his face.
“Don’t you know that last month, King Rainier VIII signed a peace treaty between Trieste and Vintergar? That treaty also includes the protection of citizens and the control of crimes committed in other countries. That is why the matter is so serious that we must investigate it again. If it is proven that you are completely innocent, then you will be completely cleared of the charges and released, with a special pardon from the Royal House of Trieste.”
The director added as he handed the letter over to his aide, his brow furrowed as if he had no intention of wasting any more time at the door.
“I guess you don’t know. Kyle Rodan Blackwell is now a citizen of Vintergar, in name and in reality. He formally applied for asylum to the royal family during the last visit of the delegation, and it was officially approved a few days ago.”
“Yes? Is that true? Exile to Vintergar...”
The Duke's family members looked at each other with shocked eyes. They had no idea how to respond to this situation, which was not only unheard of, but completely unprepared for. And the Duke was here now? Since when?
“Well, I think that’s the answer now, so excuse me.”
Led by the director, a group of people in uniforms entered without hesitation and headed toward the hall. Then, they were shocked to see the banquet hall in such disarray.
The cavalry of the Trieste royal family were lying here and there, and blood was strewn everywhere. In the center of the chamber on the other side of the hall, a fierce battle was taking place. The royal cavalry that had not been poisoned and the mercenary slaughtermen hired by Michael were facing each other. The director looked back at his men as he loaded his gun.
“Find the Duke of Blackwell and Angie Ridsdel. Withdraw immediately once the mission is complete.”
During that process, it meant that it was inevitable that weapons would be used or sacrifices would be made for self-defense. The police unit of Vintergar heard the implicit instructions of their superiors and dispersed all over the mansion.
Before daybreak, the two men had to be killed. That was the unofficial order of the royal family of Vintergar. The long-running war between the royal family and the dukedom was beyond their jurisdiction. After all, the collapse of the Trieste royal family and the downfall of the country were not far off.
Michael heard of the situation late while killing the cavalrymen and hurried to the basement. He was there to retrieve the hunting rifles stored in the armory. Then he changed his mind and ran in a different direction. He went towards the chapel spire.
***
Angie pushed the box aside at the sound of a knock on the closet. Annette ran as fast as she could and grabbed Angie, breathing heavily.
“Angie, come out quickly! There’s trouble outside!”
“What? What the heck...”
“There was a fight in the main banquet hall, and I don’t know what happened. But there are a lot of boats at the dock, so this is a good opportunity to escape!”
“Yes. Let’s go out quickly.”
Angie was as prepared as she could be to go out whenever Annette came. It was the best she could do, though it was only a cloak gown over her nightgown and a cloth wrapped around her feet instead of shoes.
The two slowly groped their way down the spiral staircase through a dark, narrow passage. During the day, it was dim, with light streaming in from somewhere, but at night, it was as dark as pitch black.
When they finally reached the last staircase leading to the outside, a shadow that had been hiding behind a pillar and looking up at them grabbed Annette by the ankle and dragged her down.
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