Translator: yAmi
"How do you intend to take responsibility for this, Marquis?"
Holding his bruised cheek up, Count Langogne drew near to the old man.
The centralist faction were having a meeting at the residence of a noble. The topic discussed at the meeting was the incident that occurred in the royal capital the other day.
The man who claimed to be involved in the incident gave a detailed and self-serving account of what had happened from start to end before directing his question to the faction's leader, Lavallee.
The old man, exposed to Langogne's piercing gaze, calmly rubbed his chin.
"Responsibility, hm?"
"Yes, of course. I want you to take responsibility for what has happened! The responsibility of bringing such a person to the ranks of us patriots!"
Burning passion and righteousness were on his face. However, there were instances where his manner of speech seemed to display his pleasure in attacking his political enemies.
Count Mearbahn and others could discern this and let out a sigh. It was all an act to rouse everybody up.
Everybody knew he was just acting up and pretending. But he continued his vehement criticisms nonetheless.
"I can understand why this might be hard to swallow, Marquis. Even I still can't believe what I had witnessed for myself. Alas, I never thought he was that kind of man......"
"Umm, Count Langogne."
Count Chambery nervously directed his question towards the sorrowful Langogne.
"Is it really as you say? Count Linus Oubeniel—"
"Ex-Count. Count Chambery."
Immediately, he interrupted Count Chambery to correct him. The middle-aged noble snickered slightly, but continued his question.
"That the ex-Count had been violent towards you?"
"Didn't I say that earlier? This scar is proof of it."
He pointed to the bruise on his cheek. It was a bruise that could have been removed in the blink of an eye with healing magic, but he had left it as it was as evidence. Once this whole thing blew over, he was planning to get it healed, since there was no reason at all to leave this as a scar. The young noble's elegant eyebrows quivered as though there was pain whenever he touched the scar.
......A few days ago, Linus suddenly went crazy and violently resisted the forces of Langogne who tried to stop him. Screaming wildly while swinging metallic candlestick as a weapon, Linus indiscriminately attacked anybody nearby. The bodyguards had to deal with Linus. Langogne had taken only a small number of men with him in order to carry out his task in secret, but that had backfired on him. In the end, Langogne himself was forced to grapple with him, and as a result, he was bruised by Linus’ elbow.
(Hmph. You damn madman. Making me go through all the trouble......)
Frustration bit at Langogne’s heart every time he felt pain from the bruise. The thought of having not been able to foresee this outcome made the scar on his face seem even bigger than it actually was.
Langogne thought it would be as easy as twisting a baby's hand to get Linus to give in to his demands. He would pressure him, frustrate him, take away every bit of his hope, and then dangle a thread of hope in front of him. He thought he would be forced to take that only hope. But what Linus did when he became cornered… he became a slave murderer.
(Just like the younger brother, the elder brother too......it must be in the blood, right?)
Langogne spat out the thoughts in his chest.
He was being a sore loser. In the first place, Langogne had not predicted that the slave, the reason for a scandal, to be killed at the last minute. There was no way he would do such a thing — Langogne was confident in this assumption. He pushed his opponent too hard. It was also a mistake to bring the slave to the scene just because he was too eager to witness Linus’ dramatic breakdown. He had carelessly placed the threat herself in front of the victim he was blackmailing. It would have been enough to take Linus into custody and bring him out of the mansion.
However, there was one thing that could be called a blessing in disguise for Langogne.
"But calling Linus an ex-Count without trial. Isn’t that too hasty, Count Langogne?"
"That is not quite the case, Marquis Lavallee. That Linus Oubeniel, where do you think he is now?"
"Well, where is he then? It would be customary for us to meet all together and discuss it."
He was implicitly accusing Langogne of unilaterally attacking Linus while he wasn’t present. If it was a dispute within the faction members, then the usual way was to listen to both parties and mediate. If that failed to work, the incident would be taken to the High Court. Normally, that's the way it should be.
Langogne gives a small snort at the reason why this could not be done.
"He is at a...... monastery."
"Oh."
One of the nobles present rolled his eyes.
A monastery was a place where ordained believers lived to pray to God and serve the church. But to the aristocracy, the word had a separate negative meaning.
"You mean he has gone mad......"
In other words, it was an asylum for the disabled.
A jobless illegitimate child disowned by a family. A child who failed to gain recognition. Those with physical disabilities that rendered them unable to fulfill their duties as nobles ...... as well as madmen.
It was a facility to hide those abandoned by human society by throwing them into the bosom of the infinitely merciful God.
From the perspective of human rights, this was ridiculous, but unfortunately, this world did possess such common understanding of rights. To be more accurate, there might be one man who understood such concepts, but he did not value such ideals.
This meant that Linus Strein Oubeniel now had no place in this society except in the grounds of the monastery.
"His maniacal behavior shocked the hell out of me. He killed a slave in front of me, a guest of his, and then went on a rampage until we seized him. Just when I thought he had calmed down, he would suddenly start laughing, crying, and getting angry. The words he spoke were utter nonsense."
"That’s simply...simply so sad."
"His family hurriedly brought him to a monastery, free from worldly problems, so that he can calm down. I would personally offer my apologies later when he calms down."
That day would likely never come. Langogne was almost certain of it.
The last look he saw of Linus was incredibly bleak. He would shout randomly, laugh merrily without any restraint, and then start crying gloomily. Just when Langogne thought he had finally calmed down and could make sense out of the words, he would scream something incomprehensible like a child. Linus would look at him with a puzzled expression and ask, "Who are you, mister?” Langogne felt his skin crawling with eeriness at that point in time. Linus became unable to recognise him, the person who he had been competing with all this while.
Surely a man in such a state would no longer be able to attend meetings or testify in courts. The chances that he would recover was infinitesimally small.
"According to the priest's assessment, it is unlikely that Linus would recover in the short-term. Perhaps, retirement is the only option for him."
At the end of the day, Linus was forced to leave his position as head of the family. There exists no noble who took care of aristocratic responsibilities in a monastery isolated from the world. In the near future, the notorious second son of the Oubeniels would take over his place and the title of Count would be transferred to him.
When the source of the scandal, Linus’ slave was killed, Langogne felt that being torn apart at the same time. But with heavenly providence, Linus too, was destroyed. Regardless of the process, the scheme to replace the head of the Oubeniel family was accomplished as planned.
(The end result was better than Linus choosing to accept his proposal.)
Langogne hid these abominable emotions within him.
Originally, Langogne had wanted to blackmail Linus into faking illness and with that excuse, retiring. With this proposal, he could live together with his filthy slave while posing no challenge to society. However, that disgraceful man shed blood and became a madman. This was negative publicity for the centralist faction. He was now truly irredeemable..
"So, Marquis. Back to the topic at hand, how do you take responsibility for introducing such a lunatic to the faction?"
Still, it wasn’t bad at all. The more incompetent Linus was, the more negligent Lavallee became seen as, since he was the one who embedded him in the faction. Who would have trust in a leader that recruited such a man? A man who went crazy, killed slaves, became physically violent against other nobles in the same faction, and finally sent to a monastery?
