The Duke returned from the collapsed iron mines in the north after just two days.

He had rushed back to the capital after hastily conducting funerals for the victims because evidence had emerged that the mastermind behind the accident was Duke Yovel from the south.

Frost headed straight to the Imperial Palace without even stopping by home first.

When he had departed for the north upon hearing news of the accident, the Imperial Court had also urgently dispatched investigators to the north. A joint investigative team from the north and the Imperial Court was immediately formed on site.

The on-site investigation into the simultaneous collapse of 11 iron mines, including the Donodio mine, began and the culprits were identified in less than half a day.

Just over 20 miners from the south turned themselves in, claiming they had directly planted explosives. They committed suicide by poison in the temporary detention cell under the Duke’s custody.

In their lodgings, handwritten suicide notes presumably written prior to their surrender were discovered.

It was an identical development to the self-detonating magical accident at the Magic Tower.

The Magic Tower suspected the north, while the north found itself at odds with the south in the blink of an eye.

The only difference was that the Emperor defined this iron mine collapse as a clear provocation shaking not only the north, but the very foundation of the Empire, and issued an imperial decree to immediately arrest Duke Yovel.

Although Duke Yovel had the privilege of immunity from arrest as a high-ranking noble, the small number of knights who had followed the Duke from the south were no match for the Imperial Guard Cavalry urgently dispatched by the Emperor to protect Duke Yovel.

As news of Yovel’s emergency arrest spread, the south was greatly agitated.

The hot-blooded people of the south took to the streets in protest, as if they would take up arms and revolt at any moment. This was because the action taken against their lord was tantamount to a declaration of war.

Leo gritted his teeth as he slammed his fist against the carriage wall.

“That bastard Emperor, does he have shit for brains instead?! Does he think we’ll doubt His Excellency Yovel and turn our backs on the south over this?! This isn’t political strife or war! This is just insane slaughter!”

“Even a huge embankment starts to collapse from small cracks.”

Frost’s blue eyes darkened as he stared at Leo.

“Pardon?”

“You must have seen it too at the funeral, Leo. The expressions the victims’ families and neighbors had towards the southern nobles who came to pay their respects.”

It wasn’t just their expressions. Rocks and rubbish were hurled at the heads of the mourners who had rushed from the south.

There were also physical altercations between northern soldiers and bereaved families in the process of protecting the southern mourners.

In their handwritten suicide notes, the surrendered southerners confessed that they had been bribed and threatened by Yovel to cause the collapse, but chose death out of deep guilt. That alone was enough to condemn the south and Duke Yovel in the eyes of the northerners.

They were enraged and in immediate need of an object to hate.

The criminals were already dead, so the hatred shifted to the south, which was identified as the mastermind behind them.

They probably, no, definitely remembered the blood shed by Colina Rosa.

The neighbors who died from outside invasions.

The blood-soaked land.

The painful oath made that day to never let it happen again.

Leo’s expression darkened.

The situation at the Magic Tower was also far from favorable. The cold eyes of the wizards and medical staff handling the aftermath spoke volumes. To them, the north was already guilty.

That was precisely why the Magic Tower Master had taken a hard line, demanding clear evidence.

It was the first attack since the establishment of the Magic Tower. The snobbish wizards had to watch helplessly as patients under their protection were burned to death and colleagues like brothers died.

Even those who usually put reason before emotion, like the bookworms who spent their lives buried in books, were no exception.

How much more so for the deeply wounded people of the north and the famously hot-blooded southern citizens?

After a long silence lost in deep thought with his arm resting on the carriage window frame, Frost finally spoke.

“The Emperor is as cunning and cruel as a fox. Few can rival him when it comes to exploiting and deceiving the human heart. Perhaps he schemed this matter with no other intention than to isolate us from the south or the Magic Tower.”

“Then what?”

“It means we mustn’t get excited only by what’s in front of our eyes, Leo. If we do, we’ll only see part of the picture the Emperor is painting and make self-destructive moves. That’s probably what the Emperor wants from us.”

“You’re saying to think like a monster to catch a monster?”

Leo let out a long sigh as he gazed at the approaching Blanc Casa of the Imperial Palace.

“I’m just an ordinary person, how can I possibly think like a monster even if I try? I never imagined they would frame Your Highness as a rebel and send the wielder of the sacred sword Flamme as the commander-in-chief of the punitive force.”

Turning a healthy person into a comatose patient wasn’t enough, they had to blow them up alive.

Turning over 10 iron mines into the tombs of hundreds of miners in an instant, how could an ordinary human mind even imagine such a thing?

Leo frowned fiercely, the smell of blood and gunpowder from the mining victims’ corpses still lingering in his nostrils.

“I really want to be the Emperor for just one day. I’m dying of curiosity to see what kind of head comes up with such horrific thoughts so easily!”

Frost requested a meeting with Duke Yovel, who was imprisoned in the underground prison of the Imperial Palace.

However, it was refused on the grounds that the perpetrator and victim could not be allowed to meet directly.

It wasn’t just the Duke.

Lewis and Duke Greco, who had visited the Imperial Palace ahead of him to meet Duke Yovel, were also denied visitation and were waiting for him in Leone Hall.

“You’ve worked hard, elder brother.”

Lewis, who had wanted to go north together but couldn’t attend the funeral due to the situation in the capital, had a grim expression.

“I heard Your Highness had a difficult time as well.”

Frost’s gaze shifted to Duke Greco approaching behind Lewis and lingered there.

“Don’t worry too much about Duke Yovel’s situation.”

There was a steely edge to Duke Greco’s voice, who had spent the night meeting with nobles who would help exonerate Duke Yovel along with Lewis.

“It’s not a charge of treason, and the Emperor can’t continue to detain Duke Yovel.”

It had been over a day and a half since the emergency arrest.

News of protests flying in from the south in real-time was probably pressuring the Emperor as well.

Unless he intended to engage the south in battle right away, it would be wise to release Duke Yovel before the night was over.

“We just submitted a petition from the nobles to both the Imperial Palace and the Court of Nobles requesting that the investigation continue without detention.”

“Typical of Greco.”

Greco furrowed his brow at the sarcasm oozing from Frost’s words.

“I don’t believe Duke Yovel is behind this incident. But that’s just my opinion. Clear evidence must emerge to appease the sentiment of the north.”

“As if the investigators are anything but the Emperor’s pawns.”

“We also included in the petition a request to involve judges selected from the west, south, and east in the investigation.”

Frost nodded.

At the very least, Duke Greco’s decision to actively intervene in this situation, instead of taking a damned neutral stance, was probably with Lewis in mind.

Gratitude for sheltering and protecting Lewis in the Duke’s nest for the past 3 years.

And the calculation that if by chance the throne becomes vacant, the best scenario would be for Lewis, Duke Greco’s adopted son and the legitimate heir to the Vandelli family of the west, to become Emperor.

“Home?”

Frost’s eyes shifted back to Lewis.

Lewis made an awkward expression. He knew his cousin wasn’t really asking about home, but referring to his sister-in-law.

“Well… she disappeared.”

“Did she disappear with Airy?”

“No. She sent Airy on an errand to the Magic Tower and left alone. She sneaked out without any escorts or a carriage. Blanca’s private stable was empty, so it seems she took that horse.”

“What…?”

His voice was chillingly cold, as if ice shards were embedded in the ominous tone.

“Lewis. In my absence, you are to carry out my duties. That of course includes keeping Bi safe.”

“…I apologize.”

As Lewis bowed his head and apologized, Duke Greco flared up.

“Your Highness the Grand Duke. What are you doing? How is it His Highness Lewis’s fault that Her Highness Bi arbitrarily disappeared? And! His Highness Lewis is clearly higher in rank than Your Highness the Grand Duke. You are being far too rude!”

Urgh. A groan escaped Lewis’s mouth.

Lewis glared, signaling him to stop, but his tactless father-in-law went a step further, speaking ill of Her Highness Bi without being asked.

“This isn’t the first time, I wouldn’t say anything if it were! Right after Your Highness the Grand Duke left for the north, she snuck into the Empress Dowager’s Palace to meet Casandra, do you know how shocked everyone was?”

“Are you insane?”

“I also hope Her Highness Bi comes to her senses.”

“Besides my wife, you people! Seriously! When you say the Grand Duchess might be in this dangerous place, you should search every nook and cranny for her! Did a demon chew on your brains overnight? Can’t you think?”

Duke Greco furrowed his brow with a look of utter injustice dripping from his face.

“Don’t worry. My guards are scouring the Imperial Palace for Her Highness Bi right now, so we’ll have news soon-”

But Frost ran out of Leone Hall without having the leisure to hear any more of Duke Greco’s words.

If his wife had secretly come to the Imperial Palace, her destination was obvious.

The Imperial Palace where Yovel was detained.

‘Damn it!’

Yuriella was probably with the Emperor right now.

Before Leo could chase after his lord, Frost mounted Mars and spurred him on.

*

At that time, the Emperor was in a deep coma.

On the way back from briefly meeting Duke Yovel in the underground prison, the Emperor suddenly collapsed.

The flustered chief attendant and shadows moved him to the bedchamber without anyone noticing.

The Empress Dowager came with Lady Carina, a candidate for sainthood, but was chased out without exchanging a single word with the Emperor, after which he dismissed everyone around him and groaned alone in agony.

The pain that had always been with him but never became familiar always came without warning to torment him.

Would it feel like this to saw through bones and sever joints with a blunt knife?

The seed of darkness the Empress Dowager had planted in him at birth grew by feeding on his pain and tears.

[Don’t resist, Justin. If you completely surrender yourself to the darkness, it won’t hurt at all.]

The tempting voice in the deep darkness was his own.

Another self, stained by darkness.

[Even if you become me, you are still you. What are you hesitating for?]

When it’s so painful? Wouldn’t it be better to just die than endure this agony?

His whole body boiled hot as if thrown into a blazing furnace.

Making even a groaning sound amplified the pain eating away at his entire body, so Justin just accepted the surging agony without moving a fingertip.

‘It’s too painful. Should I just give up…?’

What’s the point of fighting this pain? His soul was already hopelessly tainted by darkness anyway.

The moment he was about to stop resisting and surrender himself to the darkness…

A cold hand touched his forehead.

‘…Who?’

There’s no way the chief attendant who had even turned away the Empress Dowager would let someone in.

An assassin?

There was only one person capable of disposing of the Emperor’s shadows and entering the bedchamber. Had Grand Duke Frost Ielheim finally had enough of seeing him?

‘No. This hand is…’

It wasn’t the hand of a swordsman with thick calluses.

A small, soft woman’s hand.

‘It can’t be…’

Justin held his breath as he recalled the touch that used to hold his feverish forehead like this someday.

[It’s strange. You don’t have any particular illness, so why do you keep burning up with fever?]

Green eyes resembling summer tree leaves used to gaze at him, filled with worry.

He loved that gaze so much, eagerly awaited this excruciating time when she would watch over him with concern as he burned with fever, that there were times he looked forward to this terrible pain.

What kind of eyes was she looking at him with now?

What would she say if he opened his eyes?

She would probably babble on about how Solas was already dead by his hand and no longer in this world.

That would be lovely in its own way, but it would still hurt all the same.

Justin decided to just keep his eyes closed and pretend to sleep.

Although the touch was softer with smaller hands and no calluses compared to Solas, the cool and refreshing energy touching his forehead was no different from back then.

My foolishly kind Solas is so generous.

After what I did to you. After how I dealt with those you cherished.

“Stop pretending to sleep. I know you’re awake, Justin Della Ponti.”

At the gentle voice tinged with a stern energy, golden eyelashes slowly lifted.

Tears mixed with sweat flowed endlessly from beautifully curved blue eyes that seemed sculpted from gemstones.