15. The Knot (3)

The Prince’s head was still attached.

Even after committing the extreme crime of assassinating the Emperor.

The Princess who became Crown Prince and the Four Dukes held a meeting regarding his punishment. There were various opinions on how the punishment should be carried out.

Even in this situation, his status of being imperial family served as a great shield for the Prince. If he hadn’t been a prince, his head would have long since been separated from his body.

But not much time remained. The meeting participants were doing their best to find precedents by thoroughly searching through past imperial records to extract maximum punishment.

Meanwhile, there were people who couldn’t grasp the reality in this atmosphere—the Empress and Prince were such people.

At the thought that her son might soon die, the Empress visited the Prince with tears in her eyes.

“Mother! This is all false accusations!”

“Sob sob, Prince.”

“How could I have done such a thing? You know how much I respected Father! Me, assassination! This must be false accusations! The Princess and dukes must have conspired to frame me! Please release me, please?”

The Empress sobbed but couldn’t release him.

The evidence was crystal clear to anyone who looked.

Though she understood it might have been due to his long obsession with the throne, it was also hard to believe that the child before her eyes was someone heartless enough to kill even his father for power.

To the Empress who shook her head while crying, the Prince suddenly changed his attitude.

“Mother, Your Majesty. Then at least change my imprisonment location. You can do that much, can’t you?”

The Prince was currently imprisoned in the underground dungeon. It was a place that, naturally, would not be good for long-term stays, combining the characteristics of a prison with the physical attributes of being underground.

“With my body not being well anyway from the recent accident, if I stay long in this damp underground, I, your son, might die soon.”

The Prince pleaded that his joints already ached and felt chilled from the humidity. Though he hadn’t even been tortured once thanks to his status as Prince, he was crying that he felt like he would die.

“Your Majesty Mother, I am from the imperial family. Even if I receive punishment and die, don’t I deserve the dignity of maintaining that much status?”

The Prince pleaded for the validity of his argument in various ways.

And finally, the Empress was persuaded.

He would surely receive a heavy punishment anyway, so wouldn’t it be alright to make him a little more comfortable before that?

Her heart greatly softened from the position of being a mother.

Thus the Empress issued an order with the Emperor’s seal that had not yet passed to the Crown Prince. It was an order to move the Prince’s imprisonment location from the underground dungeon to the North Tower of the Imperial Palace.

Since the North Tower was used for confinement anyway, the Empress didn’t think this decision was wrong. It just meant letting him stay above ground where sunlight entered and the air wasn’t damp.

He was born as imperial and had naturally enjoyed such privileges. As someone who bore him, she thought she could grant that much convenience since imprisonment alone was already a huge humiliation.

Until the Prince disappeared without a trace from that North Tower.

* * *

The Emperor’s death was still kept secret.

Both the cause of death and the fact that the culprit had disappeared.

Since chaos would surely break out if it became known that the culprit was the Prince and he had currently escaped, they decided to keep it hidden for now.

Meanwhile, the Imperial Knights and the Four Dukes’ knight orders had been secretly tracking the Prince from multiple angles. However, whether he had soared into the sky or sunk into the ground, there were absolutely no results.

He had disappeared without a trace though it seemed there were no accomplices.

Even those who had looked down on the Prince until now came to see him differently due to such thorough escape.

* * *

At the Kramer townhouse in the Imperial Capital.

“How is it going?”

Saena was organizing Arlesian grammar regarding mirror text and symmetrical structure in the study when Constantine visited.

Since it was such a significant discovery that could overturn the basic grammatical structure for interpreting existing Arlesian, she was thinking of informing the academia. As that required documentation that others could understand, she was in the middle of systematizing it.

Though it was a paper that would shock even top scholars, Saena was simply focusing on it thinking it was an organization that needed to be shared with the academia.

“Ah, you’re here.”

Constantine had already been mobilized for over a week trying to search for the Prince. Though there were no real results.

“Still haven’t found him?”

“It seems he hasn’t left the Imperial Capital. There are no traces leading outside at all.”

“Then he’s inside the Imperial Capital?”

“We can’t find any traces of that either.”

Saena was surprised.

“It’s really… unexpected.”

She honestly hadn’t thought the Prince would have such a capable(?) skill.

To think he would have such expertise in escape.

“You said there was a secret passage?”

“Yes.”

The North Tower. The last place where the Prince was before disappearing.

Of course they had to search it thoroughly. And finally they discovered the secret passage. Perhaps it was information passed down only to successors? The Prince (though not the successor, for some reason–) seemed to have known about the existence of the secret passage beforehand.

Sadly, the Empress appeared not to have known this fact.

The secret passage wasn’t a single route but had branches. One led to the Imperial Palace’s back garden, one to the Imperial Palace’s detached palace, and one stretched all the way near the Imperial Palace gates.

At first they naturally thought he would have taken the last route and tracked his movement path passing through the gate checkpoint to the outside, but found absolutely nothing.

After wandering for days, they finally began to suspect that the Prince might be hiding somewhere within the Imperial Capital.

It’s darkest under the lamp. Not having expected him to pull such a trick, they now searched within the Imperial Capital.

But still there were no results.

“I think he might be hiding somewhere in the Imperial Palace. We plan to search inside the Imperial Palace starting tomorrow.”

The Imperial Palace has been used as the residence of Emperors and imperial family for nearly a thousand years. Also, having been the center of the Imperial Capital and central politics for the same period, it actually had an incredibly complex structure when examined in detail. It was also vast.

“Just as he knew about the North Tower’s secret passage, he might know about other secret passages or spaces. Then there’s a possibility he’s secretly hiding in the detached palace or somewhere.”

“Can you… find such things? No, should you even find them?”

If there were secret spaces or passages that weren’t known outside, wouldn’t they naturally be secrets of only the imperial family?

Saena felt uneasy about whether it was alright to uncover secrets that the imperial family had kept only to themselves in preparation for unforeseen situations.

“Her Highness the Crown Prince ordered it.”

Though the Princess also knew of some secret passages, she had learned there existed more secret passages than she was allowed to know about. Thus, the anxiety of the Prince suddenly appearing through unknown secret passages to attack the Crown Prince emerged as a greater concern.

Understanding the situation, Saena nodded and observed Constantine. His complexion didn’t look good, perhaps from not resting well due to the ongoing search operations for several days.

“You look tired.”

Constantine approached closer with a light sigh.

Since he was indeed tired, he spread his arms as if asking for a hug.

Saena smiled lightly and nestled into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his waist. A low laugh briefly rang above her head.

“My body is fine, but…”

“But?”

“This uncertainty doesn’t sit well with me.”

“……”

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

As the trail of tracking the Prince grew increasingly distant, Saena could empathize with his feelings as she too felt the lukewarm anxiety and unease growing gradually stronger.

But what more could they do besides taking one step at a time?

So, as if to say it was alright, she patted around his waist.

For now, this warmth touching each other was comfort and satisfaction for both of them.

‘This warmth…’

Thinking he would definitely protect it, Constantine tightly embraced the small female body in his arms.

* * *

Something happened in the territory.

Perhaps Constantine’s bad feeling was because of this incident. They received urgent contact saying a demonic beast had appeared within the territory.

Saena and Constantine quickly prepared theirr luggage and personnel and headed to Kramer territory. The group that hurriedly took the warp gate rushed toward Castle Cream.

“Nadia!?”

Saena was startled when Nadia, the head butler of Castle Cream, appeared with a splint on one leg and using a cane.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Madam.”

“But you’re injured.”

“I just twisted it slightly. However…”

Nadia’s complexion was very pale.

“A knight was badly injured in the process of helping me escape.”

“Who?”

“A trainee knight from the 2nd Knight Order.”

Nadia’s face looked pained.

“Protecting the weak is a knight’s fundamental duty.”

Though it would be natural to be concerned when someone was injured protecting you right before your eyes, Constantine spoke calmly about the fundamental principle.

“Also, there are three dead and fifteen injured. Among them, two knights, and the rest were employees working in the castle…”

But Nadia was also a professional butler. She quickly composed her emotions and began reporting.

“…I’ve also organized compensation for the deceased and their bereaved families into documents, so please review and approve them.”

“Understood.”

“Everyone… is anxious.”