He called for knights but couldn’t even wait the short time for them to appear, and as he tried to go find them himself, a figure silently appeared before him.

It was Morev.

“W-what! Duke Kramer! Remove this thing at once!”

“Please restrain yourself. This is not treason but following the rules set by the imperial family.”

“Rules?! Bowing to a mere woman is now imperial rules?!”

“Gender is irrelevant. We are simply stating that Her Highness the Princess is fully qualified.”

“What qualifications could that woman have?!”

“Achelion has chosen Her Highness the Princess. What other conditions would be needed?”

“……!”

The Prince’s eyes froze in shock.

“Im-impossible…”

Beyond the Prince’s pupils, one could see his world shattering to pieces.

Regardless, Duke Aberdeen moved on to the next phase.

“Before Her Highness the Princess opens a new era, isn’t it important to resolve any lingering injustice regarding the cause of death of His Majesty the Emperor, who has now become the late Emperor? For the sake of a clean reign.”

The more his anger toward the Prince grew, the more Duke Aberdeen acted with a bright smile, as if playing a character in a play.

Though the other dukes who knew this fact were secretly getting chills from this gap, they didn’t disrupt the atmosphere. Rather, they supported Duke Aberdeen by quietly adding their silence.

“Actually, finding out exactly what happened that day is simple.”

Duke Aberdeen looked at the Princess with gently curved eyes.

“…Simple?”

“Yes.”

“How could it be simple?”

“Because it just requires your command.”

“Just… my command?”

The Princess asked again with an expression still not understanding what he meant.

“I hear His Highness the Prince was present at the scene.”

“And?”

“Request it from the Prince.”

“……”

The Princess wore a perplexed expression.

If that had been possible, they wouldn’t have come this far.

“Your Highness now holds sovereignty over Achelion.”

Though she hadn’t gone through the official succession ceremony yet, it appeared so given that Achelion’s energy had already seeped into the Princess.

“And…”

Duke Aberdeen briefly paused as if savoring everyone’s perplexity, then added dramatically.

“His Highness the Prince has the Four Spirits, doesn’t he?”

“Ah…!”

“You just need to summon and ask them.”

Even though they were spirits borrowed by the Prince, their original contractors were the Oathkeepers. The spirits naturally had to answer honestly to an Oathkeeper’s questions.

Though this was obvious logic, the imperial family members who weren’t Oathkeepers gaped in surprise from their lack of understanding.

“…What nonsense! Are you daring to interrogate the imperial family now!”

The Prince hastily spoke up.

Madielle stared at such a Prince.

“As fellow imperial family, we must not allow such an insulting situation! This is a matter of imperial dignity!”

Though it wasn’t clear why he was bringing up imperial dignity in a situation of identifying the Emperor’s assassin, the Prince continued shouting that this absolutely must not happen.

“Dios.”

But the Princess’s lips opened.

“Madielle!”

The Prince called the Princess’s name in a voice that seemed ready to curse.

“Hear your original Oathkeeper’s call and appear.”

As Dios, one of Achelion’s spirits of the imperial family’s Guardian Spirit, began to take form, the Prince instead hastily commanded.

“Dios! Kill!”

He actually ordered an attack on the Princess.

At that command, Dios lifted his body. However, Dios’s attack was blocked before it could begin.

“Your original master commands. Withdraw the branches of contract given to you and return.”

Despite the urgent situation, the Princess canceled Dios’s loan without any agitation. Accordingly, Dios lowered his raised body and stood meekly before the Princess.

Dios’s obedience had the effect of making the Princess’s right of succession visibly evident. No one could deny that the Princess had received Achelion’s choice.

Meanwhile, the Prince who completely lost control over Dios raged wildly.

“You! How dare you!”

For some reason, the Prince wore an expression of bitter betrayal toward the Princess. As if someone who absolutely shouldn’t have had betrayed him.

In the meantime, Constantine opened the hall doors to let in the knights.

“I’m concerned His Highness the Prince might hurt himself moving so violently.”

At the Princess’s words, Heviathan ordered the Imperial Knights to restrain the Prince’s body.

“Let go! You lowborn things! How dare you lay hands on me! Remove them at once!”

Looking down at the wildly thrashing Prince with an emotionless expression, the Princess added,

“I’m worried His Highness the Prince might strain his voice from shouting too much.”

Then a gag was placed in the Prince’s mouth.

“I’ll kill– mmph! Mmmmph!”

Everyone watched with surprised silence at the Princess’s unexpectedly firm and dignified attitude.

Was this really the same Princess who until recently was rumored to be physically weak and quiet in nature, avoiding public activities?

In truth, the reason the Princess hadn’t stood out much at official occasions while handling all imperial duties was because the Prince would make a fuss and be troublesome every time, so she had voluntarily excluded herself from such situations, but people didn’t know the reason.

‘She’s better than expected.’

People who had thought anyone would be better than the Prince were seeing the Princess in a new light. They felt relieved while admiring her unexpectedly dignified presence and skillful handling of matters.

Because they could still feel the empire’s strength.

“Now then, Dios.”

Looking around the now settled hall, the Princess returned to the main point.

“Nod if what I ask is correct. Understand?”

Dios nodded.

“Did you see when His Majesty the Emperor passed away?”

Nod.

“Did someone forcibly take His Majesty’s life?”

Nod.

As it was revealed that it truly was assassination, those around stirred.

“Quiet.”

At the Princess’s command, silence fell again.

“Was the culprit the head chamberlain?”

Shake.

“Then… who was it? Can you point them out?”

Dios turned his head and stared fixedly at the Prince.

“Mmph! Mmph!!!”

Except for the Prince’s muffled struggles, everywhere was quiet.

“…Was a pillow used?”

Nod.

“Haa…. Then who killed the head chamberlain?”

Dios neither nodded nor shook his head but remained still.

“…Was it you?”

Nod.

“By the Prince’s order?”

Nod.

“……”

In truth, the head chamberlain had been a witness.

When the Prince forcefully sent everyone away saying he would be alone with his father, the head chamberlain felt suspicious and secretly entered against orders, only to meet his demise.

“I understand. You may go now.”

Dios disappeared.

The surrounding heavy silence continued.

“Your Majesty the Empress. I request the Prince’s arrest for the crime of assassinating His Majesty the Emperor.”

Though the Empress’s complexion darkened with apparent distress as she looked at the Prince, faced with such clear evidence, she had no choice but to nod.

“Mmph! Mmmm-mmph!!”

With unintelligible cries, the Prince was thus dragged away.

* * *

The Crown Prince was announced to the entire empire.

Crown Prince!

Didn’t this mean succession had been achieved!

This was news they had anxiously awaited for nearly 10 years. Nobles and imperial citizens alike rejoiced and gathered where the announcement was posted to learn more details.

[…omitted…

Following the founding Emperor’s will, having shown clear evidence of successful succession, we hereby appoint Madielle Macfeyden to the position of Crown Prince.]

And they learned,

That the Crown Prince’s name was not Gillian Macfeyden but Madielle Macfeyden.

“It’s not His Highness the Prince, but Her Highness the Princess’s name?”

“It… seems so?”

“So the next Emperor will be Her Highness the Princess?”

This news stirred the entire empire.

The existence of a female emperor was that unfamiliar.

Just as people were at a loss for how to take this news, the atmosphere in the Imperial Capital changed drastically. Heavy iron hammers began falling everywhere.

The Princess who held the Crown Prince’s real power firmly wielded her sword. The aftermath of the temporarily halted masquerade ball began striking each family like a storm.

“Regardless of gender, those who used drugs will be severely punished. This is an outrageous crime that forcibly took away others’ freedom and mortgaged their future!”

The Hollander family was the first to face this iron hammer.

Saena heard this news while with Constantine.

“Drugs were found among not only Viscount Hollander’s but also his sister’s possessions.”

George Hollander was one thing, but Joanna too?

“Especially, George Hollander received a harsher punishment after it was revealed that he was the supplier who provided drugs to the Hebeta.”

“……”

So they had that kind of relationship?

Then before too… But every time he acted like it had nothing to do with him…

And if he was a drug supplier, perhaps… even the poison that led to her death?

Though she wasn’t sure if George Hollander had the ability to obtain such dangerous drugs,The mere possibility of it made the veins in her forehead throb.

How could she have lived thinking of such a person as a husband?

“So what happened?”

“Since the drugs reached even the imperial family, not only were his titles stripped and assets seized, but he was forcibly conscripted into the border region subjugation forces. With no combat experience, he’ll likely die within half a year. His sister received additional punishment for being the second person caught in the act from the same family—she got life service at a convent.”

Though Constantine had been tipped off about George Hollander’s attempts to harass Saena and groundwork had been laid, the punishment was harsher than expected.

To think even Joanna, who had tormented Saena countless times alongside her brother in the past, got caught up in this… The Hollander family was literally shattered to pieces.

“What about the other man found in Hebeta’s bed?”

“Though no evidence of drug involvement was found for him, as a serious criminal who tried to taint the imperial bloodline, he received life labor in the mines.”

“……”

Though they had never exchanged words, the man’s face that had remained like a brand briefly surfaced in her mind before disappearing.

“What about the Valdez family? I heard they left the Imperial Capital.”

“As a family that produced such a serious criminal, it will be difficult for them to live as central nobles. They won’t be able to advance to the center again in the future.”

No, they would be fortunate just to remain in the noble genealogy at all.

By failing to grasp the situation as central nobles and sending their daughter to become Hebeta, creating this situation, the Valdez family had essentially prepared for their own downfall.

With many powerful people harboring antipathy towards the Hebeta, artificial disasters would likely strike the family to encourage their natural decline, but Constantine didn’t mention this further to Saena.

Many other distinguished families also kept their heads down in fear.

Those whose faces became known after being dragged out of the Prince’s room were branded as homosexuals and all cast out from their families.

Homosexuals, they said. No family would want to send their daughters to them. Some were cast out after incurring their family heads’ anger at becoming the worst candidates in the marriage market, while others were preemptively cut off by families who couldn’t predict how the current situation in the Imperial Capital might affect them.

In truth, very few of them were actually homosexual, but since they were gathered as people who tried to forcibly harass others regardless of orientation, there was no need to pity them.

Thus many disappeared into the back alleys.

Saena felt strange.

Did she feel relieved? She wasn’t sure.

Was she happy? She wasn’t sure about that either.

However…

‘It’s over.’

The feeling that another knot had been tied was clear.

And so Saena let go of another strand of painful memories from her past.