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Chapter 37
Everyone had a premonition that when the current Pope died and a new one had to be chosen, a war of sorts would break out. The recent incident in the imperial palace was a clear example of this.
The Castraine ducal family had called High Priest Ilian to heal the princess. And Imperial Consort Cleo, in turn, called High Priest Marzid to prove and heal a curse that High Priest Ilian had failed to notice or heal, and to wake up Princess Titania.
What? A temple that doesn’t lust for worldly power? Don’t make me laugh. This matter was nothing less than a proxy war between the Ilian and Marzid factions.
As the Imperial Consort sneered at those who revered the temple, the door opened.
“High Priest Marzid has arrived.”
“Oh! Her Highness Imperial Consort Cleo. You get younger every time I see you!”
“Oh my, High Priest, you’re always stealing the words right out of my mouth.”
Imperial Consort Cleo gave a coquettish smile. Marzid, a high priest who was supposed to keep his body and mind pure and away from worldly temptations, looked at Imperial Consort Cleo’s smile with a pleased expression.
At first glance, Marzid looked like a kind-hearted, good-natured neighborhood uncle. He had a plump body covered in a generous high priest’s robe, and with no accessories and a simple appearance, the amiable smile on his face was pleasant to look at. However, that very generous high priest’s robe was made of a precious fabric that would take a skilled seamstress a full year to weave, and on the inside of the waistband, which looked like common cloth on the outside, a divine pattern was embroidered with gold and silver threads and precious gems. Despite his seemingly humble attire, the clothes he wore were worth as much as Imperial Consort Cleo’s dress.
“I’m sure you’ve heard about this matter, haven’t you? Do you think you can handle it well?”
“Have I ever, even once, disappointed Your Highness the Imperial Consort?”
“No, you haven’t. Hehe. If you handle this matter well, I will reward you handsomely.”
“Your Highness the Imperial Consort has always acknowledged my abilities.”
Laughing and chatting amiably, Imperial Consort Cleo headed for the Lilac Palace with the haggard-faced witness—the maid who had run out of the Rose Palace and screamed yesterday—and the evidence—the cursed object the Imperial Consort had fabricated.
Marzid was a man who was very easy to talk to. He understood all the circumstances and was fully prepared to cater to the Imperial Consort’s whims. In other words, he was willing to lie for his own benefit. What wouldn’t he do for future glory? If he succeeded in putting the future emperor in his debt, how would he know if he himself could become the next Pope?
Imagining a rosy future, Marzid walked slowly. He didn’t care about the other things that would happen if he testified that the young princess was cursed, nor did he care about the lives of the lower-class people who would die in countless numbers. Sacrifice was always a part of the greater good.
If the princess, who was pretending to be asleep in bed, still failed to “wake up” after he poured his divine power into her, he planned to stab her with a dagger on the pretext of having to purify the curse. If he stabbed her with a sacred dagger infused with divine power and then healed her, claiming that the curse was deep because she was in so much pain, who would dare to say anything? He would have succeeded in waking her up by at least making her scream and suffer. The thought of the opponent, who was rumored to be arrogant but exceptionally beautiful, screaming and crying made him excited. It was even more thrilling that even a high-ranking imperial family member would be unable to resist, no matter what he did.
Seeing that the Imperial Consort had a curse artifact imbued with darkness as evidence, it was possible that the Imperial Consort had secretly joined hands with those whom the temple had designated as heretics—those with dark power. But he planned to turn a blind eye to it. The temple also had to hold one or two weaknesses of the imperial family. Besides, wasn’t it a really good way to eliminate a competitor? He thought it would be a good idea to know a reliable supplier.
“There are surprisingly few people blocking our way. I thought the place would be crawling with soldiers.”
When Marzid said this in a surprised tone in front of the Lilac Palace, the Imperial Consort scoffed.
“What good would it do for them to block us when things have already gotten to this point? It would be a useless effort.”
“That’s true.”
“If anyone had blocked us when His Majesty the Emperor had given his permission, I would have had an excuse to arrest them. What a shame.”
“We could also hold them accountable for sympathizing with a heretic.”
The pair, who saw eye to eye, grinned. Only one person stood in front of the Empress’s palace. Countess Constance, the Empress’s maid, bowed her head. The Imperial Consort, with a winner’s smile, said, “Constance, it’s been a while. So, is the Empress well?”
“The Empress is well under Your Highness the Imperial Consort’s concern.”
“Oh my, to think that the young princess, who enjoyed the Empress’s glory for so long in this Empress’s palace, is well and without worry even though she has just learned that she is suffering from a curse… I thought that as a mother, her heart would be torn with pain.”
“Please come in.”
Imperial Consort Cleo snorted as if Constance’s reaction wasn’t amusing, but she nodded to High Priest Marzid to go in. The investigation was already over, and the Emperor had approved it. It was a hasty investigation that took less than two days, but no one would protest.
‘I wonder what kind of state that girl will be in to greet me?’
Imperial Consort Cleo was curious. Hadn’t she feigned crying so well during a meal to get what she wanted from the Emperor? She hadn’t seen her face directly since then, but…
The Empress was not a clever person. She focused on enduring and being patient unless it was a matter of great impact. Therefore, having the maids pray using a High Priest was not a typical action of the Empress. Well, this might even be a deception by the Empress. Or perhaps that cunning child had pulled a trick.
To think she would act this way now that she had the Castraine family as her backer? Either way, it was pathetic that she had made the Empress her ally. If this matter was properly concluded, she planned to suggest that the Empress be confined. That she didn’t have the qualifications to be Empress since she couldn’t even take proper care of one princess and allowed a curse to fester for so long.
Of course, the sword in the Rose Palace was truly an unexpected turn of events for her. The sword she had gifted… to think it was such a strange sword? In any case, since Imperial Consort Cleo herself hadn’t gifted it to Raymond, Titania would have taken the blame no matter what happened. They couldn’t have been unaware that Titania had no way of obtaining such a famous sword with a history. It was a good thing she hadn’t given it to Brian as she had originally intended. If such an incident had occurred in Brian’s hands, how much of a headache would it have been to clean up the mess?
In fact, the Imperial Consort was still puzzled as to why Titania hadn’t gifted the sword to Young Duke Raymond. It was a plausible excuse to call her fiancé, so why not?
Well, even if there was a problem now, the Imperial Consort wasn’t curious about the reason. It was enough that it was a factor she could use. Even if the sword suddenly became docile, she could still use it after High Priest Marzid had healed Titania.
Whether it was a demonic sword or a holy sword, it was ultimately humans who gave it a name. And the Imperial Consort intended to thoroughly fabricate the facts and use it for her own benefit, no matter what it was.
Despite them blocking people from entering and leaving so thoroughly, there was no resistance at all when they entered the Empress’s palace. Imperial Consort Cleo walked in with a joyful heart. She was even more satisfied since she had borrowed three Royal Guards, who could only be commanded by the Emperor, to accompany her. If anyone dared to resist, they would face a harsh lesson.
“This is the room where Her Highness Princess Titania is staying.”
Countess Constance explained in a dry voice in front of the closed door. Imperial Consort Cleo suddenly felt a little strange.
Why is the Empress’s palace so quiet?
No matter what, it was strange that the Empress hadn’t come out yet. And His Highness Adrian hadn’t even tried to save his mother when she was in trouble.
In any case, unless she personally went into the Empress’s palace and saw the princess, she couldn’t claim that ‘she is indeed cursed’ and heal her. So she thought they would hide the princess completely. Or, she thought they would quickly bring her out before Imperial Consort Cleo arrived, saying, ‘The princess has finally woken up.’
If she claimed that there was no curse and refused to meet Marzid, she planned to use the maids to claim that ‘Titania has gone strange due to the aftereffects of the curse,’ as that would be suspicious in itself. Whether she was cursed or crazy, since it was a fact that the adopted daughter of the Castraine ducal family had been saved, there would be no problem with the marriage, and the Emperor would condone it.
Either way, the Empress would not come out looking good. So she expected a fierce resistance, but…
In front of the door, Imperial Consort Cleo instinctively hesitated for a moment. It was at that very moment.
“Your Highness the Imperial Consort!”
A maid close to the Imperial Consort came running, panting from a distance. Imperial Consort Cleo frowned.
“Your Highness the Imperial Consort! Just a moment! Something terrible has happened!”
“How dare you call out to me at this important moment! What could be more terrible than this?”
She was irritated. But the maid, who was drenched in sweat, shouted in a panicked voice, “H-His Highness Prince Brian was chased by a monster that suddenly appeared and fell into the underground of the maze garden!”
“W-What did you say?!”
Imperial Consort Cleo was truly shocked.
