Empress Cleo’s face was desperate to run to Prince Brian, but her lady-in-waiting, who was standing right beside her and holding her back, barely managed to restrain her. The Empress then ground her teeth as she focused on me and the Emperor’s concentrated gaze on me.
Ah, she’s figured out the whole plot. I had to try hard not to smile.
The Emperor looked bewildered and said, “You, you were called? That sword…”
“Yes, I was seriously injured fighting a magical beast in this underground maze and could not awaken.”
I hadn’t been fighting at all, but the Emperor likes that kind of talk, so I decided to play along. I began my theatrics.
“Didn’t Your Majesty think it was strange? No matter how many suspicious rumors there were, falling from the maze garden to the underground maze has been almost unheard of. But the adopted daughter of the Castraine Dukedom and I happened to fall!”
“Oh, oh, that’s, that’s right.”
Even though he was dazed, the Emperor went along with what I said. I continued to pour my heart into the performance.
“In this underground maze, conspirators who targeted the Imperial Palace set a trap and gathered magical beasts!”
“What, what?!”
“This sword reacts to evil things in its surroundings! So, it is understandable that those who held this sword before felt something was wrong. The current Imperial Palace was filled with evil things targeting it! But Father, while my body was unawakened, the sword spoke to me.”
Who would believe that a sword can talk?
So I decided to go with a straightforward approach of righteous fabrication and manipulation.
If you want to call my story nonsense, then you should also grab the sword and fall into a coma to prove it!
“The sword’s power was so weak that it couldn’t properly speak to those who were wide awake. It could only express its will fully to me, who was asleep. It told me to wake up and stop the conspiracy targeting the Imperial Palace! I finally opened my eyes this morning. Oh, I didn’t know the situation had gotten this bad!”
I wiped away a tear, gripped the sword again, and yelled in my mind, “Shine!”
Flash!
Again, the holy light filled the narrow maze. The Emperor, unable to say “that sword isn’t a demon sword” in the face of such tangible evidence, changed the subject.
“Then, how did Brian end up here… like this?”
“Prince Brian, I am sorry to say…”
I turned my head and gave a slight nod. At that moment, Grand Priest Ilian arrived with a solemn expression and held out a small box, saying, “Your respected Majesty, I have confirmed that the prince’s hunting gear was smeared with a substance that lures magical beasts. We also found similar items in the prince’s quarters this morning.”
“W-what are you talking about, Grand Priest Ilian!”
“That’s a lie, Your Majesty! Why would Brian do that?!”
Empress Cleo, sensing the crisis, shouted frantically. That’s right. While Brian was being childish and had gone out to “catch the golden wolf,” we also fabricated things. The Castraine Dukedom had some conscience. They didn’t use something as dangerous as nuclear waste, like the Empress. It was just a common lure often used on battlefields.
“I have been officially investigating the evidence that Princess Titania was under a curse since yesterday, with Your Majesty’s approval. Your Majesty! Grand Priest Marjid came today to purify the curse…!”
Empress Cleo glared at Grand Priest Ilian and continued, “Grand Priest Ilian, you have been living in the Empress’s Palace and taking care of Titania. It doesn’t make sense that you’d only find evidence now!”
“Empress Cleo is right,” Grand Priest Ilian said with a pained expression, bowing his head.
“If I, under the pretense of caring for the patient, failed to discover that there was truly an evil presence in the Rose Palace, my title as Grand Priest would be meaningless. To rectify my own shortcomings and to assist in the Empress’s investigation, I have been searching the entire Imperial Palace since this morning.”
Grand Priest Ilian paused for a moment before continuing, “However, I’m sorry to say. The person in charge of the ‘investigation’ you conducted yesterday, Your Highness, was merely an apprentice priest who had been coming and going to check on your health. He was unable to properly read the traces of when or by whom the evidence was brought in.”
Grand Priest Ilian, who was siding with the Castraine Dukedom, was trying to frame the Empress’s priest as “incompetent” for not identifying the curse. This turned back on her.
The Empress, trapped by her own words, said in a flustered tone, “That, that’s impossible! What’s the difference between an apprentice and a regular priest in purifying evil things!”
“I heard that our respected brother, Grand Priest Marjid, was scheduled to arrive at the Imperial Palace today. If I may ask, Your Highness, why did you not ask me to investigate yesterday, even though you knew I was staying in the vicinity of the Empress’s Palace? Why did you decide that the curse was confined only to the Rose Palace and summon our brother Marjid today?”
The Empress desperately replied, “It’s because Titania wouldn’t wake up, and strange things were happening in the Rose Palace!”
“If you had invited me to purify the sword, I would have willingly examined it. But you did not, Your Highness.”
The Emperor’s expression changed. He looked at the Empress with suspicion. Of course, he must have suspected the Empress of some petty scheme yesterday. He might even have been prepared to cover it up to a certain extent.
But the Emperor was not the kind of person to protect and believe an Empress who was being exposed in front of so many people. Empress Cleo knew this better than anyone, which was why her face was so pale.
“Your Highness. I will ask you one thing. Did you say this cursed item was buried in the Rose Palace?”
“Y-yes! Everyone saw it! We were worried that there was a problem with the Rose Palace as soon as people started talking about a problem with the sword!”
“That is impossible,” Raymond said as he walked over. Without another word, he snatched the “evidence” from the Empress’s lady-in-waiting and let a trapped mouse touch it.
As soon as the mouse touched the jet-black “evidence,” it writhed in agony, swelled up, and let out a bloodcurdling scream! It then lunged at Raymond. Raymond killed it with a single downward slash of his sword.
The once small mouse, which had instantly bloated up to the size of a wild boar, lay dead on the floor. Everyone who witnessed the sight was speechless. The Emperor was especially shocked.
“W-w-what is this?”
Raymond explained in a respectful tone, “If this had been buried in the ground for a long time, the entire Rose Palace area would have turned into a den of magical beasts where no person or animal could live. As you can see, it is a wicked item that transforms weak-willed wild animals into magical beasts just by touching it. If there were plants nearby, they would wither, and if there were animals, they would become magical beasts. I hurried to the palace today because I felt an unusual presence.”
Even though the Emperor knew Raymond had been coming and going from the Empress’s Palace on the pretext of checking on me, he was so shocked by the sight of a palm-sized mouse bloating up to the size of a boy and lunging at Raymond that his face went completely white. He had thought the Empress’s little scheme would end as a minor prank. He hadn’t imagined that it would put him in such danger.
Raymond said to the Empress in a cold voice, “I would like to ask you, Your Highness. What was the color of the ground where this item was buried in the Rose Palace area?”
The Empress instinctively sensed the danger and tried to shirk responsibility.
“The Rose Palace garden was scorched and ruined from the previous disturbance, so it was impossible to discern the color of the ground…! T-that’s right. The head lady-in-waiting of the Rose Palace is right there.”
Head Lady-in-waiting Natalie came out and bowed her head before the Empress.
“You are in charge of the Rose Palace, are you not? You were also part of the curse investigation. So, what was the color of the ground?”
“As Your Highness says, the Rose Palace is not in good condition these days, and its appearance is very different from its original state. The burned grass and unsalvaged materials are scattered everywhere…”
Raymond cut off Natalie’s words with an icy voice.
“I heard that the Rose Palace is an eerie place with fewer attendants and no master. Is it really true that this item was accidentally buried in the ground and discovered under Your Highness’s investigation?”
If I were truly “cursed” and had been experiencing misfortune after misfortune and not waking up, the ground in the Rose Palace area should have long since turned black, the vegetation should have died, and it should have become a living hell. If the item had been buried underground for a long time as the Empress claimed, an incident should have happened long ago. All kinds of animals would have been wandering around the empty Rose Palace garden.
Therefore, delving any deeper into the situation would only be a loss for the Empress. She would never be able to reveal that she had secretly prepared and buried the cursed item herself, only to dig it up immediately afterward.
The Empress gritted her teeth in frustration
Wow she got caught fast~