SILHN Chapter 40🎗🎗

Perhaps it was because she thought it would be fine as long as she didn’t touch it directly and handed it over to the temple as evidence after briefly possessing it. That ‘evidence’ was a substance made by concentrating and solidifying mana from the cores of hundreds of magical beasts, and it was said to be a catalyst that lured many magical beasts on its own. And if a magical beast were to swallow it, it would cause a catastrophe. Even if there were no magical beasts in the capital, there was a possibility that dangerous magical beasts from far away would be drawn in. It was obvious that all the magical beasts in the vicinity would swarm to the palace.

The Castraine Ducal family, in response, secretly placed magical beast traps throughout the palace. This was a necessary measure to distract the magical beasts from the empress’s evidence. Distant screams began to be heard.

“Magical beasts! How can there be magical beasts in the palace!”

“We need backup! Backup!”

“Aaaah, why on earth!”

Those who had paid bribes to get in without any skills or even minimal testing, and who were always sneaking away from their posts, were quickly attacked by the magical beasts while trying to flee. Those who had at least a minimal level of skill, as befitting the name of the palace, somehow managed to fight off the magical beasts.

I hadn’t intended to make the situation so big. Except for the magical beast that attacked Prince Brian, none of the other magical beasts were all that threatening. Furthermore, I had guided them toward the areas where soldiers were always stationed. They might not be able to kill them, but they could at least fight them off, unless they were those who were trying to coast on their jobs. After all, there weren’t just one or two soldiers or knights stationed in the palace.

Nevertheless, I let out a hollow laugh at the screams coming from all sides. That’s right. The current imperial family was a husk. A royal guard that only follows the emperor? In a situation where the emperor would even lend them out privately to the empress? The elite guards, who could only be commanded by the emperor and whose only concern was the emperor’s safety, were only called royal guards in name; they had degenerated into ‘the emperor’s coolest problem solvers.’

The Imperial Knights? They were people who chose to work in the palace because they didn’t want to deal with magical beasts. While countless promising young men and women were dying fighting magical beasts outside, would the skills of these people, who wanted to ignore that reality and put on airs as knights in the safe palace, really be good?

Indeed, that’s why the empress had separately spent money and effort to hire mercenaries and put them into her son’s elite guard. I was shocked when I heard that she even brought in a serial killer-like individual, whose skills were certain, to cover his face and be Brian’s escort.

Even those people, well, they were knocked out in one blow by the magical beast earlier.

I observed the situation and got up. The time I had planned was just about right. Just then, the empress spoke to me.

“Now that I think about it, I didn’t even hear your role in this play you’ve orchestrated.”

“A play? Hmm, I just thought of it as returning the favor.”

“You would have had little to lose by letting the empress fool you.”

“…”

“The empress’s target this time was me.”

I looked at the empress, who had a stiff expression but uniquely tired eyes. Her hair had started to gray in places. Her graceful neckline was like a swan’s. Her eyes were shadowed. She was the person who, even after I called her in the morning and told her something strange, listened without a word and answered, ‘I’ll do it.’

She was the one person in this palace who was worthy of the word ‘noble.’ She had endured and been patient for a long time. They said she had already started getting gray hair and had to dye it all the time. She was the person who would calmly lower her eyes and let it go, even when the emperor, who was hale and hearty thanks to eating all sorts of nutritious foods, would mock her appearance by comparing her to the beautiful Empress Cleo.

“His Majesty the Emperor, because he was offended that I hid you by taking the side of the Castraine Ducal family, took the empress’s side.”

“If Your Majesty the Empress were to fall, it would have been my turn anyway.”

“Didn’t you dislike the idea of joining hands with my son?”

“When you took me into the palace when I had lost consciousness, I was already in your debt. And I intended to leave after repaying that debt.”

“You only wanted to leave a debt to the Castraine Ducal family.”

“If I had really died, even if it were Your Majesty the Empress, you wouldn’t have been safe.”

That’s why when I woke up, I was incredibly surprised to hear that I had been treated in the empress’s palace. The empress, already hated by the emperor, had no real power. Of course, I was lucky enough to survive and recover without any problems. But if, by any chance, I had died and not been brought back to life, the empress would have had to bear all the responsibility.

“You are more affectionate to those around you than I thought.”

“…Huh? Affectionate? Me? I just can’t stand being in debt, that’s all.”

I instinctively frowned. Goodness, the person who already surprised me by letting me into the empress’s palace is saying this. I’m just planning a revenge plot against the empress who was annoying me and the empress, so I’m affectionate? What is she talking about?

The empress looked at me and smiled faintly.

“And you’re shy, too.”

“…Your Majesty, I think I’d be more comfortable if you just cursed me for being a sassy girl who causes trouble without fear.”

I’d rather deal with the cunning Adrian; dealing with the empress was always uncomfortable.

“I thought I had to endure more.”

As I was about to leave, the empress said in a quiet voice.

“That it wasn’t time yet. That until the princes became adults, just mentioning the throne was disloyal. That since His Majesty the Emperor would not appoint a Crown Prince while he still had his strength, the key to victory was to save up energy until the very end, for a very long time.”

She wasn’t wrong. The empress and Adrian endured and grasped victory. The empress didn’t live long due to the injuries she sustained during the civil war, and Adrian suffered from constant stomach cramps from the stress of cleaning up the ruined palace. But they were able to live to step on the corpses of their enemies and mock them.

“However, when I thought about it… I wondered when a battlefield that was advantageous for us would ever come.”

I was at a loss for words at that. Even after Adrian and Brian become adults, the situation doesn’t get much worse or better than it is now. It’s because of the emperor’s attitude. Brian marries the daughter of the Marquis Habilios and officially enters the battle for the throne. The Marquis Habilios family joins hands with Empress Cleo and dedicates everything to putting Brian on the throne. This part is strangely blurry in my memory, but I think that family used some kind of power related to magical beasts… Anyway, I think it was the family that threw the final kindling into the civil war that turned the palace into a pile of ashes.

In fact, the Castraine Ducal family holds the most military power in the country. However, even with so many troops, they couldn’t move freely. They had to support the front lines. If the front line were to collapse once, they would lose several villages and cities like a domino effect. Therefore, even at the height of the civil war, the Castraine family could not send all their troops to the capital. On the other hand, the enemies acted as if they didn’t care if the continent or the people were torn to death by magical beasts.

In conclusion, they did win the civil war, but the damage was too great. Perhaps, if they had started earlier than in the original story, like now, the situation might have turned out differently.

“I am sorry for ignoring you because of my own difficulties.”

I froze at the empress’s words.

“Seeing this spectacle you have created today, I realized that all my thoughts until now were nothing but a coward’s excuse.”

“…”

“As the empress of a nation, I had the duty to care for all the children of the imperial family, but I ignored you to protect Adrian. That was an irresponsible attitude.”

The empress, in some ways, was similar to Raymond. Responsibility. Pride. She was a person who seemed to be made of these words. And after they collapsed, she lived only for Adrian. No matter what anyone said, she was a perfect empress and a more mature person than the irresponsible emperor could ever be. And yet, she called herself ‘irresponsible.’

“…Why are you apologizing to me?”

“It means that whether today’s plan succeeds or fails, I won’t blame you.”

The empress smiled with a slightly relieved expression. I felt strange.

“How can an adult who put a child up to a task have anything to say, no matter what the outcome is?”

It was because he had a mother like this that Prince Adrian had to become as cunning as a snake. In reality, he might not have cared about the throne at all. His nature was easygoing, and he didn’t know what it meant to lack anything. However, because he had a mother like this, who knew what shame was but forgot it to make her son a victor, he had to become more cunning and move without a single flaw.