Countess and Count Epilton were imprisoned in the imperial palace dungeon with Duke and Duchess Romang.

But when they opened their eyes, only the Count and Countess had been transferred to a different underground location.

“Hmm. What to do.”

Kashar hummed.

He had been pondering while riding in the carriage with Aileen earlier.

How to punish the scoundrels who dared to harm his belongings.

Kashar stroked his chin.

Then, Mikhail next to him asked,

“What about Duke and Duchess Romang?”

“Let’s leave them alone for now. They were close to the empress, so it’s best to gradually choke them.”

The Count and Countess had been used to harm Aileen.

Though the ingredients should have been immediately crushed, Duke and Duchess who planned the matter had to realize what living pain was.

Duke and Duchess Romang will be released after spending half their fortune.

Then they will sever the reached businesses one by one, forcing them into debt.

If they are eventually abandoned by the empress, it will be quite a sight.

“The working period… 1 year should be sufficient. If they go completely bankrupt, the Duchess will be on a slave ship, and the Duke will be left on the street.”

Eventually, the bankrupt Duke and Duchess will flee in the dead of night to escape their debt. No one would suspect it at that time.

It was a madman’s scenario to completely dry a person’s blood.

And the one to bring Kashar’s plan into reality was Mikhail.

“I will carry it out.”

The lieutenant obeyed the command.

Soon Kashar’s eyes reached the Count and Countess again.

“I’ve come back to quite a scene while I was gone.”

To whip a woman I keep as a lover.

The empress’s gall, carried on the emperor’s back, was growing.

Kashar had left his seat at the banquet momentarily because of the emperor’s call.

‘Did you perform Viviana’s rites well?’

‘There was no problem.’

Kashar answered Dios’s question.

It was a subtle answer, but Dios did not ask further.

Kashar laughed at him inwardly.

Viviana, a woman Dios once loved, had gone mad, failing to recognize him, and even rejected him.

Dios could not accept that, and Wayeno, who was once a concubine, gathered up the weakened emperor.

And at the end of Kashar’s madness, Dios finally made a decision.

‘Depose Empress Viviana and Crown Prince Kashar.’

Viviana was confined to a tower, and Kashar was sent to the battlefield.

But the emperor overlooked something.

It was Viviana’s death.

‘He didn’t even expect the one he abandoned to die.’

Viviana’s cause of death was suicide.

The emperor’s guilt began from that day.

But he did not fully accept his sin either.

‘The sniveling look of not admitting it.’

The emperor denied the guilt itself.

While keeping Wayeno at a distance, he took her side in any circumstance, even when she was in trouble.

It was a way not to admit his own sin.

Having finished his report, Kashar tried to withdraw from the emperor.

But the one who followed him was the emperor.

‘A banquet is being held in the empress’s palace.’

It was a sudden decision.

But Kashar easily guessed the emperor’s thoughts.

‘It’s because of Aileen.’

Kashar was also included in the emperor’s guilt.

His curiosity was aroused by the woman embraced by the son he had once banished.

So the two headed for the empress’s palace.

Unaware of what was happening there.

‘It’s fortunate that the emperor followed.’

Kashar, who had cut off the whip aimed at Aileen’s back, murmured inwardly.

If the emperor hadn’t been there, he would have not only broken the knight’s neck but ripped off his head.

The timing was also good. The whip hadn’t yet wounded Aileen.
‘I almost lost my mind.’

The moment he grasped the whip, his head swayed.

It was a signal just before madness.

A body eroded by madness cannot distinguish people. Only slaughter. That’s all.

The only reason he could maintain his sanity for a moment was all because of Aileen.

‘There was also the reason of having consumed food.’

The flatshaped food and liquor he had tasted on the balcony.

What Aileen had presented brought a special flavor to Kashar, who had long lost his senses.

No delicacy could pierce the taste taken away by poison.

Only the food she made reached Kashar.

But.

‘Strangely, it seems that’s not all.’

Aileen’s scent and her body temperature, both were affecting him.

He wanted to touch more.

But Aileen escaped his embrace, bringing up their contract.

It was the same just before the madness burst.

He was able to straighten his mind because of Aileen’s gaze.

The moment their eyes met, his boiling head calmed instantly.

It was a truly strange sensation.

“Why is it like that?”

Kashar muttered to himself.

Why does he want to touch so much?

But no matter how much he pondered, he could not know the reason.

He continued to be lost in thought.

But in the eyes of those around him, it was not so.

“I was completely wrong! Please spare my life…!”

The count, who thought Kashar was considering how to kill him, clung to his feet, begging in agony.