You Will Pay With Your Life For Deceiving Me

“It is not for Your Majesty to apologize. rather… I should apologize. I showed myself ugly in front of a precious person.”

Ophelia felt truly sorry for Winfred for making a child apologize in an unadulterated manner.

But apart from that, She didn’t have the confidence to keep managing her expressions in front of him. Wouldn’t it be easier to sort out her emotions if she was alone?

“I…, Majesty. If you don’t have anything else to say…  .”

Although the story was brought up carefully, it was an order to congratulate the guests. It was a request that might have been a bit rude for the crown prince of a country.

However, Winfred, who understood Ophelia’s feelings, obediently accepted the wedding invitation.

“Ah, then I’ll just…” 

“I was able to see you off.”

“Thank you for your consideration, Your Majesty.”

Ophelia got up from her seat, bent her knees, and showed respect.

Winfred, who was about to walk awkwardly out of the living room, leaving her behind, stopped in place as if something occurred to him.

“Oh, that…  I know that Ayla asked to keep it a secret from anyone except the Duke and Duchess, but…. I guess it’s because it’s related to treason. “Can I tell my dad?”

When he hesitantly asked, Ophelia, who was still standing blankly with a dark expression, looked at him.

“Oh, of course, you should tell Your Majesty about it. but… “Byron’s eyes seem to be everywhere, so I think the imperial palace will need to be careful about security as well.”

Even in the Duke’s house, which was believed to have had fairly thorough security, there was a hole through which news was leaking. What she meant was that there was nowhere to trust.

At her words, He thought for a moment, ‘That can’t be possible,’ but Winfred soon nodded. He has nothing to lose by being cautious.

Winfred returned to the imperial palace and went straight to see his father. He must have gotten permission from the Duchess because he had to tell him as soon as possible.

The importance of the story was one thing, but more than that, it was better to tell the story as quickly as possible to appease his father, who would get angry and ask, ‘Have you been hiding such an important story for such a long time?’

Don’t they say it’s better to get hit first?

And his father Hirum’s reaction was not much different from what Winfred expected. The only difference was that contrary to his imagination, he had an ecstatic expression rather than a sad expression.

“So, that’s the story you kept quiet about while the seasons changed three times.”

He met Ayla in early fall last year, and now it is already spring.

He seemed quite shocked by the fact that his son had kept such a big secret from him for so many years.

And Winfred thought it would be better to pretend to be upset and play around. He felt at a loss as He thought about how long the ending would last this time.

“I’m sorry, Father…,”

Winfred muttered in a dead voice. This incident gave him the twisted thought that he didn’t know how many people he was apologizing to.

However, it was true that he had hidden a huge fact from his father. Even if it was Ayla’s request.

Hirum sighed heavily and buried his face in his palms, not sure if he had heard his son’s apology. His thoughts were complicated.

He couldn’t figure out how to apologize to the Weishafen duchy and how to compensate them. Ever since he was young, he was used to Byron apologizing and trying to fix things on his behalf, but this was really…

Some may argue that the duke family who hid such a serious matter from the emperor should be held guilty of disloyalty, but Hirum thought it was natural to control his mouth when his daughter’s safety was at stake. He would have made the same choice if he were in Roderick’s situation.

This was something for the imperial family to apologize to the dukedom for and was never something to blame the dukedom for.

It was not because of the lingering affection between relatives that he was worried about this. It was impossible to forgive the person who tried to kill his father.

But does that mean that blood ties are cut off no matter where he cut them? Morally, Hirum was also responsible for Byron’s evil deeds.

This was not compensated with money or anything else. Even if he gets his child back, isn’t it impossible to turn back the time that has passed?

They couldn’t even get the child back right away. He needs to know where she is hiding.

They say he planned to use Ayla to kill Roderick, so he’ll have to send her back when the time comes…  I wondered if it was okay to just wait for that day.

The emperor buried his face in his palms and thought for quite a long time, and only after a while did he raise his head to find his son looking at him and fidgeting.

It seems that the father was worried but the father would get upset again this time because he always teased his son by pretending to be upset.

Of course, He would be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed.

It seemed like he trusted and followed his swordsmanship teacher more than him for a long time, but he was so brazenly hiding this secret from Roderick. Even though he didn’t even learn swordsmanship for that long.

But he didn’t have the heart to tease his son right now. Just thinking about how to fix the terrible things his brother had done was enough to make his head explode.

“I’m not mad at you, so you don’t have to worry about me like that, Win.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. It’s just that my head hurts thinking about what to do with this.”

Winfred looked very relieved at her father’s words.

“Well, I heard that someone went to the Inselkov Kingdom to look for Ayla  … “I might be able to find it soon.”

He looked at the people around him and whispered to his father in a quiet voice. He seemed anxious even though he was talking in a room where eavesdropping was impossible. Thanks to a thorough security spell.

“Well, I don’t know. How long will I be in the Inselkob Kingdom? The brother I know…, No, if it were him … “I don’t think I’ll miss this opportunity.”

Hiram spoke in a voice full of skepticism.

“A chance?”

Winfred tilted his head with a puzzled expression at his father’s unintelligible words.

“The war with the Sequim tribe. Thanks to the concentration of power in the northwest, there are fewer people to search for him now… … “I think it’s right and quickly return to the empire.”

Hiram laughed.

It was something that Winfred didn’t know for sure. Whether Byron would make that choice. Although he was said to be his uncle, he had never seen him since he was so young, so he barely remembered him.

However, since these were the words of his father, who had been close to him as a brother his whole life, they were quite trustworthy.

He was a little afraid that that vicious traitor would return to the empire again.

Byron’s ultimate goal is to ascend to the throne and to do so, he will try to get rid of himself as the crown prince.

That’s all. He was going to get rid of his father, mother, and everyone he loved.

However, there was a feeling greater than that fear. It was a feeling of joy at the fact that Ayla might return to the Peles Empire.

He has no idea where he is now or when he will be able to see her again.

Just the thought that she might be somewhere in this empire made him feel excited.

* * *

“Sister, sister!”

Early in the morning. Candace, who had barely finished a video conference with members of the Wizard Council until dawn, fell asleep and had to wake up to an unpleasant noise knocking on the inn room door.

When she heard the voice calling out to her, it seemed like he was from the information guild that had requested Ayla’s search.

Candace roughly tied her tangled hair with a hair tie around her wrist and opened the door with sleepy, half-closed eyes.

Because she didn’t even have time to take her eyes off it, her appearance was as messy as ever.

“What?”

Candace felt that she had made him feel uncomfortable by her indifferent tone, telling him to keep things simple because she was dying of sleep, and apologized with a very frightened expression.

“I-I’m sorry… ! How dare I ruin your sweet sleep … !”

He was about to kneel in the inn hallway and hit his head on the floor at any moment, so Candace quickly stopped him.

“Now that you have apologized, tell me quickly why you came.”

After finishing speaking, she yawned until her mouth was torn apart. All she wanted to do was quickly check his business and if nothing happened, she would go back in and sleep.

However, at the answer she heard, Candace lost sleep. Her dark eyes, which were on the verge of closing, suddenly regained their light and started sparkling.

“I found the trade ship you mentioned! Which upper ship is it?”

“What?”

“Yes! It is said that the sailors were drunk and talked about meeting pirates, so it must be clear. The date is also roughly correct.”

Hearing the good news, Candace hurried to get ready to leave. Even though getting ready meant only putting on the clothes she was wearing and the thin white coat she always wore.

And the man who saw her like that asked with an embarrassed expression.

“Well, sister…. “Are you going to do that?”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

Candace asked with a bright expression. It was a very literal question but to the man who was afraid of her, it sounded like ‘Are you dissatisfied?’

There was no way he would be dissatisfied with his scary sister, so he desperately shook his head.

“Oh, no! Well, I think you just need to take your eyes off it.”

Oh, my eyes. Candace looked into the small mirror on the table and roughly removed her eyelids with her fingers. After wiping off the dirt on her glasses, her appearance was no different from her usual self.

“Then let’s go.”

“Yes!”

With the man’s brave reply, Candace left the inn and moved near the port.