≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫
"Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." —Proverbs 19:21
≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫
AS SOON as the duke finished his discussion with his daughter, he made sure to have everything done as fast as possible.
He did not like it to have his precious daughter's name still tangled to such a worthless man.
So, though it was already late in the evening, he finished all that was needed to be done. He personally wrote a letter stating that the engagement between his daughter and the count's son could not be made possible anymore.
After finishing the letter for engagement nullification, he expressed a sinister smile and continued to proceed to another letter that would make his anger towards those who hurt his daughter appease a little.
How dare they hurt his precious daughter? Were they even prepared to face the consequences of angering him?
While he was busy preparing things, the duke did not forget to order his shadow guard, who was knowledgeable in magic.
"Citrone," the duke uttered.
Just after a few seconds passed by, a figure wearing black clothes suddenly appeared inside the room, bowing in front of the duke who was standing in front of his office table.
"I want you and your subordinates to go to the houses of Floyen and Uros. Monitor all of the family members' movements for a week, especially the second son of Count Floyen, Hubert Floyen, and the daughter of Countess Uros, Mistica Uros. Capture everything that could be used as evidence of their cheating. Search also for any of the families' activities under the table that could make them lose their titles. I want everything captured in great detail," the duke stated with burning anger inside his eyes.
The shadow guard nodded this head respectfully. He dared not to raise his head unless he was already told to.
'It looks like the duke is going to crush some rats again. Just, how could those people not use their head? Were they simply brave or foolish who put their brain on their toes?' Citrone thought.
"Raise your head," the duke said, so he did.
As soon as Citrone raised his head, the only part of his body which was uncovered was revealed. His pair of gold eyes always exuded a cold feeling to anyone who met it but at that time, they were filled with devotion and awe towards the duke.
Citrone Aureus was a twenty-five-year-old man who was good at controlling magic since he was young. Though he was only able to reach four magic circles compared to his father who reached five, his magic control was good and so was his physique which helped in making his magic more powerful and useful.
He was able to join the Montgomery shadow guards as early as seventeen but that wasn't the age he first entered the house since his father also worked for the duke as one of his magicians when he was still alive. Whenever there was a chance, he would tag along with his father. Because of that, he was able to visit the mansion a few times when he was younger so it could be said that he was one of the people who watched the young miss grow up.
As a result of his father's loyalty to the duke's family, he was greatly influenced. When he reached his teenage years where his love for the family grew even stronger, he was already seventeen, and was able to try the test in the underground for shadow guards. Fortunately, he was accepted.
Though the duke almost got fascinated by his guard's peculiar eye color since he felt as though the shadow guard had a face that could attract his daughter, he still managed to shrug the thought off as he went inside his office's treasury.
Because of the importance of the matter, the duke took out fifteen magic stones from his treasury and gave them to his shadow guard.
The shadow guard's eyes widened as he saw the large Memory Stones sparkling and oozing with mana. Immediately, he opened up the space bag hanging on his shoulder and placed the stones inside carefully.
Magic stones were very expensive in Leontios as they were also rare—rarer than stones used for the aristocratic women's jewelry. Having just a very small magic stone could support a commoner family in one to two years. And though they were rare, they also had different types of functions which made their value rise even more. Usually, they could be bought through auctions and had prices that could buy a commoner a title in the nobility.
And those stones… It looked to Citrone as if they held no value at all the moment the duke took out the large Memory Stones and tossed them in his direction—that could break the stones if only he was late in catching them before he put them in his bag.
The Memory Stone was one of the types of magic stones that Leontios had. The color of it was purple so it was easy to recognize It had the function to record moments and lock them inside the stones forever. Aside from that, it could also be played repeatedly. The bigger the stone was, the longer the duration it could capture moments.
Seeing how the duke presented him with fifteen large Memory Stones with the size of man's average palm stretched out wide, it just showed how badly he wanted to deal with the princess's friend and fiancé, and their families.
The shadow guards were always around, acting as if they were nonexistent while making sure that their master—the duke—was always in perfect security.
Since they had always acted like the duke's tail in the dark, they were not completely unaware of the matter between the duke's daughter and her scumbag fiancé.
Being there on the sidelines while watching the scenes from the beginning, they knew how much the duke greatly cherished his only daughter. Truly, the people who provoked him didn't know what true danger really meant.
"Before you do my main work for you, send the letter for cancellation of engagement to the count's house first and let them rejoice. After that, send this cookie to the great magician of our magic tower and have it inspected. Find what's the poison that has an odorless, colorless, and a one day late effect. I want to receive the results about this in five days," the duke said as he handed Citrone the first letter and the leftover cookie.
"On the seventh day, send this other letter to both families. We'll take a visit to the imperial castle by the next day to completely cut off Montgomery's connection to those disgusting parasites," the duke said with coldness seething in his eyes as he gave Citrone the second letter.
In the Vincequere Empire, though aristocratic engagements were usually planned by the parents, the one who would approve them would always be the emperor. It was the same for the nullification of engagement. Because of it, it was hard to change prospective spouses all of a sudden if a party suddenly had a change of heart—leaving a lot of aristocratic couples in a broken marriage filled with cheating and illegitimate children.
Engagement nullification can only be done by the emperor. However, not everyone can be easily granted an audience with the emperor who was always busy with his work.
Fortunately, it could be said that the duke had that one in a million privilege through his friendship with the current emperor when they were still both attending school.
That being said, there was a way to nullify an engagement without having to go through all the trouble for an audience with the emperor that had a great possibility of being rejected—which was the death of the other person. Besides, who would marry a dead person anyway?
If between a couple, the other person died suddenly during the engagement approved by the emperor, no one had to ask the emperor for any nullification approval—the engagement would be automatically regarded null and void. It was just like that. The family of the dead partner would mourn for their loss and the family of the alive partner would be automatically given freedom to find a new spouse again for their child. For their future, they said.
Since the duke wrote for them a letter about canceling the engagement while the news about his daughter's 'sickness' was still alive, the Floyen family and the suspects would definitely think that his daughter already died and just didn't want to say anything about it.
Hah. Bunch of fools! He would never allow that! He would make sure they would meet Hades first before his daughter!