Emperor Mathias Eint Carl Berk passed away. Pamila recalled the Karsik Empire, where she had gone winter hunting with Emperor Kazan.

The diamond mines and golden fields buried in the frozen glaciers, emitting a mysterious light, were vivid in her mind. Pamila was impatient.

She advised Emperor Kazan to go to war. The Karsik Empire was in political turmoil, and Harchen was a young emperor with no war experience.

However, Kazan had no intention of breaking the peace treaty with Karsik. An empire overflowing with gold would easily mobilize mercenaries. Though a young emperor without war experience, Harchen was a beast.

His sword, which had been admired during his academy days abroad, was overwhelming. Above all, a beast recognizes another beast. He was not one to let go of what was his, subduing opponents with just his piercing gaze.

In their younger years, it might have been worth a try. But behind him were only the feeble Patrick and the hot-blooded Chris.

Hmm, Kazan briefly recalled Patricia in her silver armor but soon shook his head. War was indeed unreasonable.

Pamila coaxed Emperor Kazan like a child, using poison and antidote. The emperor’s body and mind were slowly being eroded by Pamila’s poison.

She used just enough poison not to endanger his life, and when he took the antidote, he attended to state affairs with a clear mind like flowing stream water.

Pamila wished she could remove the emperor, who was like a blackened, rotten old tree.

However, she couldn’t penetrate the double and triple surveillance of the noble council, the Evas family, who were imperial relatives controlling the capital, the Valenti family of the Torun Kingdom, the home of Empress Dowager Aldisha, the imperial guard, and the knights.

Moreover, even if the emperor died without a plan, there was nothing she could gain.

Her own family, the Lasbur, couldn’t support Pamila’s ambitions.

She reached out to nobles who weren’t imperial relatives of Tane. Gradually ensnaring them, she would suddenly pull them under her skirts at her feet.

Pamila used poison when she needed the emperor’s signature and used the antidote a few days later, holding and releasing the emperor’s leash at will.

When he finally refused to declare war, Pamila turned cold like a meteorite thrown into a winter valley.

She convened a secret meeting with the nobles wrapped around her skirt for a clever plan.

Pamila used a fatal poison on the emperor.

War with the Karsik Empire, the mere thought was thrilling.

Her plan was for the Karsik Emperor to deal with Patrick. After sending the rear guard, the final goal was to receive mining rights for the Kaosan gold mine as a negotiation proposal and arrange a state marriage between Chris, who would become Crown Prince, and the Karsik Imperial Princess.

But Patricia in armor ruined the plan instead of Patrick.

“Damn wench.”

Though aware of Patricia’s existence, she was a shadow princess. Pamila’s skin trembled with regret that she should have dealt with her when she saw those wide blue eyes as she wielded a sword half her height with that stick-like body.

Pamila gritted her teeth. She turned her mind towards evil. She scooped up plausible ones from the cascading schemes.

This plot had to succeed.

Pamila put the antidote in the tonic for the emperor.

“Your Majesty, you must trust me. This is the best for the Tane Empire.”

Emperor Kazan received the negotiation proposal to be sent to the Karsik Emperor from Pamila with trembling hands.

“Your Majesty, you just need to sign here.”

The delegation carrying the negotiation proposal with Emperor Kazan’s personal signature passed the border and headed towards the Red Forest of Lake Pana.

The ice of Mount Kaosan in the Karsik Empire melted for one summer. Black water mixed with obsidian powder flowed along the valley.

In the early summer Kaosan Valley, bright gold glittered where the black obsidian water had passed. As the glacier melted, brilliantly shining transparent diamonds were revealed on the mountain.

Harchen led fifty thousand soldiers past the lower Tamil Valley to Lake Pana.

The Tane delegation entering the Red Forest stopped running. They calmed their horses, which reared up in surprise at sensing the trembling ground.

Countless soldiers rushed towards the Red Forest amidst the dust rising like clouds into the sky.

The delegation of thirty members stood in place, raising white flags higher than the Tane flags.

“Your Majesty, they are Tane soldiers.”

Calip, running beside the emperor, shouted.

“I know, stop.”

At Calip’s signal, the following soldiers pulled their reins to stop. As the dust settled, a small delegation group was visible on the other side.

The Tane Empire flag with a black lion and white flags were visible.

The emperor nodded to Vice Commander Calip. Calip and three knights rode towards the Tane delegation.

The delegation dismounted and greeted the Karsik Empire’s emperor respectfully, bending their left knee and placing their foreheads on their arm.

Calip, who had received the diplomatic pouch containing the negotiation proposal, opened the pouch, took out the proposal, unfolded it, and gave it to the emperor.

The emperor unfolded the parchment. As he read the negotiation contents, his face flushed.

“Very, very pleasing.”

He attached the diplomatic pouch containing the rolled parchment to his waist and ordered the vice commander.

“Calip, tell them we accept the negotiation.”

Calip, curious about the negotiation contents, quickly observed the emperor’s expression. It didn’t look bad. No, it wasn’t his usual cold expression.

‘Eh? Could he be smiling….’

“Understood.”

As the vice commander approached the Tane delegation, the delegation representative couldn’t hide his increasingly tense attitude.

“Convey this. His Majesty the Karsik Emperor has accepted the negotiation.”

“We receive the order of His Majesty, the burning sun of the empire.”

The delegation representative bowed his head once more towards the emperor, then straightened his knees and stood up.

As he mounted his horse, the delegation quickly turned their horses’ heads and galloped away.

“Lean!”

At the emperor’s call, Lean ran over and knelt on one knee.

“Form two shadow sword squads to follow the delegation. One squad is to scout the Tane palace and report back, and Lean, you are to capture the imperial princess. No, provide cover.”

“Pardon? The imperial princess?”

The vice commander and Lean, who had somehow approached, asked simultaneously. The emperor looked down at his two subordinates, raised one corner of his mouth, and smiled slowly.

‘He really is smiling.’

Since learning of the imperial princess’s escape from captivity at dawn, the emperor had worn a grim expression, looking ready to freeze even the surrounding air with his intense gaze. His complexion changed completely after reading the parchment containing Tane’s negotiation proposal.

“Your Majesty, I apologize. What are the negotiation terms?”

“Patricia.”

Just pronouncing her name aloud made Harchen’s chest suddenly burn hot.

Just come before me, just you try coming.

At dawn, when he saw the leather strap hanging cut from the bedpost, his eyes had flashed wildly. He had been prepared to storm into Tane Palace, seize her, and violently brandish his sword before her.

Emperor Kazan of the Tane Empire clearly stated in the diplomatic letter that while war had broken out due to misunderstanding, he had no intention of waging war against the Karsik Empire.

And he added:

I, Kazan Calian Evis, Emperor of the Tane Empire, hereby propose a state marriage with Imperial Princess Patricia Calian Evas to maintain an intimate relationship with the Karsik Empire.

What is this. My heart suddenly feels light. It’s as if the whole sky is my world.

“A state marriage with the Tane Imperial Princess.”

“…Pardon? A state marriage?”

Calip closed his mouth and rubbed his chin, thinking.

He had been by Harchen’s side since the moment he was born. The emperor never made such impulsive decisions, even for trivial matters.

He was cautious, repeatedly calculating and predicting, and only made decisions when he was almost perfectly certain.

Since his days as Crown Prince, he had formed a round table council, questioning the noble council and foreign and domestic ministers to the point of fainting, persistently interrogating and only concluding the round table when he obtained definitive answers.

Moreover, there was Lady Julia Leak, who had only had eyes for Harchen since her girlhood.

After the peace treaty of the Arkan continent, she had gone to study at Tane Academy with Harchen under the pretext of friendly exchange between the two empires.

While Lady Leak’s outward justification was the emperor’s order for exchange between the two empires, her inner motive was Harchen.

Everyone in the imperial palace and among the capital’s nobility knew. The only fiancé in the lady’s heart was Harchen. Upon graduating from the academy, she had pestered Duke Leak to submit a marriage proposal to the emperor.

The late emperor had gladly accepted, but the engagement ceremony was postponed due to his passing.

After Harchen’s ascension to the throne, Duke Leak proposed to the empress dowager to hold the engagement.

During breakfast, as the empress dowager was considering the empire’s event schedule, a messenger bird arrived from the Marquis of the Border.

The Tane Empire had invaded with countless thousands of soldiers without a declaration of war. The cavalry was armed with crossbows, maces, swords, and shields, the message said.

Vice Commander Calip felt dizzy recalling that morning.

The Tane army had lit fires and smoke here and there in the Red Forest and planted Tane flags in all directions.

By the time the emperor and his imperial guard arrived at Lake Pana, the Karsik border marquis’s side had neither detected the enemy commander nor ascertained their troop strength.

Deceived by the enemy commander’s tactics, they had waited idly until the Karsik emperor and his forces arrived.

The emperor charged into the Red Forest with the imperial guard soldiers. To assess the Tane army’s strength, he lured the battlefield towards Tamil Valley. After the emperor’s persistent pursuit, they captured the commander as a prisoner.

Astonishingly, the Tane commander was neither the crown prince nor a prince, but an imperial princess. Calip had felt suspicious and had a bad feeling ever since the emperor gave his bedroom to the prisoner.

Even more astounding was that the captive imperial princess had escaped from the fortress of Pana as if it were an open cage.

A state marriage with that prisoner, a strange fox-like being who had bewitched people and vanished? What’s more, the emperor was now smiling with a not displeased, no, a very satisfied expression.

Calip recalled the moment when, by the emperor’s order, he had stripped the Tane commander of her clothes. He had been somewhat dazed.

When the armor was removed, the body revealed was as slender as a young boy’s, and the arms looked fragile. He frowned at the thought of that body diving into the moat, climbing the castle walls, and jumping down.

‘What about Lady Leak, the most beautiful woman in Karsik?’

Calip shook his head, recalling Lady Leak with her obsidian-like sparkling black eyes and glossy black hair.

“Your Majesty, surely you don’t intend to… have a state marriage?”

“That’s the plan. Lean! Go and capture her.”

I’ll make you regret toying with me to the bone.

The emperor gritted his teeth, imagining the imperial princess who had mocked him as she climbed over the castle walls.

Lean and two shadow sword squads set out in pursuit of the Tane delegation.

The emperor instructed the Second Captain to investigate the Red Forest, the initial contact area. He had the remaining soldiers stand by at the Lake Pana camp and went to Pana Fortress with Calip.

They passed through the castle gate and crossed the drawbridge. In front of the main building, an ornate carriage with a purple exterior trimmed in gold and a carriage for imperial business were parked side by side.

As the emperor dismounted from his warhorse, the butler and servants approached. A servant took the reins of Kan and Calip’s brown warhorses and led them to the stable.

Sensing the gaze on the carriages, the butler reported to the emperor.

“Lady’s dresses and items have arrived from the capital.”

“And the front carriage?”

“Your Majesty, Lady Leak has arrived.”

“Lady Leak?”