Could it be related to the imperial family? The letter Celia had sent and her current words about her father’s wrongdoing began to jumble together in Lisette’s mind.

“What wrongdoing did he commit that brings you here?”

At the Emperor’s question, Celia hesitated briefly. Her face looked somewhat pained as she exhaled a small sigh, seemingly struggling to even open her mouth.

After a moment of silence, shocking words came from her lips.

“In the past, one of Her Majesty the Empress’s confidants visited my shop. They asked for a potion that could control a person’s mind.”

At that moment, the previously quiet banquet hall erupted with noise. Celia’s words had delivered a tremendous shock to everyone present.

Though Lisette already knew some of this from the letter, her heart sank upon hearing these words.

She clearly remembered Celia refusing to make such a potion for her, saying it violated the law—yet her father had already created such a thing.

“What did you say? If this isn’t true, I’ll have your head right now!”

The Emperor, naturally, showed the strongest reaction. After maintaining silence for a moment, he frowned and shouted at Celia.

“You’re talking nonsense. Have you personally witnessed me doing such a thing?”

The Empress also shouted back at Celia’s accusation, her face deeply contorted.

“No, I haven’t.”

Having spoken her difficult words, Celia seemed to return to her usual self—with an indifferent expression.

“Then why are you slandering me?”

Her attitude further provoked the Empress’s anger. The Empress, who had tried to remain calm earlier, now asked with a slightly agitated voice.

“I’m simply stating the facts.”

“How dare you!”

“Enough. If you wish to refute, wait until after you’ve heard everything Celia has to say.”

It was the Emperor who restrained the Empress. Despite how unbelievable it seemed, he wanted to hear Celia out.

“Your Majesty, this is too much. Are you saying you’ll listen to someone trying to slander me with ridiculous accusations?”

“My, Empress! Perhaps you find my words amusing?”

The Empress closed her mouth but shot Celia a contemptuous look. Celia, however, seemed completely unbothered as she shrugged and continued speaking.

“At that time, we were struggling financially. While mages are common now, back then they were oppressed by the temple. So my father created the drug that Her Majesty the Empress ordered.”

“What was it?”

“A drug that controls people’s minds. And later, he learned it would be used on Your Majesty.”

The Emperor’s eyes widened at her words.

Lisette also looked at Celia with surprised eyes. Celia continued speaking, unconcerned with the gazes around her.

“It wasn’t temporary control—it was potent enough to influence someone for their entire life.”

“Do you have evidence to prove your claims?”

The Emperor’s eyes narrowed progressively.

“Actually, I have no evidence.”

“You see? There’s no need to listen to this preposterous person.”

The Emperor’s brow furrowed upon hearing there was no evidence, and the Empress smiled triumphantly.

“But Your Majesty must have felt it—why you felt compelled to follow the words of Her Majesty the Empress and the High Priest.”

“…”

The Emperor couldn’t respond to Celia’s words. Even he had found it strange.

Why he had always thought the High Priest was absolutely right regarding the former Empress. And why now he felt less of that conviction than before.

“The reason you feel less of that influence now is because you’ve taken the antidote I gave you. After my father passed away, I continued researching an antidote to the drug he created. I’m not as skilled a mage as my father, so it took me a long time to develop, but it should be effective.”

Celia had already delivered the antidote to the Emperor through Marquis Usta, and he had taken it without asking questions, trusting the Marquis.

“Stop this nonsense right now!”

The Empress objected to Celia’s words, but the Emperor still couldn’t respond.

“What reason would there be for using such a drug? It was to cloud Your Majesty’s judgment. If evidence is needed, we only need to confirm that Your Majesty and Imperial Princess Lisette are truly father and daughter. If you wish for proof right here, it can be done immediately. This much is possible with magic, so you may request it anytime.”

“That’s a lie. Your Majesty, this quack mage is slandering me. She was working with Lisette until recently. How can you trust her? She only wants to frame me and drive me out! Summon the High Priest immediately.”

The Empress urgently called for the High Priest, but no one in the hall followed her orders. Everyone was too busy watching the Emperor’s reaction to move.

“Working with Lisette?”

“She was secretly working at a shop, hiding from others’ eyes. How audacious…”

“Audacious? Is that how you’ve been viewing Lisette?”

“Think about it. She disobeyed Your Majesty’s orders and secretly went to town to work at a shop—isn’t that extremely cunning?”

“I entrusted everything to the Empress, fearing I might unconsciously treat Lisette harshly because she’s not my biological daughter. Unlike me, I expected the Empress to show generosity since she hadn’t been betrayed. But how can you explain the shabby quarters and not even a single maid to attend to her?”

The Emperor shouted excitedly, recalling Lisette’s living conditions, and the Empress couldn’t refute.

“Wh-what could I do about people who quit first because it was difficult? So, to prove my words, please summon the High Priest now. Tell him to bring the paternity verification tool.”

“That’s unnecessary.”

When Celia pulled out a paternity verification tool while refuting the Empress’s words, the Empress hesitated momentarily. Normally, only the temple could possess such tools since they required spiritual power, but exceptionally, mages who could verify through magic could also own them.

“Who do you think you are to keep—”

“Empress, be quiet. First, we need to verify if the mage’s words are true.”

The Emperor stopped the Empress before harsh words could escape her lips.

When he nodded, Celia approached the Emperor and then Lisette, and at that moment, the tool emitted a red light. This meant that the blood relationship between the two had been proven.

“I don’t know what trick you’ve pulled, but this is nonsense.”

The Emperor’s pupils trembled slightly. The Empress shouted denial toward him, her expression unchanged.

Seeing her so confident, the Emperor found it difficult to decide whose words to believe right then.

“Celia’s magical tool can’t be fake. I know well from working with her. Rather, it’s the High Priest’s tool that’s fake.”

It was Lisette who stepped forward before him. She wasn’t sure if he would believe her, but this was a good opportunity to present the evidence and witnesses she had gathered.

“What would you know…”

“Continue speaking.”

When Lisette stepped forward, the Empress’s face crumpled, and the Emperor nodded toward Lisette, cutting off the Empress.

“All this time, Your Majesty has been deceived by the High Priest. He and the Empress conspired to deceive you.”

“How could the High Priest possibly deceive me?”

The Emperor frowned in disbelief at Lisette’s words. Having known and trusted the High Priest for many years, he found it difficult to believe her words at face value.

“S-summon the High Priest immediately!”

Feeling confused, the Emperor clutched his head and shouted, and as knights headed toward the temple, Lisette played the testimonies flowing from the magical tool she had brought.

‘The High Priest threatened me to extract money from poor believers by any means necessary.’

‘I suffered terrible things from him. At first, he touched my hands, then my thighs, and then places I can’t even mention. He threatened that impure energy would only disappear if his hands touched me.’

“I-I can’t believe this. I need the High Priest here to believe it.”

As one testimony after another about the High Priest’s immoral actions flowed out, the Emperor’s face turned pale.

Because the High Priest had always acted nobly in front of him, the Emperor shook his head, wanting to deny the content of the testimonies.

“I thought you might not believe it, so I brought witnesses here.”

At Lisette’s signal, Zela came forward and explained everything she had experienced.

“I have been harassed by the High Priest for a long time. Of course, until now, I didn’t think it was wrong, but the Imperial Princess showed me the truth, and I realized something was wrong.”

“…”

After hearing her words, the Emperor silently listened and waited for the High Priest to arrive.

“What is going on here? Is it true that you conspired with the Empress to deceive me?”

As soon as the High Priest arrived, the Emperor asked with pained eyes.

“I heard roughly on my way here. I don’t know what you’ve heard, but it’s not true. I can swear to Goddess Ella. Would you like me to verify with the paternity confirmation tool?”

He brazenly denied all facts. His confident attitude, claiming he could swear to Goddess Ella, almost made Lisette’s prepared evidence seem fabricated.

“Bring the tool.”

Soon after, soldiers gave the High Priest the paternity verification tool they had brought, and his measurement showed that the Emperor and Lisette were not blood-related.

“See? Didn’t I say these people fabricated evidence to slander me?”

After confirming the measurement results, the Empress displayed a triumphant attitude.