“Please… return to the temple now. The place where you originally were. You will find it hard to stay here due to the stares of those around you.”

After the chaotic council meeting fell apart, Latrasil retreated to her office and made a decision after a considerable amount of contemplation. She decided to send her mother back to the temple.

She had chosen the temple deliberately, it was where her mother had been living before she came here.

Of course, anticipating a similar incident, she had also secretly decided to send people to keep an eye on the situation.

Latrasil loved, resented, and pitied her mother. She could neither punish nor forgive nor understand her.

She was most angry at her brother, but she did have some resentment towards her mother, hence she did not wish to face her mother for now. She decided that if one day her heart softened, they could live together again.

“Will you be okay?”

However, Hyacinth seemed worried that Latrasil’s decision was too lenient.

“The main culprit is Lean, but your mother is also an accomplice, after all.”

Latrasil shrugged her shoulders and straightened a piece of paper to write a letter to be sent to the temple.

“My mother, even knowing that Carlein is the King of Mercenaries, let me follow him.”

“What about Lean? What will you do with Lean?”

“I would love to trample him…”

As she was saying this, Latrasil forcefully opened the ink bottle’s cap, gritting her teeth. She applied too much force, causing a small crack on the cap.

“At this point, if I attack my brother, it will only seem like I’m venting my anger.”

“So what if it is venting.”

“I have already killed one of my halfbrothers.”

“But he survived.”

“People don’t know that. Thanks to Lean’s act of pretending to be killed, his supporters think he is pitiful. They think he did this because he was forced by his mother’s request since he is a filial son. We can’t ignore this considering the number of Lean’s supporters.”

Still, she could punish him if she really wanted to. After all, a wrongdoing is a wrongdoing.

However, during the party, a zombie appeared, the dead prince returned to life, and bodies were disappearing at the village level. In the midst of all this, if Latrasil severely punished another halfbrother after the last one, it would definitely make the atmosphere of the country eerie.

This eerie atmosphere might foster negative rumors about Latrasil. People overwhelmed by fear always look for a place to vent their anger.

Lean’s excuse that their mother led the event, and he only followed her to protect his younger sibling and save Latrasil worked because of the scholarly and peaceful image he had built over time.

On the contrary, Latrasil’s image was the exact opposite of Lean’s, and it didn’t help in this situation.

Latrasil wildly stirred the ink bottle with her pen and slammed the pen onto the letter paper. Black ink spread everywhere, creating black marks all over.

That perfectly described her current state of mind.

Hyacinth was of great help this time, but he couldn’t stay for long. He himself had a lot of things to deal with and investigate back in Karisen.

After Hyacinth, who stayed only for a day, left, Latrasil found the housekeeper and nanny who she had been curious about while she was on the run.

‘Had the two of them betrayed me to my brother?’

Before her mother left, she had warned Latrasil about the housekeeper.

“Count Sable initially said he would follow Lean’s will. Count Sable also knew about your father investigating you.”

“Did you know?”

“I knew, but I thought it was absurd.”

“….”

“However, while Count Sable said he would follow Lean’s will, he was trying to contact you. He was caught and put under house arrest.”

After her mother left for the temple, Latrasil found out that indeed the housekeeper had been working as usual at first, but a few days later, he was put under house arrest for allegedly helping a fugitive.

He probably tried to find Latrasil, not help the fugitive, but it seemed like they used the fugitive as an excuse publicly.

“Release Count Sable from house arrest, and when he is well rested and feeling better, tell him to come to me.”

What was fortunate was that the nanny had been on vacation from the beginning and had left the place.

The wet nurse, seemingly not one for persuasion like the Duke of Sable, made an excuse about working too long and not feeling well, and promptly took a vacation.

Given that her vacation would not last much longer, Latil decided not to call her just yet. After all, she had always been busy around her.

But against the order to come when she felt better, the steward came right away with the errand runner Latil had sent.

“Steward… You didn’t have to come right away. You should have rested a bit more.”

“I have rested enough, Your Majesty.”

Cooped up in the house, perhaps? Seeing the steward somewhat fatter than before, Latil murmured with admiration.

“Indeed. It does show.”