The evening when the Emperor returned from his secret journey.

Eight nobles seated in the Emperor’s second office were exchanging glances with grim faces.

As soon as the nobles were left alone in the office, they hastily began to converse.

The elder nobles of the capital, said to be so influential that even birds wouldn’t dare to fly over them, forgot their dignity and rolled their eyes in all directions, lowering their voices smaller than ants lest they be heard outside.

“We must deny it unconditionally.”

“Of course. This was a fact we were unaware of. Did you know?”

“At times like this, we must all unite to overcome the crisis. Not a single one of us can betray the others.”

“There will be absolutely no betrayal. If even one person confesses, not only us but all of our families will be reduced to dust.”

Despite holding vast wealth and power as elder noble families, their greed knew no bounds.

The nobles who benefited from the capital development plan no longer needed to farm or log after selling their territories to the imperial family at high prices.

The territorial residents who had made their living within their domains lost their livelihoods overnight without any compensation. They were driven out penniless, without the slightest sense of responsibility as lords towards their people.

With the enormous sums received as compensation, the elder nobles turned their eyes to wicked businesses, joining hands with notorious criminal organizations across the continent to operate loan sharking and prostitution rings.

They lent money to countless former territorial residents who had lost their livelihoods, inflating the debts with enormous interest, and then ensured they could not repay.

They presented those struggling with debt employment contracts tantamount to slave contracts to exploit their labor, or dragged them to brothels or sold them to foreign countries where slavery was practiced.

The large profits from illegal businesses did not need to be taxed, and the lower class commoners who could barely read or do math were an inexhaustible fountain from which they could profit. Their businesses now flourished beyond the capital and empire to the entire continent.

They had no reason to fall out of the Emperor’s favor, as they had diligently paid taxes on profits earned legally through investments in trade and mining.

While the Emperor paid attention to the empire’s borders, order, and public safety, he did not give attention to the lives of the lower class commoners. The nine elder nobles, including Baron Baron, knew they were safe as long as the former territorial residents remained outside the Emperor’s interest.

So they had driven them out to the outskirts of the thriving capital, exploiting and monitoring them.

“Let’s volunteer to pay 1.5 times more taxes to His Majesty the Emperor.”

“How about we offer to bear the cost of building a bridge to the satellite city next to the capital along with the taxes?”

“Let’s do that. Baron Baron was also a brave warrior who led the knights in numerous wars in his youth. A man who endured 2 years as a prisoner in a foreign country will never confess. He knows it’s over the moment he confesses.”

“Let’s unanimously claim that the story of him forcibly taking a young woman is a slander by the opposition. Even His Majesty the Emperor cannot ignore all of us.”

The nobles who had agreed on their story finally leaned back in their chairs with relieved expressions.

As the office door opened, the elder nobles hurriedly rose from their seats to pay their respects to the Emperor,

“His Majesty the Emperor said he wishes to show the esteemed guests something interesting and ordered them to be brought.”

Kyle the assistant entered the office alone and relayed the Emperor’s words.

“Wh-where are we going?”

“Weren’t we going to the outdoor theater?”

The nobles’ faces gradually darkened as they had expected to see the performance troupe that came from the Kingdom of Cadin last week when told they would be shown something interesting.

And for good reason, as their footsteps following Kyle the assistant were not heading towards the semicircular outdoor theater occupying the central rooftop of the imperial palace, but in the opposite direction, descending the stairs going down and down to the underground.

In front of the elder nobles who had never been to the underground of the imperial palace before, only spiral stairs twisting downwards where not even outside sunlight could reach were visible.

Thud. As they descended to the third basement floor, a huge stone door they didn’t even know existed closed heavily behind them.

The nobles, with startled expressions, tried to manage their faces as they followed the torches down one more floor.

“Th-this is…!”

As one of the group cried out as if remembering something, his face pale, the echo reverberated down the long corridor of the deep underground chamber.

The echo that bounced back in the deathly silent place eerily bored into their ears. When the other seven nobles also realized where they were, their faces contorted in an instant.

The torture chamber, hidden deep in the basement of the imperial palace, ill-fitting with the grand and splendid palace above.

They had heard it was where the greatest criminals in the empire were brought for interrogation. It was said to be the gate to hell used mainly to make those guilty of treason or foreign spies caught plotting confess their accomplices.

The nobles who had only heard rumors but never visited the place looked around the dim corridor visible under the torches.

On both walls along the long corridor, ordinary-sized chamber doors were arranged in a row.

There was a rumor that those brought into this torture chamber confessed their crimes and accomplices within half a day, but the nobles gathered here had never actually seen nobles dragged to the underground torture chamber.

Yet strangely, no sound could be heard from between the several doors. The fact that there were no screams or cries that should naturally be heard in a torture chamber somehow made the backs of their necks feel chilly.

Then, creak, the last door at the end of the corridor opened, and thud, thud.

Footsteps that felt heavy in the darkness drew closer, and a long silhouette appeared on the floor.

Even before his face entered the light, the elder nobles began to tremble, their knees weakening at the sight of his figure.

A handsome face with a gentle smile on his lips and not the slightest trace of displeasure emerged from the darkness. As if on cue, all eight knelt and pressed their foreheads to the floor.

“What are you doing down there? This makes it seem as if you have committed crimes and been dragged here. Quickly raise your heads and stand up.”

At the Emperor’s gentle voice, the nobles slowly rose and hurriedly tried to gauge the Emperor’s mood.

Unable to even bring up their offers to pay more taxes or build a bridge to please the Emperor, they just blinked and stared at the Emperor before them.

Cold sweat soaked through their clothes as they beheld a face more elegant and beautiful than the artworks hanging in the palace gallery, so eerily fitting with this dark and desolate place.

His red lips still curved in a smile opened to speak in a languid voice.

“I called you here to show you something good, so enjoy it with ease of mind.”

Pointing to a door on the right side of the corridor with his long thumb, he said,

“This is where the boss of the loan shark and brothel organization, your underlings, is…”

Then pointing to the door on the left, he said,

“That is where your business partner Baron Baron is. You decide which to go see first.”

His red eyes rippled with pleasure as he spoke again to the nobles before him in his still unchanged voice.

“Until now, I’ve tried not to enter the torture chamber myself. On days I enter, it becomes so deathly silent like this that it doesn’t feel like a torture chamber.”

The Emperor clicked his tongue in disapproval as he removed the red gloves he was wearing.

“For the boss of an infamous organization across the continent to be this weak-willed… I had expected a bit more resistance.”

Only then did the nobles realize that the leather gloves the Emperor had been wearing were originally cream-colored. The red boots he was wearing also showed a bit of their original brown color.

Urk, as one of the group dry heaved, the Emperor tilted his head slightly and raised one eyebrow.

“Come to think of it, didn’t Lord Charles participate in the Great War of Romar together with Baron Baron? I heard Baron Baron’s bravery pierced the heavens even in front of thousands of enemy soldiers.”

He clicked his tongue once more and said,

“It seems all those rumors were exaggerated. He confessed not only his own crimes but all of yours in detail less than an hour after entering the chamber with me. I thought he would last until tonight, but I’m a bit disappointed.”

“Your Majesty, we have committed a mortal sin! Please forgive us!”

The eight elder nobles prostrated themselves on the floor, crying out one after another.

A frosty voice flowed out low, striking down on their bowed napes.

“It may be hard to believe, but until now, I have not dealt with criminals based on personal emotions. They violated the empire’s laws, so of course I punished their crimes. But you are different. You have made me, as Emperor, very embarrassed.”

The Emperor slowly sat down cross-legged in front of them… and reached out a hand to grab one noble’s hair, lifting his head.

The count trembled, his jaw quivering, unable to even moan in terror as he faced the ice-cold red eyes that seemed about to pierce his heart.

The Emperor spoke softly through his teeth.

“Do not readily reveal the hidden ledgers and lists of accomplices like Baron Baron did. Absolutely do not say you will return the wealth you accumulated through corruption to the empire. The longer I stay with you in those chambers, the more my embarrassed mood seems likely to improve.”

The Emperor put on new cream-colored gloves brought by Kyle the assistant and jerked his chin. The imperial guards who received the Emperor’s signal dragged the wailing elder nobles into the chambers on the left side of the corridor.

As he walked towards the chamber, the Emperor asked Kyle,

“Are the preparations complete for the meeting regarding the slum residents and sold imperial citizens?”

“Yes, representatives from each administrative department have arrived and are waiting.”

When Kyle answered, the Emperor briefly said as he opened the chamber door and entered,

“Prepare tea to be sent. Let them know it will arrive before the tea cools.”

Afterwards, no sound leaked out from the chamber the Emperor had entered.

As the Emperor had said, he leisurely changed his clothes and headed to the first office before the tea sent to the officials cooled.

He had obtained confessions from every single one, as well as the locations of the ledgers and lists he wanted.

“We’ll start by giving proper compensation to the expelled territorial residents and finding solutions for their resettlement.”

Kyle the assistant, who had been listening attentively to the Emperor’s words, glanced at him and cautiously asked,

“But Your Majesty, are you serious?”

“About what?”

“About your promise not to help Lady Arabel in the competition.”

“That’s right.”

“Isn’t that too dangerous? What if you happen to fall…”

The Emperor’s red eyes turned and glared once disapprovingly. As he quickly returned his gaze forward, Kyle flinched and cleared his throat before speaking.

“O-of course, Lady Arabel will win. That’s what I believe.”

Kyle’s face reddened as he lied without even wetting his lips, and he asked again,

“But what if, by some chance, you fall and don’t win the competition?”

“What’s the problem with that?”

“How is that not a problem? If you don’t win the competition, won’t you be unable to become Empress?”

The Emperor furrowed his handsome brow and asked back,

“Who says that? That if Lady Arabel doesn’t win the competition, she can’t become Empress?”

“W-well, of course it’s the rules…? That’s why I was surprised when I heard Your Majesty promised not to help the lady during the competition.”

At Kyle’s words, the Emperor snickered and said,

“Even if she happens not to win the competition, Arabel will become Empress. I will make it so. No one will dare say a word against it.”

“What do you mean by that…? You promised not to help during the competition, didn’t you? It was Lady Arabel’s request, if you break the promise, she’ll be very disappointed.”

Somehow feeling like the conversation was going in circles, Kyle asked once more. The Emperor, standing in front of the office, raised one corner of his mouth and replied nonchalantly,

“You seem to be misunderstanding something. I promised the lady that I wouldn’t help her during the competition. However, I made no promise not to help her after the competition ends. If I didn’t promise, there’s nothing to keep, is there?”

As two office servants opened the doors on both sides, the officials waiting inside could be seen rising.

The Emperor’s meaning was… he had clearly promised not to help Arabel during the competition, but he had made no such promise about not helping her after the competition ended.

So, if Arabel happened to fall in the competition, he would place her on the Empress’s seat as he pleased.

The Emperor entered the office after patting the shoulder of Kyle, who stood dumbfounded as if he had been struck.