Hibiren Flowers And Recital (3)

The Greek boy arrived in the capital with Berna.

The Greek family’s scale was small, but it was still undeniably a Count’s household.

A noble with lands recognized for governance, ownership, and inheritance rights by a great noble is a noble among nobles.

The king of nobles is a great noble, known as a Duke.

The Empire has three such Dukes, and the number of nobles under each Duke usually exceeds 100.

The nobles mentioned here include Counts, Barons, and Viscounts.

The Empire is divided into east, west, south, and north according to the lords, and those lands are further divided into many territories.

So, there are quite a few nobles among nobles, although compared to the total population, they are less than 0.0001%.

In any case, even among the nobles of nobles, there are various rankings.

The hierarchy is very strict.

Therefore, following the advice of the steward that they must not be looked down upon in noble society if they are to participate in the Concert, the Greek boy acquired and stayed in a grand mansion of a fallen noble family.

Of course, the priority was that the mansion had a Regana for practice, but since it was harder to find a noble mansion in the capital without a Regana, that wasn’t an issue.

However, the more things went on, the Greek boy began to worry a little.

Berna had firmly decided to participate in the Concert at his persuasion.

After all, this trauma could only be resolved where it originated.

Berna, having made up her mind, was dedicating herself to practice, even cutting back on sleep. Every time the boy saw her, he feared what would happen if she didn’t achieve the results she wanted, and he became increasingly anxious about the potential aftermath.

She loves playing so much.

What if this causes her to give it up completely?

These worries started to overwhelm him.

Maybe I pushed her for no reason.

These thoughts kept creeping into his mind.

But at the same time, he thought that would never happen.

Berna’s playing is so beautiful.

It’s not a bias formed because I’ve heard it since childhood. I’ve listened to many other musicians’ performances, and that’s the conclusion I’ve reached.

He remembers his childhood.

He remembers his father, Count Greek, happily patting his shoulder when his mother played.

Recalling those incredibly happy memories, he is filled with the desire for Berna to resume playing by his father’s side and for him to watch that scene again.

That hope wasn’t just a useless encouragement, right?

Expectations and worries mixed inside him, making him alternately timid and bold, and his emotions fluctuated complexly.

‘No. There’s no need to worry about Mother’s skills. The concert I attended as a child must have involved some mistake or nerves.’

The boy was so confident in this that he started slapping his cheeks to shake off his timid worries.

“Master, we’ve arrived.”

“Really?”

At that moment, the steward of the Greek household opened the carriage door and informed the Greek boy.

The Young Master or Young Lord, as the Greek boy was once called, had become a confident lord to the people of the territory.

The place the Greek boy visited was the mansion of Melik Delian, one of the three Dukes of the Empire.

A grand mansion as imposing as its power.

The entrance was a huge gate, and the garden was so vast that they had to continue traveling by carriage to reach the main building of the mansion.

On the way, the boy’s eyes glimpsed the servants’ quarters and stables, and it was only after passing the central fountain that the grand mansion finally came into view.

In fact, after the banquet with Duke Taemuran, the Greek boy had planned to learn about Central politics by assisting the Crown Prince.

But that thought soon changed. He decided it was much better to learn from El than to venture into Central politics.

There was only one reason for this visit.

Duke Delian had personally invited him.

A great noble who could bring down even the birds in the sky would not meet with a country noble like the Greek boy just because he wanted to.

“Welcome. I am Count Michel.”

“I am Count Greek. It’s an honor to be invited.”

Count Michel, a subordinate of the Duke, was waiting in front of the mansion, so the two moved directly towards their destination.

The grand mansion, where countless maids and attendants moved in perfect order, was as magnificent as the Imperial Palace.

Whenever Count Michel and the Greek boy passed by, they would stop what they were doing and bow, not moving until the two had completely passed. Only then would they straighten up and resume their work.

Passing that sight, they stopped in front of a grand door that boasted of its grandeur. Beyond that door was Duke Delian’s study.

On the way back to the temporary mansion in the capital, the Greek boy sighed deeply in the carriage.

‘If I’d known it would be like this, I should have sought advice from my Master before coming.’

He felt embarrassed for not knowing that a concert could be such a complicated affair.

And he felt like hitting himself for encouraging Berna without knowing about the Concert’s intricate involvement in power plays.

But it was already too late. There was no way he could go back and tell his Mother that this Concert wouldn’t work, or that the Concert was actually a political battle, or that the previous concert wasn’t because of her skills but was a huge conspiracy led by Count Dedran, who even used his father, Count Greek.

She had already tried to take her own life, unable to forgive herself for what happened to her father.

If she found out that his father was used by Count Dedran again, Berna’s mental and physical state would become extremely unstable.

She had just barely begun to forget and start a new life, so he couldn’t bring up the past again.

They had come here to move forward.

In the end, it was a dilemma.

‘So what should I do…?’

It wasn’t just Duke Delian who sought out the boy. Other Dukes also approached the Greek boy, saying similar things.

In every case, the conclusion was the same: they wanted him to come under their wing. Their motives were obvious.

The enormous tax revenue.

This arose from the limits of Imperial Law, which prevented Greek City from becoming an Imperial territory.

So he keenly felt that he couldn’t decide this matter carelessly, and El had also warned him about it.

Moreover, El had negotiated with His Majesty the Emperor regarding the clock industry and managed to postpone the decision.

At this point, he realized anew just how remarkable his Master was before retiring, but that wasn’t the issue at hand.

There’s no master here to whine to and seek advice from.

Once he returned to Greek City, the Concert would be over.

So this decision was one he had to make himself.

If, after bringing Berna here for her sake, he could only disappoint her again…

But he couldn’t just choose carelessly when it came to such an important matter.

Choosing the wrong faction could lead to the family’s downfall.

The territory is recognized for inheritance and ownership rights.

But there are only two exceptions.

The Empire is invaded by another country.

Or the great noble to whom taxes are paid falls.

If the higher noble falls, the nobles under them also fall, an unreasonable system.

Of course, as they say, a rich man stays rich for three generations, so the fall of a great noble doesn’t happen easily.

It occurs under the guise of a massive national overthrow, akin to a rebellion.

But the problem is that powerful figures like Dukes often can’t rest content with reality and end up plotting such national overthrows.

Other than that kind of downfall.

In cases like the previous Marquis he served, where a successor failed and the family fell, the system is restructured, so the lord’s position isn’t lost.

So in the end, rebellion is the issue.

Finding a Duke or Marquis who is free from such matters.

Reading people’s true intentions wasn’t easy.

And that wasn’t the only problem.

There were also Dukes like the one he visited before, Duke Taemuran, who looked down on him and wanted to swallow the Count’s estate whole, turning it into a puppet territory.

And if things went wrong, the interests of the clock industry could also become a problem.

So leaving the Emperor’s direct territory before strengthening his own power carried a lot of risks.

Unless he had the connections and strategy to solve problems, like his Master – or even close to that level.

In this wolf-like political arena, you could lose everything and be left with nothing.

If the family had served a great noble for several generations, they would naturally be protected by that noble, but Greek City isn’t like that.

So it would be right to give up on the Concert.

First, they should regain their strength and delay choosing Greek City’s fate as much as possible.

But since he was the one who pushed Berna, he couldn’t bring her back to the territory after telling her the cruel reality, when she had stepped up to overcome her trauma.

He thought it would be like killing his mother twice.

‘Haa.’

The Greek boy’s head began to throb.

“Why are you still serving that Dedran’s daughter as your mother? The daughter of the man who brought down your father – wouldn’t you say she’s your enemy? You have quite the nerve.”

“That’s not true.”

“Not true?”

At Duke Delian’s words, the Greek boy immediately stood up.

“Your Grace, no matter what anyone says, Berna Greek is my mother. She is my Mother, and a warm person who loves my Father more than anyone.”

Duke Delian frowned at his intense gaze.

Serving something filthy as his mother and being so proud of it – what a worthless boy, he thought.

It was said that there was a technician in the territory who insisted on making clocks.

He did nothing on his own. He was just a lord who was extremely lucky to gain a huge tax revenue.

Such a presumptuous upstart.

Duke Delian barely restrained himself from frowning further.

Thinking of that enormous tax revenue.

“I understand your filial piety towards your stepmother. So that’s settled. But wasn’t coming to the Capital to participate in the Concert itself to return Greek City to its rightful place? As a Count, it’s only natural to come under the wing of a great noble. And you must choose that connection wisely. There is no place that can protect you as well as our Delian Duke’s household. A poorly chosen connection will only lead to downfall.”

Duke Delian said this while staring intently at the Greek boy.

“I don’t understand why participating in the Concert should be that choice. Isn’t the Concert just a place for musical competition? Your Grace, I don’t…”

“Your father fell early, and now you’re just a brat who doesn’t even know the basics.”