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When she went back to her parent’s house, I was curious as to how it was possible for her to seize control of the entire palace, disregard even her brother, the emperor, and wield power comparable to that of the empress; nevertheless, Burnett even told me that in detail.
“After the Imperial Unification War, His Majesty has recompiled a new code of laws.”
An appropriate administration structure is required in order to exercise authority over a vast region. After the law was enacted, the emperor could no longer wield power as he pleased.
Even though the emperor was technically the head of the nation, the aristocratic council was the primary body responsible for lawmaking. To put it another way, if the Emperor is the President of the country, then the Council of Nobles would be the equivalent of the Congress.
With the emperor unable to save even his own wife, it seems the nobility have made the sword master emperor their puppet, who is only helpful during wartime.
“It contained insults that the nobles could not bring themselves to say about His Highness’ mother. It’s disastrous.”
The emperor must have hoped for a new empress. However, things didn’t go as planned, so when it was already troublesome, Princess Lotte returned to her parent’s house, The Imperial Palace.
Even around the time of Princess Lotte’s wedding, the circumstances in the empire were at their most precarious.
“At that point in time, the tyranny of dragons had brought the empire to the brink of a major disaster. If the afflicted dragon were to leave Winterbaum, then it was a moment of crisis in which the entire empire might perish.”
The dragon seemed such a monster that even my dad, the most powerful person in the world, couldn’t stop him.
Therefore, the emperor gave many lures with the condition that the monster be killed, and Stan’s father, a simple mercenary, defeated the dragon and became the owner of the vast Winterbaum.
“At the time of the arranged marriage, I heard that Her Highness had someone else in her heart, but they said that she couldn’t disobey His Majesty’s orders.”
Everything for the Empire.
Even though he was known as the mercenary king, this title was bestowed upon him later. Duke of Winterbaum was originally a commoner and had no noble title, and even he was ten years older than Princess Lotte.
In fact, the emperor bets on his sister as a prize.
In this way, Princess Lotte became the spoils of the mercenary king who saved the empire and went to a faraway Winterbaum to marry.
Because of this, even now, elderly people call Princess Lotte their princess and treat her affectionately.
They wished they could have a good life. Even after years of their marriage, they still had no children.
After a long time of hard labour, the child was born with struggle. This time, Lotte’s spouse, the Mercenary King, passed away quite suddenly before the birth of the child in her womb that they had worked so hard to give birth to.
After giving her respects to Winterbaum in his later years, Lotte gave birth to a child in the solitary Winterbaum estate. The child was a son who resembled Lotte, named Stan inherited the position of the owner of Winterbaum as soon as he was born.
The emperor summoned his poor sister, who was left alone, to the imperial family. There were even allegations that the emperor poisoned the mercenary king, who was stronger than himself, in order to make the Winterbaum estate an imperial property.
“The rumors are not true, but there are still quite a few people who believe them.”
The pitiful princess, who fell victim to a political pawn, returned to the imperial palace alone this time, carrying her newborn child. At that time, regardless of her status, the whole country rejoiced in the return of poor Princess Lotte.
And eventually, Princess Lotte became the mother of Grand Duke Winterbaum and the only sister of the Emperor. She had inherited the title of Princess Royal after the previous Princess Royal had passed away. She became the noblest woman in the empire even though there was never an official empress.
All of this was fleeting glory. Returning to the imperial palace, Lotte confronted the foreign woman standing next to the emperor when she returned to the imperial palace. She was a woman whose status and identity are unknown. She even gave birth to the emperor’s child and was treated like an empress.
“When the princess found out about His Highness Alex’s existence, she became very enraged.”
“Was his background a problem?”
Burnett responded by shaking her head in response to my question.
“Because His Majesty had plans to make Her Highness Alex’s mother the Empress of the Empire.”
He would put the empress’ custody on his unknown woman. It was understandable how the announcement made by the emperor could have driven Princess Lotte utterly insane. She was compelled to marry a guy she did not want to in the name of the Empire, and her spouse passed away before their child was born.
However, despite everyone’s opposition, she still couldn’t believe he would make an empress out of someone who had no idea where she came from.
I didn’t want to imagine how Princess Lotte must have felt when she was carrying Stan in her arms without seeing his father’s face after he was born.
“Then?”
“The nobles who opposed her appointment as empress were allied with Princess Lotte. The power of the Princess Royal is unassailable; not even the Emperor can ignore it.”
It was the responsibility of the person in this position to take on the role of Emperor in the event of a crisis. Unfortunately, the incompetent emperor lost to his sister, who was backed by nobles. Following an intense disagreement, it became the role of the temple to act as a mediator in all of this dispute.
“As a result, His Highness Alex now counts the temple as one of his most ardent supporters.”
The temple chose the emperor’s son instead of the emperor’s wife. In return for them confirming his son’s claim to legitimacy, they explicitly denied the unidentified stranger.
At the exact moment that the temple decided that the child was absolutely the emperor’s child, Alex’s mother became practically ‘non-existent’ in the empire.
The denial of His Highness’ mother’s existence alleviated Princess Rote’s and the aristocracy’s opposition. And Alex’s mother had to end her life miserably in her shabby villa.
It must be a heartbreaking story. Alex couldn’t even preserve his mother’s belongings because she had become a non-existent person in the world.
“The ring was the only thing that was left.”
“A ring?”
It was a priceless treasure that had only ever been given to previous empresses. Although not formally recognized, the emperor put a noble ring on Alex’s mother.
“It is said that it is being stored in the treasure trove of Her Majesty. She said that she would gladly offer it to him if he decided to appoint a new empress……”
The emperor has no intention of doing so. Unless Alex becomes the next Emperor and marries, the ring will always be in the hands of Princess Lotte.
Even the emperor couldn’t ask for the ring back for no reason.
“That’s how it is.”
Poor Alex. That is the reason you changed into such a terrible person. Even though all her other belongings were burned and disappeared, should I say it was fortunate that at least one ring remained?
Since I had entered the imperial palace, I had one more task to do. After seeing the opportunity since I came this far anyway, I decided that I would give Alex back a ring that had been a keepsake belonging to his mother.
Knowing the situation was good, but I felt guilty because I thought I knew too much while sneaking at a painting. I glanced at Burnett’s direction and tacked on a weak justification.
“Your Highness will be upset if he finds out I saw this, so please keep this a secret.”
My heart became heavy. The fact that I now know his deepest, darkest secret increases the likelihood that he will kill me now. If I had known that something like this would occur, I should not have asked.
“That’s alright, because your Highness has given me permission to tell you as much as you want to know about His Highness mother’s affairs if you ask me about her after you enter the palace.”
“His Highness did?”
Burnett’s answer took me aback. He already expected me to ask. Alex must be a person who can’t be caught off guard.
How in the world is this kid so mature that he can remain calm even when faced with such a painful past?
He is such a frustrating person that even his lover, Clara, has difficulty getting through to him. While thinking about it, the servant knocked on the door.
“Your Highness is back.”
After an extended meeting, Alex finally returned. I slipped out of the room stealthily and shut the door before meeting Alex, the palace owner.
As soon as Alex looked quite tired and entered the palace, he immediately took off the cravat around his neck and started looking for me.
“What about Ciel?”
“I am here.”
It’s a bit difficult to see Alex’s face because of the story I heard earlier. My heart felt heavy as if I had opened Pandora’s box that I shouldn’t have opened.
“Did anything else happen in between? I heard Stan didn’t come.”
As soon as Alex arrived, he held my hand tightly. To think that I went to Stan, and he even kept an eye on him. Sobbing. It’s good to hold hands, but I hate that reason.
“I was here calmly.”
“That’s a relief.”
“You worked hard today too.”
I crossed my arms with Alex first while he looked at me with a warm smile in his eyes.
“If Stan comes to visit, you should tell me first. It doesn’t matter if the princess sends someone or not.
Even though I really wanted to be nice to him, my head went cold when he suddenly brought up politics again. I had to struggle alone, but in the end, it seemed to Alex that Ciel was nothing more than a tool for revenge.
If you keep hurting me this way, I will get tired of it. Would you rather be kicked or seduced? He is so cheeky that I want to make him fall in love with me and cry because he can’t live without me anymore.
This impudent crown prince even smiled sweetly as if he really liked me.
“When you welcome me, it’s as if all the weariness I’ve experienced throughout the day melts away.”
Alex’s acting skills are improving day by day. What a bad guy. It seemed as though the actions you were showing were real ones.
Is it because he is handsome? Being Handsome is everything.  became so intoxicated by Alex’s charming eye smile that I stopped speaking my truth.
“I also really wanted to see Your Highness.”
“Let’s go upstairs.”
I made my way up the stairs, gracefully escorted by Alex.
The lesson of the day. Because having too much information can really wear people out, there are times when it’s better not to know.
And one more thing. My focus was drawn to a relic that belonged to Alex’s mother. If I get Alex’s mother’s ring back, won’t he reconsider his plan to kill me in the future? In addition, it can assuage the guilt I feel for having broken his love flag with Clara, which makes it perfect.
Therefore, in order to prevent Alex from getting caught by his political adversary, Princess Lotte, I devised a plan to get back Alex back his mother’s belongings.