148. Someone to Take the Blame
“Did the Marquis really say that? How dare he claim my child is alive?”
Shailo trembled so violently at the shock her fingertips shook.
Her child had died long ago by the Empress’s hand. She had seen with her own eyes that cruel, brutal woman leave no trace—she’d even disposed of the remains. The memory of that horrific nightmare rushed back, making the room spin.
“Ugh… ugh.”
She staggered as a wave of nausea hit, and the Emperor grabbed her shoulder anxiously.
“Shailo, Shailo! Are you all right?”
“…Your Majesty.”
The blow felt like being struck at the back of the head. Then an indescribable rage boiled up inside her. After gasping in pain for a while, Shailo suddenly stopped retching.
“I’ll fetch the imperial physician at once!”
“No. There’s no need.”
It was madness—absolute nonsense. Nonsense uttered by the Marquis of Balton in a clumsy attempt to rattle the Emperor. The shock was so great that, paradoxically, her mind grew calm.
“Shailo?”
“What else did he say? Did he bring someone who looks like him?”
She spoke in a cold, emotionless tone as if her feelings had been wiped clean.
“I don’t know the details. I was only told that he claimed to have seen someone who looks similar.”
“Ha!”
When the Emperor hemmed and hawed, Shailo shot him a sharp look.
“Your Majesty, did you simply listen to such an insult without responding?”
She knew her consort was inept and pitiable—quick to please and easily mollified. That softness had always struck her as foolish but convenient. Seeing him taken in by Balton’s lies, however, left her disappointed and exasperated.
“Marquis Balton simply told an absurd lie to avoid accountability. The failed trade with the Kingdom of Pyron will be blamed on someone—so he tried to shake Your Majesty’s confidence. He even stooped to invoking my child…”
Shailo trembled with a mixture of fury and humiliation.
“I must see the Marquis immediately.”
“Shailo!”
The Emperor moved to stop her, but she sprang up and left.
“Marquis Balton! Where are you, Marquis Balton?”
Shailo went straight to the reception room where Balton was staying. She felt murderous, ready to tear him apart.
But as if he had foreseen the commotion, the reception room was empty.
The last thread of reason she’d been clinging to snapped. Her fists clenched, she ordered the attendants sharply.
“Seize Marquis Balton at once!”
Before long, Balton—who had been returning to the capital—was dragged into the imperial palace.
“What—what insolence is this?”
He was thrown roughly before Shailo, bound and bewildered. Seeing Shailo, he protested.
“Lady Shailo, you summoned me? If one is summoned, one ought to be summoned properly. What kind of discourtesy is this?”
“Shut that mouth of yours.”
“W-what?”
Shailo looked down at him icily.
“You blurted slander to His Majesty, did you not? You spoke recklessly about my child.”
“…A child?”
Balton repeated the word without thinking, then realized what she was talking about. As soon as he’d whispered about a bastard to the Emperor, the information must have reached her as well.
He hadn’t anticipated events moving this quickly, but he had nothing to lose now. A decisive piece of evidence had just come into his possession.
‘Good thing I went to the temple myself,’ he thought, smiling confidently to himself—fortune, it seemed, was on his side.
“You still don’t get the situation.”
Muttering to himself, Shailo gave a nod. One of her guards kicked Balton in the back.
“Gah!”
“How dare you mention a dead child. Cut out that man’s three-inch tongue at once!”
“W-what? Wait a moment!”
The knight drew his sword and Balton flailed.
“It’s a misunderstanding! The child being alive is plain fact!”
“You’re still spouting nonsense—”
“I swear it’s true! If you don’t believe me, look at this!”
Terrified, Balton withdrew something from his breast.
“What is that?”
“This is the paternity confirmation I just received from the temple! I found your child!”
“!”
The commotion Balton stirred up spread like wildfire.
A tumult had already erupted between the Emperor and Shailo. After they had weathered that storm, the Emperor promptly summoned Rozelia.
Rozelia, who had been at the Crown Prince’s palace, had no time to steady herself before appearing before the Emperor.
“I pay my respects, Your Majesty.”
“You’re here.”
The Emperor regarded her coldly. Rozelia cautiously scanned the room and then saw Kaien cradled in Shailo’s arms. Her heart dropped.
Shailo held Kaien limp in her embrace. While Shailo looked mournful, Balton beside her was smirking from ear to ear.
“Finally, the main character has arrived.”
At his reaction, Rozelia could roughly infer what had happened.
‘So Balton decided to expose Kaien’s identity to the whole court after all.’
The Emperor, who had maintained an oppressive silence, finally spoke.
“Lady. You know why I summoned you.”
Rozelia forced herself to ignore the pressure pressing down on her and replied calmly.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I will not beat around the bush. Balton, present the documents.”
“As you wish, Your Majesty.”
At the Emperor’s order, Balton brought forward a sheaf of papers.
“That is…”
“This is the paternity confirmation I just obtained from the temple.”
“A paternity confirmation?”
Balton smiled smugly at the astonished Rozelia.
“I found it suspicious from the start. The servant in your household looks exactly like His Majesty’s child.”
“…!”
“As soon as I commissioned the temple to investigate, my suspicions proved correct.”
He waved the paternity certificate proudly. The document bore the temple’s seal and fluttered in his hand.
Normally, such a result would take days, but he had pressured the temple to produce the results as quickly as possible.
The Emperor’s stern gaze turned to Rozelia.
“Lady. You will not pretend ignorance of this matter, will you?”
“…I will not deny it. He is indeed the child Your Majesty lost.”
“When did you first know?”
“From the beginning.”
The Emperor’s face immediately registered shock.
“Why did you conceal it until now? Knowing it was my child, you kept him hidden in a ducal household? Answer me!”
“I am sorry, Your Majesty. But all of this was at his request.”
Rozelia looked at Kaien.
“What?”
“Your child did not want his identity revealed to the world. So we hid his identity in the ducal household and took him in as a servant.”
“Lies! Lies!”
Shailo, who had been listening in silence, leaped to her feet.
“What sort of lies are these!”
“I know it’s hard to believe, but when the time came, we intended to reveal everything.”
“What insolence!”
“Shailo, enough.”
The Emperor interjected to calm the agitated Shailo, then glared at Rozelia.
“Suppose for argument’s sake that the Lady’s story is true. Then how did you identify the child as mine and bring him into the ducal household?”
“That is…”
Rozelia was at a loss for words to such a sharp question. She had known Kaien’s identity because of knowledge from the source material—there was no plausible explanation beyond that.
Balton then stepped in.
“Your Majesty, might the Lady have used the child as a hostage against Your Majesty? To turn against you?”
“Treachery?”
Balton’s suggestion framed Rozelia and her entire ducal house as traitors.
“Hasn’t the House of Serteia often defied the imperial court? If I had not rescued Your Majesty’s child, who knows what might have happened.”
He said it as if it were perfectly natural. In no time, he had reshaped himself into a savior who had ‘rescued’ the child, while Rozelia had become an unscrupulous kidnapper of the Emperor’s child.
Disappointment creased the Emperor’s expression.
“Lady. Is the Marquis’s claim true? Have you truly harbored treasonous intent toward me?”
“I swear I have not. I truly—”
“Enough! Your Majesty, imprison the Lady immediately!”
Shailo shouted sharply. Her eyes were bloodshot with rage and veins standing out. The situation could not have been worse for Rozelia; the more she explained, the deeper she sank.
At that moment—
“Your Majesty! The Empress has arrived!”
A nervous attendant’s voice echoed through the hall.
“…!”
“What did you say?”
All eyes turned in unison to the doorway. Footsteps sounded—heavy, measured.
Someone entered, their presence cutting through the chamber with a steady tread.
“Stop persecuting someone who has done no wrong, Your Majesty.”
