#12. The Beginning of a Crack

“Your Majesty!”

The Empress followed the Emperor to his chambers.

“Are you going to let this pass?”

The Emperor turned with a frown at the Empress’s question.

“Let what pass?”

“Don’t you know? This is clearly a false accusation. How can you let Lloyd endure such a humiliating insult? This is too much.”

The Empress pleaded tearfully about the injustice. The Emperor stared at her with hardened lips.

“Since Prince Aidan joined hands with House Hewitt, he’s become arrogant and is disgracing our Lloyd. You cannot leave this unchecked.”

“Cannot?”

The Emperor exhaled heavily as he repeated her words.

“This matter isn’t so simple. Though we don’t know why Marquis Belmont did it, Prince Aidan accused Lloyd without proper investigation. He accused him of murder. If I hadn’t recognized Marquis Belmont’s subordinate earlier, Lloyd might have been helplessly blamed for everything.”

She shuddered as if the mere thought was horrifying.

“Even considering the conflict between princes, this is attempted murder. It’s treason. Lloyd could have…”

The Emperor’s gaze grew colder than before as he watched her struggle to speak through her tears.

“Lilith.”

The Emperor rarely called her name. But his voice carried coldness rather than affection. The Empress raised her head to meet his eyes.

“You clearly think I’m a complete fool.”

“What do you…”

Her eyes wavered, as if his words were absurd. Bang! She flinched at the sound of his fist hitting the table.

“After Aidan was attacked, do you think I did nothing!”

His voice was so low it was unclear whether it was a question or self-muttering.

“Do you really think I know nothing!”

The Emperor’s voice grew louder. The Empress stared at him with wide, unblinking eyes. The Emperor strode forward until he stood before her.

“Do you think I… really don’t know why Marquis Belmont’s subordinate tried to kill Lloyd’s knight?”

Ice dripped from the Emperor’s voice.

“Do you really think I know nothing about how the previous Empress died?”

“Your Majesty…!”

The Emperor grabbed both her shoulders and pushed her back. The Empress’s face contorted as her back hit the wall.

“How much more must I overlook?”

Though he spoke quietly, almost like a whisper, his anger felt even more intense.

“How much more must I understand and ignore just because I took you in?”

The Empress squeezed her eyes shut at the voice ringing in her ears.

So he knew everything. The Emperor knew it all.

She had suspected he might have known about the previous Empress. Still, she believed he would protect her because he loved her, because he had wanted her, not the previous Empress. She had been arrogant this time. She had underestimated the Emperor too much.

“Don’t touch Aidan. If you have even the slightest guilt toward Grace, live with a mind of atonement.”

The Empress’s face hardened at the mention of Grace, the previous Empress’s name.

“Don’t forget. Aidan is not only Grace’s son but also a member of the imperial family who carries my blood. If you try to harm Aidan one more time, neither you nor Lloyd will be safe.”

The Emperor released her shoulders and straightened up after warning her in a chilling voice.

“Both Aidan and Lloyd are my sons. I won’t favor either side unless you try to do something excessive.”

The Emperor’s face blurred slightly as he looked at the Empress.

“So I sincerely hope you won’t do anything foolish anymore.”

It was both a warning and a plea. The Emperor’s true feelings.

Though the Emperor turned and left, the Empress couldn’t move from that spot for a long time. She now understood why the Emperor hadn’t taken sides between Aidan and Lloyd until now, why he hadn’t said a word of criticism even when Aidan lived such a pathetic life.

The Emperor felt guilty. Guilty about Grace, the previous Empress.

He still hadn’t forgotten that woman… She believed that woman held no value to the Emperor, that nothing would remain in his memory…

Her clenched fists turned white and her nails dug into her palms, but she couldn’t feel the pain.

*

Aidan remained silent the entire way back to his palace with Liam. Kai felt troubled, not having expected things to turn out this way.

“It’s my fault. I should have investigated him more thoroughly… I never thought he’d be Marquis Belmont’s subordinate…”

It had been a mistake to firmly believe that since Liam was Lloyd’s knight, Lloyd would be the one trying to kill him to cover up the attack.

“It’s my fault for not knowing what a cunning bastard he was.”

Aidan let out the words with a sigh.

“There’s no point regretting what has passed. We need to think about what to do next.”

Aidan stopped walking and turned to Liam. Liam also looked tired. They thought he would be their hidden card to catch Lloyd, but now his disposition had become another headache.

“My family… you’ll protect them, right?”

Liam asked with an anxious expression.

“They are innocent of any crime.”

Liam bowed his head deeply at Aidan’s answer. No matter what, he couldn’t escape the charge of attempting to murder Aidan.

“Though I’m shameless… please… just my mother and sister until the end…”

Aidan silently nodded.

“Kai. Go to Marquis Belmont right now. Move faster than the palace knights.”

“What?”

Kai couldn’t understand why he was suddenly being sent to Marquis Belmont. The palace knights would move to arrest him anyway.

“Because I’m going to let Belmont escape.”

Kai’s eyes widened at these incomprehensible words.

“You don’t need to do much. Just go and tell him what happened today. He probably already knows his subordinate was caught by me. He’ll be extremely cautious. You don’t even need to meet him directly. Just make sure he hears that the Empress and Lloyd betrayed him.”

“What’s the meaning of this?”

Kai asked with a dubious expression, still not understanding.

“There’s a saying, ‘using barbarians to control barbarians.'”

“Using barbarians to control barbarians?”

“Yes. It’s from the East.”

Aidan smiled slyly at Kai, who just blinked his eyes, wondering where the East was.

“The enemy of my enemy is my ally. Though it’s uncertain how well Belmont will move, having spent so much time together, he probably knows the Empress’s weaknesses best. Let’s watch and see how well he’ll bite.”

“Ah…”

Kai let out an admiring sigh, bowed his head in understanding, and hurried to move.

*

“Her Highness Karina is here.”

At the servant’s words, Aidan immediately headed to the reception room. Karina, who had been standing by the window looking outside, turned at his presence. Even as their eyes met, she just stared silently without saying anything.

“Why that expression? Didn’t you come because you wanted to see me?”

When he asked with a light smile, she let out a small sigh.

“I’m relieved to see you’re better than I expected.”

Aidan tilted his head at her words.

“I know about what happened in the council chamber. I was worried about how things would turn out. I could hear all the conversations from outside.”

Her fine eyebrows slightly twisted, as if she wasn’t entirely pleased with the outcome either.

“The Empress must have tried to erase the traces by moving Marquis Belmont.”

“Probably so.”

“Then if we reveal that…”

Karina bit her lip as her words trailed off. There was no way to prove that Marquis Belmont had acted on the Empress’s orders. Though Marquis Belmont would naturally claim the Empress had ordered it to save himself, who would believe him? Today showed that even the Emperor wasn’t impartial.

It was inevitable that the Emperor would favor his wife and children.

“Don’t worry too much. I think this turned out better. The Empress’s officials who watched today’s events will feel threatened. They’ll realize they too could be used and discarded by the Empress at any time.”

Unlike Karina’s concerns, Aidan remained calm.

“What do you think happens when a small crack appears in a huge, solid dam?”

Karina waited silently for his next words, wondering what he meant.

“Most people ignore it. They say such a small crack is nothing. But the water that seeps through that crack creates increasingly larger cracks. And eventually, boom!”

She flinched, startled by his sudden loud voice. Aidan grinned, finding her reaction amusing.

“It all collapses. No matter how big the dam was, no matter how solid it seemed.”

Even the tiniest crack could have unimaginable destructive power. Aidan intended to exploit that crack. Let them collapse on their own.

“What are you plotting?”

Sensing ulterior motives in his smile, Karina asked with narrowed eyes.

“Things will get interesting from now on. Look forward to it.”

Aidan answered with just a smile.

“Is there anything I can help with?”

Seeing he had no intention of explaining further, she didn’t press the question.

At Karina’s question, Aidan moved close and wrapped his arm around her waist.

“There is.”

His eyes curved beautifully.

“Just being here like this. That alone provides quite a bit of motivation.”

“You’re always so smooth with words. Weren’t you the one who guaranteed you’d become Emperor regardless of my existence?”

“Did I? Did I say that?”

Look at him acting so innocent. She felt foolish for having worried he might be distressed about the matter regarding Lloyd.

“Well, that too, but now I have one more definite reason.”

‘I’ll become Emperor for you, so when I become Emperor, will you become my Empress?’

Looking at his smiling face, she remembered his words from before.

Could Aidan really become Emperor? Then… She wasn’t sure yet. She didn’t want to think that far. For now, she was just following her heart’s flow a little more than before.

*