Virgin Knight Who Is the Frontier Lord in the Gender Switched World - Chapter 198

The moment I stepped into the room Sabine-nee was renting, my body was slammed against the wall, and my neck was gripped by her right hand.

She coldly hurled a question at me.

“What’s the current situation of the Wesperman family? Speak honestly. If I sense even a shred of falsehood, I’ll abandon you all right here and use you until you’re spent.”

Sabine-nee can discern the truthfulness of a person’s words just by observing their expression.

There’s no point in hiding anything. If any falsehoods slip in, she would seriously abandon us.

I could only speak the truth, and I intended to do so.

But there was one thing.

Before I divulged everything honestly, there was something I wanted to ask.

“Sabine-nee, I just want to know one thing. Did you leave our home of your own volition, knowing everything, or were you really expelled?”

Sabine-nee looked slightly puzzled for a moment.

She stared at me as if to ask what I meant, but her response was somewhat vague.

“Neither,” she uttered with her small, well-shaped lips.

“I never saw any value in the Wesperman family since I was a child. I hated my gloomy mother and our dark ancestral home. I’ve always been searching for something that holds value to me. Always.”

She spoke with a distant gaze, as if looking longingly at something far off.

“I found it when I was 14. So, when my mother threatened to disown me, it was perfect timing to set my terms for returning to our estate. I joined Valiere-dono’s Second Princess’ Royal Guard and gained a knighthood in one stroke.”

It wasn’t a bad deal.

I could leave my home and reach what I considered the ‘most sacred.’

But, it wasn’t entirely a lie that I was expelled from my home.

So, in the end:

“Neither. I had always wanted to leave, but it was that declining, odorous mother who demanded I go. So, neither, Marina.”

As if the conversation had ended.

Sabine-nee had spoken honestly, and as her sister, I could understand.

So, I too should speak honestly.

“You escaped well, Sabine-nee. Unlike me, you’re truly competent. With a superior sense of smell. Unlike me.”

But before that, let me complain just a bit.

Sabine-nee frowned slightly, but that was all the response I got.

She seemed eager to hear the current situation.

“Sabine-nee, we can’t gather as many assassins or spies anymore. It’s not just a matter of quantity; their quality has deteriorated. The truly capable ones have been dead for years. The real decline of the Wesperman family began over five years ago, long before I became head, when we failed to catch the assassin who killed Robert-sama.”

“What are you talking about? When we were children, we had plenty of capable assassins and spies in the Imperial City and Virendorf. If we mobilized all of them, we could achieve results. At the very least, our house wouldn’t be falling apart.”

Sabine-nee looked puzzled by my words, genuinely wondering what I was hiding.

Oh, she really escaped just by following her instincts.

I had given up asking Sabine-nee for help from the start, not only because she despised our home.

But because I believed she knew everything, I was convinced she would never help.

“Sabine-nee, didn’t you know? Most of them are dead. They’re no longer here.”

I had always wanted to ask her.

I wondered if she really knew.

That’s why she abandoned our home and fled to join Valiere-dono’s guard, like a rat fleeing a sinking ship.

Because she knew everything, she left this tragic home to me.

But it turned out differently.

“…”

Sabine-nee continued to observe my expression.

With a gaze filled with murderous intent, judging the truth of my words.

I wasn’t lying.

And if she was as wise as I believed, as my sister, she would understand the hints I had given.

If she understood that these events occurred before Robert-sama’s death, the answer would be simple.

“The Siege of Windbona Imperial City. Was that when I ran away from home? Perhaps our house was already finished by that time?”

She easily spoke the truth.

Yes, that was the time.

“The Anhalt Electorate provided the funds, and Lord Reckenber led the attack on the Imperial City of Windbona. That’s when the Wesperman family’s spy network collapsed.”

She clearly articulated the answer.

I only came to understand this recently when our senile old mother explained everything clearly.

Accompanying Anastasia-dono to Windbona Imperial City.

Only recently, when I truly started acting as the head of the Wesperman family and took full control of our spy network.

Wondering why our house was in such disrepair, I conducted local investigations in the Imperial City.

Only then did I realize everything was over.

At that moment, I truly wanted to strangle my own mother.

“The cause of all this? It’s simple. Greed.”

I almost cursed under my breath.

It was that useless mother of ours who had made every mistake possible.

It was because that ‘fallen, greedy mother,’ the one Sabine-neesan held in contempt, got too greedy.

She crossed far beyond the ‘line of what you can and can’t get away with,’ which Sabine-neesan always warned about, and did so in the worst possible way.

“People like to say Anhalt only provided the money, but many of our retainers, including officials—not soldiers—took part in the march to the imperial capital. The Wespermans could have moved spies and assassins if we had wanted. Oh, how greedy she was— that senile old hag. She even tried to assassinate Lord Reckenber during the war. And it’s not like the royal family gave any such order.”

Sabine-neesan finally uncovered the truth, her expression filled with pure exasperation.

That’s right. That mother of ours made a fatal mistake!

She dared to do something not even the wise Queen Liesenlotte would have ever ordered!

Thinking she could cover up the murder of Lord Reckenber during the chaos of war…

She assumed that once Emperor Maxine took the throne, that hero would only be an obstacle to Anhalt.

What foolishness!

“…Yes. She went off on a reckless rampage. The heroic Lord Reckenber and the Wespermans’ assassin group clashed in secret in the imperial capital.”

It wasn’t something I did.

I wanted to say I would never do something so stupid.

But I am Marina von Wesperman, the current head of the Wesperman family.

Even if it was the mistake of the previous head, who else could take responsibility but me?

I have to bear that burden as the head of the family.

Clenching my teeth so hard that blood seeped from my gums, I confessed the truth to Sabine-neesan.

“Of course, the assassination attempt failed. Honestly, for someone as superhuman as Lord Reckenber or Lord Polidro, poison wouldn’t even work. Typical methods like daggers and poison don’t faze them. Even if a dozen assassins surrounded them, they’d never win.”

Every assassin who challenged that superhuman met their death, strangled on the spot.

The repercussions didn’t end there.

With Lord Reckenber’s cunning, nearly all the informants we had planted in Vilendorf and the imperial capital Windbona were discovered and crushed.

That’s when the downfall of the Wesperman family began.

The failure to predict Lord Reckenber’s invasion during the Vilendorf campaign…

The inability to obtain intelligence from the Mongol Empire through Windbona or Vilendorf…

If not for the previous head’s blunder, all of this could have been avoided.

I was about to say that when Sabine-neesan tightened her grip around my throat.

“Keep your voice down. I need to think.”

Sabine-neesan’s eyes were filled with murderous intent as she looked at me.

I understood why my sister, who had left the house, was now strangling me.

She didn’t want anyone to overhear this conversation.

It wasn’t out of concern for the Wesperman family; it was because this story could harm her.

Her grip tightened.

“Does Queen Liesenlotte know about this? Does she know the Wesperman family acted on its own and failed, damaging our spy network? This is important.”

“Mother… she devoted herself to covering everything up. Since Queen Liesenlotte never gave the order, I think she realized our intelligence network had weakened, but she doesn’t know why… I think. All she understands is that the Wespermans suddenly became useless, and she’s disappointed. From what I’ve gathered, she’s been working on setting up a separate intelligence agency to replace ours.”

I couldn’t breathe as my neck was squeezed tighter.

I’m so tired of this.

Does Sabine-neesan bear no responsibility?

She was born as the heir to the family, yet she abandoned that role and ran away. Isn’t that her fault?

If Sabine-neesan isn’t to blame, then why is everything my fault?

Is the only difference between us that I’m the fool who couldn’t escape the sinking ship?

If that’s the case… well, maybe that’s a good enough reason to die.

That’s what I was thinking.

If I had known what was coming, I would’ve run away just like my sister.

But since I couldn’t, perhaps I deserve this fate.

A fool must take on all the responsibility.

“I’ll ask you again, you fool, Marina. My slow-witted little sister. Does Queen Liesenlotte really know nothing? No, after all the mistakes you’ve repeated, she must be fully aware by now. Do you think she’s some soft-hearted queen who would remain ignorant of this? Is that what you believe?”

“I’m still alive. If she knew, the Wesperman family would’ve been destroyed long ago, and both the previous and current heads, including me, would’ve been killed…”

“The Wesperman family has served the House of Anhalt since its founder. Queen Liesenlotte had reason to delay our downfall up until the Elector’s succession. Besides, the entire intelligence network within the Kingdom of Anhalt hasn’t collapsed. There’s still some use left in us. No matter how furious she is, she couldn’t destroy us outright. She had to hold off until she built her own network or until she could seize control of ours—no, both. Queen Liesenlotte has spent the past five years creating her own spy network, and she plans to have Anastasia take yours from you.”

I can’t breathe.

Sabine-neesan, it’s not my fault.

It’s inevitable that I will meet my end when the Wesperman family falls.

But at least I want to believe Sabine-neesan’s anger toward me is misplaced.

Oh, I see now.

Even as my consciousness fades, I realize why my sister is so furious.

I’d always thought Sabine-neesan had escaped from the start with full intent.

But in truth, she barely managed to slip away at the last second.

“Even though I left the family, even though I was disowned, the fact that Sabine Wesperman hasn’t been strangled as part of the fallout means it was hidden until two years ago. If it had all come to light five years ago, I’d have been dead by now.”

I understand the chain of punishment.

Had the true cause of the Wesperman family’s fall been exposed, had our reckless actions without royal command been revealed…

Both Sabine-neesan and I, the whole family, would have been hanged.

No, it’s not enough.

Even if Sabine-neesan had fled and severed ties, it wouldn’t have been enough to escape the punishment awaiting the Wespermans.

“It was close. For now, neither Queen Liesenlotte nor Anastasia-dono will kill me because I still have my uses. But if you keep this up, you, fool Marina, will die. Not just you, but as the head of the family, you’ll be executed.”

Sabine-neesan’s harsh breaths brushed against my neck.

Her grip on my throat tightened.

I can’t breathe.

“This is my final mercy to you, foolish, slow-witted sister. When I return to the royal capital, I’ll brutally kill that senile old hag of a mother myself and present her head to the queen as an apology! The Wesperman family is finished. No matter what you do, we’re doomed! So if you want to live, you’ll do exactly as I say while we’re in the imperial capital!!”

I can’t breathe.

In the moment before I lost consciousness, I saw Sabine-neesan’s face.

It was twisted in a terrifying expression of both love and hatred.

“My foolish, stupid sister Marina. Use every ounce of power you have and exhaust everything the Wesperman family has left. Whatever’s left standing, I’ll take care of.”