Chapter 126
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As the sun disappeared behind the western mountains, the interior of the royal palace began to buzz with activity.
It seemed the rumor that a guest had arrived at headquarters was true. Unlike usual, the area in front of the Commander’s office was bustling.
Knights clad in armor—similar to the Imperial Army’s uniforms but with slightly different shoulder plates—had lined up in the hallway.
Diana, carrying a tray with a teapot and teacups, hesitated in front of the Commander’s office door, and the knight guarding the door raised his eyebrows.
“As of this hour, servants are prohibited from entering this corridor. Wasn’t that order issued?”
“I’m sorry. But Lord Senz told me to bring tea to the Commander’s office.”
“Lord Senz?”
“Yes.”
Diana answered without batting an eye. The name Senz Rossi had a remarkably effective impact wherever it was mentioned.
After a moment’s hesitation, the guard said,
“Then wait here for a moment. I’ll ask the Commander.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Diana stood about ten paces from the door, bowing her head and waiting quietly. The gatekeeper knocked on the Commander’s office door, and she heard him ask if tea and refreshments could be brought in.
It seemed permission had been granted. The gatekeeper returned and nodded to her.
“There’s a servant inside; hand the tray to him.”
It seemed the guest at headquarters had brought attendants with him. As Diana approached the doorway, a young servant took the tray from her. She glanced over the servant’s shoulder.
There were two people in the Commander’s office. She could see the Commander sitting with his body turned slightly to one side in the seat of honor.
The flickering light of the lamp flowed down his smooth nose. His languidly lowered eyelashes cast delicate shadows on his pale cheeks. His gaze, deepened as if lost in thought, added to the man’s uniquely captivating aura.
When she finally managed to tear her eyes away from him, she noticed a man sitting with his back to her. He was a middle-aged man with streaks of gray in his hair. Even from behind, he exuded the air of a nobleman.
Immediately after confirming the two people in the room, Diana took two steps back so as not to arouse the doorman’s suspicion. Their figures soon vanished from view, but almost simultaneously, the middle-aged man let out a deep sigh. It seemed he was about to begin a conversation.
“If only you had given me a heads-up—.”
The stranger’s voice drifted out through the door, which was ajar by a hand’s breadth. Though the distance made it impossible to catch every word, she had no trouble recognizing the voice. Diana pricked up her ears.
“—I would have come to see you. —You make me look like a disloyal subject every single time.”
Thud. A chilling sense of déjà vu pressed down on the back of her neck. It was as if she’d been doused with ice water; every sensory nerve in her body snapped to attention.
“I can’t wait forever, you know—.”
A shiver ran down her spine from head to toe. Diana bit the inside of her lip to stop a cry from escaping.
“Why don’t you return to Riporsa now? Leave this place back in Lord Pierre’s care—”
Noticing Diana still lingering at the door, the knight closed it with a haughty expression. His deep, worried voice trailed off as if his waist had been severed.
“Go on now. Don’t loiter around here until tomorrow.”
The gatekeeper gave a half-hearted nod. Diana turned and walked stiffly down the hallway.
She couldn’t remember how she managed to make her way down the stairs. Her steps gradually quickened until she was finally running.
‘Why is that person here…!’
The voice coming from the Commander’s office belonged to someone she knew. One of the people she would never forget for the rest of her life.
“Do you want to get out?”
The one who had first lowered a lifeline of hope to her when her body and mind were trapped in a prison of darkness. Diana shuddered as if in revulsion.
“If you want to get out, I’ll find a way. Staying here any longer won’t do either of us any good.”
Thanks to him, she had been able to escape that hellish place. He was her savior, perhaps, but he wasn’t entirely on her side…
The Crown Prince’s—no, the Emperor’s maternal uncle, the man behind the scenes in Karman. The Empire’s highest-ranking noble.
Duke Christen. It had to be him.
Diana hunched her body as much as she could and quickly made her way out of the second floor.
Why would the Duke, who should be in the capital, have come all the way to this remote Dortes Command Headquarters in person? To see the Commander? Or by the Emperor’s order?
If it was the latter, why so suddenly?
Could it be that he knew she was here? It was a terrifying thought. Diana shook her head, dismissing the absurd possibility. If she had really been discovered, she would have been taken away long ago.
If it was the Duke, he was undoubtedly an honored guest. The night was long, and judging by the signs, the door to the Commander’s office wouldn’t open for at least a couple of hours. It might even remain firmly shut until dawn.
Diana glanced sideways and confirmed that the first-floor corridor leading to the audience chamber was half-empty. Her faint hope soon turned into certainty.
Elliot was right. Tonight was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
***
Warm steam rose from the still-hot teacup. The Duke, who had been caressing the perfectly warmed cup for a while, muttered solemnly.
“It is a relief to see that you have not suffered any serious injuries, Your Majesty.”
It was a title that could be applied to only one person across the Karman Empire and its countless vassal states and allies.
The Emperor, whose face remained excruciatingly beautiful and excruciatingly lonely, cast a brief glance at Hugo Christen.
His dry gaze held no emotion whatsoever. There was no rebuke for his uncle, who had barged in unannounced. Perhaps it was because he did not deem him worthy of a response.
“Will you not even speak to me?”
Hugo felt a pang of sadness. Ever since his nephew discovered that he had helped the maid escape, the boy had treated him as if he were no better than a pebble lying in the street.
The fact that he was treated no worse than this was only because he was the uncle. The head maids of the main palace and the secondary palace, who had smuggled the blind maid out on Hugo’s orders, had already been banished from the palace grounds.
Given his situation, he knew that coaxing him to return to Karman would be futile. Hugo had made the difficult effort to travel all the way to distant Dortes simply to check on the well-being of his lord and nephew.
It had been nearly half a year since he’d last met his nephew face-to-face. Coincidentally, the last time the Emperor had visited Riporsa, Hugo himself had been absent from the capital.
Whether it was fortunate or not, the Emperor had not left the capital completely vacant. Hugo’s sole consolation was that the Emperor at least recognized the weight of his position and the gravity of his responsibilities.
Even in the Emperor’s absence, there was no fear that imperial authority would waver.
A couple of months ago, nobles who had learned of the Emperor’s absence had attempted to hatch a treacherous plot. As soon as word of this reached Dortes, the Emperor issued a summons to the nobles and returned to Riporsa.
That night, the man wandered through the imperial palace in the dark, without telling a soul. At dawn, as the tiger flag fluttered solemnly toward the sky, he slaughtered every last one of the traitors.
The blood that flowed within the palace that day spilled out beyond its walls. Needless to say, the screams of the nobles harboring treacherous ambitions shattered the quiet dawn, echoing over the city walls. A torrent of blood, even more intense than the day he had personally executed his half-brothers, split into dozens of streams and spread throughout the palace.
The Emperor, his form resembling a demon as he wiped the blood from his sword, stepped through the pools of blood and left the palace as if nothing had happened. From that day forward, not a single noble dared to covet the throne, no matter how hard one looked.
But peace born of fear could not last long.
It had been over a year since the blind maid fled and Prince Eisen died. It has been nearly ten months since the imperial palace stood empty, devoid of its master. Hugo’s worries only deepened with each passing day.
Thanks to the distorted portrait circulating among the people—one that had completely mangled the Emperor’s features—he could walk about with such confidence, hiding his true appearance. But he couldn’t very well avoid appearing before his subjects for the rest of his life. Moreover, it wasn’t as if no one knew the Emperor’s real face.
The high nobility of Karman and the foreign envoys who attended the banquet at the main palace last year knew him from his days as Crown Prince. No matter how tightly Christen kept his lips sealed, word was bound to leak out somewhere.
What if Ormance and other foreign nations were to notice the Emperor’s absence? What if they were to exploit the power vacuum to pressure the Empire…?
Hugo could have bet both his wrists that his nephew would start a war without a shred of guilt.
‘And then some, too.’
Just imagining it sent a chill down his spine. It was by no means a stretch. The moment his hand was ruined, the man himself had broken down.
***
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