Jayden urged a servant who seemed quick-witted among the group. Then Rockfort’s gaze fixed again on the Grand Duke, who was looking at the throne that originally belonged to him.

“Don’t you have something to apologize for, Grand Duke?”

“With all due respect……”

“Let’s both drop this disgusting hypocrisy.”

As his threatening low voice resonated, the Grand Duke also looked at the emperor with hostile eyes. It was arrogance stemming from the fact that this was his own country.

“I just came from the border. There is overwhelming evidence that you have not fulfilled your alliance obligations to the empire. Of course, I have no intention of overlooking that.”

“There must be a misunderstanding.”

“The evidence is clear. Also, how dare you disrespect and cause problems after being sent a noble princess as Grand Duchess.”

“That too…… was solely the Grand Duchess’s opinion, and the empress dowager has already cleared up the misunderstanding.”

At the mention of ’empress dowager,’ Rockfort’s eyebrows twitched fiercely.

Just then, the empress dowager entered the audience hall with a dignified posture. The mother and son briefly made eye contact, but Rockfort’s cold expression remained unchanged.

“……That’s what he says, what does the empress dowager think?”

Cassandra’s indifferent expression was no less severe than Rockfort’s.

“If you valued my opinion, wouldn’t you have not come here in the first place?”

When a question was answered with another question, nothing was gained.

“I need to see Leticia. With my own eyes, right now.”

Rockfort snapped at the Grand Duke and abruptly stood up.

“That is……”

Something seemed to deeply trouble him as the Grand Duke’s face darkened.

“Even if she’s your sister, summoning the Grand Duchess at this late hour is a matter of propriety. Your Majesty should show restraint.”

At the empress dowager’s words, the Grand Duke quickly nodded with urgency. To Rockfort, this only made them look more suspicious.

They were hiding something.

Rockfort slowly descended the throne steps and stood before the Grand Duke. While the Grand Duke was flustered, Rockfort’s sword made a slithering sound as he drew it from his waist.

“Your Majesty, what are you doing!”

Finding it amusing that the empress dowager was rebuking him in someone else’s country, Rockfort let out a scornful laugh and looked down menacingly at the Grand Duke right in front of him.

“I could cut you down right here.”

The murderous intent in his eyes was genuine. It was the same killing aura from when he had personally killed people on the battlefield. It was only natural that the Grand Duke retreated step by step.

“If you value your neck, bring Leticia. I’ll give you ten minutes.”

The Grand Duke’s previously smooth face turned deathly pale.

“Y-Your Majesty…… please put away your sword.”

“Bring Leticia. I won’t say it again.”

“Your Majesty, please don’t misunderstand. The Grand Duchess is…… currently…… ill. So…… she’s staying in a tower in the separate palace……”

“You dare to imprison an imperial princess? My sister?”

Hoo, the empress dowager exhaled a frustrated sigh. It didn’t matter that he was her son, she couldn’t stop him now.

“It was an unavoidable measure. I confirmed it with my own eyes as her mother.”

Rockfort briefly closed his eyes and reopened them, overwhelmed by rising turmoil. Though he intensely wanted to behead the Grand Duke right there, various complications barely held him back.

“Your Majesty, put away your sword. Talking to the Grand Duke is a waste of time. Come with me to see Leticia.”

The Grand Duke let out a frightened sound at the purple eyes that glared at him so terrifyingly.

Rockfort, unable to control his impulse, placed his blade against the man’s neck, but seeing blood trickle down, he forced himself to withdraw his sword.

“Ugh……”

The Grand Duke pathetically collapsed.

“It’s just a scratch.”

Rockfort looked down at him with narrowed eyes.

“But whether it ends as a scratch remains to be seen.”

His cold gaze soon turned toward the empress dowager.

“Empress dowager. If you don’t hurry, I cannot guarantee I’ll be able to restrain myself any longer.”

“How could I not know your temperament.”

With a swish, the empress dowager turned and walked ahead. Rockfort followed silently with heavy steps.

Passing through corridors, climbing stairs, the increasingly remote and dilapidated building pained his heart. Despite it being spring, the tower where his sister stayed was desolate with a rather chilly wind.

“Leticia is inside. The reason…… you’ll understand when you see.”

Without hesitation, Rockfort opened the creaking door. Sensing a presence in the complete darkness, a lamp was lit. It was an elderly lady-in-waiting in shabby attire.

“Hmm……”

To think there was a reason for this. She was the daughter born to none other than the empress dowager.

Rockfort paused his steps in dismay before moving forward.

“Leticia. I’m here.”

The lady-in-waiting bowed in fear and lit the remaining lamps, but even those weren’t particularly bright.

Rockfort took one lamp and looked at the humble bed.

“Leticia, it’s your brother Rockfort.”

He spoke gently again. Then there was movement from the bed. Rockfort approached the bed with the lamp.

“Bro…… ther……”

Rockfort nearly dropped the lamp in surprise at the hoarse voice. It wasn’t the beautiful bell-like voice of his sister.

“Leticia?”

“You came…… to save me……”

After quickly placing the lamp on the bedside table, he could see Leticia’s face. Besides her shabby appearance, she strangely wore a black veil over her face in the bedroom.

“What happened? Now that I’m here, you can tell me without worry.”

Tears fell drop by drop from beneath Leticia’s veil.

And surprisingly, she wasn’t alone in the bed. A small, thin little girl was nestled in Leticia’s arms as if clinging to her.

But something seemed strange about her appearance. Rockfort picked up the lamp he had set down and illuminated the child’s face.

“Ugh…… waaah……”

The child immediately burst into tears and buried her face in Leticia’s chest, but Rockfort had already seen.

She couldn’t have been more than two or three years old. On the forehead of the little girl, who was much smaller than others her age, there was a scar that looked like tangled cobwebs.

“What happened? How……”

Rockfort reached out to his sister, but Leticia instinctively flinched. Just seeing that reaction, he could guess what hardships she had endured, and his heart ached deeply.

“Brother, please…… save me and this child…… I want to return to the empire……”

Rockfort nodded, suppressing the lump in his throat.

“I promise. You know I never break my promises, right?”

“……Yes.”

Leticia’s pitiful nod, wet with tears, was desperate.

“Wait just a little. I’ll resolve everything. Just a little longer. Can you…… wait, trusting my promise?”

Leticia nodded again, shedding more tears. The child who had buried her face in Leticia’s chest was still crying.

Rockfort turned with steps heavy as lead and stared at the empress dowager who had been watching the scene from the entrance.

Then he left the room and closed the door. There was no need to show Leticia the quarrel between mother and son.

“What happened? What is all this?”

The empress dowager let out a long sigh. Seeing Rockfort’s furious purple eyes, it seemed certain that not only would the political marriage be dissolved, but the Grand Duke’s life might also be in danger.

As the son she had personally given birth to and raised, she knew him better than anyone. She knew she could no longer dissuade him.

“When I arrived, it was already like this. The Grand Duke wanted to move Leticia to the Grand Duchess’s quarters when I came, but Leticia refused.”

“I…… asked what all this is. Your explanation is insufficient.”

The empress dowager took out a long pipe and placed it between her red lips. She wasn’t particularly pleased about coming to the Grand Duchy either. Not to mention seeing her daughter in such a pitiful state.

“……It’s poisoning. Why ask when you already know?”

Rockfort looked at his hateful mother with narrowed eyes. Yes, he had sensed it after seeing Leticia and the child’s condition. It was a sight he had witnessed several times in his childhood.

When his older brother, the second prince, died, he also had ugly spots on his face. How could he not recognize it was due to the poison his mother, standing before him, had used?

“Looking at the child’s face, she was likely exposed to poison gradually during pregnancy. It’s not uncommon.”

“Is that what you, the empress dowager, should be saying right now?”

“She was already poisoned when I arrived, so what more could I do now? She’s locked herself in this tower out of fear of the world, and I can’t take her place as Grand Duchess, can I?”

Rockfort’s empty fist clenched tightly.

“Was it the Grand Duke’s doing?”

“Hmph…… can’t you tell just by looking?”

The empress dowager clicked her tongue, turning the tables.

“It was the Grand Duke’s mistress. Fearing she might bear a male child, they tried to intervene during the pregnancy…… quite an amateurish attempt.”

“Are you suggesting we should be thankful that their incompetence saved her life and the child’s?”

Rockfort sighed.

“No, don’t answer that.”

The empress dowager’s expression seemed to suggest the mistress was pathetic. As if she herself wouldn’t have handled it so clumsily.

“Where is that woman?”

“She’s not worth Your Majesty personally killing her.”

“She can’t be left alive either.”

Hoo, the empress dowager exhaled a cloud of smoke.

“She can’t be killed either. I…… I elready killed her.”

Rockfort bit his lip hard. There was nowhere to vent his rising anger.

Right now, saving Leticia, who was trembling beyond that door, took priority over venting his rage. That fact barely maintained Rockfort’s sanity.

“I’m taking Leticia with me. And that child too, if she wishes. The divorce will be finalized, and the Grand Duke will have to pay for his negligence in the alliance with the empire.”

“You can’t punish the Grand Duke for mere women’s schemes.”

“But if there’s evidence that he broke his agreement on the battlefield, there’s nothing stopping me. This is a matter of state, so the empress dowager need not concern herself.”

He coldly turned his back on his detestable mother.

“Won’t you give even a fraction of that care you have for your sister to me, your mother? Your Majesty still needs me.”

“No. My reign has no need for a woman as wicked as you.”

Rockfort’s hands still trembled with anger, but the goal of saving Leticia barely calmed his fury.

He also had to suppress the urge to behead the Grand Duke. Leticia’s condition seemed serious enough to postpone all that.

But it was merely postponed. He had already resolved to crush the Grand Duke without fail.