Chapter 61
“What?”
The Princess no longer bothered with formal speech.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You have no right.”
“And if I don’t? What then, Your Highness?”
“Under Imperial law, no matter how noble your birth, you can’t arbitrarily persecute an innocent commoner.”
“Oh really? I wouldn’t know. I’m no legal scholar.”
“Your Highness.”
Fran, who had stayed silent until now, finally spoke up, eyes locked on the princess.
Since Fran was taller, he naturally looked down on her, but rather than lower his gaze or bow, he met her eyes squarely and spoke with confidence.
“I apologize for speaking so carelessly, unaware that Your Highness was present.”
“That’s not what you should be apologizing for.”
“I also regret that it looked like I was trying to swallow up Your Highness’s faction. However… You’re well aware that this power was never yours to hold onto forever, aren’t you?”
“Still not it.”
“Then, Your Highness...”
Fran paused for a moment, as if weighing his words, then made a suggestion.
“How about we say you didn’t see anything today?”
“What… what are you saying?”
Words so brazen, you’d never believe they were meant for a princess.
These two nobles, who outwardly pretended to respect even the lowest academy cadets, were openly rude to the princess.
Most nobles from the Empire’s central region followed Duke Triell’s pragmatic lead, and these two families were no different.
No—if anything, they were even worse.
Unlike Duke Triell, who, as one of only three dukes in the Empire, had a public image to maintain, these noble houses cared for nothing but their own gain.
And in their eyes, the princess in front of them wasn’t particularly threatening—or important.
Any commoner cadet or noble hearing this would have been horrified, but Fran Ziger and Garter Trevor didn’t think twice.
The reason was simple.
“Your Highness. Do you know where you are right now?”
“…This is the Piet family estate.”
“Correct. The Piet family. A noble house of the Empire. Your Highness came here with academy cadets and met with us—vassals of the Triell house—on the grounds of an Imperial noble.
And as fate would have it, the current Duke lost his father… to His Majesty the Emperor.”
“…!”
At that, the princess’s face stiffened. She realized what Fran was getting at.
Seeing her reaction, Garter smirked triumphantly.
“What do you think His Majesty would say if he found out?”
A princess who had already lost both her mother’s family and political power was now meeting secretly with vassals of a duke whose father had been killed by the emperor—on top of that, with academy cadets in tow.
To anyone, it would look suspicious.
If the princess revealed anything that happened here, this secret would inevitably come to light—and she would not come out of it unscathed.
If anything, this could be the perfect opportunity to put a leash around her neck.
‘Strange… She’s taking this better than expected.’
That thought crossed Garter’s mind as he looked at her reaction.
He had expected her to turn pale, to tremble with fear—but she only frowned slightly.
There was no fear. No panic. No despair. Just… annoyance.
‘Does she not realize what kind of position she’s in?’
A royal cast out of the Emperor’s favor, whose head could roll at any moment.
It was common knowledge among the Empire’s nobility. Could it be that she, of all people, didn’t know?
Still holding his smug smile on the outside, Garter was running through dozens of thoughts in his head—until the princess shattered his expression with a single sentence.
“Well, what do you think, brother?”
Clap. Clap. Clap.
With Rael’s words, the tense silence in the room was broken only by the sound of my clapping.
“Well done. That was quite the performance.”
Though my words were casual, my expression was stone cold.
No one—not even Rael—had expected me to show up, and everyone except her was frozen in place.
“…!”
“W-We greet His Majesty the Emperor!”
““We greet His Majesty the Emperor!””
Fran and Garter were the quickest to catch on, dropping to one knee and calling out. The others soon followed.
“Your Majesty.”
Now, only Rael and I remained standing.
“So. You were asking what I think?”
When Rael first appeared, those arrogant nobles had been all too eager to run their mouths. Now, not even a whisper left their lips as they kneeled, waiting for my next words.
“How very unpleasant.”
Whatever they thought I meant, Fran and Garter’s pale faces briefly brightened with hope.
“Y-Yes! Your Majesty is merciful and—”
They tried to speak, but I had no desire to hear them out.
“Silence.”
Their mouths shut—whether by command or by force of will, it didn’t matter.
“How dare you.”
Trying to rally the academy cadets?
The academy was my creation. Every cadet there was under my name and protection.
Using them to build your own faction may be a crime, but it’s not exactly incomprehensible.
Nobles spend their entire lives scheming for even the slightest gain in power.
Threatening the cadets’ families to bend them to your will? Despicable, yes, but even that isn’t enough to truly anger me.
But this—
“You dared. You actually dared to use me as your blade?”
Mmph!
Mmmph!
The nobles scrambled to speak, to explain, but I didn’t care.
“Vermin. As if mocking the bloodline of Arhan wasn’t enough, now you mock me?”
It’s not like that, they wanted to say. It’s all a misunderstanding.
They frantically shook their heads, gesturing desperately—but none of it reached me.
“So. You figured if I found out Rael was here, I’d—I, the Emperor, would be the one to kill her? Is that it? What a clever little scheme—killing with a borrowed blade, was it?”
I could forgive many things. But not this.
Using my name, the Emperor’s authority, as a weapon to threaten a member of the royal family—using me to do harm to Rael… That was something I could never tolerate.
“Truth be told, I had no intention of intervening today. Whatever you fools spouted, whatever Rael decided to do—I meant to simply watch. But you crossed the line.”
“And what else were you saying? The rights of nobles? Every one of your rights originates from me. When did I ever give you leave to harm and oppress my people? The right of the strong?
Are you truly so strong? If so, why don’t you use that strength to drag me from my throne instead of resorting to petty schemes?”
Right.
I’d almost forgotten—surrounded as I was by competent people, loyal vassals and capable dukes—that the Empire still had trash like this lying around.
How should I deal with them?
No need to overthink it.
I’ll just wipe them out—
“…Brother.”
Just before the violet energy swelling around me engulfed the nobles, Rael’s voice cut through.
To put it simply: I didn’t kill those two arrogant nobles, nor did I annihilate their entire families.
‘It’s the wrong time. We need the nobles unified right now…’
Just like Rael said, wiping out two major noble houses in a time like this wouldn’t do us any good.
So instead—
Thud.
He didn’t scream like some coward—he was trained in swordsmanship, after all—but the head of the Ziger family still rolled in the dirt, covered in mud from head to toe.
The Trevor patriarch had already lost consciousness.
“Wake him.”
Two of House Triell’s masters had thoroughly beaten the two family heads under Duke Roze Triell’s supervision.
At the Duke’s order, one of his knights dumped cold water over the unconscious Trevor head.
Even if this had been a lowly slave, people would’ve called it cruel. But no one present voiced a single complaint—not even the two groveling in the dirt.
Fran Ziger and Garter Trevor.
They could only kneel there, pale as corpses, and watch as their own fathers were humiliated before their eyes.
“…I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I should’ve just killed them myself.”
“This is not your fault, Duke. Don’t burden yourself.”
Duke Roze offered a solemn apology, then turned to the family heads with a chilling glare.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay out of trouble? To lay low? And yet… you put your successors up to this?”
“Y-Your Grace! You misunderstand. This was entirely of our own—”
Fran tried to explain, but before he could finish, the Ziger patriarch snapped.
“Shut your mouth!”
Clutching his battered body, he forced himself upright and dropped to his knees before me.
“This lowly servant has failed to raise his son properly. That disgrace of a child dared to offend Her Highness the Princess, and disturb Your Majesty’s peace. Even if I were to die a hundred times, I could not offer enough apology.”
“I see.”
Truth be told, the Ziger patriarch was not entirely without worth.
Though he once followed the previous Duke Triell, he had never crossed the line during our most turbulent clashes. He had potential, and thus I’d let him be.
“If Your Majesty demands my unworthy life, I shall offer it willingly. But I beg of you—consider the five hundred years of loyalty House Ziger has shown to the Empire. Please, forgive this with my life alone.”
The Trevor patriarch, now lucid, also knelt beside him, bowing his head.
Hmm.
“Rael?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Because Duke Roze was present, Rael addressed me as “Your Majesty” instead of “brother.”
“This all began with you. Why don’t you be the one to end it? What do you think we should do… with House Ziger and House Trevor?”
Join Our Patreon
Support our translations and gain early access.
Read up to 10 Chapters ahead
before the official release!