***

Emperor Yurik looked down coldly at the fake Prince Sion, who was dancing without rest.

He thought it was foolish.

Just intoxicated by his position as a prince, dancing without pause.

To build connections with high nobles, rather than such dancing, it would be better to stand leisurely and converse with the nobles.

What was the point of dancing with ladies in fancy dresses under the sparkling chandelier?

Most of those dancing with that prisoner pretending to be ‘Prince Sion’ were those who had not yet inherited their titles.

Look. Even that young lady in the white dress holding hands with the prince now, how young she is, stiffening with…

“-Kyaak!”

In an instant, the white dress was stained red. Those dancing around backed away with screams.

The young lady’s dress was soiled by the blood Prince Sion had vomited.

As the pale-faced young lady retreated hesitantly, Prince Sion vomited blood a few more times on the floor and collapsed.

An elderly noble rushed forward and checked the prince’s pulse.

“He’s, he’s dead…”

Starting with those words from the noble, the imperial family members in the hall began to collapse one after another.

Unlike Prince Sion, they didn’t vomit blood, but they fell unconscious as if struck by an invisible hand, causing surprised screams to echo.

“Kyaaak!”

“Your Highness, the Crown Prince!”

“What on earth is…!”

Suddenly, the hall doors opened with a tremendous noise. The sound was loud enough to deafen ears.

It was probably the first time those extremely heavy doors, which normally required two knights to open each side, had hit the wall so roughly.

All eyes in the hall, which had been buzzing with screams and questions, turned toward the open doors.

“Fourth Prince? And behind him…”

“Why, his eyes…”

The Fourth Prince, with a bandage over one eye, strode across the hall.

The nobles parted ways before the prince’s fierce presence, which hadn’t been seen recently.

Two unfamiliar people, a man and a woman, followed behind the prince.

Stopping in front of the collapsed Prince Sion, the Fourth Prince looked at Yurik seated on the imperial throne and shouted.

“Father. Have you finally killed the sixth son!”

The emperor, his face hardened, gestured to the soldiers.

While the soldiers momentarily hesitated at his quick signal to remove the Fourth Prince, the Fourth Prince looked around and shouted.

“Can you see what happened to my eye? This is what His Majesty did! When most of the Herta imperial family lost their golden eyes, His Majesty had magicians experiment on and t*rture the few remaining imperial family members with golden eyes, extracting their eyes to replace his own!”

The story, cleverly mixed with truth and lies, filled the hall.

“…!”

“To hide that he had lost his golden eyes, he experimented on his sons, even tortured all imperial family members! Until the sixth son died!”

As the nobles’ unsettled murmurs, which had been quiet from shock, gradually grew louder, the voice of the man standing behind the Fourth Prince echoed loudly.

“We are magicians recently employed by His Majesty. What the Fourth Prince has said is absolutely true.”

The two magicians confirmed the emperor’s human experimentation. They even confessed to their complicity under the emperor’s orders.

“If Your Majesty denies it, we will show you the evidence!”

At that moment, the emperor’s golden eyes slowly turned red. As if the magicians’ words were true.

Silent shock spread throughout the hall.

“You speak nonsense. You lost your eye to an epidemic and have gone completely mad. How dare you bribe those I assigned for your treatment to slander me!”

However, the emperor, unable to see his own eyes, firmly denied it.

In truth, no one there expected the emperor to admit it, even if their words were true.

As everyone in the hall expected, the emperor shouted.

“Remove that madman!”

As his order fell, Astrid, who was on the upper floor of the hall, closed her eyes and concentrated. And she began to vaporize all the water in the imperial palace and send it skyward.

Everything from water barrels placed throughout for fire prevention to even a single dewdrop flowing on flower petals.

Meanwhile, soldiers approached to drag away the Fourth Prince.

In the kitchen outside the hall, Nathan, disguised as a cook, placed firework toys into the furnace. Sparks flew immediately.

With no water, the people in the kitchen panicked and ran outside. Mixing among them as he left, Nathan loudly announced that a fire had broken out.

The emperor’s spies, who had been recruited in advance, received Nathan’s signal and immediately sprinkled oil throughout the palace before escaping.

The fire began to spread instantly. The uncontained flames gradually approached the main hall.

Inside the hall, just as the Fourth Prince was being dragged to the door by soldiers.

The blackened ceiling collapsed, and the chandelier crashed to the floor. Sparks fell through the broken ceiling.

Attendants who saw the fire rushed into the hall in haste to find their masters.

“The palace is on fire!”

“You must leave immediately!”

“This way…!”

All the nobles rushed out of the hall in a crowd.

In that chaos, some fell and were trampled. But everyone got up without feeling the pain and ran outside.

“Your Majesty! This way!”

Emperor Yurik also left the hall, following the knights who served him.

Having left the palace and standing in the garden, Yurik looked around as soon as he judged himself safe.

Although it felt like the hot air was licking right behind his back, it seemed that everyone in the palace had successfully escaped without being caught in the fire.

Just as he was frowning, thinking they had fled in fear of an insignificant fire, a raindrop fell on the emperor’s cheek.

Suddenly, heavy rain began to cover the capital.

Thinking that this much rain would quickly end the palace fire, the emperor turned his head but then paused, blinking several times.

It was a strange sight that made him doubt his eyes.

While rain was falling everywhere, it wasn’t falling on the palace where it was most needed.

The palace was burning in the rain.

***

Crack, crack, the flames quickly devoured the palace.

‘Prince Sion,’ who had died vomiting blood, was lying alone in the hall. Those busy escaping wouldn’t bother with a corpse, though they might have taken someone unconscious.

When the fire finally reached the hall doors, ‘Prince Sion’ opened his eyes and got up.

And wiped the red blood from his mouth with his sleeve.

The fake blood used for stage performances tasted quite bad. Real blood might have tasted better at this point.

“Ugh, tastes awful.”

Leticia created water droplets to rinse her mouth and cleaned the fake blood from her clothes.

The flames were approaching from all directions around her, she remained remarkably calm.

However, Leticia, who could extinguish the palace fire with just a gesture, simply made sure the flames didn’t come too close as she approached the window.

Outside the window, the nobles who had filled the hall were gathered in the garden.

The palace servants seemed to have all evacuated as well, as they were carrying water to extinguish the fire in one corner.

And the emperor was shouting something to his knights.

Soon after, soldiers came rushing in. Half tried to extinguish the fire, while the other half surrounded the nobles.

Leticia immediately evaporated the water they were carrying to put out the fire.

It was raining everywhere, but no rain fell on the burning palace.

And even when they tried to bring water to pour on it, the water evaporated.

It was clearly an unusual situation. Even from a distance, their confusion was evident.

Several nobles shouted at the emperor.

Well, it was easy to guess what they were saying. Curses, karma, things like that.

In any case, it was certainly not pleasant words, as soldiers approached those nobles at the emperor’s rough gesture.

Leticia focused on the rainwater flowing over the soldiers’ weap*ns.

The raindrops touching the metal shattered the soldiers’ weap*ns into pieces. All weap*ns touched by the raindrops she controlled.