“The Moon of the Empire, Her Majesty Empress Francis Antoine! And the Shield who protects the Empire, His Highness Grand Duke Sion Belfast of the North, have arrived!”

“You have come! Your Highness the Grand Duke.”

The Grand Duke and Empress standing before the silver door instantly captured the attention of everyone in the hall. Even the Emperor’s gaze.

“Ah! You are still as beautiful as ever.”

“My goodness… It’s been so long!”

The elderly nobles expressed their longing and admiration, as if the memories of their youth had been revived before their eyes.

“Truly amazing! It has been over a decade since Her Majesty last appeared at an official event. She has been in seclusion ever since His Highness the Crown Prince passed away.”

Arcadia muttered in a surprised face while looking at the Grand Duke.

“Your Highness the Grand Duke, what kind of magic have you cast.”

‘That is Her Majesty the Empress… The mother who raised my father.’

The Empress walked slowly towards the platform where the Emperor was, escorted by the Grand Duke.

Everyone parted to the sides as if by agreement, making way for the Empress.

Even with age, she had not lost her elegance. The light jade-colored dress wrapped around the Empress’s aura in a neat yet dignified manner.

The Grand Duke, standing next to the Empress, passed by me and Arcadia. It was only for a moment, but his blue eyes looked at me.

A fleeting gaze checking if I was alright.

I bowed deeply towards the Grand Duke.

‘Your Highness. You exceed my expectations.’

An eternity of tension and ecstatic longing was finally poured out towards the Empress standing before the platform. To be precise, towards the Emperor gazing at the Empress.

The Emperor looked down at the Empress for a long time without saying a word.

Numerous emotions flashed across his face, emotions one could not imagine an Emperor of a nation would show, like the tension of a young boy.

After a while, the Empress slightly lifted the hem of her skirt to pay her respects to the Emperor. Then she spoke.

A serene voice, like sweeping across a blue water surface, spread faintly throughout the hall.

“Francis Antoine, I greet Your Majesty, the Sun of the Empire. Where shall I go now? It is quite comfortable down here as well.”

The Emperor flinches.

“Shall we return if you wish, Your Majesty.”

“Wh-what are you saying! Come up here, Francis, no, Empress.”

The Emperor seemed tense. Of course, he was trying hard to maintain his usual dignity on the outside.

Arcadia whispered while looking at the Emperor and Empress.

“It’s been a full 12 years since they last met. Those two.”

He briefly told me the story intertwined between the two. The reason why the Emperor and Empress had grown apart.

‘I see. They are the ones who supported my father and mother.’

I couldn’t take my eyes off the Empress, drawn by an unknown pull.

The Empress slowly ascended to the platform and stood next to the Emperor. In an instant, it seemed as if the protagonist of Rucella Hall today had changed from Cecilia to the Empress.

The atmosphere in the hall changed.

“Empress, did you come after hearing the news? Now, look here.”

The Emperor pointed to Cecilia standing next to him. Cecilia was now pale to the point of pity, visibly trembling.

“Who is this child, Your Majesty.”

“This child may be our granddaughter. Look at those golden eyes resembling Mikhail. This child also knows the memories that only Mikhail and I share, Empress. Today, all that remains is to finally confirm through Rucella that this child carries the imperial bloodline.”

A breathless silence shifted to the Empress. Everyone was waiting for the Empress’s reaction.

However… For a moment, the Empress looked at the Emperor with a face that seemed on the verge of tears.

‘Was I the only one who felt it.’

“Deputy Commander, just now, Her Majesty the Empress had an expression as if she was about to cry.”

“Huh?”

Arcadia stared intently at the Empress again.

“Not at all. She just continues to look beautiful and majestic.”

What was it, was that expression only visible to my eyes?

But the Emperor’s face looking at the Empress began to turn slightly pale.

The Empress spoke.

“Your Majesty. I beg your pardon, but this woman… does not resemble the Crown Prince at all in my eyes. Moreover, she does not resemble Agnes in any way either.”

“Do not utter that name!”

Suddenly, the Emperor’s voice rose.

The nobles began to whisper.

“Doesn’t resemble them? Indeed… I had thought the same.”

“The Emperor still harbors hatred for the Saint of the Ruined Nation.”

A chill settled in a corner of my heart.

The Empress said.

“Your Majesty. I have lived for over a decade yearning for the faces of those children. Though I have not seen them, there is no reason I would not recognize them. This woman… does not seem to be the one.”

The Emperor’s face contorted.

That’s when it happened.

“Your Majesty! Please spare my life! I have committed a sin deserving of death!!”

Cecilia prostrated herself and began to wail. At that, the Marquis of Shumael and his wife also prostrated themselves below the platform.

“What are you doing? Cecilia!”

When the startled Emperor tried to make Cecilia stand up, it happened.

“Your Majesty! This lowly one, this unworthy one who does not even deserve to set foot here, has deceived you! Please kill me! I… I did not intentionally do it, but I was under hypnosis and mistakenly believed I was the real princess! I did not deliberately lie! I was also deceived by the hypnosis!”

Cecilia crawled on her knees, shedding tears like a madwoman.

“I am not someone like a princess. I was wrong, Your Majesty! I was deceived! It is unjust, Your Majesty!”

Cecilia pleaded with the Emperor, clasping her hands together.

The Marchioness of Shumael also pleaded tearfully.

“Your Majesty! We only found out this morning as well! There seems to be someone behind the scenes who hypnotized Cecilia into believing she was the real princess! We… we have also been deceived!”

In an instant, the hall turned into chaos.

‘Ah…’

I suppressed a groan that felt like it would burst.

“That… that can’t be.”

The Emperor mutters.

On the platform, Lahert’s face, who was holding Rucella, also turned pale. I glared at him.

‘You are the one who cast the hypnosis, and the hypnosis on Cecilia has been lifted. Silver-tongued snake, what will you do now?’

“That can’t be!”

The enraged Emperor roughly threw the diamond box covering the sacred sword.

Then he picked up Rucella from inside. The tip of the long silver blade glinted in the sunlight entering the hall.

“Kyaaaaah!”

Cecilia screamed, thinking he was going to kill her.

“The blood… Just a little prick will reveal it. Show me your wrist!”

The Emperor shouted.

“I was wrong, Your Imperial Majesty. I am not the princess! I am just an orphan who came to the capital in search of work! I have younger siblings waiting for me! Please spare my life!”

“Cecilia… Cecilia, give me your wrist! It won’t hurt, just a little prick will tell! Rucella may turn golden! Hurry!”

“Your Majesty!”

The Empress called out to the Emperor in distress.

The Emperor holding the sacred sword looked like a madman.

“More people will die again.”

“Even Her Majesty the Empress cannot stop him!”

The murmurs of the nobles could be heard.

That’s when it happened.

“Your Majesty, may I assist you.”

The Grand Duke of the North spoke.

As he opened his mouth, the nobles who were noisily chattering closed their mouths. Even those who were moving their lips until the end closed their mouths at the Grand Duke’s fierce gaze upon them.

The Emperor retorted sharply.

“Assist me? What can you do?”

“Your Majesty. As your humble subject, I will serve your Rucella.”

“Serve Rucella?”

The Emperor’s face contorted.

The Empress said.

“Come up, Grand Duke.”

At those words, the Grand Duke ascended to the platform. Then he knelt before Cecilia, who was half out of her mind, and met her eyes.

“I will make it painless. It will only take a moment.”

At the Grand Duke’s calm voice, Cecilia’s wailing gradually subsided. Then she looked at the Grand Duke with a frightened face, as if pleading.

The Grand Duke turned his body towards the Emperor while still kneeling.

“Your Majesty. May this lowly one, Belfast, be granted permission to draw the sword for a moment. I will inflict a small wound on this person’s body.”

Only then did the Emperor seem to understand the situation. The Emperor looks down at the Grand Duke with a complex expression.

Arcadia muttered.

“He has no choice but to allow it. Going in bowing like that.”

“…I grant you permission, Grand Duke Belfast.”

“This subject is eternally grateful, Your Majesty.”

The Grand Duke drew his own sword from its sheath.

– Shing

The cold steel drawn by the Grim Reaper of the battlefield revealed itself with a crying sound. The Grand Duke lightly grazed the inside of Cecilia’s elbow, the part that folds when the arm is bent, with the tip of that sword.

Red blood began to flow on her white flesh. The Grand Duke raised that arm in front of the Emperor.

“It is ready, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor brought the tip of Rucella to that blood with trembling hands.

A breathless silence followed. And finally… The Emperor put down Rucella.

The sacred sword remained silver no matter how much time passed, never turning golden.

A heavy silence pressed down on the hall.

The one who broke the silence was Medeia.

“Your Majesty! I, Medeia Lahert, cannot forgive that woman who deceived you! As you have just permitted, allow the Laherts to punish that woman and the Shumael family!”

The Emperor was silent. He merely dropped the arm holding Rucella with a face that seemed to have lost the will to live.

“Pl-please spare me! Your Majesty! I was also deceived… I was wrong, Your Majesty. Please forgive me. It is unjust! I was put under hypnosis…”

Cecilia sobbed with a voice that now seemed to have run out of tears.

Then Medeia shouted.

“Can’t you shut that mouth! Your Majesty, give the order at once! You must order her beheading at once! A lowly being daring to insult the imperial family, she cannot be allowed to live!”

“That’s right… insulting me.”

The Emperor muttered.

“Your Majesty! It is unjust! We have also been deceived by the one who hypnotized Cecilia! Please clearly uncover the truth and find the one behind that woman!”

The Marquis of Shumael cried out. Then Lahert shouted.

“Marquis Shumael! Do you dare to commit such an act and still hope to save your life! Your Majesty! Please get rid of them so they can no longer cloud your mind!”

That’s when it happened.

“Grand Duke, shut that mouth!!”

The Empress shouted.

Despite not being a loud voice, the majesty and authority in that voice instantly gripped the entire hall.

The startled Lahert stared at the Empress with wide eyes.

The Empress said.

“Are you daring to urge His Majesty to kill the people pleading their innocence without even investigating the truth? Are you telling him to get rid of such a grave matter of deceiving the imperial family without proper investigation.”

The Empress’s low voice, like a winter lake, froze the air in the hall.

The Emperor, who had been blankly dropping his sword, turned his head towards the Empress.

“Your Majesty the Empress, that is not it at all… We are humbly requesting to punish those who dared to insult the imperial family.”

Lahert bowed his head and added to the Empress’s words.

“Is that so. Then do you have no intention of uncovering and punishing those behind the ones who dared to insult the imperial family, Grand Duke Lahert.”

“!”

“Are you telling His Majesty to become a sun that does not care for the grievances of the people.”

The Empress’s words pierced even the heart.

Lahert replied.

“Your Majesty, my thoughts were shallow. In considering His Majesty’s painful feelings first…”

Venomous words.

He is implying that the Empress does not consider the Emperor’s feelings.

The Empress said.

“His Majesty is the Empire itself. Grand Duke, are you daring to presume the heart of the Empire in advance.”

“!”

At the Empress’s low words, Lahert knelt on one knee.

“How could that be, Your Majesty the Empress! I failed to fathom your wise insight.”

“Then why don’t we ask that woman directly?”

Medeia politely bowed her head towards the Empress on the platform, then asked Cecilia.

“Cecilia, who is behind you? Who has been supporting you?”