Chapter 93 (2/2)

One notorious anecdote has it that she burnt the national treasure of her kingdom, “The Chronicles of the Sono Kingdom,” simply because her dress got dirty from the book.”

He threw the paper down the floor.

Then he said, picking up the next paper, “Frincia de Lua, the second princess of the Lua kingdom. She is eighteen.”

“Oh, are you mentioning me, too? Your Majesty, please skip it. I want to give up my candidacy completely,” she said with a smile. He nodded silently and picked up another paper.

“Beatrice de Lisa, the fifth princess of the kingdom of Lisa. Sixteen–”

“I want to give up, too. Your Majesty, please don’t mention anything about me!”

“Got it. I won’t mention you here, but I’m going to bring it up someday, so you had better prepare for it,” he said to her as she trembled with fear.

He picked up the last paper and said, “Moira de Eet, the first princess of the kingdom of Eet. She is eighteen. She has nothing worth mentioning except that she expelled some of the noble ladies from social circles because they challenged the royal family’s authority. She has an ambitious personality. While leaving for the empire, she declared that she would be the next empress of the empire. She also revealed her ambition for the crown prince’s bride while constantly making contact with the nobles including Duke Jenna. And…”

Coldly staring at Duke Jena, he roughly handed the duke a pile of documents about her.

After receiving and opening them, he opened her eyes sharply.

“Now you realize why she isn’t qualified, right?”

“How come…”

“Hey, Duke Jena, you’re overlooking the intelligence capabilities of the imperial family? I already started to investigate you when you first mentioned the issue of the crown prince’s bride candidate.”

Nobody knew when he arrived, but the emperor was watching the crown prince and the duke in interest. Next to him were standing Duke Lars, Duke Verita, and my father.

The emperor said, smiling mischievously, “I know you gave a considerable amount of wealth to the kingdom of Eet. I wonder what kind of deal you made with the kingdom…”

“Your Majesty, that was…”

“You know that there are provisions in the imperial law that prohibit the transfer of the empire’s wealth to other countries. If I apply that strict rule to you, which you applied to the tira a little while ago, this is clearly a violation of the imperial law. It’s a felony equivalent to treason. Don’t you agree?”

Looking back at me once, Duke Jena kept silent.

“However, it depends on us humans how to interpret the law. So, I don’t have to be so strict. Just like I gave the tiara to Lady Monique as I love her as my future daughter-in-law, I think you gave some of your wealth to the Eet kingdom to promote good friendship for the interests of the empire. Don’t worry. I don’t think you attempted to secretly support the kingdom of Eet in their attack on the Lua kingdom, our empire’s nascent ally, which allied with the Lisa kingdom. I also don’t believe you promoted Princess Moira of the Eet kingdom as the crown prince’s bride candidate to gather information about the imperial family, and I don’t think you wanted to use Princess Moira to influence our politics after she becomes the next empress. I can’t imagine how you could do that. Right, Duke Jena?”

Duke Jena tried to stay calm as if what the emperor said was not a big deal, but he was holding the hem of his robe tightly, with his face turned white.

“Kaisil, Heidel, Laurel.”

“Your Majesty.”

“I think you know these names better than anybody else, so you can’t do these things. I just want to believe that you were overzealous to promote friendship with the Eet kingdom. Don’t you think so?”

“Yes, yes, you’re right, Your Majesty.”

“I’m glad you confirmed it. I was really worried if my guesswork was wrong.”

The emperor smiled sarcastically at him.