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Chapter 62
Aegis’s eyes went wide, and his mouth dropped open.
The shaking of his pupils clearly revealed just how shocked he was.
“This can’t be… His Highness has never gone to the central palace on his own initiative even once.”
“His Majesty is going? The Prince himself said so?”
“Yes.”
Aegis was so stunned by Lerazie’s calm shrug and composed reply that he could barely manage to speak.
“May I… ask if His Highness’s mental health is… well… stable these days?”
“Don’t you want to live long?”
“Ha ha, of course he’s fine!”
When Lerazie squinted both eyes, Aegis quickly lowered his tail.
But his concern was genuine. Lerazie and the Emperor did not get along at all.
“To be precise, His Highness is being used, really.”
Aegis spoke cautiously.
“Still, are you sure it’s really okay?”
“What if it’s not okay?”
Lerazie asked in return.
His expression and demeanor were so composed that Aegis almost thought he was dreaming of the Lord he knew from the past.
“No, Your Highness.”
But Lerazie was secretly aware of Aegis’s concern and decided to reassure him a little.
“Don’t worry. I don’t plan to go inside.”
“Then…?”
“Calliope is meeting with His Majesty. I’ll go out to greet her as her partner.”
He remembered last time, she had gone to the banquet but ended up elsewhere.
He frowned as he recalled something.
“But knowing her impatient personality, she may have already finished and left.”
By then, quite some time had passed after rescuing Rodion.
“Then there’s no point in going out to greet her, right?”
“Ah, but the gesture matters. She surprisingly likes that kind of thing.”
Having decided on Calliope’s tastes on his own, Lerazie waved his hand meaningfully this time, indicating he would indeed go, and left the Prince’s palace.
“I better hurry before I hear her scolding me for being late.”
Recalling Calliope’s nagging, he clenched his teeth and quickened his pace.
However, unbeknownst to him, a faint smile had begun to hang on Lerazie’s lips.
Calliope had her own reasons for deciding to meet with the Emperor personally to settle matters.
“I guarantee it, that letter will be one hundred percent lost, won’t it?”
“There’s someone bold enough to intercept a letter meant for the Emperor?”
Frowning, Calliope could quickly deduce who that person was.
“Empress Tanesia…”
“And Lucius’s advances toward you are subtly influenced by the Empress behind the scenes.”
“That’s somehow annoying.”
Of course, Calliope was well aware that many people were interested in her. Among them were even members of the royal family.
However…
“Why are they making such a fuss when I clearly said no?”
She muttered softly and followed the attendant down the corridor.
As expected of the Emperor’s palace, the interior was extremely lavish.
Magic stones hung from the pillars along the walls, and ornate frescoes adorned the ceilings.
Decorations placed at regular intervals along the corridor were all expensive treasures.
Yet Calliope’s eyes remained cold.
“While the people of the Empire are starving.”
Due to years of drought, the Empire’s food situation was in shambles.
The southern regions, directly affected by locust swarms, were in dire straits. Starving citizens had even revolted several times.
Archibald had hurriedly sent food aid to the south after receiving urgent reports.
Though the administration periodically released funds to alleviate the situation, it was merely to prevent the enraged citizens from rising and threatening the throne.
“That the innocent people must pay the price for someone unqualified occupying the Altesion throne…”
Thinking that the royal family was utterly impossible to like, Calliope arrived at the audience chamber door.
After the attendant announced her arrival, Calliope entered.
“Hail the sun of the Empire, the great Emperor.”
She had perfected her poker face and greeted Emperor Bartole with flawless etiquette.
The middle-aged Emperor looked down at her with an ambiguous smile.
“This is the first time I’ve accepted an audience request from someone without a title.”
Calliope subtly frowned.
“Trying to assert dominance right from the start, huh.”
The Emperor did not bother to hide his clear intention to overwhelm her.
“Or perhaps he doesn’t even feel the need to hide it because he looks down on me so much.”
Unfounded contempt and discrimination were sometimes what young female noble heirs faced. Some nobles still clung to outdated ways of thinking.
“I expected it, though.”
Calliope had always fought back twice as hard in such situations, but that didn’t mean it didn’t irritate her.
“Huh… control yourself, Calliope Verdi.”
The opponent was the Emperor. She could not act purely on impulse.
But that did not mean she would simply let it slide.
“I have come as a representative of the Marquess Verdi. Therefore, it is incorrect to say I lack the qualifications.”
She spoke clearly, maintaining proper posture without any sign of faltering.
“Bold, aren’t you?”
Bartole observed her with a faintly amused smile.
“You may rise, Viscountess Verdi.”
Calliope straightened her back gracefully.
The yellow eyes, the symbol of the royal family, gleamed like a predator assessing suitable prey.
“Those eyes are always unpleasant.”
Despite being the same golden hue, they were completely different from Lerazie’s. She stared directly at the Emperor.
“So, the reason for this audience?”
Even though he knew, he asked, still trying to assert control.
Calliope had anticipated this and answered without hesitation.
“I wish to request engagement to His Highness, the Seventh Prince.”
Calliope handed the attendant the letter: a proposal from Archibald seeking engagement.
The letter was soon in the Emperor’s hands.
Bartole read the words, written in gold-tinged ink on luxurious paper, without much care.
The contents themselves were not the important part.
“I heard Viscountess Verdi does not get along well with the Seventh Prince.”
True, they argued so much that they became attached to each other, Calliope resisted the urge to reply.
“That was in the past. Have you not heard the recent news?”
Her words mocked the outdated timeframe, also urging him to move to the main point.
“Hah!”
Seeing Calliope remain unbowed, Bartole’s smile deepened.
“I do not approve.”
For the first time, a crack appeared in Calliope’s otherwise composed face.
“May I ask the reason?”
“Is there not a more suitable match for you?”
Could it be he meant the Crown Prince? Calliope looked at the Emperor.
Seeing her expression, he stretched his lips in a long line.
“So he intends to manipulate me, huh? Not going to happen.”
Resolute, Calliope lifted her chin.
Her arrogant, confident expression caused the Emperor’s snake-like pupils to contract.
Calliope threw out the line she had prepared.
“Have you heard the news that magical stones were recently discovered in the Verdi territories?”
She carefully observed the Emperor’s reaction.
His expression did not change. But it was not merely an act of composure.
“What of it?”
A response that conveyed displeasure.
In that moment, Calliope realized something.
Her previous question had been deliberately posed to gauge the Emperor.
The illegal mining of magic stones connected not only to the Second Prince but possibly even to the Crown Prince and the Empress.
“The key was to figure out whether the Empress acted alone or if the Emperor was behind it.”
Having read the answer in Bartole’s reaction, she twisted her lips slightly.
