Chapter 13
Emperor Matthias Eint Karl Verque had passed away. Pamilla recalled their winter hunt in the Karsik Empire with Emperor Kazan.
The diamond mines and golden fields buried beneath frozen glaciers still flashed vividly in her mind. Pamilla grew restless.
She urged Emperor Kazan to wage war. The Karsik Empire was politically unstable, and Harzen was a young emperor with no war experience.
However, Kazan had no intention of breaking the peace treaty with Karsik. A gold-rich empire could easily hire mercenaries. And though Harzen lacked battlefield experience, he was a beast.
During their academy years, Kazan had been awestruck by the overwhelming power of Harzen’s sword. More than anything, beasts recognize other beasts. Harzen’s piercing gaze alone could subdue opponents, he was not someone who would ever let his possessions be taken.
In his youth, with blue veins pulsing, Kazan might have taken the risk. But now, all he had to back him were the sickly Patrick and the hot-blooded Chris.
Hmm. Kazan briefly thought of Patricia in her silver armor, then shook his head. War was out of the question.
Pamilla treated Emperor Kazan like a child, coaxing him while using poisons and antidotes. Addicted to her poison, his body and mind were slowly deteriorating.
She used just enough poison not to threaten his life, and when he took the antidote, his mind cleared like a flowing stream and he attended to state affairs.
In truth, Pamilla wanted to discard the emperor, who now resembled a rotting blackened tree.
But between the noble council, the capital’s ruling royal relatives of the Eva’s family, the Valentin’s, Empress Aldisha’s kin from the Kingdom of Torun, plus the royal guard and the knights, there was no way to bypass the layers of surveillance.
Besides, if the emperor died without a plan in place, there would be nothing for her to gain.
Her own family, the Rasbourg’s, couldn’t support her ambition.
So she extended a black-gloved hand to nobles outside the imperial bloodline. Drawing them in little by little, she would suddenly pull them close, lifting her skirts and bringing them to her feet.
Pamilla used poison whenever she needed the emperor’s signature. A few days later, she would administer the antidote, tightening and loosening his leash at will.
When he continued to reject the idea of declaring war, Pamilla turned cold, like a meteor thrown into a winter valley.
She summoned a secret meeting with the nobles caught in her skirts to devise a plan.
Pamilla used a lethal poison on the emperor.
Just the thought of war with the Karsik Empire thrilled her.
Her plan was for the Karsik emperor to eliminate Patrick. After sending reinforcements, she would negotiate mining rights to the Kaosan gold mines and secure a royal marriage between Crown Prince Chris and the Karsik princess.
But Patricia, not Patrick, had donned the armor and ruined everything.
“That damn bitch.”
She had known of Patricia’s existence, but she was a shadow princess. When she saw her wielding a sword half her size with a skinny, stick-like body and eyes glaring blue, she should have dealt with her then. Her skin trembled with regret.
Pamilla clenched her teeth. She turned her mind toward malice. Among the countless schemes pouring like a waterfall, she scooped up the most convincing one.
This plan had to succeed.
Pamilla added an antidote to the tonic she presented to the emperor.
“Your Majesty, you must trust me. This is the best path for the Tane Empire.”
Emperor Kazan took the proposal Pamilla offered, meant for the Karsik Emperor, with trembling hands.
“Your Majesty, please sign here.”
***
The diplomatic envoy, carrying a treaty personally signed by Emperor Kazan, crossed the border and headed toward the Red Forest of Panaho.
In the Karsik Empire, the glacier Kaosan thawed only during summer. Down the valley, black water mixed with obsidian dust flowed.
In early summer at Kaosan Valley, golden flecks sparkled where the black water had passed. Glaciers melting down the mountain revealed diamonds that gleamed with radiant clarity.
Harzen led fifty thousand troops past the lower reaches of the Tamil Valley, heading to Panaho.
As the envoy from Tane entered the Red Forest, they stopped their horses. Sensing the trembling earth, they calmed their rearing mounts.
Through the rising dust like clouds, an uncountable number of soldiers surged toward the Red Forest.
The thirty-member envoy stood in place, raising a white flag higher than the Tane imperial banner.
“Your Majesty, soldiers from Tane.”
Kalip, riding beside the emperor, shouted.
“I see them. Halt.”
At Kalip’s signal, the soldiers following behind pulled their reins and stopped. As the dust settled, a small group of envoys appeared across the way.
The Tane Empire flag, bearing a black lion, and the white flag were visible.
The emperor gestured to Vice Commander Kalip. Kalip and three knights rode toward the Tane envoy.
The envoys dismounted and approached the Karsik Emperor, kneeling on their left knees and pressing their foreheads to their forearms in a respectful greeting.
Kalip received the sealed scroll containing the proposal, opened the case, and handed the document to the emperor.
The emperor unrolled the poisoned parchment. As he read the terms, his face flushed red.
“I like it very much.”
Tucking the scroll case with the rolled parchment into his belt, the emperor gave an order to his vice commander.
“Kalip, inform them that we accept the proposal.”
Curious about the contents of the treaty, Kalip quickly glanced at the emperor’s expression. It didn’t look bad. In fact, it wasn’t his usual cold expression.
‘Huh? Is he… smiling?’
“At once.”
As the vice commander approached the Tane envoy, the envoy’s leader couldn’t hide his visibly tense demeanor.
“Deliver this message. His Majesty, the Emperor of Karsik, has accepted the proposal.”
“I receive the command of His Majesty, the blazing sun of the empire.”
The envoy leader bowed once more toward the emperor, then straightened and rose to his feet.
As he mounted his horse, the envoy quickly turned their horses around and galloped away.
“Rean!”
At the emperor’s call, Rean ran over and knelt on one knee.
“Form two squads of Shadow Blades to follow the envoy. One squad will scout the Tane palace and report back. Rean, you are to capture the princess. No, escort her.”
“What? The princess?”
The vice commander, who had approached without notice, asked at the same time as Lean. The emperor looked down at the two subordinates, raised one corner of his mouth, and smirked.
‘He really is smiling.’
Since learning at dawn that the captive princess had escaped, the emperor had worn such a grim expression that it felt like even the surrounding air was being torn apart and frozen. But after reading the poisoned parchment bearing Tane’s proposal, his entire expression changed.
“Your Majesty, forgive my impudence, but… what was in the agreement?”
“Patricia.”
Just saying her name aloud made Harzen’s chest heat up.
Come to me. Just come.
At dawn, when he saw the leather strap cut and dangling from the bedpost, his vision went white. He had been ready to storm the Tane palace, seize her, and swing his sword violently in front of her.
The Emperor of Tane, Kazan Kalyan Evis, had made it clear through the official letter that, despite the misunderstanding and outbreak of war, he had no intention of waging war against the Karsik Empire.
And he added:
“I, Kazan Kalyan Evas, Emperor of the Tane Empire, propose a royal marriage with Princess Patricia Kalyan Evas to strengthen friendly relations with the Karsik Empire.”
That’s all it took. His fury completely melted away. It felt like the entire sky now belonged to him.
“A royal marriage with the Tane princess.”
“…Excuse me? A royal marriage?”
Kalip fell silent, rubbing his chin in thought.
He had been by Harzen’s side since the moment he was born. The emperor never made impulsive decisions, not even on the smallest matters.
He was deliberate, calculating, and only made decisions when he had absolute certainty, almost to the point of perfection.
Since his days as crown prince, Harzen had formed a Round Table Council, where he would interrogate the nobility and ministers of foreign and internal affairs so relentlessly that they nearly fainted. He pursued them with persistent questioning and would only end the council once he received clear answers.
In addition, there was Lady Yulia Reak, who had only ever had eyes for Harzen since girlhood.
Following the peace treaty on the continent of Arkan, she studied abroad at the Tane Academy under the pretense of fostering diplomatic relations between the two empires, though her true intent was to be near Harzen.
No one in the imperial palace or among the capital’s nobility was unaware of it: in Lady Reak’s heart, her betrothed was none other than Harzen. Upon graduating from the academy, she persuaded her father, the Duke of Reak, to submit a marriage proposal to the emperor.
The former emperor gladly accepted, but the engagement ceremony was postponed due to his passing.
After Harzen ascended the throne, the Duke of Reak proposed to the empress dowager that the engagement be formalized.
While the empress dowager was considering the empire’s schedule during breakfast, a carrier bird arrived from a border marquis.
The message stated that, without a formal declaration of war, tens of thousands of Tane Empire troops had invaded, cavalry equipped with crossbows, maces, swords, and shields.
Recalling that morning made Vice Commander Kalip feel dizzy.
The Tane forces lit fires and raised smoke throughout the Red Forest, planting flags of Tane in all directions.
By the time the emperor and his royal guards arrived at Lake Panaho, the Karsik border marquis had neither detected the enemy general nor assessed the enemy’s strength.
They had been deceived by the enemy commander’s mercenary tactics and simply waited until the Karsik emperor and his forces arrived.
The emperor had charged into the Red Forest with the royal guard. To assess the enemy’s strength, he lured the battlefield toward the Tamil Valley. After relentless pursuit, the emperor captured the enemy commander.
And astonishingly, the commander of the Tane forces was neither a crown prince nor a prince, but a princess.
Kalip had sensed something was off ever since the emperor granted the prisoner the use of his personal chamber.
What was even more outrageous was that the prisoner princess had escaped from the iron fortress of Panaho as easily as if it were an open birdcage.
A mysterious, fox-like prisoner who enchanted and vanished, and now, a royal marriage with her? The emperor was now smiling with a look not of displeasure, but of great satisfaction.
Kalip recalled the moment, under imperial order, when he had removed the Tane commander’s armor. There had been something dazed in her expression.
The body revealed beneath the armor was slender like that of a young boy, and the arms looked fragile. Imagining that body swimming through the moat, climbing castle walls, and leaping down made him grimace.
‘What about Lady Reak, the most beautiful woman in all of Karsik?’
Kalip thought of Lady Reak’s obsidian-like black eyes and glossy black hair, then shook his head.
“Your Majesty… surely you’re not planning a royal marriage?”
“I am. Lean! Go bring her back.”
I’ll make her regret to the bone for playing with me.
The emperor ground his teeth as he imagined the princess mocking him while scaling the castle wall.
Lean and two squads of Shadow Blades were dispatched to pursue the Tane envoy.
The emperor ordered the second commander to investigate the Red Forest, where the initial clash had occurred. The remaining soldiers were stationed at the Panaho encampment while he headed to Panaho Fortress with Kalip.
They passed through the fortress gate and crossed the drawbridge. In front of the main building stood a lavish carriage with a purple exterior trimmed in gold, alongside the royal carriage designated for official use.
As the emperor dismounted from the warhorse Khan, the butler and an attendant approached. The attendant took the reins of Khan and Kalip’s brown warhorse and led them to the stables.
Sensing the emperor’s gaze on the carriages, the butler spoke.
“Items and gowns from the capital for Lady Dress, Your Majesty.”
“And the front carriage?”
“Your Majesty, Lady Reak has arrived.”
“Lady Reak?”
