The duke’s face darkened at the emperor’s words that once again insulted his birth mother. He recalled what he had learned through Roshan and internally expressed contempt toward the emperor.

The two soon climbed all the stairs and emerged above ground. The emperor’s concubines followed behind. The emperor inhaled and exhaled deeply as if welcoming the fresh air, then turned to look at the duke standing beside him. The duke avoided eye contact by bowing his head. After ordering the awkwardly standing concubines to withdraw, the emperor grinned at the duke.

“What’s wrong, Duke? Have you done something wrong to me?”

Though his tone was playful, the duke unconsciously bit the inside of his cheek at the emperor’s words. He hadn’t done anything wrong. It’s just that…..

Rumble.

Just as the duke slowly raised his head, thinking about what would happen tonight, a sudden thunder-like sound was heard, and the ground below them shook.

“What is this……!”

The startled Duke Day quickly lowered his body. Was it an earthquake? As he looked around with that thought, he suddenly caught sight of the emperor’s crazed expression.

“Hahaha!”

The emperor burst into laughter and threw his head back. Then he bent over laughing, holding his stomach as if he might roll on the ground at any moment. Duke Day looked bewildered at the emperor’s sudden behavior. Then, sensing something strange, he shouted,

“Your Majesty! What have you done!”

“I buried them.”

The emperor said as he wiped away tears that had formed from laughing too hard. The duke stared blankly for a moment before gradually distorting his face. The emperor watched his expression and said,

“I personally made a tomb for the traitors, Duke.”

The emperor scanned the path he had just walked. Though not visible from here, judging from the ground tremor, the underground had certainly collapsed. And everything inside would have been crushed to death.

“To commit such an act……”

Duke Day gritted his teeth at the emperor’s expression. His vision turned white. According to the original plan, this shouldn’t have happened. The emperor should have been dealt with before tomorrow dawned. The duke shouted furiously,

“Y-You never mentioned this!”

The duke had been summoned by the emperor earlier. And there, the emperor had earnestly requested the duke’s help. He said he would regain his senses and asked for help in dealing with Roshan. He promised to become the emperor the duke wanted if he helped and supported him in eliminating Roshan.

Duke Day had wavered at the emperor’s plea. In truth, at this point, there was nothing to gain by joining Roshan’s faction. He would merely preserve his life. Moreover, Roshan had explicitly stated, “Return to your territory and abandon the emperor.” That statement was equivalent to saying he would spare his life if the duke lived quietly.

But despite this, the duke ultimately chose Roshan. First, Kedrick failed to earn his trust. What use were tears and pleas? Given what he had shown so far. From his experiences, Duke Day knew that people don’t change easily.

And above all, the documents handed to him by Roshan….. The truth written there was something Duke Day could never accept.

‘The late emperor and his concubine came from the same womb.’

The late emperor and his concubine Delaila were half-siblings. They had different fathers—one an emperor and one a slave—but they shared the same blood from their mother. Kedrick was born from their union. Duke Day found this fact utterly disgusting.

‘No god would forgive such a being.’

As in most countries, incest was a terrible taboo in the Empire. Especially since they began worshipping the Goddess of Light, the imperial people, regardless of social status, considered incest one of the worst sins humans could commit. Children born from incest were stoned to death, and those who committed incest were burned at the stake regardless of their status.

Duke Day, as an imperial citizen, couldn’t tolerate incest either. As soon as he learned Emperor Kedrick’s secret, he thought,

‘So you weren’t human from birth because you were born in sin. Now I understand all the emperor’s eccentricities and evil deeds. His very existence is a product of terrible sin.’

That’s why he didn’t change his choice despite the emperor’s plea. Instead, he pretended to cooperate with the emperor while informing Roshan of the emperor’s plan. The wine served by the emperor on his birthday would contain sleeping drugs. So be prepared in advance. Then deal with the emperor, he said.

Duke Day believed his choice was right. He thought it was a hundred times better to live quietly in his homeland than to serve an emperor born of incest and enjoy wealth and glory.

But the situation had changed drastically. Roshan, who was to become the new emperor, had disappeared. Under a pile of rubble.

“You clearly said you would put people to sleep and then only deal with the Crown Prince and his close aides!”

The duke raised his voice at the emperor in this worst possible situation. This couldn’t be happening. He simply couldn’t accept that this sinful being would continue to sit in the glorious position through such a terrible and petty method.

“How could I trust you, Duke.”

The emperor looked at the duke and stretched his mouth into a long grin. The duke found the emperor’s bright red lips repulsive. He felt like he was looking at a devil risen from h*ll.

The emperor threw something at the duke. An elegant letter fell at the duke’s feet. The duke recognized the handwriting inside the partially unfolded letter and widened his eyes.

“Your daughter helped me. We were a couple who rubbed flesh together after all.”

“……”

“Originally, I planned to tear your daughter to death too. But she contributed greatly to this affair, so I decided to let her live. Though she’ll live as a slave, crawling on the floor. Here in this palace.”

His daughter who ultimately failed to help. The duke retched from rising nausea, then glared at the emperor and shouted,

“Do you think the nobles will stand by and watch! You’ve killed the high nobles of this country! And I’ll reveal your secret… Cough!”

Thud.

But his words were never completed. One of the men who had been hiding in the shadows of the trees emerged and struck the duke’s head at the emperor’s signal. The emperor looked at the duke who had collapsed mid-sentence and poked him with his foot, tilting his head.

“Secret? What’s he talking about? Well….. I can ask him later.”

The momentary curiosity disappeared. The emperor spat on the duke’s face. Then he briefly ordered the men who had somehow increased in number,

“Drag him away and lock him up. I’ll kill this traitor in front of the empress.”

The men disappeared, dragging the duke along. The emperor watched with a smirk, then looked back at the building. Down below. The traitors who would have died miserably, crushed under the collapsed debris. And their leader, Roshan Vistius. His hated half-brother.

“F*ck. I should have done this earlier if it was this easy to kill you.”

The emperor cursed after k*lling his lifelong nemesis. But even if he had killed Roshan today, only crisis remained for the emperor. The nobles would certainly not leave alone the emperor who had become a complete tyrant and killed nobles he had invited.

However, the emperor moved on without any concern for the future because he didn’t think about it. The place he headed straight for was a quiet tower on the outskirts of the imperial palace.

A reddish moon hung in the black night sky without a single star, illuminating the emperor’s path. And in the place the emperor had left, a golden light began to slowly extend upward from the underground of the building.

* * *

“……I’ll go in and rest a bit. You should also leave now, Sir.”

Golden waves swirled. Yerena grabbed her head and staggered into the bedroom as her mind suddenly began to blur.

Frederick watched her with a complex expression. The sleeping drug was starting to take effect. Soon the princess would fall into a death-like sleep, and a physician would come up to carry out the planned procedure. And by the time his lord returned, the princess would wake from her sleep, having forgotten everything.

‘So this is how it ends.’

Frederick had put the sleeping drug in the princess’s tea without telling her any truth. He resented himself for acting this way, but he had no other choice. He stared at the crimson tea the princess had partially drunk, then gazed at the bedroom she had entered.

Frederick finally rose from his seat and left after a long while. Yerena, in the bedroom, also heard the sound of the door closing with a thud.

‘My body feels strange. I should ask for help. But I’m so dizzy I can’t possibly……’

Yerena, who couldn’t even make it to the bed, slumped to the floor and pressed her chest hard with her head bowed low. And at that moment, something happened that even Frederick hadn’t anticipated.

“Ah……”

With a sudden surge of nausea, Yerena grabbed the bed sheet and pressed it to her mouth. She vomited all the tea she had just drunk with a retch, then breathed roughly. Though the bile caused another wave of nausea, her head strangely cleared. She clutched the bed sheet and retched a few more times before relaxing and leaning back against the bed.

‘If I just rest a little……’

Strangely, drowsiness overcame her. Yerena tried to stand up but decided to rest a little and closed her eyes.

The princess’s eyelids slowly closed completely, and the god of sleep sat upon them. Soon Yerena breathed regularly with a peaceful face.

A quiet tower. A woman sleeping with a peaceful expression. If one considered only these two things, there seemed to be no danger. But at the very moment Yerena fell asleep, mercenaries who would kill even a priestess without hesitation if given enough gold were advancing toward the tower.

* * *

‘If I make even one mistake, it’s over. I’ve seen His Highness’s face.’

The physician was more nervous than ever. A strange and unheard-of medicine. With it, he had to perform a strange “treatment” today.