Demon King of the Royal Class

Chapter 366

Harriet had two reasons for hesitating to tell me about the conversation she had with the Duchess.

One was that, regardless of the outcome, it would ultimately lead to criticism of a friend’s parents. The second was that she was worried it might hurt me.

After returning to the Temple, Harriet and I retreated to an empty laboratory at the Magic Research Club’s mansion to talk.

According to Harriet, she had been invited to breakfast with Duke Granz and the duchess. Harriet said that Duke Granz seemed surprised to see her at the breakfast table, as if he hadn’t expected her presence. Of course, Harriet, who had been invited there alone, had to have been even more flustered.

“Well, they just started by asking how the grand duke was doing... and if the grand duchess had any plans to come to the capital. You know, things like that.”

The duchess seemed more interested in Harriet de Saint-Ouen, the Grand Duke’s daughter, rather than Harriet, the Temple student. Harriet hesitated, unsure if she should share this story or not.

“Suddenly, she said she wasn’t sure if life at the Temple was really a good thing...”

“What do you mean...?”

“The Temple is an institution where commoners are given an education alongside nobles. So... when those nobles or royals get married later, the things that happened within the Temple could become scandals... It’s an unspoken rule not to talk about it, but rumors spread behind the scenes... like who did what with whom, you know...”

I understood what she meant. “So, her point was that, since anyone with money can enter the Temple, if noble kids fooled around with just anyone, it might cause problems for their marriage prospects later,” I said bluntly.

“Th-that’s such a vulgar way to put it!” Harriet exclaimed in protest, her face turning bright red.

However, my crude explanation seemed to drain the remaining energy out of Harriet, and she slumped over the table in resignation.

“Anyway... in short, you’re right. Just being a graduate of the Temple could make it difficult for both men and women to find a proper match later... that’s what she meant.”

Harriet’s braided hair lay messily on the table as she spoke.

‘Cute.’

“So, she’s worried about lowering one’s value?”

“V-value?! Your way of putting it is just... Ugh, but I can’t disagree. Yes, it’s about lowering one’s value. So, if you’re a proper lady, it’s better to have a private tutor and keep your conduct proper rather than associating with low-born commoners at a place like the Temple... That way, you can find a good match later. That’s what she said...”

“Were they arguing with each other?”

“Exactly...”

Duke Granz, unable to listen any longer, had exploded, and the duke and duchess had had a big fight right in front of Harriet. That was why Duke Granz had apologized at our farewell, since the two of them had ended up having a marital spat in front of their daughter’s friend.

The term “low-born” was essentially an insult to all the other friends who had gone to visit, so Harriet had to have been quite upset.

‘I know it’s not something you say to a friend’s parents, but it seems the duchess has more pride than sense.’

“Anyway, you understand why I didn’t want to talk about it, right?”

“... Yeah, I get it.”

Ultimately, it would end up being gossip about a friend’s parents, and she was worried that all the talk about low-borns and such could hurt me, so she hadn’t wanted to mention it.

Harriet sighed deeply. “Honestly, I don’t really know. In the end, it’s all about living a life where you seek your value from others... Worrying about who you marry, and how you appear in the eyes of others... Yeah, like you said, it’s about value. Focusing only on your own value.”

Harriet looked at me. “If that’s what it means to be a proper noble, then how is that any different from being a slave?”

Being overly concerned with one’s own value was essentially being obsessed with commodifying oneself.

The idea of living a “proper” life without associating with the low-born rabble in order to find someone who would “buy” you at a higher price...

Harriet could see just how much it resembled the life of a slave.

“I don’t think my value only comes from myself, but it doesn’t come solely from those other things either,” she concluded. “So... I was a bit uncomfortable.”

‘Oh dear.’

“Aww, good for you. When did you grow up so much?”

I felt like I wanted to pinch her cheeks because she was so admirable. When I ruffled her hair, Harriet’s brow furrowed.

“Ahh! What are you saying?! I’m not a child! Stop it!” Harriet yelled as she tried to fix her disheveled hair.

“Just around this time last year, you were commenting on how it was unpleasant for a Class B student to enter a place reserved for Class A students, and now you’re saying all this. That’s quite a change.”

At my words, Harriet’s face turned so red it seemed like she might melt. Her expression was the perfect exemplification of wanting to die of embarrassment.

“D-don’t talk about the past... And that wasn’t about nobles or commoners... Ugh... I don’t know. Idiot. I hate you. Really. How do you even remember that...” Harriet mumbled, then pouted after seemingly running out of words. She was being exceptionally cute.

‘What should I do? Does she become like this when she decides she has nothing to say?’

The duchess’s attitude was certainly annoying, but then again, it wasn’t that strange. Such a mindset might come naturally to those who had lived their entire lives receiving noble treatment.

In fact, although many royals and nobles enrolled in the Temple, there were also many who chose not to attend because they disliked having to be educated alongside commoners, and abhorred the lack of social hierarchy among the students.

It was not unusual to find nobles with the same stance as Duchess Granz. Harriet, too, although now embarrassed by her past words, had been someone who judged others by their social status and talents. If I hadn’t forced her to undergo “immunity training,” she might have stuck to her old beliefs.

“Honestly, when I think about it, the nobles and royals around me are unusually kind,” I remarked.

“Huh? Why did you say that all of a sudden?”

“Because it’s true. Even though the Temple prohibits students from using social status to oppress others, if they really wanted to lean on their authority or status, they could. But no one has done that to me, right?”

Harriet looked at me with her mouth agape.

“Y-you crazy idiot... Do you even realize how you’ve been acting while at the Temple?”

Harriet scolded me for a while, pointing out that people didn’t bother me because I would retaliate if provoked, not because they were kind. She said I was the last one who should be talking about others being kind.

According to her, if someone tried to oppress me, I’d punch them while saying, “Take this you bastard,” so I didn’t really have any right to speak about kindness.

‘No, that’s not what I meant.’

“No, no, not that. I mean the adults.”

“The adults?”

“Yeah. Like your parents and... others.”

The Grand Duke of Saint-Ouen, when speaking about my status, had said that the status I was born with didn’t matter, since I’d end up in some important position anyway.

Vertus said that those beneath him, whether beggars or nobles, were all the same, equal under him.

Charlotte, over time, had come to treat me kindly, for her own reasons.

Duke Granz, honestly, seemed more like the friendly neighbor next door.

Even the emperor, perhaps due to the positions Ellen and I held, had asked us to dispense with the formalities during our private meeting with him.

I had never truly had a stereotypically arrogant and prideful noble like Duchess Granz around me. Well, except for Erhi and Heinrich. Heinrich became nicer after a few knocks to the forehead, and Erhi backed down after seeing me hitting the others.

‘Oh, right, I did hit Erhi a few times too, didn’t I? I completely forgot about that. Hmm... I guess Harriet isn’t completely wrong.’

Those who acted like stereotypical nobles towards me had all suffered consequences. Realizing Duchess Granz was the epitome of such a haughty noble made me question what I had taken for granted thus far.

“I don’t remember Riana caring much about status from the start though.”

Riana de Granz seemed cold, and had an aura that made her hard to approach, but in reality, she was straightforward, without any pretense, and treated people as they were. She had even hung out with the hopeless trio during the festival.

“Hmm? Yeah, I think so too,” Harriet replied after some consideration.

If Riana disliked or rejected someone, it was because she disliked the person, not because of their background. I had taken for granted that the nobles around me, whether students or their parents, did not bring up the issue of social status around me, but it seemed Duke Granz’s easygoing attitude towards commoners was actually the exception.

Riana might pretend to dislike her father, but it was clear that he exerted more influence over her than her mother did. Her father’s way of treating everyone equally, contrasted with her mother’s emphasis on noble conduct, pride, and authority...

Riana’s easygoing, indifferent personality had all the hallmarks of her father.

I needed to know one last thing.

“What did they say to each other during the marital spat?”

“Why do you keep asking about that?”

“They say the most entertaining thing in the world is watching a fight. Who wouldn’t be curious about the details of a marital spat within a mighty duke’s family?”

“No one is curious about that! You’re really awful!”

Harriet, unable to withstand my persistent and mischievous questioning, eventually gave in, looking like she was about to cry. Though she hadn’t wanted to be there, Harriet had a good memory.

“Well... the Duke said that status can’t define a person... that if you treat people based on such thinking, you’d end up with no one around you... and the Duchess said that he was the epitome of the nobles who were ruined by their enrollment in the Temple...” she mumbled in defeat.

Some things might have been unclear, but this brought clarity. The Duke must have snapped after seeing his wife bring his daughter’s friend to breakfast without their daughter and impose her own beliefs on her.

Anger makes one lose reason.

‘Status alone cannot define a person... That says it all.’

Duke Granz must have joined the Revolutionary Forces.

***

Three days later...

“He is a meticulous man.”

I was listening to Sarkegar’s report inside my Temple dorm room.

“How meticulous?”

“So meticulous that it makes me wonder if Your Highness’s suspicions might be unfounded... I found nothing.”

Sarkegar had sprung into action once I had instructed him to investigate Duke Granz. While there were places within the capital that were so well-guarded that it was impossible to infiltrate, the Granz estate wasn’t one of them. However, Sarkegar found nothing to suggest a connection between Duke Granz and the Revolutionary Forces.

“Of course, if he is truly involved, we might discover something over time... But if he is that meticulous, he wouldn’t leave any evidence. We wouldn’t be able to uncover any coded messages either, until we understand the underlying patterns and methods. Nobles frequently use written correspondence, so it’s impossible to know which letters and documents are related to the Revolutionary Forces, and even if we did, we wouldn’t be able to decipher the encrypted contents. Even a seemingly ordinary letter inquiring after one’s well-being could be a coded message.”

Owen de Getmora’s recent visit to the mansion might have been for business reasons, rather than matters relating to the Revolutionary Forces. My suspicion that Duke Granz might be part of the Revolutionary Forces stemmed from circumstantial evidence and the fact that he was involved with Owen de Getmora.

If Duke Granz was indeed part of the Revolutionary Forces, he was hiding it well. That meant he was a very meticulous person, contrary to his image as a jovial neighbor.

“However, I believe Your Highness’s judgment is correct,” said Sarkegar.

“Why?”

Despite the lack of physical evidence, Sarkegar agreed with the notion that Duke Granz was part of the Revolutionary Forces.

“I, too, have a foothold in the imperial social circles under the name Count Argon Pontius.”

“Of course.”

“It’s a well-known scandal that the current Duke Granz, Arthur de Granz, eloped with a commoner woman he’d met at the Temple.”

“Ah.”

‘So that’s what the duchess meant when she said he was the epitome of someone whose life had been ruined by the Temple.’

“So, what happened?”

“If he had eloped successfully, he wouldn’t be Duke Granz.”

Eloping with a commoner, which ended in failure.

Sarkegar, in his maid’s attire and wearing that elegant and graceful face, smiled wickedly, revealing his white teeth. “Isn’t that enough of a background to make him curse the very concept of status and birthright?”

‘Please. You do realize that your expression makes us seem about three times more evil than we actually are, right?’

Anyway, this meant that the current Duke Granz and his wife were in an arranged marriage.

“Of course, Duchess Yelena de Granz was not originally this sensitive about status.”

“I don’t know much, but the duchess seemed like quite a dumb person,” I said.

‘I’m sorry, Riana. But your mom is quite the dumb one, isn’t she? I-I’m sorry... Sorry.’

At my words, Sarkegar tilted his head thoughtfully. “Come to think of it, Duchess Granz has her own story. She couldn’t help but become the person she is now...”

Sarkegar, having spent considerable time among the nobility, seemed to have a wealth of background knowledge about the social dynamics and the lives of nobles.

“While Duke Granz tends to avoid the social scene, the duchess is different,” he continued.

“Hmm...”

“Unfortunately, at every social gathering or party she attends, there’s an unspoken label attached to her.”

Sarkegar chuckled darkly. “The woman who married Duke Granz, who had given up on his elopement because of family pressure. The woman destined for a failed marriage. The woman who was doomed from the start to never receive her husband’s love. The vile woman who married Duke Granz, enduring vulgar scandals for the sake of his power...”

Listening to this sent chills down my spine.

“She elevated herself to noble status only through Duke Granz, a man stained by scandal. She had been born as the second daughter of a lowly count, and her family had no land, only a title. However, because of her decision, she is now viewed as a pitiful and foolish woman whose very existence has been turned into a scandal,” Sarkegar explained.

She had gained the prestigious title of Duchess Granz by marrying a man tainted by scandal. Yet she was scorned in her newfound social circles, and rumours floated about her being a vile woman who had discarded her dignity for the sake of climbing the social ladder. The only thing she could stubbornly cling to was the prestige of being Duchess Granz, which she had endured everything to obtain. She despised scandals intensely, yet she couldn’t face the fact that she had gained everything because of one.

“Such a marriage can’t be smooth,” Sarkegar said.

A duke who had tried to elope but eventually gave up... The duchess, despite knowing this, entered into an arranged marriage for the sake of social advancement. She was now fixated on the prestige and dignity she believed she’d gained from the marriage, because denying that would mean admitting that her life was a failure.

The duke had been forced into marriage, and the fact that they had no children other than Riana was likely evidence of their failed marriage. Perhaps it was fortunate they even had Riana.

The duchess had become someone who couldn’t help but cling to status, and the duke must have constantly pondered over the true meaning of social status and found it contemptible while he watched her. He was also an alumnus of the Orbis Class, the long-time cradle for Revolutionary Forces.

As Sarkegar said, nothing was concrete, but the circumstantial evidence was substantial.

Just as Charlotte had become convinced Baalier was the Demon King’s heir due to numerous circumstantial clues, there were so many circumstantial pieces of evidence that pointed to Duke Granz’s involvement with the Revolutionary Forces.

However, this alone provided no answers.

“Well, fine. Whether Duke Granz is truly involved or not will become clear when we eventually come into contact with their leaders. What’s their opinion on me not attending?”

“They seemed disappointed, but a leadership meeting is about to take place, and I will attend. If the Duke is a key figure, he will be there as well.”

“Good. Everything will become clear then.”

In the end, possibilities were just possibilities. There was still nothing definitive, and even if Duke Granz was part of the Revolutionary Forces, it wasn’t a card I could play yet.