CH 1.4

CHAPTER 1: THE SUPPORTING ROLE IS ALSO QUITE DIFFICULT (IV)

Part 005

After taking a bath, Adrian immediately prepared for entering the palace. Since the duke died, he had to obtain the king’s permission to succeed to the ducal house. The old butler, still in a cold sweat and listening to the changed owner’s order, had to raise his head and confirm at one point.

“Should we be sorry for your family los…?”

“Condolences will not be accepted. A priest from the temple will come tomorrow, so be prepared.”

“Boss, no matter how much you do, it’s not like this. We have to give you the courtesy that suits the title of a duke.”

“Now I’m deciding which is the courtesy of the duchy. Butler, I’ll be staying in the annex for the time being, so please empty the main building. As soon as the funeral is over, the Bigorgi Division will be disbanded and all employees will be sent out. You included.”

“Young master…

“Let’s hear that title until today.”

Adrian was thinking of rearranging the Duke’s residence. He could leave the details to Edan as soon as he arrived, but he thought that the gloomy basement had to be overhauled unconditionally. The same goes for knights and servants. It was a mansion where innocent people plotted for rebellion and perished. There was no time to figure out who was involved in what way or what happened.

The Vigor Knights, who had heard the news, flocked in front of Adrian, who was riding towards the palace. The captain of the knights knelt down on one knee and cried out in a mournful voice.

“Your Excellency, Little Duke. How can you kick us out?”

All 100 Vigor Knights. Each and every one of them was composed of talented people who could be compared to the Royal Guard. He needed time to sort through the boulders, so he was thinking of dismantling and reconstructing it, but the captain of the knights, who decided to knock it out first, struck the ball. About half of the knights, almost fifty, who prostrated themselves behind the knight to protest Adrian’s first order.

“The Knights will be reorganized. Those who wish to be under Bigor’s name will have to take the re-entry exam in the spring.” 

“We are already Bigor. Please think again.”

The knight commander raised his head and protested in a strong voice. The eyes that looked up at Adrian were full of dissatisfaction.

“My father had a fairly talkative dog.”

The knight commander’s shoulders suddenly opened.

“Don’t get it wrong. It’s not you, it’s me. As of this time, the Kishidan will be temporarily canceled. It will be announced later, so clear the way.”

Adrian hesitantly drove his horse through the retreating knights. Then he sped off and asked George, who followed.

“When will Ethan arrive?”

It was a question that stretched out as if muttering to George, who was following behind on a galloping horse. It was a voice that normal people would never have understood, but George, who was good at infiltration and reconnaissance with extraordinary hearing, understood it like a ghost and shouted back.

“He won’t come to this country right away, so he’ll arrive in three days.”

These were all the companions he got while rolling on the battlefield for 4 years. Adrian’s knights should be these, not those left behind by Bigor Major. The rain had stopped, but it was a chilly winter afternoon with the sunset in the sky.

* * *

It was a sudden audience and it was already late, but Adrian was able to meet the King right away without waiting. Ortega IV was known for his indecisive nature, but his men were not incompetent. There was no doubt that the king’s inspectorate, known as the ‘King’s Eye’, had not yet noticed the Duke’s death since when the Duke’s death was announced, he conveyed consolation in a miserable tone.

“Did he spend his last moment comfortably?”

“I couldn’t stay on his deathbed.”

“Yes, I guess. He sent you too far.”

Sassaroi was the death of his biological brother. Antalov’s old ambitions were a real threat, but he couldn’t be without the affection of his only brother. Wasn’t he already dead? It was only now possible to worry about them with peace of mind. Later, he learned about Antalov’s conspiracy to revolt and how it had failed. It was around that time that King Ortega IV reorganized the Royal Inspector Corps, which had been ineffective, and created the ‘King’s Eye’.

Although he felt sorry for his nephew who did not, or could not, take any credit for saving the king’s life, he was unable to confront his younger brother head-on, so he let him go even after knowing that he was trespassing the border. He looked down sadly at his nephew, who couldn’t be hugged because of his younger brother’s temper as his own son, and who must have been lonely for a long time.

Nothing was said by Adrian, who silently lowered his head. Were those hard-set eyes those of a twenty-four-year-old young man? Reminding his heir, that was about the same age, Ortega IV clicked his tongue.

Maybe his brother should have been king. At least his nephew in front of him and his eldest son were compared sharply. But, he would grow up too. It was not a business for a father to tamper with his child’s future.

“You don’t know how fortunate I am that you walked a different path from your father.”

These were words that Adrian couldn’t answer from earlier. Ortega IV, who looked at Adrian, who was silently lowering his head, with complicated eyes for a long time, took his eyes off him.

“It is clear that the Duke was from the royal family, so he would have told you to prepare to be the head of the royal family.”

“I’m thinking of being the head of the Duke family.”

“The head of the family?”

Ortega IV was surprised. Knowing his dead brother’s long-cherished wish, he was about to give consideration to the last thing he could do to consider his nephew as a member of the royal family. But it’s not the disguise that ordinary aristocrats did in the Great Hall, but…

“The time is delayed and the body is rough because he has been ill for a long time. It is better to recover quickly.”

“If it’s the Duke, it can’t be helped, but it’s not… Do as you wishes. I’ll certify your succession to the Duke title. In addition, I will appoint you as the commander of the capital. However, I will postpone the delegation until the New Year, so take a break for the time being and come back later. “

“Then I’ll see you at the New Year’s banquet.”

When he returned to the Duke’s residence, it was already dark at night. The subordinates formed groups from the entrance of the mansion to the front, leaving Adrian on guard. Adrian laughed bitterly at the economic level of the castle occupied by the war. The outbuildings were cleaned, but the main building was bustling all the time. He lay down on an unfamiliar bed and faced the screaming fatigue of his whole body, but he could not sleep easily. He returned to the house where he grew up after 4 years of absence, but he tossed and turned more than when he was sleeping with a blanket under a tree in the mountain he first wandered about. It wasn’t until dawn that he closed his eyes for a while.

* * *

The funeral of the former Duke of Bigor was bleak, but two priests who visited the chaotic Duke’s mansion the afternoon after were reciting prayers and presided over the funeral in a suffocating atmosphere.

The young Duke Bigor, dressed in mourning, did not say a single word, and the thirty or so standing knights glared at him expressionlessly. In the garden outside the mansion, the Knights of Bigor and the servants also stood throughout the ceremony without even breathing, and then quietly dispersed when the ceremony ended at twelve o’clock. There were no sad cries or mournful wails. The old butler silently wiped away his tears a few times, and he only talked for a while with the knight commander in the corner of the invisible garden.

The family funeral, which was held by commoners who do not have enough time or money, lasts only three days. On the third day, after the family members who exchanged farewells moved the body to the burial site and buried it, the funeral process ended with everyone including the resident taking off their mourning clothes and returning to their daily lives.

After the ceremony on the first day in silence, the Duchy of Bigor was quiet on the second day. Except for the small hall where the Duke’s corpse was kept, the entire mansion was cleaned and emptied. The knights who had said their last goodbyes emptied their quarters one by one, and the servants packed up more than half of their belongings and left. A line of condolences from aristocratic families lined up the newly Duke, a young, unmarried Duke, and strengthened the link with the Duchy. A long line formed at the entrance of this mansion. The servants and attendants with the crests of each family arguing at the entrance saying that they had to deliver it directly to the Duke, but they were blocked by the bloody Adrian’s subordinates and no disturbance was transmitted inside the mansion.

The next morning, the former duke’s body left for the Bigor estate bestowed by the former King. He would be laid to rest in the Writer’s Cemetery as Prince Bigor, where his family was buried.

Adrian accepted the request of the knight commander and the old butler, who came to visit him, saying that he wanted to take care of the last way. Finally, tomorrow, all the remaining family members of the former Duke would leave. That’s when Ethan and the rest of his men, who were unable to follow because they were in a hurry, arrive, this place becomes the Ducal residence of Adrian.

Late at night, Adrian found his father’s body. The preserved corpse was as skinny as it was when he first saw it, and it smelled of death that he couldn’t hide. As a child, Antalof was Adrian’s pride and idol. He was his cold and heartless father, and he was always away from the mansion as the leader of the war, so we couldn’t talk to each other properly, but he was a huge and solid knight and head of the family. To the young boy who played with his wooden sword, even that heartlessness seemed bold.

She was the daughter of a foreign knight, but her mother, who married her father by order of the late king, was a kind person. When he was praised by his swordsmanship master, he happily ran into her mother’s arms and she always stroked his head, saying that he should become a great man like his father.

Antalof didn’t say a word when Adrian, who had dark blue hair pulled back and reddish yellow eyes that could be the symbol of the royal family, showed off his swordsmanship skills, but he looked at him with satisfaction. Among his dependable father, numerous subordinates, affectionate mother and courteous servants, Adrian grew up receiving a high-quality education and striving to surpass him.

Yes, while growing.

A child grows up to become a boy, and a child grows up to become a young man. A child sees invisible things, and a boy spies into an adult’s heart that he could not have guessed. As Antalof, who had probably already begun to pave the way for rebellion after the war and entered into political activities in earnest, continued to stay at the Duke’s residence, so Adrian gradually realized what kind of person his father was.

His ever-appreciative mother was not treated properly as the Duchess. It was only because of Antalov’s personal innocence that he had not made a woman and a child from another place, and he treated his wife as someone who did not have one. As if they couldn’t be heard or seen, they were openly ignored, and Adrian’s mother tried to hide herself as much as possible so as not to offend her husband. On the days when he somehow ‘discovered’ his wife, he would treat her harshly as if something was offending him. Knowing that her mother, who was already a small and weak woman, sometimes fell ill for no reason, it was in the hands of her father, Adrian was furious.

His mother did not live long and died a lonely death.

Antalov did not accept any opinions that went against his will. No, he did not end with non-acceptance, he punished or removed.

Eighteen-year-old Adrian found out that his subordinates, who followed the Duke as if he was a king, and his father, who believed himself to be king, were indeed planning a rebellion. Then Adrian consonantly confronted his father. And he learned what duke-style child education was like in a dungeon on the second basement floor.

After that Adrian shut his mouth. As soon as he reached adulthood, he entered the military service, and for two years he made himself a recognized force. He led the stars of the young military with his outstanding skills, authentic pedigree, northern charisma and long-trained depth, and succeeded in making his way while avoiding the eyes of the Duke.

And in front of his father, in the form of a dead body, Adrian could not utter a word.

Adrian, who looked down at his father with slightly shaky eyes, let out a deep sigh and then made a firm face again. He turned and left at a steady pace, and through the night he dug up what his father had left.