“Why, all of a sudden.”

“You clearly said it was to make me your trophy.”

Then he frowned disgustingly, as if to say who dared to say such a thing.

“That’s……”

“But no matter how I think about it, it doesn’t add up.”

Delphine looked up at the man, blinking her eyelashes with an innocent face.

She thought her acting was quite excellent at this point.

“What do you mean? Suddenly?”

“Well, isn’t that right? If it’s a trophy, you should rightfully show it off, who would hide it in a closet at home?”

“……”

He was a man who had hurt her many times with cold words like that whenever she stirred up his identity.

But if she takes the initiative to approach him like this, how will he react?

After hesitating for a while, moving his lips,

The man finally sighed and said.

“……At that time, I spoke without thinking in my excitement.”

Thinking that wasn’t enough, he added in succession.

“You are absolutely not something like a trophy.”

“Then?”

Delphine asked, raising the corners of her eyes along with the end of her words.

As she stared at him with her head slightly tilted, clear agitation appeared in his eyes.

After moving his lips like someone lacking oxygen for a moment, he finally declared quietly.

“……You may go out as much as you wish. I’ll tell the guards to be careful.”

He promised in succession that he would also ensure that the maids in the mansion would not interfere too much with her life.

Done.

Belly’s strategy was right.

The easiest way to conquer the strongest and cruelest man in the empire might really be to make him love her.

Not by stimulating his past and stirring up his pride.

Delphine quietly swallowed her sense of victory inside as she watched the huge man who couldn’t hide his subtly excited look.

With just one eye smile, she obtained permission to go out.

I wonder how much I can get from you.

The dazzlingly splendid imperial palace that the first emperor is said to have built in the center of the capital three hundred years ago.

As he passed through the long corridor with giant pillars planted in succession, Pryde was deeply pondering something with cold eyes.

This morning, Delphine’s face smiling at him with fluttering eyes.

And the day before, the red hair that had fallen in the factory.

He wanted to deny that it was someone else’s, but he couldn’t possibly confuse that color he could never forget for the rest of his life.

And the successive rebellions of the rats breaking out all over the empire.

No way.

It can’t be.

She who has lived as a noble of District 1 all her life? How?

Above all, why?

What had he done to rise to her position?

From that miserable District 3, to come to the center of this shining District 1.

And she abandons all that exclusive abundance and privilege to side with those miserable ones?

It was something he couldn’t imagine with his common sense.

But if, even if there’s the slightest chance that she really sided with them…

‘What on earth did I do such things for to stand in this place?’

Pryde clenched his fist until blue veins bulged.

While walking and walking lost in thought, he had already reached the end of the long and complex corridor like a maze.

A statue of an owl symbolizing the goddess of truth was placed on the white marble wall.

Pryde glanced up at it and murmured in an insensitive tone.

“Under the light of truth. With the eyes of providence.”

The ancient magic spell to move this wall did not end there.

He added indifferently with bored eyes.

“……All shall return to nothingness in the end.”

The owl statue’s neck turned sideways.

The blocked wall opened itself to reveal its appearance.

Pryde entered without hesitation into the black corridor that opened its mouth.

Soon a sealed room without a single window appeared.

Due to the perfectly sealed structure with only a few candles lit, it exuded an unusually gloomy atmosphere despite it being midday outside.

A place that seems to make you forget both time and space.

This was the headquarters of a secret group called ‘Veritas’, consisting of the emperor and his subordinates to whom he bestowed black crystals.

Where the emperor’s hunting dogs, who abandoned their humanity for their own reasons to seek power, take charge of all the dirty and secret affairs of the empire.

‘To name such a place ‘truth (Veritas)’.’

Pryde swallowed a cold sneer inside.

It had been a very long time since he set foot here.

As soon as he arrived, those gathered sitting at the long table all rose from their seats.

Only one person.

The old emperor, who was sitting hunched over in the seat of honor, just raised his head and muttered gloomily.

“……You’ve come. My faithful servant.”

When was it that he tried to ostracize me just over a single marriage?

Now that the public sentiment in District 3 was boiling, it seemed my existence had become desperate.

That emperor was such a person.

A coward, a petty man eager to seek immediate benefits.

No, in fact, not just that old man, but the bloodline of that insane first emperor had always been like that for the past three hundred years.

“You called for me, Your Majesty.”

Barely suppressing the rising disgust, he asked, and the old emperor immediately brought up the matter at hand.

“Yes. You must be guessing why I called you here.”

“……”

“Why are those reactionaries in District 3 suddenly acting up like this?”

“There were rumors that they were using magic, is that true, my lord?”

Then Duke Purcell, sitting right next to the emperor, quickly added.

He’s the most recent member to join Veritas, but he’s already risen to that position?

I don’t know, but it seems he learned early on how to please that picky old man.

“……That is what we are presuming.”

Pryde replied in an unsatisfactory tone to the series of questions that somehow felt like an interrogation.

“We believe it is related to the recent large-scale leakage of Posium from the factory.”

At those words, a great wave spread among the gathered people.

“No, how?”

“Don’t you need both Aurum and magic circles to use magic?”

“Even if they took the Posium, how could they charge those things?”

The emperor, who had been silently agitated, opened his mouth with a fearful face.

“No way, no way……”

After moving only his lips for a while, he finally blurted out with his wrinkled old face completely distorted.

“Could there still be descendants of the Holy Maiden in this empire……”

It was at that moment when he heard the word Holy Maiden.

Suddenly, a clear memory flashed like an arrow through Pryde’s mind, which had superhuman intuition.

That red hair lying on the floor.

‘……No way.’

It can’t be.

Of all people in this vast empire, her? Such a coincidence couldn’t exist.

Besides, hadn’t he been watching her since childhood? He had never felt any signs of such a thing.

Just as he had repeatedly told himself countless times until coming to this secret room, this time too he ignored the voice his intuition was shouting.

Not yet realizing that the emotion that had grown was covering his own eyes.

“……I will investigate,” he intoned ominously towards the emperor in a voice that had become chillingly low.

“Thoroughly.”

It was certain that the rats were using magic.

How?

That’s something we’ll soon find out if we catch a few rats and torture them.

If they’re not easily caught. Well.

Should we hang the necks of innocent District 3 people over the central wall until they reveal their identity themselves?

The bodies that are no longer needed will be ground up and sprinkled in the fields for the District 3 people to eat as crops they harvest next year.

After all, even if a few humans die and disappear, nothing will change in his world.

To that extent, humans other than Delphine had no value or use to him.

This distorted view of humans became even stronger after learning the secrets of this empire.

This world was rotten from the beginning after all.

A country within such false walls ruled by such an emperor.

The only thing unsullied in this hell was his saint, his Delphine.

So it’s an empire only for Delphine, and humans only for Delphine.

Sometimes she needs to go out, hold tea parties, and if she wants, attend concerts.

If it threatens Delphine’s safety and peace, he wouldn’t care if all the humans living in this empire died.

Perhaps it would be better if only the two of us were left in this world.

……I could never reveal such thoughts to her for the rest of my life.

‘So what if those petty rats act up.’

The room had fallen silent at his chilled aura.

“Y-yes. I’m always reassured with you around.”

The old emperor stammered, trying not to show his fear.

If I’ve saved face this much in front of his faithful dogs, I should be able to withdraw now.

He knew the emperor was always wary of him, who was no different from the core of this empire’s damn secret.

Pryde nodded his head in a somewhat insincere gesture to salute, and slowly exited that room located deep in the imperial palace.