Chapter 228

Nerys stared at the report from the Moriér Merchant Group, momentarily stunned.

Already this much?

She had already predicted that Megara would borrow money from Abelus, and when her available funds ran dry, she would turn to outside sources. The Moriér Merchant Group was the perfect target for someone like Megara.

So Nerys had already warned Joan before coming here:
If Megara reached out, lend her the money without hesitation—but secure the Marquess family’s assets and the Crown Prince’s personal properties as collateral without offending her.

However, the amount listed as ‘borrowed by Megara’ was far greater than expected. As Nerys’s eyes moved to the list of assets secured as collateral, a smile curved her lips.

As expected of Joan. She had secured exactly the assets Nerys had told her to target first.

A silver mine.
A lake that fed several major rivers.
A castle situated in a key trading region…

Important territories the Crown Prince’s line had governed for generations.

It was both amusing and absurd. It seemed the Marquess family’s assets had already been seized and spent, so most of what Megara offered Joan as collateral was the Crown Prince’s personal property. Assets a mistress should never have been able to touch. Lands that even Nerys—when she had once been Crown Princess—had never laid a hand on.

If she had still been her old self, Nerys would have felt a bitter sting seeing this. Perhaps she would’ve been angry—not out of love for Abelus, but at realizing how ridiculous her past treatment had been.

But now, she felt nothing.

Only—

It was rotten to the core.

Only after pulling herself out could she truly see how much the once-flourishing fortress of the Empire had been festering from within, on the verge of collapsing. An Empire built on lies, basking in a glory that was never its own.

Nerys let out a cold smile.

She picked up her pen and wrote an urgent message for Joan:
Bring everything and come immediately once you finish the last remaining task.

❖ ❖ ❖

The attempted assassination of the Crown Prince in the heart of the Imperial Capital caused an uproar.

First, Princess Camille—the First Imperial Princess, quietly excluded from politics but still treated with full honors—was arrested. Because she was Imperial Family, she wasn’t thrown in a filthy prison, but confined to her Princess Palace. Yet the restrictions—no one permitted in or out except food deliveries—were already a form of imprisonment.

Anyone knew the Crown Prince disliked his sister’s interference. But to the general public, who knew little beyond the façade, Princess Camille was known as quiet and passive. That such a woman attempted to kill her younger brother shocked many.

Still, no one doubted the culprit. She was the eldest and possessed the Jeweled Eyes… yet had been passed over for the throne. It was easy to assume she harbored resentment.

Camille’s status meant she wasn’t tortured, and the interrogation ended in a day due to lack of direct evidence. But her palace staff weren’t so fortunate.

And Camille was not acquitted.

Dragged away from all her familiar attendants, Camille sat trapped in her room with only one maid from the Emperor’s Palace permitted to serve her.

Camille was dumbfounded. She had done nothing. She had been quiet recently—so why this?

That insolent thing.

A ludicrous accusation. False charges. Only one person could manipulate things so cleanly without leaving a trace.

Megara, that bitch.

Whispering poison into Abelus’s gullible ears.

But what infuriated Camille most wasn’t Megara—it was the betrayal of those she trusted to stand by her.

She reached out to her remaining political allies, requesting help to lift her confinement and clear her name. And she believed Nellusion—Abelus’s childhood friend—would be her strongest supporter.

He responded. But not with what she expected.

Excuses.
His Highness is too emotional right now.
We are searching for evidence of your innocence.
There are no results yet…

Sitting alone in the quiet bedroom, Camille chewed on resentment. This was absurd. This was unacceptable.

I have so much to do.

As the eldest Imperial child, Camille had been trained to manage the Empire. Before Abelus was named Crown Prince, she naturally—and later secretly—extended her influence everywhere.

The Emperor ignored her involvement, often unaware of it. The Imperial Family’s traditional intelligence organization had long been corrupted, and its leader believed all was fine as long as nobles saw him performing well.

Thus, Camille was the only one aware of the looming crisis. The person most concerned for the Empire—perhaps the only one.

I need to deal with the Grand Duke couple quickly.

Abelus may have learned some Imperial secrets as Crown Prince, but only a fraction—and he likely didn’t care. The fact that the Eye of Pheros was sealed in the palace’s hidden chamber was almost certainly unknown to him.

It was a secret meant to control the Elandria family and even the Papal States. Something passed down only to future Emperors—and ideally known to no one else, in order to preserve Imperial authority.

Camille herself learned of the secret chamber only when the Emperor had been ill enough to consider abdication before Abelus’s birth. Everything she knew beyond that was the result of obsessive digging fueled by her own money.

This was why Camille and Abelus viewed Nerys’s purple Jeweled Eyes so differently. Abelus probably still believed the Jeweled Eyes were simply a trait of the Imperial Bloodline.

Camille believed her passion for the Imperial archives was the Empire’s salvation. But the fools around her did not understand.

What could she do? Only her father, the former Emperor, had possessed the Jeweled Eyes before Abelus. The throne did not always go to the wisest.

But the person who actually governed must be wise. Who could deny that?

I should never have expected anything.

She had endured the Emperor and Empress’s unfair treatment. She had obeyed them. She had even accepted Abelus becoming Emperor—because she would still be the real power behind him.

But being cast aside so suddenly—as if all her accomplishments were trivial—was insulting. Infuriating.

“Your Highness, are you feeling unwell?”

The maid asked stiffly. Camille didn’t bother hiding her displeasure.

“Of course I feel unwell.”

“If you need anything, I will bring it.”

“No… Fine. Bring cool tea.”

A short while later, a servant from the Emperor’s Palace entered with tea chilled through magic.

The servant and the maid exchanged glances. Both had orders to watch Camille carefully. They had known each other since childhood; one look was enough to confirm there was no change in her condition.

The servant left. The maid embroidered quietly. Camille stared out the window with simmering frustration.

I’ll just have to wait a few days.

The servant who had come in earlier belonged to Silver Moon. Yet even her childhood friend didn’t know.

The head of Silver Moon, who once knew everything happening in the Empire, now had to send subtle signals just to retrieve information from outside.

Camille rubbed her forehead.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Your Highness the Crown Prince!”

As soon as Abelus arrived, Megara leaped into his arms with a bright smile.

“Oh, Maggie—just like a child. Do you like me that much?”

“Of course! These days, I’m terrified when Your Highness isn’t here. Last time was horrible. If Your Highness hadn’t been there… I would have just died, wouldn’t I?”

The assassin had been aiming for Abelus, so Megara wouldn’t have died even if he weren’t there—but both pretended not to acknowledge that and smiled warmly at each other.

Abelus raised a brow at the two teacups already on the table.

“Did someone visit?”

“My father. Please sit, Your Highness. I baked fresh cookies—you should eat them while they’re hot.”

“Really? Then I will.”

Megara happily welcomed him even though he had only come to see her briefly. He didn’t have the time to linger.

If it hadn’t been for Megara, he wouldn’t be alive today—so he believed.

Megara sat closely beside him on the sofa and picked up a warm cookie.

“Here—say ‘ah,’ Your Highness.”

“Ah.”

Matching looks of satisfaction appeared on both faces. While Abelus ate, Megara grabbed another cookie and popped it into her mouth.

“Your Highness doesn’t eat strawberries, so this one’s mine.”

Her pretty face was lovelier than ever, one cheek puffed with a cookie, her eyes sparkling—

Suddenly she froze.

“What’s wrong?”

Megara’s face turned corpse-white. Abelus jolted upright, dread twisting in his stomach.

“Spit it out, now! There! Call the doctor!”

Coughing violently, Megara choked as Abelus pounded her back and scraped the half-chewed cookie out of her mouth. Panic overtook him.

Only one person came to mind.

My sister…!

Moments later, the Imperial Physician arrived. After examining Megara and analyzing the bits she spat out, he spoke respectfully.

“The young lady is safe. She ingested poison. I will need further analysis, but it appears the strawberry jam was tainted.”

Megara, after receiving healing from a priest, lay trembling on the sofa. Abelus’s heart twisted painfully.

The more he thought, the clearer the culprit became. Only one person would hate the sweet, pitiful Megara enough to poison a treat—and dare bring poison into the Crown Prince’s Palace.

She must still resent me for saving Meggie from that assassin…

And she must hate Megara’s honesty in telling him how strained their sibling relationship had been.

Maids hurried back and forth. A little later, Megara barely opened her eyes and whispered shakily.

“W-What… happened, Your Highness…?”

“There was poison in the cookie.”

Terror flooded Megara’s pale face. She shook her head desperately.

“T-That’s impossible… Your Highness, I would never hurt you…”

She thought she was being accused. Abelus quickly soothed her.

“I know it wasn’t you. If it were, you wouldn’t put poison in strawberry jam—you know I never eat it.”

Because she would have been the only one who consumed it.

The more Abelus thought, the angrier he grew. He squeezed Megara’s hand tightly.

“I’ll uncover the truth. Don’t worry, Maggie. Rest for now.”

Her large, beautiful eyes slowly closed.

Abelus left the room. He would gather every kitchen worker and interrogate them. And his sister’s surveillance needed to be increased—doubled, no, tenfold.

Click.

As the door shut, Megara’s lips curled into a faint smile.