Theodore didn't care much for the other's opinion as he explained it calmly. “If you are willing, you can sign this contract which signals your agreement to hand over all power to your son. If not, we will use your crimes as proof to say that you lost your mind, which will cause him to become the next duke too. It's your choice.”

Duke Vasquez surprisingly hadn't yelled immediately when Theodore gave him those options. But that only seemed to be the case because he was staring at the emperor in disbelief. He was silent for another few seconds after Theodore finished before slowly turning to his son. His expression was blank, but there was a glint of burning fury in his eyes. “Luciano. He is joking, right? There is no way that you would want to take away my power for your own selfish gain. I'm your father. I raised you. You owe me, and this would never be how you repay me, right?”

Luciano stared at the floor for a bit longer before slowly lifting his head. He took a deep breath before making eye contact with his father. “I will not apologize. This is for the best of our family. The only one who has been selfish so far was you. If you want to think about us once, you will quietly pull away from politics without causing problems. And by the way, Mother raised me, not you. You stood there to hit me when I did something you didn't like and collected the money that I worked for.”

Claude took a step toward his son, only to be yanked back by some of the guards that surrounded him. That made him grit his teeth, and he gazed at his son with more hatred than a father should ever show their child. “What are you talking about? I kept you alive for all this time! I brought the money home and fed you until you were old enough to do business yourself. The same holds true for your Mother, who still can't survive by herself. You need me, you-”

Luciano cut him off in an icy voice. “We don't need an abusive narcissist. You caused more harm to our family than you ever did anything good. Whenever I've seen Mother cry, it was because of you. I can also only remember you doing things that worried or hurt me. You never made us happy with anything. Sometimes, you had phases in which you were kind and acted like a normal father would. Do you know how much I hoped that you could finally start treating us like that forever? But of course, that didn't happen. You will always put yourself and your greed for power above us. You even schemed against His Majesty while knowing very well that this could cause our entire family to be executed. Not only that, you tried to cause a war that would have killed hundred-thousands. You are worse than a monster.”

This finally cracked Duke Vasquez's patience. He began yelling at his son as the veins on his forehead pulsated. “You ungrateful brat! I did all of this to make you emperor! Have you forgotten that? You useless piece of garbage!”

Blanche wasn't even the one being addressed here, but she was getting more upset than Luciano. How could a father say that to his child? This was horrible. No, it was worse than that. She had believed that hating Duke Vasquez more was impossible, but he had proved her wrong.

Luciano wasn't even too surprised. He turned his gaze away but replied to his father either way. “No, you didn't want to see me become emperor. You wanted to become the secret ruler by using me. You never cared about me and what I wanted. The same holds true for what Mother and Rebecca could want. That is why I will ignore your wishes now as well. We suffered for long enough due to your sick desire to control everyone around you.”

Claude tried to walk forward again, and this time, the guard used so much force to pull him back that he almost tripped. But he didn't acknowledge that at all and just screamed at his son. “Don't act so innocent! You were very content with this plan of becoming emperor. You always wanted power, and I was able to give it to you! Now that I'm branded as a criminal, you're just throwing me away. You are just happy that you can use this to get rid of me to become duke yourself!”

Luciano closed his eyes and visibly tried to calm himself down before he replied. “You are wrong. I never once wanted to become emperor. I never said that I did, and that should have made it obvious. I always reacted with worry when you proposed one of your new schemes, didn't you notice that? I have no desire to rule a nation. Business is fine, but I have never had an interest in politics. What I always wanted was your recognition. That was the only reason why I halfheartedly went along with your ideas for a while. I never wished for more than for you to finally accept me as your son and not just as someone that could work for you and helped you gain money and power. But now I see that this was never possible. I don't think that you are able to love someone selflessly. You were merely right about one thing.” Luciano gathered his courage and turned to his father to look into his eyes. “I have to admit that I hoped that this plan would break your neck. Because I love Mother and Rebecca and want them to survive. They shouldn't be executed for treason because of you. Likewise, I also don't want to die. And since you would never give up, it might have been good that you became too greedy and sadistic. You won't be a threat from now on because you cornered yourself. Don't blame me for that.”

Of course, that didn't calm Claude at all. He continued yelling at his son and hurled insults and accusations of him betraying his father at him.

Theodore watched that for a while before he spoke up. “We can see that as your response, I assume. We will need to declare you mentally unstable. Well, that isn't surprising nor is this judgment questionable.” He waved to one of the servants, who brought the folder and a pen to Luciano. “The royal doctor already signed as the person that examined His Grace. Now it's your turn. Once you sign that, only my signature is needed, and then you will officially be His Grace, the Duke of Vasquez. Would you please do me the favor and write your name there quickly? I do not wish to hear your father's voice for much longer.”

Luciano nodded and received the items. “That is understandable. I will sign immediately.” He carefully opened the folder and put the pen onto the paper.

Even though Claude had obviously lost, he still continued yelling. “Wait! You are making a mistake! Luciano is as horrible as I am! He's my son. There is no way that he is a kind and generous human being. He just fooled all of you with his pretty face.”

Blanche couldn't swallow her anger at that and responded immediately. “He is definitely a better person than you are. I would like to inform you that this applies to most people in this world. Besides, I am unsure why you keep accusing your son of being horrible when you should hope for his success. He will safely keep your family name safe and continue your legacy. You will be in prison for the next two decades. You wouldn't have been the duke anyway. Why are you complaining?”

Luciano finished his signature and handed the items back to the servant. “He is right about one thing. I'm not generous. I won't give out things for free. That's not how business works.” He turned to his father. “If I had been unlucky, I might have become a monster like you. But you missed an important part. I'm not only your son. I was lucky enough to have a loving mother. She taught me a bit about the world too. I won't hurt people that never did anything to me nor will I ever commit treason. It should be obvious that I would never do anything like what you tried at our party either. The fact that you even came up with that proves that you are out of your mind. I wish I could have helped you, but I was born too late for that.”

Claude didn't like hearing that. His expression had become an ugly grimace full of hatred. He didn't think about what his son said at all and just saw this as an insult directed at him. “You arrogant bastard!” His roaring voice echoed through the room. It seemed like the only thing that held him back were the guards that looked at him like they didn't mind keeping him in check with a bit more force if it became necessary. He didn't pay attention to them though and just yelled. “Do you know how long I've worked to make you emperor? Even before your birth, I wanted to make you the most important person in this nation. I gave you so much, and yet, you pay it back to me like this? It would have worked if you had just listened to me!”

Luciano gave his best to ignore his father. He just kept his eyes trained on the servant that brought the pen and the contract to the emperor.

Theodore took both but focused his attention on the duke first. “Before I take care of this here, I would like to mention something. Your plan wouldn't have worked. The citizens wouldn't just accept a new ruler that happens to be related to a woman who married into the royal family and is known to have tried to kill her own son. Even if your son had adopted the previous emperor's child, questions would arise. Everyone would be skeptical, especially since both the ruler and the second in line for the throne died in quick succession. And even if you planned on letting one live and hoped that the concerned heir would lose his power due to a scandal...” Theodore made eye contact with the duke, who was trying to hide how uncertain he suddenly got. “I have to disappoint you again. I don't want to crush your view on Artias, but our constitution is basically useless if you challenge it as an heir to the throne. The emperor can ignore anything that our laws are supposed to establish. I don't need to care whether people think that I'm a murderer or a tyrant that is still covered in the blood of hundreds of people from war. Cedar doesn't either. One of us would have ruled, no matter what. Cedar would have been the one required to adopt any of my children if anything happened to Blanche and me too. And I'm sure he would have burned you to the ground if he had noticed that you were threatening him. So, your son would never have sat on the throne. Aside from the political reasons, there is another issue with your plan as well. Do you want to hear it?”

The following silence just made the tension even worse.

The emperor beamed at Claude. “Because I would have personally slit your throat if I heard that you had tried to hurt Blanche. You wouldn't have been able to blackmail her or me in any way. That was a ridiculous idea. Your whole plan too, of course. After all, you should have known that I would never leave her side and that I have people positioned all around her when we go out. She would have never left alone to go to a guest room if she was sick but would come to me instantly. The fact that you didn't notice how we fooled you from the very beginning just proved that you never had a clue about how we actually act. Performing such a suicidal plan without preparation shows how stupid you actually are.”

Claude lowered his head when he listened to that. Apparently, he knew that he had messed up because he had allowed his anger to control him. But he still wouldn't admit it and glared at the floor.

Theodore took his silence as a cue to continue. He lifted the documents again and put the folder below the paper to sign. He didn't ask anyone whether he could finalize the document and just began writing his signature onto the paper.

Only the faint noise of a pen scribbling on paper made Duke Vasquez notice that he was about to lose. His head shot up, and his yelling focused on another person. “Your Majesty, you can't do that! You have no idea what Luciano did! You don't know just how horrible he actually is. Don't you know that he was involved in all of my schemes as well? What if I told you that he came up with that plan before our party?” It was painfully obvious that this was nothing but an excuse that was supposed to give him a chance to turn around the emperor's opinion. But at the same time, it also gave his enemies a chance to criticize him.

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Blanche narrowed her eyes at him and spoke with as much confidence as she could muster. “Do you truly wish to offer your son such a pitiful display? It's pathetic. Please understand that you lost. It won't do you any good if you keep blaming others for your misfortune. Your son is certainly not at fault for your crimes. Especially since you just admitted that you already planned this before his birth. So, please just give up and spare us this kind of behavior. It will only make people doubt your sanity even more.”

Claude vigorously shook his head. “No, you don't understand! All of this was really his fault! If you'd just pay attention, you would see that I could never have been responsible for all of this. Luciano proposed writing those letters to Ocrea, and he also was the one that proposed drugging you.” A wide smile spread on his face, and the glint of insanity in his eyes made him seem madder than before. “He was the person that ordered the drug from the pharmacist and picked it up from there too. Ask the man that sold it to us!”

Luciano looked at his father with a mix of dejection and frustration. He didn't interrupt Claude and didn't say anything to him either. He just turned to the thrones and addressed the couple there. “If you give me permission, I would like to explain this to you. His words are not completely wrong, but he obviously twisted everything to his liking. While I did propose writing letters to someone, I did that without knowing that he was seriously thinking about starting a war between two nations. The way that he explained it to me was by talking about a novel. He said that there was a book in which the main character destroyed two nations that were ruled by dictators by using them against each other. He asked me if I knew how that person could possibly have done that without ever getting involved directly. I said that making those people think that the other one is their enemy by using false information would be best. Of course, I could never have expected that he would do that in real life.”

Theodore, who had lifted his pen to pause writing, scanned the young man in front of him carefully. “And regarding the second part? Were you responsible for that plan?”

Lucian shook his head. “As I already said, I was disgusted with that idea from the very beginning. But I did go to order and pick up the drug because I was told to do it by my father. I also chose it to ensure that it would be the most harmless one they can offer. So, I went to that pharmacy and picked something. I considered just refilling it with water, but if my father had tested it, I would have revealed that I wasn't willing to help him. I was scared of what he would do to Rebecca then.”

Duke Vasquez still glared at his son as if Luciano was at fault for all of his problems. His face was scrunched up with fury, and he raised his voice again. “You absolute moron! There is no way that you would have done what I told you just because of that little brat. You just wanted to have a chance to gain power, admit it! You always agreed with me when I told you about what would happen. You also looked down on-”

Luciano cut him off in a stern voice. “No. I never agreed with you. I thought me asking you whether you were a psychopath should have shown that. Nodding and smiling because you worry about your father's sanity is not agreeing. And have you ever considered that I might have been scared of you losing your composure if I told you what I was thinking? Do you know how often you got angry when someone disagreed with you openly? If you never thought about all of that, you just proved how little you actually care about any of us. I would like to tell you about so many things that you misunderstood over the course of the last two decades, but you wouldn't get it. We don't have the time either.”

Claude gritted his teeth and looked at his son with so much wrath that it was disturbing. It seemed like he had nothing to say, but he still returned to insulting Luciano as much as possible.

Theodore watched all of that with annoyance before returning to signing the contract while Duke Vasquez was still busy. When he finished, he leaned over to Blanche. “We have no evidence that his son was involved in anything. It even seems like Lord Vasquez was the one trying to keep his businesses far away from any crimes. So, it is unlikely that he did much. In any case, he is better than his father. I'll appoint him as the duke and keep an eye on him. If he makes a wrong move, I can just reuse the old trial and insist that the whole family can't keep their title. But for now, I am fine with him taking care of everything.”

Blanche nodded. “That sounds good. He'll feel indebted to us, so it's unlikely that he will betray us. If he does, we know what to do. May I read the contract?” She had barely lifted her hand and already received the documents. She thanked her lover with a smile before reading through the lines.

All in all, this document just proved that Luciano would be the righteous head of his family without needing anyone's permission while managing his household's affairs since Claude was seen as unfitting. Someone who was a threat to his own family couldn't stay the duke after all. The royal doctor's signature showed that he doubted that Claude had a mental state that wouldn't allow him to continue leading his family, which immediately made his son the next duke. Both Luciano and Theodore had also signed, which made the contract valid from this point onward.

The concubine lowered the folder. “Congratulations on your appointment as the Duke of Vasquez, Your Grace. The royal family looks forward to working with you starting from now on. May you be part of the heart of Artias and lead our nation toward a future full of prosperity and happiness for all of our citizens.”

Claude immediately began screaming. “What? How can you dare to do that?” He was ignored by everyone aside from one of the knights, who gave him a rather ungentle nudge with the elbow.

At the same time, Luciano's features were overcome with relief. He quickly went down on one knee and bowed his head while holding a hand above his heart. “I, Luciano Vasquez, pledge my loyalty to His Majesty, the emperor of Artias, and the part of the royal family that supports him with all of their power. I swear to use this title to do the best for Artias. I will regain my family's honor by working hard for the rest of my life.”

Theodore looked content with that. “Good. The present people are witness to the fact that this contract is in effect from now on. Luciano Vasquez is now the new Duke of Vasquez. You may rise, Your Grace.”

The young duke slowly stood up but still kept his head bowed. “I thank you sincerely, Your Majesty. I will not disappoint you. I will ensure that our household will not be seen as the family of one of the vilest criminals of all time for long. Instead, I will give my best until you have regained your trust in the Vasquez family. We will always be there to support you and use righteous ways to help our citizens.”

The emperor was silent for a moment before speaking up. “If you do well, I will make you a minister by the end of the year. But you will have to impress me for that. I'm sure that your experience with businesses will make that easy for you though. We look forward to working with you.”

Luciano appeared to be slightly surprised, but he returned a smile. “The pleasure is all mine. I will give my all.”

Even though this should have been a nice moment, Claude ruined it again. “Are you joking? He is a criminal too, why are you helping him? You should hate him! You, especially!” He pointed at Blanche before one of the guards forced him to lower his arm.

Blanche glared at the former duke. She didn't feel anything except for freezing wrath for this man, and that certainly wouldn't cause her to listen to him. “After all that happened, you still dare to speak so carelessly in front of us. It seems like you still don't get it. You are a convicted criminal, and every single piece of incriminating evidence proves that. What makes you believe that anyone would trust your words? There is no proof that His Grace was involved in any crimes, or we would have found out already. We watched you for a while already, remember?”

Claude morphed into an even more unsightly grimace. “What is that supposed to mean? He was the one that brought you away during the party. Don't you remember that? Do I need to spell out what he wanted to do to you?”

Theodore interrupted him in a cold voice. “You mean, what you wanted him to do. He didn't plan anything. But if you are so insistent on that, it may be better to check that one more time.” He scanned the former duke's expression before continuing. “I'm not merciless. I will allow you to return to your home one more time. If you manage to find a single piece of evidence that indicates that His Grace, your son, is actually responsible for some of your crimes, the trial shall be held again. In that case, we won't allow him to stay duke, of course.”

Claude's expression lit up at that. “Yes! Of course, Your Majesty! I will find something if you give me a few hours. I will definitely prove that Luciano is the criminal here.”

The emperor sighed at that. “You are a bit slow to understand. If he is convicted, you won't regain your title. You will still go to prison and be punished for your crimes. In fact, you may see him behind bars then. Your family will fall if both you and he are gone, don't you get that? You shouldn't want to pin the blame on your own son.” He glanced to the side. “Your Grace is awfully calm about this though.”

Luciano nodded as he gazed at his father with a cold expression. “Since I did not commit any crimes, there can't be any evidence against me either. It's only a bit upsetting to hear that my own father would gladly throw me to the wolves to hold on to his title for one more day. It is a bit pathetic to see that this is what paternal love is supposed to look like. He will try to harm his family to avoid the punishment for his own crimes even though it's absolutely useless.”

Theodore replied before Claude could complain. “I think that this is useless too. So, let's add something better. Something that will actually help me.” He gazed at the former duke in a manner that seemed to underline his authority. “How about you find some evidence I can use against the dowager empress? If you can do that for me, I might consider changing your punishment.”

He hadn't said that he would make it less severe. That was the first thing Blanche thought when she heard that. So, Claude's relieved expression didn't make much sense.

Blanche knew her lover well. Theodore would definitely make the punishment even worse after being able to link the other man to more crimes. It was definitely pathetic of the former duke to act like this. Blanche couldn't keep her amusement about that to herself. She needed to hide her smirk behind her hand, but Theodore noticed anyway and returned the grin.

But either Claude didn't pay attention to that, or he didn't get that this was about him. He just beamed at them. “I will definitely manage to find something, you can trust me, Your Majesty. I will get you a clue that can make you arrest her immediately. If I find that, we could surely forget about the fingers too, right?”

Blanche had no idea what he was talking about.

But Theodore let out a snort while still smirking, which finally made the other man's relief fade a bit. “You would need to find something very good for that. If you wish to deal with me, you will need five pieces of evidence though. One decisive and incriminating piece of evidence for one of your fingers. We'll see whether you will manage to convince us.”

Claude vigorously nodded, but he looked a bit more nervous than before. But he still put on a pretense of confidence and even turned to his son to taunt him. “See? I will be back in a few weeks, and then you will regret trying to get rid of me. You will see what that gained you then, you moron.” It wasn't clever to threaten someone when everyone here heard it, but no one cared enough to point it out. The fact that he even expected that his crimes would be forgiven completely made it obvious that he wasn't thinking clearly anymore.

The only one that argued with him was Luciano. “Father, I know that you misunderstand all of this. I am not trying to take your position because I want to make fun of you. My only wish is to try to protect my family. If your actions hurt our household, I have to intervene. While I always admired your conviction, I need to tell you the truth today. You lost. Please give up with some dignity. You know Mother's sister well, don't you? Do you think that she would seriously allow you to gather evidence against her? The people of the court already went through our documents a few times for your trial, and there was nothing about her there. You are just getting lost in useless hopes and are wasting your ti-”

Claude's fury came back in an instant. “Shut up! I will crush you as soon as I get out of here! I will never forget that you deserted your own father today. You don't even have to come back home when I return to being the righteous duke. I will make you regret what you did!”

Luciano gave up on trying to talk to him at that point. He let out a quiet sigh and turned to the thrones. “As you can see, this will not help us in any way. I doubt that he will listen to anything I tell him.”

Theodore made a rejecting movement with his hand. “Don't even bother. I didn't expect anything else. I think that we told him everything that he needed to hear. He can leave now. Lord Astame, bring him back to his cell.”

Leonard bowed and quickly instructed the guards.

The men grabbed Claude and yanked him away from the room without waiting for him to move by himself. The former duke complained quite loudly and just explained how they would regret this when he gained a second chance. Needless to say, no one listened to him. It was a pretty pathetic sight.

Blanche could barely look at it without being ashamed herself. That man truly seemed to have lost his mind. It was painful to look at him arguing with anyone so that she didn't really feel bad when his hand collided with the door frame because he gestured around so much. She just sighed and massaged her temples while waiting for the screaming to get quieter as the door was shut.