Chapter 69
As Abel watched Felix’s reaction, the Commander let out a hearty laugh.
“Yes. I believe this honesty of yours will serve Sir Felix well.”
Wasn’t he mistaken about something? Felix had never been particularly fond of Abel’s honesty.
Even in the past, Felix had often begged him to please learn to tell a lie once in a while. Hadn’t he just warned him to watch what he said?
Perhaps the Commander didn’t know Felix as well as Abel had thought.
‘Then there’s no point in this conversation.’
As Abel looked the Commander over, the man continued with a faint smile.
“In that case, I’d like to discuss something else.”
He was still smiling, but the gentle atmosphere that had surrounded them until now faded, replaced by a weightier mood.
“You may dismiss Sir Felix.”
It was a suggestion that Felix should leave.
“Does what you’re going to say next have something to do with Felix?”
“Yes. But it also concerns you, Lord Abel.”
“Then he can stay.”
The Commander added:
“It concerns Your Eminence, the Imperial Family of the Empire, and the Spencer Ducal House.”
So what? If Felix wanted to stay, he could stay.
“I already said he can.”
Enough with the unnecessary preamble. Get to the point already. As Abel motioned impatiently for the Commander to continue, he suddenly let out a quiet sound of realization and turned to Felix.
“Do you not want to hear it, by any chance?”
Their eyes met immediately, as though Felix had already been looking at him.
Why did he have that expression?
He looked almost… surprised.
“Felix?”
At Abel’s call, Felix answered in a small voice.
“No. I do want to hear it.”
In that case, there was no problem.
“So he says.”
Haha. Abel watched the Commander with detached eyes as he laughed yet again.
He had no idea why the man kept laughing to himself.
* * *
The Duke of Spencer.
The Emperor’s strongest ally, and at the same time his most effective restraint.
The previous Duke of Spencer had been the foremost contributor to elevating the Third Prince—once a complete nobody—to the Imperial throne. As a result, the Spencer Ducal House wielded enormous power at this point in time.
They were the leading force of the Emperor’s faction.
Yet for that very reason, even the Emperor could not easily control the Spencer Ducal House.
The House’s influence only began to wane after a scandal of unprecedented proportions erupted.
The Duchess of Spencer’s affair with the youngest Imperial Prince.
In the wake of the scandal that shook the entire Empire, the ducal house retained its immense political influence, but its reputation inevitably suffered.
The Duke’s magnanimous forgiveness preserved a measure of the family’s dignity, yet rumors persisted for more than twenty years after the scandal.
The Spencer Ducal House was no longer an untouchable giant beyond everyone’s reach.
And whenever something drew the attention of the entire nation, conspiracy theories were bound to follow.
The most widely accepted of them all claimed that the Emperor had deliberately orchestrated the scandal in order to weaken the Spencer Ducal House.
The youngest Imperial Prince had always been known for exploiting his handsome appearance to stir up trouble, but he had never crossed the line before.
So why, this time, had he provoked the one person he absolutely could not afford to?
Furthermore, among all the people the youngest Imperial Prince had pursued until then, none had ever been younger than he was.
He had openly proclaimed that his preference was for mature older women.
And there was one more thing.
How had a newspaper dared to publish an article the Imperial Family had explicitly forbidden?
No matter how sensational the story, it was no easy matter to run it when the Imperial Family had stepped in and ordered that it never be published.
Then there were the interviews.
How had they obtained such candid interviews with the Duchess and the youngest Prince?
Where had they gotten the love letters exchanged between the two?
How had they been able to specify, in such detail, the time they spent together and the places where they frequently met?
Questions like these never ceased.
Many believed the scandal should never have been possible in the first place. And even if, for some reason, it had come to light, surely there had been someone powerful behind the scenes who had arranged for every last detail to be exposed to the public.
Someone like the Emperor.
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