I Won’t Accept Your Regrets

"What are you trying to tell me? Did you make a fuss at the party to restore Drua's glory?"

"Yes. Exactly. I don't want to see the Marquis chasing the Duke anymore as if he were his subordinate."

"What are you really up to?" asked Duke Drua, as if he couldn’t believe it.

And the suspicions were justified. After all, Jeremy never showed interest in the common cause of the family.

It was not easy to believe that he changed his attitude out of the blue.

"I’m also from the Drua family. Let you not consider me to be them."

Jeremy spoke with an unshakable, stern face.

"I didn’t know that the Emperor himself would go to the party, but I don’t regret that I revealed my existence."

"Don’t regret? Let's see what the Emperor has to say! Even after 10 years! He’s the one who brushed my father's head off his shoulders. Who knows what this tyrant will do?!"

"Everything is different from what it was ten years ago. During the uprising ten years ago, His Majesty had an excuse to destroy Drua. Tired of the then Emperor, the nobility supported the coup, but now the Empire is unstable. Nobody supports the bloody usurper."

The Duke's black eyes trembled.

"The Emperor can’t take us out without a fight."

The Duke gazed into Jeremy's amber eyes, full of confidence.

It's not even that he didn't like Jeremy because he didn't inherit their symbol.

Jeremy has always been Drua's only successor, but he didn't care until now.

He abandoned his home, roamed as a mercenary, and stood by when the family was in danger.

But now he’s broadcasting that he himself is a greater Drua than anyone else.

"But even in this case, we shouldn’t scratch the Emperor’s nerves. Now we are working on even more important things…"

The Duke, haunted by Jeremy's sparkling eyes, suddenly fell silent.

He still couldn’t completely trust the guy in front of him to tell him the whole essence of things.

However, Jeremy had already heard the Duke.

And he also noticed that the Duke and the Marquis felt mutual disgust and fear.

He just didn't know what those two were working on right now.

Jeremy said pretending to be innocent.

"Have you and Sios really thought of something big?"

"It has nothing to do with you. In any case, know your place. We will apologize to the Marquis for the uproar."

"Do you think Marquis Sios will hold your hand?"

"…What are you talking about?"

"You can't trust Sios. The party is over, and the whole Empire is chatting about Drua, but did you receive a letter from the Marquis?"

The Duke couldn’t answer.

And Jeremy knew the answer.

"If Marquis Sios had really planned an alliance with Drua, as soon as it all broke out, they would have discussed future plans with Your Excellency."

"If they send someone to me now, it will attract the Emperor’s eye. Naturally, Sios didn’t take abrupt steps…"

"Have you met in public up to this point? Isn't there a secret appearance known only to the two of you?"

Even he didn't know anything about the secret meetings of these two.

A little behind-the-scenes investigation by Marquis Sios revealed that he’s an incredibly dangerous man.

From this it follows, firstly, that Marquis Sios wouldn’t have kept close to Drua for a long time.

The Duke had nothing to cover.

"Marquis Sios knocks on every newspaper, insists that he has no connections to Drua. The Marquis will take advantage of you and then throw you away."

Don't trust Sios too much.

Jeremy gave up one last thing and left.

This time the Duke didn’t rush after him.

He was embarrassed by the change in Jeremy’s attitude, who has always been a bystander.

In addition, he was worried about doubts about Sios.

Of course, he didn’t trust the Marquis too much.

Or does he want to outsmart me, but has something else on his mind?

Duke Drua stared tenaciously at his son's back as he climbed the stairs.

* * *

I came to work in the office to help her father with business.

My father, who has already recovered, has seriously returned to work since yesterday. However, after Harpen's warnings, I decided to temporarily take some of his employment for myself.

"I urgently need to find an assistant. I can’t make you suffer like that."

"I may need an assistant, but it's not such a big deal. It even happens to me for fun. Accounting is easy for me."

Even when I was seated on the throne of the Empress, my father was firmly in charge of finances in the ministry. From the experience of the time, the Duke had such a talent.

The estate is now back to calm after the storms.

"You're good at it too. Since childhood, you can’t pass by and not help."

Suddenly I was embarrassed when my father praised me so with a serious face.

It was a look, just like in my eyes, when I praised Carlisle.

I’m already an adult to stroke my head.

"Here is a summary of taxes gathered from the estate this time. Things were bad while everyone lived unattended. This time we charged only half. Better to let the families recover from the crisis."

"Yes, good work. Did you say you were going to Carlisle tonight?"

I was thinking about going to the night market with Carlisle today.

"Yes. We have to send Carlisle to the academy soon, so I want to be with them for a while."

"Don't worry, I’ve gained strength again, so sit with Carlisle as long as you want."

"Yeah."

My father plunged into papers again.

The office door opened.

I saw the butler come in.

"What's the matter?"

"A letter from the temple to the lady."

Temple. You can't expect anything good from them.

"From the temple?"

"Yes."

The butler handed me an envelope. When I opened the letter, there was an invitation to dinner.

"What's happening?"

"The High Priest asks to dine with me."

"High Priest?"

"All because yesterday I sent a donation to the orphanage. And I did it bypassing the temple. I think this story is related to this."

All orphanages were run by the church.

Are you inviting me to dinner to tell me something?

My dad frowned as if he didn't like the idea.

I didn't like the High Priest's invitation either.

As much as I hated the temple, it hated me in return.

To be precise, they hated both the Emperor and the Empress.

The Agrita Empire established the worship of Luminas, the god of light who had the greatest influence on the continent, as the state religion.

It was a religion with a long history, in which it was asserted that Luminas, the god of light, blessed all people when the continent was just created.

Since this faith has a thousand-year history, its influence is quite large.

Although there was no direct influence over the imperial family, they always supported the imperial successors with clear legitimacy.

So it was natural for them to dislike Raymond, who usurped the throne, sweeping across the country with fire and sword.

There was a lot of talk during the Emperor's coronation ceremony because they didn’t send a priest to the mission.

At first, Raymond tempered his ardor and tried to establish contacts with the temple, hoping to enlist help, but Raymond was also not stupid.

As the priests gradually lost their divine power, the influence of the temple gradually diminished.

There were no other people who could use divine power besides the High Priest.

But the temple was still standing, as for many it was a consolation to simply worship God.

And then, angry at the temple that offended him, Raymond cut their donations in half, which the imperial family gave to the temple every year.

In the end, the temple, which was in financial difficulty, raised a white flag. But any commoner knew that the relationship between the monarch and the temple was bad.

Of course, the relationship with me, the Empress, didn’t work out either.

At that time, knowing public opinion, I couldn’t even calmly go to church. But I’m no longer an Empress.

Moreover, the temple's reputation is now in disaster.

If they make me a mean thing, I'll give it back to them.

"I have to go. After the temple, I will go to Carlisle."

In general, there was no reason to be afraid of this meeting.

It was nice to free myself from what confused me as an Empress.

"Should I go?"

My father looked worried.

"Don’t worry about me. Now everything is different."

Come to think of it, I had a debt that I must return to the High Priest.

I smiled at my father, telling him not to worry.