Well then, this is where things started to get really confusing.
The body found in the boys' dormitory.
That was the real problem.
Once I had finally made a full recovery, Wifey and I went to see Walter. When we arrived at the room being used as a temporary interrogation cell, we found him slumped over a desk.
Walter was being held at the Palace under protection. Initially, he had been arrested on suspicion of high treason, but the prosecution ultimately decided not to indict. There were no "Imperial Family discounts" or political favors involved; it was simply judged that the incident had been caused by the bureaucracy running amok.
While he faced no criminal liability, his political responsibility was being strictly pursued. To that end, he promised to renounce his right of succession at a later date.
I met up with Raymond-san at the Palace entrance. Currently, Walter refused to meet with anyone who wasn't a military official. He had become profoundly distrustful of people, likely because he had been betrayed so many times. Alexia was one thing, but then there were all the people who had turned their backs on him... and one other key individual.
"Have you found the Grand Chamberlain's whereabouts?"
Walter’s eyes were bloodshot. His beard was overgrown, and his hair was shot through with premature gray. He clearly lacked the mental bandwidth to maintain his appearance. He even had bald patches in several spots—stress-induced alopecia areata, no doubt. Some of them looked a bit festered; he might have been compulsively scratching at them.
However, the military had apparently forced him to clean up out of consideration for human rights, so his clothes were clean—even if it was just the Officer Academy tracksuit. Depending on who was looking, it might have seemed malicious, but to us, it was obviously just a practical choice for ease of laundry. I was certain his underwear was the standard-issue white briefs sold at the military shop. He was a truly pitiful sight.
And then, there was the matter of the Grand Chamberlain.
The Grand Chamberlain is the head of the Chamberlains' Office. The pamphlets describe their duties as serving as close aides to the Emperor, but you can basically think of them as secretaries. Wifey didn't have one because her rank in the line of succession had been in the triple digits until recently. She only had court ladies. Piggett was currently acting as her secretary, though an official appointment would likely happen once the Capital settled down.
Prince Thomas apparently had both court ladies and chamberlains. The Grand Chamberlain specifically looked after Walter. Technically, as the head, he should have been Maro’s secretary, but for some reason, he had tethered himself to Walter. You can probably guess why: the organization was so rotten that overstepping authority had become the norm.
Now, here is where things got problematic.
The Grand Chamberlain had vanished. Initially, everyone assumed he had simply abandoned Walter. But then, the situation shifted.
It was because of that corpse we discovered. That... was the Grand Chamberlain. The real one had actually passed away decades ago.
Then who the hell had we been talking to all this time?!
"I can't believe... I was being deceived for all these years!"
Walter slammed his fist against the desk. That desk looked expensive, so I really wished he’d stop that!
The real Grand Chamberlain had been born as the third son of a Count House. Lacking money just like me, he had entered the Imperial Officer Academy. Because he was brilliant, he qualified for a non-repayable scholarship even if he transferred to a different school. Naturally, he bypassed the Military University and went to the National Imperial University. If another path was free, even I would have taken it.
He graduated at the top of his class and joined the Ministry of Internal Affairs. From there, he climbed the ranks until he was handpicked as a chamberlain for the Imperial Household Agency. Currently, he was the Grand Chamberlain—effectively the top of the agency.
Yet behind that glittering career, the actual man had spent the last few decades "inside the wall."
"So, who was the Grand Chamberlain that fled?" I asked.
"Who knows?" Raymond replied. "All I can say is that the military won't get off scot-free for this either."
"I bet..."
Leaving a body inside a wall for decades... it was enough to make you wonder how on earth no one had noticed. Everyone from full generals down to brigadier generals had lined up for an apology press conference. Raymond-san had been the mouthpiece for the briefing, and he’d struggled to field the reporters' grilling. After all, they didn't actually know anything yet.
Naturally, everyone’s first thought was: Has there been a Zork spy in our midst for decades?
From the military's perspective, the logic was: If they’ve been undercover for decades and no one suspected them, it’s going to be pretty hard to investigate now, isn't it? The police and Public Security were looking into it, but the investigation was stalling. He had been completely off the radar.
Wifey spoke to Walter.
"Brother Walter, sign here."
"The renunciation of my succession rights? Fine. But... I want you to understand. I simply didn't want the status quo to change. The economy was stable, governance was sound. There was no rebellion from the lords. Peace was supposed to continue..."
The Zork invasion had flipped everything upside down.
"Brother... if you had only reformed the Inner Palace, I would have been able to cooperate with you," she said. "It didn't matter to me who held the throne."
Thomas's faction and Walter's faction had both been manipulated by the Zork, so we’d been forced to take them down, but they should have been allies. To Wifey, the only problems were the Zork and the Inner Palace. In hindsight, the Duke Association and the civil officials looked like a collection of idiots, but in times of peace, they were an exceptionally brilliant group. They had supported an absolute fool like Maro and maintained the dignity of the Empire.
...And a single chamberlain had destroyed all of that. That’s impressive, in a terrifying way. If it really was a Zork agent who had been undercover for decades, it just goes to show how frightening they are. However, even after centuries of study, they still haven't fully deciphered human behavior and biological instincts. That was our only saving grace.
We headed to the courthouse with the documents Walter had signed. A while ago, we could have submitted them electronically, but with the system currently dead, we had to do it on paper. Thomas also submitted his renunciation and his formal support for Wifey. Raymond-san, the military high command, Ren's brother Marma—now Duke Mistral—and the heads of the neutral Duke Houses all signed as witnesses.
As a bonus, I finally registered my assumption as the head of the Kamishiro Ducal House, along with Big Brother Sam's appointment as the head of the Kamishiro Marquis House. These had been delayed by the constant string of incidents. Raymond-san had even prepared the paperwork for us.
A formal debut was out of the question right now, so we figured we’d just announce it quietly during the chaos of Wifey's inauguration. With this, Wifey was set to become the Emperor once the Diet gave its approval. I, on the other hand, became a Duke without even waiting for the Diet.
God, procedures are such a pain!
And thus, a Duke living in the University Division's boys' dormitory was born. I was a Duke who had to submit an official request to the military just to leave the building, and who shared a communal bath and toilet! I was a Duke who had somehow been put in charge of the dorm's electrical, civil engineering, and interior maintenance! I was a Duke who had a daily roll call and spent my evenings in my room staring at textbooks for the internal university entrance exam!
To top it all off, I had been personally summoned by a General, a Lieutenant General, and a Major General, only to be told: "Leo-kun, listen. Don't go into the Faculty of Law. Try Science and Engineering or Military Science instead. If you really hate those, even Physical Education is fine... It’s a pity, but you just don't have the aptitude for law."
I was secretly fuming when Wifey pulled on my sleeve.
"The autopsy results are in. We're going to Public Security Headquarters."
Maybe we would finally see just how far the Zork's reach extended.