Chapter 25
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Time flew by, and it was already the fifth day since arriving in the West. During that time, Elena held two worship services praying for the success of the exorcism and gathered information concerning the Emperor and the Conrad Ducal House.
Unfortunately, the investigation into the Emperor yielded little result. The only information she managed to learn was the old story that the Emperor’s last visit to Conrad Ducal Castle was as far back as 30 years ago. Thirty years ago, indeed. This was disappointing news for Elena, who had considered the possibility that the Emperor had a hand in the Devil appearing in the Conrad territory.
“So, the information we have is all there is about the woman who died 30 years ago?”
“Yes. Truly, not a single person said they had heard of her.”
The woman who fell to her death from the tower of Conrad Castle. They investigated whether there might be a connection because the time of her death overlapped with the time the Emperor last visited Duke Conrad’s Castle, but this lead also came up empty.
“We should also consider the possibility that the information about the person named Vivian is incorrect.”
“Is information that scarce? Nothing like someone having heard of a similar incident, or anything?”
“They said that since it was so long ago and so many outsiders came and went, no one would know. I’m sorry.”
“No. You worked hard, Bella.”
After comforting Bella, who seemed more upset than Elena herself, Elena picked up the thin report again. It contained information about the ‘Conrad Ducal House’ that Bella had scraped together in an attempt to make up for her failure in investigating the Emperor.
In truth, it was closer to a collection of unofficial histories than a report. Especially the rumor about the 4th Head of House Conrad, which was written in the last section, was particularly so.
“The 4th Head of House Conrad was the lover of the Founding Emperor, Herace Bavaria, and the son born between them became the 2nd Emperor of the Bavaria Empire……. This is a story I’ve heard many times before.”
“The Northern Count Evert in the North and the Southern Viscount Buschedulon. Those two families also fiercely argue every year on the Empire’s Foundation Day that their ancestor was Herace Bavaria’s lover.”
Herace Bavaria, the Founding Emperor who unified the continent and established the Bavaria Empire, handed everything over to the son he had late in life. After that, he neither married until his death nor revealed the biological father of his son, who became the 2nd Emperor.
Was he the result of a one-night stand with an unknown partner? Or was he proof of a love with a story that had to be hidden?
The curiosity about the Founding Emperor’s ‘partner’ has not cooled even after a thousand years, establishing itself as the Empire’s most famous and mysterious enigma. Coupled with the Imperial citizens’ tendency to be obsessed with bloodlines, a noble who would boast, “My progenitor was the Founding Emperor’s lover,” would appear every few years.
It seems the Conrad Ducal House also wanted to insert their progenitor into the Imperial family tree.
“Still, compared to the Everts and the Buschedulons, the Conrad Ducal House’s claim has some basis.”
“Basis? What is it?”
“They say a portrait of the 4th Head of House Conrad, who was supposedly the Founding Emperor’s lover, remains, and that the Late Emperor Lloyd was twin-like in his resemblance to that portrait.”
Elena, who had been listening quietly, tilted her head.
“Hmm. Didn’t that happen because the Late Emperor Lloyd’s father was the former Duke Conrad?”
“The Ducal House couldn’t assert it too aggressively for that very reason. In any case, the Conrad Ducal House’s claim is this: ‘Isn’t the fact that an Imperial Grandson resembling the 4th Duke Conrad was born after a thousand years because both his parents are his descendants?’, ‘But since there had been no intermarriage before, the blood must have mixed during the time of the Founding Emperor,’ ‘The Duke Conrad at the time must have already been married, which forced them to conceal that he was the 2nd Emperor’s father because he was a secret lover……’—that’s how they explained it.”
“Good heavens. It’s so strenuously fitted together that it’s laughable.”
Elena clicked her tongue and turned the page of the report. The fact that a portrait supposedly produced a thousand years ago remained was more intriguing. Of course, even that was highly likely to be a later forgery rather than the genuine article.
“I wonder if that thousand-year-old portrait is still in Conrad Castle?”
“We couldn’t confirm if it remains, but they say a portrait of the Late Emperor Lloyd is there. Oh! And the current Duke Conrad, too. Dieter Conrad!”
Bella, who had been readily answering the question about the portrait, suddenly raised her voice.
“What about him?”
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