Chapter 28
“Could it be that the rumors are true? They say you’ve been carrying on with your fiancé’s older brother.”
“Mother, that can’t be true. Syllie isn’t that kind of vulgar woman.”
At the Empress’s subtle reproach, Arendtert spoke up in Sylaria’s defense.
“Isn’t that right, Syllie?”
He tried to approach her with a longing expression, but Euclid, who had been silently standing by her side, blocked his path.
“That’s enough.”
“Brother, step aside.”
“I have no fiancée, Your Majesty.”
As Arendtert glared at his half-brother, Sylaria’s calm voice spread through the Emperor’s bedchamber. She turned earnestly to the Emperor, who was propped up in bed.
“I conveyed my wishes to His Highness the Second Prince before the engagement ceremony. Her Majesty the Empress also acknowledged this and ended the ball.”
“Hm…”
The Emperor, quietly observing the situation, let out a low sound at Sylaria’s explanation. At that, Cressida frowned and pressed further.
“The entire empire knows you are Aren’s woman. Yet now you claim you’re not engaged just because the ceremony didn’t happen? Are you trying to play word games before His Majesty?”
“Word games? I’m simply stating the facts.”
“If that’s true, then tell us something else as well. Why is it that you refuse to be engaged to Aren? It must be a grave reason. The crime of trifling with the imperial family is by no means light.”
“Yes, I’d like to hear that reason first.”
The Emperor gave weight to Cressida’s demand. Sylaria lowered her gaze, taking a slow, steady breath.
The Emperor’s reaction was just as she expected. Lukewarm, neither here nor there, merely a puppet of the Empress.
Ever since he had taken to his sickbed, he had been like this. With the strength of his youth gone, he was nothing more than a puppet in the Empress’s hands.
Yet even as a puppet, he was still the Emperor.
He was once Crown Prince and a Holy Knight who fought monsters. He, more than anyone, understood the importance of divine power and purification.
The reason he was able to make Cressida Empress in the first place was also due to their match rate.
Because she had the highest match rate with the Emperor after the late Empress, the Noble Council could not object to her becoming the new Empress.
Such is the significance of match rates in the imperial family.
“I found someone with a match rate far higher than with His Highness the Second Prince.”
“Surely you’re not saying that person is the First Prince? Not everything you say becomes true just because you say it.”
Cressida scoffed with a mocking smile. But when Euclid produced a document, her smile vanished completely.
“That’s…”
“Why don’t you check for yourself whether we’re just making things up.”
“Bring it here.”
At the Emperor’s gesture, an attendant took the temple’s certificate from Euclid and handed it over. The Emperor pressed his gaze to the High Priest’s seal affixed to the certificate.
As he carefully examined the certificate, the Emperor’s expression gradually hardened. His eyes sharpened, and unable to contain his anxiety, Arendtert opened his mouth.
“Your Majesty, I was the one who suppressed the first ‘mouth’ in the palace. Yet to be so insulted! Please, you must not allow this!”
“That’s right, Your Majesty! Look at Aren! He came running at your call before he could even wipe the monster blood from his cheek. Please, I beg you to consider this child!”
Cressida quickly supported Arendtert’s words. As she said, a black, ink-like stain was visible on his cheek.
“To have his lover taken by his own brother at a time when he deserves to be rewarded for his service! Such a thing must not be allowed!”
Service, she says.
Sylaria barely managed to suppress a laugh. She saw before her the same Cressida of her previous life, who had cornered Euclid, overlapping with the present.
‘The First Prince is the one who brought the mouth to the palace! He committed the unthinkable just to earn merit!’
Back then, Euclid had only stared at the floor with a weary face, like someone who had given up everything.
But now, he was different. He stood in front of Sylaria, protecting her, his gaze fixed squarely on the Empress.
“No matter what’s written on the temple certificate, you must not allow this. For the sake of order in the imperial family!”
At the Empress’s desperate plea, the Emperor’s eyes twitched. Then, he turned his head to look at Sylaria.
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