Top Tier Perversion: Dual Cultivate Secretly

Outside Silver Town.

Men in dark trench coats wearing gas masks and knights with swords and other weapons surrounded the gates of Silver Town.

Near the west gate, Vincent and Leona sat on chairs while being surrounded by the only unit remaining of the Knight Order—First Unit.

The others were merged with the Railguard Division and everyone was under a Railguard Captain.

The Railguard Division was not meant to be a military force but a logistical one. With the merger, they could now take over a small county easily.

"It’s still a temporary merger." Leona replied while looking at the guards and knights.

Vincent nodded. "We’ll sort out this mess later. Currently I’m more worried about my sister and maids."

"Your worries are unnecessary." Leona answered while staring at the gate.

Vincent turned to her. "Why is that?"

"All of them are capable. A few bandits won’t pose much threat."

Vincent raised his eyebrows. "You seem to have quite some confidence about my sister and maids. Speaking of this, there’s a few things I’ve been wanting to ask."

Leona turned her head. "If it’s about the morning, let me remind My Lord that we are engaged. Other couples usually don’t sleep together with their clothes intact. This is nothing."

Vincent: "..."

Vincent: "..."

"...I wanted to ask how you know so much about my house."

Vincent knitted his brows.

Leona had no change of expression.

She stared at Vincent for a few seconds, then turned to stare at the gates again.

"...when the engagement was discussed, my parents were delighted and readily accepted. The Countess herself was present so it felt more sincere and they saw not a single reason to reject. However..."

The atmosphere shifted.

If it was warm before, it now felt someone had splashed a bucket of cold water everywhere.

Vincent straightened his back and listened carefully.

"...why would a Count House come to a Common House with a marriage proposal? It didn’t feel right to me and I began investigating. That’s when I found out..."

The next few words of Leona were slightly harsh but Vincent listened without interrupting.

He knew nothing of his own background and anything helped at this point.

When Leona began investigating, she found out that the marriage was proposed because Vincent’s reputation was notorious among the nobles.

No one wished to marry him because of his alcoholic tendencies and haughty personality.

He had also allegedly misbehaved with other noble ladies and had it not been for the D’Arc House being a strong Count House, things would not have just been rumors.

"...when I learnt of it, I asked for a private discussion with the Countess. There, I asked her why she wished to end my career by marrying me to her son. Had I or my house done anything to offend her?"

"..."

Vincent covered his mouth. ’Did I just hear what I just heard?’

[Affirmative.]

Leona turned to Vincent. "Are you not offended so far, My Lord? I’ve been spouting some treasonous words."

"Go on." Vincent shook his hand. "As long as you state what actually happened and not actively try to insult my family, I’m fine."

Leona nodded lightly.

"The Countess expressed her motives clearly and said..."

Countess Vivienne D’Arc hoped that marriage and responsibilities would change him and he would become a better person overall.

She knew the potential risks to it and since Leona brought it up, she actually felt bad for the little girl and promised her she won’t let Vincent mistreat her.

Leona was also free to engage in her blacksmithing works and her house would be lifted to a Baron status immediately after marriage and given territories.

"Baron status was really important for my house. Still is. Without it..."

Voss House had reached such sophisticated levels of blacksmithing that they were bound to attract unwanted attention.

They were commoners and the nobles they were affiliated to wouldn’t be of help if their house’s interests were compromised.

The marriage was a strong political move in the right direction and a form of protection for them.

Leona could not refuse the arrangement even if she wanted to as her house would sooner or later collapse.

Agreed to the Countess’s proposal and went on with the engagement.

"Then during our engagement, My Lord might not remember what happened and I’m sure nobody told you about it either." Leona glanced at him.

Vincent felt his palms get sweaty.

"What happened?" He tried to be calm and asked.

Leona stared right into his eyes.

"You had drunk yourself to the point of passing out. You weren’t able to stand properly and rings couldn’t be exchanged. The ring was sent to me later in the day and my house was compensated."

"..."

Vincent didn’t know how to feel about this.

’I knew my predecessor was bad but holy shit. How much further can he fall?’

"...and? How did you find out about the house’s enemies? I remember you clearly mentioning it to me in the ball."

Vincent found another disparity with Leona’s explanation.

He cleared his throat and continued, "And given what had transpired between you and me... I don’t understand why you would talk to me at the ball, much less tell me so much about the hidden dangers."

Leona calmly stared at him for a few seconds.

Finding no reaction, she shook her head.

"I wasn’t the one who came to you. I was minding my own business, My Lord."

It was a surprise for her as well when Vincent came to ask her for a dance.

Then, as they talked, Leona assessed that he wasn’t the same and it gave her a slight glimmer of hope.

It did feel unreal and logically as well as rationally she knew she should not divulge the names of enemies to Vincent.

He wasn’t trustworthy enough.

But she said just enough to see how he would respond. The information was urgent but nothing that would put her or her family in harm if Vincent decided to switch sides.

"...wait. You didn’t say everything?"

Leona shook her head.

"Remind me to come back to this. For now, continue to answer how you got to know of all this."

"Right. So, as a blacksmith house..."

Voss House imported a lot of smithing resources from D’Arc House. Things began shifting slowly.

Leona tried to find out why and realized there’s multiple other houses involved in causing this.

Nothing was done openly. It was a subtle shift in market and economical conditions.

Leona got engaged to Vincent almost two weeks ago and everything she found out was in this time period.

She still lacked information but the small changes felt like the calm before the storm.

"...if I as an outsider could see it, I don’t know how the Countess or Lady Vanessa weren’t able to see it." Leona responded.

Vincent thought about this matter.

A few moments later, Leona shook her head and continued, "Maybe the problem was still not big enough for the Countess or Lady Vanessa to make a move. Maybe the house officials were busy regarding other things such as grain shortage and plague scare and rail lines disruption."

’That was indeed a good smoke screen.’ Vincent thought.

Back to back events had occurred within a month that was bound to distract his house’s officials. Plus he also had a disastrous engagement two weeks ago.

Surely his house was busy cleaning up this mess.

Vincent roughly got the answer he seeked.

In short, his house officials were busy with their own things and did not notice because the enemy moved slowly and quietly.

Leona noticed because of changes in resources her family bought followed by actively hunting for information regarding the movements.

It somewhat made sense now.

"Coming back to the topic of enemies—"

"Your Lordship."

A knight stopped before Vincent and bowed.

"There’s urgent telegrams."

Vincent took the papers and had a look.

"Rats infestation in grain storages—again!?"

His eyes twitched.

He continued reading.

The second telegram came from home.

"The house has been officially summoned to the Royal Court tomorrow morning in regards to ’unethical’ practices resulting in sharp rise in food prices and kingdom-wide protests."

Vincent knitted his brows.

"A second pest problem and an official summon to the Royal Court..." Leona muttered as she began thinking of a few things.

Before they could discuss, the soft crackling of boots stepping on grass rang in Vincent and Leona’s ears.

They turned their heads and saw Anastasia hurrying towards them.

Stopping before Vincent, she took a second to catch her breath and said, "Young master... the bandits... they’re all dead."

Vincent nodded.

"Seems like my sister is really capable. It hasn’t even been ten minutes."

He turned his head back to the telegrams.

"No. No." Anastasia shook her head. "The bandits were dead before we arrived and Silver Town was liberated earlier this morning!"

"What?"

"Let’s go to the town square. You’ll understand everything."