Chapter 225

               

From the day after she returned to the castle, Nerys was inundated with all sorts of work.

It was only natural. Not only had she been away for a long time, but she was now, in name and in reality, one of the final authorities over this entire vast northern region.

Moreover, there were many things she had to attend to beyond the usual duties of a lord.

“I’m glad the Duke arrived safely.”

Dora replied amiably to Nerys’s words.

“Yes. As per Your Grace’s command, the ‘Shadows’ are continuing to assist him smoothly without revealing their identity.”

Duke Elandria, who had nearly been murdered by his son and was rescued by the Shadows, was still in hiding, believed by all to be dead.

The Shadows’ report, sent by carrier pigeon, stated that he had recently moved to the lands of a loyal vassal and was gathering his forces there.

“Is there any news from the imperial capital?”

“I was just about to report on that. Marquis Odroy submitted a petition stating that a Crown Princess must be chosen swiftly, and the Crown Prince reportedly flew into a rage and rebuked the Marquess.”

“A rage? He must be quite smitten with Megara.”

Nerys could guess the situation from just that much.

Abelus may have been a brute to his wife, but he wasn’t foolish enough to throw a tantrum in front of others about not wanting to marry. If he were, he would have rejected his marriage to Nerys in her previous life from the start.

He must have been so repulsed because Valentin, of all people, was mentioned as a candidate for Crown Princess. Megara must have either cried or whined, lamenting her own fate and egging him on.

“The current Duke Elandria wouldn’t have pushed for his own sister, would he?”

Someone must have slyly informed Megara of the contents of Marquis Odroy’s petition. Nerys was confident she wouldn’t be surprised if that person was Nellusion.

After learning the truth of the past in the Dragon’s Lair, Nerys had also thought about the family known to the world as the descendants of ‘Pheros.’ One of the men who held his head high so brazenly in the portraits of the three heroes.

His line of descendants had died out. Until now, Nerys had thought it was a natural occurrence over the course of time. But now that she knew the past, she began to speculate that the family might have been intentionally ‘absorbed.’ The fewer people who knew the secret, the better.

‘Perhaps they, too, were killed after their secret desire for independence was discovered. Or maybe they tried to negotiate using the old secret and were defeated.’

The imperial family obsessively trumpeted the heroic tales of the three ancient heroes to all citizens of the empire. Even though only two of the heroes’ families remained, they continued to bring up the vanished Pheros family, using the full prestige of the old legend to support their own power.

Valentin marries Abelus and becomes the Crown Princess. At first glance, it might seem like a final lifeline for the Elandria family. But what if problems arose for the main family bloodline after Valentin became Crown Princess?

Then the imperial family would be able to truly and completely absorb the legend of the three heroes. And how wonderful would it look to the common people? Two of the three heroes’ descendant families becoming one.

From Camille’s perspective, it meant she had more than enough motive to cleanly absorb the Elandria family’s influence before they could act out again, and even to dispose of her accomplice who knew the old secret.

So Nellusion couldn’t send Valentin to be the Crown Princess just yet. Especially if he wanted to survive his current state of having fallen out of favor with the imperial family.

“No. Instead, he used the Crown Prince’s mistress to influence him. He placed cardsharps in the club you told us to watch, and they’re currently swindling money from the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince’s mistress is using the opportunity to build her own standing.”

“His method of using others to get what he wants is the same as ever.”

The pack of wolves she had unleashed was tearing through the imperial family faster and more greedily than Nerys had expected.

Nerys knew Club Finito well, one of the places where Nellusion made his money. In her previous life, she herself had recommended the place to a few people.

The Elandria family was in continuous financial decline. The Morier and MacKinnon merchant guilds had moved quickly to devour the ground the Elandria and Wells families had lost. Nellusion had probably never been as short on money as he was now.

Unfortunately, the swindlers of the Elandria family had many branches, official and unofficial, that had spread into various circles over the long years. Nellusion was likely trying to use one of them to catch his breath.

After a moment’s thought, Nerys gave a quick order.

“Send a few of our experts into the club. As long as they look like drifters, there shouldn’t be a problem. And be careful that the former Duke Elandria doesn’t try to contact the imperial family. He’s terrified right now, and it would be troublesome if he joined hands with the imperial family in the name of getting revenge on his son.”

Camille, Nellusion, and Megara still needed to tear into each other a little more. That would buy more time for her side to prepare.

Dora replied, “Yes,” with a grim face. Nerys took a letter from a drawer and handed it to her.

“Can you deliver this to His Holiness the Pope in secret? As quickly as possible.”

“Yes, my lady!”

Watching Dora’s back as she took the letter and immediately left the office, Nerys was lost in thought.

‘The temple.’

The first Pope she had seen in her vision.

Nerys also remembered the expression the dragon had used. It had said it didn’t know which ‘god’ had guided this meeting.

There was only one god now. At least, that was the case according to the common belief of the people on this continent.

But did everyone really believe in only one god?

‘The foreign tribes they call barbarians have their own gods.’

The empire’s citizens wouldn’t even trade properly with them. They ignored them, and sometimes hated them. The foreign tribes couldn’t even file a complaint in the imperial courts when they were wronged.

The empire’s people couldn’t understand why they continued to believe in their own gods while being so openly persecuted. Weren’t the priests of God Timaios proving their god’s righteousness by performing the miracle of healing? But come to think of it.

‘The gods of the foreign tribes could also prove themselves.’

The gods they believed in might also have the ability to bestow some kind of miracle.

What if… 600 years ago, there were naturally more gods coexisting than there are now, and the one who helped Bistor at the time of the evil dragon’s subjugation was simply the first Pope.

‘There must be a record of that time in the Papal State.’

If the current temple was built up with Bistor’s power, he would have surely tried to gain some benefit by using it as leverage.

She couldn’t imagine that the first Pope, blackmailed by a man who had already betrayed his comrades, would have left nothing behind.

‘I need a record of what happened then that someone can vouch for.’

If Omnitus were still the Pope, any records in the Papal State would be as good as nonexistent, but now that Ren was in that position, it was worth a shot.

‘Knock, knock.’

Lost in thought, Nerys looked up at the familiar knock.

Many people might come to see her in this castle, but only one person knocked like that. A clear, quick rap on the door to get her attention, even though he was as good as in the room already.

Sure enough, Cledwyn smiled with satisfaction when she looked right at him. He pushed himself off the doorframe he had been leaning against and approached his wife. Then, cupping her cheeks with his palms, he kissed her and asked.

“Busy?”

“Not really. Why?”

“There’s something I want to show you.”

“What is it?”

“I have to take you there to show you. It’s a bit too much for me to carry.”

Did this man buy dresses again? Suspicious, Nerys stood up anyway. She had something to tell him as well.

“Where are we going?”

“The basement.”

“Alright.”

Since he mentioned the basement and not the dressing room, it might surprisingly be work-related. The castle’s vault, which held its secrets, was located there.

Nerys chattered as she walked down the corridor with him. She was walking half-embraced by her husband, but she was so used to it that she wasn’t even aware of it.

“I sent a letter to Ren. I’m hoping to find some proof of the past we saw in the Lair. Don’t you think the Papal State might have some old records?”

“It’s possible. I heard you also sent letters to the writers you used to invite in the capital. To expose the past in the newspapers?”

“No, even if they tried to publish an article denying the imperial family’s origins in the papers now, it would just be needlessly difficult, and the actual effect we’d get would be small. The foundation of the imperial family lies in the heroes’ merits, but the current power structure they’ve established by ruling people for 600 years won’t collapse just because of that.”

The two of them stood before the door leading to the main palace’s basement. The knight guarding the door saluted and let the lord and lady pass.

As the door opened, a draft of cold air, unique to a basement, rose up. Cledwyn swept Nerys up into his arms.

“What are you doing?”

“The stairs here are steep. If my wife were to miss a step and get hurt, my heart would ache too much…”

“Ah, I get it.”

Though that’s what he said, Nerys knew he was being considerate of her in advance, thinking of the mice that were bound to be in the basement. She was embarrassed, but she decided not to refuse his consideration.

The stairs were indeed steep and narrow, spiraling down to a considerable depth. Nerys fell silent for a moment, then resumed her enthusiastic explanation.

“A nation needs many things to function properly. Financial power, military power, administrative power… Reading history books, so many nations have risen and fallen on this continent. It’s easy for the people of the Bistor Empire to think of a nation as a very stable fence, but that’s not really the case, is it?”

“It’s not.”

“Attacking their legitimacy is only a supplementary measure. It’s too weak to be a direct cause of death, but it’s good for supporting other causes. I’m going to prepare the final drop that makes the cup overflow.”

“And it also serves to provoke them, right? Since the imperial family won’t like the past being known, no matter what.”

“Goading an opponent when they’re not ready makes them waste unnecessary energy.”

She knew her husband would understand immediately. Nerys smiled, pleased.

Around then, the two of them reached the basement. Solid, well-plastered walls and several sturdy-looking doors lined both sides of a long corridor.

“Alright, from here.”

The knight guarding the lower area opened the door Cledwyn indicated with a nod of his chin. The moment the door opened, Nerys was so struck by the flood of brilliance that she forgot what she had been saying.

‘Chime, chime.’

Brilliance couldn’t possibly make a sound, but the light was so dazzling it felt just that loud. It poured from the jewels that filled a room the size of the West Palace’s greenhouse.

Diamonds, pearls, sapphires, emeralds… Not only the commonly prized jewels, but also precious metals of rare shapes and colors, crafted with the finest skill, were arranged on shelves that covered the walls. Dozens of tiaras that looked too heavy to even wear, hundreds of bracelets by a rough estimate, earrings enough to wear a different pair every day for a lifetime and still not run out…

Nerys was so dumbfounded she forgot what she was saying. Cledwyn grinned and nodded to the knight again.

“Next room.”