Chapter 63 …
Perspiration was already streaming down Igarde’s forehead. He simply could not comprehend the situation.
Does this even make sense?
It wasn’t Calista Luperne, but Harper Luperne who set the trap?
That tiny little head, barely visible above the table—this little brat?
Even if he assumed she had acted under Calista’s instructions during the trade route incident, why now? Whose orders was she following to pull something like this?
Kenneth was not the type to pull such tricks. Moreover, the act of pretending to have “accidentally” discovered the documents was not forced or rehearsed—it was genuine.
Igarde lifted his eyes to look at Harper.
Her sky-blue eyes, which he had assumed were innocent and pure, now looked straight at him. As if she could read every thought in his mind.
A sly smile curled the corners of her small mouth.
“Damn it…”
In that moment, Igarde realized: Harper Luperne was not acting on anyone else’s orders.
That tiny eight-year-old girl was using her own judgment to completely outsmart him.
“Father? I’m finished.”
Harper spoke to the Duke with a clear, bird-like voice. Reflexively, Igarde turned to look at the Duke’s face.
The Duke, who had been quietly listening throughout the meeting, finally raised his head to look at Igarde.
“Igarde…”
The Duke’s gaze wavered. Having relied on Igarde his entire life, the man who had once been his mentor could not bring himself to make a decision.
“Your Grace! I can explain everything! You must not listen to the young Duke!”
Reading his weakened resolve, Igarde shouted without hesitation. A tiny spark of hope seemed to flicker.
“I only acted out of loyalty to the Duke’s household—”
“Absolutely not, Your Grace.”
A heavy voice rang through the meeting hall.
It was Kenneth. He rose from his seat and surveyed the entire room.
“Since it has already been proven that the Chairman has sacrificed Luperne’s interests for his personal gain, we, the elders, can no longer consider him as Chairman.”
“Shut up, Kenneth! Weren’t you the one who hid that letter for decades? Your Grace, the Vice Chairman has corruption too. That is—”
Igarde began to speak, intending to expose Kenneth’s secret that had just come to mind.
“These letters were accidentally discovered during the mansion cleaning last night.”
But before he could even continue, Kenneth cut him off.
“What? You shameless—”
“It was a grave error that our late father did not report him after seeing the letter. If punished posthumously, I will accept responsibility. But now, please address the removal of the Chairman first.”
Kenneth finished speaking and quietly looked at each elder.
“I request the removal of the Chairman.”
“Request the removal of the Chairman.”
“Request the removal of the Chairman.”
As if on cue, the elders echoed him one by one.
Soon, the room was filled with elders, all calling for Igarde’s removal.
The Duke no longer looked at Igarde. His gaze, wandering through the air, eventually met Kenneth’s.
“Your Grace, now that the removal of the Chairman is on the agenda, shouldn’t we first exclude him from this meeting?”
The low, firm voice shook the Duke’s pupils.
If he gave in, it would be over.
The indecisive Duke, with no backbone to speak of, would easily be swayed by the other elders once Igarde was excluded.
“Your Grace, this cannot—”
“Igarde… leave the meeting hall.”
But before Igarde could even respond, the Duke had already spoken words that could not be undone.
Igarde’s eyes widened.
“Your Grace!”
The Duke had never once defied him in his life. He had been shaped that way since childhood.
The Duke turned his gaze as if burdened by the rebellion and shook his hands twice.
The waiting attendants seized his arm.
“Your Grace! Your Grace!”
Igarde was dragged out of the hall before he could say another word.
BANG—!
A heavy door slammed shut right in front of him.
The last thing Igarde saw was Harper Luperne’s face, grinning cynically much like his sister.
“…Hahaha.”
He laughed bitterly.
His plan to control the Duke’s household by manipulating the Duke had completely failed.
His schemes to eliminate Kenneth while Calista could not attend the meeting, or to make Harper the young Duke and control her, were all shattered.
“Harper Luperne… Calista Luperne…”
Thrown into the hallway, Igarde muttered their names to himself like a madman.
His teeth ground together.
“…So this… really has to go to the very end.”
Alone in the corridor, he spoke a grim, chilling line.
After Igarde was dragged out, the meeting hall remained tense for a while. But that tension dissipated the moment Kenneth spoke.
“Your Grace, the Kenneth family bears responsibility in this matter as well. As for the failure of my late father to report the Chairman’s corruption despite knowing it, I will take responsibility and step down.”
He knelt on one knee before the Duke.
The Duke, who had already yielded to pressure by expelling Igarde, avoided Kenneth’s gaze as if unable to make a decision himself.
“It cannot be allowed, Your Grace. If even the Vice Chairman is removed, the meeting cannot proceed due to the elders’ lack of trust in the Chairman.”
An elder seated at the center of the table intervened at the right moment.
Until yesterday, he had been a close aide to the Chairman, but upon seeing Kenneth’s evidence fifteen minutes before the meeting, he had completely switched sides.
“How can the Vice Chairman be held accountable for the actions of his predecessor? If we scrutinize every ancestor’s sins, no noble in the Empire would be free from corruption.”
Isaac Bortea spoke next. In his previous life, he had stood by the Chairman to the end, but in the present, he followed his own interests.
“I request immunity for the Vice Chairman.”
“The Vice Chairman has done nothing wrong.”
The Duke briefly glanced between me and Kenneth. He seemed to believe that Kenneth had orchestrated all of this through me.
Yet the Duke did not comment further. He showed no dissatisfaction with the situation.
As each elder stood up for Kenneth, the Duke, resigned, helped him to rise.
“You will not be held accountable for the actions of your predecessor.”
As expected. The Duke had never wanted to correct corruption directly; he needed the elders to compensate for his indecisiveness.
He might have preferred Igarde to execute that, but if not him, Kenneth would suffice.
Kenneth gave a subtle smile toward me, careful not to be seen by the Duke.
Once Igarde was gone, it would be easy for the elders to pressure the confused Duke into making the desired decision.
Given the Duke’s easily swayed nature, this battle was designed so that the first strike would determine victory.
Kenneth rose without hesitation, expecting his father’s forgiveness from the start.
As he sat back down, our eyes met.
It was the final stage of the prepared plan.
“Ah… my head hurts.”
I collapsed onto the table, feigning exhaustion as if I were the protagonist of a novel. The Duke frowned at me.
“Why again?”
“This meeting… is just too exhausting.”
Half-closing my eyes, I mumbled the truth; I hadn’t slept since last night preparing for this. The Duke’s stern voice pierced my ears.
“Get up immediately…”
“Your Grace, the young Duke is too young to handle all of this. Perhaps we should temporarily find another solution?”
Before he finished, Kenneth raised the most important point in a soft voice.
“What is it?”
“Allow Miss Calista to attend the meeting again. Until the young Duke learns official duties, someone must fill in for her.”
The Duke’s expression darkened. This time, he could not easily agree with Kenneth.
“…I will not allow Clarissa’s maid into the hall.”
“Then withdraw the punishment of sending her as a maid. I was about to suggest that anyway.”
Kenneth subtly pressured the Duke, his previous apologetic demeanor gone.
“The royal hunt is near. The maid cannot remain in service to the Duchess forever, after all.”
“But it has only been a week. The girl has yet to even show remorse—”
“Rumors travel fast. If the young Duke falls ill when Miss Calista is demoted to maid, news of the heir to the Duke’s household being at risk will spread quickly.”
The Duke’s expression was more anxious than ever.
His nervous gaze swept the hall, but with Igarde, his childhood advisor, expelled, no one could counter Kenneth’s pressure.
“The young Duke hasn’t fallen ill. Just whining a little—”
“My head, my head hurts… Oh, I’m dying.”
Feigning illness, I thumped my forehead on the table with exaggerated despair.
“Not looking well! Perhaps the meeting was too much for the young one!”
“Should we move him to his room?”
A few elders quickly glanced at Kenneth and made an appropriate fuss.
It seemed they all understood that Kenneth had already seized control.
One of them reached out and touched my forehead.
“His temperature is rising!”
I didn’t even have a fever.
“We need someone to manage the official duties on behalf of the young Duke.”
The elders repeated in unison.
The Duke rubbed his sweating forehead like Igarde had and sighed.
Hello, I think a wrong chapter was uploaded here. This seems to be after a time skip, but the previous chapter was the fall of Igard. I hope you can correct it.