No one dared to touch a single strand of Camila’s hair over the two days between her return and the day her demands would come true.

By making enough noise around, the young duchess effectively forced all the lesser nobility to follow the noblesse oblige. And when all the houses existing within the duchy vassal network received their invitations, it was simply in no one’s interest to overreact.

It would be below the courtly standards for the nobles to partake in assassination plots or the likes. After all, even when it came to scheming and political conflicts, there was a limit to a good taste.

Now, two and a half days after her return, right as the sun moved low enough in the sky for the day to start growing darker, everything was finally in place.

And just like that, everything started.

First, a few carriages with the lesser nobles arrived at the yard of the ducal estate. Soon after, more and more carriages appeared on the streets of the town, all the way to the point the guests crowded the entire yard.

Watching the scene from a simple balcony of the main dance hall of the palace complex, Camila gulped her saliva down.

“Just relax,” Leo stabbed his finger into the girl’s side, causing her to bend away from the sudden burst of pain, only to follow with a look of a hurt kitten startled by the injustice of the sudden punishment. “Nothing good will come from worrying.”

This was supposed to be a different kind of stress. Something that Leo never really had the chance to train through. A challenge that was formed by tongues and words as opposed to blades and blood.

Strangely enough, Leo couldn’t really be bothered.

In his eyes, the people crowding at the yard were…

‘Insignificant,’ Leo thought, looking down the balcony for a little longer before moving his eyes back to the girl.

“Just do what I told you and everything will be fine. And if something goes wrong, don’t worry, I’ve got everything prepared.”

Camila looked at Leo’s face with an unusual intensity, before dropping her eyes down and looking away with a sigh.

‘Hmm…’

No matter how much Leo wanted to cheer the girl up, he could easily see why it wasn’t that easy of a task for her.

‘She is about to face the impossible odds, so it’s no wonder she can’t help but worry. But this is how things have to be…’

Leo looked down at a huge, decorative box he brought along.

The box perfectly fit both the sharpness of the cut and the deep indigo of his tuxedo. A suit so extremely simple and uniform, it stood out at the backdrop of the crowd even before they could start pouring in to the dancing hall of the estate.

On the other hand, Camila donned much lighter colors, going with a graceful and dignified cut of a modern costume. And according to the receipt, she wore ‘an elegant princess’ dress’.

It was a perfect solidification of a modern idea of how a serious, dominant yet feminine princess should look like, not only making her dress contrast with the deep indigo of Leo’s tuxedo but also easily bringing her presence above any of the poor nobles stepping into the hall.

“The house of Junea arrives!”

“The house of Calasto arrives!”

“The house of…”

By the massive doors, a herald sang his shouts with the perfection of someone who spent their entire life honing their craft. And while loud, his shouts seemingly soothed the ears of those who were lucky enough to hear them.

“How long is it going to take for things to start properly?” Leo asked upon realizing that he stared at the duchess-to-be for a little bit too long.

But what else was he supposed to do?

The whiteness of Camila’s dress created a perfect backdrop for her long, golden hair.

Taking both a proper bath after the journey and then abusing the make-up kit Leo wisely bought turned this rowdy, fiercely sharp, and deceivingly docile girl…

Like an ugly duckling, she has now taken proper measures and evolved into a dignified swan that no other fancily dressed noble of the night could ever hope to overshadow.

And for just a little longer, Leo was the only one privileged to witness it.

“Damn, you look fire in that dress,” drowning in his lazy thoughts, Leo allowed one of them to slip out of his lips.

“Huh?”

Camila twitched, turning her head and giving Leo a surprised, if not slightly startled look.

‘Ugh…’

“I mean… You look really good in that dress.”

After a mere moment of hesitation, Leo picked up the slack and decided to double down.

“All of those bastards are going to be too busy gawking at you to suspect that something might be weird or wrong!”

Turning the entire thing into another attempt to cheer the girl up, Leo quickly dodged the potential issue and looked over, past the balcony’s door, and into the dancing hall.

By now, roughly a third of the free space was now occupied. Yet, with the constant influx of more and more nobles, the entire thing appeared to be filling up at quite an unprecedented pace.

“There’s a bit more of them than I thought there would,” Leo passed a seemingly offhanded comment while lowering his hand and tapping his fingers against the wooden top of the huge, decorative crate he brought along. “But worry not,” Leo hurriedly reinforced his smile, “fifty or a hundred more won’t make even a difference.”

Leo shook his shoulders and put a confident look on his face.

Camila locked her eyes on the young man for a while. Only a bit later she cast a glance inside and immediately followed with a deep sigh.

“I guess it’s time for me to go,” Camila took a deep breath and said, raising her face to reveal a look of renewed confidence.

“Good luck, and stay strong,” Leo followed with another dose of encouragement. “I will wait here for a while and make my way over to the point when everyone’s attention will be on you. Until then, just put on a brave face, hang on and remember…”

Leo took a step forward as if chasing after the duchess-to-be before reaching out and lowering his hand on the back of her shoulder.

“I’m here, I’m watching, and I have everything under control. So don’t worry, keep up a prideful smile and set all of those bastards up for me.”

Camila looked over her shoulder, her chin nearly brushing against the outer palm of Leo’s hand.

And the look she gave the young man…

Was most certainly perplexing,

Staring back at the uncommonly soft look on this shrewd girl’s face, Leo only managed to gulp a tiny bit of his saliva when a small smile blossomed on Camila’s lipstick-covered and thus bright-red lips.

It was a treacherous strike the young man was not prepared for.

“By now, I don’t have any other choice. Nevertheless,” Camila’s smile brightened up a tiny little bit, “I will be counting on you.”

With those words on her perfectly crimson lips, Camila turned her head back and with a satisfied smirk on her face, she marched right back into the dancing hall.

The moment the duchess-to-be walked inside, her perfectly white dress the cut of none of the nobles ever had the luxury to see before stood in quite a contrast to the meager clothes Camila’s theoretical vassals donned for the occasion.

Various, crude decorations marked their outfits served to showcase the financial status of the house in question. In a sense, the nobles’ apparel served to signify their status and pecking order within the crowd of smaller and bigger nobles.

Yet, when Camila walked in, all of those decorations turned from prideful display into a source of shame, turning into cheap, shiny trinkets when compared to the perfect white of the girl’s dress, the modest yet dignified cut and the material so soft and fluffy yet perfectly holding the shape of Camila’s lines…

The scene that played out before Leo’s eyes, right on the other side of the balcony door, was akin to a divine angel descending into the world of mortals. And it was Camila’s divine aura that shed the true light upon this mortal world, tearing all the disguises away and showcasing most if not all of the noble decorations for what they were - solidified proof of their arrogance, greed, and pettiness.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Even with the herald’s voice still filling the room, the entire hall turned silent as Camila walked across to where the free area ended, giving way to the huge expanse of the dance floor.

‘Now, let’s play the waiting game,’ Leo thought, taking one last look at the situation inside before kneeling beside his box and pulling its lid open before pushing it aside.

Every step of today’s evening was planned in precise detail.

Camila knew which nobles she was allowed to interact with and which she should avoid.

Zion and the men he bought through his shady contacts were currently filling in for the lacking manpower of the estate’s servants, already positioning themselves near all the exits of the hall while still keeping up the act of just diligently working.

Urk was nowhere to be seen…

Because his act would come at the very end of everything, where his coming with the limited forces of Camila’s trusted loyalists would be alike lowering the curtains after a theatrical experience.

And then, there was Leo, busy fiddling with snap-in locks, a double security mechanism at the connection, anti-jamming measures, and the exhaust-powered recoil compensator.

There was a surprisingly high number of parts that all had to work in perfect tandem for Leo’s hidden surprise for the day to operate as expected. And rather than trusting in the Sava’s factory where bots put this complicated device together, Leo was keen to check every last piece of it himself, for the eleventh time since buying the whole thing.

“Haaa…” Reaching up to his collar to loosen it up a bit, Leo sighed before taking a deep, long breath.

“To think this would be so time-consuming…”

Done with the last of the checks, Leo snapped everything back into its original place and state before securing the device within the huge, decorative box and putting the lid back up.

‘It wouldn’t do any good for me to spoil the surprise, now that I managed to keep it secret for so long…’

For how detailed the plan for today was, there existed a massive gap in it, stretching from the peak of Camila’s role and Zion’s men rushing to silently block the doors, all the way to when Urk was to arrive and conclude the entire event.

And for the sake of the duchess-to-be herself, Leo insisted on keeping his plans for this gap a secret.

Now, however, upon raising his eyes and taking a look back into the dancing hall, Leo had no other choice but to stand up, grab the handle of his decorative box, and start his march to where Camila successfully gathered everyone’s attention.

“To all the noble men and women of the duchy, welcome!”

Maybe it was her dress, maybe it was her makeup… Or maybe Camila had this gene of an inspiring leader. Whatever it was, though, when she raised the glass of wine up to the ceiling, pretty much all the nobles followed.

And for but a moment, a short, fleeting instant, everyone simply cheered, eager to drink and enjoy the moment with each other.

For but the instant that Camila’s cheer lasted, all the conflicts vanished, all the feuds were forgotten and all the schemes were shoved aside.

But the moment, in its very nature, lasted only for a… well, a moment. And once this single instant passed, everything returned right back to how it should be.

“Well then,” Leo muttered under his nose, sneaking into the hall by not sneaking at all. Rather than covering, seeking shadows, and generally avoiding attention, the young man left this part of the job to his impressive and extremely dark tuxedo as he casually walked across.

The aura he spread around himself had to be even more impressive than Leo anticipated it to be, allowing him to reach all the way to Camila’s direct surroundings before some nobles took notice and turned to stop him in his tracks.

That was the one downside of using clothes from Earth to make a massive impression. They were awe-inspiring, sure, but they also made it extremely clear Leo wasn’t one of the nobles.

He wasn’t one of them.

“Let him through,” Camila ordered in a voice loud enough for the nobles to back off, but one mellow enough not to appear too commanding.

“Thank you, my princess,” playing his part, Leo went down on his right knee and rested the box directly on the floor before bending his back and bowing down.

*"Rise,”* Camila ordered with her authority, for purpose no other than to showcase her new hire to all those in the hall.

And that, finally, removed the looks of doubt and confusion from the faces of the few nobles who attempted to stop Leo in his tracks.

‘So she was right on the money,’ keenly observing, Leo took a mental note.

Then, without even a hint of resistance or displeasure, he stood back up and looked at the duchess-to-be for one, fleeting moment, only to then turn back and face the entirety of the noble crowd in her place.

“Welcome, nobles high and low, respectable sirs, honorable lords, beautiful ladies, and wise Madams,” as he spoke, Leo turned from one end to the crowd to the other, bowing his head against and again, as if he wanted to greet every last guest personally. “You likely are not aware of who I am, so let me shed some light on the issue.”

Taking everyone’s attention, Leo pretended not to notice an entourage bigger than any other arrive at the ballroom’s door, a task that became all the harder when the herald did his job and screamed out.

“Brutus Traitorous of the house Highduke!”

“First, I would like to express my deepest regrets that there’s a black sheep somewhere among us, a vile person daring enough to hire bandits and attempt to hunt down my princess, her Highness Camila!”

Leo’s voice went from a dreary to one of the holiest of rages, as if the mere idea of trying to assassinate a noble was on the level of greatest heresy possible.

Judging from the shocked and then furious expressions of the nobles all around, Camila claims, that such an event was greatly out of the norm, weren't overexaggerated.

“Surviving by mere chance and a lucky encounter, my princess decided it is not worth bidding her life on the honor of receiving the burden of her inheritance, especially if there are those openly vying to settle it by spilling her blood and claiming her life.”

Two steps back and one step to the side, Camila made a pained face, acting as if she was the lone hero who was unjustly burdened with all the sins of the world and now was tired enough to just… give up.

‘All according to the scenario.’

Camila, maybe not the weakest but definitely the most stressed link of today’s chain of events, managed to hold. And the commotion at where her bastard of a brother entered with his closest allies and even armed guards was still too small to stop the ball from rolling.

“That’s why my princess, her Highness Camila,” Leo used the wrong title for the girl again, as if not aware of the fact that she would gain the right to use it only on the day she would swear in to the king.

Or, in simpler words, proclaim her ultimate and final success in this succession strife and then gain the king’s approval.

“Decided to settle it as nobles should. Not with blood and assassins but by upholding justice and honoring the laws!”

The crowd moved around, shaken by the sudden explosion of whispers up close and outright discussions and debates to the back of the free-gathering part of the hall.

“That’s why, it is Camila’s desire for all the nobles present to stand on her right if they believe her to be the rightful ruler of this duchy by the direct line of blood from the late Duke Robert,” Leo intentionally prolonged this particular sentence for as long as he could, only to…

“And for those who support sir Brutus Traitorous claim, to stand on her left.”

Leo was Camila’s supporter slash an aide.

That’s the message the two of them gave to all those present on the scene when she invoked her voice. And so, any attempt at appearing perfectly just and unbiased… would be the exact thing that would raise everyone’s suspicions.

Unjust treatment like the one Leo just committed, by praising Camila and her supporters to the high sky while nearly skipping over the only other part of the conflict, her bastard brother…

That was the exact sort of pettiness and favoritism the nobles were looking for, as opposed to perfectly objective treatment.

And with just that, the crowd of nobles started to actually follow Leo’s request, splitting into a small, concise group of determined men standing on the girl’s right and a huge crowd of smiling nobles to her left.

The difference between the two sides couldn’t be greater.

Those on Camila’s right appeared to have resolved themselves to their fate, having enough determination and morals burning in their souls to brave this perilous path that could either lead to ostracization and sidelining within the new, ducal court, or an outright execution if Brutus Traitorous ever got the taste of tyranny.

Those on Camila’s left, however, looked like a bunch of children who just learned they could get their Christmas’ presents early.

For them, this was the conclusion of the long-standing effort to replace a competent and thus expensive superior to deal with with a petty, weak, and thus cheap-to-manage alternative.

A success that they never expected to come so soon, so randomly, so… easily.

While the nobles rejoiced, Leo casually reached out to the decorative box he carried with him, pushing its lid off before kneeling down and reaching into the box.

“Oh right,” Leo intentionally didn’t turn his head to look back at the nobles, pretending not to be aware everyone had pretty much decided which spot to take by now. “While you guys are deciding, allow me to prepare a fun little surprise, a gift of sorts, that my benevolent princess prepared to thank you all for arriving at such short notice.”

Burying the reality within an onslaught of fancy yet perfectly empty words, Leo ensured for the last time that all the vital parts of the device were locked in and ready before pulling the massive device up and out of the box.

The nobles on the right fell into silent despair, rationalizing their moral choice as if trying to convince their rational selves what they did was right.

A battle that some of them were already starting to lose. Contrary to that, the nobles of the left reached the height of the excitement. After all, now that was left for them to claim victory, was for Claudia to formally acknowledge the results and remove herself from the conflict, granting the seat of power to the marionette they worked so hard to put on the ducal throne!

Just one more step and everything would be finally over; all their efforts rewarded at the cost of the extremely prosperous duchy that they couldn’t care less about.

“What the hell is going on?!” in the distant corner of the room, rudely pushed back by the clumsy service staff and natural fluctuations of the crowd, Brutus Traitorous was trying to stop whatever was going on from actually happening.

But by now, it was far too late.

A total of seven boxes of belt-fed ammunition connected directly to the mouth of Leo’s massive, high-powered machine gun. The young man already moved the safety to half-auto mode, a special firing scheme designed for this specific gun due to how easy it was for it to go through a literal truck-load of munition otherwise.

“Oh, allow me to explain,” Raising the locked and loaded gun towards the nobles to Camila’s left, Leo pretended not to see a shocked and terrified expression.

Camila played her role splendidly. But now, she has reached the end of the charted land of our plans. And now was precisely the time for me to uphold all of my claims and prove them to be real.

“It’s fairly simple, really,” Leo announced with a smile before pressing one of the two triggers of the gun, causing the set of six barrels set in a hexagonal structure to start spinning.

The sight of machine-engineering of that level was unheard of in this world. And when the barrels of Leo’s gun started to spin faster and faster, even the nobles at the wrong end of that gun just couldn’t tear their eyes apart, strangely fascinated by the unknown of the device.

“All those who went to the left, are no more than traitors who broke the law and tried to replace a legal heir of the duke with a bastard, mere impostor…”

Leo shook his head with great regret, trying not to smirk when seeing how the faces of the nobles suddenly turned still.

They weren’t angry. Not yet.

For now, they simply needed some time to process the meaning of Leo’s words, words that went against all that they thought about him thus far.

“It is only thanks to the near-endless magnitude and mercy of my princess that I was ordered to leave some of you alive,” Leo continued, slightly dragging the moment while enjoying himself to the fullest. “And with that, good luck,” he announced, right as some of the nobles finally started to realize there was something extremely wrong going on…

But those nobles, upon reaching this realization, had to start moving, gain momentum, and then leap through the air if they wanted to dash away from the potential danger.

Sadly for them, all Leo needed to do, was pull back on the gun’s second trigger.