"Are you saying that Rohanson woman killed my son?"
The emperor's wrath was fierce. Even though he was a son who had fallen out of favor, he was the emperor's only remaining son, and the crown prince of the empire. The crime of assassinating the crown prince could not be lightly punished.
People who attended the banquet thought Evangeline would be executed the very next day, but unexpectedly, even after several nights passed, Evangeline Rohanson remained a suspect.
The Rohanson mansion was locked shut. According to rumors, the count, fearing execution under the guilt-by-association system, had abandoned his daughter and prepared to flee.
For executing punishment on Evangeline Rohanson, who had been abandoned even by her family, the biggest obstacle was Gabriel, the commander of the Pharos Knights who had gone blind with love.
When ordered to immediately execute Evangeline Rohanson, Gabriel secured a reprieve by pledging his own life as collateral. If he could not find the true culprit to take Evangeline's place, then on the day of Evangeline's execution, Gabriel too would meet his end.
And before even a day had passed, Bishop Marik also requested an audience with the emperor.
"The commander of the Pharos Knights, and now even a bishop. My son was so quiet in life, yet in death he only brings turmoil. Bishop Marik. Why have you come to see me?"
The emperor's face, who was in the middle of preparing the funeral, was extremely weary. With the crown prince, all of the emperor's children had died. No matter how many times he prepared state funerals for his children, he never grew accustomed to it. The crown prince's state funeral was temporarily postponed, which was to bury the criminal who killed the crown prince together in the grave to appease the grievances of the dead son.
"It's been a long time since we met, yet you don't even ask after my well-being and go straight to the main topic. I'm hurt, Your Majesty."
"Bishop Marik. Were we ever close enough to exchange pleasantries?"
Even as the emperor asked with suppressed anger, Bishop Marik showed no sign of fear. Rather, she chattered away glibly.
"Did Your Majesty and I not weather adversity together?"
The 'adversity' Bishop Marik spoke of was something from more than 20 years ago. It was an event known to the world as the Heretic Massacre. Once, Bishop Marik was the emperor's greatest ally. When the emperor had just killed his brothers and ascended to the throne, he received Bishop Marik's help to establish legitimacy and secure imperial authority.
The Finance Minister who had directly called the emperor a heinous and merciless tyrant for killing his own kin was revealed to have been secretly funneling national treasury funds to warlocks, and his family was exterminated. Several other nobles who stood at odds with the emperor, like the Finance Minister, were also revealed to be evil heretic groups and could not escape purging.
It was clear that Bishop Marik had provided significant help in consolidating the emperor's current position.
"Yes, there certainly were such times in the past. However, from the moment you were abandoned by God and tried to spirit away my son to use as leverage, our relationship soured."
If it became known that the child of the emperor who solidified imperial power through the Heretic Massacre was cursed such that holy water had no effect on him, how great would the blow be? Bishop Marik had wanted to hold leverage over the emperor.
The emperor belatedly realized that Bishop Marik hadn't killed the youngest prince but had spirited him away, and sent pursuers, but the child's whereabouts could not be found.
However, those who did not receive the blessing of holy water generally did not live past ten years of age, so the youngest prince too would have surely died by now. The emperor comforted himself with that thought.
"I don't have much time to spare for you, so say what you have to say quickly. What have you come to tell me?"
At the emperor's urging, Bishop Marik did not delay further and got to the main point.
"There is 'another' person suspected as the true culprit who assassinated His Highness the Crown Prince."
"You mean it wasn't Evangeline Rohanson?"
"Of course, Lady Rohanson is also very suspicious."
A Holy Knight promised to share the same fate, and now even Bishop Marik had stepped forward. At this point, the thought occurred that there really might be another true culprit.
"Your Majesty must have also heard the report that a sorcery circle was drawn on the banquet hall floor. As you know, that is a sorcery circle for summoning demons. And when I entered the banquet hall, there were exactly two people whose presence I found repulsive."
One of them was certainly Evangeline Rohanson. And the other person would be the one Bishop Marik thought was the culprit. The emperor couldn't bear Marik's hesitation and pressed for an answer.
"So who do you suspect?"
"It is Lord Tenebre."
Bishop Marik suspected the emperor's grandchild Tenebre. Upon hearing that answer, the emperor tightly gripped the armrest of his throne. So filled with rage that he looked down at Bishop Marik with bloodshot eyes.
"Your Majesty. Why does an evil aura emanate from Lord Tenebre?"
The voice thrown out beyond the mourning veil was thick with laughter. If one were to remove the cloth covering the face, one would surely see a face twisted with burns smiling broadly.
"Bishop Marik. If you were not a bishop of the Temple, if you had not devoted yourself to the empire all this time... If this old man had lost even a bit of his composure, I would have ordered your head cut off and displayed at the city gate."
"I thank Your Majesty for your generous benevolence."
Spewing out such appalling words and then acting brazenly was an ugly sight.
"I had forgotten that you're desperate to find leverage against me. Not satisfied with my son, now you intend to frame my granddaughter as a heretic too?"
"I am merely speaking the truth, Your Majesty."
The emperor glared at Bishop Marik with authority.
"Is that all you had to say? The knights of the imperial family will find the culprit, so don't interfere and leave."
The emperor no longer wanted to be played by Bishop Marik's tongue. Bishop Marik rose calmly from her seat at the dismissal. As she turned to leave, she suddenly looked back at the emperor as if remembering something.
"Come to think of it, I met Sir Gabriel for the first time in a while on the day His Highness passed away."
"What a remarkable coincidence. I also met Sir Gabriel."
He had just seen him when Gabriel requested an audience to ask for a stay of Evangeline's execution.
"A thought that suddenly occurred to me then... Sir Gabriel looked quite similar to His Highness the Crown Prince."
At the mention of resemblance, the emperor scrutinized the faint image of Gabriel's appearance. Black hair and blue eyes—if one considered the colors, he was somewhat similar to the crown prince, but were there only one or two people in the empire with the same hair and eye color?
"If the youngest prince had grown up, he would have become a fine person like Sir Gabriel."
"Bishop Marik, what do you mean by that?"
"Since Your Majesty has ordered me to leave, I will take my leave now."
Ignoring the emperor's question, Bishop Marik exited the audience chamber. The emperor remained alone in the room, blankly staring at the closed door.
"That can't be..."
Bishop Marik was saying that the youngest prince was Gabriel. That Gabriel is my son?
That's impossible. The ritual to become a Holy Knight included a process of being consecrated with holy water. The emperor was also present at the ceremony where Gabriel was selected as the Knight Commander. At that time, Gabriel showed everyone present the scene of bleeding from a holy sword and receiving treatment.
Could that have been a deception to fool the emperor's eyes?
Indeed, if Bishop Marik wanted to hide from the emperor's eyes to raise the youngest prince, there was no better place than the Temple.
"Gabriel being my son..."
He tried to recall how his just-born youngest child, who hadn't even been named, looked like, but the memory was hazy. However, looking closely at the grown Gabriel, there were some features similar to the crown prince. If Gabriel really was a prince... The emperor, who had been lost in thought for a long time, raised his sharply honed gaze.
The emperor immediately called his trusted knights. He had to confirm whether Gabriel was truly a prince. Bishop Marik could have simply found someone holy water didn't work on and insisted it was the youngest prince. Fortunately, there was a way to distinguish princes. If he were a prince, the unfinished dragon's mark would remain on his body as a scar.
"Go and check if there are any scars on Sir Gabriel's body."
"Scars?"
"Yes. Sir Gabriel is the Knight Commander, so he must have various scars on his body. But what I'm curious about is not scars acquired while living as 'Gabriel' but something distinctively different. Do you understand what I mean?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The knight loyally submitted to the emperor's sudden command.
And the emperor received the answer he didn't want.
"Your Majesty. They say there is a round scar on Sir Gabriel's chest."
They couldn't strip Gabriel's clothes to check, but asking around was sufficient.
"It seems the rumor has spread among the maids."
The Temple originally valued asceticism and was reluctant to reveal bare skin, so Gabriel usually didn't expose his body much. However, on the day the crown prince died, Gabriel had wine spilled on him and changed clothes, and the maid who attended to him then supposedly saw the scar remaining on Gabriel. She found it amazing and told a few colleagues about it.
"Have you confirmed with the maid who claimed to have seen it directly?"
"Yes. She couldn't speak, so I received a drawing from her."
The knight unfolded the paper to show the emperor. The emperor pressed his brow, trying to calm his throbbing head. What was drawn on the paper was crude, but it was definitely the dragon pattern engraved only on the bodies of the imperial family. Someone who hadn't seen it directly couldn't have drawn it so identically.
This confirmed that Gabriel was the emperor's son who had been abandoned long ago.
"Why now of all times... Moreover, now that Laudes has been killed..."
The reason Bishop Marik revealed Gabriel's identity now was obvious. If it were revealed that Gabriel was the abandoned youngest prince, he would become first in line for succession, surpassing Oratorio.
Bishop Marik would likely try to exercise regency through Gabriel. But that was not what the emperor wanted.
If it became known that a child abandoned by God was born to the imperial family that should be flawless, he couldn't even imagine how much the imperial family's authority would fall. The one who should succeed the emperor and sit on the imperial throne was his grandchild Oratorio who resembled him.
"So who do you suspect?"
"It is Lord Tenebre."
Whether it was fortunate or not, what Bishop Marik wanted was not Oratorio but Tenebre.
If the emperor protected Tenebre, it was certain that Bishop Marik would reveal Gabriel's existence. One was a child the emperor had tried to kill, the other was a life the emperor had saved despite being called ominous. The emperor weighed the two on a scale.
Would he reveal to the whole world that Gabriel, who was not consecrated with holy water, was a prince along with the scandals surrounding him? Or would he brand his granddaughter as an unfilial child who killed her own father, the crown prince? Both were acts that would eat away at the emperor's flesh, so it was very difficult to choose one.
Hoping Bishop Marik would reconsider, the emperor wrote a letter and called a knight to deliver it to Bishop Marik.
The count family's treasures are locked in the underground vault. Do you intend to add this old man's necklace to it?
Bishop Marik's reply arrived quickly.
Lord Rahel would not want two jewels.
The emperor let out a deep sigh and rested his head in his hands.
As the emperor had originally feared, Bishop Marik was using Gabriel as leverage to threaten him. He had tried to kill the prince the moment he was born, fearing he would be manipulated like this... The emperor's choice was obvious. He felt sorry for his granddaughter, but he had to first accommodate Bishop Marik's demands.
The emperor leaned back against the magnificent throne's backrest. Was his head heavy because of the weight of the crown he wore?