Chapter 84 - Wicked Deeds
The next day. The time had come for what Alessandro had called "again tomorrow," the day of judgment for the leaders of the rebellion. Everyone at the Rousel estate worried about Opal’s health, as she had just returned to the Royal Capital, but she smiled, assured them she was fine, and boarded the carriage. Their concern was likely because Nadia had come down with a fever the previous night and was still resting in bed. The exhaustion had apparently caught up with her, and she was frustrated that she could not accompany Opal.
"That’s odd. Why is no one worried about me?"
"It speaks volumes about how you’ve been living, Claude. That you rarely returned to the estate and were always wandering about."
"So that’s why…"
"You’re not denying it."
"I can’t."
When Opal replied to Claude’s grumbling, he seemed to accept it immediately. Claude grinned at an exasperated Opal. But he quickly placed his hand over hers and continued.
"But I won’t wander anymore. From now on, I intend to live a quiet life in our fief with my beloved wife."
"Even if you stop wandering, we won’t be able to stay at the estate very much, will we."
"That’s true. We have to press on with the railway development in the duchy."
"And I have to discuss next year’s planting with Duncan."
They each stated their future plans and grinned. Duncan had been discovered that day in a dungeon that really existed in the ducal manor. It seemed he had opposed Connally and been captured by the rebels. The servants, having witnessed this, had apparently decided to obey Connally without a word. Opal believed it was the right decision, so she was not holding the servants of the estate, those who had not aided the rebels, accountable.
As for the surrendered rebel soldiers, it had been decided that they would remain in the duchy and be put to work on the railway construction. Except for the upper echelons, they were to be treated no differently from ordinary laborers. Of course, they would be placed under supervision. Claude had planned all of this in advance, and it seemed he had made the preparations even before entering the duchy.
"It’s a shame that Marquis Saymes of Sosylle Kingdom was connected to the rebels. It’s frustrating to think that the money Omar poured into the town of Nobori in the past might have funded the rebellion."
"The Marquis wasn’t cooperating with them to that extent back then, was he?"
"That’s true, but…"
As Opal sighed and murmured, Claude offered words of comfort. She knew it could not be helped, but that did not change the fact that she was angry.
"His Majesty and I both thought that after the previous Duke died, and after the silver mine was depleted, their source of funds was from robberies in Sosylle Kingdom. So when we heard the bandits had been caught, we wondered why the rebel funds were still moving. That’s when we began to suspect that it wasn’t men disguised as bandits funneling them money, but Marquis Saymes himself… But even if the Marquis was related to the former Duke of Boccelli by marriage, it’s not normal for someone to support a cause that brings him no benefit."
"So you returned to Sosylle Kingdom to investigate the reason, didn’t you? And there you discovered that the output of Marquis Saymes’s own gold mines had also drastically decreased. Yet his reports to the state on production volume were almost unchanged from before, which you found suspicious. That’s when you met the legal officers who held similar doubts, correct?"
Claude’s trip back to Sosylle Kingdom, which served as both a honeymoon and a homecoming, had been for the purpose of investigating Marquis Saymes and the bandits. He likely had not told Opal because he did not want to involve her in something dangerous. However, Opal had figured it out from what she heard from LeBeau in Nobori and what she researched upon entering the duchy. She realized Marquis Saymes was connected to the rebels. So, she asked LeBeau to investigate through Omar, and requested Hubert to take action.
LeBeau, as a legitimate moneylender, could investigate the underbelly of Nobori. However, his power was limited because the Marquis, Marquis Saymes who had contributed large sums to the state for years, was behind it all. That was where Duke McLeod, who had surpassed Marquis Saymes in donations in recent years and increased his influence at the Royal Palace, lent his power. This allowed LeBeau and the legal officers to move freely and change the situation.
Marquis Saymes had paid his dues to the crown, even resorting to smuggling, in order to maintain his power at the Royal Palace. He had apparently felt pressured by the rise of Hubert, a man of higher rank than himself. But ironically, Hubert had no ambition for power, only a strong sense of justice. For that reason, he seemed to have found Marquis Saymes’s years of corruption particularly unforgivable. He had always possessed a strong sense of justice, but perhaps the fact that Omar had been dishonest with him had left a lingering resentment in his heart.
"Omar has completely turned over a new leaf now, and he never went as far as murder…"
"…Are you thinking about McLeod?"
"I’m thinking about the wicked deeds of Marquis Saymes."
"Indeed, the matter with Marquis Saymes was shocking. To think he was producing even more gold than he reported to the state all these years and smuggling it out through an organization based in Nobori. And to top it off, the Marquis himself was the one running that organization. It’s like something out of a story."
"It truly is. Well, in Sosylle Kingdom, the state began to oversee transactions of ores and the like during the previous king’s reign… I hear there was a lot of opposition at the time, but even though unreasonable taxes aren’t being imposed, human greed knows no bounds."
Opal sighed as if in utter exasperation. The Marquis had repeatedly staged his own robberies as a pretense to maintain production levels while evading taxes. Moreover, he gave the bandits only a fraction of the loot as payment and had them squander it in Nobori, so the Marquis’s organization suffered no loss. When the time was right, he had those who knew the truth killed, making it look like internal strife, to silence them.
If he had not been so greedy, his past misdeeds would never have been exposed. Now, Sosylle Kingdom was in an uproar over the discovery that Marquis Saymes had used his organization to smuggle gold to other countries and staged robberies with bandits. The former Marquis Saymes had been stripped of his title and all his assets confiscated. He was now imprisoned, merely awaiting his execution by poison. The letter Claude had delivered to her in that attic was from Hubert, and it had detailed all of this.
In short, Sosylle Kingdom had no time to interfere with Taisey Kingdom. Naturally, there was no way the former Marquis Saymes could send reinforcements to the rebels. All of this information had been cut off from the rebels as well.
"The most ridiculous thing about all this is that Cole and the others would have made more profit if they had just paid their dues to the state normally, instead of funneling money to Marquis Saymes."
"You’re right…"
Opal recalled Cole’s smug expression from that time. The very reason the Dukes of Boccelli had opposed Alessandro’s ascension was because he aimed to create a system in this country, similar to Sosylle Kingdom, where the state would oversee the trade of major products. If they had just opened their eyes and seen what Alessandro had accomplished over the past four years, they would never have thought to start such a pointless conflict.
"Well, to varying degrees, there’s no such thing as a person without greed."
"What kind of greed do you have, Claude?"
"I’m a greedy man. If it would make you smile, Opal, I’d do anything, even conquer the world."
"Something like that wouldn’t make me happy. All I want is to live a quiet life with you and everyone else."
"Your wishes haven’t changed since we were young. Well then, for just a little longer, will you bear with me as I satisfy my own greed?"
"Of course."
Just as Opal answered Claude’s question with a smile, the carriage came to a stop. The time for the final reckoning with the anti-Alessandro faction had arrived. Opal accepted Claude’s hand as she alighted from the carriage, then looked straight ahead and began to walk.