Chapter : 62
Isolic left only those cryptic words and did not show his face again until the day Terestia was due to leave the North. This was despite the fact that the Yenier mansion actually belonged to him.
However, Terestia had no room to worry about such trivial matters.
“……A demon-summoning ritual?”
“Yes. There are traces of another one being conducted within the Imperial Palace. However, this time…….”
Argo hesitated, causing her to tilt her head instinctively. Argo remained silent for a long time, looking troubled. Eventually, he gazed steadily at Terestia and spoke slowly, as if trying to reassure her.
“It appears they succeeded.”
“What? Wait, does that mean there’s a demon in the palace right now?-what do I do? Will that demon recognize me? Why don’t the other humans know? And—”
“Calm yourself, Your Highness. That is not a demon you need to concern yourself with.”
What is that supposed to mean? It’s a demon! How can I not concern myself with it!
A deep frown etched itself onto her face, but Argo remained calm.
“What is in the palace is likely a low-ranking demon. It means it is not a particularly strong creature.”
“Oh, really? But how did you know that?”
“I caught its scent.”
Scent? My sense of smell is quite sharp, too—why didn’t I catch it? Her pride was slightly wounded to hear there was something she had failed to notice. Usually, Argo would have been quick to sense her mood, but he seemed lost in thought.
“What’s wrong?”
“……The demon currently in the palace is low-ranking, but it is still a threat to humans.”
“What do you mean? You just told me I don’t need to worry about it.”
“You, Your Highness, have no need to worry. However, is there not a human in the palace whom you care for?”
A sunny, radiant figure immediately came to mind.
Sidwill! Was Sidwill in danger? Because of a demon?
Terestia’s mouth hung open as she struggled to find words. A whirlwind of emotions and thoughts passed through her.
Do demons cherish their own kind like humans do? Since I’m a demon, should I protect and care for that low-ranking demon? But…
The image of him smiling softly and calling her “Auntie” wouldn’t leave her mind. It was through him that she first learned what family affection felt like. Terestia liked that feeling, and she didn’t want it to break.
“Regardless of who conducted the summoning ritual in the palace, what would their goal be? Naturally, they are targeting His Imperial Majesty.”
“Sidwill…….”
“Just as you are the Grand Duchess of Ennument and the Master of the North, your nephew, the Emperor, is the Master of this Pabellon Empire.”
“You mean some human who wants to seize the Empire and manipulate it at will summoned it?”
“Precisely.”
And that human’s plan had been successful to a degree. They had summoned a demon and unleashed it in the palace.
What if Sidwill got hurt? Or what if the demon swallowed him whole, just as one had done to her?
She decided she had to see Sidwill one more time before heading back North. Terestia’s heart leaned toward Sidwill—who, despite not sharing her blood, was already like a true nephew—rather than some demon she had never even met.
“I have to go back to the palace before leaving for the North. Right, Sidwill did ask me to visit again before I left anyway…….”
“But Your Highness, that demon will never reveal itself.”
“Why?”
Argo couldn’t bring himself to tell the truth to her worried face. He couldn’t say that the demon was hiding because it was so weak it feared Argo might ruin its plans. He couldn’t say that because Argo possessed the power to blow it to pieces just by looking at it, the demon trembled in fear whenever he entered the palace.
So, he deflected as best he could.
“It is because you are so powerful, Your Highness, that the low-ranking demon is hiding to avoid you.”
“Ah, well then there’s nothing I can do!”
He felt guilty for making Terestia blame herself, but it was better than sending her into the palace alone.
His red eyes glowed darkly. It was a contradiction—like saying a shadow was sparkling—yet they shone intensely amidst the darkness.
“Do not forget the reason why you returned to Pasquero, Your Highness.”
“……It was to celebrate Sidwill’s birthday, wasn’t it?”
“No. You came because of the Empress Dowager and the bizarre rumors questioning whether you were a demon.”
“…….”
True. Come to think of it, she hadn’t resolved a single thing related to her actual purpose for coming to the capital. Hearing that there was a demon targeting Sidwill in the palace made her feel incredibly anxious.
It wasn’t that she had forgotten her goal or ignored it on purpose. When she finally met the Empress Dowager in the palace, the woman had picked a fight out of flustered agitation and then retreated first. Furthermore, upon arriving in the capital, she found that rumors of her being a “good-for-nothing” still outweighed the strange rumors of her being a demon.
Of course, that might have been because Terestia had intentionally acted the part of the person the capital’s citizens expected her to be.
While Terestia was lost in thought, Argo stood up slowly. Blocking the light of the setting sun streaming through the window, he spoke.
“The reason there are fewer demon rumors than expected in the capital, and the reason a demon is hiding in the palace instead…… is because the Empress Dowager is the catalyst for everything.”
“The Empress Dowager did the ritual? And she’s the one hiding the demon in the palace? But that makes no sense. You just said the demon is targeting Sidwill.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“No matter how bad my relationship with her is, Sidwill is different. Sidwill is her biological son. Are you suggesting she is targeting her own child?”
“……Humans are beings of duality. They are a species that can love the cold one moment and the heat the next. Even a child they once cherished so dearly that it wouldn’t hurt to put them in their eyes can become estranged for any number of reasons.”
“……Why? Does the Empress Dowager want to become the Emperor herself instead of Sidwill?”
“A puppet Emperor would be more convenient. The Emperor handles all the tedious tasks, while she uses his authority only when she wants to get rid of someone she dislikes or when she wants to wield power.”
“But she can do that now. Can’t she just ask Sidwill?”
Her large purple eyes blinked repeatedly in confusion. Even with Terestia’s memories, she knew the relationship between parent and child wasn’t always the same. She knew the world was full of all kinds: people unfit to be parents, people unfit to be children, people who cherished each other, and people who loathed each other.
But at least, the Empress Dowager that Terestia knew loved and cherished her son. So, why turn him into a puppet for power?
“There was an incident that occurred six months ago. You likely remember it, Your Highness. The execution of Viscount Elexterra.”
Viscount Elexterra…… he was Sidwill’s uncle and the Empress Dowager’s older brother. In a way, he was a man of the same cloth as Terestia. In the sense that he was a massive “good-for-nothing.”
But the difference was that Terestia had enough power and wealth to clean up her own messes, and though she might kick people out or fire them, she never harmed them.
Viscount Elexterra was different. He began bragging that his nephew was the Emperor and his sister was the Empress Dowager, and he started sticking his nose into all sorts of businesses. He had no talent for trade and failed at every turn, but it was fine up until then. He could just surreptitiously take money from his sister.
However, the trouble began when he dared to set his sights on the only daughter of Marquis Bliot, one of the most prestigious noble families. Despite a twenty-year age gap, the Viscount pursued her relentlessly, heedless of the propriety.
When the Marquis, unable to endure it any longer, chased him away in a rage and told him never to return, the hot-tempered Viscount lost control. During the ensuing struggle, he murdered the Marquis.
That wasn’t all. He ran to the Lady of Bliot, brandished her father’s severed head, and humiliated her.
The matter was immediately brought to trial. Viscount Elexterra bragged loudly that his nephew was the Emperor, but……
“Handle it fairly, according to the law.”
At Sidwill’s cold command, the Viscount vanished like dew on the execution grounds that very day. It was an unprecedented scandal, but through this event, Sidwill began to be called a fair and brilliant Emperor rather than just a young boy king.
Terestia remembered feeling proud of Sidwill in that moment, so of course she knew the story. But she also thought she understood why Argo was bringing this up now.
“Don’t tell me…… are you saying that was the moment the relationship between the Empress Dowager and Sidwill soured?”
End Of Chapter : 62
