A Famous Traitor and Treacherous Genius

21 – Gibraltar’s Invitation (5)

The blade destined for the kingdom is still being sharpened.

The empire has been trying to devour the kingdom for a very long time, and is researching how to take over the kingdom every day.

There are many reasons.

The empire is not a very good land for people to live in.

It is a land that is constantly invaded by orcs or goblins.

As magic engineering was developed, the country’s land began to be polluted.

For a variety of reasons, the empire attempted to occupy the kingdom, and as one of its tactics, it attempted to ‘steer out manpower’ over a long period of time.

-Revenge on the kingdom that abandoned me.

They accepted those who were discriminated against and could not grow up in the kingdom.

Or coax those who were born as children of concubines and did not inherit a noble title.

His parents were murdered by a corrupt noble and he moved to the empire and became a knight of the empire.

Although some achieved considerable success within the kingdom, there were some who did not see the light of day due to discrimination and were scouted by the empire.

‘Even if the reasons are different for each person, one thing is the same.’

Everyone was driven by the hatred and anger of ‘getting revenge on the kingdom that abandoned me’.

Sir Mente – The same goes for this woman, who was one of the Empire’s sword masters who later crossed the canyon.

He is one head taller than me.

Official height is definitely 139cm.

“Look, Master of Gibraltar. What are you looking at like that?”

He has a complex about being short, and this height will never grow in the kingdom.

“Excuse me, Lord Mente.”

“Why? Is it because you’re wondering if I’m really cursed?”

Beneath the sharp, sarcastic voice, there is a deep sense of entitlement.

“Or is it because you think the curse is just an excuse and that your growth has stopped? You think you’ll look down on me when you’re just five years older, right? Huh?”

“Sir Mente.”

Viscount Hex, who followed, reprimanded Sir Mente.

“I hope you keep your promise. You agreed not to cause an accident, right?”

“But he has eyes.”

“He is the son of the Margrave and the eldest son of Gibraltar. He is 10 years old.”

“Ugh….”

It seems that he was brought as his own escort, but there is a high probability that Lord Mente himself said he would follow as an escort.

“It’s okay, Viscount Hex. I was glad to see the person my father had mentioned so well, so I looked at him, but it seems I caused a bit of a misunderstanding.”

“By the Margrave…Me?”

Sir Mente pricks up his ears.

“What did you say?”

“The swift sword coming out of his small body is like a thunderbolt, and anyone who is not careful will be stabbed by the sword.”

“Huh, huh… If the Count evaluated it that way, huh.”

This time I feel flattered.

He obviously tripped over something small, but when the speaker says he is his father, he raises his head and is proud.

“Remember, the next Sword Master is me.”

“It’s an honor, sir.”

“…Are you a little surprised?”

Sir Mente glanced behind him.

The next carriage has not arrived yet, so there is time until I welcome the next guest.

“Viscount. Can I go in alone?”

“If I don’t go in with Gyeong, I will die.”

“No way, I got slapped in the face 15 years ago.”

“I’m going to die.”

The maids, who seem to not know much about Viscount Hex and Lord Mente, are whispering as they see me talking.

-That kid is talking informally to me.

If a stranger saw it, they might think that.

“What? No matter how small I look, I can block the Margrave’s single sword.”

“If I block it once, the Margrave will swing his sword again and try to rip my cheek open.”

Although Sir Mente is easy to recognize because of his impressive hair color and small stature, if you don’t know him at all, he will look like a cocky self-proclaimed knight kid.

“To be scared. Hmph, I guess Viscount Hex is still afraid of the Margrave? He’s older.”

“How much of an age difference would you say it is? Sir Mente.”

However, those who are quick-witted will be able to tell just by looking at who is leading the conversation.

“Don’t talk about your age?”

Viscount Hex, who holds the important position of ‘Minister of Foreign Affairs’, is treated with respect by Lord Mente.

“Come to think of it, I forgot to ask that.”

“Ah, Lord Mente. What else can you do to a 10-year-old child…?”

“Master. How old am I?”

Sir Mente asks with sparkling eyes.

The clothes are a white shirt and a plain skirt that covers from the waist to the shins, but the sword worn around the waist looks quite old.

“Huh. You already have the eyes to look at people? But will you be able to guess the right answer?”

“Yes.”

Even if we consider all the cases, there is only one correct answer.

“Aren’t you 17?”

“…….”

The corner of Lord Mente’s mouth twitches.

The face that was full of irritation just a moment ago suddenly became full of smiles.

“Viscount. What do you think? Do I still look like I’m 17?”

“In the first place, if you haven’t grown since you were 10 years old, wouldn’t it be a good idea to look 7 years older. ‘Senior’.”

“Shut up.”

Sir Mente attempted to kick Viscount Hex in the shin.

Viscount Hex avoided it by lightly stepping aside, and I laughed while averting my gaze at their joke.

“hahahaha. Master of Gibraltar. Unfortunately, you were wrong. I guess the Margrave didn’t tell you about my identity?”

“I only heard about swordsmanship. If we were to create a new order of knights in Gibraltar, it would be a talent we would want to recruit.”

“…….”

Sir Mente opens his mouth in surprise for a moment, and Viscount Hex behind him furrows his eyebrows for a moment, then changes his expression.

‘Thinking politically.’

It’s just one of the conversations I had while talking with my father.

However, those in the central and royal capitals tend to create meaning and over-interpret even a single word like this.

“The Margrave enlisted me as a knight. hahahaha, that’s funny. First of all, I’m from Morgania, right?”

“You are a knight of Nostrum. You aim your sword at the empire. Would your family be important?”

“Interesting. That’s what the Count said.”

Sir Mente taps my shoulder with a twinkle in his eye.

“Thank you, Master of Gibraltar. It was a fun time.”

“It was the same for me, Sir Mente. But…”

Let’s make a face that looks like it’s going to be rude and a gesture that is barely suppressed.

“hahahaha, are you curious about my age? Hmm, it’s very rude to ask a lady’s age so carelessly.”

“If you’re not 17…20?”

“When-Aeng.”

The corner of Sir Mente’s mouth caught in his ear.

“I won’t tell you. hehehe.”

I messed up my hair with one hand.

“Then I’ll go in first. Viscount Hex, I’ll tell you that you’re here, so you can come back later.”

“Please be kind to me. The reason I brought Sir Mente here on purpose is….”

“Okay, okay. Then.”

Sir Mente crossed the gate of the mansion, pointing alternately at me and Viscount Hex.

“It looks like there’s something I want to say to the master of Gibraltar, so I’ll just go in now.”

“Thank you for your consideration, Sir Mente.”

Viscount Hex bowed her head towards her mentee and I bowed my head towards her with her eyes still filled with puzzlement.

And-

“She said the queen was more flawless than he was, and today I see she is even worse than that.”

“It’s not normal for a viscount to treat a 10-year-old child with respect.”

For Viscount Hex’s expression, I signaled the maid to bring a light drink.

“I know you don’t drink alcohol, so I’ll serve you water.”

“…….”

How do you know? His eyes look like that.

“Ah, you can talk to me comfortably.”

“That can’t be possible. The queen said that when dealing with you, she would be as alert as when dealing with a margrave.”

“Why would you do something like that to a child who is only 10 years old?”

“I knew more after seeing him in person. Seeing him take control of Sir Mente. I am worried that he will steal the hearts of many girls when he comes to the royal capital.”

“Why?”

The maid who had been called came over, and I handed her a glass full of water.

“…I came all the way to the party, but are you really just giving me water?”

“This is what I’m giving you. My father told me not to give even a drop of alcohol to the people of Morgania.”

“Isn’t that against the Margrave’s orders?”

“I don’t think Gibraltar’s successor will be able to do that. And isn’t this outside the banquet hall?”

I tapped my foot on the stairs I was standing on.

“If you feel uncomfortable, please speak comfortably first. I also feel uncomfortable being treated with respect by someone much older than me.”

“…Okay, then, let’s treat it like this. Afterwards, speaking became easier, but it became more uncomfortable.”

Viscount Hex took the glass and lightly quenched her throat.

“…You didn’t hear anything like poison, right?”

“No way. We don’t serve poisoned glasses to guests at a party, even if they come without an invitation.”

“That’s cruel. I’m thinking of replacing the invitation with this.”

Viscount Hex reached into the inside pocket of her jacket and took out two luxuriously wrapped envelopes.

“The red one is for the margrave. The gray one is for the master. I don’t have to tell you who wrote it, right?”

“One is a love letter, and the other is an official document.”

Of course, the red color is a love letter.

“I will give the letter to my father separately. If my mother sees it, my father won’t even read it.”

“I’ll make sure to tell him how hard you work in the middle.”

The gray official document is extremely dry, probably an order from Queen Carmen.

“By the way, did Viscount Hex come as a member of the Romana family? Or as a person from Morgania? An official visit from the Minister of Foreign Affairs?”

“…As ‘the master’s secret friend’?”

“In that case, I sincerely welcome you.”

If it’s a traitor alliance, it’s a different story.

“Phew. It was frustrating dealing with idiots who were just trying to get a lick of soybean paste, but now I can have a conversation with some breathing room.”

“I think I’ve become more frustrated. Ha. It seems like it’s harder to talk to the queen than when she was 10 years old.”

“I accept it as an honor to be compared to him.”

This man is my political uncle, at least at the moment we meet as secret friends.

“Then where is the gift?”

“We couldn’t suddenly bring construction rebar into the banquet hall, so we arranged for it to arrive the day after the banquet ended.”

“Thank you for your consideration in not ruining the excitement of the party.”

Finally, it has come.

No matter how many plans we made in our heads, the reality was that in the end, if we couldn’t build the actual rebar, we couldn’t do anything.

“It looks like I have a lot of questions. Perhaps you want to talk to the Archduke when you get back, right? Please ask.”

“It’s not like you can read minds or anything, right?”

“No way. I’m not a wizard. I understand that this ability is called reasoning.”

“Yes. The Queen is curious, but the Grand Duke is the most curious.”

Archduke Morgania.

Although he is a master on par with his father, he is still over 60 years old.

“What on earth are you?”

“He is the successor to Gibraltar.”

“How did you cook Queen Carmen so well?”

“He only used the fact that he was the margrave’s son as a weapon and made a deal based on what the queen wanted most.”

“What is that?”

“I can’t tell you that. If the Queen hasn’t told you, I can’t tell you that myself.”

You must be curious.

What kind of deal did Queen Carmen and Gray Gibraltar make?

Even if there are several types of heart disease –

‘There is something the Margrave of Gibraltar has done so far.’

The fact that they suddenly send their son to join hands with Morgania must be embarrassing to them.

Queen Carmen doesn’t seem to have talked about it in detail either.

To be exact-

“I don’t know what the queen said, but my father is still single-minded about my mother.”

“…Really?”

“It looks like the queen was bluffing that way?”

“Tsk. Me again. The Margrave finally has a harem-ah, no. Huh.”

Of course not.

Because my father is not the type of person to have two wives.

“Then- oh my. Are they coming again later?”

A new carriage stopped at the entrance.

“Ha, I really don’t want to go in….”

Viscount Hex swallowed his saliva as he looked at the tightly closed front door.

It probably felt like he was opening the gates of hell and walking into it.

“Ah. Okay, let me ask you something. How much do you know about Lord Mente?”

“I guess I’m 37 years old this year?”

“Did you say you were 17 even though you knew?”

“Yes.”

Of course, that’s the correct answer.

“No matter what she looks like, a woman always wants to be a girl.”

“…….”

“If you’re Viscount Hex, you know better than me, right?”

“I never thought I would hear a story like this from a 10-year-old child.”

Viscount Hex drained the water in one go and placed his empty glass on the table next to him.

“The Margrave was a monster, but my son is even more of a monster.”

“You can’t believe you said that in front of the person involved.”

“What kind of child would react like that after hearing a story like this? You really are….”

Viscount Hex looked me up and down.

“You’re acting like a 30-year-old nobleman has stepped into the body of a child.”

“……Hey, you got the answer right.”

I lightly raised my glass and answered with a smile.

“It’s a secret between us.”

* * *

In short, everyone who was supposed to arrive has arrived.

The official party start time is approaching, and from now on, there is no need for me to respond to those who arrive late.

I entrusted the chief butler with serving guests to the mansion and headed to the banquet hall.

Simple is best.

The banquet hall is quite boring compared to the celebrations held in the royal capital, but it is not the decoration that fills this banquet hall with splendor.

‘The minister is the minister.’

The party is already extravagant with just the two men and women standing on the stairs in the middle of the banquet hall.

“Thank you all for coming.”

Hearing the earl’s respect.

“Gibraltar welcomes you.”

Listening to the countess’ soft voice.

“If you’ve filled your glass, let’s drink together.”

It’s a simple statement, but the people gathered at the party raised their glasses as if they were possessed.

“For the eternal glory of the kingdom.”

Cheers.

“Hey.”

A familiar voice was heard from behind.

“Is it true that the Margrave is teaching your brother the sword, not you?”

“…Lord Mente.”

She approached me with a serious face.

“Are you drunk?”

Her face was very red.

Even though the banquet has just begun.

“It turned out just fine. Come along and get some fresh air.”

I held her Lord Mente’s hand and escorted her.

“Now, wait a minute. Where are we going…?”

“It’s a garden. There are a lot of people here…”

I responded with a slight nod toward my father, who glanced in this direction.

“Because the two of you have a story to share closely.”