Chapter 249

The Imperial Palace was steeped in gloom after yet another defeat.

Abelus couldn’t understand it. The Imperial Family was more powerful than any monarch family on the continent, while Maindulante was nothing but a pack of barbarians living together. They couldn’t compare in finances or legitimacy, so he had assumed they would be crushed easily by a surprise attack.

He had thought he could finally strike the Grand Duke—who had made the Crown Prince’s life miserable—and establish his authority in front of the nobles.

So why did they keep losing? Even Marquis Lykeandros, the most useful of the nobles, was gone now. And Megara’s whispered schemes were getting tiresome to listen to…

‘Could there be a spy?’

Abelus seriously suspected it. Not the usual underworld-level spies the great nobles planted for gathering information, but a traitor in the upper ranks—someone who had joined hands with the enemy.

It wasn’t only the string of defeats that fed his suspicion. The Maindulante army was now about one-third of the way, in a straight line, from the Empire’s vast northern end to Pellena, the Imperial Capital. Naturally, they had already passed several secret bases the Imperial Family had hidden along the way.

Since the nobles were all untrustworthy, successive emperors had found places that could be called natural fortresses, meant to suppress rebellion to some degree. Their locations were known only to the direct Imperial Family—especially the Emperor and Empress of the time, or the Crown Prince and his wife—and any enemy force that wandered near them was designed to suffer heavy losses.

Yet the Maindulante army skirted those secret bases as if they were playing a game. The first couple of times, they might have simply chosen a different route by chance. After that, though, they avoided them even when Abelus deliberately tried to lure them in.

They were moving like they knew exactly where the Imperial Family’s secret bases were.

A knock came at the door. Abelus, sitting alone in his office, said flatly, “Come in.”

A servant from the Crown Prince’s Palace cracked the door open and hurried inside, a book in his hands.

“It’s finally here.”

For the first time in a while, Abelus showed interest. The servant approached and presented the book with both hands.

“It just arrived, Your Highness.”

On the cover, a single word was printed in plain lettering: Betrayal. It was obviously made to be produced quickly, in large quantities, for mass distribution—without even the gold-leaf binding or refined coloring found on the cheapest books circulating in the Imperial Court.

Abelus felt a surge of disgust at the thought of touching it, but he took it and skimmed through quickly. The beginning was familiar.

It was the novel that had once made the citizens of the Imperial Capital hold their breath, waiting for each day’s installment—until the Morier Trading Company collapsed and the newspaper it sponsored came under investigation.

As Abelus flipped through, his hand gradually slowed.

One page at a time.

Pages fluttered.

The scene revealing the sage’s identity as a dragon. The scene where Natrikh of the Azure Jewel Eye decides to betray everyone else. The scene where the power of time dwelling in the Gray Jewel Eye finally seals the dragon…

“Disgusting!”

Abelus hurled the book away without reading the last few pages. The servant flinched.

The book had been distributed internally by the Maindulante army. Abelus, having grown curious after receiving reports from someone gathering intelligence on the enemy, had ordered it brought to him—insisting he needed to know what claims the enemy was spreading.

The servant, too, knew the rumors. This novel—once a light topic of conversation in high society—was actually a massive insult to the Imperial Family, planned by Maindulante from the beginning. The Three Heroes. The first Emperor. To use the saviors of mankind to raise soldier morale…

“Take it away!”

At Abelus’s shout and pointed finger, the servant snatched the book up and withdrew. Abelus paced the office, breathing hard.

Unlike the servant, Abelus knew a little more. He had heard that two of the ancient Three Heroes were actually subordinates of the first Emperor. But three Ja’an? That was the first time he’d ever heard it.

‘Could it be true?’

His Imperial Father had never mentioned it. But Abelus quickly realized that if the novel’s contents were true, many of the unanswered questions he’d carried until now would make sense.

‘Camille must have known.’

Now he understood why his sister had been so obsessed with the Grand Duchess of Maindulante, who had seemed unremarkable at first glance.

When Abelus had been appointed Crown Prince, his Imperial Father had let slip—ever so slightly—that Elandria and Pheros, two of the old Three Heroes, had been subordinates of the first Emperor. But that man, who believed even passing on a single imperial secret would diminish his authority, must have buried far more truths in his heart.

Abelus had also heard that his Imperial Father had been ill before Abelus was born. At the time, Camille was practically the Crown Princess. It wouldn’t have been strange if his Imperial Father had told his sister the deeper past in advance.

Still—

‘Nothing changes even if they talk about it.’

Who in the Imperial Court would believe an entertainment novel? It was ridiculous that the enemy had gone to the trouble of producing such a useless story.

And yet anxiety gnawed at him. Were there more secrets hidden within the Imperial Family? The legend of the Three Heroes was a pillar of imperial legitimacy.

For the first time, real fear seeped into Abelus—fear he’d never felt, because he had always believed he could solve anything alone. A long-rooted inferiority complex surged up.

The very thought that Cledwyn might possess the Ja’an—one of Abelus’s greatest points of pride—made his chest tighten. Perhaps it was time to stop separating pride from necessity. He had to catch that man and kill him, no matter what it took…

A knock came again. Abelus halted and snapped, “Come in!”

The door swung wide. The servants of the Crown Prince’s Palace knew Abelus was in a foul mood—they never opened doors that loudly.

Abelus’s brows shot up.

Then his face hardened when he saw who had entered.

“What is this?”

The servant who had guided them in—Count Isalani and Alecto Isalani—slipped back out immediately. Abelus glanced at Alecto once. Was this the girl Marquis Lykeandros had tried to place as the next Crown Princess before he died?

Marquis Lykeandros and Megara’s intentions were obvious. They must have thought Abelus would never cherish Alecto more than Megara.

Abelus didn’t bother evaluating how accurate that assessment of him was. He simply looked away.

“Your Highness. My daughter has learned a tremendous fact and came to inform you.”

Count Isalani’s expression was strange. On the surface, he pretended to be distressed, but undeniable joy trembled in his eyes and tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Alecto looked the same.

“A tremendous fact?”

Abelus narrowed his eyes.

“What is it?”

Alecto stepped forward with graceful composure. Then she revealed her joy openly, without trying to hide it.

“The fact that someone Your Highness keeps close is lying to you. It’s so absurd I can hardly speak. To think a mere bastard born to a commoner would toy with the noblest family in this Empire!”

The servant shut the door, and the room fell quiet.

❖ ❖ ❖

Like a storm, Abelus burst into Megara’s room.

The small room Megara had wanted—and Abelus had given—was the result of an uneasy compromise.

Since the Imperial Family had formalized the mistress system, there had to be a room for women granted that position. Yet, as if to feign shame over a mistress’s existence, the windows were made small. The Crown Prince could visit whenever he wished, but to avoid provoking the Crown Princess, the room was placed near the Crown Prince’s bedroom—while still being secluded, cold, and out of the way.

Women who had lived here in the past had withered at the Crown Prince’s whims, while others had lived as well as the Crown Princess. But no one had ever left this room in glory.

Abelus had sometimes felt sorry that his ‘fated love’ lived in such a small space. There were times he grew tired of her, times he wanted to toy with her, times they argued… That was normal between lovers. Even so, to him, Megara was always a life-saver.

And because of that, Megara had stirred up the Imperial Palace without knowing how high the sky truly was. Instead of narrow windows, the room gleamed with gold piled high like sunlight. The most powerful figures in the Imperial Court came and went through its secluded entrance. She hadn’t yet lived through winter here, but if she said she was cold, they would have torn down the palace stables for firewood.

Now, broken jade and shredded silk littered the floor of the room, lavishly decorated in the latest fashion. Even though it was daytime, the windows were tightly shut, and the fireplace roared—burning through dresses as it went.

And in the middle of it all—

Megara stood there.

Abelus, rushing in with fury, froze for a moment at the unnatural sight. Megara wore only a white linen dress, a thick corset, and a black ribbon across her chest. She looked like someone whose identity could not be read at all.

As if she had abandoned everything she had clung to.

She looked at Abelus and smiled like an angel.

“You’ve come, Your Highness.”

“Meggie, what is this—no, no.”

With the windows sealed and the fireplace blazing in midsummer, smoke thickened the air. Abelus frowned.

“I heard everything you did to my sister. What other trick are you trying to pull?”

“A trick?”

Megara tilted her head, still smiling with the same innocent expression. The face was the same—the most beautiful woman in high society.

But the feeling it stirred in Abelus was nothing like before.

It was disgusting.

And frightening.

“A trick, yes. How dare you slander the Imperial Family? And threaten Duke Elandria in the process? Your crimes deserve execution twelve times over. You’re vile and cunning!”

“Ah, did Alecto say that? That I threatened Duke Elandria? Ah… Well, she had to say that to make Your Highness happy. My family has collapsed, so there’s nothing I can do. But you still need Duke Elandria’s brain, don’t you?”

She’s still smart, Megara murmured leisurely.

There was no focus in her purple eyes, the feature she had always taken pride in. Abelus coughed in the smoke.

“Cough, cough! Enough. Get out. The only reason I’m not dragging you to the execution grounds this moment is because of what we once were. You can’t escape by pretending to be mad. This time, no one will take the blame for you, no matter what you do.”

“Oh, of course. Am I denying my crimes right now?”

It wasn’t funny at all, but Megara burst into laughter anyway. Abelus felt a chill crawl down his spine.

What is she planning?

Sparks leapt from the fireplace, as if answering him. Flames caught on the fabric of a dress half-fed into the fire, then crawled outward with a sharp crackle.

“Come out. We’ll go outside and talk.”

“Why? It would be easier for Your Highness if I died here. It’s embarrassing, isn’t it? To admit you misjudged your cherished mistress, and to investigate yourself. Your Highness is the best in the Imperial Court at justifying that nothing you do is wrong. That part is real.”

Then what is false?

Abelus strode into the center of the room and seized Megara by the arm.

“Come out. Come out and be investigated.”

Anyone should have cried out under the power of the Azure Jewel Eye, but Megara didn’t even frown. Instead, she stared into Abelus’s face and spoke rapidly, like someone possessed.

“I got rid of Princess Camille for Your Highness. Don’t you understand? If Princess Camille were here, you would never have been able to do as you pleased. You know that. That’s why you came all the way here and are speaking to me so calmly. You’ve hated Princess Camille for a long time—because you didn’t want to be interfered with. You’re going to punish me just enough, and drag it out, aren’t you? Until the world turns the way Your Highness wants. But do you know what?”

Her whisper pierced Abelus’s ears like a shout.

“The Crown Prince is an idiot. I’ve never seen anyone as stupid as Your Highness in all my life.”