The Crown Princess investiture ceremony was prepared smoothly for a while.

Before long, most of the work was finished, and all that remained was to send invitations to the nobles who would attend the ceremony.

As the heir apparent investiture ceremony is an important event that comes around only once in decades, generally as many people as possible were invited.

Since it was an occasion where the future ruler of the empire would be determined, the nobles also generally wished to participate.

If it were a normal situation, this time would have proceeded the same way, but……

“Sigh……”

Lost in thought, Veronica heaved a deep sigh.

This investiture ceremony needed to be conducted differently from the usual.

Now that it was uncertain what impulsive actions Siegfried might take, there was nothing more foolish than gathering the nobles in one place.

‘What if, while they are gathered, the provincial territories are invaded and it becomes difficult to respond?’

Or Siegfried could potentially massacre the gathered nobles.

So, in agreement with the emperor, it was decided to minimize the number of invitees as much as possible.

However, it was worrisome whether the nobles would quietly comply with this decision.

As it was a symbolic occasion, many would want to participate.

Who should be invited to minimize backlash from those not invited?

After much deliberation, Veronica began writing out the invitations.

Simultaneous with sending out the invitations, the emperor officially announced that the princess would soon be invested as Crown Princess.

The nobles of the empire were thrown into an uproar at the sudden announcement.

Those who recognized Veronica’s merits understood the emperor’s choice, but there were many who could not.

Thus, the emperor expected the nobles of Siegfried’s faction to immediately express their dissatisfaction.

However, the first person to seek him out was none other than his wife, the empress of the empire.

The empress, who visited suddenly, appeared terrified.

If it had been the emperor of the past, he might have asked worriedly what was wrong… but now he just watched the empress’s appearance with displeasure.

At first, the empress spoke in circles and demanded that the emperor’s guards be sent out.

However, when the emperor refused and maintained his silence, she belatedly got to the point.

“I heard the news that Veronica is to be invested as Crown Princess. Your Majesty, this absolutely must not happen. The princess… anyone but the princess.”

The emperor inwardly gave a hollow laugh.

How could she only say exactly what he had predicted from start to finish?

Suddenly, he recalled what Veronica had said.

That the empress had been brainwashed by Siegfried for a long time.

Seeing her trying to stop her only biological child from ascending to the position of Crown Princess, it seemed Veronica’s words were indeed correct.

The emperor showed no emotional reaction and calmly replied.

“I thought you would be the one most pleased to hear this news, but that reaction is unexpected.”

“If it had been me from not long ago, I might have been happy. But Your Majesty. The princess… there is something strange about the princess.”

The empress asserted that Veronica had shown bizarre behavior and attacked her, but the emperor did not focus much on this.

What he was concerned about was not the statement itself, but each and every action of the empress.

After all, he didn’t know when she, brainwashed by Siegfried, might suddenly act out against him.

‘The attack by former crown princess Leonie Schmidt must have been in that context.’

If he had known this a little earlier, he would not have made the foolish move of capturing the Marquis and Marchioness Schmidt and handing them over to Siegfried, but that was too late now.

The best he could do now was to be wary of humans brainwashed by demons.

The emperor checked once more for the presence of his guards before speaking.

“It seems you must have seen a hallucination. With evil demonic beings revealing themselves, how confused your mind must have been. It’s not unreasonable for such delusions to arise. I will have my doctor attend to you.”

“…Someday you will regret not believing me today.”

The empress said that and left.

After that incident, she did not visit again, but instead the nobles noisily protested.

Mainly the nobles of Siegfried’s faction disparaged the princess and claimed she was not suitable for the throne, but the emperor thoroughly ignored this.

Although the content of the accusations was quite specific and might have been believable, now that he knew Siegfried was not human, there was no need to pay attention to such rumors.

Setting aside the fact that it was not in the princess’s nature to do such things, he had no intention of handing over the throne to someone who wasn’t even human.

Despite the pressure from the nobles, when the emperor did not bend his will, this time the protagonist himself appeared.

The emperor quietly observed Siegfried’s appearance, encountering him for the first time since his previous visit.

‘Last time he acted favorably… I wonder how he will be this time.’

The news that Veronica would be invested as Crown Princess must have reached his ears as well, so he was likely quite displeased at present.

It wouldn’t be strange if he attacked right now.

Although he had prepared for danger to some extent, it was natural to be tense. The emperor carefully opened his mouth.

“Your visit is later than I expected. I thought you would come immediately upon hearing the news.”

“The news… you mean regarding the Crown Princess investiture. I heard that some nobles are opposing it. However, my case is different. I dare not feel discontented with Your Majesty’s choice.”

Siegfried smiled brightly.

That dignified appearance made it hard to believe that an ugly demon was hiding inside.

“I thought you were aiming for the Crown Prince position, was that not the case?”

“…Of course, it’s not that I never thought it would be nice to have the glory of leading the empire.”

“And yet?”

“When even I know how great my sister is, how could I oppose Your Majesty’s choice?”

The emperor, listening intently to Siegfried’s words, became suspicious.

His attitude was much more favorable than expected.

‘It seems he still doesn’t realize that I’ve noticed his true identity.’

Otherwise, there would be no need to hide his true intentions like this.

It was fortunate for the emperor.

However, just a few minutes later, the emperor realized that it had all been his own delusion.

“I thought it was a disease that could never be solved by human power. But somehow my sister found a cure. For a human to show such potential, even I was surprised and had to acknowledge it.”

The emperor’s expression hardened without him realizing it.

Seeing him subtly reveal his identity, Siegfried had already noticed the entire situation.

Noticing that subtle change in expression, Siegfried smiled again.

Unlike earlier when he was full of dignity, now his upturned lips seemed to exude a vicious demonic aura.

“Your Majesty, I am rather looking forward to the day of the investiture ceremony. It will be a very special day when a new wind blows into the empire.”

Leaving behind only a meaningful atmosphere, Siegfried walked out.

The emperor could only darkly ponder his words.

With only a week left until the investiture ceremony,

I checked the calendar with an uneasy heart.

For the past few weeks, the empire had been peaceful with little commotion.

The only topic of conversation was the heir apparent investiture ceremony, with no major incidents occurring.

The demon attacks had stopped for quite some time, and the disease that had been killing people was gradually disappearing.

On the surface, the empire seemed to have regained peace, but in reality, people’s hearts were filled with an ominous sense of stillness.

And it was the same for me as well.

With each passing day, my heart grew more impatient.

If only the demons had been making small attacks, I might not have felt this way.

Their current unusually docile behavior was clearly for the purpose of conserving strength.

So I couldn’t let my guard down.

The demons would show themselves again when they were confident they could completely dominate the empire.

It would be good if we could preemptively stop them before they resumed their activities… but unfortunately, that was impossible.

Because I didn’t have the item needed to deal with Siegfried in my hands.

The holy sword. The only weapon that could completely annihilate the Demon King.

Until I got my hands on it, I could never kill Siegfried.

So I wanted to avoid conflict with him as much as possible, but…

‘We’ve been lucky to avoid clashing so far, but how long will this peace last?’

In the original story, it was still far from the time when the demons would officially invade the empire.

However, due to my actions, the original flow had changed too much.

I had to assume that the timing of his invasion had been moved up as well.

So I needed to get the holy sword in hand before the event occurred, but…

The problem was that the holy sword was still in a sealed state.

Moreover, it was stored in a temple in the dragon realm, not the human realm, so I couldn’t easily check its status.

Melphis had promised to look into how to break the seal, but… given the lack of news, it seems he hasn’t succeeded yet.

“…I wonder what Melphis is doing now.”

Muttering to myself, I looked up at the sky for no reason.

It would be nice if I could hear even a small piece of news, but unfortunately there were no means of communication that could be used between the dragon realm and the human realm.

So since the day I returned to the human realm, I hadn’t been able to contact him at all.

‘He said he would bring the holy sword right away once he broke the seal.’

Until that moment arrived, all I could do was wait for him.

‘If I had known it would be like this, I should have waited in the dragon realm and brought the holy sword back.’

For a moment I felt regret, but I shook my head to brush off the useless thoughts.

If I had done that, I might have lost Ren to Siegfried’s hands and been unable to cure the disease spreading among the people.

So my choice was not wrong. I wanted to believe that.