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It was supposed to be a lucky day.
Michele, returning from duty at the brick house, had received an invitation from Eileen.
Eileen had invited the knights to her place for dinner to treat them to delicious food.
Naturally, Cesare, as the superior, had not been invited to this meeting of subordinates.
The Grand Duke's knights swore absolute loyalty to their master, but sometimes they also wanted to stage a small rebellion.
Hearing the news of the invitation from Michele, Diego developed a complex plan titled "Party at the future Grand Duchess's with the participation of all the Grand Duke's knights except himself" and decided to rally his comrades for the first time in a long while.
"Lady Eileen sent an invitation?" Hearing the news, Senon reacted vehemently.
So much so that he crumpled the edge of the document he was supposed to take to Cesare for signature.
Senon was the only nobleman among the Grand Duke's knights.
Thanks to his sharp mind, he served as an adjutant under Cesare.
It was Senon who was busy systematizing research materials found in Eileen's laboratory.
Currently, he was consulting with lawyers on drug-related legislation and the Grand Duke's immunity.
Striving to complete preparations before Eileen's wedding, he had been up all night, working overtime.
But even a workaholic like Senon couldn't ignore the news of the "Party at the future Grand Duchess's with the participation of all the Grand Duke's knights except himself." He was angry that he hadn't made it to the previous banquet, so now he vowed not to miss this chance and definitely take part.
"Definitely.
I'm definitely going...
I can go with no sleep for a week after..."
While Senon muttered darkly to himself, Diego, in high spirits, stroked a plush rabbit.
It was said the toy was stuffed with foreign down, and to the touch, it was simply delightful.
Touching the soft fur made one's soul feel calmer.
The sight of the rough brute tenderly squeezing a plush rabbit evoked disgust in Senon, and he couldn't restrain a barb.
"Lady Eileen is already twenty-one, what's with the rabbit?"
"She'll definitely be happy," Diego parried carelessly, hinting that Senon simply had no taste.
He had brought a gift he was very proud of, but no one appreciated it, and this saddened him.
Remembering Diego's home, packed with all sorts of toys and cute baubles, Senon clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
He was just about to lecture him for imposing his strange tastes on Lady Eileen, when suddenly...
"Emergency!"
With those words, Michele burst into the office.
"The Lady has been kidnapped!"
Hearing her cry, Senon dropped the documents and Diego the rabbit, and both ran out of the office.
On the first floor of the Grand Duke's residence, soldiers had already gathered, and Rotan was reporting the situation to Cesare.
Although the guard at the brick house had been recalled, for safety's sake, people always stood watch around Eileen, staying out of her field of vision.
And all those people had been killed.
The relief shift discovered dead soldiers with stripped uniforms and immediately reported the kidnapping.
"It is confirmed that there is a traitor in the upper ranks of the army.
An investigation is underway," Diego reported, first casting a glance at Cesare.
Unlike the soldiers, shuddering with rage at the thought of the higher-ups' betrayal, he seemed completely calm.
But in his usually unperturbed red eyes, unfamiliar glints flickered.
Having listened to Rotan's report, Cesare reflected for a moment.
"The situation has changed.
Now everything could get out of control." Dropping this mysterious phrase, he immediately gave an order.
"We're going to the Chairman of the Senate."
The Chairman of the Senate, Marquis Meneghin, was a veteran of the army.
When Cesare was still a Prince, the Marquis had commanded troops as a general.
He had often called Cesare to the battlefields, while claiming part of his merits for himself.
Thanks to the reputation accumulated in this way, he became the Chairman of the Senate and now headed the faction opposing the royal family.
Senon quickly exchanged looks with Rotan, and the latter expressed doubt at Cesare's order.
"It's unlikely Marquis Meneghin is the criminal."
The Marquis, though a scoundrel, hadn't taken the post of Chairman for nothing.
He was skilled in political intrigue.
It was unlikely he would have done something so foolish as to jeopardize not only his political career but his life.
"Not the Marquis.
His son-in-law."
"!"
From those words of Cesare's, all the knights understood.
Having remained childless for a long time, Marquis Meneghin had only toward the end of his life gained a daughter.
He wanted to pass on to her everything he had, but by imperial laws, women could not inherit titles.
Therefore, he had match-made for her a young and capable member of the lower house of parliament, making him his political successor.
He had chosen the son-in-law carefully, but hadn't accounted for one thing: Matio was much greedier than he was.
The son-in-law lacked only the name of Meneghin.
Matio hungered to gain not only power but wealth.
Therefore, he had secretly imported to the Empire a foreign herb still unknown here—hemp.
Using Meneghin's influence, smuggling was an easy matter.
Matio mixed the hemp with other herbs, creating a new drug that he began to sell stealthily.
All the new drugs that had recently become popular on Fiore Street were his creations.
He wove distribution channels into double and triple knots to hide his involvement, but Cesare had immediately understood that Matio was behind the drug trade.
Even without any information.
Although he had deduced it early, Cesare had allowed Matio to profit before acting.
Matio, thinking everything was going smoothly, had in fact jumped into a deep trap himself.
Cesare had appeared before him only when he was in a hopeless situation.
It was a drug scandal capable of destroying even Meneghin.
When Matio realized this, it was too late—he was in Cesare's hands.
Realizing his life was over, Matio became completely wild.
He decided that if he eliminated Cesare, everything would be resolved, and he hired assassins.
But the assassination attempt turned into a pathetic failure.
It only became a pretext for the "Feast of Blood," after which the aristocrats began to fear Cesare even more.
In a last desperate attempt, Matio had kidnapped Eileen.
Already condemned to death, he wanted to at least take revenge on Cesare.
Marquis Meneghin didn't know about all this.
But ignorance was no excuse.
The Marquis was going to pay for his mistake.
"Grand Duke Erzet!" Marquis Meneghin wailed, coming down the stairs leading to the hall.
Because of the soldiers who had burst into his house in the middle of the night, the Marquis’s residence was lit up like day.
The Marquis, wearing an eye patch and limping, descended the stairs and, waving his cane, shouted at the bold soldiers: "You... you... you scoundrels!
Do you know where you are?!"
Cesare, with an unperturbed face, fired.
The bullet hit precisely the chain on which a heavy chandelier hung.
The chandelier crashed onto the marble floor.
*CRASH!*
Fragments of the chandelier littered the hall floor.
Scattering hundreds of glass shards over the coat of arms of the powerful House of Meneghin, Cesare approached the Marquis.
"Marquis Meneghin." He pressed the barrel of the still-warm pistol to his eye patch.
The Marquis, raging a second ago, immediately became submissive.
Facing the mad gleam in Cesare's red eyes, he realized the matter was serious.
"Wh... what do you want?.."
"Where is the villa you gave to your son-in-law, Matio?"
The Marquis was bewildered by the unexpected question, but hearing Cesare reload the pistol, he immediately gave up the location.
"Thirty minutes' drive from the capital!"
"Lead the way."
Cesare lowered the weapon and nodded.
Rotan hoisted Marquis Meneghin onto his shoulders.
"I'll take care of him, Your Grace."
Unable to move, the Marquis set off for the villa with them.
They covered the thirty-minute journey in ten, and as soon as they got out of the car, Meneghin was twisted by nausea.
But no one paid attention to the state of the decrepit old man.
A faint light peeked from the villa.
Cesare gave a light wave of his hand.
Snipers approached the villa.
Many windows made choosing a position easy.
Michele gave the signal of readiness, and Cesare permitted them to open fire.
Shots rang out.
From inside the villa, the cries of men who had lost their legs resounded.
To those cries, Cesare headed for the villa alone.
His steps, usually so measured, were now hasty.