“Call that person over.”

Werner did not avoid Maartje Zijlstra’s gaze. There was no reason for the Prince Consort of a nation to avoid the gaze of a normal priestess. Furthermore, this person was Elise’s right hand person. He wanted to remain a proud and perfect father for his eldest daughter. They say that children do not grow as their parents want them to grow, but parents are also the ones to grow the roots in their children’s hearts.

The Chief Attendant read the ominous intent behind his master’s smile and bowed.

“Your Royal Highness. What about calling the knights to drag her out……”

“She must have a reason for coming in here. I’m certain she must have knocked out a couple guards at the entrance to do so.”

“……”

“We should give her a chance to speak.” He waved his fan as he whispered. His voice was as sweet as chocolate, but everybody knew that the venomous nature of his words became worse the warmer his voice sounded.

The old man bowed deeply and motioned to one of his underlings nearby. Some of the attendants, who were serving different colored curaçao to the nobles, urgently approached Maartje. The priestess walked up to the Prince Consort as if she had been waiting for this.

-♬♩♪……

– Click, clank, clunk.

The sound of the woman’s armor and boots pierced through the sound of the music. Her wrinkled eyes were very clear. Explicit hostility could be felt coming from her small and stocky body.

The Venetiaan nobles, who had been enjoying themselves by dancing and chatting, all peeked toward the top seat. Werner smiled elegantly as if for all of them to see.

“Dame Zijlstra, it’s been a while. Did you end up at the banquet hall while wandering because you were thirsty?”

“Hahahaha!” The nobles nearby laughed out loud. There was some commotion as well with some of them laughing too hard and spilling their drinks.

Maartje just silently glared at the area around the Prince Consort’s neck. Werner did not stop messing with her. The drunken stupor that had gone away was taking over again.

“Maybe you came to look for some water to wash your face. Your bald head looks like a dirty duck egg.”

“Wahahaha!”

“You’re too mean, your Royal Highness!”

The nobles continued to laugh. The word must have spread because even the ones in the distance were now looking in this direction and talking.

Werner thought this was enough and folded his fan. The priestess barely managed to open her lips that were shaking with anger.

“……The citizens are starving, your Royal Highness. February and March are the most difficult times for the country.”

“I’m sorry, but please get in line if you are here to give me some words of advice. Count Palatine Roosegaarde already tells me that kind of stuff so much it is annoying.”

Tap! The Prince Consort put the fan down and picked up an appelflap from a golden plate. The scent of sweet apple and cinnamon tickled his nose.

He loathed the hypocrisy of Maartje and other high-ranking people so much that it gave him chills. It made him feel sick and disgusted, seeing them acting as if they were morally better than him despite having grown up with the same wealth and power. At least Werner was someone whose outside and inside was the same. Not only that, the money that he was using was all taxes that they had collected from the royal family’s territory. It wasn’t her business where the royal family used the money that they had earned properly. No, even if it wasn’t an appropriate use of funds, she should not be running her mouth.

‘This arrogant thing doesn’t know her place.’

“Is that all?”

“Your Royal Consort, you stated that you wish to take back the title of Agent of the Queen from her Royal Highness, the crown princess,” Maartje answered in a boiling voice.

He enjoyed how the veins were visible on her neck and forehead from anger. The Prince Consort bit into a crunchy yet soft pastry. He could feel the magnificent taste as he bit into it and pushed it around with his tongue. The nobles quickly lost interest and started to chat amongst themselves as they could not hear the conversation.

The man ate half of the pastry before his brown eyes opened wide.

“Ah. You are trying to criticize my political influence.” He sounded as if he had completely forgotten about her. He smiled like an angel and whispered. “I suppose you want to ask what I was doing as the Agent of the Queen while the pitiful beggars were dying of hunger?”

“Yes, your Royal Highness.” The whites of her eyes were starting to become bloodshot.

The Prince Consort smiled like a ghost and lowered his voice. His light purple hair ominously sparkled underneath the chandelier.

“I stamped the royal seal on the policy regarding the poor that you all sent up.”

“……”

“You wished to raise taxes to help the poor, so I accepted it. You wished to create dams to protect the fertile lands so I approved of a large-scale construction. I am the one who allowed all of the hypocritical policies you bastards sent up. But you want to blame me for these fools not being able to take care of themselves and dying?!”

Slap! He threw the remaining appelflap to Maartje’s face. The room instantly turned cold. The music stopped, and the nobles who had been chatting loudly stiffened like statues and looked toward the two of them.

Werner was tired of this kind of gaze and fingerpointing. No matter how hard he tried, nobody accepted him for himself and approved of him.

That was why he had killed his mother’s cat. He felt like she would hug and hold him instead if he got rid of that stupid thing.

That was why he had bothered his father’s favorite horse. Then maybe his father would head to the suburbs with him instead of that dumb animal.

But nobody would look at this little boy and pity him when he was young. In fact, they would whisper behind his back and explicitly avoid him.

‘Apparently the young master has the blood of the devil.’

‘Seriously, he was so cruel. I’ve been wanting to move to serve a different residence since long ago.’

‘It is only lady Wilhelmina who is suffering because of it. The master is busy with his external responsibilities.’

……Werner himself was the only one who pitied him. Even his one and only wife and his children who looked like him did not understand him. That was why a shitty priestess like this pointing her finger at him was an insult he could not accept.

He got upset and moved his hand.

“You dare!”

– Clang, clang!

There were loud noises as the plate was flung and a crystal glass was shattered. The attendants who were hurt by the pieces bit down on their tongues and held back their tears.

Maartje barely managed to suppress the chills starting to form on her arm. She clenched her teeth to keep her hands from grabbing a weapon out of anger and loathing. Her whole body was shaking with sorrow. The family of such a person was controlling the Holy Kingdom. Such a terrible human being had been ruling in place of Queen Christanne for quite a long time. This distorted monster that the Almighty God had created to be filled only with malice and ignorance…

“Her Royal Highness…… Has sent a letter.” The priestess barely managed to say those words. The sticky apple and almond pastry dripped down her cheek.

A small rolled up scroll with a white gold dragon head was pulled out of her sleeve. That was the end. Maartje didn’t even fake an apology, nor did she bow toward the Prince Consort.

The man received the letter from an attendant and squinted.

“Where is the royal seal?”

“……”

“I asked her to return the position of Agent to me, so my child should have sent that as well.”

“The royal seal is not here.”

“What?”

The man raised his voice. The middle-aged woman gruffly answered.

“Her Royal Highness has rejected your request, your Royal Highness.”

“My goodness.” Whispers started all around the room.

Werner’s gaze started shaking. The last conversation he had with his sister echoed like a hallucination in his ear.

‘I raised my eldest child myself. She will not betray us.’

‘It is not the same for a child to cast aside her father compared to excluding her father for political reasons.’

There was no way that was the case.

“……How dare you report a lie.”

This could not be. Elise, his perfect creation, would never betray him. Werner did his best to not pay any attention to his throbbing cheek. The nobles looked up at him and continued to chatter. It felt as if they were not at a party but at a display.

“It is not a lie, your Royal Highness. Everything is explained in the letter.”

– Rustle rustle!

The Prince Consort rushed to open up the scroll, ut his sharp gaze was still focused on Maartje.

‘How dare this woman utter such nonsense here.’

Even if she was the crown princess’s subordinate, there was a limit to how much he would allow. He could easily have her head-

‘As such, I will maintain the position of the Agent of the Queen as the rightful heir to the throne. I will use this as the foundation to make some meaningful diplomatic relationships in the neutral region. Father, please take care of mother and the second princess, and please provide aid to the slums that should be barely surviving on beanstalk and tree root porridge……’

– Crunch!

‘Gasp.’ He felt like he could not breathe. Werner quickly pushed the scroll away. He clenched his fists underneath the robe to hide that his hands were shaking. But someone he saw once did not erase from his mind so easily. The reality that he had been satisfied with was suddenly turning into a dark purple nightmare. He felt as if he could smell some disgusting mold. The stench of a dirty bastard.

“……This is the result of someone pitting us against each other,” e proclaimed. His voice was slightly shaking.

“The crown princess trusted me so much until now as her father. I’m sure everybody here is aware of that fact.”

“……”

While his valiant daughter commanded over both battles large and small at the border, he had stayed at the Royal Palace to rule over the nation. He even personally attended many social circles to find her an appropriate husband. He had never slacked off while acting as the Agent for the Queen.

But his daughter was trying to turn her back on him like this? She made up her mind without discussing this with him, without even seeing her father’s face?

“There must be someone by her side covering her eyes and closing her ears. I’m certain she must have heard some slander about me. Go back and tell her this.”

“I guess words became more complicated while we were away from the Royal Capital. Or maybe the meaning of slander has changed?”

Maartje cut him off.

‘This disrespectful……!’

The crowd instantly gasped.

The Prince Consort opened his eyes at this unbelievable disrespect. The priestess wiped the food off her cheek with her sleeve.

“It was not slander, your Royal Highness. Her Royal Highness had appropriate suspicions about you and came to a proper conclusion after discussing with her close confidants. This is her will.”

“What kind of suspicion could it be that she would decide on something like this without a single discussion?” His muscles tightened as he said those words. The pain from his cheek subconsciously disappeared.

The attendant who had been silently listening to them stopped him. “Your Royal Highness. Maybe we should move this conversation somewhere else-”

Swish! The Prince Consort raised his hand. He was telling the attendant to shut up. The old man groaned and took a step back.

Maartje stood up straight and answered despite the room feeling like a frozen tundra. “I’m sure you are already aware of it, your Royal Highness.”

“No, I can’t even imagine it. What could the crown princess have suspicions over for a father who spent his whole life looking at his two daughters?!”

“You stole the letter from the Empress of Riester!”

Werner’s eyes opened wide.

“Oh Almighty God!”

“Did you just hear that?”

The shock instantly spread like wildfire throughout the banquet hall. The event was no longer a party for noble guests nor a display of a famous art piece.

“What……?”

It was just a crude show on the streets. Werner’s lips started shaking.

“Empress Frédérique Riester is known for advocating for peace. She is not the type to ignore a letter sent from the crown princess, especially as the Agent of the Queen. She would not just sit back and watch as the fights on the border intensifies. But there has been no response until the start of the Grand Celebration!”

Werner jumped up from his seat. His wide eyes swirled like tornadoes. “What does that have to do with me? I haven’t done anything!”

“Please stop, your Royal Highness!”

Maartje shouted with pain. But Werner did not step back either. He had nowhere to retreat. He had always been all by himself at the edge of a cliff. His face became heated. A boiling sense of feeling wronged and anger started shooting up from the core of his body.

He had never swiped anything. He was completely innocent!

“You dare to slander me, the partner of the Queen?!”

“Your Royal Highness! Please calm down at least for this old one’s sake!” The attendant hung desperately to Werner’s ankle.

Maartje continued to speak as if she was someone who was ready to die.

“Your Royal Highness, you should be looking at what you are doing to our Holy Kingdom. This is basically a catastrophe as a result of failed diplomacy! If this leads to a war, how will you take responsibility for the innocent lives that will be lost?!”

“Look at this crazy woman……!”

“Do you plan on causing a massacre in the kingdom because of your personal feelings toward the Prince?!”

“Guards! Call the Royal Guards, now!” The Chief Attendant shouted, almost in a screech. Some attendants gasped before opening the doors and running out. The experienced ones started to escort all of the guests out.

Werner was grabbing whatever he could and throwing them at Maartje. Clang! Crash! Colorful glasses of wine and hot food smashed against the woman’s armor and broke.

He still could not wash away the embarrassment. The fact that this woman was trying to frame him for something like this despite having lived his whole life looking at someone’s back made him feel wronged, angry, and as if his heart would burst.

“Are you acting like this relying on your position with the crown princess? Then I will kill you before that child comes back!”

“Dame Zijlstra, please excuse us!”

Rumble! The Royal Guards rushed in like the tide and quickly bound Maartje. She let them drag her away without resisting.

Werner grabbed a knife with bloodshot eyes. Swoosh! As he aimed for the priestess…

“Your Royal Highness, you’re going to end up unconscious!” The attendant grabbed his arm with teary eyes. Clang! The silver knife screeched.

The Prince Consort’s long arms and legs collapsed.

“Cough cough! Cough cough!”

“Your Royal Highness, your Royal Highness……! What are you doing?! Quickly call the Royal Doctor and a healing priest! Hurry!”

“Yes, Chief Attendant!”

The few remaining staff ran out of the room. His face was completely pale. Werner slowly raised his head while breathing heavily. His long hair, all brushed to one side, was shaking like a flame in the wind.

He could see the empty banquet hall. The room was dirty with food splattered all around and items that the guests had left behind. That was all.

He was all by himself again.

“……Bring me Cornelisse,” e mumbled.

The attendant questioned his ears. “Excuse me?”

“I must go with that child.”

“Your Royal Highness, where are you planning on going so late at night……”

It was past midnight. However, Werner Venetiaan did not care. He could not let his older child escape his grasp. He needed to clear up this misunderstanding right away. He would do it even if it required him to step on the burning sand with his bare feet.

“I will head out to the desert where my daughter is currently wandering.”

Elise was his everything.

—
Translator’s Comments
No, your everything is your power and status, not your daughter. Don’t you dare lie.

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