"You're right."
The Duke of Russell stared at Amelia with a face that was surprised at her answer being so quick. It seemed that he had not expected her to guess the answer so easily. The image of Amelia in his head was clear.
“The Emperor stands above the people of this land. It is their distrust that takes away his power.”
Amelia blinked slowly. The Duke of Russell asked Louis, who was standing by Amelia’s side, to bring him some paper and a pen. Louis quickly placed the paper and pen on the table.
“It would take a long time if you were to find out the details of the trust yourself.”
“...”
“I can’t waste time like that, so just write it down as it is called.”
The Duke of Russell nodded to the paper and pen on the table. Amelia obediently followed his instructions and picked up the pen.
“Listen, you foolish ones.”
The Duke of Russell opened his mouth leisurely.
“If you do not acknowledge my will and do not recognize the child I have sent as the Crown Prince, three punishments will befall Escliff.”
Amelia's hand, which was writing down the Duke of Russell's words on paper, stopped. His attitude was extremely arrogant, as if he were some god looking down on everyone from the sky.
“The first one is...”
Now, even if he was a false god, it was okay. If she could just grab the chance to protect Ian, then the Duke of Russell was Amelia's god.
Amelia's hands began to move again as she thought that.
***
The oracle given by the Priestess was passed down by word of mouth through those present. No matter what, there was a sharp conflict of opinions, with some questioning how a child of unknown origin could be placed in the position of Crown Prince, while others questioned how one could go against the will of the gods.
As usual, there was quite a bit of strife in Escliffe over one oracle, and the High Priest delivered the second oracle that the Priestess had received.
“The Priestess said that if we do not acknowledge the child sent by God as the Crown Prince, then the beasts will be the first to harm humans.”
The Emperor made no reply. In fact, he seemed not to care at all. In fact, it was of no concern to him. The meaningless days passed like a day, two days, a week, and nearly a fortnight.
“Oh, I told you not to go in too deep.”
“Now, even if you set a trap here, you won’t get caught.”
Setting traps or hunting wild animals in the mountains was not a particularly unusual thing. However, when the beasts noticed that their kind kept disappearing from similar locations, they sharpened their intuition and avoided going near them.
“The weather is really bad today. I think it would be better to just go back.”
The air in the forest felt somewhat heavy, as if it was going to rain soon. One of the hunters who realized this first persuaded his companion to give up for the day. He was quite big and looked like he would not be discouraged, no matter where he went.
“Why don’t you try it for a day or two? If you’re going, go alone. I have a feeling I’ll catch something big today.”
But his colleague, who was thinner and smaller than him, was in a strange mood today. He was even more excited than usual, thinking that he would be able to catch something bigger.
"Thing..."
The hunter who had been trying to persuade his companion gave up on persuading him. It seemed that the guys in that situation had never listened to him. However, he was determined to go alone. His mother's worries, the gloomy sky, and the air that was more humid than usual stimulated his senses.
“Yes. I’ll go first, so you can do whatever you want.”
Anyway, his colleague also knew the geography of this mountain well, so if anything happened, he would know how to escape. That was the judgment.
“...!”
When he was almost out of the mountain, an unfamiliar sound scratched his ears. The man looked back at the mountain with an anxious face.
A wolf? No, that can't be.
The howling was clearly that of a wolf, hunting in packs. But wolves had long since disappeared from this mountain. He knew that for sure. In the five years he had lived as a hunter, he had never seen a wolf.
And it wasn't just his prejudice. Others also said they had never seen or heard a wolf.
"No way."
The man muttered and tried to look away. Then he hurried down the mountain as if someone were following him.
“Have you seen my son?”
It was when morning came that the father of the colleague he had left alone on the mountain came to see him with a worried face.
“I came here yesterday because you said you would stay and finish hunting, but you haven’t come back yet?”
The father of his colleague nodded to his question. He said that he had slept without locking the door just in case, and that his son had not come in or left. The man carried a hunting weapon on his shoulder in case of an emergency and climbed the mountain with the father of his colleague.
“...”
As he walked towards the place where he had parted ways with his comrades, a faint smell of blood tickled his nose. It was the smell of a corpse that had not died long ago, not too far away.
The man, unable to hide his faint anxiety, roughly broke off the dry branches that obscured his vision. At the same time, a miserable trace appeared before his eyes. Traces of abandoned shoes and torn clothes, a body that had been torn and damaged by the teeth of an animal, with its ribs exposed, and a face that could not even close its eyes.
“Hey, Kyle!”
The father of the colleague who was following the man found his son and screamed. Beyond the space where the smell of blood vibrated, the eerie howl of an animal, just like the day before, echoed.
***
“This is already the fifth time I’ve actually figured it out.”
Ivan rubbed his forehead with a tired face at Rodan's report. It was natural.
Within a month of Amelia's false oracle, five people died. They had nothing in common, all dying at the same time. A woodcutter, a hunter, a child, a nobleman, and a mushroom picker. Of these, the child and the nobleman disappeared in the middle of the night from the village where they were living, and their bodies were found.
“Because it spread by word of mouth, there were many distorted stories, so even if they say there were five victims, people don’t believe it.”
Already, rumors have it that dozens of people have suddenly died from beasts. The people of Escliffe tremble at the ominous rumors that circulate. It is an instinctive fear of death, not something that can be controlled by just one or two people.
“All eyes are on the second oracle of the temple.”
The fake oracle was effective, just as the temple had been used to captivate the Escliffites and shake up the royal family. Ivan smirked.
I said I was different. I said that the fake trust was not my will. Wasn't Amelia the same? Ivan laughed at himself for having felt some sympathy and mercy for the woman who gave birth to his child.
“Let the knights loose on the mountain. Hire mercenaries and wipe out all the wolves in the mountain. Also, don’t spare any rewards for hunting wild beasts, even if they are ordinary hunters.”
Ivan gave the order. All the beasts that suddenly harmed humans were beings that had never existed there in the first place. It was difficult to tolerate their coexistence, even for the sake of the future.
“And let’s track down any wolf farms that secretly raise wolves and anyone who buys them.”
Rodan nodded at Ivan's order. His face seemed to have understood the meaning of Ivan's order. It was fortunate that Rodan and he were on good terms in this situation. Ivan let out a low sigh as he thought about that.
“...”
A night when he burst out his true feelings and did not hide his contempt. After that night, he did not go to see Amelia for almost a month. To be exact, he did not feel like seeing her. Amelia was a woman who dared to betray him and play with him.
Ian. A young child with no surname, only a name, and not even the ability to speak properly.
The child he had intended to use to reveal the truth of the temple's lies and the sacred legend, but today he was being used to threaten him. The more he thought about it, the funnier it became. The reason was simple. It was because he pitied Amelia.
A weak woman who has never lived according to her own will, who has just been swept away by the wind that blows. Even when she was outside the temple, she was anxious and worried that he would harm her and her child. In the midst of all this, seeing Amelia and the young baby who couldn't even control her own body properly, he showed kindness that was not typical of him.
“Amelia, if it is revealed that Ian is your child, and what you have been doing at the temple is revealed.”
The moment she reveals that she's given birth, both Amelia and her child will be unhappy.
“God becomes a traitor, and the child becomes the child of a traitor. Even if he is my blood, he cannot be protected.”
Ivan advised Amelia like that. Originally, he should have revealed at the welcoming party that she had given birth to Ian and exposed the lies one by one, but he told Amelia not to do that. It was enough for her to reveal that the sacred legend was fake. There was no need to reveal the fact that she had given birth to Ian and make the child unhappy.
But he admitted, his good intentions weren't entirely good. Ian was sure to be a blemish on his life.
To be honest, Ivan had no intention of acknowledging Ian as his son in the first place. Even if Amelia no longer liked him, he was just a means to induce her to reveal the truth about the temple in exchange for protecting her child.
But the moment Ivan officially acknowledged his illegitimate child, there was no telling how many moths would swarm Ian and Amelia. And Ivan had no intention of watching the child he would one day have after they were married become a threat.
“Make that child the Crown Prince, and make him a bridge between the imperial family and the temple.”
In any case, his good intentions came back as a complete betrayal. How dare she say such things and come forward to make her child the Crown Prince? He was foolish for having pitied such a thing even for a moment. Ivan began to think so.
Is it true that she truly loved her child from the beginning?
Ivan couldn't trust the woman anymore.
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