“Wait. I’ll make Prince Orent the same as the duke.”

The serial scalper added with a mischievous smirk.

“I, I don’t have a taste for getting rid of other people’s hair!”

“Ah. Our princess’s taste was not for hair but for blowing up something else.”

Something else…?

After failing to understand the meaning for a moment, I belatedly realized.

“No!”

As I shouted, Anselot burst into laughter.

‘He seems to find it fun to tease me.’

Just a moment ago, he looked quite upset, but now he laughed every time he poked me.

“You said you were waiting for my heart to change.”

“It would be foolish to just wait without effort.”

“Making elder brother Orent and Duke Hamilton bald is a bribe for my heart to change?”

That idea was a little funny, so I giggled.

Then, I suddenly noticed Anselot staring at me blankly and tilted my head.

“Huh? Anselot?”

“Ah.”

He blinked, coming to his senses.

“I’m sorry, I was lost in thought for a moment.”

He quickly changed his expression and replied as if nothing had happened.

“Well, I won’t refuse the bribe. But no matter how much bribe you give, I won’t give in.”

“Oh my, you’re needlessly upright.”

When he showed his will not to proceed with the scenario again, Anselot grumbled.

“Of course. Despite how I look, I’m an imperial of Azester.”

“Then how about this?”

Anselot took something out of his pocket and showed it to me.

My eyes widened as I recognized it right away.

“This is…!”

It was an unused low-grade Horn Flute!

“Where did you find it?”

“It was piled up in a secret space inside Duke Hamilton’s bedroom.”

“…!”

Anselot added with a smirk.

“I found it while going to pour baldness potion on that bastard.”

“…!”

I was so surprised that I kept opening and closing my mouth, forgetting to speak.

‘Why would Duke Hamilton have Horn Flutes….’

Suddenly, a bad assumption crossed my mind.

‘Could it be.’

Elder brother Orent and elder sister Gloria were rivals for the succession to the throne.

Then, I heard that elder brother Orent recently subdued the magical beasts that appeared at the border excellently, and after that, the magical beasts no longer appeared, raising elder brother Orent’s position a little more.

The gossips who loved to spread rumors would say that at this rate, elder brother Orent would be appointed as the next crown prince.

‘So, in fact, it’s not that the naturally occurring magical beasts were scared of elder brother Orent and disappeared…’

My face froze coldly as I stared at the Horn Flute in Anselot’s hand.

‘Originally, magical beasts were summoned using Horn Flutes in places where they could not occur naturally.’

People would have praised it as elder brother Orent’s achievement after the showy subjugation using Horn Flutes and the magical beasts no longer appearing.

Duke Hamilton would have exaggerated that rumor…

‘These… trash!’

No matter how important the imperial power is, sacrificing powerless imperial citizens!

It was said that until elder brother Orent went to subjugate, the small villages at the border had suffered many casualties for a while.

It made sense that there were so many low-grade Horn Flutes piled up at the Dark Guild Store.

They probably couldn’t even think of using mid-grade Horn Flutes. Orent’s power would never be able to defeat mid-grade magical beasts.

I wasn’t sure if Orent and Duke Hamilton were really related to the system administrator or not.

But I couldn’t just sit back and watch.

I wasn’t a particularly righteous person, and I had no intention of interfering in the succession battle between elder sister Gloria and elder brother Orent.

But if someone like Orent becomes the emperor…

‘The Azester Empire that I love will be ruined.’

How do I inform Mother about this?

It was dangerous to recklessly go and inform her of the truth without evidence.

‘First, I need to let them know that there are Horn Flutes that summon magical beasts, and also…’

While biting my lower lip hard and pondering how to reveal this fact, Anselot asked me.

“How is it, is this a pretty good bribe this time?”

“Yes!”

I grabbed Anselot’s hand holding the Horn Flute and nodded.

“It’s truly the best bribe, Anselot.”

He flinched for a moment, then soon laughed.

“I’m glad to be of help to you, Princess.”

Anselot chuckled and handed the Horn Flute to me.

Meanwhile, Duke Hamilton, who had been suffering after becoming bald overnight, could no longer delay his appointment with the emperor and entered the palace by carriage.

He found and wore a wig that was as similar to his original hair as possible, but since rumors had already spread, people were all whispering as they looked at him.

As he took steps, trying to ignore the gazes directed at him, a wind blew from somewhere.

Whoosh—

His wig fell to the ground with a thud.

“Gasp! Duke!”

His attendants and knights were surprised and ran to him.

“Why are you all staring as if there’s some spectacle!”

The duke, whose face turned red in an instant, shouted and quickly picked up the wig, wearing it and fleeing the scene.

As he entered the audience chamber, Empress Christine, who was sitting on the high seat, nodded to greet him.

Although she was in her mid-forties, Christine still retained her beauty.

Originally, she was the youngest of the twelve children of the previous emperor, but she ascended to the position of empress with outstanding ability.

After becoming the empress, she sent all her older siblings far from the capital and established a centralized system based on strong imperial power.

Duke Hamilton was one of the few nobles who were mentioned as candidates for the empress’s husband in his youth.

However, the empress declared that she would not marry.

And as if to prove her words, even after having children with some nobles, she only gave imperial status to her children. She did not give even the slightest affection to their fathers.

After giving birth to Princess Luibel, she no longer shared a bed with men.

Thus, Duke Hamilton had no choice but to give up on becoming the empress’s husband.

Instead, he lived with the lifelong goal of placing Orent on the throne.

That’s why when the empress bestowed the Azester Sword to Luibel at the last birthday ball, he was the one who opposed it the most.

However, his heart that admired the empress in his youth remained the same, so he didn’t want to show her his bald appearance.

“I pay my respects to Her Majesty the Empress, the brightest sun of the Azester Empire.”

“Yes.”

The empress replied curtly, looking down at Duke Hamilton with a bored face.

Her attitude contained her displeasure at not wanting to have a long conversation.

She was already displeased with Duke Hamilton’s behavior of opposing her at the ball, and she was thoroughly displeased with him for delaying the scheduled audience appointment once.

Duke Hamilton presented the gift he had prepared to appease the empress.

“It’s humble, but I prepared it to present to Your Majesty.”

Although it had only been two days since receiving the birthday gift, the empress tended not to refuse gifts that came to her.

The empress’s chief attendant received the gift on her behalf, brought it to the empress, and opened the lid.

And what came out of it was…

“A Horn Flute?”

“…!”

Duke Hamilton’s heart sank in an instant.

A Horn Flute came out of the gift box he had prepared for the empress.

‘Why is that here?’

The gift he prepared today was an ordinary accessory.

Putting aside the matter of how the gift boxes were switched, it was an item that should never catch the empress’s eye.

That Horn Flute was smuggled through a reliable route by him, and it had the function to summon weak magical beasts.

Using the Horn Flute, he summoned magical beasts in the border areas and had Orent and the knights of the Hamilton Duchy eliminate the beasts to solidify Orent’s position.

If the empress found out about this truth, not only Orent’s succession to the throne but even the lives of the father and son would be in danger.

“What is this?”

The empress asked, raising one eyebrow crookedly.

She seemed puzzled by the old and shabby appearance that was somewhat lacking to present to the empress.

However, it was not something he could say he had prepared the wrong gift to the empress, who was already in a bad mood.

It was a gift presented to none other than the empress.

Preparing such a gift incorrectly could be seen as insulting the empress.

“Your Majesty, this is a Horn Flute made by carving the bones of the magical beast that Prince Orent defeated.”

Fortunately, Duke Hamilton was someone who could improvise well.

“I thought Your Majesty, as Prince Orent’s mother, would be pleased with your son’s trophy…”

He blurted out whatever he could to get out of the situation.

Indeed, the empress’s raised eyebrow was seen returning to its place.

“However, it is too shabby to present to Your Majesty, so if you command, I will prepare a new gift…”

“No.”

The empress replied curtly and gestured to the chief attendant.

“Is there a suitable place to display the duke’s gift?”

“There is space in the 3rd reception room.”

“Then move it there and keep it.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The chief attendant moved Duke Hamilton’s gift elsewhere.

Duke Hamilton was so nervous about the Horn Flute that he ended the private meeting with the empress without even knowing what he was saying.

He couldn’t even bring up the story he originally wanted to tell about the Azester Sword.

‘It will be a big problem if the empress finds out the purpose of that Horn Flute.’

The empress was a quick-witted woman.

She didn’t seem to have noticed the true nature of the Horn Flute yet, so he had to hurry and retrieve it.

After finishing the audience, Duke Hamilton immediately went to find Orent.

“We have a big problem, Orent. The Horn Flute…”

Orent also got up from his seat in surprise after hearing the whole story.

“How did you manage the item to make such a mistake!”

“This is not the time, Orent. We need to get it back before Her Majesty finds out about the Horn Flute.”

In the end, the father and son took a reckless action to retrieve the Horn Flute.

They infiltrated the 3rd reception room, which only imperial family members could access.

Officially, the 3rd reception room was a place used when the empress met with imperial family members who were not her direct descendants.

However, the current empress’s siblings were almost driven far from the capital, so it had hardly been used for nearly twenty years.

Naturally, the security was also lacking.

Thanks to Orent’s identity as a prince, they succeeded in infiltrating the 3rd reception room without much noise.

The Horn Flute that Duke Hamilton had gifted was beautifully displayed on a shelf.

They hid the Horn Flute in their sleeves and quickly took it out.

Unlike the tension, it went surprisingly smoothly.

Orent and Duke Hamilton had just come out of the empress’s storage and were catching their breath in the corridor.

Tap, tap.

The sound of someone’s footsteps came from the opposite side. It was not one person but several people.

Duke Hamilton and Orent tried to hurriedly change direction.

“Elder brother Orent?”

But a woman of peerless beauty with cherry blossom-colored hair greeted Orent faster.

The 3rd Princess Luibel. And…

“Duke Hamilton? Why are you here?”

It was Empress Christine.