As Oscar’s words became abruptly short, the Grand Duke trembled as if having a seizure.
"Can't you do it? Look here, Marquis!"
Even when he got angry, Oscar just flicked the long sticky cigarette ash onto the floor with an indifferent expression.
"So, is it possible or not?"
As the Grand Duke gaped as if struck speechless, Oscar lit another cigarette and muttered.
"I guess, fuck. If you could have done that on your end, it would have been done by now."
"..."
As a barrage of harsh insults struck their cheeks, not only the Grand Duke but also the woman with him froze in a daze. Then, as Oscar took another long drag on his cigarette, the Grand Duke snapped back to reality and burst out in anger.
"Marquis Reichinhardt! How dare the Marquis of Luxen treat a member of foreign royalty with such disrespect? If I make this a public matter and send a formal letter of protest to the King of Luxen, do you think you will be safe?"
At that moment, the smile that had lingered on Oscar's face—in whatever sense—vanished like evaporation.
The woman, who had no choice but to face Oscar as the Grand Duke hugged her from behind like a shield, realized that the Grand Duke had made a completely wrong choice.
Oscar looked at the Grand Duke once, the floor once, and the cluttered table once with eyes lost in silence, then rose from his seat without warning. He then picked up the half-empty bottle of whiskey.
Her body began to tremble like an aspen tree, but she could not tell if it was her own body or the Grand Duke's body holding her from behind.
Oscar, holding a bottle of liquor, slowly turned his head toward the Grand Duke. The woman desperately twisted her body and, with all her might, tried to pry off the hand gripping her tightly. It was an act she could never have done in her right mind, but now she was left with nothing but the desire to escape from Oscar.
"Yes, you bitch! Can't you come here?"
The Grand Duke stretched out his hand toward the woman fleeing into the corner. However, he could not catch her. Just as a dark shadow suddenly sprang out, the hand he had reached out toward the air was trampled by a boot and buried in the sofa.
“Ugh!”
Oscar lifted his right foot as if there was no reason to use his hands, pinning the Grand Duke's hand down onto the sofa, and sat on the edge of the table. He also placed his left foot, which had been on the ground, onto the sofa to block the Grand Duke's right side, and as he rested both elbows on his knees, the Grand Duke found himself completely trapped.
In that state, Oscar smiled and lit a cigarette.
"I wonder what you're going to say in the letter of protest?"
The tip of the cigarette began to burn red.
"You spent billions to entertain them?"
“You, you….”
"Stop stammering like an idiot and tell me. Is there anything else besides that?"
Only when backed into a corner did the Grand Duke recall what his older brother had once said.
"Oscar, you must never take his bait. His laughter, his breathing, his gaze—everything about him is bait."
So it's better not to meet.
"M-Marquis! I-I'll tell you what I know!"
Oscar took a deep drag on his cigarette as he looked down at the Grand Duke, who was clinging to him pleadingly with a desperate look on his face. He nodded with the corners of his mouth turned up as if to say, "Go ahead," and the Grand Duke hurriedly opened his mouth.
"The person holding the safe key is a woman, and, uh, I mean, she is not the one who opened the safe. She did submit identification, but..."
"Interpretation is impossible."
"...!"
"Do you think I planted only you in the bank?"
The trembling Grand Duke glared as if making a final desperate attempt.
"E-e-even if that is the case, I am the President! If you want to open that vault, you shouldn't treat me like this!"
"Well. Felphe Bank recognized the woman who brought the key as the holder of the right, and I hear a report has already been sent to the King."
Both the Grand Duke and the woman trembling in the corner felt that the only reason Marquis Reichinhardt had endured until now had been shattered. Goosebumps rose like mushrooms on their bare skin.
The only movement in this room was the cigarette smoke clinging to Oscar's left fingers.
Just as a second felt like an eternity, Oscar stared at the liquor bottle he held in his right hand. After dangerously shaking the half-empty bottle, he put a cigarette in his mouth. Then, as if in no hurry, he elegantly raised his left hand and grabbed the Grand Duke's neck as if to seize it
The Grand Duke, his neck held captive, struggled with a face flushed bright red.
"It seems you are mistaken, Your Highness."
"Cough, cough..."
"It would be nice if I could open that safe, but even if I couldn't, what significant blow would that really be to me right now? It's not like I was robbed of what I had; it just hasn't been opened for 25 years anyway, right? So you must understand that it is simply a form of insurance."
"B-but still, I have a plan..."
"What kind of plan do you think you have?"
"..."
"I let you into the Norfolk Royal Alliance meeting hall and even made you President, yet instead of doing the duties you were supposed to, you just tell King Luxen my whereabouts."
The Grand Duke's thick neck bent back limply like a broken chicken's neck, and his mouth, glistening with alcohol, gaped open.
"Then, at the very least, I should earn your keep for making you the Bank Governor."
Oscar poured the alcohol into it.
"Hmph, mmm, mmm."
The Grand Duke struggled with all his might, but he could not possibly escape. Oscar suppressed the Grand Duke with the ease of an adult controlling a child.
He poured wine into the Grand Duke's mouth as if pouring into a glass, and continued speaking in a low voice.
"The moment the key appeared, you failed to live up to the price of being made President. What I expected of you was to open the safe without a key. Since that was the case, I was a fool for thinking you at least knew how to steal."
The draped robe was stripped off, and the massive body became wet with the breath that escaped his lips. The woman in the corner clearly saw the Grand Duke's eyes finally roll back white.
One side thrashed about as if about to suffocate, while the other remained serene, as if nothing were wrong. That gap was more terrifying than a scene of violence filled with shouting.
Whether he had fainted or was dead, the Grand Duke's body slowly collapsed.
Then, Oscar threw the Grand Duke's head onto the floor like trash. Staring intently at the sprawled Grand Duke, he tossed the empty bottle onto the sofa as well.
"Even so, I didn't know you were this much of an idiot, did I?"
He let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded, then swept his hair back with a half-hearted touch. Then, his piercing blue eyes, which had been fixed on the sprawled Grand Duke, turned toward the woman.
"...!"
Staring directly at her, he lowered his legs from the sofa one by one to the floor and stood up as if stretching.
Please spare my life.
As if he had heard the words she had been unable to utter while being strangled, Oscar looked down at her and spoke.
"The Grand Duke drank too much, didn't he?"
The woman nodded vigorously, her face turning pale
"He'll ask what happened. After all, he's the kind of person who loses his entire memory after drinking until his eyes roll back."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
With his right hand stuffed in his pocket and a cigarette in his left, he stood there blankly, his eyes cold and sharp, unlike his tone of voice. Then he forced a smile that was not in his heart.
"Then, should I trust you and go?"
"Yes, please believe me. Yes, Your Excellency."
She kept repeating the answer she had given, without even knowing what she was saying.
Oscar, who had been quietly listening to the parrot-like repeated answers, soon turned around and walked leisurely across the room.
The woman stared at his retreating figure in fear.
He showed not the slightest worry that the Grand Duke of Felphe might die. Therefore, even if the Grand Duke woke up tomorrow and remembered everything that happened today, he would not pay a second thought. She vaguely felt that she could bet her entire fortune on the fact that this man would not even fear the King of Felphe.
Bam.
The moment the door closed, she ended up throwing up all the alcohol she had drunk.
Meanwhile, the four men standing outside the door bent deeply as soon as Oscar opened it and stepped out. Only the master's feet were visible on the floor. They straightened up and followed the master straight only after Oscar's footsteps disappeared from their sight.
As burly men crossed the hallway, Catherine, the restless mistress of the Armand rose mansion, was seized by a sensation as if the canyon itself were moving. She looked back once at the door where the Grand Duke had not yet emerged, and then at the Marquis walking away, before finally following the Marquis.
"Y-Your Excellency...!"
She called out to him pitifully, but she could not catch the eye of the Marquis, who hadn't even glanced at Anna. He certainly seemed to be walking leisurely, yet she couldn't even begin to catch up to him. The best she could do was simply follow him.
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