65
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His aversion to Sorcery was that extreme. Thinking about Sorcery, Senon suddenly recalled Cesare's deceased mother.
Having lost the Emperor's favor, she had gone mad and tried to win back the Emperor's heart by performing all sorts of Sorcery. After all methods failed and she grew increasingly irritable, she started a new love affair. She took a fifteen-year-younger knight of the Imperial Palace as her lover.
The knight, who admired Cesare, deliberately approached his mother. By becoming her lover, he could also get closer to Cesare.
It wasn't exactly a positive relationship, but the distance had certainly narrowed compared to a past where he didn't even know of his existence, so the knight's goal had been achieved.
Cesare's mother became completely infatuated with her new lover and stopped paying attention to Cesare. That alone was very useful, so Cesare also occasionally gave the knight his attention as if doing him a favor.
Then tragedy began when the knight was suddenly drafted and died on the battlefield. Cesare's mother believed that she could revive her dead lover with Sorcery. So she did all sorts of bizarre things. She even drew Cesare's blood several times, claiming she needed royal blood.
But the dead cannot return.
This was an immutable law, so Cesare's mother, who only repeated meaningless acts, eventually ended her life by suicide. The first to discover her choice, unable to overcome despair, were the twin Imperial Princes.
Neither Cesare nor Leone was surprised or saddened to see their mother hanging dead. As if it had been foretold, they simply accepted it calmly.
On the day of the funeral, no one mourned. There was only a strange sense of liberation. Senon also secretly rejoiced at her death. His mother was just an obstacle in Cesare's path.
Rummaging through the old past made him feel suffocated. As Senon chased away the recollections in his head with a heavy heart, he suddenly had an idea.
It was the moment when the hitherto scattered inferences were pieced together. But it was an inappropriate story to tell in the Imperial Palace. Senon slowly opened his mouth.
"...Want to go for a drink?"
Rohan readily accepted Senon's impulsive suggestion.
Originally, he should have returned to the Erzeht Grand Duke Residence and shared various stories related to Morpheus with Aileen.
However, the last judges he met were so stubborn that the conversation dragged on, and in the end, the work was finished much later than expected. Inevitably, he decided to give up today and visit the Grand Duke Residence early tomorrow.
Making good use of the unexpectedly remaining time, the two knights went to a bar and called Diego and Michele as well.
Sitting in a corner of the noisy bar, the four of them attracted all the attention. It was because of their sharp military uniform and their tall stature, which was clearly different from others.
Whether they were staring or not, the knights ordered a glass of beer each and gulped it down.
"Ah, I feel like I'm going to live."
Michele grinned, putting a cigarette in his mouth. Diego, who had rolled up his sleeves, stroked the tattoo on his forearm with his hand and asked.
"Why did you call us?"
"I'm going to tell you about my delusions."
At Senon's words, Michele gave a thumbs down and booed. Senon didn't care and spread a crumpled piece of paper on the table.
"Okay, listen. First of all, as I said before, this is all just my delusion."
Despite the confident announcement of his delusion, the Grand Duke's knights erased their playfulness as if they had never done so and focused on Senon's words. As Cesare's aide, Senon had created and succeeded in numerous operations. The knights generally relied on Senon when they had to use their heads.
"I've been thinking about why Your Excellency has changed."
Senon scribbled on the back of the paper he had used today with a pencil he always carried.
[Present - ?? - Future]
After writing them one by one, he wrote '7 years' below '??'.
"Remember what you said back then? 7 years."
Of course, everyone remembered. The words Cesare muttered before beheading the King of Calpen Kingdom.
"7 years ago."
In front of the knights who nodded in affirmation, Senon continued.
"I said that Your Excellency seems to have different memories from us. He has become strangely better at sensing things as he changed. As if he knew the future... Based on what he has said and done so far, it feels like this."
Senon drew a line backwards from the future to the present.
"Your Excellency returned from the future to the present due to some incident. That incident is related to Aileen."
Again, this is just a delusion, Senon added again. Then he looked at the knights' faces. Despite the absurd story, no one was making a ridiculous expression. Everyone had serious eyes.
They were people who usually bickered, but if it was Senon's words, they gave unconditional trust. Senon felt a little touched by their unwavering faith even when he was saying absurd things.
"Since we've started with delusions, let me say more. I think something terrible happened to Aileen, so he went back in time. That's what I think. For example..."
Senon hesitated for a long time before speaking carefully.
"Something like... execution."
Silence flowed among the knights for a moment. Rohan, who looked around, asked first.
"If so, by what means?"
"In fact, to satisfy all these delusions, we have to use an absurd method. I considered Sorcery first, but since Your Excellency hates it, I don't think that's it..."
"It could be Sorcery."
Senon's eyes widened at Diego's immediate answer. To his puzzled colleagues, Diego continued, fiddling with the earlobe where the piercing marks remained.
"I don't know about the past, but I think His Excellency now is capable of doing that."
He cherished Aileen in the past, but Cesare after the change was terrifying. Everyone was aware that it had gone beyond simply cherishing her.
"If Aileen really went through such a thing as you said, Senon, then maybe Your Excellency..."
As Diego's words trailed off, Rohan silently continued.
"He would have changed his life."
Even if it meant choosing Sorcery, which he hated so much.
Silence fell again. After tilting their glasses silently for a while, Michele suddenly asked a question.
"Then what does our master want? Aileen's safety? I don't think that's enough."
Michele frowned, holding a beer glass.
"Is it revenge after all."
Diego nodded briefly and added to Michele's remarks.
"Considering His Excellency's temperament, it's definitely revenge."
Rohan frowned and opened his mouth.
"Come to think of it, Your Excellency said something strange recently..."
"What?"
"He said it was a mistake to kill them all, that it was difficult to find them because he killed them too quickly."
Rohan pointed to 'Future' with his finger.
"The spies of the Calpen Kingdom tried to execute Aileen. Here, Aileen died, and Your Excellency took revenge by killing them all."
He spoke the terrible words calmly and moved his finger back to 'Present'.
"You can't do that in the present, right? You have to execute only those involved. But maybe now Your Excellency."
Making eye contact with the knights looking at him, Rohan quietly concluded.
"He doesn't seem to know all the masterminds behind the execution."
The laboratory at the Grand Duke Residence was a space that seemed to realize Aileen's dreams. All the confiscated research materials were neatly organized, and all sorts of expensive research tools were lined up. It was a truly wonderful space, but Aileen couldn't fully enjoy it.
It was because of the story she heard from Senon before showing her the laboratory. Senon praised Morpheus, saying that as soon as the research was completed, he would announce it to the Empire on a large scale.
Since the raw material was the raw material, she would inevitably have to go to trial the moment it was released to the world, but he reassured Aileen that he had made sure that she could win unconditionally.
"But if you are afraid of the trial, you should stop researching Morpheus."
Faced with Senon, who offered her the choice of whether to continue or stop the research on Morpheus, Aileen did not hesitate. It was a choice with a predetermined answer from the beginning.
"Morpheus... I'll make it."
Senon rejoiced and cheered for Aileen, and Aileen also thought it was a good choice, but... Apart from that, she couldn't help but be afraid.
She was now in a position where she might cause fatal harm to Cesare. Even if she did her best, she couldn't help but be afraid and tremble because she didn't know what would happen.
But Aileen couldn't indulge in her worries. It was entirely thanks to Cesare.
"......"
Aileen slowly moved her fork and knife, glancing at Cesare across from her. She had been seeing Cesare every day for the past few days.
She saw his face at breakfast or in the bedroom in the middle of the night, but it didn't feel real even when she saw him in front of her.
Glancing at Cesare, Aileen cut off the end of the grilled asparagus and put it in her mouth. Then, she squeezed her eyes shut at the strange sensation she felt below.
"Why?"
Cesare, who was drinking strongly brewed tea, took his eyes off the newspaper and asked immediately.
"Oh, no, it's just..."
Aileen mumbled excuses and hurriedly pretended to focus on the asparagus. Cesare, still staring at Aileen, said.
"Tell me honestly, Aileen."
"...I'm worried about my lower body."
Aileen, who confessed immediately, blushed and muttered.
"Maybe it's because... I applied the ointment."
Since that day, Cesare had been checking Aileen's lower body every day. He spread her legs and checked her condition, then applied the ointment.
He was so busy that he had to split his day, but he always took care of applying the ointment himself. Even if he had to come in the early morning and wake up Aileen, who was asleep.
Because of that, Aileen was tormented every night. It was because her body, which had no sense, kept heating up to the fingers that Cesare was healing. Every time, the treatment ended without satisfying her desire at the threshold of an ambiguous climax.
As these days continued, she felt like there was a subtle fever in her body even during the day. Even while learning the knowledge she needed to know as the Grand Duchess from Sonio and replying to letters, she suddenly had lewd thoughts.
So Aileen was waiting for her body to get better as soon as possible these days. She desperately wanted Cesare to allow her pleasure. She felt so far away from the memory of trembling with fear on her wedding night.
'I wish the treatment would end soon...'
Aileen, who was having lewd thoughts from the bright morning, came to her senses at the voice she heard.
"Today is the 7th day."
As Cesare said, today was the 7th day since they got married, and it was the day Aileen visited the Imperial Palace to receive the Erjetz's name.
Long fingers folded the newspaper in half. Aileen unknowingly followed his fingers with her eyes, then belatedly looked at Cesare. Cesare, who put the newspaper on the table, asked in a calm voice.
"Shall we not apply the ointment tonight?"
