The imperial palace, the empire, was turned upside down.

Eleven corpses were discovered in the eastern ruins where no one visits.

Eight were women’s bodies and three were men’s.

Among the male corpses, one appeared to be a knight and two seemed to be servants.

And among the female corpses, four were wearing maid’s clothes and four appeared to be courtesans based on their attire.

The problem was that one of the maid corpses and three of the courtesan corpses were pregnant.

According to the imperial doctor’s explanation, two had been dead for a long time so it was impossible to determine how many weeks pregnant they were, another seemed to be about 20 weeks pregnant in the middle stage, and the last corpse was recently killed and clearly in early pregnancy.

The blonde corpse that caught the emperor’s eye was the one in early pregnancy.

“Your Majesty. You’re going to reprimand me… Surely not about the fire today?”

Inside the majestic main hall, nobles were forbidden from entering the palace today.

This was to prevent any unnecessary words from leaking out before everything was certain.

Only dozens of stern knights stood in line like decorations.

The emperor was seated on the imperial throne, with Resban and Esika standing at the edges.

The empress, with a pale face, was standing a few steps below the emperor’s platform, in the place where officials usually stand when reporting something to the emperor or being reprimanded.

Astia was bowing deeply to the emperor behind the empress.

“I’ll ask the empress again, do you know about the corpses in the eastern ruins?”

“I do not.”

The empress denied any connection to the corpses with eyes full of venom, even as her lips turned blue.

The emperor’s eyebrows were stiffly set.

“Then do you know that courtesans entered the imperial palace?”

“Courtesans? Who would dare bring such filthy things in?”

“Who would dare indeed!”

The emperor’s roar echoed through the main hall.

The empress’s tightly clenched fist trembled.

“Who else but Breyton would bring courtesans into the imperial palace!”

The empress gritted her teeth.

As the emperor said, the only man who would bring prostitutes into the imperial palace was Breyton.

But the empress decided to struggle.

“Isn’t there also the crown prince!”

“What?”

The empress pointed her finger at Resban.

And she shouted, trying to cast suspicion on him.

“There was once a rumor that the crown prince couldn’t perform as a man because he kept his distance from women. No stories of him meeting anyone were heard. But in fact, the crown prince had been meeting women all along…”

Venom boiled in the empress’s eyes.

“Wouldn’t it make sense if he killed them all with the crown prince’s unique cruelty, who enjoys murder, to keep them from speaking?”

“How dare you insult my son!”

The emperor rose in anger but then clutched his forehead and slumped back into his chair.

In his wrinkled eyes, anger was frozen like frost.

The empress immediately knelt and cried out to the emperor as if in desperation.

“Breyton is also Your Majesty’s son. How can you cast suspicion on him for those wretched corpses, Your Majesty. Please have pity on that child!”

There were tears mixed in the empress’s voice, and the emperor’s anger, which had been about to erupt, softened just a little.

Esika inwardly admired the empress’s performance.

The empress dowager of her past life also used to provoke the emperor’s anger greatly and then manipulate him by stirring his sympathy to deflate it.

The emperor looked at the empress with cold eyes and spoke calmly.

“I’m not suspecting Breyton, I’m suspecting the empress.”

“I am Breyton’s mother. If someone was carrying Breyton’s child, even if they couldn’t become the official wife, how could I kill women carrying the seed of the great imperial family with my own hands?”

Certainly, the empress’s words were persuasive.

After all, there was no mother who would harm her grandchild in the womb just because she didn’t like her daughter-in-law.

But for Esika, who had lost fetuses several times to her in her past life, it was just exasperating.

Beneath that bewildered face was a monster incapable of feeling shame or fear.

“…”

The emperor frowned as he stared at the empress for a long time.

The empress looked truly wronged, but the corpses were pointing to the most likely culprit.

Four female corpses and two male corpses were maids and servants who served the empress.

Moreover, the bracelets on the arms of the courtesan corpses were identical to the one on the wrist of the corpse Astia had guided.

Known as the token Prince Breyton gives to women he favors.

“Bring that coffin.”

Instead of arguing further with the empress, the emperor ordered a servant.

The servant immediately went outside, and soon a coffin made of fresh wood was placed next to the empress, passing through the grand doors of the main hall.

The emperor commanded the empress with cold eyes.

“Look at who is in the coffin.”

The empress looked down at the coffin with a hardened face.

And she bit her lip tightly.

“Baroness Vanessa Allen, the empress’s maid. It’s been about 3 years since she entered the palace after her husband died.”

The maid who had been pushed off the balcony earlier was lying dead.

Judging by the blood on her head, she had unfortunately fallen onto a place with stones.

“She often despaired about her circumstances. I didn’t know she would make such a choice suddenly.”

“Then why were the empress’s maids caught carrying her corpse towards the eastern ruins!”

If Resban hadn’t immediately noticed the presence of the maids hidden in the bushes, the fact that they were transporting the maid’s corpse would have been concealed.

“Your Majesty, they weren’t heading to the eastern ruins, the paths just overlapped. The main gate of the palace isn’t a good place to carry out a maid’s corpse. I only ordered them to go to the north gate to hand over the body to her family. And the buried maids…”

The empress shook her head as if wronged and said.

“I don’t even know the names of those lowly ones. They may belong to me, but what reason would I have to kill those who do bedding and laundry!”

A rational reason wasn’t necessary. To the empress, their lives were as insignificant as flies.

“I am wronged. I can swear by Tameron’s name to my innocence!”

The empress was a fanatic of Tameron, and swearing by Tameron meant that this moment was sincere.

Of course, no one knew the fact that she believed in a cult rather than the ordinary Tameron religion, and one of the cult’s doctrines was that it was okay to lie to unbelievers for the sake of Tameron.

“…”

The emperor’s wrinkles were deepening, and the empress was insisting on her innocence.

Esika’s lips twisted at the empress’s brazenness.

And then Resban opened his mouth.

“All the evidence points to Her Majesty the Empress as the culprit, but since Her Majesty claims it wasn’t her, it seems we need to investigate properly.”

The empress’s frosty gaze turned to Resban.

“I think it would be right to entrust the investigation to Count Riheim.”

“Your Majesty, Count Riheim is the crown prince’s man! He will surely investigate unfairly!”

If an investigation by the imperial investigation team begins, the empress’s power will be restricted.

The investigation will take a long time as it will examine old records from the past,

And the empress will become immobilized.

The empress protested against the crown prince’s words to tie her feet.

“I clearly swear by Tameron’s name…”

“Swear by Tameron’s name.”

The crown prince’s words cut off the empress’s.

The empress’s eyes shook fiercely.

“Don’t you know this bracelet?”

The empress clenched her fist tightly at what the crown prince pulled out.

“The Rubite bracelet, though common, was the bracelet Breyton scattered to his lovers. It was found on the corpses and also on the non-pregnant corpse we all confirmed recently.”

“…!”

“At that time, Her Majesty the Empress said that the crown princess had heard false rumors. Can you still swear that to Tameron?”

Resban’s cold golden eyes were directed at the empress.

“I’m asking if you can swear that you didn’t have Astia switch it out.”

The empress glared at Resban with murderous eyes.

The denial she made then in front of the emperor, saying it was impossible, was coming back to bite her.

Astia, standing behind, was motionless and her expression couldn’t be seen.

If Astia were to speak the truth here, everything would eventually come to light.

It was clear that she had fallen into a trap. The emperor’s anger, which had been directed at the crown princess at the time, was now coming down on her doubled.

Originally, when people get angry about something and then realize they were actually deceived into getting angry, they tend to get twenty times angrier.

If the investigation begins, it will be easily revealed that Breyton had several women as lovers.

No, even before that, it would be over if Astia behind her just opened her mouth.

If she swears to Tameron again here, it will be proven that all her oaths to Tameron were false, and her recent struggle will have been for nothing.

“About her, and that the corpses discovered today have no relation to the prince.”

The empress now had to find another fork in the road.

Either sacrifice Breyton’s honor, or sacrifice her own honor.

And conveniently, Breyton had left for Eunibs and couldn’t refute the empress’s words.

“…!”

For a moment, the empress felt a chill down her spine.

She had been in control of everything, but where had it gone wrong?

And those corpses were not buried at a depth to be revealed by a mere fire.

She thought the plan to send Prince Breyton to Eunibs was going well.

If even sending him there was a pre-arranged plan…

“…”

The empress suddenly looked at Esika, who hadn’t said a word.

Her blue eyes were calm and serene, and a faint smile lingered at the corners of her mouth.