345 – Peter Jaeger supports love (2)
The duke spoke with a nervous expression after hearing what I said.
“What happened between the Allied Forces that makes you secretly come to me like this and accuse me? Could it be that Captain Giuseppe is secretly in cahoots with the Venetian Allied Forces…”
Hearing those words, I shook my head and said.
“He, the commander of the Allied Forces of Milan, did not try to join hands with his enemies to take over the Duchy of Philolence. “I just wanted to join hands with the regent and drive out His Highness the Duke.”
The Duke in front of him seemed to be greatly shocked and could not hide his surprise.
His face instantly turned pale as he stammered, saying words, words, nonsense.
Even though I have been through all kinds of hardships, if I heard that Max or Vincent sold me out to get a promotion, I would be so shocked that I wouldn’t be able to come to my senses.
Although he holds the grand title of Duke Philolence, the boy in front of him is only an 11-year-old child, so it would be natural for him to be so embarrassed and not know what to do.
Instead of the Duke, I handed the original letter to Chloe, who was standing behind me, and said,
“Please give this to His Majesty. It is a secret letter bearing the seals of General Giuseppe, Commander of the Milan Allied Forces, and Regent Andrea. “The content inside is the same as what I just said.”
“I understand, Captain.”
As I read the secret letter Chloe gave me, my eyes widened in surprise once again.
“Are you okay, Your Highness?”
The boy in front of me could not respond properly to those words, and his breathing began to become increasingly difficult.
“Excuse me for a moment, Captain Jaeger.”
After saying that, Chloe hugged the Duke and started patting his back, and then his condition gradually stabilized.
“Your Highness, it’s okay. Chloe isn’t going anywhere. Always by your side. So take a deep breath and calm down.”
“Yes, Chloe.”
“No matter what anyone says, Chloe is on Your Majesty’s side. Please rest assured.”
If men were like that to each other, no matter how much I was, I would have thought, ‘Isn’t this a bit bad?’ However, it was nice to see a 15-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy comforting each other.
Should I say that it feels like a happy smile is forming on my face just by looking at it?
After a while, the Duke must have realized that he had behaved in an indecent manner, and he waved his hand and said,
“I’m sorry for showing you like this.”
“It’s understandable to be embarrassed. “Didn’t your uncle and the so-called regent dare to scheme behind your back to take away the title of Duke Philorence?”
“Thank you for understanding.”
After a while, Chloe asked me.
“To the Captain who saved the Duchy of Philorence, I am truly grateful as a member of the Principality and as someone who has sworn to protect His Highness. However, I cannot rule out the possibility that the Empire brought a forged letter from you in order to take the initiative from Philolence.”
Her protesting in front of me is very against etiquette.
The duke and I are qualified to talk to each other here, but the girl named Chloe is nothing more than a second lieutenant who has not received any formal education at the academy.
You have no right to intervene in a conversation where thousands or tens of thousands of lives can be exchanged with just one word. In normal cases, I might just outright yell at you to get off.
It’s as clear as day what will happen if I yell at her and speak ill of her, who is the duke’s favorite, or rather, her only support.
Considering that the approval of these two is absolutely necessary for the plan I have in mind to succeed, I should explain it to them one by one.
I snorted at those words.
“Ha, that’s ridiculous. Why would I forge a letter? If you just mobilize the imperial troops and put pressure on them, you can turn the regent into a stamping machine in an instant, so why bother? “Why not just talk nonsense about how the god the pagans serve is greater than Deus?”
After the Japanese army won the Sino-Japanese War during the reign of King Gojong in the late Joseon Dynasty, Joseon practically acted like a puppet of Japan.
The only reason this happened was because Joseon’s military power could not even reach Japan’s.
And now, there is a huge difference in military and economic power between the Duchy of Philolence and the Empire, so I can do something similar if I want to.
“That’s… but… “
“Regent Andrea, who knew this well, offered to give me his daughter Philone as his concubine. In effect, she declared that she would come under my wing. “You know why, right?”
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“You know that the Duchy of Philollens cannot survive without the support of the Empire. “Our regent.”
“That’s right. Well, honestly, there’s nothing bad about it at all from my perspective. He would have a beautiful concubine who was 15 years younger than him, and he would be able to receive a huge slush fund every year from His Highness Andrea, who became the Duke of Philolence. Given this offer, why would I take the risk of forging a letter?”
If I were a person who only pursues personal greed, it would be more advantageous to follow the regent’s suggestion, but it is more helpful to the national interest to connect the love of that young boy and girl than to support the regent.
In fact, those two are young and have virtually no base power, so they have no choice but to depend on the empire.
If we clean out all the nobles associated with the regent and leave behind only the pro-imperial nobles, we can transform into an alliance that absolutely supports the empire.
After letting Chloe know that there was no need for me to forge that secret letter, I walked up very close to the young duke and said,
“Your Highness the Duke, do you love the escort knight behind there named Chloe?”
It may be considered very rude to throw such words at the duke, but if I cannot move that boy, who is the core of this plan, the plan I have prepared is over.
If that happens, I have no choice but to abandon the duke and Chloe for the national interest of the empire, and since I have to join hands with the regent, I will have to follow His Majesty’s secret orders and add one more concubine.
Personally, I find just four people to be overwhelming, but adding a young woman as a variable that could ruin the harmony of the family? No matter how much you think about it, it’s not true.
The Duke nodded his head, his face red as if he was embarrassed to have been caught by me.
“Your Highness, Her Royal Highness, can be with her because Her Royal Highness has ‘Her Dukedom’. Once the title is gone, Regent Andrea will drive Her Highness out of this castle and send her to her remote mansion. Then, after a year or two, if they think everyone has forgotten about you, they will try to poison you. Because if your highness safely becomes an adult, she will think that she can lose her title, which she barely earned.”
It is a very common occurrence in politics where assassinations, plots, and slander are rampant, but has the duke ever imagined that he would have his title taken away and die?
It seemed like he was feeling terrible fear, and his face became increasingly scared and on the verge of crying.
Seeing that scene, I scolded the duke in a loud voice, as if scolding him.
“Your Highness, no matter how much you hate or fear dying, if you are the monarch of a principality with the title of duke. You should never appear scared in front of anyone. Otherwise, you will definitely die. If your Majesty gets scared or shows fear and retreats, that girl named Chloe will become Regent Andrea’s. Her purity will be tainted by him, her uncle, and she will be pained and tormented by not having spent her whole life with Her Highness. If you don’t like that, come to your senses. “Not only for Your Highness, but for His Highness’s woman, who loved and cared for Your Majesty more than anyone else and worked hard to become a knight from a mere maid at the age of 15.”
Although he is only 11 years old, is it because he is the natural heir to the duke’s family, or is it because of the man’s unique pride in not wanting to lose his beloved family member and woman?
Or maybe both sides worked out, but he decided not to turn a blind eye to the reality that was right in front of him.
Duke Philorence wiped away the tears that had formed after hearing my words, then clenched his teeth and signaled for me to continue speaking.
“Your Majesty must protect the title of duke at all costs. And what I am truly thankful for is that Deus supports the love between His Majesty and Chloe. As evidence of this, as a captain of the Reich Empire and representative of His Majesty the Emperor, I believe that helping you two would be beneficial to the Empire. “While I and the expeditionary force under my command remain here, we will clear away any obstacles that may interfere with your love and well-being.”
The Duke grabbed Chloe’s hand and squeezed his strength.
“So now, please ask. “I will tell you how I will move and what results I will give to you.”