"Your Majesty, how can this be done? Doesn't Your Majesty know best how sincere Catherine was to His Majesty...!"
Even the Count of Montfort, who had been bending over the Emperor's will, could not stand the harsh treatment and raised his voice.
However, the son of Western Empress, Juan, was fortunately a little more experienced than his maternal grandfather.
"Father. I will only follow my father's orders."
Juan fell flat to the Emperor.
Even though he watched his mother being dragged out of the tower a while ago.
His haggard face did not show any resentment towards his father.
'My father is suspicious of me. I can't be abandoned for now.'
Thinking of his mother, who had to be locked up in a cold and dirty prison, was heartbreaking.
However, the first thing was to let go of his father's vigilance.
"If I become Emperor, I will surely compensate for this sad suffering that my mother suffered."
And also revenge on the lovers who made his mother like this.
'Then chew it all to the bone. Neither Cesare nor the daughter of Valdina.'
"I also ask for forgiveness for scattering the planting of wealth."
Juan was still full of respect and love for his father.
"You really didn't know anything."
"I beg you, Father. There were many things that my mother didn't tell me..."
'Don't show the same panic as you did in the banquet hall that day.'
From Juan's point of view, he had to somehow prove his innocence and plan for the next step.
However, the problem was that it seemed more dangerous to Perdiccas II.
"Go away."
"Father, if I have angered you, please forgive me..."
"Don't let them talk twice."
The Third Prince was eventually sent out as if he were being kicked out.
Perdiccas Il pointed to his sticky forehead.
"All the children are dark inside."
Is it normal for the mother to roll around even though she is miserable?
It only added credibility to the suspicion that all the words of the Third Prince, Juan, who had pleased the Emperor so far, were not true.
"Cesare, he is too dangerous, Juan, I can't trust him anymore...
Perdiccas II felt frustrated, as if he were stuck.
When he saw his children who were wrapped in layers of clumps, he couldn't let go of his heart.
In particular, his antipathy towards Juan angered Perdiccas II even more.
"If you say something nice to listen to, you can say something like that. Now that I've hidden my inner thoughts, how does he know how to put the knife behind me?"
If Juan is not his child.
He couldn't put the cuckoo on his throne.
"I'd rather say something you don't want to hear, but it's better to reveal it like Angelique."
At that moment, as if a fire had lit up in his head, he remembered his daughter he had forgotten.
A child who was cheeky and arrogant and turned into a nuisance at some point.
"Yes! Then I will disappear from the eyes of the wealthy! I'm leaving the Yellow City."
"Oh! Do you really want to see me bite my tongue and die? It's enough to get involved with those beggars on paper!"
However, it was like reading the inside so easily.
Angelique didn't hide anything, so she was so foolish that she could easily be seen inside.
She was not afraid of Perdiccas II, so she made fun of her mouth. She used evil as she couldn't stand it.
'That's why she even fell for Valdina's tricks.'
However, the character flaws that led to Angelique's expulsion are now.
It was an advantage for the Emperor, who was wary of the suspicion of his remaining children.
Perdiccas II would rather miss his predictable and foolish daughter, who could not get out of the palm of his hand, than his suspicious sons.
For a moment, enough to forget the old anger.
"Servant."
The Emperor turned around.
"Tell Angelique to return to the castle."
***
"Did you hear the news? Her Highness the 4th Princess has returned from the land!"
"Of course! How excited is the capital right now? His Majesty ordered the construction of a new palace for the Fourth Princess."
Then a lady shot at him.
"Hmph, is it only because of Her Highness the Fourth Princess that the capital is excited? It's because Western Empress was taken to prison."
"I thought that if you conveyed the Emperor's anger, you would somehow recover, but looking at the situation now, I think it will be difficult."
Coincidentally, the return of the 4th Princess and the imprisonment of the Western Empress took place around the same time.
Wherever Katzen went, the nobleman could not keep their mouths shut about this situation, in which the situation of the Empresses was turned upside down in an instant.
"It is said that the Eastern Empress is meeting his vassals again. Maybe the scattered Fourth Princess factions will reunite."
"Count Montfort, no, will he leave it alone as a Viscount? Even now, he clashes with the subjects of the 3rd Prince's faction."
The 3rd Prince faction, which faced unexpected turmoil, and the 4th Princess faction, which found hope again, clashed fiercely, and Katzen's capital became noisier than ever.
However, as if it were not included in the turbulence, only the 1st Prince's Villa was quiet.
Saya asked cautiously.
"Your Highness, is the Western Empress really... Is it through the Grand Duke and the Prince?"
If that was true, it was understandable that Medea secretly summoned the Grand Duke to Katzen during the Emperor's birthday.
"If that's the case, Katzen, this place is not much different from our Valdina."
Saya recalled the precedent of Catherine Claudio, who raised her illegitimate child Birna as the daughter of Duke Claudio in the past.
She had already seen with her own eyes how ugly the truth was hidden behind the splendid backs of the nobles.
So she suspected that this was the case in this case as well.
"No. Western Empress is different from my aunt."
Medea shook her head.
"She's quite proud, so there's no way she's going to do anything shameful to herself. She has a very strong sense of pride."
Juan was the biological son of Perdiccas II.
Therefore, Western Empress will have no choice but to burst into anger even more.
She was mercilessly dragged down from the peak of the sweet power she had enjoyed so far due to something she did not do.
"By now, she's roughly noticed. How I used my hands. And maybe... She wants to kill me."
"Your Highness?"
"Me... Her."
Reunions don't always contain longing.
It was just as Medea expected.
Late at night, in the prison of the Katzen Imperial Family, silent darkness falls.
The Western Empress was more obsessed with anger than with the old encounter.
"...I shouldn't have come!"
Under the strict order of Perdiccas II, a secret visitor appeared in the prison, where access was strictly controlled.
Just by risking his life to come here in front of the Emperor, Medea could guess how much he regarded the sinners in the iron cage.
After crossing the difficult threshold, he managed to find the Western Empress, and the Western Empress looked at him with hatred instead of joy.
"Did you come back that day because it wasn't enough to drop me into the abyss?"
Since it was a prison for imprisoning the imperial family, it was not a dirty and miserable environment like a regular prison.
Maybe that's why Western Empress's face has become more tender and pale.
However, prison. It was enough to tear the arrogant Western Empress's pride to shreds.
So, when she saw an old person who broke through the boundaries and came to her with difficulty, she was more interested in distorting her impression than in pleasure.
"...Catherine. It's been twenty years. Is that all you have to say to me, whom you met after twenty years...?"
Alfred's eyes were now filled with regret beyond disappointment.
"Just for the sake of the man who makes you so miserable?"
"That's why!"
Western Empress let out a suppressed shout.
"Why the hell are you here! You said you would never come again, so why did you come and put me on the precipice like this..."
"Why am I here?"
Alfred looked embarrassed.
"Catherine, you called me."
"Am I... you?"
"If you had contacted me first, I..."
He couldn't forget his words..
Western Empress let out a flounder breath, as if she couldn't even hear those words.
"...You've set a trap very well, Medea. You were very cunning."
Traces of the Red Foxes were found in the room of the betrayed maid.
Without any leeway, circumstances that would arouse the Emperor's suspicion gradually piled up.
None of this will be resolved, so it will be difficult to regain the Emperor's trust.
Western Empress gritted her teeth. The tip of her chin, which was veined, trembled.
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