Chapter 50: The Lament of the Grand Duke of Delinquency

The day after Lute was unusually busy with paperwork.

After finishing breakfast, Lute made a decision in his room.

“… I definitely won’t be working today.”

It is a holiday declaration.

This is because Lute worked out of character for the past few days. He found the divine soldiers in the wake of the invention market, brought in the sister and brother, discussed with the imperial high command on measures against the divine soldiers, and came up with rules for the sister and brother.

It was only for a few days, and compared to Liselotte's workload as a lord, it was nothing.

But even so, Lute couldn't stand it. For Lute, who considers laziness to be supreme, he was completely unmotivated to work any further.

Hence, I'm taking the day off. Lying in bed idly for the first time in several days, I was determined to look at the books I had pulled out at random from the ducal residence's library.

"Well, let's see. Let's start with ...... imperial history."

After deciding on the book to read, he silently rolls up the pages.

Truth be told, Lute likes to read. Since he has basically spent his life as a lazy person, he often reads to kill time without moving.

So Lute immediately immersed himself in the world of books. This was spurred on by the fact that the book he chose was a history of the empire, a biography of Axia, the god of fire.

"Your Excellency. May I have a moment?』

"..."

His power of concentration is considerable, and even when Azure visits his room, Lute does not return from the world of books.

"Your Excellency? May I have a word? I have something important to tell you. 』

"..."

“Are you sleeping again? I'm sorry, but please let me enter your room.』

"..."

“Excuse me.....I see you're up”

When Azure enters the room, he is unresponsive. He continues to silently turn the pages.

"Your Excellency. I have an important matter to discuss, so could you please close the book for a moment?"

"..."

"Your Excellency, please reply."

"..."

"Your Excellency? Is this on purpose?"

"... why are you here?"

After calling out to him several times, he finally noticed.

Still, Lute didn't take his eyes off the book and asked why Azure was here.

“I knocked, but there was no response at all. With all due respect, sir, I had to enter the room."

"Is it normal to enter the master's private room without permission?"

"Your Excellency himself had authorized it before. You said you could be asleep regardless of the time, so if I visit and don't get a reply, wake him up directly."

"...I’m awake"

"If you don't answer me, I won't know."

When confronted with a sound argument that he can't even respond to, Lute lets out a sigh of resignation.

I have no intention of punishing her for entering my private room without permission, so I decided to stop pursuing the matter further.

"So, what do you want?"

“I will explain, so could you turn your attention away from the book for the time being?”

"I'm in a pretty good place right now. And by the way, we're completely closed today. I'm not working. I'll at least talk to you tomorrow."

So do it tomorrow, says Lute while turning the page.

However, Azure responded with a resolute refusal.

“I have an important matter, so could you please close the book immediately?”

"...... I really don't want to do any work or anything today."

"I'm sorry, but I cannot accept that."

"... no good?"

"It's no good."

"... haaaa..."

Lute finally broke down at the sight of Azure, who showed not the slightest sign of backing down. If she would not budge this far, it must be a really important requirement.

Then, thinking that it can't be helped, he finally turns around and faces Azure with a big, very big sigh of resignation.

"I was ready to laze around all day, but..."

“You're being very unreasonable again. It doesn't seem like your Excellency."

"It was a perfect holiday feeling. I want to lament it because it was ruined."

The rough draft of the sibling relationship is 80% complete. The only thing left to do now is to brush it up by discussing it with them, and that work will be left until the siblings' etiquette education is completed.

Basically, Lute was actively working on a case involving a sister-brother relationship, which can be considered a step in the right direction once the individuals in question have been immersed in education.

So he thought he had completely handled the most immediate task.

When the work situation suddenly changed and an important project came up, his mood sank. The reaction was extremely strong, as he had decided to take the whole day off.

"So, what exactly is the content?"

“A messenger from Colonel Landvald. There has been a movement on the watch list and he wants to see you and your Excellency Liselotte today.”

"...... I didn't expect it to be related to the Divine soldier"

Lute frowned at what Azure had told him.

The Divine Soldier of the Republic Kingdom. This is another case that Lute has had to deal with in the past few days.

If the sister-brother relationship is an active case, the god-soldier relationship is a passive case.

The plan is to proceed in the form of a counter intelligence led by the Imperial Army, with the super force of Lute cooperating as appropriate.

In other words, the fact that a messenger was sent out in this way means that, depending on what is said, there is a possibility that Lute will move in the near future, and that he may hunt with his own hands the divine soldiers who have received the blessing of the demi-god.

"Shit...That's a really important case."

"I told you so from the very beginning."

“You can't predict it. How many days do you think it's been since we told the military? It's too soon."

The case of the divine soldiers was discovered at about the same time as that of the sister and brother.

It has only been a short time since they informed the Imperial Army of their presence and established a surveillance system from there.

And yet, there was movement in the opposing camp, and as a demi-god, Lute cannot help but feel a sense of disquiet.

It would be nice if the divine soldiers were less skilled in espionage than expected and were able to easily be captured.

On the other hand, if the imperial army was suspected and was about to take some kind of action early on, it would be a delicate matter.

It would be worse if they have been in the dark here long before Lute realized it and are about to make their move simply because they are ready to do so.

"If I'm not careful, I'll be working for the foreseeable future....."

The possibility that this could become more important than anticipated caused a lamentation to break out.

It is safe to say that today's holiday declaration has been completely destroyed. On the contrary, depending on the content, I may not be able to take a vacation for an extended period of time.

I want to cover my eyes with how absurd this is on the day I decided to spend my time lazily.

But he can't say that I don't want to do it. Because this is one of the few jobs that Lute was given. This is one of the few tasks that Lute has to perform as a demi-god, a duty that he has agreed to perform with Emperor Friedrich.

When he judges that his territory is in danger, and by extension, his empire, Lute wields his power without mercy.

"Understood. I don't have any requests about the time. Tell Liselotte to discuss and decide."

"Understood."

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