Chapter 37
Everyone sensed that when the current Holy Emperor passed away and the time came to select a new one, a war that was not quite a war would break out.
A prime example of this was the recent incident at the Imperial Palace.
The Duchy of Castline had summoned High Priest Illian to treat the Imperial Princess.
In response, Imperial Consort Cleo had summoned High Priest Margid to prove the existence of a curse that High Priest Illian had neither noticed nor cured, and to wake Princess Titania by treating it.
The Temple sought no secular power? What a joke. This was nothing more than a proxy war between the Illian faction and the Margid faction.
As the Imperial Consort scoffed at those who revered the Temple, the door opened.
“High Priest Margid has arrived.”
“Oh! Imperial Consort Cleo. You seem to grow younger every time I see you!”
“Goodness, High Priest, you’re always stealing the words right out of my mouth.”
Imperial Consort Cleo gave a seductive smile. Despite being a High Priest who was supposed to shun worldly desires and maintain a pure body and mind, Margid gazed at her smile with a look of great satisfaction.
At a glance, Margid looked like a generous, good-natured man from next door. His stout frame was hidden beneath loose high priest robes, and he wore a simple outfit without a single ornament, a benevolent smile fixed upon his lips. It was a very pleasant sight.
However, those loose robes were made of a precious fabric that a skilled woman would have to spend an entire year embroidering just to weave, and the inside of his belt—which appeared to be common cloth on the outside—was embroidered with divine patterns using gold and silver threads intertwined with rare gemstones.
Though he looked like an unassuming village priest, the value of what he wore was equal to the cost of one of Imperial Consort Cleo’s dresses.
“I trust you’ve heard about the matter at hand? Are you confident you can handle it?”
“Have I ever disappointed you, Imperial Consort, even once?”
“You haven’t. Hoho. If you handle this well, I shall reward you handsomely.”
“The Imperial Consort has always recognized my talents.”
Sharing a friendly conversation, Imperial Consort Cleo headed for the Lilac Palace with a haggard-looking witness—the maid who had run out of the Rose Palace screaming yesterday—and the evidence—the proof of the curse she had fabricated.
Margid was a man who was very easy to talk to. He had grasped the entire situation and was fully prepared to cater to the Imperial Consort’s whims.
In other words, he was more than willing to lie if it served his interests. What wouldn’t he do for his future glory?
If he succeeded in putting the future Emperor in his debt, who knew if he might become the Holy Emperor one day?
Imagining a rosy future, Margid walked slowly.
He didn’t care about the consequences of testifying that the young Princess was cursed, nor did he care about the lives of the underlings who would perish in droves. Sacrifice was always necessary for a greater cause.
If the Princess, who was pretending to sleep in bed, continued to act as if she couldn’t wake up even after he poured divine power into her, he planned to stab her with a dagger under the pretext of needing to purify the curse.
If he stabbed her with a sacred dagger imbued with divine power and then treated her, claiming the curse was as deep as the pain she felt, who could say anything?
Simply making her scream and writhe in pain would count as successfully waking her up.
The thought of his opponent—rumored to be arrogant but exceptionally beautiful—crying and screaming made him feel naturally elated.
The fact that even a noble member of the Imperial family would be unable to resist whatever a High Priest did to them was even more thrilling.
Seeing that the Imperial Consort had prepared something tainted by darkness as evidence of the curse, he suspected she might have secretly joined hands with those the Temple had branded as heretics—those with the power of darkness. But he intended to turn a blind eye. The Temple needed to hold one or two of the Imperial Family’s weaknesses, after all.
Besides, it was an excellent way to eliminate a rival. He thought it would be wise to find out the proper source of such items later.
“There are fewer people blocking our way than I expected. I thought soldiers would be stationed everywhere.”
When Margid spoke with surprise in front of the Lilac Palace, the Imperial Consort scoffed.
“Now that things have escalated to this point, what could they possibly achieve by blocking us? It’s a futile effort.”
“That is true.”
“If anyone had blocked us when His Majesty the Emperor had given his permission, I would have used it as an excuse to have them dragged away. How disappointing.”
“We could have even charged them with sympathizing with heresy.”
The pair, perfectly in sync, smirked at each other. Only one person stood before the main gate of the Empress’s palace. Countess Constance, the Empress’s lady-in-waiting, bowed her head. Wearing a victor’s smile, the Imperial Consort spoke.
“Constance, it’s been a while. Tell me, is the Empress well?”
“Her Majesty is well, thanks to your concern, Imperial Consort.”
“My, the young Princess, who should have enjoyed Her Majesty’s glory in this palace for a long time, has only just been discovered to be suffering from a curse… yet she is well and without worry. I thought she would be heartbroken, being a mother herself.”
“Please, come inside.”
Imperial Consort Cleo snorted as if Constance’s reaction was boring, but gestured to High Priest Margid to enter.
The investigation was already over, and the Emperor had approved it. It was a rushed investigation that took less than two days, but no one would protest.
‘I wonder what state that girl will be in when she greets me?’
Imperial Consort Cleo was curious.
At the dinner table, hadn’t she cleverly gotten what she wanted from the Emperor by pretending to cry so vividly? She hadn’t seen her face directly since then, but…
The Empress lacked tact. Unless it was something that would deal a significant blow, she focused on enduring and being patient. Therefore, using a High Priest to make the maids pray was unlike the Empress.
Well, perhaps even this was something the Empress intended to deceive her with. Or maybe that sly little brat was up to something.
To act this way now, just because she had the Castline family as her backing?
Either way, making the Empress her ally was a pathetic move.
Once this matter was properly settled, she intended to argue for the Empress’s confinement. She would claim the Empress was unfit, having failed to properly nurse the Princess and allowing a curse to fester for so long.
Of course, the sword in the Rose Palace had been a surprise even to her.
To think the sword she had gifted was such a… strange sword.
Since Imperial Consort Cleo herself hadn’t been the one to gift it to Raymon, Titania would have taken the fall no matter what happened.
They couldn’t possibly be unaware that Titania had no way of obtaining such a legendary sword with such a history.
She was glad she hadn’t given it to Brian as she had originally intended. If such a thing had happened in Brian’s hands, how much of a headache would it have been to clean up the mess?
In fact, the Imperial Consort still found it strange that Titania hadn’t gifted the sword to Young Duke Raymon.
It was a perfect excuse to call for her fiancé, so why?
Well. Even if a problem had arisen now, the Imperial Consort wasn’t curious about the reason. It was enough as long as it was an element she could exploit.
Even if the sword suddenly became docile, she could still use that in her favor after High Priest Margid treated Titania.
Whether it was a demonic sword or a holy sword, humans were the ones who named them in the end. And the Imperial Consort intended to fabricate the facts to serve her own purposes, regardless of what it was.
Despite having strictly blocked people from entering or leaving, there was no resistance at all as they entered the Empress’s palace.
Imperial Consort Cleo walked with a light heart. She was even more satisfied because she had borrowed three members of the Royal Guard, whom only the Emperor could command, to accompany her. Anyone who resisted would be taught a harsh lesson.
“This is the room where Princess Titania is staying.”
Countess Constance explained in a dry voice in front of the closed door. Imperial Consort Cleo suddenly felt a bit strange.
Why was the Empress’s palace so quiet?
Even so, it was strange that the Empress hadn’t come out until now. Prince Adrian hadn’t even attempted to save his mother from this predicament.
In any case, unless she personally entered the Empress’s palace and saw the Princess, she couldn’t “cure” her by claiming she was indeed cursed. So she had expected them to hide the Princess away.
Or, she thought they might quickly send the Princess out before Imperial Consort Cleo arrived, claiming she had “just woken up.”
If Titania refused to meet Margid by claiming she wasn’t cursed, she had planned to use the maids to claim that “Titania has become strange due to the aftermath of the curse,” making her refusal seem suspicious.
Whether she was cursed or mad, the fact remained that she had saved the adopted daughter of the Duchy of Castline, so there would be no major issues with the marriage, and the Emperor would overlook it.
In any case, the Empress wouldn’t see a good outcome. So she had expected fierce resistance…
In front of the door, Imperial Consort Cleo instinctively hesitated for a moment. It was then.
“Imperial Consort!”
From a distance, one of her close ladies-in-waiting came running breathlessly. Imperial Consort Cleo furrowed her brow.
“Imperial Consort! Wait! Something terrible has happened!”
“How dare you call me at such an important moment! What could be more important than this!”
She was irritated. However, unlike her usual self, the lady-in-waiting, who arrived drenched in sweat, shouted urgently.
“Pr-Prince Brian was suddenly chased by a demon beast and fell into the basement of the Maze Garden!”
“Wh-wh-what did you say?!”
Imperial Consort Cleo was truly shocked and nearly fainted.