In the deep darkness, it was impossible to know how much time had passed.

‘The trial was supposed to be held. Will I be able to get out then?’

Vivian, who had been sitting against the prison wall, sighed.

‘What will happen to me from now on?’

Throughout her imprisonment, she had pondered ways to escape, but couldn’t come up with any good ideas.

She had tried to break the restraints, thinking that would be enough, but unfortunately failed.

For now, she was waiting for the trial to begin, but was essentially in a state of resignation.

‘The trial will probably go against me anyway.’

Considering Siegfried’s meticulousness, the judge was likely already one of his people.

‘Of course, they’ll seek a heavy sentence.’

If only given the chance to remove the restraints midway, she might be able to escape.

Of course, it was difficult to expect such an opportunity to come.

But then. Along with a bright light, someone’s footsteps echoed through the previously dark prison.

‘Can I finally go outside?’

She thought someone had come to take her to the courtroom, but the person who came to see Vivian was an unexpected figure.

‘Why is Princess Veronica here…?’

A guard knight was also visible behind her.

Unable to grasp the intention of the visit at all, Vivian silently waited for her to speak first.

“From your expression, it seems you’re curious about why I came.”

“That’s right.”

“I’m not sure why I came to see you either.”

She had come to see Vivian without a clear purpose, but Veronica was also confused, unable to gauge her own intentions.

Due to the variable of the handsome men kidnapping incident, she had become even further from the throne.

‘Do I want to blame her for this?’

No. That didn’t seem to be it.

Veronica was tired. Too tired to even feel like blaming or hating Vivian.

Though she didn’t know what she wanted to do, one thing was certain amidst it all.

She was curious about why Vivian had caused such an absurd incident, and what her intentions were.

“What was your reason for causing the kidnapping incident? No matter how much I think about it, I can’t understand the reason.”

She had specifically selected and confined only handsome men, allowing them to spend a luxurious month.

People jokingly said it was because the culprit liked handsome men, but to the princess’s eyes, it didn’t seem to be such a simple reason.

From their previous meeting, she had guessed that Vivian wasn’t the type of strong-hearted person who would cause a criminal incident for such a simple reason.

There must have been some special reason, without a doubt.

‘Is it that I want to believe that?’

Perhaps she didn’t want to think that she had lost the Emperor’s trust due to something done as a mere prank without any particular purpose.

“Because of that incident, my position has become even more precarious. You must know this too. It means Prince Siegfried’s chances of becoming Emperor have increased.”

In truth, Veronica hadn’t coveted the throne.

She only cared for the people of the Empire, and would have been satisfied if she could live implementing policies for them, even if she wasn’t the Emperor.

But when she was young, she accidentally learned something she shouldn’t have known.

That Siegfried was not human, but a demon.

Furthermore, that he had the intention of devouring the Empire.

However, even if she told anyone this fact, it was obvious that no one would believe her.

Demons were merely imaginary beings to people.

Even if she claimed Siegfried was a demon, it would be dismissed as nonsense.

So Veronica had tried to become Emperor by any means.

She wanted to attain a position where she could openly drive out Siegfried and protect her beloved Empire from him.

But now, she was about to lose the throne to him instead.

“Are you on Siegfried’s side?”

The prince had succeeded in a single attempt at catching the culprit that she had failed to do for a long time.

She even thought that all of this might have been prepared by Siegfried from the beginning.

It was a reasonable deduction in its own way. After all, Siegfried had risen up after the kidnapper’s appearance.

At Veronica’s continued questioning, Vivian finally opened her mouth.

“That’s not the case, Your Highness. Rather, I’m closer to being on your side.”

“…Are you trying to mock me?”

Since Vivian had started her kidnapping activities, Veronica’s reputation had only plummeted. Vivian must have known this fact.

“No, it’s not a lie. We are on the same side. You want to protect the people of the Empire, don’t you? From the demon.”

Demon?

The princess’s eyes widened at the sudden word.

‘Does she know about their existence? No, more than that, how did she notice that I know about the existence of demons?’

She needed to hear the detailed story.

“Trian, wait outside.”

“Pardon? Your Highness. I can’t do that. This person is a heinous criminal. It’s dangerous.”

“Now.”

At Veronica’s urging, Trian reluctantly went outside.

Finally, the situation was suitable to hear the story.

“I don’t know how much Your Highness knows, but I am an apostle of God.”

The term ‘apostle of God’ was certainly one she had seen in ancient books.

Since the day Veronica learned that Siegfried was a malicious being, she had searched countless books to reveal his true identity in detail.

After a long investigation, she was finally able to discover through an ancient book hidden deep in the palace library that Siegfried was a demon.

And she had also read about apostles in that book.

“I received power from God in exchange for bearing the fate of fighting against demons.”

From then on, Vivian continued to explain about herself.

From the circumstances of the serial handsome men kidnapping incident to what had happened with Siegfried.

A statement too specific to be considered a lie. Moreover, it was consistent with what she had investigated through ancient books.

After talking for a long time, Vivian said with a resolute expression.

“Your Highness, please help me. We must fight against the demon together.”

Veronica fell into contemplation about whether she should believe the woman before her or not.

Returning to her office, Veronica immediately took her seat at the desk.

“Trian, what’s the schedule for Vivian Schmidt’s trial?”

“The first trial is scheduled for tomorrow.”

Generally, it took a long time to prepare for trials, but given the nature of the case, it seemed to be proceeding quickly.

“Bring me all the related documents.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Before long, her desk was filled with all sorts of documents.

She turned the pages with a serious look, examining each letter in detail.

Looking closely at the evidence submitted by Siegfried and the names of the judges, she could easily realize.

‘At this rate, Vivian Schmidt will be sentenced to life imprisonment or death.’

The verdict of the serial handsome men kidnapping case would vary drastically depending on who the judge was.

It could be considered the worst crime that produced numerous victims, but on the other hand, there were also aspects that made it ambiguous to be seen as a crime.

The problem was…

The assigned judge was none other than Muino Scovilt.

Known to people as an impartial judge, but Veronica knew.

In reality, he was corruptly colluding with Siegfried.

In other words, having Muino as the judge meant the verdict would go as Siegfried wanted.

‘Siegfried would want Vivian to be executed.’

He wouldn’t miss such an opportunity to kill God’s apostle without dirtying his own hands.

‘Of course, I can’t let that happen…’

After listening to Vivian’s long story, Veronica’s conclusion was to help her.

At first, she had considered the possibility that Vivian’s words might be lies.

‘She introduced herself as God’s apostle, but it’s difficult to trust that unconditionally.’

Knowing that much detail about demons meant she was either truly God’s apostle, or in fact on the demon’s side.

Nevertheless, what made her believe Vivian a little was that she had first mentioned a certain incident.

In her childhood, Veronica first learned about the existence of demons on a late night.

She had been unable to sleep that day and was going to ask the Empress to help her sleep.

Then she witnessed something she shouldn’t have seen.

It was the scene of Siegfried transforming into a demon and brainwashing her mother.

The sight of her mother writhing as if in pain was still vivid in her mind.

Frightened, she fled from that place, and fortunately, this wasn’t noticed by Siegfried.

‘If I had been caught, he would have tried to eliminate me immediately.’

From that incident, Veronica had begun her solitary fight.

She searched through ancient books to find out that what she saw that night was a creature called a demon, and sought to protect the Empire from it.

But Vivian had mentioned this incident first. Adding the explanation that God had shown her that scene.

So Veronica decided to help Vivian in this trial for now.

‘It’s too early to fully trust her, but I won’t lose anything by giving that much help.’

They agreed to fully side with each other after some time had passed and Vivian had fulfilled the conditions she mentioned.

‘So what I need to do right now is to resolve her crisis.’

Fortunately, she knew how to do that.

Despite being busy investigating the kidnapping case, Veronica had continued to pay attention to other matters.

She had steadily gathered useful information and evidence, including some related to the corruption of the assigned judge, Muino Scovilt.

‘The only way is to threaten him with evidence of his corruption and make him step down from the position of assigned judge.’

Threatening others wasn’t her preference, but there were moments when it had to be done.

The remaining task was… to fill that position with another suitable judge.

“Trian, among the judges, who might think favorably about the serial handsome men kidnapping case?”

“One person comes to mind immediately. Jerome Glenzin, isn’t he the one?”

It was a familiar name. That man who had been one of the victims of the serial handsome men kidnapping incident.

‘Come to think of it, that man had become a judge.’

Certainly, if it was Jerome, he would clearly have a favorable impression of the serial handsome men kidnapper.

‘I’ll have to pressure for Jerome Glenzin to become the assigned judge for the case.’

Having organized her thoughts, Veronica smiled faintly. It seemed like things would go well according to plan.