The Villain is Being Suspiciously Kind

It was the next week. Citrina had been extremely busy for the last week.
Thanks to that, she could not find out any rumors about Desian Pietro and the Pietro Duchy.
Orders came in so strangely that she couldn’t even open her eyes. At the same time, she had been digging up information about the princess.
Citrina stretched her easily tired body.
Adilac looked at her then.

“Citrina, are you going to a party?”
“Yes. I was invited to the princess’s party.”
For the moment, her intuition was on point. The imperial palace declared that they would invite lower rank noble ladies to select ladies-in-waiting for the princess.
It was clear that this would be a great event for lower ranking nobles and fallen aristocrats.
Messages announcing the return of the princess were constantly floating around the empire.
Since the atelier was going to be busier in the future, they decided to find an assistant craftworker.

“As I said, I posted a job advertisement!”
“Well done!”
She knew everything but Citrina pretended to be ignorant.

“Yes! A homecoming party! I can’t make it, but it sounds great. My father once went to a party hosted at the imperial palace and he said it was so beautiful that it would make you blind. I’m super curious!”
“I know. I’m also curious.”
“Please give me the details!”
Citrina nodded lightly at Adilac’s words. But her heart was beating at the thought of the festival as well.
If her hunch was right, after the initial party that the noble young ladies were invited to, the festival would spread out into a larger event with wizards and high ranking nobles attending.

“I wonder what will happen. Ah, what happened with what you told the attendant?”
“That’s right! Wait a minute.”
Adilac began to search under the shelves. Citrina was lost in thought as she watched Adilac.
There were plainly a lot of loopholes in Citrina’s future. This was because it was impossible to know what anyone who was not one of the protagonists or those people who were not interested would do.
The princess was not a main character so it was clear that there would be a limit to Citrina’s background information on her.  So she had to carefully only choose the desirable side.

“Ah, here it is!”
Adilac took out at precious blue diamond and a few pieces of parchment from the shelf. There was two pieces of parchment total. One was Citrina’s checklist from a few days ago.

“I’ve done everything that’s written here. I posted the job ad and spread some rumors!”
As Adilac spoke, Citrina began to read through the other paper.
The blue diamond from the dwarf was supposed to bring good luck to its owner.
The Countess of Simon from the legendary maritime province, who was the previous owner of this blue diamond, had never failed in matters of the heart.
After the death of Count Simon, the blue diamond was imported into the empire.
Thus, it had wound up in the hands of the dwarf’s disciples.

“Anyhow I’m worried, Citrina.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know if the students will remember the name of our atelier. What if nobody knows it’s us?”
“They will, as long as the rumors spread well.”
Adilac seemed to be seriously debating whether the rumors would really boost Citrina’s and her reputation.
It was understandable. As a matter of fact, the rumors were vague, and would spread mainly among the commoners and gentry classes.
But that would be different on the eve of the grand festival.
It would be a romantic time where everyone would be thinking about their sweethearts.
It was obvious that romantic rumors would spread quickly in this sort of setting.

“It’s okay, Adilac, since everyone will be out in the streets celebrating the princess’s homecoming.”
“I can’t go to the festival ball, but a festive atmosphere is always great!”
Like all genius characters from novels, Adilac caught on quickly.

“I like the festive atmosphere too.”
Citrina laughed while responding to her.
Citrina thought that Adilac and herself made a better team than Adilac and Feinmann. That was her opinion.

“How far did the rumors about the blue diamond spread?”
“Are you curious about that, Adilac?”
“Yes! I mean it. It would be nice if the imperial palace knew about it right away, but… I think it would be good if only the nobles and ladies-in-waiting that are close to the princess knew the rumors.”
“That’s right. That would be enough.”
“Should I reach out to some of my family’s connections?”
Citrina nodded at Adilac’s words, but she didn’t hear what Adilac said.
 That’s because an attendant came to find her.

“Citrina-nim, you have a guest.”
“A guest?”
“Yes, they said they had made an appointment with Citrina-nim.”
“Ah, show them in.”
Come to think of it, the time had flown by. The week before her meeting with Aaron had already passed.
Citrina rose with a big smile. But there was not only one face that she could see in the distance.

Let’s roll back time a week.

It was the same time that Citrina was spreading rumors about the blue diamond, after Aaron left Citrina’s atelier and before Aaron and Desian came to meet with her.
During that week, Desian had an odd time. But in that week, a lot had changed.

He did not kill a single person, nor did he directly threaten the emperor’s authority. He even joined the imperial conference without causing difficulties.
Once a month, all of the nobles gathered in a conference hall in the imperial palace. Up until now, Desian Pietro had been absent due to a number of reasons, mostly war.
But today was different. Since the summer ball, he had been skilled at showing his face among high society.

“There will be no war for the time being.”

He declared in a confident and sophisticated voice as the meeting agenda wrapped up. Even without that, the nervous atmosphere in the conference hall subsided as if cold water had been poured over the room.

“The Holy Land has requested military support in the future, Duke Pietro. You absolutely can’t ignore it. An envoy will be coming sooner or later.”

The old but powerless emperor opened and closed his mouth. He looked to be organizing his thoughts.
He sat on the throne, but he was essentially not in control of the empire. Therefore, there was no way but to add a bit of pleading to the end of his words.

“There is no reason to wage war on this land, correct?”
“What do you mean..”
“Since the Pietro family and your great knights have killed all of our enemies at the borders over the last four years.”

Compared to four years ago, Desian’s manner of speech had become elegant and sophisticated. The phrase “killing all of our enemies at the borders” was used as a warning to the emperor.
It was truly a bizarre time where the emperor was gradually losing power and even the power of the aristocrats was disappearing. Instead, commerce flourished and magic held the most authority. So the emperor had no choice but to speak out.

“That…they too need some free time.”
“I shall follow Your Majesty’s orders.”

Desian faced the emperor without blinking. The emperor gently avoided his gaze.
The absolute monarchy had disappeared, so that only time had piled up on those shabby shoulders.
The emperor had only one option left.

“Then can we talk about the last item?”

No one met the emperor’s eyes.

“…we are planning a festival to celebrate the princess’s homecoming and to mark the harvest season.”
Desian went back to his original, indifferent expression. A face that was not interested in anything. He had inherited all of the honors after his father’s death, but he was not afraid of anything in the world.
All the nobles gathered were listening to the agenda, but they were paying attention to Desian’s change in demeanor. They were curious after the Summer Ball about the woman Desian had been eyeing.
However, no one dared to pry into Citrina Foluin’s identity. In addition to the already powerful Pietro Duchy, the mysterious influence of Desian Pietro silenced the nobles.

He read people’s thoughts without hesitation and manipulated them by emptying their minds.
They constantly thought about Desian Pietro’s service as a battle killer and his return to the empire to take over the Dukedom’s affairs. And they began to grow curious as to why Desian had returned to politics.

Actually, Desian was thinking about something new for the first time in a while. It wasn’t the political work of spying on other people’s ambitions, or the long battles that make you grow weary of them.
It was the purest, raw curiosity.

‘The festival… I wonder if Citrina will like it?’

If there were two things that Desian knew Citrina liked most of all, it was the ones she had told him with her own mouth.
Citrina liked sparkly things and people who were sweet and kind. So he was sure she would like it if the festival was warm and beautiful.

“A grand festival would be nice.”
“A grand festival?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. A splendid and beautiful festival.”
“I agree with His Grace Pietro.”

The emperor looked around the audience once and continued.

“Is there a family that is in disagreement?”

No one responded. It was implicit agreement.
The emperor thought that things were going smoothly. Even if Desian hadn’t spoken, the emperor was naturally going through with it.
The banquets held within the capital were one of the few real powers the emperor held. Nevertheless, Desian Pietro’s support was unexpected.
From a strange point of view, it looked like the emperor had gained an ally. The emperor gave him a puzzled look.

‘What the hell are you up to?’

But nothing could be seen in Desian Pietro’s pitch-black eyes.
When he stared into those eyes, the emperor felt like Pietro was reading his thoughts.
The emperor looked away. He thought it was better to not try and defy him.
Desian returned quickly from the meeting to the Pietro mansion and intended to deal with the backlog of work quickly like always.
He had to find out about the festival step-by-step. As he had lived as a war demon, he didn’t know much about the empire’s high society.
But as he approached the Duke’s office he encountered an unfamiliar situation.