My Disfigured Duke Husband Helps Me Plot My Revenge
Chapter 285: Urgency

Chapter 285: Urgency

The King’s familiar, Alara, floated into the sky with her large talons clutching a letter addressed to Desmond Carthach. Her red feathers glistened each time the sun peeked through one of the thick clouds threatening a late winter rainstorm over Coeurvalle.

Stephano sat at his desk just after Leonor left for Burien County with a smug expression on his face. If she thought that he would simply stand idly by while she visited her abusive father, she shouldn’t have befriended him in the first place. Now that she was in his web, he was going to use his power for his friends. He didn’t care if he was imposing.

It was the only thing he could do at that moment considering the standstill of the possible war. He was feeling restless and Leonor gave him an opportunity to stir things up.

When he found out that she would have to go visit her father, Stephano penned a letter to Desmond saying that his wife was leaving. He assured the overprotective Duke that she would have guards on her all the way there.

The King wasn’t calling for action necessarily but he wanted Desmond to act under his discretion. He was allowed to come back if he thought it was required.

Stephano only knew what he saw when Leonor was a teen but perhaps Desmond knew more about the situation considering he witnessed her life there firsthand.

There was a knock on Stephano’s study door and, before he could answer, he got up to close the doors that Alara had just left.

"What is it?" he asked. "Enter."

Stephano made a point of seeming stronger at the sudden visitor. He walked to the front of his desk and leaned against the polished wood. His arms then crossed in front of his chest. From there, his decorated sword was within arm’s reach.

Despite its beauty, it wasn’t a weapon to be doubted. Each beautiful stone inside of it was backed with powerful mana.

However, he saw that it was one of his vassals and he relaxed somewhat. He couldn’t be too careful with the political landscape they were navigating.

"Count Braulio," Stephano greeted him fondly. "I’m pleased to see you arrived in the capital safely."

The count’s smile was warm and, after giving a bow of respect, he walked forward to clasp the King’s hand. He was one of the few who dared touch the monarch and he patted him on the shoulder.

It was a greeting he had been giving the man for as long as he could remember.

Braulio was an opposer of the late King. He made a point to be disagreeable considering the rampant greed and overuse of soldiers as if they were tools rather than people. He had retired from his military post after the massacre in Eirenguard only to be dragged back into it during the northern war.

He thought he would be done once and for all after Desmond de Montclair saved the kingdom, but he found himself tied tightly in his position when King Stephano III came into power. He was the sunrise of the kingdom while his father had been a dark and dreary night.

He was one of the many who believed new hope was injected into Castille when Stephano took over.

"Forgive me for not arriving sooner," Braulio said. "Our path to the capital consisted of avalanches and frozen lakes. Luckily the return trip home will be much easier. At least my boy is there to ensure the borders remain intact while I pay my respects."

"You don’t need to fret," Stephano told him. "I don’t doubt where your loyalties lie."

"Thank you for that," Braulio said. "However, I have to admit that my coming here isn’t only with one purpose."

"And what is the other?" Stephano asked.

"Jara Livareth," Braulio admitted. "Her daughter."

Stephano seemed to prickle at the man’s words. How interesting that the very person he was worrying about before was the topic of conversation.

"Duchess Leonor de Montclair, formerly Leonor von Burien," Stephano responded. "What about her?"

"Your Majesty, who is her father?" Braulio asked. "I haven’t been to the capital in such a long time, my memory needs to be jogged."

Stephano felt the conversation was alluding to something else and his head felt hot. He didn’t enjoy answering the same question twice.

"Count Mikael von Burien, as indicated by her maiden name," Stephano responded.

Braulio gave the monarch an uncharacteristically dark look.

"That isn’t true," he responded in a hushed tone.

Stephano only looked puzzled but didn’t entertain the older man with a verbal response.

"That’s my daughter, Your Majesty," he said. "I am most certain of it. She walks around with the blue eyes my son has from me. I see them nearly every day."

Stephano was taken aback.

"What proof do you have?" Stephano asked, hesitantly.

"I have nothing except for the love I shared with Jara," he admitted. "Our marriage was not recognized by Castille but by Dacoria, Jara’s homeland. It was the only reason your father had for tearing her from my grasp and turning into a Countess for an evil man with deep pockets while I was away on the battlefield."

Since Braulio would be in the capital for a long time while war talks were going on and his two most trusted were headed to enemy territory, Stephano admitted to the man that he needed time to process the information and search for proof on his own.

However, as life always seemed to be, something else stood in his path.

It had been a week since Leonor left the palace and Stephano felt it was a good thing that he hadn’t heard from her yet.

However, disturbing the midday meal that he hardly touched, a messenger requested his presence and, to his surprise, one of the soldiers he sent to Burien County with Leonor showed up in the sitting room Stephano occupied for his meal.

"Your Majesty," the guard greeted with a deep bow.

"Aren’t you supposed to be in Burien?" Stephano asked.

"Considering I am under her grace’s orders, she has sent me back to deliver a letter to you," he explained. "Traveling as one is much faster than traveling with an entire entourage the way we had to with the duchess."

"Give it here," the King requested simply.

With the letter in hand, Stephano pulled the fur around his shoulders that had been sagging a bit higher. He was still easily cold despite that winter was coming to an end and the sun seemed to penetrate his body a little more each day.

He took the letter from its envelope and flattened it on the table.

Since the messenger wasn’t allowed to read it, he started feeling nervous as Stephano’s expression became more sour.

From the King’s perspective, Leonor wrote to him about a strange scent that had fallen over her father’s estate and a heaviness in the air. She expressed that everyone was acting strangely and it was clear her sister was hiding the truth of the situation.

The young duchess expressed wanting to investigate further but also wanting another’s mind on what was going on because she couldn’t figure it out herself based on the evidence.

However, Stephano had another perspective. It had been something he always thought was flawed within the Magic Academy.

Considering mana and magic had only been accepted in the kingdom for a few decades, black magic was much further back. It was understandable considering the very nature of it. After all, it was something created through death.

The Magic Academy lacked lessons about taboo magic. They only gave information on how to report it and minor signs. It was heavily forbidden so much so that anyone found even entertaining the idea of experimenting with it could face death. It was heavily forbidden by all known monarchies and churches considering the cost of it.

It was used as a way for the average person to instill themselves with magic but there was a cost to it. One’s life or the life of another. It needed blood to work and created powerful but highly reactive mana stones.

With all the evidence in front of him, Stephano wondered if Leonor’s father was under the curse of black magic. If someone close to him was using it to manipulate him, the side effects could be deadly. The ’sickness’ he may be presenting could be the result of something more sinister.

Black magic didn’t need real mana. In fact, it was an opposing force to natural mana.

If Leonor was exposed to it for a long time, she could risk feeling similar to when she depleted her mana. It was deadly to mages. If they died in front of a black magic practitioner, their mana would feed the black magic.

Stephano abruptly stood up enough to knock over the heavy chair he had been relaxing on during lunch.

"I must prepare a trip to Burien," Stephano said. "I will not use a carriage but go by horseback. We must make haste."

After that, word spread unbelievably quickly.

The King wished that he had been so much more serious in his note to Desmond. Since he failed to, he would have to get his hands dirty himself.