The next morning.
In the Crown Prince's office, Maximilian had been wrestling with documents without a moment to catch his breath. As lunchtime approached, he took a stack of tax-related documents requiring approval and headed to the Emperor's office.
Inside the office, the Emperor was likewise furrowing his brow as he looked over the Empire's tax records piled up like a mountain.
"Imperial Father, it is Crown Prince Maximilian."
"Oh, Max. You've come at just the right time. I've been racking my brains over the tax collection rates of these southern territory bastards; they are quite displeasing."
The Emperor welcomed him gladly, rubbing his stiff neck.
Maximilian smiled and carefully set a tray the attendant had brought on one side of the Emperor's desk.
On the tray sat an unfamiliar type of food, with plenty of meat and vegetables stuffed between slices of bread.
"You seemed too busy to even take a meal, so I brought you some lunch. Please have a light bite while reviewing the documents."
"Hm? What is this? To put meat and greens between bread—what a peculiar shape indeed."
When the Emperor raised his brows and asked, Maximilian picked up one of the breads himself and answered.
"It is a southern recipe taught by Ian Sterling, called a sandwich. It requires no utensils and can be eaten with one hand, so it boasts excellent efficiency—allowing one to eat while working like this."
"Ho, a dish eaten with one hand."
The Emperor took the sandwich with apparent interest and bit into it heavily.
The bread, meat, and juices of fresh vegetables combined to make for quite an excellent taste.
Maximilian had already instructed the attendant beforehand to include the kinds of cheese and sauce the Emperor favored, and as expected, the Emperor polished off one sandwich deliciously.
"Heh heh, that fellow certainly knows all sorts of miscellaneous and clever things. It is indeed the perfect food to eat when one is busy."
"How is the taste?"
"Excellent. One cannot waste time preparing and eating lavish meals every time. You have no idea how helpful such a simple yet complete dish is."
The two held sandwiches in one hand and quill pens in the other, resting for a moment as they discussed the documents.
After the discussion on tax matters had more or less concluded and the atmosphere had softened considerably, Maximilian set down his teacup and broached the subject very naturally.
"By the way, Imperial Father. Regarding our cute youngest daughter."
"Chloe? What about her?"
"It seems our youngest has taken quite a liking to a man."
"……!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the sandwich in the Emperor's mouth fell with a plop.
"…Keuk."
The Emperor tightly shut his eyes and deeply furrowed his brow, as if the inevitable had finally arrived.
The charismatic face befitting a monarch who commanded the continent was nowhere to be seen; instead, there was only the face of an ordinary old father with a shattered heart. Seeing this, Maximilian wore a pitying expression.
After trembling with his teeth gritted tight for a long while, the Emperor spoke in a quiet yet bone-chillingly murderous voice.
"……Ian. Is it that bastard?"
"Yes. They say the two of them are practically attached at the hip these days."
When Maximilian nodded nonchalantly, the Emperor slammed his fist on the desk and poured out a lament.
"No, what in the world is so good about that bastard! He's just a bit smart, a bit handsome, listens to people well, has a moderately considerate personality, and is just moderately kind! Just what is so good about him that our pretty Chloe has lost her mind over him!"
"……"
At the Emperor's boiling denunciation, Maximilian rested his chin on his hand and silently gazed at his father.
"……Is that not precisely why Chloe likes him?"
"……Hm?"
"A man who is smart and handsome, considerate and kind… Finding a groom with such conditions in the imperial palace is harder than finding a needle in a desert."
At Maximilian's calm observation, the Emperor realized that the words he had just uttered were the perfect conditions for a son-in-law. He closed his mouth in dejection.
"Haa……."
The Emperor leaned back heavily against the throne and let out a long, deep sigh.
"Raising a daughter is no use at all. A child I thought would chatter prettily by my side forever has grown up before I knew it, her eyes sparkling at the thought of marrying some other man……."
The Emperor rubbed his face and looked up at the ceiling.
Even the ruthless tyrant of the imperial palace could only show an endlessly bitter expression before his youngest daughter's marriage.
However, after grumbling for a while, the Emperor soon waved his hand dismissively and nodded reluctantly.
"Fine, well…… if it's him."
"I thought you would rage and oppose fiercely, yet you permit it surprisingly easily. I am astonished."
"Where is there a parent who can defeat their child? If Chloe digs in her heels, not even I can handle her. There is no one in this world who can make me watch my step besides Chloe, and yet it had to be her… Ha."
The Emperor clicked his tongue and continued.
"The one thing that bothers me is his status, but even if it's a minor power, he still carries royal blood in his veins, so it is not a complete loss of face for the imperial family. In the first place, wasn't Great Emperor Uzarat, who founded this Empire, an ordinary shepherd who herded sheep? If a person is that capable and outstanding, matters of status are secondary."
"A wise decision, Your Majesty."
"But!"
The Emperor glared and drew a firm line.
"I will give my consent for now, but our Chloe is still too young. I have absolutely no intention of rushing the marriage immediately. Tell them to proceed very slowly, very, very slowly. If I see that bastard holding Chloe's hand within a month, I will execute him on the spot!"
"Yes, I understand. I shall tell Chloe not to rush and to proceed slowly."
Maximilian smiled slightly as he organized the documents and prepared to stand.
Just then, the Emperor blinked and stared intently at the Crown Prince.
"……Come to think of it, this is strange."
"What do you mean?"
"Did you come here to sound me out at Chloe's request? Could it be that I have been neatly played by my cute youngest daughter's clever little plan?"
When the Emperor asked playfully with a short laugh, Maximilian burst into hearty laughter.
"Hahaha! Did you not gladly let yourself be fooled while knowing full well? I was merely Chloe's errand boy."
"You two are playing your father for a fool, huh. Aigoo, raising children is…… Get out of here and get to work! If you don't finish the southern tax issue today, your harem is closed!"
"You mustn't, Imperial Father!"
"What do you mean mustn't, you rascal! Get out!"
Leaving the Emperor's light scolding behind him, Maximilian cheerfully left the office, humming a tune.
And throughout that entire conversation.
In the room adjacent to the Emperor's office, Chief Advisor Count Gray, who had been quietly sorting documents in his own office, heard every single word of their exchange without missing a one.
"……."
Count Gray's hand stopped dead above the paper.
His wrinkled, cold eyes sank heavily.
"…Ian Sterling, no, Ian Harper……"
At first, he had thought him simply a clever hostage from a vassal state.
One who would work moderately in the Empire for a few years under favor, or return to his homeland.
But the current state of affairs was not so simple.
Backed by the favor of the Crown Prince, who wielded immense power, he had come to the point of marriage talks with Second Princess Chloe—the Emperor's youngest daughter and most beloved child.
If the Emperor viewed him so positively, it was only a matter of time before Ian entered the center of imperial power as the Emperor's prince consort.
'A fake prince of unknown origins becoming the Emperor's son-in-law?'
That was absolutely intolerable.
If Ian was truly Ian Harper—a baseless fake, not of Sterling blood—then this was an unprecedented act of treason humiliating the imperial family of the Great Empire.
'Before he marries Her Highness Chloe and enters an inviolable domain, I must uncover the truth. If he is a fake but has entered into a true marriage, it can never be overturned then…!'
Count Gray gripped the document folder he held tightly.
'Now, I must begin a full-scale investigation into the real Ian Sterling.'
In the silently brooding old advisor's bloodshot eyes, a cold and persistent hunter's light flashed.
'If only there were a collaborator somewhere……'