‘What the hell is going on?’

Biting his lips until they bled, the Imperial Knights Commander Aaron galloped his horse towards the War Memorial Hall.

The old head attendant Dario beat around the bush saying ‘briefly’, but Aaron knew.

Ever since Grand Duchess Yuriella Ielheim appeared in the imperial capital following her husband, the Emperor hadn’t set foot in his office and had been ghosting around places that bore traces of Commander Solas.

Having a glass of alcohol and crying while treading on the morning dew under the imperial palace wall where Solas’ corpse had been hanging.

More alcohol calling for another glass and falling asleep crying on the cold dirt floor of the training grounds Solas frequented.

Drinking more at the War Memorial Hall where a portrait of Commander Solas was hung and crying again…..

‘He’s gone mad. He must have gone mad. Unless he’s mad…..’

When he was appointed as the Imperial Knights Commander, he thought he was walking down a rosy path.

The sweet jar of honey he obtained as a reward for betraying Commander Solas and his fellow Imperial Knights seemed sweet enough to brush off the contempt and guilt from those around him.

His younger sister Carina, whom the Empress Dowager had promised to make Empress, had been imprisoned in the Swan Palace for days without being allowed visitation.

Out of frustration, he tried sending a letter to the Komboni substitute official, only to receive nonsense in return that Carina was being punished for touching the imperial family’s belongings.

No, what could the future Empress possibly lack.

‘Damn that old hag! When she needed me, she treated her like her own daughter without even sending her home, and now she’s acting like this.’

Arriving at the entrance of the War Memorial Hall, Aaron dismounted from his horse as if tumbling and ran up to the second floor without catching his breath.

As expected. The Emperor was crouching in a daze in front of Solas’ portrait that filled an entire wall.

Hugging his raised knees with his chin tilted, the Emperor’s sculptural face, gazing at the female warrior with burning red hair fluttering in the painting, was drenched in transparent tears.

Despite the urgency of the situation, Aaron paused for a moment to catch his breath.

The devastatingly beautiful appearance, enough to make even a man’s heart ache, looked as if an angel had descended. He had never felt more relieved than today at the fact that a crimson demon lurked inside that blissful shell.

Wouldn’t that demon be able to ruthlessly cut down the ghost that appeared out of nowhere without batting an eye?

“Your Majesty.”

“Get lost.”

“…Now is not the time to be leisurely chasing Solas’ ghost. A truly tremendous ghost has appeared, Your Majesty!”

“I don’t want to kill anyone today, so get lost.”

The Emperor issued a sharp order to leave without moving a muscle.

“Marquis Vandelly requests an audience with Your Majesty-”

Shing.

The sharp blade of the Emperor’s sword, drawn out of nowhere, pressed against his Adam’s apple.

“Ugh!”

A drop of blood trickled down Aaron’s throat where a red thread was drawn.

“The Vandellys are all dead.”

“Le, Lewis Vandelly, he said…!”

Under long and lush golden eyebrows, beautiful blue eyes that looked as if they were carved out of sapphires flashed with surprise.

“Lewis?”

Justin’s sword pressed harder against Aaron’s neck.

“Yes. Marquis Lewis Vandelly said he came to attend the meeting as the 17th Grand Aristocrat of the Empire…!”

“Lewis turned to charcoal and died along with my mother. I saw it clearly with my own eyes.”

Aaron, turning pale and trembling, stammered on.

“I’ve seen a portrait of His Highness Lewis when he was young. He had the same brilliant golden hair as Your Majesty, and beautiful amethyst eyes like transparent crystal. If that child had grown up, it would be exactly that appearance.”

“Marquis Lewis Vandelly.”

“…The Grand Duke personally welcomed him. They seemed to have known each other for a long time.”

“The Grand Duke…?”

Justin slowly lowered the sword he inherited from the previous Emperor and roughly brushed back the golden hair that fell over his neat forehead.

“So my brother Frost brought a ghost with him? Interesting.”

“The Grand Aristocrats will be unsettled…! Your Majesty. Quickly, to the meeting room…!”

At Aaron’s urging, Justin, who was about to head towards the stairs, suddenly stopped and turned his body to face Solas’ portrait.

Under the burning crimson firebird, the female warrior in pitch-black armor slightly raised the corner of her lips, giving him a faint smile.

Her summer leaf-like green eyes were looking straight at him and only him.

The knight of flames who only looked at him and wielded her sword only for him now exists only within that painting.

“Sereno.”

As Justin called his first shadow, a puppet in a black cloak revealed itself.

“Go to the Grand Duke’s residence and protect Yuriella.”

The Emperor’s shadow, who had been prostrating before the Emperor with even its face tightly covered with a black hood, lifted its head in surprise.

Aaron, who was leading the way, also looked back with a dumbfounded expression and tried to dissuade him.

“Your Majesty…! The Grand Duchess has been staying in seclusion since the carriage accident. Since that day, the Angelus Knights have been guarding her at the highest level. Even for Your Majesty’s hawk, skilled in invisibility techniques-”

“The news of Lewis’ return must have already reached the Empress Dowager’s palace. Her Majesty the Empress Dowager often vents her anger on innocent people, so be careful.”

“But…!”

“Sereno. Cut out Aaron’s tongue first. He’s noisy.”

Aaron quickly covered his mouth with both hands and scurried down the stairs.

Sereno looked up at its master with curious eyes, wondering why he didn’t immediately order it to slay the ghost.

But when the Emperor waved his hand as if annoyed, it bowed its head and headed to the Grand Duke’s residence as ordered. Questions were not its place.

Justin looked back at Solas’ portrait one more time with regret, then headed to the Grand Aristocrat meeting room where the ghost was waiting.

*

Crash.

The teacup thrown by Empress Dowager Sophia hit the forehead of the maid serving her and shattered on the floor.

“Did you say Lewis? Lewis Vandelly?”

The head maid, lying flat on the floor, trembled like an aspen tree at the Empress Dowager’s sharp voice.

“…The rightful heir of Vandelly, erased from the Grand Aristocrat registry, has come. So he requests an audience with His Majesty the Emperor, and said he must come to the meeting room….”

“Are you certain it’s Lewis?”

“Yes…. I’m certain.”

The head maid replied glumly. Fearing the consequence of delivering false information, the head maid had confirmed the Marquis Vandelly heading to Leone Hall before coming to the Swan Palace.

Bones protruded white on the Empress Dowager’s tightly clenched fist.

“He was alive? That rat bastard, he didn’t die and was hiding like a palace mouse all this time?”

“…It seems the Grand Duke Ielheim had been secretly taking care of and protecting him. Just now, His Highness the Grand Duke entered the Grand Aristocrat meeting room with Marquis Lewis Vandelly, and…according to the attendants, they looked close like real brothers with an affectionate appearance….”

Sophia frowned and gritted her teeth.

“Ielheim! Ielheim! It’s always been a problem with those country bumpkins from the North!”

Since when…!

How many spies had she carefully planted since the time of the previous Grand Duke!

How could she have not noticed even a hint that Lewis Della Ponti was being protected under the shadow of Frost Ielheim?

‘He was alive. He didn’t die even after being killed and finally crawled back.’

The Empress Dowager recalled Prince Lewis frolicking in the arms of the previous Emperor.

The warm hands of the Emperor patting the golden curly hair and exclaiming “He’s a genius!” whenever that young child babbled some nonsense. The loving gaze of the father that her own son had never received even though he craved it so much….

The Empress Dowager furrowed her brows deeply and rubbed her throbbing temples.

“So there was another reason Frost readily came to attend the Grand Aristocrat meeting. That wretched boy.”

While she and the Emperor were each preparing this Grand Aristocrat meeting to be Frost’s burial ground in their own ways, that damn Ielheim was preparing it as the stage for the dead prince’s glorious resurrection.

“I understand. Everyone, leave.”

After the head maid and maids fled out as if running away, the Empress Dowager urgently contacted the assassination guild she had instigated to assassinate the Grand Duchess through a magic communication device.

Since she was hit with an unexpected blow, it would be polite to give a proper reply.

“Pick the useful ones and send them to the Grand Duke’s residence.”

The Empress Dowager’s alluring lips curved with cold arsenic.

If lucky, she might even get to see the sight of the Grand Duke Ielheim shedding tears of blood after taking the life of his lovely Grand Duchess.

Even if not, with the skills of those versed in black magic, the carpets laid in the Grand Duke’s residence would be dyed red with blood, leaving them in disarray for a while.

“Don’t worry about the aftermath and play noisily for me. As loud as you can, very noisily.”

The Empress Dowager’s violet eyes, full of venom, sank deeply like an abyss.

*

Next to the flags of the 16 Grand Aristocrat families, the eagle-owl flag symbolizing the Vandelly family fluttered on the flagpole in front of Leone Hall where the Grand Aristocrat meeting was being held.

Central government officials entering and exiting Leone Hall stopped and whispered while looking at the unfamiliar flag.

“What’s that eagle-owl? I’ve never seen it before.”

“Weren’t there originally sixteen Grand Aristocrat families?”

“Originally, it was seventeen including the Vandelly Marquis family. But the Vandellys were wiped out for treason and their line died out?”

One of the officials lowered his voice and whispered to his colleague next to him.

“I went into the meeting room earlier to deliver documents. Marquis Lewis Vandelly, he said he’s the deceased His Highness Lewis…. His Majesty the Emperor’s half-brother Lewis Della Ponti…!”

“Eek! Really? The genius prince the Empress Dowager burned to death?”

“Shh. Shush! Don’t you know loose lips sink ships….! If you value your life, watch your words, watch your words again…!”

While the rumor that started from Leone Hall spread like a wave throughout the entire imperial palace, causing a huge shock.

The Grand Aristocrat meeting room on the 3rd floor of Leone Hall, where the rumor originated, was shrouded in heavy silence.

Because they sensed that even a very small word could turn into a wildfire that would burn the families, territories, and people they had to protect, just as a small spark meeting the wind could set an entire mountain ablaze.

“I am Lewis Vandelly of the Vandelly Marquis family, the Watchmen of the West.”

The sunlight pouring in through the windows shattered and sparkled on top of the golden hair that shone as brilliantly as the Emperor’s.

With kind amethyst eyes gently closed in a smile, the face overlapped with the innocent young prince who used to follow the previous Emperor to the meeting room and swing his small feet on the high chair, making the Grand Aristocrats unknowingly let out a groan-like exclamation.

“I vouch for Marquis Vandelly’s identity.”

The Duke of Greco, lord of the West, guaranteed that Lewis Vandelly was the legitimate heir of the Vandellys and declared that the legal procedures had been completed as well.

“I shall offer a small aid to Marquis Vandelly in reclaiming the rights he has yet to find.”

The Grand Duke of Ielheim, lord of the North, publicly proclaimed that he would help Lewis reclaim his lost name and status.

The Duke of Jobell, lord of the South, who only now realized that the Grand Duke’s concubine Shavell was none other than Lewis, shook his head while letting out a guffaw.

To reveal his identity in the heart of the enemy, the imperial palace.

Was it a reckless move out of youthful spirit? Or a bold winning move?

The Emperor couldn’t recklessly touch him as all the Grand Aristocrats were gathered, but.

Isn’t it the nature of all those engaged in politics to sway more easily than a reed? Not to mention the Grand Aristocrats with differing interests.

The Duke of Samuel Figueira, lord of the East, gripped the armrests of his chair with a face as pale as if he had seen a ghost.

On the day the Concubine Palace burned. He had personally confirmed with his own eyes the mother and son screaming in agony and dying in the hellish flames….

Figueira blinked several times, unable to believe what he was seeing before his eyes.

The Grand Aristocrats of the West, who suffered the most damage from monsters and barbarians after the Watchmen of the West were wiped out, had their eyes redden, overlapping Lewis with the kind Empress Gelsomina.

But they couldn’t step forward to welcome Lewis.

It was noticeable that their chief, Duke Greco, while taking on the role of Lewis’ protector, avoided any words acknowledging Lewis as royalty.

Frost leaned loosely against the wall with his eyes calmly closed, only listening to the voices in the silence without opening his mouth any further.

Soon, the tyrant who absolutely cannot remain silent will enter this room to break this silence. What choice will he make?

“Lewis has returned! Lewis! Oh, has my real brother Lewis truly returned?”

The door flung open and the awaited voice rang out loudly, shattering the silence of the Grand Aristocrat meeting room.