Try Begging Novel - Chapter 91

“Let me be direct. Isn’t your reason for seeking a marital alliance with the Winston family simply because you need a puppet in the military?”

“You ask the obvious.”

“Then, if rumors spread that my mistress is a rebel, leading to my expulsion from the military and a blow to my social standing, Your Grace would effectively be killing a hunting dog you paid dearly for. I wonder why you fail to grasp something so self-evident.”

“Then play the puppet properly!”

The Grand Duke slammed the glass he held onto the table. Wine sloshed over, and the pungent stench of strong liquor filled the air.

“Well, I suppose my mother would be disappointed if this engagement were called off, but I would have no regrets. Considering only what Your Grace has demanded of me even before the engagement was finalized, it would be to my advantage to pretend it never happened.”

The hierarchy was instantly inverted.

The Grand Duke had always believed his family stood above the Winstons in their relationship. The man’s mother, despite her outward pretense of nobility, had been inwardly desperate. But his expectation that her son would be the same was brutally shattered.

“Captain, thinking only of yourself is irresponsible for the head of a family. When I told your mother I’d speak well of you to His Majesty so you could reclaim your title, she was quite pleased. And I’m sure your father in heaven feels the same.”

The Grand Duke, having attempted a threat only to find himself on the receiving end, seemed to have shifted his strategy to persuasion.

“It’s a misunderstanding that I only intend to use you. I wish for our two families to prosper together.”

Our? Leon scoffed.

“Isn’t that why I’m stepping forward to brightly illuminate your path, the path of someone who will become my family? If you handle this matter well, His Excellency will be greatly impressed by you.”

First the Grand Duchess, now the Grand Duke. Was preaching a family trait? As the tedious words droned on, Leon checked his wristwatch.

“Don’t kick away this opportunity I’ve painstakingly arranged for you to reclaim your title.”

An opportunity to reclaim his title. Leon, with an indifferent expression, flicked ash onto the Grand Duke’s presumptuous gift.

“You’re an intelligent man, so I don’t believe you failed to grasp His Excellency’s true intentions. Moreover, you’re not inflexible, are you? That’s why His Excellency finds you even more vexing.”

Oh, so being intelligent was a sin.

“Isn’t it true that the Captain’s investigation was perfunctory?”

He meant the fabrication was perfunctory, not the investigation.

“…I cannot agree with that.”

“You skillfully selected and compiled only what was necessary from the report I submitted. Was I truly useless?”

The higher-ups had already decided on the premise, ‘The Sinclair family is behind the rebels,’ and then distorted only the information from Leon’s report that fit their narrative.

They made me look like an accomplice, then criticize me for not being one.

It was a subtle threat, meant to scare him, a man caught in the gray area between black and white, into fully stepping into the black.

But such tactics only worked on the faint-hearted; Leon was far from it.

“You can do better, can’t you? Don’t disappoint His Excellency this time.”

“Understood. Lunch hour is over, so I must return to headquarters.”

As Leon rose, the Grand Duke reached out to stop him.

“All we need is one confession, his signature, and your signature. That’s all. Easy, isn’t it?”

“The easiest thing would be a warning to withdraw from the bid.”

“Threats lack dignity.”

Leon chuckled. So, a king framing a civilian was dignified?

“The bidding will begin soon, so it would be best to wrap this up quickly. And the first article will be in tomorrow’s morning paper.”

Jeffrey Sinclair’s arrest was still a military secret, forbidden from even external leakage, let alone public reporting.

The Royal Family resorted to all sorts of dirty tricks just for the grudge of losing a few bids.

Serving gangsters.

He felt like a petty thug himself, using his fists in the back alleys under such a regime.

At times like these, even the eldest son of the Winston family, born a royalist, wished for the collapse of the antiquated monarchy and the advent of a world where money was king. Then, he would stand above these people.

Looking at the global trends, his grandfather’s belief that a new world would come, where capital, not status, was power, was not wrong.

He had simply been too far ahead of his time, and his downfall was partnering with the disorderly and incompetent first revolutionary government.

“Framing a civilian whom the people look up to.”

Leon decided to ask directly.

“Are you aware that if this is discovered, it could lead to a second revolution and the collapse of the monarchy, which was so painstakingly restored?”

“You’re more cowardly than I thought.”

The Grand Duke sneered, provoking him. Leon responded with an equally contemptuous smirk.

“It’s not my neck on the guillotine, so why should I be afraid….”

He picked up the swan’s neck, stuck in the gray custard cream. Snap. The neck broke in two and was tossed onto the center of the table.

“There’s someone else who’ll end up like this.”

“It’s your duty to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

Instead of answering, Leon plunged his smoking cigar into the swan’s back as if stabbing it with a knife. As he turned to leave, the Grand Duke called out.

“I trust in your abilities.”

Everyone was insane.

He, who was only mad for one woman, wasn’t mad at all.