Episode 51

“Your Majesty?”

Aiden called out to me with a worried expression.

Bonita would claim that I have disqualifying reasons that prevent me from becoming the Empress of the Belpator Empire.

And she would present my father’s letter as evidence.

Do you have any idea what they might have fabricated as my disqualifying reasons?

“No, not at all.”

“Then any kind of slander is possible.”

Aiden was right.

All kinds of lies were possible. After all, it was a fabrication.

They could claim that I wasn’t in my right mind, that I was suffering from a terrible disease, or perhaps that I wasn’t even a real princess of Dirmil at all.

No matter how much I insisted otherwise, they would counter by asking why the King of Dirmil, my father, would lie.

Even if Lothania and the three beasts supported me, it would still be a constant issue.

If they stirred up the public sentiment among the citizens of the Empire, my standing would shrink to the size of a blade’s edge.

I thought I only needed to keep the three beasts and Bonita in check.

Who would have thought I would have to be wary of my own father back in my homeland?

How could he go to such lengths?

I am his child, carrying his blood.

We were a family that had lived together for twenty years.

I had nothing to say, and no energy to speak, so I just stood there, stunned. Then, with a serious expression, Lian spoke to Aiden.

“Duke Tilender, we need to secure that document, don’t we?”

“We do. But we also need a more fundamental solution. If the King of Dirmil cooperates, that document can be easily recreated.”

“By a fundamental solution, do you mean we should just crush Dirmil?”

I lifted my head and looked at Lian, who was spouting utter madness.

Even in the midst of my disbelief, his absurd words pierced through my mind.

Aiden glanced at me with a troubled look, while Lian seemed as eager as if he were about to declare war on Dirmil at that very moment.

All three beasts were far from normal, but Lian was on a completely different level of insanity.

“I meant we should deal with the House of Senwood.”

“Ah, right. We should start with that.”

As Aiden and Lian started finding common ground, Vitrain also chimed in.

He looked furious, as he was in a position where he had to head to the southern region soon.

“How about we crush them today? I’d like to deal with this before heading south.”

The three beasts exchanged ominous glances.

If left alone, they looked ready to march to the Senwood Marquisate together at any moment.

I had thought that it would be good for them to get along, but it turned out that these were not men who should be too friendly with one another.

“It would be wise to drop any thoughts of attacking a noble house leader without a just cause.”

I gently tried to dissuade them, but the mad serpent, Lian, continued with a bright smile.

“You need a just cause to poke at them a little, but if you’re going to completely crush them, you don’t need that, Your Majesty.”

“The princess and her children are part of that family. It wouldn’t be good for Lothania if we incur the wrath of the people.”

I couldn’t allow Lothania to be left with a political weakness because of me.

Lian pouted in displeasure, and Vitrain let out a short sigh.

Aiden hesitated, glancing at Lian and Vitrain, seeming reluctant to speak in front of them. After some thought, he finally opened his mouth.

“Actually, last night, we caught a rat.”

Everyone’s eyes turned towards him.

* * *

Aiden glanced at both the Serpent and the Eagle before letting out a short sigh.

Sione had urged them to get along, but three hundred years of mutual distrust and animosity couldn’t be resolved overnight.

With the master of the pact absent, their instinctive bloodlust had diminished. However, these beasts, desiring the same thing, were doing their best just by keeping their claws and fangs hidden from one another.

Given the circumstances, Aiden was conflicted about whether he should share the information he had with the Serpent and the Eagle.

After a lengthy deliberation, he made up his mind.

He didn’t trust them, but he knew that they had become genuine in their feelings toward Sione. It wasn’t a comforting thought, but Sione came first now.

“We’ve secured a witness who will testify that the Senwood Marquisate was behind the assassination attempt on Her Majesty the Empress and the murder of His Majesty the Emperor.”

Lian remained silent, seemingly unsurprised as if he had already suspected who was behind everything.

On the other hand, Vitrain looked at Aiden with significant surprise and asked.

“I thought the assassination attempt might have been their doing, but are you saying that the Marchioness of Senwood is also responsible for killing His Majesty?”

“There’s no concrete evidence left, but the circumstances point to that.”

Aiden replied, causing Vitrain to fall silent with a complex expression. This time, Lian spoke up.

“You mentioned catching a rat. Doesn’t that mean we now have proof?”

“The Shadow was a white ra.,”

Aiden replied, to which Lian clicked his tongue knowingly.

Sione blinked and asked again.

“Aiden, are you saying there was a Senwood Marquisate spy within the White Shadow?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. There was someone blocking the flow of information, which is why the Shadows couldn’t detect the two incidents in advance.”

Aiden answered with a bitter expression.

The rat they captured during last night’s surprise raid was a close aide who had been by Aiden’s side for the past five years.

He was a high-ranking member of the White Shadow, and therefore no one suspected him, allowing him to facilitate the Senwood Marquisate’s crimes.

When Deputy Commander Eric, who had shed tears of betrayal, interrogated him, the rat confessed everything he knew, as if he had given up on life.

Bonita had hired a forest keeper to assassinate the Emperor. After making the Emperor’s death appear as an accident, they killed the forest keeper to silence him.

She also hired an assassin to kill Sione. The rat informed Bonita that his fellow Shadows were tracking down the assassin. Thanks to that, Bonita was able to silence the assassin before the White Shadow could raid their hideout.

Although they succeeded in the rat hunt and secured a witness to testify against Bonita, Aiden found the whole situation bitter. The betrayal of a trusted subordinate was painful, but what made it worse was that the only witness was a former White Shadow member.

As Sione listened carefully to Aiden’s explanation, she pinpointed exactly what he was worried about.

“The Senwood Marquisate will claim that we fabricated that witness.”

Bonita would argue that the Empress made a White Shadow member give false testimony to undermine the Senwood Marquisate.

A small crack appeared on Sione’s dignified forehead.

As a sigh escaped her pink lips, the three beasts simultaneously held their breath.

Their collective killing intent was immediately directed toward the one who had caused her to sigh.

“We don’t need to entertain the nonsense of those who murdered the Emperor. Any unrest among the nobles can be dealt with after we’ve severed the head of the traitor, Your Majesty.”

Lian proposed with a cheerful smile, clearly eager to eliminate the group that had killed the Emperor and attempted to assassinate the Empress.

Would it be better to follow through with his suggestion? Or should they expose their crimes through a trial?

Sione couldn’t easily decide which option would wound Lothania less.

Seeing her hesitation, Lian flicked his tongue like a snake.

“If you’re going to deal with the Senwood Marquisate, you can’t give them time, Your Majesty. Now that the Marquisate’s knights and those from other noble families have joined the Royal Guard, we can suppress them with just the Guard.”

“But Lian, those knights are gathered close to the palace. Punishing a noble family without a trial could lead to unnecessary unrest.”

“Half of the Royal Guard consists of knights from my family and the Guard. We can handle it.”

Lian’s amethyst eyes sparkled as he spoke, causing Sione’s thoughts to become even more tangled.

As Sione was still wrestling with her decision, Vitrain, who had remained silent until now, suddenly asked, “Can we trust this testimony?”

“Are you suggesting that I’m lying?” Aiden growled immediately.

Vitrain shook his head without changing his expression.

“I’m just saying it’s strange that a White Shadow member, who should be able to withstand any interrogation, confessed everything. It’s also hard to believe that Marchioness Bonita, the Imperial Princess, was behind the assassination of His Majesty.”

Before Aiden could say anything, Lian frowned and interjected,

“Knowing full well who would become the next Emperor and our master if His Majesty and the Crown Princess died, you still talk as if you don’t understand.”

There was truth in his words.

There were countless cases of people discarding family ties in pursuit of power.

Bonita, who had always desired to become the master of the pact, could very well be guilty of such an act.

Despite the apparent logic, Vitrain didn’t argue against Lian’s point.

Thanks to Vitrain’s questions, Aiden’s mind became even more clouded.

Even putting aside Bonita’s ambitions, he also found it strange that his subordinate had confessed so easily.