The Tyrant Wants To Live Honestly

Dorothea locked eyes with the servant and peered at the blue marks left by the tiny cracks in the gold ring.

 

And after touching the ring a few times, the top of the ring clicked open like a lid.

 

“Ugh, ugh…!”

 

The servant stumbled backward, and Stephan and Paul caught her.

 

“You can’t just dispose of a crime tool as precious as gold.”

 

Dorothea said, showing the inside of the blue-tinged ring to the crowd.

 

Then the faces of the envoys turned pale.

 

“You can’t burn gold, and if you throw it away, it’ll be easily discovered. But if you keep it somewhere out of sight, you’ll feel uneasy.”

 

Dorothea gestured slightly, handing the ring to a scholar who could identify the poison.

 

“If it’s a gold ring, it’s a pretty perfect hiding place, so I’m sure she’d rather keep it to herself and keep an eye on it, right?”

 

Dorothea turned to the servant and asked.

 

The servant suddenly trembled all over and fell to her knees.

 

“I, I just did what I was told!”

 

Dorothea looked down at the servant.

 

“You did as you were told…..Let’s take a closer look at who gave the order.”

 

Dorothea made a slight gesture and the knights led her out. The air in the conference room became as chilly as a midwinter north wind.

 

As the servant was led away and the conference room door closed as if nothing had happened, Dorothea looked around at Mulkybell’s envoy with a soft smile.

 

“Okay, let’s find out who is behind all this.”

 

* * *

 

“It seems Prince Luheit has woken up.”

 

As they left the conference room, Ethan said to Dorothea.

 

Because Dorothea had promised to return to the conference room once Luheit woke up.

 

“Yeah. He’s still having trouble eating and moving around, but it doesn’t seem like there are any major problems.”

 

Ethan nodded in relief at Dorothea’s words.

 

Then Dorothea stopped walking and looked back at Ethan.

 

“Thank you, Ethan.”

 

“For what?”

 

“Thank you for holding them for so long. It must have been hard.”

 

Dorothea took Ethan’s hand.

 

One of the reasons Ethan held the envoys back was to buy time until Luheit woke up.

 

Dorothea and Ethan suspected there were two culprits in this case.

 

First, Luheit himself. And secondly, there is internal strife within the Mulkybell delegation.

 

Therefore, Dorothea could not allow the Mulkybell people, who were likely to be the culprits, to roam the palace freely.

 

However, if she openly suspects and detains them in a situation where the royal family is under suspicion, it could backfire.

 

At least to outsiders, it would appear that the royal family was involved in Luheit’s death.

 

Detaining Mulkybell could make it look like the Imperial Family is trying to cover up and manipulate the incident.

 

Therefore, Dorothea willingly gave Mulkybell the authority to investigate.

 

But if they were really free to roam around, the possibility of tampering with evidence also increased.

 

‘That’s probably why they insisted on searching Ethan’s palace.’

 

Hiding evidence under the guise of searching would be a way to frame Ethan.

 

So Dorothea pretended to give Mulkybell the authority to investigate and left them in Ethan’s hands.

 

“Thanks to that, I was able to find out about the ring too.”

 

Dorothea thanked Ethan for another favor.

 

It was also Ethan who told her all about the servant’s ring.

 

He observed them closely for a long time and noticed that the servant was particularly fondling the ring on her hand when they were talking about the culprit.

 

“I’m glad I could help. So Prince Luheit was really just a victim?”

 

Ethan asked, secretly curious.

 

‘If it was Luheit’s own play, I would have thought of sending him to the real afterlife as he wished. But, unfortunately, it seems he was truly a victim of poisoning.’

 

“Yeah. I think it was because of the internal strife within Mulkybell.”

 

As the conflict between the pro-imperial and anti-imperial factions within Mulkybell was intense, it seemed that there were people within the delegation who were trying to eliminate the pro-imperial faction, Luheit.

 

“It would be best to hear the details directly from Prince Luheit.”

 

Dorothea headed to the room where Luheit was lying.

 

Immediately after the incident, he had no choice but to move to Dorothea’s bedroom, but after that, he was moved to a nearby palace with increased security so that he could focus on treatment.

 

As Dorothea knocked and entered, Luheit, who was lying on the bed, got up to greet her.

 

“Your Majesty!”

 

His face brightened when he saw Dorothea, but his expression hardened when he saw Ethan following behind her.

 

“Duke Bronte is here, too.”

 

A distinct mood difference from when he just called out ‘Your Majesty’.

 

Ethan wanted to say something but then decided not to. Dorothea was by his side anyway.

 

“I came because I felt I should tell the prince what happened.”

 

Dorothea told the prince what had happened in the conference room.

 

The servant who was revealed to be the direct culprit was locked in an underground prison, and each member of the delegation was separated into separate rooms and kept under the watch of knights.

 

“I see, that’s what happened…”

 

Luhait nodded as if he had expected it to some extent.

 

“Since this is an issue, I should also know a little bit about the background of this matter.”

 

Dorothea sat down on the chair and asked Luheit.

 

Luheit, as if he had no other choice, explained the situation in Mulkybell in detail.

 

“Your Majesty knows my older brother.”

 

“You mean Prince Kishir, the first prince?”

 

“Yes. He is the leader of the anti-imperialist faction. My older brother has hated my brother and me since we were young.”

 

Being the firstborn, he saw his younger brothers as mere threats to his throne. Because of that, he bullied his younger siblings from a young age and made them obey his words.

 

“My older brother’s tyranny got worse after my brother entered Episteme.”

 

Episteme was the continent’s premier educational institution, attended by royalty and nobles from other countries.

 

But the first prince, Kishir, was rejected from Episteme after three attempts.

 

The second prince, Kerbon, on the other hand, was admitted to Episteme in one go and stayed for years.

 

“I guess that really hurt my older brother’s pride.”

 

Luheit said that from that day on, Kishir took on anti-imperialist leanings.

 

When Luheit reached the age to take the episteme, Kishir threatened Luheit and prevented him from even taking the episteme exam.

 

“As time passed, my older brother’s anti-imperial was growing like wildfire. And he began to harass my brother, who attended Episteme, calling him a lackey of the Empire.”

 

The political fight between the Mulkybell princes began there.

 

And Luheit took the side of the second prince, Kerbon rather than the first prince, Kishir who was harassing him.

 

The more that happened, the more Kishir became gripped by a sense that his younger brothers were threatening him.

 

“Actually, this isn’t the first time my older brother has tried to hurt me.”

 

He had also been stabbed and seriously injured by an assailant in Mulkybell.

 

So when he realized that his coffee was poisoned, the first thing that came to his mind was Kishir.

 

“The reason he did this in the palace was probably because he needed a spark to start a feud with the empire.”

 

It would have been an attempt to strengthen the cause of the anti-imperialist faction by simultaneously killing his brother and holding the empire responsible for it.

 

“And perhaps he knew I had a crush on Your Majesty…”

 

“A crush?”

 

Dorothea asked back.

 

At that, Luheit paused and stared at Dorothea in disbelief.

 

‘No way, I’ve been sending out signals, and she didn’t realize it? I’ve given her gifts, compliments, asked her out on dates…’

 

Then Ethan, who had been watching him, opened his mouth.

 

“Well, please continue speaking, Prince Luheit.”

 

Luheit shut his mouth at the sight of Ethan’s golden eyes shining as if threatening him.

 

It would be ridiculous to explain his feelings in detail to Dorothea.

 

Luheit gave up and continued speaking in the face of Ethan’s silent threat.

 

“If I were to marry Your Majesty, the pro-Imperial faction would gain power and my influence in Mulkybell and the Empire would be strong. That is why the anti-imperial faction has taken action.”

 

“I understand what you mean… but marry me? I am already married to the Duke of Bronte.”

 

Dorothea furrowed her brow, saying she had no idea what he was talking about.

 

A reaction that is so naive that it’s frustrating.

 

Luheit was about to retort by saying that an emperor can have multiple concubines, but then closed his mouth.

 

It was because he thought that saying something like that would have no effect on him since Dorothea was so insensitive.

 

And there’s Ethan, who’s standing next to Dorothea with his eyes wide open.

 

“Anyway, I am truly sorry to have gotten you involved in something like this, Your Majesty.”

 

Luheit bowed his head and apologized.

 

* * *