Among the northern nobles frozen in shock, the first to break the silence was Duke Golio Dabano, the highest-ranking noble and the third most powerful figure in the north.

“Dabano will stake his life to support Your Highness Lewis!”

It was a heavy oath, pledging not only his own life but everything of all the people he was responsible for.

“Berceri will stake his life to support Your Highness Lewis!”

The head of the Berceri family, the only northern count family granted the title of high nobility, also knelt down and swore allegiance.

“Chernier will stake his life to support Your Highness Lewis!”

“Ibabe will also stake his life to support Your Highness Lewis!”

One by one, the northern nobles knelt before Lewis Della Ponti.

They immediately accepted the fact that the beautiful man in women’s clothing, whom they had only known as their lord’s concubine until yesterday, was actually the emperor’s sole surviving younger brother.

They didn’t even ask whether Lewis was fit to be emperor or not.

If their lord, to whom they pledged their lives, believed in him, they would simply believe and follow.

Finally, Duke Grande, a high noble and Yuriella’s father, bent one knee.

“Grande will also… stake his life to support Your Highness Lewis.”

“Everyone, rise.”

At Lewis’s gesture, the pillars supporting the north resolutely stood up.

“Before coming to the capital, I visited Collina Rosa. I saw the blood and tears shed by the north, and I engraved it in my bones. As long as I live, I will never forget Collina Rosa.”

The eyes of the northerners gazing at Lewis as he mentioned Collina Rosa deepened.

“However, I do not wish for the north to become my blade that harms our own people. Force will be the last resort we can choose.”

Puzzled eyes wavered, unable to fathom Lewis’s intentions.

“Also, even if I ascend to the throne, all I can offer you is gratitude to comrades who shared a great cause. There will be no rewards based on merits whatsoever.”

Lewis was clearly drawing a line with the northern nobles.

He even added a warning not to harbor ambitions beyond rectifying the nation.

“I will only cut out the rotten abscesses. Unnecessary slaughter and indiscriminate conflict are not what I desire. I intend to fight to save the empire, not to stain the empire with blood and create another Collina Rosa.”

The nobles could feel it.

The imperial brother was not here to unconditionally borrow their strength.

Come to think of it, he didn’t even thank or praise them for saying they would stake their lives to support him.

Rather, he was asking.

Whether they could agree with his words. If they couldn’t agree, they couldn’t go together.

It was truly an extraordinary spirit.

Even though his noble imperial blood had endured the humiliating disguise as a woman for three years, and even served as his cousin’s concubine, receiving all sorts of vulgar insults.

He did not mention revenge for his mother who burned to death.

There was no sense of resentment for the lost position, nor desire for the position he would newly gain.

Moreover, to the northern nobles who had gritted their teeth and cultivated their military strength after the subjugation of Collina Rosa, he said that force would be the last choice.

Even though they staked their lives without expecting rewards, he didn’t hesitate to go against the upright northerners’ sentiments by preemptively stating that he would not discuss merits or give rewards.

He must know that he should cajole them somehow right now, even if he would reveal his true colors later. What was he trusting to be so stubborn?

“Hahaha!”

The first to let out a hearty laugh was Count Berceri.

“That’s right. That’s how it should be. Now I can rest assured.”

Next, Duke Dabano also let out a refreshing laugh.

“Your Highness Lewis. Do as you wish. We also have no intention of turning the empire into another Collina Rosa.”

The other nobles also nodded their heads and smiled, seeming to share the same sentiment.

Yuriella sighed in relief and nodded her head, signaling to the head butler standing by the door.

Alexis, who had been oblivious to Shavell’s true identity, stood frozen with a blank face, then finally came to his senses and opened the door to let in Meuris, the grand mage of the north who had been waiting.

Frost gestured for Meuris to come forward and said to the nobles,

“I intend to cast a spell of silence on what you have heard and seen here today. It is not because I do not trust you, but because the matter is grave, so I ask for your understanding.”

The nobles readily accepted the grand mage’s spell and left with light steps.

Although changing the emperor of the empire was an extremely heavy matter, they had the grand duke whom they trusted and followed, and the future sun whom the grand duke trusted was also very much to their liking.

However, only one person, Duke Grande, felt his feet as heavy as lead, and he sighed deeply, guarding the banquet hall until the grand ducal couple returned after seeing off the nobles.

“Your sighs will make my house collapse.”

Frost frowned as he approached his father-in-law, who was sitting with a gloomy face.

“As your son-in-law, I, who knew nothing like a beggar, should have been left to gape in surprise along with the others? You should have given me a heads-up.”

“The matter was grave-.”

“It’s not a matter for a woman to meddle in!”

Duke Grande cut off Yuriella’s words and abruptly stood up.

“How can you do this? I thought I was special to Your Highness. So I gave you my precious daughter. I also entrusted the fate of my family entirely to you.”

“Good question. Why don’t you go home, put your hand on your chest, and think about why your son-in-law, who became one in name only, didn’t get a heads-up?”

Frost slowly raised his silver eyelashes, and his cold blue eyes gleamed with a chilling sneer.

“Pardon?”

“I know what you desire and what you worry about. And what you desire and worry about is precisely my concern. I hope you will no longer be my concern. Sincerely.”

“Your Highness…!”

“Let’s stop here. Right now, my other father-in-law, who truly considers my wife precious, is here.”

Frost coldly glanced at Duke Grande and held out his hand to Yuriella.

And before opening the door to leave, he stopped and turned to the duke.

“Duke. How about returning to being the ‘Iron Wall of the North’ that my father cherished? I sometimes miss that man who protected the north with a passionate heart and lofty spirit.”

As they headed to the stable where Thomas, the leader of the apothecary group, was waiting, Yuriella looked back at the duke’s carriage returning home with a worried expression.

“At such an important time, how can you make enemies?”

“Sweetly spoken words don’t turn poison into medicine. Bitterly spoken words don’t turn medicine into poison either.”

“But-.”

“I will worry about the duke, so you only need to worry about me.”

As Frost gently brushed Yuriella’s lips with his thumb, her face reddened.

“Isn’t worrying about this or that all worrying about you?”

“My queen has too many worries. It’s not polite to meet your father with such a face, so shall we go to the bedchamber for some acupuncture treatment?”

Yuriella answered a beat late because his voice asking for treatment was too sweet.

“You already got it in the morning.”

“I have to speak correctly. We were interrupted midway.”

Yuriella snorted, looking at Frost who spoke without changing his expression.

“Why don’t you put your hand on your chest and think about why we were interrupted?”

After confessing that he knew Yuriella was Solas, Frost tried to seduce her even more persistently than before.

Look. Even now, like this.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m thinking with my hand on my chest.”

Frost placed his large hand over Yuriella’s small hand resting on his chest and grinned.

She could feel his firm chest and the pulsing beat of his heart beneath the thin shirt.

Frost brought his lips to the bridge of her nose and whispered,

“It’s beating so admirably, isn’t it? Since it’s the one you made beat again, take responsibility for it.”

“I am taking responsibility.”

Yuriella lowered her eyes to avoid the deep blue eyes filled with intense heat, and Frost’s lips descended to the back of her hand, lingering there for a long time.

“It’s not enough. Far from enough.”

“Yuriella! Yuriella!”

Thomas, tired of waiting in the stable, came out to the garden to greet them and glared at the grand duke as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.

“Father~!”

Yuriella flung Frost’s hand away and ran to Thomas.

Frost looked at his hand abandoned in the air, then gave his father-in-law a pretty smile, pulling the corners of his mouth wide.

“Did you wait long, Father?”

Thomas clicked his tongue, displeased with his son-in-law’s beautiful face that could even captivate men.

His hair sparkled unnecessarily like silver thread. His lake-colored eyes were annoyingly deep blue, enough to make women’s hearts sink. His distinct features were just right to give his wife a hard time, with towering spirit.

“A man should be simple and steadfast like a bear so that a woman can be at ease. Tsk tsk.”

“I am precisely that simple and steadfast man like a bear, Father.”

The grand duke immediately wiped away his pretty smile and possessed the heart of a steadfast bear to please his father-in-law.

“Father. How is Blanca? Do you see anything unusual?”

In addition to people, Thomas’s touch had also reached animals whose lives were valued higher than human lives, as he traveled across the north and beyond the borders, selling medicine and performing acupuncture with his apothecary group.

After glaring at his wolf-like son-in-law wearing a bear’s mask, Thomas turned his gaze to his lovely daughter.

Her flowing long strawberry blonde hair fluttering in the wind gave a mystical feeling, like a flower fairy dwelling in a towering garden.

‘A bear wearing a fairy’s mask, that’s a bear.’

His daughter, who nearly died from a fever, had her soft blue eyes turn fiery red, and her chick-like frail temperament had also changed into a steadfast bear.

He understood his daughter’s love for the grand duke. What woman wouldn’t be captivated by such beauty?

But his daughter’s gaze was concerning. It wasn’t the eyes of a companion, but the eyes of a loyal subject who had offered her neck for her lord.

“There’s nothing particularly unusual. I prescribed some mugwort for now. It’s an herb that bears first seek out when waking from hibernation, so it will be of some help.”

“I feel relieved now that you say so, Father.”

Yuriella finally smiled, lowering her tense shoulders.

“Can’t I take Blanca with me?”

Although high-ranking mages and priests also said there was nothing unusual, Thomas felt uneasy about leaving the emperor’s gift by his daughter’s side.

“No. There are also knights. And mages and priests are also with her.”

As Yuriella said, members of the Angelus Knights were guarding the stable where Blanca was like an iron wall. High-ranking mages and priests were also taking turns keeping watch.

“Then my members and I will also keep watch here.”

“I am watching over my wife without taking my eyes off her, so don’t worry about anything.”

“No. I will definitely stay here and monitor Blanca!”

Seeing her light the fuse against the grand duke, it was clear that the target of his surveillance was not just Blanca.

Since coming to the capital, Thomas had been constantly anxious. Even without knowing much, he could instinctively feel it.

Right now, the capital was like a powder keg that could explode at any moment, and at its center was the grand duke. Thomas couldn’t find his daughter-stealing son-in-law, who was holding his daughter in that precarious position, lovely in his eyes.

“I’m sorry, but are there any empty rooms for me and my members to stay in?”

With a stubborn voice that wasn’t sorry at all, Thomas glared at his son-in-law with an expression that said to give up his own room if there were no empty rooms.

“Ah, yes. Of course, there are… many empty rooms, Father.”

“While at it, please give me the room next to my daughter’s. So that my members and I can stay up all night and catch up on stories with Yuriella.”

A fierce glance stabbed at the grand duke, telling him not to even come near.

“Yes, Father…”

Frost sighed, looking at Yuriella walking ahead arm in arm with her father.

He had absurdly lost his wife to a thief, but since the thief was his wife’s beloved father, he had no choice but to endure the frustration and sorrow.

His lovely wife was sparkling her eyes like that, happily smiling as she welcomed her father.

*

“Tsk. Damn it. Dammit!”

In the carriage returning to his residence, Duke Grande bit his lips until they bled.

This was a complete checkmate. No matter what, he could only lose in this game he had gotten into.

If Lewis became the emperor, it would be like setting a delicious table and offering it up. If he failed, his family would face annihilation.

He was reluctant to withdraw his involvement now after investing so much. Even if he let go, there was no one anywhere who would hold his hand.

As he was pounding on the carriage wall in frustration…

Swish~.

The air rippled like waves, and the carriage abruptly stopped. His breath became stuffy as if he had ascended to a high altitude.

Duke Grande reflexively gripped the handle of his sword.

‘This is definitely…!’

The carriage was inside a barrier!

In the capital, the existence capable of casting such a barrier on him must be an imperial aide hostile to the north.

The moment the duke drew his sword, the carriage door opened.

“May I have a brief conversation with you?”

The one politely addressing him was not an imperial aide.

It was Justin Della Ponti. The emperor!