“For those who cannot trust my knights, let each noble family dispatch their own knights to form a contingent to monitor my knights. What do you think?”

“That sounds good.”

“I agree as well.”

“Yes. Understood.”

A situation where evidence was not clearly apparent on either side. But at least the Empress had prepared numerous witnesses and diligently participated in this trial-like meeting.

Unlike the Count who was struggling desperately.

The difference was stark and left a sufficient impression in the minds of the nobles.

And amid all this, Carlos sent out the Knight Commander to gather evidence and even brought in the nobles’ personal knights. It was a very fair measure.

‘The Emperor remains calm.’

‘He has not been blinded by love.’

To the extent of making them think such thoughts.

“And Count, I’ve heard a story. That you poured all the money I provided to support you as the Empress’s family into hopeless investments and gambling. Is that true?”

And the final blow.

“What? That, that is-”

The Count’s face had now turned whiter than paper. All the events of today’s meeting could have actually ended with just an appropriate punishment depending on the Emperor’s mood.

But excessive waste of the national treasury.

If he started to question that, the Count could never escape his status as a criminal.

“No matter how much you are part of the imperial family, I cannot overlook the crime of wasting the precious national treasury like that. That’s not why we provided living expenses, and if you truly cherished the Empress, you couldn’t have done such a thing.”

That was also true. If he really valued his daughter, he should have used what the Emperor bestowed carefully.

It wasn’t strange for nobles to squander money.

But it was a different story if the source of that money was taxes collected even from the nobles. The Count often boasted of his own wealth in addition to the Emperor’s support to maintain his dignity.

“…I’ve seen that fellow throwing gold coins at the gambling house several times too.”

“That was all the Emperor’s money? No, it was our taxes?”

“Isn’t he too shameless?”

And so, the nobles who were so stingy with their own money suddenly began to retaliate madly. It was behavior in stark contrast to their attempts to maintain neutrality until now.

The momentum had completely shifted.

Carlos now turned to the witnesses once more and asked.

“The end of the meeting is approaching. For the last, last time, I ask. Do you swear that you have not spoken falsehoods? If lies are revealed later, the punishment will not be light.”

“I, I… If my words are false, you may gouge out my eyes before His Majesty the Emperor. I have boldly spoken the truth…!”

Then, as if to refute, all the witnesses hurried to say that they were telling the truth.

Despite being intimidated in front of many nobles, they had somewhat vengeful looks on their faces.

Hatred for the Count flowed from their eyes. At the same time, fear of the Count as well.

The fact that they were tightly united among themselves appeared to be evidence of long-standing abuse and tyranny.

In fact, the servants who had long turned a blind eye to the Count’s abuse could not possibly have any sympathy or conscience towards Mercedes. The abuse she suffered had become a natural part of their daily lives.

They simply moved, recognizing it as a moment to vent their hatred towards the Count and an opportunity to ‘get a piece of the action’.

The witnesses gathered today only believed in the rewards Mercedes was offering. Seeing that she had even prepared secret houses for them to hide, it didn’t seem like they would be betrayed.

And if the Count goes to prison, there will be no repercussions for them either.

“This is really…”

“It’s over.”

The Count was completely defeated. In fact, he should have been dragged out the moment the forgery of the Emperor’s seal was revealed. The Emperor didn’t seem to have any intention of being lenient.

However, the Emperor prolonged the meeting a bit more, mentioning ‘trust in the Empress’.

The Emperor’s gaze, which seemed ready to cast out the Empress at any moment if trust in her disappeared, also left a strong impression on those present today.

The Empress was barely sitting, leaning on the desk. She truly looked in pain.

What had seemed detestable at first now looked pitiful…

It was a victory for the Empress’s side without anything to pick at.

There will be endless murmurs. But at least, if anyone tries to bring up what the Count claimed again, it would be an insult to the imperial family in itself.

And that… was the aim of Carlos who deliberately acted coldly, and Mercedes who calmly refuted each false testimony one by one.

* * *

This time, all that was needed was to reveal the ‘plain truth’.

For the first time since coming to the Room, without any lies, acting, or schemes.

Just dealing with honesty alone.

Yet the Count crumbled.

Because the truth was pointing to the Count’s lies.

From the beginning, Carlos had prevented the Count’s family members from staying in the imperial palace.

He deliberately kept them far from the palace, and provided them with a mansion in a bustling street of the capital where everyone coming and going could be seen.

Moreover, after adapting to the Room a bit, the Count held drinking parties every day, inviting people.

Naturally, it was concluded that it would be difficult to fabricate evidence in such a state.

And Mercedes knew the Count very well.

The Count always had the idea that ‘men are beings easily seduced by women’s bodies’.

This time, he was desperate to make Flora the Empress, so he naturally thought he would bring drugs.

So there was no need to fabricate whether the Count brought drugs or not.

Quite naturally… ‘male enhancement drugs’ and ‘aphrodisiacs’ were found in his mansion.

Aphrodisiacs!

Some might easily consume them for pleasure, but it was a drug that could never be offered to the Emperor. It was dangerous because the ingredients were not proven.

He could have been imprisoned right away, but since ‘drugs’ were involved, the Emperor who had been waiting out of respect for his father-in-law arrested the Count as soon as the evidence came out.

Thus, the Count was dragged to prison and the rest of the family members were confined to their mansion.

The Knight Commander and the Head of the Guard questioned each family member one by one, asking how much they were involved in this matter and discussing each charge.

Mercedes deliberately followed to watch the Count being arrested in person.

The guards easily subdued him as he pointed his finger at her with bloodshot eyes.

The Count struggled and dragged his feet until his shoes came off.

“Ah! My, my feet are bare! It, it hurts!”

The sight of him screaming just because his shoes came off and his feet were slightly scraped on the ground was truly…

“Does that hurt?”

A hollow laugh escaped. When he had inflicted much greater wounds on Mercedes. Even leaving scars that remained no matter how much healing power was poured in.

Making her sleep in blood-soaked clothes.

Not even caring about the bed that became dirty with blood because of the wounds he inflicted.

What a truly insignificant person he was.

Mercedes finally felt her widened perspective and the world.

The Count was… truly.

‘A person who was nothing.’

A person she didn’t need to fear, or hold onto remaining hatred for.

“Mel.”

Carlos approached Mercedes, who was standing still, carefully imprinting in her eyes the sight of the Count being dragged out of the mansion and loaded into a transport carriage, and embraced her shoulders.

Mercedes didn’t blink once. She wanted to imprint it in her eyes unconditionally.

And when the carriage carrying the Count disappeared into a dot.

“I should visit him once.”

She smiled brightly.

“If that’s what you want. As much as you like.”

Carlos smiled back. His hand embracing her shoulders was large and warm. As always.

Everything passed swiftly, and a strange peace came to both the social circles and the imperial palace.

And a few days later, Mercedes dressed up beautifully.

As always when staying in the imperial palace, she wore a dress without a corset or petticoat. Nevertheless, the yellow dress with frills brightened her complexion and made her look lovely and radiant.

Dressed in such bright clothes and even wearing makeup, she walked out of the room very elegantly.

Carlos was waiting in front to escort her. With a playful gesture of placing his left hand on his chest and slightly bowing his waist, indicating he would escort her.

It was truly impossible. She liked him, the one who said he couldn’t kill her even though he hated her, confessing his love.

So she extended her hand to him.

Like a lady and a gentleman meeting at a ball and falling in love at first sight, not as Emperor and Empress.

“Haha. To dress up like this and come.”

Mercedes’s clear laughter rang out. Carlos, dressed in formal attire, laughed.

“Isn’t it your banquet day?”

“I feel like I should waltz with Your Majesty.”

“It would be an honor. Shall we go?”

“Yes.”

The two, dressed up like that

Soon headed towards the underground prison a little distance from the imperial palace.

For aesthetics, it was right to keep prisons far away.

But Carlos did not do so.

The prison environment tended to create another cartel inside, and if there were political prisoners, people would try to contact them from the outside somehow.

So he argued that political prisoners and serious criminals should be kept close and monitored, and built an underground prison near the imperial palace.

Fortunately, only the entrance was made to lead underground, so the aesthetics of the imperial palace were not greatly damaged. Just a desolate-looking door leading underground was placed in the middle of the forest.

Mercedes and Carlos stood in front of it.

“It might be a bit cold inside. And it might be scary because it’s dark.”

“Your Majesty. I’m someone who has been imprisoned before.”

Mercedes said with a small chuckle. As if this was nothing.

“…That’s why I’m worried. In case you, perhaps, think of the past…”

“Not at all.”

As Carlos hesitantly expressed his true feelings, Mercedes looked at him with a resolute face.

“The prison was rather comfortable.”

She smiled with a very firm voice.

Carlos thought her eyes were dazzling.

Truly, she was a strong person.