“Oh, Your Highness!”

“Your Highness, what are you doing?”

Eve was so startled that her eyes widened as she tried to stop the princess. Margaret also looked flustered and tried to help her up. However, the princess resolutely kept her head bowed before Eve. Seeing this, Kasha exchanged a heavy look with Leon.

Kasha and Leon had managed to sneak into the palace by hiding in a merchant’s cart delivering food supplies.

Though it was not easy to move around with soldiers stationed throughout the palace, thanks to their magical tools, they were able to find the empress dowager’s palace without getting lost.

With Kasha on his back, Leon climbed the outer wall of the palace and finally slipped onto the balcony of the empress dowager’s room. From outside the window, they could see and hear everything happening inside.

‘As a mother, perhaps it would be better for her to die rather than…’

‘A mother suffering and unable to die because of her foolish and greedy children… Will you pray for my mother?’

The princess’s tone and expression were full of guilt. And the empress dowager’s condition was no different from a corpse, though she was not dead.

Even if she was in a coma, the empress dowager was not receiving even minimal treatment, and those around her, including the princess, seemed very accustomed to this situation.

This meant that the empress dowager had been in this state for a very long time. And using her stability as an excuse, this situation had been thoroughly kept secret from the outside world until now.

Perhaps it was because the method used to sustain the empress dowager’s life was very secretive.

Considering all the facts, there was only one conclusion.

‘The third demon stone, Cayluum. The demon stone with the power of immortality… is being used by Empress Anne.’

In a state just short of being a corpse, barely clinging to life, the empress was living an empty immortality.

“Eve. Forgive me… No, don’t forgive me. Never.”

“Your Highness…?”

A little later, when the princess raised her head, her eyes were already wet. Transparent tears rolled down her gaunt cheeks. The princess spoke slowly.

“Actually, all this misfortune began… because of me.”

“Your Highness. What do you mean by that…?”

Margaret, who had been silently looking down at Kasha, Leon, and the others in dismay, asked. The princess continued with difficulty.

“I was too… young and foolish then. I just couldn’t bear to watch my poor mother pass away.”

The princess remained kneeling before Eve as she continued her story.

She learned about the three demon stones at a time when Empress Anne fell into a coma due to poisoning and everything was rapidly going downhill.

The collapsed empress dowager was moved to a separate palace and practically abandoned, and even Crown Prince Nigel, her only reliable support, was sent away to study in the Kingdom of Kazim as if driven out.

Left alone, Melissa locked herself away in the imperial library. There was nothing the powerless young girl could do, and she wanted to escape from all the malicious circumstances.

She would spend her days futilely flipping through pharmacology books that seemed related to her mother’s illness.

Then one day, she went deep into the restricted section of the imperial library and got lost.

It was a tremendous coincidence that she discovered those dusty documents after wandering around the same place for a long time. In hindsight, it was more of a terrible fate.

The documents that the emperor had plundered from the library of the Kingdom of Gilenua, which he had conquered early in his reign, and shoved deep into the imperial library.

Amazing stories were written in them. The princess read those documents as if possessed, forgetting even her hunger.

“That’s how I learned about those demon stones. I was particularly interested in the third one. The demon stone that enables ‘immortality’.”

The princess looked at the empress dowager lying in a shabby state with a lonely gaze.

“I thought that if I could find that demon stone, I might be able to save my mother. But I had no power at the time. So after much thought, I sent those documents to my elder brother in the Kingdom of Kazim.”

She was just grasping at straws. The helpless young girl, withering away day by day, had no idea at the time.

That those documents would fiercely ignite Nigel’s vengeance and ambition. That he would find the heir to the Gilesus dynasty who could break the seal on the demon stone so quickly.

“…No, actually I was ignorant. Or I was so scared of my uncertain future that I pretended not to know even though I knew everything. In fact, I knew very well what kind of person my elder brother Nigel was. That he was someone who could sacrifice anyone for his goals.”

Princess Melissa’s voice gradually faded as if it were going out.

Meanwhile, Empress Anne’s life faded away day by day like a melting candle. And finally, the last moment came.

‘…I think you should say your final goodbyes to Her Majesty the Empress Dowager, Princess.’

‘Oh no. Mother, Mother!’

‘Sob, sob, Your Majesty the Empress Dowager…’

In the empress dowager’s bedroom devoid of any warmth, only Melissa and a dozen or so servants had gathered to attend her passing.

‘Wait a minute! She can’t have passed away already, right?’

At that moment, Nigel suddenly burst in with an anxious face. Despite returning to the empire for the first time in 3 years since going to study in the Kingdom of Kazim, he did not even glance at the people welcoming him.

‘Elder brother?’

Nigel looked too excited to be attending his mother’s passing. He examined the empress dowager’s condition with gleaming eyes, then burst into a satisfied giggle.

‘Perfect, it’s perfect…’

‘E-elder brother? What are you trying to do?’

‘What else would I be doing? Didn’t you ask me to save Mother? I’m going to grant your earnest plea. My beloved little sister.’

‘…!’

Nigel easily pushed aside Melissa, who tried to block him from the empress dowager. Then he muttered with flashing eyes.

‘…But it felt too creepy to just use the demon stone without testing it first. Mother, you’re the perfect first test subject. You’d like that too, right? Rather than dying like this… you must feel quite resentful, Mother.’

Kuk kuk kuk.

Seeing his laughter spilling out uncontrollably from excitement in front of his dying mother, Melissa was seized by a terrible premonition.

“…And that premonition eventually became reality. After testing the demon stone on Mother and seeing it succeed, elder brother no longer hesitated and immediately used the first demon stone to gain the power to control people.”

Melissa continued with an anguished face.

“Only now… only now do I realize. How arrogant it was to think of using the power of demons.”

A heavy silence descended among the five people surrounding Empress Anne’s bed.

That’s when it happened.

Bang.

With a rough noise, the door swung wide open.

“You’re right about that.”

And at the voice that followed, everyone was so shocked they almost stopped breathing.

There stood Crown Prince Nigel, as if he had just rushed out of the bedroom wearing only a robe. The dangerous air he exuded seemed to choke everyone.

Only Leon faced off against Nigel without hesitation, blocking everyone.

Seeing him instinctively emanating a murderous aura like a beast confronting its natural enemy, the corners of Crown Prince Nigel’s mouth curled up long. He nonchalantly waved the folding fan in his hand and sarcastically said,

“Oho. Are you going to draw your sword now?”

The crown prince’s eyes were flushed red, and his habit of licking his lips exuded a depraved atmosphere.

Staring at him in disgust, Leon heavily opened his mouth.

“Wasn’t it you who first turned a blade on my family, Your Highness? I suppose you won’t stop until you’ve slaughtered my entire family, including me.”

The slow but clear and blunt accusation struck the listener’s ears.

Hearing his words, Nigel seemed to want to maintain a nonchalant smile, but his mouth kept drooping, pressured by Leon’s force. His expression quickly turned displeased.

Meanwhile, seeing Leon, Kasha realized. That he now intended to fight head-on.

Now there was barely a day and a half left of the time given by the demon Gilroth.

He was determined to retrieve the demon stones no matter what before that time passed. Even if it meant beheading the crown prince and becoming a traitor to the empire.

Nigel also seemed to have judged from Leon’s aura that now was not the time to provoke him.

Deliberately stepping aside as if ignoring Leon, Nigel approached the women with a deliberately relaxed gait. And Leon never took his eyes off him. With the air of really drawing his sword if anything happened.

Nigel kept babbling as if nothing was wrong.

“Why, does it seem quite surprising that I showed up here? It doesn’t seem strange for a son to come pay respects to his mother in her chambers.”

Ha ha ha.

He burst into laughter as if greatly amused, continuing to fan himself.

“E-elder brother….”

Melissa, who had frozen white as soon as she saw Nigel, only scooted back on her bottom while sitting. As if she had lost even the will to stand up.

And Nigel clicked his tongue at Melissa.

“You’re really foolish, Melissa. Why are you doing such a stupid thing?”

“……….”

“If you had just stayed put, I would have at least let you keep your position in recognition of your merits… Not only did you babble nonsense to Jasmine, but now you’re even pulling this?”

Melissa just trembled slightly with her mouth tightly shut.

Kasha recalled how Melissa seemed particularly ostracized at the royal picnic and the rumors that she did not get along with Jasmine.

It seemed she had also failed in trying to warn Jasmine about Nigel at that time. That must have rubbed Nigel the wrong way too.

“I warned you many times. That if you kept being a nuisance, Mother wouldn’t be able to extend her life even in this state.”