If Sepia were to return to Leopold, he would have no way to drag her out even if he used his power as the Emperor.
Only one.
Other than a war against the Grand Duke.
He growled at Sepia, feeling impatient.
“You can’t go anywhere.”
But she was calm. On the contrary.
“Don’t worry. The place I’ll be staying is the Imperial Palace.”
At those words, Demios swallowed his words with a blank expression.
What was in his eyes was a fleeting hope.
Perhaps, Sepia would be held in Demios’ arms.
However, the faint expectation soon turned into despair.
“I plan to stay in the Ghost Palace. As the Grand Duchess, with my partner.”
The palace that had long been tied to the title of Grand Duke was now Roxanne’s property.
And now it was also a place for Sepia.
There was nothing Demios could offer as the Emperor. Only a clash of arms.
A primitive all-out war that exercised power.
Demios, who was about to force this, hesitated.
“Right now...”
If he drew his sword now, he might never have another chance.
His last chance to act normal.
He didn’t just want Sepia’s body.
Her smiling face, every breath, even her entire heart, all of those things had to fall into his hands.
‘If I threaten her with a poorhouse...’
Demios recalled the order he had given her in the audience room earlier.
His female loved the lowest and most insignificant things.
The burdens she had once been unable to understand could now be used as weapons to capture her.
However, if he took away everything she loved, the result would be the same.
He finished calculating in his head.
It was enough to secure the target for today.
Instead, he decided to slowly tighten the trap.
And getting that damned beast away from Sepia was a priority.
Demios slowly turned around.
Mounting his warhorse, he gave an order to his knights.
“...Return to the imperial palace.”
Demios, holding the reins, looked back for a moment.
The bloodshot eyes were aiming at the target they had met again.
The Emperor and the knights had disappeared. The east gate was wide open.
“Let’s go too.”
“Yes.”
Sepia naturally placed her body on the hand he extended.
As the Grand Duke and his wife mounted their horses, the knights of Leopold, the wagons, and the brown-skinned servants who seemed to be the local residents followed them in a long tail.
The captain of the guard guarding the capital gate hesitated and stepped back.
The Empress who had ruled the empire had returned as the Grand Duchess.
And she had married the war hero of the empire as her husband.
They crossed the road from the east gate to the capital, and from the capital to the imperial palace without any restrictions.
Sepia, facing the imperial palace, slowly looked back at the familiar scenery.
Why was a place that should have been familiar so unfamiliar?
‘It’s stiff.’
Everything was the same as before Sepia left.
However, the buildings, the people, and even the plants in the splendid garden were holding their breath in the heavy air current.
The ghost palace was the same.
However, the knights who had been guarding the place were not visible. The ones who replaced them were the maids of the palace who had been waiting in advance.
The maid who had discovered Sepia cautiously walked over to her and bowed her head.
“His Majesty sent me.”
However, Sepia refused them all.
“You all go back. This palace will be managed by the beastmen I brought.”
“But...”
Despite their hesitation, Sepia was firm.
In the end, the maids had no choice but to leave the palace.
Sepia looked at them as they turned around with calm eyes.
‘They will be Demios’s eyes and ears.’
Now that she had returned to the palace, she was prepared to keep watch.
She could reject what she could see, but she could not neglect the places she could not see.
‘I checked the map I had when I was Empress.’
The escape route she had left behind was blocked. Now, the only thing she could do was to charge forward.
“Madam Remody. Please clean up the palace.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Remody calmly commanded her employees.
They were all people brought from Leopold, and they would become Sepia’s trustworthy hands and feet.
However, even after Remody disappeared, there was a maid who stayed by Sepia’s side.
The hand that came out of the robe was thin and wrinkled, but it looked as white as snow.
“Come in.”
Roxanne opened the door to the reception room.
Strangely, unlike the other rooms, this one was neatly organized.
The Grand Duke and his wife and the robed maid entered.
As soon as the door closed, the cloth covering the maid’s body fell to the floor.
Inside the wrinkled corners of her eyes, clear black eyes were looking at Sepia.
“Welcome back safely, Your Highness.”
Madame Swany bowed her knees to pay respect to the Grand Duchess.
The first time she had seen the letter she had sent was in Leopold.
The high-quality parchment said:
I will tell you the Emperor’s secret on the day I return to the palace.
As Sepia and Roxanne sat down, Swany began to make tea as if she had been waiting for it.
A pleasant fragrance rose into the living room amid the silence.
After Swany finished putting down the tea, Sepia opened her mouth.
“Madam Swany, what is in the letter?”
Swany smiled as she raised her glass.
She took a sip of tea and asked Sepia.
“Do you know where His Majesty’s madness came from?”
He was a perfect being from birth.
So there was no way he could have a mental defect.
Swany smiled brightly and confessed her secret.
About the problem of identity that could bring about catastrophe. Or perhaps even more.
“The Emperor was born with madness because he had a defect in his birth.”
“Defect...?”
Sepia asked back with surprised eyes.
Wasn’t Demios a descendant of the former Empress and the former Emperor?
What Swany had said a moment ago could have been punished more severely than insulting the imperial family.
However, Swany maintained her attitude.
With a cold gaze that Sepia had never seen before, she spoke words that denied the Emperor’s very existence.
“The current Emperor, Demios Baroque Drodian, is the illegitimate child of the former Emperor.”
Sepia was momentarily speechless.
She regained her senses and asked back.
“But the previous family must have formed a companion seal.”
If the Emperor formed a companion seal with the divine beast, the Empress would share the same fate and die after the Emperor died, not living a few years.
Therefore, the death of the former Empress was justified.
Even if it wasn’t because of her damaged body due to the black magic she used.
At this, Swany coldly scoffed.
“What if the former Empress didn’t die because of the companion ceremony? From the beginning. What if the companion ceremony was fake?”
The former Empress must have also believed that the companion ceremony was real.
If Swany’s words were true, then all of this was planned by the former Emperor.
The reason he didn’t question the bloodline of the imperial descendants was because his beliefs were biased toward the companion ceremony. However.
“The former Emperor had another female.”
The snow-white Arctic fox, Countess Charlotte Dubuie.
Charlotte was a beast, but she willingly took on the role of his pet fox to continue her secret encounter with the Emperor.
No one knew about the affair between the two beasts.
Until the Emperor called Swany to his palace.
“When the Emperor called me, the Empress had miscarried.”
The fact that the Empress had miscarried was not known to the outside world. Because the Empress had gradually gone mad after the miscarriage.
Eventually, she became delusional and could not come out of the delusion that she was still carrying the baby.
However, there was one more thing that no one knew.
At the time the Empress was pregnant, Charlotte was also carrying the Emperor’s baby.
The Emperor’s suggestion was this.
Let’s pretend that Charlotte’s baby was born to the Empress.
Swany was speechless at his words that if that happened, peace would come to everyone.
That night when Swany refused the Emperor’s offer and returned, the Empress hung herself.
If she had discovered it a little later, she would have lost her life.
Fortunately, she survived, but she began to harm herself from that day on.
Empress Yerdial was not only the mother of the empire but also Swany's most beloved childhood friend.
Unable to watch her ruined any longer, Swany eventually accepted the Emperor's offer.
The baby Charlotte gave birth to was a divine beast that resembled the Emperor.
Swany gave the baby to the Empress.
The Empress, holding the baby she had wanted in her arms, recovered day by day.
She firmly believed that she had conceived and given birth to the baby.
“The divine beast is amazingly similar to the Emperor. That was the problem from the beginning.”
Demios did not resemble the Empress at all, but no one questioned it.
The plan seemed perfect to everyone.
However, there was a flaw in him that even the Emperor did not know about.
Swany defined it in one word.
“The Emperor’s madness is like a curse.”
A wolf lives its entire life with only one companion.
For a divine beast that has become the Emperor, companionship is a duty.
However, the Emperor, who betrayed that duty, secretly took in another female wolf without telling the Empress who had taken him as her companion, which led to the wrath of the goddess who loved the bloodline of the Drodians, and was passed down to his descendants as a curse.
Only one.
Other than a war against the Grand Duke.
He growled at Sepia, feeling impatient.
“You can’t go anywhere.”
But she was calm. On the contrary.
“Don’t worry. The place I’ll be staying is the Imperial Palace.”
At those words, Demios swallowed his words with a blank expression.
What was in his eyes was a fleeting hope.
Perhaps, Sepia would be held in Demios’ arms.
However, the faint expectation soon turned into despair.
“I plan to stay in the Ghost Palace. As the Grand Duchess, with my partner.”
The palace that had long been tied to the title of Grand Duke was now Roxanne’s property.
And now it was also a place for Sepia.
There was nothing Demios could offer as the Emperor. Only a clash of arms.
A primitive all-out war that exercised power.
Demios, who was about to force this, hesitated.
“Right now...”
If he drew his sword now, he might never have another chance.
His last chance to act normal.
He didn’t just want Sepia’s body.
Her smiling face, every breath, even her entire heart, all of those things had to fall into his hands.
‘If I threaten her with a poorhouse...’
Demios recalled the order he had given her in the audience room earlier.
His female loved the lowest and most insignificant things.
The burdens she had once been unable to understand could now be used as weapons to capture her.
However, if he took away everything she loved, the result would be the same.
He finished calculating in his head.
It was enough to secure the target for today.
Instead, he decided to slowly tighten the trap.
And getting that damned beast away from Sepia was a priority.
Demios slowly turned around.
Mounting his warhorse, he gave an order to his knights.
“...Return to the imperial palace.”
Demios, holding the reins, looked back for a moment.
The bloodshot eyes were aiming at the target they had met again.
The Emperor and the knights had disappeared. The east gate was wide open.
“Let’s go too.”
“Yes.”
Sepia naturally placed her body on the hand he extended.
As the Grand Duke and his wife mounted their horses, the knights of Leopold, the wagons, and the brown-skinned servants who seemed to be the local residents followed them in a long tail.
The captain of the guard guarding the capital gate hesitated and stepped back.
The Empress who had ruled the empire had returned as the Grand Duchess.
And she had married the war hero of the empire as her husband.
They crossed the road from the east gate to the capital, and from the capital to the imperial palace without any restrictions.
Sepia, facing the imperial palace, slowly looked back at the familiar scenery.
Why was a place that should have been familiar so unfamiliar?
‘It’s stiff.’
Everything was the same as before Sepia left.
However, the buildings, the people, and even the plants in the splendid garden were holding their breath in the heavy air current.
The ghost palace was the same.
However, the knights who had been guarding the place were not visible. The ones who replaced them were the maids of the palace who had been waiting in advance.
The maid who had discovered Sepia cautiously walked over to her and bowed her head.
“His Majesty sent me.”
However, Sepia refused them all.
“You all go back. This palace will be managed by the beastmen I brought.”
“But...”
Despite their hesitation, Sepia was firm.
In the end, the maids had no choice but to leave the palace.
Sepia looked at them as they turned around with calm eyes.
‘They will be Demios’s eyes and ears.’
Now that she had returned to the palace, she was prepared to keep watch.
She could reject what she could see, but she could not neglect the places she could not see.
‘I checked the map I had when I was Empress.’
The escape route she had left behind was blocked. Now, the only thing she could do was to charge forward.
“Madam Remody. Please clean up the palace.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Remody calmly commanded her employees.
They were all people brought from Leopold, and they would become Sepia’s trustworthy hands and feet.
However, even after Remody disappeared, there was a maid who stayed by Sepia’s side.
The hand that came out of the robe was thin and wrinkled, but it looked as white as snow.
“Come in.”
Roxanne opened the door to the reception room.
Strangely, unlike the other rooms, this one was neatly organized.
The Grand Duke and his wife and the robed maid entered.
As soon as the door closed, the cloth covering the maid’s body fell to the floor.
Inside the wrinkled corners of her eyes, clear black eyes were looking at Sepia.
“Welcome back safely, Your Highness.”
Madame Swany bowed her knees to pay respect to the Grand Duchess.
The first time she had seen the letter she had sent was in Leopold.
The high-quality parchment said:
I will tell you the Emperor’s secret on the day I return to the palace.
As Sepia and Roxanne sat down, Swany began to make tea as if she had been waiting for it.
A pleasant fragrance rose into the living room amid the silence.
After Swany finished putting down the tea, Sepia opened her mouth.
“Madam Swany, what is in the letter?”
Swany smiled as she raised her glass.
She took a sip of tea and asked Sepia.
“Do you know where His Majesty’s madness came from?”
He was a perfect being from birth.
So there was no way he could have a mental defect.
Swany smiled brightly and confessed her secret.
About the problem of identity that could bring about catastrophe. Or perhaps even more.
“The Emperor was born with madness because he had a defect in his birth.”
“Defect...?”
Sepia asked back with surprised eyes.
Wasn’t Demios a descendant of the former Empress and the former Emperor?
What Swany had said a moment ago could have been punished more severely than insulting the imperial family.
However, Swany maintained her attitude.
With a cold gaze that Sepia had never seen before, she spoke words that denied the Emperor’s very existence.
“The current Emperor, Demios Baroque Drodian, is the illegitimate child of the former Emperor.”
Sepia was momentarily speechless.
She regained her senses and asked back.
“But the previous family must have formed a companion seal.”
If the Emperor formed a companion seal with the divine beast, the Empress would share the same fate and die after the Emperor died, not living a few years.
Therefore, the death of the former Empress was justified.
Even if it wasn’t because of her damaged body due to the black magic she used.
At this, Swany coldly scoffed.
“What if the former Empress didn’t die because of the companion ceremony? From the beginning. What if the companion ceremony was fake?”
The former Empress must have also believed that the companion ceremony was real.
If Swany’s words were true, then all of this was planned by the former Emperor.
The reason he didn’t question the bloodline of the imperial descendants was because his beliefs were biased toward the companion ceremony. However.
“The former Emperor had another female.”
The snow-white Arctic fox, Countess Charlotte Dubuie.
Charlotte was a beast, but she willingly took on the role of his pet fox to continue her secret encounter with the Emperor.
No one knew about the affair between the two beasts.
Until the Emperor called Swany to his palace.
“When the Emperor called me, the Empress had miscarried.”
The fact that the Empress had miscarried was not known to the outside world. Because the Empress had gradually gone mad after the miscarriage.
Eventually, she became delusional and could not come out of the delusion that she was still carrying the baby.
However, there was one more thing that no one knew.
At the time the Empress was pregnant, Charlotte was also carrying the Emperor’s baby.
The Emperor’s suggestion was this.
Let’s pretend that Charlotte’s baby was born to the Empress.
Swany was speechless at his words that if that happened, peace would come to everyone.
That night when Swany refused the Emperor’s offer and returned, the Empress hung herself.
If she had discovered it a little later, she would have lost her life.
Fortunately, she survived, but she began to harm herself from that day on.
Empress Yerdial was not only the mother of the empire but also Swany's most beloved childhood friend.
Unable to watch her ruined any longer, Swany eventually accepted the Emperor's offer.
The baby Charlotte gave birth to was a divine beast that resembled the Emperor.
Swany gave the baby to the Empress.
The Empress, holding the baby she had wanted in her arms, recovered day by day.
She firmly believed that she had conceived and given birth to the baby.
“The divine beast is amazingly similar to the Emperor. That was the problem from the beginning.”
Demios did not resemble the Empress at all, but no one questioned it.
The plan seemed perfect to everyone.
However, there was a flaw in him that even the Emperor did not know about.
Swany defined it in one word.
“The Emperor’s madness is like a curse.”
A wolf lives its entire life with only one companion.
For a divine beast that has become the Emperor, companionship is a duty.
However, the Emperor, who betrayed that duty, secretly took in another female wolf without telling the Empress who had taken him as her companion, which led to the wrath of the goddess who loved the bloodline of the Drodians, and was passed down to his descendants as a curse.
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