Mikhail was smiling as if he had been compensated for all the trials he’d endured.
“Please clarify.”
Yet his mouth, which was quick to calculate profit, moved well.
“I don’t know exactly when, how, or in what way you and my younger sibling became like this, but if you’re planning to lead our dried-up fish— no, Joachim around like teasing a donkey, mmph.”
With the resolve to get punched later, he just covered Mikhail’s mouth.
Mikhail, who couldn’t push him away because it was before the prince even though he wanted to say “hey,” just pulled him into an embrace and acted ridiculously familiar, saying things like “So you’re embarrassed!”
“Hahahaha, they say even a bear has its tricks, and you, dried-up fish! Hahahaha!”
“Count. Why do you keep calling your fully grown younger sibling that?”
Benedict asked gently. Mikhail, who had been making eye contact with him, flinched for a moment.
“You’re right! Why did I do that?”
Though he’d been holding on forcefully, Mikhail quickly pushed away Joachim who had been struggling to break free. And while at it, he told him to go outside for a bit.
Benedict didn’t say much. After briefly observing the two people, he came out closing the door.
And 5 minutes later. When he entered again at the sound of being called, Mikhail had the face of someone who had just closed a major deal.
“Today is Monday! My goodness, it must surely be a beautiful day of the week!”
Mikhail, excited by himself, insisted on seeing him off, but Benedict politely declined. He said he had teleported using special magic utilizing his mana and artifacts, and skillfully refused, saying he didn’t want to show the process.
“I didn’t know Your Highness used such special magic, the Empire’s future is bright! Joachim, what are you doing not seeing him off quickly! —No, I should leave, hahaha.”
Mikhail disappeared walking backwards. He locked the door and turned to look at Benedict.
“Hyung didn’t say anything weird, did he?”
Benedict shook his head and said like a joke.
“Not at all.”
“He seemed to like it too much though.”
“I promised to attach the best attorney to House Meyer.”
But the family already had a high-level attorney attached. It was just that the situation had improved a little more, so it didn’t seem like Mikhail would be that happy.
“He’ll definitely… interrogate me about what happened.”
He was worried about after Benedict left. The incident at the summer palace that he was dragged to by the Regent Duke together with Benedict was still a secret.
“If you want to tell him, you can. But I told him to come to me anytime if he’s curious, so he won’t bother you. But is this talk that funny?”
He asked Joachim who kept holding back laughter.
Actually, Benedict’s hair had been slightly sticking up since earlier.
From the moment he escaped from his embrace, it continued to be like that even in front of Mikhail. It was really cute.
“Don’t you need to leave now?”
He pretended not to notice.
In front of the secret passage, Benedict said something unexpected.
“I’ve never heard such interesting words in my life.”
With the face he used when commending nobles, he uttered words like “nompang-i” and “balgwang.”
Ah, Jake. As he sighed, Benedict’s eyes were already smiling, so he knew he was teasing him.
“Did that woman raise you? Her face is familiar. I think I saw her when I was young.”
“I apologize again. You were surprised, weren’t you?”
Benedict shook his head.
“I liked it. You held me.”
“Pardon?”
“You can touch me freely too.”
Benedict spread both arms as if to embrace him.
“Kiss me before you go.”
He said like he had once before.
To avoid being caught, he deliberately went behind him, stood on tiptoe, and lightly kissed his cheek. He quickly fixed his hair that he had left alone because he kept wanting to see it, and before being caught, he rapidly escaped and closed the door.
Mikhail was suddenly treating him like royalty, but it wasn’t all that great.
“Oh my, has our dried-up fish-nim arrived! Oh my! I shouldn’t call you that!”
Because he really liked it too much.
As if everything would go smoothly as long as he was entangled with Benedict, with a raccoon-like face scratching his sneaky claws, he kept saying everything Joachim said was right.
“Then, if you want to eat, you should eat!”
He was a bit troubled.
Because Benedict and he weren’t even in a definite relationship.
“His Highness clearly likes you whether you’re a dried-up fish or a fatty! I know it all!”
“……Please just eat now.”
“Hahahaha, yes sir, dried-up fish-nim!”
“……”
It was like that.
“Eat a lot, eat everything! That bastard Rilke was so skinny that I said that, worried about comparisons! No, now that I see it, His Highness doesn’t like dog bones!”
The Rilke who had been so perfect instantly became dog food. Of course, there would also be reasons for the falling out with Rilke.
Still, since Mikhail was so happy, it was both absurd and funny.
“Did you hear!”
The next day. Once again, light poured from Mikhail’s face.
“Iota said the ancient island is theirs!”
He would be the only person in the Empire happy about that.
His appetite had clearly fully returned too. For the first time in a while, Mikhail ordered both types of breakfast that were prepared, and completely emptied the dishes on the table together with him.
“Master.”
While eating fig cake that came out as dessert with a spoon and thoroughly rambling about how to cook up the mine under someone else’s name, Mikhail suddenly elegantly picked up a fork.
“A guest has arrived.”
It was news that the best attorney Benedict had guaranteed had arrived at House Meyer.
Mikhail’s mouth opened as wide as a wash basin. His mouth was the same.
“I didn’t know Prince Benedict’s chief attendant would personally step forward as the attorney!”
As the representative of the family, Mikhail requested a handshake.
The person who knocked on the reception room door was Count Leroy, who had a magnificently grown mustache.
Though the Count was only in his late twenties, he had a splendid career as the attendant of the Empire’s one and only prince.
Currently he was a court minister and also a justiciar, but he had also been the head of the National Archives and had been active as a famous judge. To begin with, House Leroy was what was called a noblesse de robe who inherited professional judicial positions in the court.
During the reign of the previous emperor, when the judges gained the right of remonstrance to refuse or object to royal decrees, their authority became stronger in some aspects. Based on their more solidified foundation, they were cleverly opposing the current imperial family represented by the Regent Duke. The precedent of a single line that “the regent’s decree does not fully conform to imperial authority” was effective.
The fact that the Regent Duke himself pretended not to know such behavior also played a part in the judges’ authority continuing to triumph. The court’s power had become so strong that there were people worried whether this atmosphere would continue even after Prince Benedict ascended to the throne.
Among such a group, the person recognized as an outstanding judge was Count Leroy.
“That won’t do.”
And he was certainly a competent person.
“Count, do you want to be seen as a wealthy man with power and influence, or as a brother who was a strong supporter of Rilke Yorick?”
In the trial, they definitely had to portray the latter.
“The part you mentioned violates the principle of no-fault for injury evidence. What does that mean? It’s like prescribing anti-diarrheal medicine for a headache. Let’s save the anti-diarrheal medicine until the stomach hurts.”
His metaphors were perfect too.
“It might give the opponents the illusion of being logical. Only half. Let’s only acknowledge half. That way, we must eliminate the opportunity for closing arguments.”
He was excellent at psychological warfare too.
He unhesitatingly pruned the legal strategy that House Meyer had been preparing and immediately delivered clear and precise prescriptions one after another. Mikhail was so pleased that for a moment it seemed he was venerating Count Leroy himself rather than Benedict.
However, this outstanding attorney,
“That’s enough. It’s my job.”
Seemed to subtly be wary of him. It felt like he was drawing a line.
He had forgotten for a moment because he had received too much undeserved favor since returning to the past. He was briefly flustered, then got used to the situation, but only briefly.
“Prince Meyer. Can that person keep coming and going?”
The sparks that had been directed only at him also flew to Sir Lifros.
“Count, is there a problem?”
It was a different matter that he seemed to dislike Sir Lifros who had come to help.
When he asked in a somewhat strong tone, Count Leroy only stroked his mustache once without answering. Leon, who had been helping organize documents, stopped moving and was smiling awkwardly.
A silence hung in the suddenly cooled atmosphere. The previous attorney who had become a legal assistant—when Count Leroy became House Meyer’s attorney, he had gladly remained as a legal assistant—read the mood and left.
He felt sorry for Leon who had heard those words “that person” right in front of him. He thanked him and sent him off with a basket full of waffles he had prepared in advance.
“I heard you know?”
In the reception room he returned to, Count Leroy continued speaking while tapping documents into order.
“You know that Prince Benedict is having trouble with Iota spies, don’t you?”
“—Yes. But Sir Lifros is a trustworthy person.”
“Well. What is a knight who knows how to wield aura afraid of that he would naturalize to the Empire? It smells somewhat musty.”
Count Leroy kept suspecting Sir Lifros, saying there was a very suspicious corner.
“Iota is a rising star, newly born, you see. The recruitment of talent is much more flexible than the authoritative Empire. Knowingly or unknowingly, the Lifros siblings have been investigated to have made remarks that seemed to complain about the Empire’s authoritative culture several times. What on earth would such an outstandingly skilled knight be lacking that he would come all the way to the Empire?”
There’s a lot that needs to be looked into. Oh yes. His heart became uncomfortable at Count Leroy’s words that seemed like a warning.
