Levanfell ripped the paper into shreds and dropped them into the soup in front of him, then stirred it vigorously with a spoon and lifted a big spoonful.

“Count. These are your vile deeds.”

“Your Majesty.”

“Eat.”

Levanfell commanded Count Adresa with a cold gaze as chilling as a north wind. The astonished Count Adresa was frozen, but Levanfell showed no mercy.

“Seize Count Adresa and open his mouth.”

At Levanfell’s brief command, the knights moved quickly. They captured Count Adresa’s arms and made him kneel in front of Levanfell.

Then they forcibly opened his mouth wide.

“Yo, Your Majesty!”

“Those who don’t listen must have their mouths forcibly opened, or have their tongues pulled out or mouths burned, according to what I’ve read.”

“Aaaaaah! Aaaaaaah!”

“It’s just eating paper, after all.”

Levanfell shoved the big spoonful into Count Adresa’s mouth. The wet paper danced in his mouth before being entirely vomited out.

“Your Majesty.”

Unable to bear the sight, Jareem stepped forward with a graceful smile.

“I will do it. Why should you dirty your hands? Just leave it to me, as usual.”

“…Alright. You do need to relieve your stress, Jareem. Feed him all of it.”

Levanfell handed the soup to Jareem, who accepted it with an overjoyed face and spooned it into Count Adresa’s mouth.

“Ugh, ugh!”

“You should swallow. Otherwise, we’ll have to start over.”

“Ugh, ugh!”

“Just think about how angry His Majesty will be if you spit it out, Count Adresa.”

“Huuuuu…”

“You must not have known since this is your first time receiving the Emperor… When the Emperor comes, you should hide things, not reveal them, Count Adresa.”

Count Adresa’s eyes trembled at Jareem’s gentle threat. After gazing at the indifferent Levanfell, he finally swallowed the paper.

“Terialla. Are you satisfied?”

Levanfell approached me and asked softly, a completely different appearance from before.

“I thought you wouldn’t sleep well if we let this go, Empress.”

“That’s right. If you hadn’t taken care of it, I probably would have. It’s wrong to ignore trash. Besides, you’re the Emperor who rules this empire. You should correct what’s wrong.”

“I told you I can leave this to you whenever you want.”

“I don’t want you to give me the Emperor’s seat right now; I want you to do your part as the Emperor properly.”

“If the Empress wishes.”

Levanfell gently stroked my hair and stood upright, then ordered Jareem, who was still feeding the soup.

“Search Count Adresa’s mansion from now on. Confiscate all the unreported artworks and bring all the documents here.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Count Adresa, eating the soup, rolled his feet with a pale, nauseated face. But no one was listening to him.

“Gather the people working in the mansion separately and check each one if anyone has been treated unfairly.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I will personally hear all the reports.”

(This is a time marker.)

“What has happened…”
Levanfell gritted his teeth and glared fiercely at the Count of Adresa, who was sitting in the chair, clutching the paper.

“Can a day end just by hearing the stories of those who have been wronged by you?”

“I’m, I’m sorry…….”

“Just shut up.”

Levanfell spat out a curse as he rubbed his tired eyes. The Count of Adresa shrunk his shoulders and shut his mouth at Levanfell’s shouting.

A problem that was thought to end lightly became more aggravated. The snowballing reports were connected in a line.

When those who had been wronged by the Count of Adresa gathered, the schedule was delayed more than planned.

“If this happens, it will be delayed.”

“It’s okay. It’ll give Duke Tenor time to think, anyway.”

“Then, it’s fortunate.”

Then indeed. Anything that can be exploited should be exploited.

The Count of Adresa was infamous to the extent that there was no one who hadn’t been wronged by him. Moreover, the number of artworks that were smuggled secretly during the chaotic time after the world tree’s destruction was enormous.

In terms of value, it was impossible to convert into money. Among them were treasures of a ruined dynasty.

“It’s all because of the absence of the finance minister. I should have caught Liranef at that time somehow….!”

Jaerim lamented in an exclamation as he checked the list of artworks one by one. Regret surged even for me, who was about to join him, thinking that I should have caught Raven at that time.

‘Next time… definitely…!’

Levanfell exhaled a thin breath and irritably brushed back his hair. His two eyes sparkled with vitality under the light.

“Just die…….”

“You can’t just kill, Your Majesty. Please break the habit of killing whenever it’s troublesome.”

Jaerim scolded like a child, taking a deep breath and lowering his head.

“Yo, Your Majesty… Your Majesty… Jaerim… Will, will this be a secret among us?”

I put down the documents I was reading aloud and turned my gaze. Then I met eyes with the Count of Adresa, who was wearing a sad expression.

“You, you caused many people to cry and die because of your evil deeds.”

“That, that is.”

“A parent who lost a child beat their chest, drank only alcohol, and died a guest death.”

The Count of Adresa flinched his shoulder and closed his lips.

“Your assault caused an old mother to suffer and die.”

“…….”

“You opposed the marriage, causing a lover to disappear, and she committed suicide in sorrow.”

Levanfell and Jaerim stared at the Count of Adresa with dry eyes. The Count of Adresa didn’t even dare to raise his head and turned his gaze.

“Because of the excessive taxes you collected to fill your belly, there are so many who sat on the roadside and starved to death that there isn’t enough paper to document it.”

I threw the document I was holding in front of the Count of Adresa.

“It’s not the time for you to ask to keep this a secret, but to reflect on and apologize for the evil deeds you’ve committed.”

Well, if he were someone capable of that, he wouldn’t have filled his stomach with other people’s suffering in the first place.

“Count of Adresa. After being summoned to the palace, you’ll have to give up your rank and territory under thorough investigation and cough up all the unpaid taxes. And the taxes you must pay will probably be an amount you can’t pay off even if you work your whole life.”

“Yo, Your Majesty. I, I was wrong.”

“Don’t think of dying, Count. You must live miserably and bear the punishment for your sins until the end.”

The Count of Adresa buried his face in his palms with a vacant expression, having lost everything. Afterward, he confessed to all his wicked deeds and was summoned to the palace.

The taxes that the Count of Adresa had collected excessively were rightfully returned to their owners.

And there was focus on finding the children he had sold. Some children were fortunately found before being sold elsewhere, but some had already been sold.

The children were all sold to a nameless deep mountain village. What was happening there, why so many children were needed, was unknown, but no child sold there had returned.

“Send a letter to deploy 3 knight orders to the place where children were sold according to the palace. Instruct them to protect the children as soon as they find them and send them back to their parents.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

And another strange rumor spread in the Leonharta Empire.