Chapter 133
“…Humiliation. You’re right, Axion. It is truly humiliating.”
“Mo…ther.”
The Empress’s violet eyes darkened, and black smoke began to rise from beneath Axion’s feet. It grabbed at his legs.
With a thud, Axion’s knees were forcibly brought to the ground, and the black smoke wrapped around his body like a rope.
“Ugh…”
A painful groan escaped Axion’s lips as the black smoke compressed him as if to crush every bone in his body.
But more terrifying than the pain was his mother, looking down at him with cold eyes. A gaze so emotionless it was hard to believe she was his birth mother.
Axion’s face turned pale with instinctive fear. He bowed his head and begged. It was an instinctive fear of punishment that had continued since childhood.
“Mother… please, spare… me, ugh…”
The Empress, who had been looking down at her son with a chillingly cold gaze, stood before Axion after passing the table with silent steps.
Then she firmly grabbed the chin of her son, who had lowered his head.
She stared directly at Axion’s face, which had turned as white as paper.
“I’ve told you repeatedly. To play around in moderation. Yet you dare bring this humiliation upon me? I feel as if the stench of the filth you’ve scattered doesn’t disappear even in this rose greenhouse.”
“I was wrong…”
“I don’t want to hear your inadequate apologies, so be quiet. And whatever the outcome of the trial, keep your mouth shut and your head low as you are now. If you quietly remain crumpled, I will find your place for you.”
“…”
“If you cause trouble again, I will offer your flesh and blood as a sacrifice to my master. Because you’ll be a useless piece then.”
“I… will… remember…”
Axion’s lips turned blue as the black smoke strangled not only his body but his neck.
Just as Axion’s pupils were about to roll back as if his breath would soon be cut off, the Empress withdrew her black magic.
“Huup! Gasp! Huh…”
As soon as the black smoke disappeared, Axion, who had collapsed to the floor, exhaled a rough breath.
The Empress looked down at Axion with a cold gaze, as if looking at filthy trash, then turned away.
“Remove him.”
The knights summoned by Lady Hestils carried Axion out of the greenhouse.
The Empress quickly concealed the anger that had appeared on her beautiful face with a long sigh.
Her face became serene, as if the icy gaze had never been there.
But not everything was truly calm. One person still remained in the Empress’s mind.
Alice Dearrut, the Duchess of Dearrut, who resembled a pink rose.
“To think such a tiny thing would block my path like this.”
The holy power that had destroyed the spiritual realm she had created. And Viscountess Rosetta.
Hasis had said that the Viscountess and Alice seemed to have been coincidentally in close proximity, but the Empress didn’t think so.
That vexing thing knew everything.
About the relationship between Axion and Viscountess Rosetta.
Otherwise, she couldn’t have triggered all these events so efficiently.
Taking the Viscountess to the ducal residence was also a strange move.
But there were definitely unexplained aspects.
How could a mere country-born lady have known about the Second Prince’s affairs?
And that tremendous holy power too.
“There must be something.”
That vexing creature was clearly hiding something she didn’t know.
She needed to discover that secret as soon as possible and inform her master.
Only then could she achieve her goal.
If things continued like this…
The Empress slightly furrowed her brow at the future she didn’t particularly want to contemplate. Then she picked up the pink rose on the table.
Her scissors were aimed not at the rose’s thorns but at its head.
Snip. The severed pink rose fell to the floor at her scissors’ cut.
“Wait just a little. I will surely cut your neck just like this.”
The Empress smiled dangerously as she crushed the fallen pink rose with her shoe.
Two days later.
The Galenos Palace, located in the eastern part of the Pentaum Empire’s Imperial City.
This palace was built by the founding Emperor to try nobles and royals who had committed crimes according to imperial law.
But in thousands of years of history, no member of the imperial family had ever stood in this court.
Yet today, for the first time, a member of the imperial family would stand in the Galenos Palace court.
The notorious troublemaker of the Empire, the Second Prince. Axion Pentaum.
He was the protagonist of the trial.
When news spread throughout the Empire that the Second Prince’s trial would be held, nobles and commoners alike were astonished.
They all wanted the troublemaking Second Prince to receive appropriate punishment, but everyone knew it wouldn’t be possible.
And the person who had made the impossible possible was none other than the Empire’s hero, Duke Dearrut, Kylus Dearrut.
The Duke of Dearrut, who received more praise than the Emperor in the corrupt imperial court.
Once again, as the news spread nationwide that he had brought the Second Prince, who had been the Empire’s troublemaker, to court, the imperial citizens’ faith in Kylus grew even stronger.
So today, the Galenos Palace was preparing for the first trial of a member of the imperial family in the history of the Pentaum Empire.
When the palace doors finally opened after all preparations were complete.
Nobles who had been waiting in front of the palace since early morning headed for the gallery.
The courtroom was designed in a circular shape, allowing numerous spectators to look down at the central court.
And today, so many nobles had gathered that all the many gallery seats were filled.
It was only natural.
Today’s trial would go down in imperial history.
Everyone wanted to witness not only the outcome but also the process of the trial.
“By the way, did you hear that His Highness the Third Prince will also attend here today?”
“I did. That’s why I came here today, to see His Highness the Third Prince.”
“It’s no ordinary matter that His Highness the Third Prince, who has been shrouded in mystery, will finally appear alongside Duke Dearrut. And at the Second Prince’s trial, no less.”
“Indeed. It seems there will be many things to see today.”
The nobles chatted with excited faces about the news of the Third Prince’s attendance at the trial, which had been in yesterday’s newspaper.
And at that moment, major nobles began to appear one by one.
From Marquis Lios, the Emperor’s closest confidant, to Count Siape, the Margrave of the West who could be considered the head of the neutral faction.
And even Count Latrang, the Margrave of the South and the First Prince’s maternal grandfather.
As key power players entered the courtroom one by one, the nobles’ murmuring grew louder.
At that moment, through the wide-open doors of the courtroom, a man who captured everyone’s gaze appeared.
A man of darkness contrasting with the bright sunlight. It was Kylus Dearrut.
The Duke of Dearrut was dressed in perfect knight’s formal attire. The nobles momentarily fell silent at his appearance, like a god of the battlefield.
Soon, the nobles turned their attention to the woman beside Kylus.
The owner of vibrant pink hair and golden eyes, who was hard to believe was the wife of a man with such pitch darkness.
It was Alice Dearrut, who looked just like an adorable rabbit.
The nobles had already seen her face once at the hunting competition, so there was a certain familiarity.
But the two people following the wolf-and-rabbit-like ducal couple were unfamiliar faces.
A beautiful lady with brilliant red hair and green eyes, and a golden-haired man escorting her.
The nobles began to stir greatly again upon seeing the man’s opal-colored eyes.
“That person is…”
“His Highness the Third Prince…”
Just as the nobles’ gazes all turned toward the Third Prince, Duke Dearrut, who had stopped at the distinguished guests’ seats, addressed the nobles.
“This is His Highness the Third Prince, Alvin Pentaum. Everyone, show your respect.”
At Kylus’s introduction, which drove home the point, all the nobles rose and paid their respects to the Third Prince.
“We behold His Highness the Third Prince, the third star of the Empire.”
The Third Prince’s fingertips twitched at the nobles’ voices resonating through the gallery.
It was an instinctive response. After all, it was the first time in his life he had been treated as a member of the imperial family. The Third Prince clenched his trembling hand.
He spoke in the dignified manner he had practiced countless times at the ducal residence.
“Everyone may rise.”
As the Third Prince’s weighty voice reverberated, the nobles raised their heads and examined him with blatant gazes.
They were looks mixed with all sorts of emotions—curiosity, hostility, expectation.
Though he might have shrunk from the unfamiliar attention, the Third Prince instead straightened his back and squared his shoulders.
At this confident demeanor, the nobles’ eyes sparkled as if surprised. Eyes filled with expectation toward the Third Prince were gradually increasing.
Watching all this, Alice thought it was quite a good start.
She smiled proudly as she watched the Third Prince taking his seat in the distinguished guests’ section, gracefully and without intimidation.
To think the Third Prince had grown like this.
When they first met, he had been like a young lynx covered in wounds and bristling with wariness.
Compared to his current dignified appearance, it was truly a remarkable development. And in just a little over a month.
Perhaps because he’s the male protagonist of the original story, his growth rate is different from others.
Whatever the case, Alice couldn’t help but smile contentedly.
Just as she was watching the Third Prince with somewhat maternal feelings, she suddenly felt a firm grip on her hand.
It wasn’t painful, but it was a pressure making its presence known.
Naturally, the one making his presence known to her was Kylus.
When she turned her head to see what was happening, she noticed the slight raising of the end of his straight eyebrows.
“Your Grace, what’s the matter?”
“I’m jealous.”
“…What?”
“Don’t look at other men with such affectionate eyes. It’s driving me crazy with jealousy.”
She wondered if she had misheard, but she hadn’t.
It was surprising enough that Kylus had uttered the word “jealous,” but to say he was going crazy with jealousy.
At this intense expression, Alice blinked her round eyes slowly.
But he seemed sincere, and when she looked only at him, he smiled with satisfaction.
If she were her usual self, she would have been disgusted, saying, “You’re jealous of a younger man? How childish.”
But strangely, Kylus’s jealousy didn’t seem childish at all.
Nor did it feel petty, as one might expect.
It was just that his face, smiling with satisfaction, looked too handsome.
She truly had fallen head over heels for him. Alice whispered softly to Kylus:
“Don’t worry. To my eyes, you’re the most handsome of all.”
