Chapter 89
Chapter 89. A Terrible Nightmare
The grand council, which had been postponed for a while due to too many vacant seats caused by the Emperor’s fierce purge, was reconvened.
There was only one agenda for the meeting: how the empire should respond to the stance announced by the temple through a newspaper article this morning.
A noble struck the table with an enraged face.
“Does this make any sense? What were the two empires fighting such a long war for!”
The temple had revealed one of their hidden secrets to the world. That they had been keeping Sefitiana, which should have been buried so that no one could ever bring it up again.
The bigger problem was that someone had stolen it.
“Although the exact facts haven’t been confirmed, the people’s anxiety about another war breaking out is growing. Wasn’t Sefitiana the cause of the long war?”
“What on earth was the temple thinking, doing something like this? It’s no different from deceiving both the Tessibanian and Veshnu Empires!”
“—Enough, everyone please calm down!”
As the Emperor had recently contracted an unknown disease and couldn’t leave the Empress’s Palace, Marquis Marche Vintero, who had been designated as regent, mediated the noisy hall in his stead.
Already overflowing with work as the head of the Treasury, the Marquis had barely slept properly recently due to suddenly taking on the regent’s duties as well.
He swept his gaze, which had become quite sensitive, over the audience and said:
“It seems we should prioritize summarizing the situation first. Based on what we’ve confirmed by sending people as soon as the newspaper was published, it’s as follows.”
Marquis Marche distributed documents he had hurriedly prepared since dawn to everyone.
The contents written inside were not much different from the temple’s stance announced in the newspaper.
That the temple had been secretly keeping Sefitiana all this time, and the reason was that the High Priest had heard the voice of God.
That they had received a revelation that there would soon be a place to properly use God’s miracle, which was truly an absurd claim.
A noble burst into laughter and threw the documents onto the table.
“Ha! A revelation, when has God ever given such a thing to humans? Everyone answer me. Have you ever seen a single line in the scriptures where God directly gave a revelation through a human?”
Everyone shook their heads.
It wasn’t that they denied God. Though not common, there were certainly events that could prove the existence of God Urogia, such as a week-long flood stopping like a lie at people’s earnest prayers, or a field becoming a forest overnight, or black smoke rising when holy water was poured on something wicked.
However, throughout all of human history, God had never directly conveyed His will through a human even once. The existence of temples and priests had only come about in the process of humans arbitrarily praising and worshipping God.
Mysterious powers like sacred force only appeared in fairy tales; in reality, they were more like servants who listened to prayers and looked after people’s hearts.
Yet for such a priest to receive a revelation? For God’s will to dwell in someone who, strictly speaking, was just an ordinary human? Ridiculous.
There was only one reason why the land where the temple was located, at the very top of the border between the Tessibanian and Veshnu Empires, was called sacred ground and wasn’t arbitrarily invaded even during that long war.
Because people believed in God, and thus willingly bowed their heads before the temple and priests.
Since even the most powerful rulers ultimately bowed their heads before God, they couldn’t dare raise a sword against a concept that governed human beliefs.
However, now that the High Priest had heard God’s voice, a hierarchy would be created in that implicit equality and respect.
Not just a representative of the temple’s position, but the one closest to God. Truly becoming the “servant closest to God” that they uttered as a greeting.
The worship towards God would mix with the power between humans that had been separate, and thus the temple would clearly intervene in politics and economy.
People would follow God’s words more than the laws and regulations created by the empire. Naturally, they would have no choice but to believe more in the God who directly revealed His existence to them, so the High Priest who conveyed His words would be revered as a higher being than the Emperor.
“An era of chaos will come. Perhaps to the point where war between the two empires will seem trivial in comparison.”
Everyone seated remained silent. But no one denied it.
If the temple’s position was true, it was clear that this would happen, but there was a process that had to be gone through before that.
War.
There was one sentence in the content revealed by the temple through the article that couldn’t be ignored:
[The Emperor of Tessibania and the Princess of Veshnu offered prayers to God for the harmony of the two empires, but coincidentally, Sefitiana disappeared around that time.]
The temple was trying to reignite the embers of war that had just been barely extinguished.
By throwing out suspicions to the world that Tessibania or Veshnu had broken their peace vow and stolen Sefitiana.
“This is picking a fight with both empires. Does this make any sense? Who in their right mind would want to start another war!”
At a noble’s words, Marquis Marche Vintero pressed his temples as if suffering from a headache.
Because the current Emperor had completely purged the forces of the Emperor Emeritus who opposed his opinion, only nobles with relatively moderate ideologies remained in this place, but until just recently, there were quite a few voices regretting the end of the war.
Individual interests were entangled in unimaginable directions and ways. Even he himself had suffered great blows to some businesses after the war ended.
There were certainly those who wanted to start the war again. But knowing they shouldn’t put forward only personal interests in the face of countless human sacrifices, they had just bowed their heads.
But who would have thought that the temple, which supposedly served God, would be the first to make the worst choice?
Marquis Marche opened his mouth with a dark expression.
“The temple probably did keep Sefitiana. All the contents they want to say through the newspaper ultimately converge on the will to retrieve the stolen Sefitiana.”
“So you’re saying what the temple wants is to retrieve Sefitiana?”
“That’s how we should see it. Furthermore, they might already know who took it.”
“Who on earth…”
Marquis Marche pointed to one place on the newspaper spread widely on the table.
“They’re telling us outright, aren’t they?”
[The Emperor of Tessibania and the Princess of Veshnu]
“We should see clear intent in the fact that they deliberately distinguished between His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress.”
His fingertip pointed at the blackened letters. Sefitiana disappearing right after the two visited.
Of all times, the Emperor of the Tessibanian Empire can’t leave the Empress’s Palace due to an unknown disease, and the Empress, who was recently said to have been caught up in the Emperor Emeritus’s schemes, is now walking around the imperial palace on her own two feet.
Is all of this coincidence?
“…We should refrain from hasty speculation, but if the Veshnu Empire is truly involved in this matter, we should also think about what to do. To respond to the temple, proving our innocence will be the priority.”
From the Empress’s deposition to all-out war with Veshnu, who first broke the peace and caused chaos.
* * *
After confirming the newspaper, Eurene lowered her head.
Ah, it’s finally starting. The first step to bringing down the Empress.
It was easy to whisper to the greedy High Priest. Such a thing as God’s revelation, wouldn’t it be fine to hear it even after actually obtaining Sefitiana?
With just the fact of directly hearing God’s voice, he would gain power that even the emperors of the two empires couldn’t enjoy.
Just by conveying these words, the situation flowed easily.
Eurene prayed day and night. Oh God, please forgive my sins. The sin of deceiving You and the people. The irreversible mistake of a human who crossed the river.
Eurene glanced at her mother’s letter, which she had read countless times last night.
Though it was crumpled and torn in her hands to the point where its original form couldn’t be recognized, its contents were clearly imprinted in her mind, unable to be erased.
[You and His Majesty are blood-related family.]
Eurene muttered with an angry face.
“To even touch my poor mother. Empress, you truly are a terrible woman.”
It must have been the Empress who used her tricks on the day her mother visited the Empress’s Palace with her. If she just used Sefitiana, the so-called miracle of God, what couldn’t she achieve?
It was clear that both Brother and Father had been deceived by her mother’s lie.
“Yes. How else could this be? That he and I are blood-related family…”
If it was meant to drive her to the worst possible situation, it was truly the best move.
Wasn’t it a move that made her deny all the love that made up her life, the hope created from it, and thus the future she dreamed of?
She truly was a disgustingly intelligent and cunning woman.
Wouldn’t it make her pure love not only harbor feelings for a blood relative, but also have relations imagining him, and ultimately kill him while carrying another’s child?
Because of her own stupidity, everything—
Eurene clutched her head and bent her waist. Her sky-blue hair tangled between her fingers.
Along with her spinning vision, her stomach churned.
[Yes, it’s all a lie—]
A voice identical to her own whispers in her ear the words she most wanted to hear right now. Eurene’s vision blurred.
“It’s terrible. It’s terrible…”
Eurene threw the newspaper carelessly on the floor and buried her face in her knees.
The doctor had visited the separate palace this morning. With news she had hoped wasn’t true, but now needed most.
‘You are with child.’
Hot tears flowed down her dry white cheeks.
All of this was a noble sacrifice and revenge.
Her one-night deviation due to Brother’s neglect and his death, and the true love that ultimately couldn’t continue, revenge against the Empress who caused all this situation.
“If it weren’t for that woman, I would be ruling the empire by Brother’s side right now. Smiling brighter than anyone under the blessings of our families…”
Under the clear sky, our laughter would never cease, and he would constantly whisper love to me.
He would have held me with a hot, life-filled body, not one that had already become a cold corpse, and said:
“If only it weren’t for the Empress. If only it weren’t for that woman…”
[Really?]
This time, the Empress’s voice, not her own, echoed in her ear. Eurene covered her ears with her hands.
[Yes. If that’s what you wish to believe, my lady, then so be it.]
Eurene closed her eyes. Hoping this terrible nightmare would end as soon as possible. So that when she opened her eyes, she could sleep soundly next to him without the Empress.
