CHAPTER 61……………
Noah slowly withdrew his power.
Only then could the nobles breathe again.
“How could such power exist…?”
Faces pale, they looked at Noah with eyes full of awe.
The pressure had been so overwhelming that someone off to the side was even retching.
Amidst the silence, Noah spoke.
“Ah, now I remember. Thomas Goodall. You were the one who attempted to assassinate me.”
“W-what nonsense…!”
Thomas’s face turned deathly blue.
Others, too, looked back and forth between Noah and him in shock.
Every ear strained for Noah’s next words.
Thomas was nearly out of his mind, but he knew one thing instinctively: he must not admit it.
He had to deny it somehow.
But before he could open his mouth, Noah cut him off.
“A maid, unable to bear the guilt, confessed.”
At his gesture, servants brought forward a maid who had been waiting.
That wretch! I was told she’d been silenced for good!
Thomas had promised her payment, though in truth he had begrudged the money.
So after she carried out her task, he had ordered her killed under the guise of payment.
He had been assured she was dead—yet here she stood.
“It was him! He gave me the drug and told me to slip it into the Duke’s food! He said he’d pay me if I did it!”
Thomas had sent one of his men to contact an Ignas maid.
Thus, she could never have seen Thomas’s face herself.
Her claim now was nothing but lies.
“Just because she has a mouth, you think everything she says is true? You believe that? As if I would stoop to something so vile!”
His outraged performance was convincing enough—perhaps because he truly was desperate.
But no one believed him.
“The wealth of House Goodall shall be confiscated. His contract mark erased. He is hereby dismissed from Ignas.”
“No!”
Thomas’s scream rang out at Noah’s decree.
For a noble, to lose one’s contract was as good as death.
“Please, anything but that…”
He fell to his knees, clutching Noah’s trousers in despair.
“Noah—no, Lord Duke Ignas! Please, I beg you. Spare me dismissal. I did harbor wicked thoughts, but I swear I will spend my life repenting!”
Noah silently took Thomas’s hand.
Fool!
Thomas smirked inwardly. Already, Noah’s heart had softened just because he had knelt.
But—
A crimson X burned across the back of his hand.
The sign that his contract had been revoked.
“Noah! You damned wretch!”
Stripped of wealth and status in an instant, Thomas showed his true colors.
He lunged as though to strike Noah.
But the servants seized his arms, and he was dragged out in disgrace.
The other nobles watched in terrified silence.
When the hall grew quiet again, Noah spoke coldly.
“Let us end today’s gathering here. Regrettable as it may be, I dislike crowds.”
“O-of course! If the Duke does not wish it, how could we continue?”
With forced laughter, they all agreed.
From this day forth, rumors would spread.
That Duke Ignas was alive and well.
The end of his long seclusion had been declared.
One by one, the guests departed like receding waves.
Noah turned his head, gazing at the garden still scarred with ash from his flames.
Only one guest had not left.
“A-are you all right?”
Noah, suddenly timid, muttered as though he had never been bold at all.
“Yes. Perfectly.”
Linaria nodded.
Because Thomas had behaved exactly as she expected, no one had guessed Noah’s true timid nature.
“Y-your name…”
“Pardon?”
“You said… once I protected the house, you’d tell me your real name.”
“That’s right. Allow me to introduce myself properly. My name is Linaria Obel. The sole daughter of House Obel.”
“…Obel?”
Noah blinked.
He had never imagined the name Obel. More than that—hadn’t she been wearing a maid’s uniform?
“Then Anna was…”
“Lord Brimstone’s taste.”
“August’s?”
Naturally, this made August seem strange.
You owe me two favors. I’ll call this one even.
“W-what exactly is your relationship with him?”
“He’s my cousin.”
“Ah… I see.”
“By the way, my cousin asked me to give you a message. But I think it would be best for you to hear it directly.”
“M-meet August?”
His voice trembled with unease.
“Brother August considers you a friend. If that was only his misunderstanding, then so be it.”
“N-no!”
“…”
“I just…”
Noah faltered.
So much had happened since he awoke that he had no time to sort through his thoughts.
“If you’re uncomfortable, you may avoid him. You are not obliged to repay every kindness.”
“Even so…”
“You’ll be busy from now on, Duke.”
“B-busy?”
“You must fulfill your duties.”
Linaria gestured. The butler appeared, carrying a stack of documents so tall it hid his face.
“If you have questions, ask the butler. He’s the one who has managed affairs in your absence.”
Still bewildered, Noah was guided into the study.
When he sat awkwardly at the desk, the butler set down the piles of papers with a heavy thud.
“Most matters lately have involved cooperation with Obel.”
“W-with Obel?”
Noah looked at Linaria.
“While you were unconscious, the butler approved them as your proxy.”
After gathering information from August, Linaria had gone straight to the Ignas butler.
“I’ve come with a business proposal.”
“Submit it in writing. The Duke will review it and contact you.”
“The Duke won’t review it.”
“…”
“I came to speak with the one who truly handles affairs.”
“…Very well. Let me hear it.”
When Linaria finished explaining, the butler shook his head.
“I apologize, but I see no absolute necessity for this venture.”
“But Ignas is in need of support, isn’t it?”
At that, his brow furrowed.
So partnership is just a pretext.
Linaria was not the first to approach with hidden intentions of manipulating Ignas.
Since Noah inherited the title, many temptations had come.
And the butler had rejected them all.
Linaria’s was no different.
But then something suspicious happened.
“You say you delivered the Duke’s meal instead of me? Why?”
“I was cleaning, so I brought it along! Why interrogate me like this? It’s insulting. I won’t work under such suspicion. I quit!”
At just a few words, the maid had reacted far more sensitively than usual.
She left, and the next day her corpse was found.
Sensing danger, the butler inspected the food she had supposedly served Noah.
Fortunately—or not—Noah had not eaten it, having recently begun sleeping far more than usual.
There was surely poison in it.
Enemies of Noah were not unheard of.
But never had an attempt been so blatant.
The culprit and mastermind had to be uncovered.
Yet before he could pursue it, he realized something was wrong.
Noah would not wake.
A day passed. Two, three. Still he did not stir.
“He has not been poisoned. Nor is his body failing. Strange indeed. It is as though he is merely… sleeping.”
The physician could only say to wait.
The butler was seized with dread that Noah might never awaken.
All his efforts to protect Ignas had been for Noah’s sake.
If Noah were gone forever, what meaning was left?
Driven by desperation, the butler searched everywhere for a solution—
and found an unexpected clue.
Wouldn’t you like to change your hair color? Or speak face-to-face with someone far away?
Or perhaps awaken one who has fallen into a mysterious deep sleep?
The Ivory Tower invents everything.
The Ivory Tower.
A neutral institution, and thus trustworthy.
But when he went there, an unexpected name arose.
“The matter you inquire about requires permission from Lady Linaria Obel.”
“Lady Obel?”
“Yes. For the next few years, she holds exclusive rights to this treatment. You’ll need her consent.”
And so, the butler had no choice but to stand before Linaria, grasping at straws.
