🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 24
“Though that family has been stuck guarding the border for nearly a hundred years, their martial prowess is no joke. I’ve even heard rumors that the young heir is already close to becoming a Sword Master. If, by any chance, they openly take the Third Prince’s side, things will become troublesome.”
Just then, the door to the inner chamber opened.
“Mother, I’m back!”
A small boy with golden hair stepped inside. Twelve years old this year—her precious jewel and the Empire’s First Prince, Albert.
The Empress relaxed her fiercely twisted eyes and greeted her son with a gentle smile.
“Albert, did you have a pleasant time with your brothers today?”
“Yes, Mother!”
The boy slipped neatly into his mother’s arms.
“And how was Lasian?”
“He stupidly drank all the tea I gave him again today!”
“Nothing particularly suspicious? For instance, did he take in any new servants?”
“Nothing like that. But even before drinking the tea, he didn’t look well.”
Albert answered with a sly grin. The crescent smile at his lips was exactly like Loreline’s.
“When I asked why, he said he couldn’t sleep last night. But that scrawny brat never sleeps well anyway!”
The Third Prince’s frailty was nothing new. To keep him from ever rising, they had planted a lackey in his palace and had been feeding him small amounts of poison since he was about five.
They had expected him to die naturally after about a year.
Yet four years had passed, and the Third Prince had stubbornly survived several crises. Of course, he was barely clinging to life and in no state to function as a proper person.
“For now, we’ll simply have to be more cautious.”
Even after reaching that conclusion, something felt unsettled.
Loreline stroked her son’s hair, lost in thought.
Hezeit’s suspicious movements.
The missing commander of the Black Lion Corps.
But more serious than either of those…
…the disappearance of the “Sage.”
More precisely, the person presumed to be the Sage.
“Mother, when will I get to meet my partners?”
“We’re searching everywhere for them, Albert. You’ll meet them one by one soon enough, so don’t worry.”
The Sage whom Loreline had earmarked as her son’s future strategist years ago.
The young daughter of Baron Cadis.
To be exact, the person the Empress had originally tried to recruit was the Baroness of Cadis.
A few years ago, through her natal family’s reliable intelligence network, she learned that the woman was a time mage from the White Forest.
She had already attempted to recruit her several times…
“That insolent woman dared to refuse my offer.”
After the Cadis family was exterminated for attempted regicide against the Emperor, the Baroness escaped the imperial underground prison—daughter in arms, no less.
She was later found dead in the swamplands of the southern Empire.
If the Baroness truly had been the Sage, she would have certainly passed on her authority before dying. Sages were required to appoint a successor.
By all probability, that successor was her young daughter. Loreline had been so certain of it that she pursued the matter leisurely.
That complacency was her mistake.
The child had vanished without a trace.
They scoured the swamplands where the Baroness’s body was found, but the girl was nowhere to be seen.
“A child that young couldn’t have survived alone. Someone must have taken her in. But for the trail to be this difficult…”
Unaware of his mother’s burning anxiety, Albert chattered excitedly.
“I want to meet her soon. A human clock—how cool is that?”
“The very fact that she’s so difficult to find proves her value. If we wait patiently, our patience will surely be rewarded.”
Loreline brushed back her son’s hair and kissed his forehead.
If she could only secure the Sage, claiming the imperial throne would be as easy as pie.
A power of the world itself—something even the strongest Sword Master or the highest-ranking mage could not dare to oppose.
If she could grasp and wield it, the Sage of the White Forest would be the decisive card against the tightly matched faction of the Second Prince.
She had to find the girl before someone else did.
“They said her hair was a vivid crimson. Her eyes teal, like her father’s.”
The child had been three when her family was annihilated, so she would be about five now.
A five-year-old girl with crimson hair and teal eyes. If they combed through all of Bertel, they would eventually find a trace.
She would strengthen the wanted notices in the major cities representing Bertel—first Rodafel, which connected the central region to the southeast, and Caspel, which linked the central region to the northwest.
Having reached her grim conclusion, the Empress’s eyes darkened to pitch black.
“Hey, mad dog. Bark.”
With both hands on his hips, the Second Prince, Lucius, gave the order triumphantly.
Lucius was a boy of exceptional build. His short wheat-colored hair and sharply upturned eyes radiated a competitiveness far beyond his ten years.
At his feet lay another boy, far smaller in stature. Bright blond hair spilled forward, completely covering his small face.
Cough. The blond boy hacked weakly. Lucius nudged his bony shoulder with his foot.
“I said bark. Show that nasty temper you use on your attendants, Lasian.”
Dirt and grass clung to the prone boy’s thin body. Seeing no sign of resistance, Lucius puffed out his chest arrogantly.
“See, Tesi? He’s worse than a worm. Not even worth worrying about.”
“O-Okay… I get it. Let’s go now, Lucius.”
Tenenesia, the cherished only daughter of the Duke of Pembroke and the future Second Princess Consort, tugged at her fiancé’s arm. Fear filled her face.
“Third Prince, your expression is a little…”
“Who are you calling a worm?”
Her words were abruptly cut off.
From beneath the thick curtain of golden hair, a low voice emerged.
“Are those wildcat eyes of yours just for decoration, brother?”
“What…?”
The boy wiped the dirt from his cheek with the back of his hand and looked up. His eyes, fixed on Lucius and Tenenesia, were a ruby red.
His gaze narrowed.
“Ah… I guess they are just decoration.”
Crimson eyes were the unmistakable symbol of the Bertel imperial family. It was the one thing Lucius, born of the former Empress, did not possess.
“Think carefully about who’s really the one of lesser worth in this palace. Who the real worm is, brother.”
Lucius’s eyes were green—nowhere near crimson. Nor were they a color inherited from his mother.
Because of that, whispers circulated throughout the imperial palace questioning whether the Second Prince truly carried the Emperor’s blood. Lasian had struck precisely at that sore spot.
Lucius’s face flushed red with humiliation.
“You… you bastard! Are you belittling my qualifications over a pair of eyes? You, the son of some mere maid!”
Overcome with rage, Lucius raised his hand and struck down. A sharp smack rang out, and the boy who had half-risen collapsed again.
Tenenesia gasped and clung to Lucius’s arm.
“Stop it, Lucius! If His Majesty finds out, you’ll be confined again.”
The Emperor despised fistfights within the palace above all else. Whatever schemes were plotted beneath the surface were of no concern—indeed, almost encouraged—but crude brawling like street thugs would never be tolerated.
Lucius brushed off his palm and glared at his younger brother.
“If you want to keep that frail body of yours intact, you’d better watch your tongue, Lasian.”
Instead of answering, the boy raised his middle finger.
In that instant, Lucius lost all reason and kicked him—an act that happened to catch the eye of the Emperor’s chamberlain passing nearby.
In the end, Lucius once again received a punishment of two weeks’ confinement.
