5.

At that time, Benjamin had been almost out of his mind for the past few days.

He had been so preoccupied with Princess Jains’s disappearance that he had forgotten about other matters for a while. But Benjamin never imagined that among the things he had forgotten and postponed would be the disappearance of his own children.

Benjamin roughly opened the door to the Empress’s palace.

The Empress stared at Benjamin with a cold expression.

“What rudeness is this.”

The Empress was in the middle of a light tea party with a small number of noble ladies. Her eyes twisted in displeasure.

“Please dismiss everyone.”

Benjamin spoke through gritted teeth. Unlike how he had feared the Empress before, a burning determination was visible on his face.

The Empress gestured for the noble ladies to leave.

Benjamin leaned on the table.

“What is this you’re doing? Is this how I taught you?”

“……Was it you who did this, Mother?”

The Empress let out a hollow laugh.

“You’re acting like this to me now because of those children? Benjamin, have you forgotten who I am? I am your mother who gave birth to you and will make you Emperor! Without me, you……”

“I asked if you did this!!”

Benjamin raised his voice. It was the first time in his life that he had defied the Empress. Benjamin exhaled roughly.

His heart pounded heavily.

The Empress let out a scornful laugh.

“It wasn’t me, Benjamin. What I did was merely prevent the news from reaching you. Isn’t it God helping me?”

The Empress’s eyes sharpened like a sword.

“They’re your grandchildren, Mother!”

“Not all grandchildren are the same. Those children are ones who sprinkled ashes on Federico’s future. If you were truly worthy of becoming Emperor, you should have eliminated those children yourself. Prevented them from being born.”

The Empress couldn’t believe that Benjamin, who carried her blood, was behaving this way. The bloodline of Katra had been cold-blooded for generations, as if their blood was blue. Capable of doing anything for their goals.

“You fool.”

“Mother……!”

“So you’re planning to give up becoming Emperor?”

Benjamin went blank.

“The existence of those children will continue to hold you back like this. Let’s say you search and find them. Do you plan to hide and raise them like that forever? Since you couldn’t handle it yourself, someone might have done it for you.”

The very fact that she had to explain these things one by one was absurd. The Empress tapped the table with her finger.

In truth, the Empress had also secretly searched for the missing children. But the children seemed to have vanished into thin air, impossible to find anywhere. At the very least, they weren’t in the capital, and countless people had left the capital on the day the children disappeared.

Nor had she found evidence that the children were dead.

It meant she couldn’t identify any suspects.

If they couldn’t be found, they had to be given up. There was still a long way to go to waste time and money on such matters. She couldn’t stop until Benjamin became Emperor, until Federico achieved victory over Lorenzo.

The Empress pressed Benjamin in a rigid tone.

“Become ruthless, Benjamin. Use those children as stepping stones to make yourself stronger. If you want to prevent such things from happening again, you need to have power.”

Benjamin stared blankly at the Empress. It was a smooth face without any trace of compassion or concern for the children. Benjamin finally realized it. Despite all his efforts to catch up, there was an unbridgeable gap between him and the Empress.

That gap was humanity.

Benjamin had a shred of humanity.

A shred of humanity that made him back off when Marian pushed him away with all her sincerity despite his violence toward her, and allowed him to take Marian’s side in the face of Cesare’s wrongdoing.

The Empress would push until Marian lost her strength if Marian pushed her away, and would slap Marian’s cheek in the face of Cesare’s wrongdoing.

Benjamin painfully realized that there was no use in appealing to her anymore. The Empress was someone who had given up on being human.

“If you abandon those children, you will become Emperor. But if you insist on finding them……”

The Empress shook her head. Her eyes gleamed coldly like a snake’s with each change of angle.

“I’ll have to look for other alternatives too.”

Benjamin seemed to hear his children’s cries and laughter. And he also heard Tia’s voice, who had given birth to and raised those children until now.

‘Our children, please find our children, Benjamin. The children are gone!’

What should he tell Tia? That to become Emperor, he must abandon those children? Benjamin rubbed his face.

Would Tia understand?

She was like a wildflower blooming in a field. He loved her because she was so different. She was the only woman Benjamin truly loved. And the Empress knew this fact as well.

“Don’t keep weaknesses, Benjamin. Those children, and that woman, are nothing but your weaknesses.”

The Empress coldly admonished.

“The King of Jains will enter the country soon. Shouldn’t you prepare for the agreement with Jains? Instead of wasting energy on such useless matters.”

“……Yes.”

Benjamin moved his lips mechanically.

“I will do as you say, Mother.”

Benjamin’s eyes emptied.

“You’re right, Mother.”

To protect something, one needs power. It was because Benjamin was weaker than the Empress that he lost those children. To get them back, Benjamin needed to become stronger.

“I will become Emperor.”

The Empress pulled up her lips.

“I’ll do that, Mother.”

“I knew you would if you inherited my blood. Good. Now your eyes look worthy.”

Benjamin buried the children and Tia in his heart. When he becomes Emperor, he will not leave those who took them alone. He would tear them apart, chew and swallow them, and make them feel pain. Benjamin let go of his younger self.

“Marian seems strange, Benjamin. It seems like she’s plotting something……”

“What should I do?”

“Go meet a maid named Rosette. Find out what she’s doing.”

“Yes, Mother.”

Benjamin answered emotionlessly.

**

Meanwhile, Cesare was meeting with the head of the Lucerta merchant guild. The head of the Lucerta merchant guild was also known as the lizard in the Empire. He spread money everywhere and cut off ties like a lizard dropping its tail when the other party faced difficulties. He was that widespread and dangerous.

Cesare rubbed his chin.

His aide had warned him not to upset the head of the Lucerta merchant guild if possible. It was said that there was no one in Federico’s political and financial circles who hadn’t taken money from Lucerta.

Cesare clicked his tongue.

‘These days I have to be mindful of all sorts of people. The world order is collapsing. They’re ignoring the long history of the class system.’

Cesare smiled brightly.

“Thank you for making time for me.”

“Not at all, Your Grace. I happened to have some free time.”

The head of the Lucerta merchant guild smiled with an inscrutable expression.

“Ah, actually, I heard that you seem to be preparing a new business. Let me be honest. I’m interested in that business. I heard your daughter went to the west herself?”

The head of the Lucerta merchant guild barely swallowed a curse. Where on earth had such a rumor leaked from?

‘Could it be those who were asking about the source of the Essence!’

He felt a chill. If that was the case, it meant that people targeting the Essence he was currently selling exclusively had appeared. The guild master calculated in his head.

He could almost hear the sound of the guild’s profits decreasing.

“The west…… she just went there, Your Grace. I don’t know where you heard such a distorted rumor, but I sent my daughter because there was something she had to deliver to Marquis Katra.”

Cesare’s lips hardened.

‘How could that be.’

The scale of the merchant guild going west was quite large. But seeing how the guild master was denying it, it didn’t seem like he would easily open his mouth. Cesare changed direction.

“Hmm. If you say so, it must be so. But about that daughter.”

The head of the Lucerta merchant guild widened his eyes.

After the west, now he was mentioning Liebe.

‘As I thought, he’s investigating the background of the Essence!’

The guild master’s misunderstanding deepened. In some ways, it was a correct assumption. The person behind the Essence was none other than Princess Marian.

Cesare, who had no idea what kind of misunderstanding the guild master was having, said softly.

“Did your daughter say anything about Princess Marian?”

“What kind of… things do you mean……”

“Like Princess Marian behaving strangely these days, or having secrets. Things like that. I came here because I don’t seem to know much about my fiancée.”

The head of the Lucerta merchant guild exhaled deeply.

“Of course, there are things I’ve heard.”

“Tell me.”

Cesare’s eyes sparkled.

“She says it’s really difficult. Her Highness Princess Marian is sensitive and picky about food. She doesn’t seem to eat proper meals. That’s not all. From what I’ve heard……”

The head of the Lucerta merchant guild looked around cautiously and lowered his voice as much as possible.

“Actually, there are rumors that Her Highness Princess Marian is an outcast in the imperial family. Sigh, I sent Liebe as Her Highness’s lady-in-waiting for her marriage, and even gave a large gift to Her Majesty the Empress. Anyway, I’m worried that I might have backed the wrong horse.”