Vice Captain Élisabeth was a pro among pros. The Vice Captain of the Imperial Guard was sent flying quite far from the aftershock of the sword master’s attack, but she did a beautiful movement and chhhhhh! She slid for a bit, grabbed the ground, and raised her head. Her short hair became messy and her uniform became a bit wrinkled, but that kind of skill was something someone like me couldn’t even imagine ever doing. She watched the whole situation, quickly raised her body, and motioned toward her subordinates with her hands. The Imperial Guard members nodded their heads and started to move in perfect order. She reminded me of a baseball coach.

That…… A cool baseball coach who was great at his job. Anyway…

“How weak. Can you really call yourselves the upper class of the Empire like this? Make sure to keep up your strength.”

“Ye-yes, your Majesty.”

“Oo. I want my mommy……”

Empress Frédérique clicked her tongue while looking at the fallen and groaning figures. That proclamation did not take into any consideration the fact that she was a Grade 9 swordswoman, a sword master. Even if most of the swordsmen and mages were nobles, they were not that common.

‘Clang, click!’ Durandal smoothly returned to its scabbard as if it was a strand of water.

I plopped down on the edge of my seat and pulled out a flame holy stone orb from my gabag. The red and warm thing that felt like a hand warmer calmed me down a bit.

– Boom!

– Click, click, click.

The door to the audience room opened and the attendants who had received Laura’s orders came in to help the priests and nobles on the ground. They fed them warm water to calm them down as well. The ones who were unconscious were carried to resting rooms. The Chief of Staff looked so amazing being able to skillfully handle this kind of situation that probably did not happen very often.

“Prince Jesse! You’re not hurt, right?”

“Are you okay, your highness?”

Ganael and Benjamin also rushed in after receiving permission to do so. The two of them placed a blanket over my shoulders and put some sweet and colorful dragées in my hand. I was actually more worried about them because I heard the sound of glass breaking outside.

“Thank you very much. I’m fine but what about the two of you?”

“We weren’t hurt at all, your highness. The knights put themselves above us to protect us!”

“That’s a relief…… The Empress Palace shouldn’t crumble, right?”

“Hahaha.” I could hear Sir Johann quietly chuckling behind me.

‘Sir, this is no laughing matter. We need to evacuate right away if this building is not up to code for earthquakes. It was that big of a shock!’

“Do you think that a building that cannot handle the temper of the imperial family would be used as the Empress Palace?” The Imperial Crown Prince, who was looking extremely dignified as he sat, sneered as he commented. He seemed quite happy despite his house being a total mess.

David, who came in to make sure he was okay, let out a quiet sigh. “Don’t worry, my little prince. The inside of the Imperial Palace is full of highest-grade anti-magic stones.”

My teacher, who was being assisted by Natalie, warmly added on. “Those things have the power to resist earthquakes. Furthermore, this place is even stronger because there is a sturdy portal in the basement.”

“That’s a relief, your Eminence.”

The corners of her lips gently curled up.

“Frédérique is also good at restraining herself so she didn’t use that much of her powers.”

‘Good at restraining herself……? This is her not using much of her power?’

The Empress snorted before returning to her seat.

I knew from reading books that a single swordmaster was as strong as an entire brigade. But experiencing that myself made her seem even scarier and more amazing. Even the crown prince punk looked godly when he used a sword but her speed and impact was incomparable. I was certain that this was one of the reasons that the already popular imperial family’s authority reached the heavens.

The chaos was starting to settle.

– Creeeeeak……

The door opened and the witnesses the Empress called for entered one after the other. The kneeling Duke Sarnez slowly raised his head. His sunken eyes started to shake.

“Isa, Isabelle. Christelle. Isabelle……”

He mumbled like a lunatic while looking at the mother-daughter duo in the front of the group. Isabelle glimpsed at the Duke and freaked out as she took a half step back. Christelle tightly held her hand. My teacher was looking at the two women with a pitying gaze.

“Isabelle! Christelle!”

“Now do you feel like confessing?” The Empress calmly asked. The Duke’s shaking gaze finally turned toward the throne. I could see his eyes tearing up even from a distance.

“Y, your Majesty. I. They-”

“Simon. Christelle and Isabelle’s innocence has already been proven. So what you should focus on……” Cardinal Boutier calmly added on. “Is confessing to your sins here so that you can lessen the burden on the two of their hearts even by a bit. Doing whatever you can so that you are not a hindrance in their lives from here on.”

“……Sob.” He clenched his teeth and lowered his head.

The blood-colored carpet that had been ripped up slowly became drenched.

*

The Duke’s voice was extremely hoarse and sounded teary. He resembled someone who had been in prison for forty years or something.

“It was that day. The day his Royal Highness and Christelle were appointed as Holy Knights…… I received a message from a spy working in the Empress Palace.”

“Holy Almighty God.”

“Did I hear something wrong just now?”

The nobles in the audience got rattled after hearing about a spy. Some of them already seemed to know the situation, but there were more people who looked astonished. I could see some religious figures looking up at the sky and praying as well.

On the other hand, the Empress’s iron-like appearance showed no changes at all.

“Is that person’s name Jeanette?”

“Yes. The Chief of Staff’s office…… I personally met her there.”

Vice Captain Élisabeth opened up a parchment and asked, with Duke Sarnez answering. The two adults and the young Countess had finished most of the investigation and interrogations while we were out of the Imperial Palace. Laura, who was standing by her liege, was taking deep breaths with her eyes closed. She was probably quite shocked and felt guilty. I heard that the Chief of Staff was someone who was quite thorough about the people around her. What we believed to be the Duke cheating on his wife was actually the two of them secretly contacting each other.

Either issue was a terrible thing for Isabelle and Christelle.

“Why did the spy, Jeanette, give you a message of all people, Duke Sarnez?” There were no emotions visible at all on the Vice Captain of the Imperial Guard’s face. She was asking this question while already knowing the answer.

The Duke curled over like an old tree and his voice became as quiet as a groan. “I, my family…… It is because we have been acting as spies for the Holy Kingdom since the time of my great grandmother.”

“Ahh!”

“Oh Almighty God!”

Nobody missed what he said. The intense shock spread out with two more nobles going unconscious.

I watched the people being carried out while fidgeting with the holy stone orb in my hand. Despite having heard most of it the past nine days and having expected a situation like this since a long time ago, my throat felt so dry. This was what Modeste Bacary had prophesized. A tragic development that was not in the original.

‘The scheme.’

“What did your great grandmother do for the Venetiaan Holy Kingdom?”

“……”

The Duke’s lips were pale as he raised his head. His gaze headed toward the witnesses.

I looked at Joan, who had her teeth clenched. Her lemon-colored eyes were shaking so much I thought they might break. I suddenly recalled what she had said in the Sérénité prison.

‘I told you last time. I said that we were framed as spies.’

Her extremely desperate face despite knowing that I could not do anything for her.

‘My great-grandfather was the type who couldn’t even tell the smallest of lies and would rather break than bend. He did not admit to his sins even in his last moments before the late Emperor executed him.’

“She leaked information about the late Emperor Romero to the Holy Kingdom. In addition…… He placed the blame on the innocent Baron’s House of Haas.”

“Oh, my goodness!”

“Eeeek!”

This confession made everybody gasp. Joanne clenched her eyes shut and Christelle patted her shoulder.

The Duke was now full of tears and he was completely red from shame. The majority of the Empire’s Pair de Riester treated their honor and face as important as their lives. The man let out a heavy breath and a portion of the nobles pulled of their gloves and threw it at his head. Some of them even cursed him. All of them looked betrayed and angry.

As for me, I honestly felt less anger toward him than the sadness I felt toward Joanne. Who would make it up to her for the time they had lost for three generations, the terrible finger pointing and blame the House of Haas had faced this whole time? Who could make up for the lost time of Vanessa de Haas? She formed a merchant guild with nothing in order to save her ruined family, working hard selling things throughout the entire Empire. The daughter of the Baron, who was forced to do all of that because of someone else framing her family, who had left this world a long time ago.

“What kind of things did your family do before and after that?”

“I do not know. I only learned about that incident around the time my great grandmother passed away…… I was too young at the time. I grew up knowing that I had the blood of a spy flowing through me, but I had never received any orders from the Holy Kingdom until this incident.”

Vice Captain Élisabeth turned toward the Empress. She motioned with her chin for Élisabeth to continue.

“Let’s talk about the message you received from the Holy Kingdom. Who sent it, what did it say, and where did you store it?”

“……It was from Prince Consort Werner Venetiaan.”

“Hooo.”

‘My goodness.’ The nobles let out deep sighs and clicked their tongues while looking at me. Everybody was pitying me even without needing the detailed explanation.

Those gazes felt quite uncomfortable. I munched on a hazelnut dragée and pretended not to see them. Even the real Prince Jesse might have been sick and tired of the sympathetic gazes by this point.

– Craaaackle!

A fire shot up in the furnace next to the carpet. ‘Eek!’ The nobles gasped and lowered their gazes.

I looked up at crown prince Cédric in shock. The side of his face, which looked as if it had been painted by a brush, showed no movements at all. I couldn’t help but smile. I put half a handful of dragée in a handkerchief and shared it with him out of gratitude. The punk scowled.

“Please eat a lot, your Royal Highness.”

‘Look at you, you little punk. You know how to think about your friends now. I guess you are ready to graduate kindergarten now.’

“It told me to kill Prince Jesse. The order was very specific about not using an assassin but making it so that his honor was sullied…… If I did not follow the order……” The Duke’s voice became quiet again. Veins were visible on his forehead and his whole body was shaking. He seemed to be having trouble breathing as his throat looked tense.

“It said that he would report our family’s shame to her Majesty! I! I could not handle such dishonor! Your Majesty!” The man’s face was flushed as he shouted. His miserable tears and spit splattered out. “I ask for your understanding, your Majesty! I did not want to add to our already grave sins. The House of Sarnez has already lost one of the Empire’s divine items! The Blessing of the Blue Sea!”

“Then you could have talked to us about it!” Isabelle suddenly shouted.

The proclamation about the disappearance of the Blessing of the Blue Sea was a huge revelation. Very few people knew about Christelle absorbing the divine item. Archbishops clenched their chests and gasped while some of the aged individuals looked toward the Empress, as if they were asking her if this was true.

No, they tried to do that. However, Isabelle did not stop.

“You could have told us the truth and discussed it with us! When I confessed to his highness that Chris absorbed the divine item, and when I confessed to her Majesty about it, did anything happen? Did you lose your title or have your territory taken away? We were not punished at all. It was because we revealed the truth and confessed to our sins!”

“……”

Despite crying so much that I was worried about her suffering from dehydration and her feeble body looking like it might fall over at any moment, she did not stop talking. Christelle and the Duhem siblings tightly supported her shoulders. The Empress silently watched the woman shout.

“Her Majesty was merciful. She understood that we did not do it intentionally. So do not ask our esteemed Majesty about her understanding anymore. The one who was not merciful to you was you yourself, Simon!”

The Duke’s eyes opened so wide they looked as if they might pop out. Marquis François, who was standing behind Isabelle, covered the back of her hand and handed her a handkerchief. Her face looked as if it would crumble, but her heart was completely firm and would never break, as she continued to speak.

“You were too arrogant. You believed that you could handle the whole situation on your own, as if you were a god. There were so many hands around you that could have helped…… We were there, but…… You even saw us as figures to control!”

“It was because I love you, Isabelle!”

“That’s not love, that’s possession! We were just items to you!” She sobbed as she shouted.

The Duke’s shaggy jaw dropped. He looked as if someone had smacked the back of his head with a hammer.

Isabelle’s body finally gave out and Captain Hervé immediately offered her his support. I jumped up from my seat and ran toward the witness area. Crash! I heard the chair fall but I didn’t pay it any attention. The mumblings spread out like a boiling pot.

“Isabelle, Isabelle. Can you tell who I am?”

“Your highness……”

She was thankfully still conscious. Her black eyes looked at me and faintly curled up. I held the silently crying Christelle’s hand before rubbing Joanne’s arm as she sobbed into her sleeve. I then checked on Isabelle once more and opened a vitality healing circle.

– Paaaaa……!

“You’ve been through a lot. Is there anything else you’d like to say? I’ll give you some strength to keep going.” I whispered that last part to her and she gently smiled at me. Small blue ether pebbles the size of spring buds wrapped around everyone.

– Shaaaaaaa.

“Rambouillet.”

Isabelle whispered from within the blue glow. She struggled to extend her arm but did so to gently caress her daughter. Christelle leaned her cheek into her mother’s hand.

“I was Isabelle Rambouillet before I got married.”

“I see. Lady Rambouillet,” I answered with a smile.

Only then did Isabelle smile brightly.

—
Translator’s Comments

Excuuuuuuuse me, Lady Rambouillet, you be flirting with our boi?!

Prepare for trouble! And make it double!

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