Rosie's Games

Chapter 177: Secrets of the Wugarian Duchy

**BANG**

"A mere Duke!? A mere insignificant someone who does not even live in my Kingdom dares to disrespect me!?" Prince Baltazar Dandridge of the Dandridge Household slammed his palm on the small coffee table inside his carriage, spilling all its contents including some hot bitter tea that he quite liked. The maid inside the carriage immediately started cleaning it up.

"Out!" Baltazar kicked the older maid's body. "Out of my face!"

"Please spare me, Your Highness. Please—"

"I said get out of the carriage!"

After the maid scurried away, Baltazar immediately turned his attention to Loyd. "Say it again! Tell me what happened!"

After a few minutes of Loyd telling him what happened, the Prince once again slammed his hand on the table, this time breaking it into smithereens. One would immediately wonder why the Prince, who looked skinny and weak, could easily break a table, but not Loyd.

As someone who had been serving the prince for years, he knew the reason behind the prince's strength. He also knew not to anger the prince, especially when he was already not in the mood after being sent to this place by the King himself.

Loyd lowered his head.

"He said, if you wanted to greet him, there was no need for you to send this servant first," Loyd added.

"I see," the Prince snorted. "I see… It seems that the Wugarian Duke has forgotten whose lands he is walking into. Heed my order; send the knights to the estate of the Count under the pretense of watching over the Count's health. Send a physician from the capital and… make sure that the Count will die. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Highness." Loyd wasted no time. He immediately left the carriage and sent out the instructions from the prince.

"Are you not frightened?" the woman who spoke was none other than the Crown Princess herself. She was calmly sitting opposite the prince, eating some freshly peeled grapes. She smiled at her husband.

"Of what?" the Prince hissed. "Did you really think that the Duke scares me?"

"Have you not heard of the stories? The Rothley Family has always been the strongest in the North. Even our Dandridge family cannot compare.

"The war has long since ended and people are still thinking about who is the strongest. What would be the purpose of your strength be if you lacked ambition? If you lacked authority? Even the southern empires have long forgotten about the heroic deeds of the Rothley Family. Is there a need for us to stand by their side any longer?"

"Ambition." The woman's name was Freda and she had been married to the Prince for two years. She was a beautiful woman with golden brown hair and green eyes that would easily remind someone of the forest. Yet, in front of her husband, she was just someone he married for political gains. Not that she minded, after all, she too had her own ambitions. "That makes me wonder… the North always knew that the Rothleys are stronger than normal humans. Many said that the Duke could even fight someone who received a Blessing. Yet, they never once tried to invade the south or any of their neighboring kingdoms. Do you think they are hiding something?"

"Hiding something?" the Prince rolled his eyes. "They are barbarians who love fighting monsters and beasts more than playing politics. If they wanted to stay in Wugari then they should just stay in Wugari instead of sticking their noses in other people's business!"

Prince Baltazar was still seething. Despite the fact that he and the Duke of Wugari were of the same age, many people in the North, and even in his kingdom, thought that the Duke of Wugari was by far the strongest man in the region. They worshipped the Duke like he was some deity.

Even his father, the King of Lonyth himself, clearly favored the man more than he favored his very own children. Prince Baltazar had seen this favoritism firsthand when he was twelve. He fell from a horse and broke his bones. His father was there to comfort him, but, when the King heard of the Duke's arrival, he just left Prince Baltazar. He told him he was coming back to spend more time with him, but his promise never happened until Baltazar's bones started healing.

At first, he thought there was some misunderstanding and that the King might have been busy with something else related to their kingdom. This changed when he discovered that instead of spending time with him and his mother, the King went riding with the then-young Wugarian Duke.

How could a father abandon his child because of someone else's child?

Until now, he could not answer that question. The two of them felt the carriage start moving.

For years, Baltazar hated the Duke of Wugari. It wasn't simply because of jealousy but rather because he felt that the Duke was deliberately going out of his way to make Baltazar feel inferior. Since they were younger, Baltazar could only be second when it came to swordsmanship and military strategy. He grew up hearing people compare him to the Duke of Wugari.

But this comparison would soon stop.

Once he became King, he would immediately cut ties with Wugari and leave that Kingdom on their own. Once he was strong enough… he would come back and show the Duke and everyone else a new him.

"Count Caldarera is clearly dying," his wife's words interrupted his stupor.

"What?"

"The poison from the arrow was deadly. The fact that the arrow was a cursed object is another thing all together. And now, the needle should be enough to end his life. That Duke is not foolish. He must have known that the Count is dying, and yet he is still insisting to stay and heal him? How could he heal someone infected by a dark curse?"

The Crown Princess had a point. The Duke was a cold-blooded man, he would not hesitate to cut off his own tail to escape scotch free. "That Count must know something," Prince Baltazar said. He frowned before his face brightened. "The secrets of the Duke. That man must have known the secrets of the Wugarian Duchy!"

...

3/5 josei