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Chapter 29
“This is an utterly absurd situation!”
The first state council meeting since the Hunting Festival had begun.
The Minister of Finance spoke, his face pale as chalk, his voice desperate.
“How can a foreign trade guild possibly rake in such exorbitant profits on our soil? And of all things, only on green-hued gems! It’s as if they knew in advance that Your Majesty’s decree to seal Cerilda would make green the season’s trend!”
All eyes turned toward the source of the comment.
Count Elle, the Chief of the Imperial Household, stiffened under the gaze of the gathered ministers.
“Are you implying the Imperial Household is at fault?”
“I apologize if it sounds harsh, Count Elle, but isn’t it true that only the Imperial Knights’ leadership and the Chief of the Household would know the exact name of the demon to be resealed during the Hunting Festival?”
“I would never leak such information. As the Minister of Finance said, the candidates are obvious enough—why would I do something so foolish? That’s a baseless accusation.”
“But it’s equally impossible to think the Imperial Knights leaked it!”
The other ministers seemed to agree with the Finance Minister, their eyes fixed solely on Count Elle.
Elle was known for his fairness, and it seemed unlikely that a man trusted by the Emperor to ascend to Chief of the Household would commit such a betrayal. Yet, compared to the Knights who had shared life and death with the Emperor since his princely days, Elle at least had a plausible chance.
“I don’t want to suspect the Chief of the Household either. But have you considered every possible way this secret could have been exposed?”
Elle pressed his brows together.
“All demon-related documents are encrypted, and I’ve only ever let my closest aides touch them.”
The council meeting dragged on, mired in confusion.
During a brief break, Count Elle’s butler visited him and learned of the ongoing discussion. Upon hearing that his master was being suspected, the butler’s breath caught in fear, and his face turned ghostly pale.
“M-Master…”
The butler whispered urgently to Count Elle.
The Count’s eyes widened slowly.
“…Her?”
“Yes. Just for a moment, but…”
It seemed that during a single instance when the butler had delivered a confidential document, the Empress had seen it.
Elle’s expression grew grim. Could it be that in that fleeting moment, Her Majesty had glimpsed the contents of the document? No. That was impossible. He shook his head, dismissing the thought.
“Is that true?”
The Finance Minister, eavesdropping nearby, shouted loudly, drawing all eyes toward him.
Elle scowled. He had long suspected the Minister had sharp ears, but now he wondered if the man was actually a rodent in disguise.
“That’s impossible. As I said, all documents are encrypted. You’re suggesting that in just a few seconds, Her Majesty saw the documents, memorized the codes, and deciphered them? That’s absurd—completely impossible.”
It wasn’t disrespect for the Empress. Even a highly trained operative couldn’t perform such a feat in seconds. Count Elle hadn’t entrusted the butler lightly; the documents were sealed with extraordinarily strong codes.
“If that’s the case, then no suspect is impossible to consider! As the Chief of the Household knows, this is a very serious matter. A foreign guild is practically sweeping our kingdom’s wealth!”
The Finance Minister’s voice trembled with indignation.
“A full investigation is necessary—anyone who might have been exposed to the secret! That includes the Imperial Knights’ leadership, the Chief of the Household, the butler, and… even the Empress herself if she saw the document that night!”
The council chamber fell silent, the air icy.
All eyes turned toward one figure—the Emperor—who observed the turmoil without a word.
Marquis Zepher felt a thrill unlike any he had experienced. He could swear this kind of exhilaration could make him young again.
“Are these figures accurate?”
His voice trembled with excitement as he forced it down. The branch manager of the Terrarosia Guild bowed his head.
“Yes, the detailed ledger will be delivered for your confirmation. We are grateful for your meaningful cooperation.”
“Yes. Without my involvement, this outcome would never have been possible.”
The unreal sums written in the ledger made the Marquis’s heart race. Even for Zepher, who had resurrected his family’s declining fortunes with a single clever scheme, these numbers were extraordinary.
Zepher loved money—it meant power and pride. Born into a fallen noble family and often underestimated, he had vowed to rise to the top of the kingdom through wealth.
This year’s Hunting Festival was crucial for him.
The distraction with Lucretia and the seemingly meaningless tulip—whether purple or yellow—had been part of a layered plan. Pushing the Empress off the cliff and framing Count Johannes had crushed a political rival while creating a staged crisis.
Moreover, the act had a dual purpose. If Lucretia succeeded in meeting the Emperor and conceiving an heir, all the better. The hallucinogen he had prepared was potent enough to incapacitate even the monstrous Emperor. Once the Empress floated down the river, the Emperor would instinctively rescue her, bringing them physically close. At that moment, the hallucinogen would strike—nothing could stop it.
And if the Emperor let her drift to her death?
‘Not the worst outcome,’ the Marquis thought. He could then use her demise as leverage against the Emperor.
Initially, that was enough for him—until that night, when he glimpsed the document through Lucretia’s iris cover.
“That’s…”
Late at night, Zepher’s eyes widened at the sight of the meticulously encrypted document dropped by the butler in front of the Empress.
‘This is confidential. Truly monumental secret!’
He immediately copied every code by hand. Then he ran to the underground guild he usually dealt with, offering a massive sum. Days later, the results came back—deciphered. Even the guild leader, a genius, had taken two weeks to crack it.
As expected, the document revealed the name of the demon to be summoned during the Hunting Festival. From that point, Zepher’s excitement surged—this intelligence meant he could effortlessly seize all the blind money from this year’s social elite.
Contacting the Terrarosia Guild, he secured a staggering 70% of the profits. To obtain that instead of 60%, he had to comply with a bizarre request from the guild branch manager…
‘What a creepy, perverse request,’ he thought.
He promised generous rewards to Eleanor, who assisted with the task, making her thrilled.
With emeralds monopolized and profits secured, the Guild paid the Marquis his promised share—an amount that made his heart pound with exhilaration.
His butler rushed in, panicked.
“M-Master! She—”
“Out of the way!”
A towering old man barged into the room.
“You’ve gone mad, Marquis!”
The senior minister shouted upon seeing Zepher.
“You used the iris cover for this?”
The iris cover Lucretia wore contained divine power—a gift from the gods, refined as mana. Scholars had created numerous relics from such mana, and the iris cover was a masterpiece.
It wasn’t merely to change eye color. Its true function was far greater: every scene observed through the cover was recorded on a connected crystal plate, which was in Zepher’s possession.
“For something like this, Your Excellency?”
Zepher forced a pleasant smile, slightly embarrassed.
“I intended to inform you immediately, Your Excellency. Surely I would not withhold any due share from you. Whether it’s 60% or 70%, it is rightfully yours—”
“For the sake of gold alone!”
The senior minister roared.
“You ruin things for the sake of treasure! Do you think I entrusted something so precious to you for petty gain?”
The iris cover was incredibly valuable. Most importantly, the Emperor had no idea such a device existed. Those unaware cannot guard against it.
The minister had planned to use the Empress’s planted spy to uncover the palace’s deepest secrets. It was never meant for mere gold.
‘If the Emperor discovers Lucretia’s iris cover because of this…’
The plan would fail, the cover rendered useless, and Lucretia would be ousted.
“I never should have allied with such a foolish man. The poor live like this!”
Even the fallen Zepher family had far more wealth than commoners, but the senior minister, surrounded by gold all his life, was in a league of his own.
The Marquis’s expression stiffened, then softened into a wry smile.
“Calm yourself, Your Excellency. I’ve already set things in motion in the palace. Suitable scapegoats are in place; there’s no need to worry about Lucretia being summoned—”
“What careless nonsense! Has news not reached you yet?”
The minister’s face twisted in fury.
“The Emperor has already gone to the Empress’s chamber himself!”
“…What?”
Zepher blinked. He had expected Lucretia to become a suspect, but not that the Emperor would move so directly. That implied he already possessed evidence.
‘No. I handled the aftermath carefully. The Terrarosia Guild won’t have discovered my involvement yet!’
The minister’s glare bore into the panicked Marquis.
“Do you still not understand? Your daughter’s neck may be at the mercy of the Emperor’s sword right now!”
