The Emperor Who Was Chapter 13 : Chapter 13

Chapter .13

I did not even give it a glance and took out my own handkerchief to wipe it off.

"Are you certain they are strangers?"

The Duke asked, pointing at the corpses with his sword. I put aside any courtesy for a maternal uncle and answered.

"Did I not say they were people I was seeing for the first ti? If you do not believe my words, do not ask."

The Duke's eyes narrowed, but he asked again nonchalantly.

"Even so, did you follow them?"

"I did not follow them!"

I shouted.

"Then they must have followed Your Imperial Highness. So people, when seducing soone of much higher status, show scenes like this first rather than speaking. Because if they blatantly show lewd scenes, the younger and purer the person is, the easier they are to conquer."

This guy dares.

"Whether it is those who tried to do such a thing to , or the Duke who thinks I would fall for them, both are insulting ."

Cold gray eyes scanned

thoroughly.

"If so, conduct yourself so that it does not beco an insult. You must not be involved in vulgar acts with a face that resembles Her Majesty the Empress."

The tip of the Duke's sword, clean even after killing two people, shone in the moonlight. He looked ready to kill

too if I did not follow his words.

"I decide what is vulgar or not."

Even if I had held a secret tryst with them, what business was it of his now?

"As expected......"

The Duke nodded with a face that was not surprised in the least, which made

feel even more insulted.

"Then, in Your Imperial Highness's view, what non-vulgar things did you do with these non-vulgar people? Or what did you intend to do?"

"First of all, stopping the act of mixing words with you right now would be considered not vulgar."

"Haha."

The Duke laughed low.

"If Her Majesty the Empress knew that her son was saying such things to her one and only cousin, how sad would she be?"

How sincerely he spoke.

"My Mother watches over

even now. She alone knows how much you, her cousin, ignore and insult ."

"...To think such a noble person passed away because of soone like this. Fate is truly cruel beyond asure."

His words were the cruel ones.

"If only for the sake of Her Majesty the Empress, I cannot overlook this any longer. I will send soone in a few days. Please stay at my estate for the ti being."

"...What nonsense are you talking about? Why would I go there?"

No matter what, I was a Prince. Not only kicking

out of the Imperial Palace but taking

to the Ducal estate. The Duke was talking crazy. Before the regression, I was banished by the Empress's faction, but now it looked like I would be chased out even faster by the Duke's conspiracy.

"I heard you have been vomiting blood frequently after taking strange dicine recently. Since your health has deteriorated and you asked , your maternal uncle, to recuperate, how could I not grant Your Imperial Highness's request? If you go there, you will regain your health without being swayed by rumors that sothing is good and taking just any dicine."

"I will absolutely not do it!"

"Then why did these people die? If investigated, it would likely be adultery; would it not be that I discovered them at the scene of a secret tryst where they tried to commit adultery with Your Imperial Highness, and I summarily executed them with my own hands?"

"You killed them! Do not fabricate lies to fra

for adultery!"

"Of course, Your Highness is innocent. The pure Prince firmly resisted vulgar temptation, and I rely happened to help, but since the shock was severe, you simply wish to take a rest."

The Duke, who was making up the story as he pleased, added one last thing.

"However, is there a need to tell such a dirty story? If you just say you miss your late Mother and wish to recuperate, I will help you. So that you are not involved in their deaths."

He intended to drag

to his estate and lock

up as a prisoner.

"Was I the only one wandering around here? You, who were here, are the suspicious one."

"There is no way I would have a secret tryst with such people. I am different from soone who is deceived by drugs or people due to being too naive."

Indeed, even if one said the Duke was the one having a secret tryst, no one would believe it.

-If you want to learn what court romance is, lift your head and look at Duke Grimiati.

Noble ladies praised him with one voice. Because the Duke adhered to bachelorhood, proclaiming his unchanging love for my Mother. Commoners marry between cousins, and among monarchs, uncles and nieces also marry, so yearning for a cousin is not a problem.

However, regardless of whether the woman has a husband or a child, what is beautiful about a love that says one will never give up? That is what is vulgar.

'I cannot trust that guy's devotion to my Mother either.'

He claid he could not betray my Mother and only mocked other won, but it was clear he was actually using it as an excuse not to marry.

But people would believe the Duke over .

A boy Emperor with no one to care for him fell for temptation upon hitting puberty?

'A scandal that courtiers, who cannot live without gossip, will drool over and pounce on.'

It was a situation where it wasn't enough even if I asserted that there had never been a pure Emperor like

in the history of the Armatia Imperial Family.

However, the fra of a Prince who got entangled in an unsavory incident where the dead tell no tales and was saved by the Duke was already set. Trying to refute it would only make the rumors more rampant.

"It is clear you planted these people. And then you deliberately killed them."

"A wise politician does not miss an opportunity given by God."

Grimiati added with a faint smile.

"It is also good for Your Highness if you escape the clutches of irreverent people through this incident and receive my teachings. Please consider it an arrangent by Her Majesty the Empress who looks down upon Your Imperial Highness."

So that was his aim.

I had no teacher at all, but there were often cases where noble teachers abused young princes. To wield them as they pleased even after they grew up.

Young monarchs also suffered at the hands of regents and their favorites.

When such people had heirs late, rumors circulated that lowered the monarch's prestige.

-How frail he is, unable to do what even we lowly ones do!

If clowns sang hymns of the eunuch monarch in the marketplace, even if an heir was born with much difficulty, the husband beca a cuckold, the wife an adulteress, and the child an illegitimate son.

Then the monarch's brothers and cousins would take advantage of that gap to claim succession rights, and there were indeed those who actually had their thrones stolen. At the hands of the very people who incited those rumors.

Anger surged. However, as the anger beca too hot, my head conversely cooled down.

'What if I reverse-utilize the conspiracy targeting ?'

Just as I beca stronger using Lasilex, which could have killed .

I might be able to save Michelon faster. The current plan takes a long ti, but if I drag in enemies, I can use their power.

'But if it is sothing I initiated, they will be suspicious and will not join in.'

Negotiations also tend to beco disadvantageous when there are multiple opponents. However, what if I take the stance that I am rely countering after getting caught in the enemy's plot, and induce other enemies to walk in on their own?

'Success in the court also becos advantageous.'

Apart from hiding the fact that I am a mage, I also need to gradually build power in the court to beco Emperor. However, the rise of a trivial person is bound to invite jealousy, envy, and suspicion.

Even if those who succeed suppress such an atmosphere with power, people's hatred only deepens.

But if I transparently reveal the process of success in detail while captivating people's hearts...

'An abandoned Prince who was falsely accused but proved his innocence on his own.'

It becos a story popular not only in the court but also among the public. To reverse-utilize the enemy's conspiracy to succeed like that, and to use the enemy's power to rescue Michelon faster.......

"Your Imperial Highness, what deep thoughts are you lost in while keeping

standing before you? There is no need to be imrsed in reflection and regret alone. I will teach you well, so you just need to correct things one by one."

Grimiati wagged his snake tongue again.

"Reflection and regret, those are your share."

The truly good thing about this sche is that there is no need to suppress my emotions and endure as I have done until now. Because it is more natural to explode with anger as much as I have.

"As you say, do you think my Mother who looks down on

would follow your will, not mine?"

How effortlessly easy it flows.

I will also stop being swayed and hurt every ti this man uses Mother as a weapon against .

At my counterattack, anger tinged Duke Grimiati's eyes.

"Do you think you know Her Majesty the Empress well? While knowing nothing about her."

"You are the one who does not know Mother. Mother is not soone who would forgive you for committing such acts against her son."

I spoke straight on before the Duke could open his mouth.

"If you are so confident that you know Mother well, make a bet with , her child. You said Mother's will is for

to go to your estate. But I claim the opposite. So, if things do not go according to your will, it ans you were wrong."

"I was wrong, you say?"

"In the end, does it not an she is angry at you for judging her will as you pleased?"

He was a man who worshipped my Mother, calling her a goddess. Then he should receive divine punishnt.

A picturesque smile appeared on the Duke's lips. Hypocrisy flowed over his smooth face.

"If so, what would Your Imperial Highness demand if, by any chance, I lose the bet?"

"If you truly worship my mother like a god, you deserve to commit suicide in front of Mother's grave for the sin of misreading the god's will."

Compared to mages who were burned at the stake for heresy, it was a rciful disposition.

"That is indeed a death befitting ."

The Duke even smiled. It was detestable.

"However, unfortunately, my death is by no ans Her Majesty the Empress's will. Therefore, no matter how great my sin, I must live."

"That is the excuse of one who knows no sha."

I rebuked him, but the unconcerned Duke answered truly shalessly.

"From now on, I will protect Your Highness from the clutches of enemies in a way that Your Imperial Highness will also like."

"My enemy is you, so what are you talking about?"

Then, the man who hated

consistently before the regression and now, spoke.

"It is Your Highness who views

as an enemy."

"It is you who dislikes ."

When I glared at him, he did not deny it and faced

calmly.

"If there is sothing you desire from , speak it directly. Because Her Majesty the Empress would have done so. In the end, is it not Your Imperial Highness's anger rather than Her Majesty the Empress's anger?"

I did not want to mix words with this man any longer.

"A mage."

"Your Highness?"

"If I win the bet, give

a mage you possess. I will choose one myself."

"...Is there soone you desire among my mages?"

I could not ntion my master here and now.

If he knew who I desired, he would say they died and lock them up sowhere far away.

"How could that be? I will see your mages myself, choose, and make them my mage."

I did not know where Master was right now. Because of the taboo preventing them from speaking about matters related to their master. Then I had to make an opportunity to find Master sohow. Even if I failed, continuously.

"And if I win, Your Imperial Highness must go to my estate."

I nodded.

I intended to part ways right then, but Duke Grimiati followed

tenaciously like a leech all the way to my residence.

"Oh my! Duke Grimiati is escorting Prince Leontes!"

"It is a sight I am seeing for the first ti in my life!"

"Blood has splattered on Your Imperial Highness's clothes! Whatever happened!"

The flower of chivalry, showing off a love transcending death and devotion in saving the son of the woman he adored, turned the entire Imperial Palace upside down.

The dead were lower aristocrats; the man had a wife and children, and the woman had a fiancé.

Their families tried to cover up this matter, but people chattered happily.

-To think he had such talent!

-Actually, they say it was him who killed the man. He was caught cheating with his mistress and a fight broke out, so he killed him, but the Duke stepped in for him. He killed the woman too to silence her.

-How does he kill an adult man?

-They say when the man turned to leave after insulting him, he stabbed him in the back.

People who nonchalantly committed adultery mocked

for sothing I did not even do.

-Duke Grimiati is truly amazing. They say he intends to invite the Prince to his estate to help him recuperate because he is having a hard ti. He has already made a request to His Majesty the Emperor.

-Indeed, how difficult must it be if he even needs recuperation. It seems the court romance that everyone else does is a burdenso task for him. It is truly a pity.

Sothing that did not originally happen.

But if it was a change that occurred because I beca stronger, I would gladly accept it.

It was a thod I could not help but admire, even though he was an enemy. Contrary to my suspicion, upon investigation, the Duke really had prepared nothing. He was just monitoring

personally, but a secret tryst, which happens all over the Imperial Palace, just happened to occur at that spot. A coincidence he could have just ignored and passed by.

'Grimiati charged imdiately alone.'

While I and others were bewildered by the unfortunate situation, he moved without delay and seized the initiative. Striking down those two with a sword, and striking

down with a conspiracy.

It was not the ti to just admire. To escape from this clever conspiracy that covered

with stigma in an instant, I had to reveal my innocence fair and square in front of people.

'In a seat authoritative enough that no gossip follows, dramatically casting off the false charge to elicit admiration instead of gossip, gaining fa and success.'