Otherwise, why would Lydia be looking at a book about Ludger’s disease?

Could the Evansi family possibly have the same hereditary disease?

“Lydia.”

“Ah! Sir Arsen! You startled me.”

Arsen caught the book that slipped from Lydia’s startled hands.

“Ludger’s disease? Does the Evansi family have a hereditary disease?”

He tried to ask naturally, but his tone came out somewhat stiff.

Fortunately, Lydia didn’t seem to notice anything strange and shook her head no.

If no one in the Evansi family had suffered from this disease, then the only reason Lydia would be reading this book was Richard.

‘I thought I’d caught a break when I sent Randel away, but Richard still remains.’

He’s a more tenacious and powerful rival than Randel.

Bitterness filled Arsen’s mouth as he handed the book back.

“I’m just interested in it. I’ll borrow it. Is that okay?”

Lydia put the book in her basket.

Ludger’s disease. It was named after the person who first contracted it—Ludger.

Ludger was a historical figure who unified the continent, but one day he collapsed and began limping.

Later, his hands trembled so badly he couldn’t write properly, and he showed signs of mental confusion.

He frequently claimed to see assassins and became so violent that no one wanted to serve him.

Eventually, Ludger died after being stabbed by his own sword while fighting invisible assassins he claimed to see.

After his death, his sons fought for supremacy and each took separate lands to establish independence. One of them became the first Emperor who founded the current Empire.

He too suffered from the same disease as his father.

His descendants also suffered from Ludger’s disease for generations, though lucky ones sometimes didn’t develop symptoms.

However, the unlucky ones developed it in early childhood and died young. The previous emperor fell into the average category.

At least the disease manifested around the time his children had their debutante, so he didn’t have to worry about succession issues.

Was that considered lucky?

Anyway, since Richard also had imperial blood flowing through him, he wouldn’t escape the disease.

After the previous emperor showed symptoms, Richard was often gripped by fear that he would end up the same way.

This was understandable since Ludger’s disease still had no cure.

‘But they said a treatment has been found.’

Wellington had shared that information too. The problem was that even Wellington didn’t know exactly how the disease was treated.

He had only heard rumors passed along that a treatment had been discovered using herbs imported from the southern Monbella Kingdom.

Lydia planned to research this together with Wellington if she judged him trustworthy.

‘If we could secure that treatment method first……’

Who knows? She might be able to bring Richard to his knees using the treatment as leverage.

And so that day in the library, one person sank into thoughts of revenge, while the other sank into melancholy.

* * *

Why was Arsen so fixated on the borderlands? What could possibly be in such barren land?

The Emperor, curious about this, sent five people to the borderlands. All five returned to the capital with information they thought would interest the Emperor.

There was no need for all five to go; only their leader, a man, secretly entered the imperial palace through the back door for a private audience with the Emperor.

“What is in the borderlands that makes Arsen so determined to stay there?”

“My speculation is that Sir Arsen remains because of the Edis couple’s grave.”

“Grave?”

It had been extremely difficult to gather information from the rough people in the border, but if there was one piece of information they had gleaned, it was that Arsen’s filial piety was truly exceptional.

He had been close to Brahman Edis during his lifetime, and after his death, Arsen visited Brahman’s grave daily to clean the tombstone himself.

Even during Brahman’s lifetime, young Arsen was known for bringing flowers to his mother’s grave every day.

Richard’s expression soured upon hearing this story. The man, thinking the Emperor disliked the information, hastily brought up the next piece.

“Also, Lady Lydia Evansi has established a temple in the borderlands.”

“She built a temple? Just for appearances, is that it? Well, what other information do you have?”

As expected, he responded to this information. The man enthusiastically continued.

“She seems to be seducing Sir Arsen, coming and going from the Edis mansion.”

“And how did Arsen respond?”

“If the marquis’s daughter proposed marriage, I believe he would accept.”

“What?”

At the exact moment Richard clutched his forehead, one of the man’s colleagues who had gone to the borderlands with him quietly slipped out of their lodgings.

Then he entered through the back door of the Evansi marquis’s residence and relayed the same information to Devon.

“It seems you can prepare for the lady’s wedding ceremony.”

* * *

A slightly different message than Lydia had intended was delivered to the Emperor and Devon. Unaware of this fact, Lydia was giving Wellington a special lecture on Ludger’s disease.

After observing Wellington for several days, she had judged him trustworthy.

For one thing, Wellington seemed to have settled his mind, and for another, he had far more debt than Lydia had anticipated.

With creditors everywhere outside the borderlands, Wellington’s reluctance to leave the borderlands significantly contributed to Lydia’s trust in him.

“So the key is herbs that grow in the Monbella Kingdom, is that right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Above all, Lydia couldn’t investigate all the herbs from the Monbella Kingdom by herself.

Wouldn’t it be much easier with Wellington, who had more extensive medical knowledge than her?

“Um, Priestess, the Monbella Kingdom may be smaller than the Empire, but it’s still a kingdom. It’s enormously large.”

“Are you teaching me geography?”

“No, I’m asking how we’re supposed to investigate all the herbs that grow in that kingdom. Just the two of us.”

So it’s not one person but two. Ah, should we include High Priest Byron? Three people would make it somewhat easier.

But Byron had strangely open yet conservative aspects that would likely make him oppose Lydia’s plan. At least when it came to life, he was someone who made no compromises.

So Byron was excluded.

“It could take more than ten years.”

“It can’t take ten years. We need to find it as quickly as possible.”

Richard had developed Ludger’s disease relatively early. But since a treatment had eventually been found, he couldn’t be called unfortunate.

Come to think of it, he had been quite lucky. Born a commoner yet becoming emperor, and even overcoming a disease considered the imperial curse—it almost seemed as if heaven was helping him.

But that was only in the past life. This time, Richard wouldn’t be as lucky as before.

“Still, we don’t need to investigate every herb that grows in the kingdom. We just need to find herbs that grow only in the Monbella Kingdom and not in the Empire.”

If it grew in the Empire, they wouldn’t have imported herbs.

“True, that makes sense. If they specifically imported it, it’s likely an herb that only grows in the Monbella Kingdom.”

With the scope narrowed and hope growing, Wellington jotted down names of famous herbs from the Monbella Kingdom and then asked,

“But Priestess.”

“What?”

“Didn’t you say you were rejected by His Majesty the Emperor? Then why are you working so hard to cure His Majesty’s disease?”

Yes, that’s how it might appear to others.

“I’m not trying to cure him.”

I’m trying to eliminate any chance of him being cured.

In her past life, Richard held Lydia’s lifeline.

But in this life, she intended to hold his.

What would that feel like?

* * *

“Your Majesty, the Empress has her medical examination scheduled for today.”

“There’s an examination today as well?”

Richard rose from his seat with obvious annoyance. Behind him was a desk piled mountain-high with documents.

Richard was busy day and night.

Problems he thought would be resolved once he ascended the throne persisted, and unexpected incidents frequently arose with the modifier “urgent” attached to them.

On top of that, Richard had to squeeze time to separately study imperial governance, which he hadn’t learned as a prince.

So his promise to be present at each of Giselle’s medical examinations had become tremendously bothersome.

“Baron Bergman, what about the matter I asked you to look into?”

Richard received reports even while walking to the Empress’s palace, trying to save every minute he could.

“As Your Majesty instructed, we approached the temple, but I was informed that Lydia Evansi has already been removed from the priestess registry.”

Richard’s footsteps abruptly halted as he was flipping through the report.

After receiving word that Arsen and Lydia had grown closer, Richard had devised a plan to separate them.

He intended to pressure the temple to impose restrictions on priestesses’ conduct.

He had even sent what was essentially a bribe disguised as a donation, asking them to make it a doctrine that priestesses must serve for at least two years, as was customary.

Richard knew well that this was merely a stopgap measure.

But he wanted to buy time, even by such means.

While he was trying to establish neutrality with Arsen until he secured imperial power, what? Lydia isn’t a priestess?

“She seems to have been recently deleted from the priestess registry. Marquis Evansi must have pulled some strings.”

“That cunning old fox.”

Richard gritted his teeth.

If Lydia wasn’t affiliated with the temple, there was no way to prevent their marriage.