If this was a favor she had to grant in exchange for receiving the body, it might prove rather troublesome.

Roanne Oult was fundamentally far too different from Mokyeong. She could not even begin to guess what the woman might request.

“What is it?”

“Please be with my mother when she passes away.”

“Your mother?”

Once again, the answer was completely unexpected.

All she wanted was for Mokyeong to be there when her mother died.

Did she truly have no other regrets?

Roanne’s mother had been bedridden for over seven years — little more than a living corpse.

She could die at any moment, so fulfilling Roanne’s request would be easy — as long as Mokyeong returned to the Oult territory.

Mokyeong tilted her head, wondering if Roanne was essentially giving her the body for free. After hesitating briefly, Roanne spoke again.

“And beware of what lies beneath the castle.”

This time, even her expression changed.

For the first time, tension settled over the face that had appeared relieved only moments earlier. She seemed both uneasy and afraid.

“Beneath the castle? What is down there? And how am I supposed to be careful……?”

Before Mokyeong could question her cryptic warning, Roanne’s body began to fade.

“Hey.”

Somehow, Mokyeong instinctively knew that this would be their final meeting.

Yet there still seemed to be so much she needed to learn.

When Mokyeong urgently reached out, Roanne extended her now-translucent hand in return.

Her slender fingers slipped between Mokyeong’s and clasped her hand tightly.

“If it is you…… you will be…… able to…….”

“What? Hey! Roanne! Speak clearly!”

Her voice was too faint.

It became increasingly difficult to catch each word as it scattered into the air.

“What do you mean? If you are going to tell me something, explain it properly before you leave!”

Roanne was no longer able to respond.

Her soul was beginning to disappear, starting from her head.

Why did it have to happen now?

Desperately trying to hold on to Roanne, Mokyeong hoped to catch even a hint of what she was saying, but it was already too late.

“Roanne!”

***

“……Roanne!”

Mokyeong awoke, shouting furiously into the empty air.

After staring blankly at the ceiling for a while, she realized it had been a dream and let out a hollow laugh.

She doubted that closing her eyes again would allow her to see Roanne.

However, one thing was certain.

“This body truly belongs to me now.”

Roanne had transferred ownership of it to her before disappearing with a smile, free of all lingering regret.

“If it is you, then gladly. Please live to be a hundred years old.”

Since Roanne had said that, Mokyeong was now the rightful owner of this body until she reached at least one hundred years of age.

“Still, beneath the castle…….”

Roanne could not have meant the Imperial Palace, since she had never been permitted to wander there freely. She must have been referring to the grounds beneath Oult Castle.

Although Mokyeong still did not know what she was supposed to beware of, she quickly pushed her unease aside. There was no point in worrying about something she could not yet comprehend. Once she arrived, the truth would reveal itself naturally.

She had already planned to search every inch of Oult Castle from top to bottom once she reached the territory.

If something noteworthy was hidden beneath the castle, that would only make matters more intriguing.

However, before then, she still had one task to complete.

Mokyeong rose from her seat and opened the window.

A gust of cold night air swept into the room.

It was completely dark outside.

The guards monitoring the prince’s palace would now be less vigilant than during the day.

Mokyeong extinguished the lamp and silently activated the Poison Transformation Heart Method.

As she concentrated, all of the internal energy she had painstakingly accumulated gathered in her legs.

“This should be enough to run for approximately five minutes.”

After quietly assessing her physical condition, she placed one foot on the windowsill.

There was someone she needed to meet before she left.

***

“Come now! Everyone, drink! What are you doing, Chief Attendant? Bring out more food and spare no expense! I shall share my joy with everyone!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

At the Emperor’s booming command, the attendants hurried into motion.

The Emperor’s closest confidants, the Captain of the Imperial Guard, and Prince Carden were all gathered inside the magnificent banquet hall.

“I hear the people outside are calling Carden the living incarnation of the founding Emperor. What a glorious title! Do you not agree? Hahaha!”

The emperor raised his goblet and burst into a hearty laugh that seemed genuine.

He drank deeply of his prized wine and tucked into his favorite roast pig, whole. In that moment, he resembled a spirited warrior more than a dignified emperor: Eluxider, the Founding Emperor.

The first Dragon Slayer and the first Inversio, he was said to have returned from the dead.

Revered as the greatest swordsman in history, he was still beloved by the people of the empire nearly three hundred years after its foundation.

Therefore, the acclaim proclaiming Carden the ‘living incarnation of the Founding Emperor’ was far from insignificant.

It embodied the people’s fervent desire to see Prince Carden ascend the throne instead of the crown prince.

The Emperor understood what those words implied, and there was no chance that the Empress was unaware of their significance either.

Carden himself understood their significance better than anyone.

Holding the wine that the Emperor had poured for him, Carden cast a sidelong glance at his father.

The Emperor appeared to be laughing and celebrating with genuine delight, but…

Who could truly say?

Was that smiling face really all there was to him?

Carden recalled the private audience he had had with the Emperor before entering the banquet hall.

“You poor child! The position of Crown Prince was rightfully yours…….”

The Emperor clicked his tongue in disapproval and looked towards the palace of the Crown Prince.

His grim expression revealed his dissatisfaction with Gilteon, the Crown Prince.

His younger brother had returned from the brink of death, only for the elder brother to fall ill immediately afterwards, as though he resented his survival.

The Emperor had always despised the Crown Prince’s frailty.

In fact, he detested it so much that even now, while Gilteon lay between life and death with a raging fever, he had not visited him once.

Sometimes, when he could no longer bear to see his son, the Emperor would leave on a hunting expedition. At other times, he would make a conspicuous journey to the border and personally cut down the enemy.

Members of the Leuvre imperial family had to be strong.

Only then could they protect the land blessed by the gods.

Blessed with fertile soil, abundant resources, and breathtaking scenery, Leuvre was coveted by every neighboring kingdom.

Not even the Oult territory, known as the Demon’s Land and lying within its borders, could overshadow the empire’s prosperity.

To protect what one possessed, one had to be strong.

The reigning emperor, Brumrus, had once been one of the empire’s most formidable knights.

Despite his imperial status, he had personally led the Dragon-Slaying Corps in their conquest of Marshalios — the twenty-seventh dragon — ultimately decapitating it.

The price he paid for that victory was the loss of one of his shoulders.

Crushed between the dragon’s venomous fangs, the wound never fully healed despite the tireless efforts of the most gifted priests.

While he could still hold a sword, he could no longer wield it with the same strength and skill. Moreover, achieving an absolute victory was necessary to earn the title of Inversio; slaying a dragon alone was not enough.

The reigning Emperor was a perfect example of this.

He had slain a dragon yet failed to become a guardian.

Nevertheless, he commanded the most powerful order of knights in the empire, and losing one shoulder had not stripped him of everything that made him a warrior.

Blessed with striking looks and a gift for eloquent speech, he had enjoyed the adoration of the empire’s people since his youth. It seemed only natural that he would surpass his siblings and ascend the throne.

Yet his firstborn son was so frail that he was confined to bed every few days.

To the emperor, Gilteon was like a grain of sand lodged in his eye: a constant and unbearable irritation.

“That position was rightfully yours…….”

His voice was filled with profound regret.

There was a time when Carden had believed those words were sincere.

That was when he was still very young.

But now, he knew better.

Had he naively taken the Emperor at his word and asked to be named Crown Prince, the Emperor would have had him executed long before he became an Inversio.

A father could be proud of his powerful son while also being wary of him for being strong enough to threaten his throne.

The Emperor smiled at Carden, seemingly proud, but beneath that smile, he was undoubtedly wary of him.

This man, better suited to being an emperor than a father, was the most deceptive person Carden had ever met.

Carden let out a quiet chuckle.

He set down his goblet.

He had endured enough.

Just as he rose to leave the banquet hall, Count Exid — the Emperor’s closest confidant and chief attendant — approached and whispered in the Emperor’s ear.

The Emperor nodded in agreement before turning his gaze towards Carden.

“Carden.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Your consort will depart tomorrow to begin her confinement in the Oult territory. I ordered her to finish her preparations today. Keep that in mind.”

Carden’s hand stopped for the briefest moment.

Tomorrow?

So soon?

However, his surprise lasted only an instant.

As always, he assumed the expression of an obedient prince, smiled, and bowed his head.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”