Evil-like Duke Household

And so, I left the empress's room where Liliana=Ractos and my mother, Clea=Azolias were, alone. It took me a few minutes before I reached my destination. The Imperial Library.

So that I could understand the true intention of Duke Ractos’s wife, Liliana=Ractos, who was trying to court on the empress, I immediately took for the books and record of the law concerning the royal family.

But...

“This... are too much, heh”

Following the classification guidelines, the books that I took from the bookshelf amount the size of three mountain around one meter tall each.

It wasn’t like I wasn't really good with books... but it’s better to say that I was the type to move around my body to investigate the matter.

Seeing this amount of book, I felt a little dizzy.

"No, no, no... I have the mission of exposing the evils of those guys. I mustn't fear these little things!"

In order to get myself fired up, I shook my head and slapped my cheeks with my hands.

Ok, as I expected, this was too much. I wouldn’t be able to read it all.

Anyway, what I wanted to know was just something related to the empress. So let’s start by removing the book that didn’t really have any relation to that matter.

“Now, I don’t think I need these, “The Duties of the King”, “Criminal Law Applicable to the Royal Family”, hmm. “The Application Record for the Special Case of the Financial Manager”... what? This wasn’t even a book that existed on the record. Let’s hand this over to the librarian later”

And so, I searched for the books that were related to the things that I need and took away nine unneeded books from the pile.

When the books were reduced to the third of its prior size.

The finger that I used for looking at the title of the book stopped at a certain position. I hadn’t seen the context yet, but I was sure that this was the book that I had searched.

“... The book about transferring the throne”

Although I took the book completely by instinct, the time was just right, and I started to ponder.

Anyway, the content of the book just like what the title had said.

Now, as the direct descendant of the current emperor, Leon=Azolias, I am... the eldest son of the royal family, were regarded as the next king. The same applied to my father as he was the eldest son of my grandfather and so he became the king. But, if by some chance my father... or even grandfather didn’t have any descendants, then the next emperor will be chosen based on the one who had the blood of the royalty.

Well, such thing rarely happened this age, but at least in the past... several hundred years ago, there was a time when emperor couldn’t have any descendant, and so to decide the next king... in Azolias, the strongest human was the one who became the next king, and so the throne frequently changed.

I was afraid that this book was created to prevent confusion in the event where something like what stated in above happened. (The king couldn’t have any descendant and the strongest become the king.)

Now, I was sure that I should read this book to knew the reason why Liliana=Ractos came to the empress.

Then.

"……found it."

As I thought... no, just like I feared, the book record the matter that related to the empress. And there written about the special rule that happened at that time.

“In the case where there aren't any successors for the next king. The empress has the right to nominate the next king and make said person to be the alternate heir to the throne. In addition, if there were no objection to the said person candidacy, and if there were no suitable candidates besides said person, the throne will be surrendered to him “

I read the whole paragraph aloud.

This was it, though this book was covered with dust as it was some ancient rule. Without a doubt, this is what I had searched for.

Sure enough. The ractos household, Grid=Ractos, they were aiming for the throne.

“Is this it!? Did the sudden visit of Diebold=Ractos, are related to this?”

At this moment, I felt that all of the string were connected, and now I was about to reach the conclusion.

Now, First of all, from the conclusion that I had just got, on how Grid=Ractos actually wanted to take the throne. In what way, he will succeed in that objective?

Or will they try to wage war with the royal family? It’s impossible. If they turn their weapon toward the king, it means they also turned their weapon to the knight, soldier, and everyone on the country.

I didn’t know how it would become in other countries, but that how it is in Azolias.

In that case, then the only way out for them was Diebold=Ractos.

However, because of the contract that he had with the countries, Diebold=Ractos couldn’t participate in any kind of war.

Therefore, this way was impossible.

So, they will attack from behind. But this way was also impossible.

Although they could assassinate the king from behind, they could get the right to the throne that way.

Because, people wouldn’t accept it.

It is impossible to become a king without the recognition from the people. To be recognized it’s necessary to be concise, understandable, and powerful.

So, what they will do... that’s right. They tried to get the seat of the throne through the empress.

At first glance, it seems impossible, but if its Duke Ractos, then he could do it.

Their plan was as follows.

First, they would assassinate the royal family for opening the way to the throne.

Just like Grid and Jake’s conversation from some time ago on using assassins and poison to do their assassination so there was no need for Grid himself to kill his target.

I also heard a rumour of Grid’s preference of foreign cuisine.

For example, that he paid a lot of money to ship the food from the mainland and so on.

But now that I thought about it again, I was sure that it was all false. It wasn’t an exotic ingredient that was being transported.

Yes, it was Grid’s job to recruit the assassins to the Azolias.

However, its impossible to assassinate the royalties of Azolias just by simply hiring an assassin to do the job.

There were still another things that needed to be done.

That was where Jake shows his appearance.

That person, in the exception of Diebold, was the best magician in the Duke Ractos’s household.

Plus, not from long ago, he also became the fiancee of Nizzete household, a family who had a relation in magic.

The sorcery trait of his fiancee, that was described in the book, was the sorcery trait of a curse.

... This was just my hypothesis, but wouldn’t it possible to that sorcery trait to become something like a drug that could create a curse?

In the book, there wasn’t anything written on that sorcery trait.

Wouldn’t it possible to not just cast the curse on the people, but also on a food or drinks?

Although Azolias couldn’t be compared to Rizzetta, which was called as the country of sorcerers, as the country where the Sorcery king of the dusk born, Diebold=Ractos, the magic development in this country wasn’t that bad.

Of course, not only in sorcery, but we also did develop medicine.

Because of this, if just simply use poison or something like that, they would immediately be caught... but what if it wasn’t something as cognizant as poison. Something unknown like a curse?

Now, lastly, would it possible for the current medical technology to detect this poison called curse?

Jack’s task was undoubtedly to create a method of assassination that was hard to detect.

No, it wasn’t Jake’s task, it was her fiancee, Anessa’.

If this was correct, then Jack had another task on his hand.

When they succeeded in the assassination, the thing, of course, wouldn’t end just like that.

After that, there will be needed someone to be tasked as the subject to sat on the throne.

As I had investigated today, it will be the empress's judgment to decide who will be the one who would be transferred to the throne after the assassination.

That come Liliane=Racto’s job to court on the empress.

Of course, just by that it still hard for them to get the throne.

Not just by the Empress decision, there would be needed no objection from any vassal or people over that decision... No, they just need to make people thought that there was only one person that was fit to be the king.

Since the dark rumour of Ractos was well known on the streets even among woman and kids, so it was hard to see through this scheme on the first glance.

But it was actually possible to create a scenario where everyone will think that this person was the person perfect to be the king.

Yes, Jake=Ractos’s will be the one who pointed to be the next king.

My speculation of the thing that Erza=Ractos had done on Jake’s engagement party wasn’t wrong.

Her aim was to become a knight and so became the knight captain who will listen to any of the Ractos’s command.

She was a knight that earn her position by the legal way, no one would able to find fault at her doing.

In that way, she would become the one who recommended Jake, who later would become the candidate of the next king.

He is someone who had the blood of the hero of the war, Diebold=Ractos, and the one who inherited that person’s sorcery traits.

Now, the real purpose of the sudden visit of Diebold=Ractos a few weeks ago was to emphasize that the strongest person on the kingdom, wasn’t a knight, but a sorcerer instead.

The sorcerer that was strong enough to become a king. His position was to let people aware of this fact.

As its name implies, the sorcery king is the king of sorcerers. In a sense, it wouldn’t really wrong to call Jake as a member of royalty.

Not just in Azolias, Diebold=Ractos was well known even on any country.

Who would dare to refute his claims?

It’s unfortunate, but with this, I was sure that Jake will win the throne.

“Yes, and then... hmm? Is that it?! No, not only the throne! Their aim won’t stop just by gaining the throne!!”

Diebold=Ractos lost his nationality due to his overwhelming power.

When he lost his position, naturally, the next head of the house was given to Grid=Ractos.

Due to that reason, the condition where a duke didn’t belong to any of the countries become possible.

Even though it was difficult, it wasn’t impossible to restrain the current power of Diebold=Ractos due to his position as the Duke. At least, they were able to limit his power to a certain extent.

But what if they became the royal family?

For any historian... no, for any people that knew Diebold=Ractos, they should have an (IF) thought even just once on their head.

What will happen if Diebold=Ractos wasn’t bounded by contract that restricted him to enter a battlefield?

How vast Azolias territory will be if he continued to use his power without any restrictions?

If Jake did become the king, that kind of assumption could become true.

Who could defeat a country with the strongest knighthood, with a king that posses one of the strongest magic without any restriction possible?

“The true goal of Ractos is to rule over the continent! Dominating the continent is their goal all along!!”

Now everything was connected. Now, I finally knew, the true plot of Ractos household.

“If I didn’t stop it...!Not just Azolias!! The war will occur once again, no... it’ll be massacre and genocide!! On top of that, it would be something that was led by Azolias!!”

In hurry, I even forgot to tidy up the book and just rushed out from the library.

Anyway, anything is good, I need to find evidence to prove those guys scheme on the public.

Thought it goes without saying, that I was anxious right now.

I didn’t pay attention to my surroundings, and that's perhaps something lucky for me.

“Ah...!”

On the corridor, I lost my balance as I collided with someone.

The one I collided with was a servant... a maid that was working on the castle.

“ I’m very sorry, his highness... I didn’t pay attention and collided... with you...”

How her apology to me didn’t seems very normal.

There were dark circles around the maids’ eyes, as she walked while swayed like a dead person.

“No, I am the one who should say sorry, I got little impatient there...

I didn’t know whether that maid really heard what I had just said, as she kept apologizing while looking blankly at the void.

“I can’t sleep... I can’t sleep at all every night. I couldn’t even walk correctly... the world seems swayed...”

At this point, she suddenly fell like a broken doll.

I caught her in panic. She lost consciousness with a nightmarish expression on her face.

“Wha, hey. Are you alright? Damn... At the time like this, Anybody! Anybody here!?”

This was where my luck come out.

Its as if God wouldn’t let the evil run apart on this world anymore.

“I heard it, the Ractos household, Count Nizzet... I mustn't tell you, my family will...”

“... What?”

That was right. She was one of the keys to disclose the evil of Ractos family.