If You Leave Without a Word - Chapter 200

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

After that, the Grand Duke lived a life of indulgence, seemingly uninterested in the imperial throne, despite what had happened.

The Grand Duke had always kept his distance from books, fearing that if he appeared too sharp, he might become a target for Vlahova’s scrutiny. At the same time, he feigned weakness, pretending not to be interested in martial arts, so as not to be accused of aiming for his brother’s life.

As he grew, the Grand Duke earned the label of a foolish royal, cursed by the blood of his lowly mother. It was humiliating, but in the face of life and death, pride meant nothing.

He swore, time and again, that if he ever regained his place—if he could reclaim the throne that had been forcibly taken from him by an unworthy man—he would repay all the suffering he had endured.

To do so, he needed power.

But how could he gain power? The Grand Duke pondered this. The answer, he realized, was money.

To gain power, vast wealth was absolutely essential. Since there was no wealth to be gained from his mother’s family, the Grand Duke racked his brain, trying to figure out how he could accumulate riches without drawing the Emperor’s attention.

No matter how much he thought about it, no sharp solutions came to mind. How could he conceal his actions from the Emperor and fill his coffers?

The answer lay unexpectedly in the conquest wars started by Vlahova. At the beginning of the conquest wars, the Grand Duke had been busy keeping his distance from the battle, focusing on self-preservation.

But as the wars began to wind down, Vlahova had to return to the capital to handle the administrative tasks and governance of the newly conquered lands.

When Vlahova hesitated over the remaining lands, feeling regret at not being able to conquer more, the Grand Duke seized the opportunity to win his favor, offering to take over the task of managing the remaining territories.

Of course, he didn’t have the strength to lead a large number of knights, so everything was merely a title.

Just like Vlahova, the Grand Duke used Duke Kristin to take the credit.

The Grand Duke kept Duke Kristin by his side or in front of him, letting him handle all the battles while the Grand Duke took a step back. He claimed all the victories as his own, silencing the surviving knights to ensure no one spoke the truth.

Despite all of this, no one in the capital believed the Grand Duke’s tales of consecutive victories. All the nobility knew that Duke Kristin had been fighting in place of the Grand Duke, but they turned a blind eye, simply because he was the Emperor’s only brother.

It would have been fine if the Grand Duke’s reckless actions had ended there. But his ambition didn’t stop there.

When he first ventured outside the capital, in the south, he learned of Count Schuck’s existence and realized that his wealth was comparable to any of the capital’s great nobles.

The nobles in the capital were too closely tied to the Emperor’s influence to openly express their intentions or form alliances. In such a situation, discovering Count Schuck’s existence by chance felt like a beacon of light to the Grand Duke.

It made him believe that fate itself was aiding him in his quest to become Emperor.

However, Count Schuck was reluctant to respond to the Grand Duke’s requests. Having lived a life of luxury without the need to take unnecessary risks, the Count saw no reason to trade his comfortable life for a dangerous game.

The Grand Duke, determined not to let this opportunity slip by, persisted and eventually learned of Count Schuck’s notorious, despicable tastes.

The Count’s sordid and vulgar private life was so vile that even the Grand Duke, who had seen countless examples of the aristocracy’s excesses, was horrified. It was a cruelty that exceeded the Grand Duke’s worst expectations.

Fortunately for the Grand Duke, he managed to turn the Count’s depraved tastes to his advantage and forged an alliance with him.

[Ordinary beauty doesn’t stir my heart. There are so many beautiful women around; I don’t need any more of them.]

[Then perhaps the Queen of Amasril. Even someone like you, rich in gold and silver, would find it a tremendous honor to bed a royal blood, wouldn’t you?]

The Grand Duke’s proposal piqued the Count’s interest. While beautiful women were common and easily acquired, a queen from a foreign land, one who combined beauty with nobility, was a prize beyond the Count’s reach.

It was a crime, according to imperial law, to abduct anyone who wasn’t a slave and force them into servitude, and kidnapping a foreign royal was a serious crime that could lead to execution.

The Count, fearing the consequences of breaking imperial law for the sake of fleeting pleasure, was initially hesitant.

But the Grand Duke, sensing the Count’s reluctance, revealed one of his own secrets, strengthening their bond.

[You want to become Emperor?]

The Count had been taken aback by the Grand Duke’s audacious ambition. But after seeing the Queen of Amasril in person, the Count changed his mind.

After hearing from his servants, the Grand Duke was relieved to learn that the Queen’s appearance had aligned perfectly with the Count’s tastes.

Despite the claim that once a woman was brought to his bed, she would never return, the Queen seemed to have changed him. He had never expected to be captivated by her for so long.

Though there were rumors of the Queen wilting like a flower due to the Count’s increasingly cruel and vicious behavior in bed, the Grand Duke cared little for such details.

The fate of a woman who had been discarded as a slave was of no concern to him.