Chapter 76
“What on earth are you doing with your work!”
The shrill scream of the Third Empress tore through the door.
Unable to contain her anger, she began violently throwing every item she was holding at the knights in front of her.
“I told you! To monitor that wretched Shevers thoroughly! And yet you couldn’t even figure out why he drew His Majesty’s ire!”
“We’re sorry.”
“Why didn’t you realize that the list of informants Shevers managed was fake? Why!”
At the Third Empress’s shouting, Brindel, who had been looking out the window with his back turned, clenched his fists tightly.
The papers he was holding crumpled badly, but he didn’t care.
It was the organizational chart of the Jelour family’s intelligence network, which he had carefully memorized, considering it crucial information.
Now, he realized it had been fake all along.
“You fools! Go! Go immediately and fetch the real documents!”
“Yes!”
At the Third Empress’s command, the knights who had been monitoring Shevers hurried out of the room.
She exhaled sharply, calming herself slightly, and turned to her son.
“Brindel, don’t worry. No matter how much that wretched Shevers hides the documents, how well could he possibly hide them? His every move is being tracked by them…!”
“That’s an awfully comforting thing to say,” Brindel interrupted firmly.
“Shevers Jelour’s closest aides are His Majesty’s people. Wouldn’t they have checked his movements and information first? We won’t get the chance to see the documents he hid from us.”
His voice was smooth, but that was merely habit.
The Third Empress noticed the anger blazing in his blood-red eyes, symbolic of the Lornod line.
“We should have dealt with Shevers Jelour sooner. He betrayed us and manipulated the information like this.”
“…It’s also our responsibility.”
“Responsibility? You dare say it’s our responsibility!”
“Because we focused on our own work, we failed to properly manage the dog we raised. And now, we’ve been bitten painfully.”
Brindel tossed the bundle of papers he had been holding onto the floor and sat on the sofa.
He looked calm at first glance, as if nothing had happened, but he was overwhelmed by the growing anger and anxiety.
‘The problem is that the wound from the dog’s bite is worse than I thought.’
He had no idea when Shevers Jelour had started deceiving him.
Without that understanding, he didn’t even know where to begin to fix it.
If the Emperor hadn’t imprisoned Shevers?
Brindel might never have realized he was being toyed with.
‘That was my mistake.’
How should he handle this situation?
Which of the pieces of information Shevers provided were true, and which were false?
Brindel tapped the floor nervously with his foot.
Seeing this, the Third Empress sat down next to him naturally and sighed.
“It’s fortunate, isn’t it?”
“Fortunate?”
“His Majesty, with foresight, captured that wretched man. Thanks to that, we learned the whole situation.”
“If that’s the case, we should thank Neroli instead.”
From the start, Brindel and the Third Empress had known that Shevers could never marry Neroli.
They had quietly laughed at the notion that all Shevers needed was Neroli’s consent, and then persuading His Majesty would suffice.
‘His Majesty would never allow Neroli to marry.’
What did he see in Lornod’s madness?
‘Besides, no matter how convincing Neroli Miban Lornod’s appearance is, the gems are fake anyway.’
She was an imprudent woman who, fortunately, resembled her mother and had won the Emperor’s favor.
Shevers’ desire to stand on equal footing by marrying her revealed a brazen audacity.
Brindel had planned to acknowledge her efforts kindly, but now…
“-If Princess Neroli and I marry, it benefits everyone. That’s the most rational solution.”
‘How dare he.’
Shevers Jelour’s arrogance was increasingly overstepping.
Even if Neroli Miban Lornod was a fake, Brindel could no longer tolerate Shevers attempting to claim the Lornod name so easily.
He had decided to handle Shevers himself.
While Shevers was running around trying to win the Emperor’s favor, Brindel began reclaiming all authority he had entrusted to him.
In the process, he discovered something.
‘The information I have doesn’t match reality.’
And when the Emperor arrested Shevers, it became unmistakably clear.
“So if we’re to thank anyone, it should be Princess Neroli Miban Lornod herself.”
To his fake sister.
The Third Empress cautiously expressed doubt at her son’s muttering.
“By the way… I’m suspicious of everything now. Could Neroli really not be Lornod?”
“If she’s not fake…”
“Listen. Our certainty about Neroli’s birth came entirely from the information Shevers provided. There was no way Lornod would bleed for no reason. That would be impossible.”
“So?”
“But now we know Shevers Jelour has been deceiving us all along, and I heard that Neroli’s new maid has been telling everyone she meets recently this…”
“Neroli’s wound healed instantly. There’s no doubt she’s a Lornod.”
“That’s it!”
“Mother.”
Brindel, rarely smiling, looked at the Third Empress.
“It was you who said that Neroli’s mother, the Fourth Empress, had run away with her lover and was caught by His Majesty.”
“Th-That’s…”
“And it was also you who pointed out that, compared to the Fourth Empress’s capture, Neroli was born too early.”
“That’s true…”
“You also argued it was suspicious that both Kinia and Neroli showed little madness.”
“It was certainly odd! How could two royals of the same era be like that? Brindel, what hardships you endured!”
“…It was Neroli who connected me to physicians so my madness could be alleviated.”
Of course, he was grateful.
But it was already in the past.
After expressing gratitude countless times, it no longer held meaning for Brindel.
What mattered most now was the future.
“Neroli Miban Lornod…”
Muttering his sister’s name, Brindel clicked his tongue.
The bright conversations and gentle laughter they had shared long ago were already forgotten.
Now, he was calculating whether Neroli and Moren would hinder or aid his ascension as Emperor.
‘Could she really be genuine? Truly a Lornod?’
Was Shevers deliberately trying to sabotage her to claim her for himself?
‘But that would be far too risky.’
No matter how urgent, Shevers Jelour wouldn’t have taken such a gamble.
Yet the words of Neroli’s maid…
“-Princess Neroli’s arm healed instantly! Not just me, but His Majesty and the Cardinal saw it too! As expected, rumors are unreliable.”
“Self-healing. Then she is certainly Lornod.”
Brindel did not answer the Third Empress’s muttering.
Reason said yes, but instinct warned him otherwise.
‘How did Shevers Jelour gain such certainty? Did he truly gamble without any greed?’
“By the way, I’m curious.”
Brindel snapped out of his thoughts at the Third Empress’s words and looked at her.
She leaned comfortably on the sofa, arms crossed.
“No matter how much His Majesty refuses to marry Neroli… He wouldn’t arrest Shevers Jelour just for proposing.”
“…”
“Surely Neroli hinted something to His Majesty? What could she have been thinking accepting Shevers’ offer? Could that too have been part of his deception?”
“…I must act.”
Brindel stood abruptly.
The Third Empress, still leaning casually, looked up at her son, wide-eyed.
“Brindel?”
“Shevers Jelour’s new recruits are already in His Majesty’s hands… We should conduct our own investigation.”
“What do you mean?”
Brindel smiled gently.
“Not all of the informants Shevers provided were false. We need to meet the maids hidden in Neroli’s palace, the servants in His Majesty’s palace, and the informants in the Duke’s household.”
At first glance, this incident seemed like Shevers’ foolish mistake, but that wasn’t the whole story.
If you look at it differently, at the center of the incident from the beginning…
‘It was Neroli Miban Lornod.’
Lornod intuition is sometimes said to be beastlike.
And that intuition was now screaming at Brindel.
Something about Neroli was suspicious.
There was something he didn’t yet know!
“Then I’ll handle it myself.”
Not hearing Brindel’s muttering, the Third Empress straightened up.
“What did you say?”
“I need to investigate Neroli’s background as well.”
“Neroli? Why suddenly? From what I see, that child—”
“Mother.”
Brindel turned to meet her eyes.
“Prepare a garden tea party and report to His Majesty.”
He smiled as he spoke the order naturally.
“Let’s have a proper family tea time after a long while.”
The smile closely resembled Neroli’s own.
