Episode 76. Internal Division
Boom!
“What the hell is going on here!”
The Emperor’s office.
“The daughter of the Serviats family knows I am conducting biological experiments in Chicagor! And that damned Grand Duke thinks so little of his uncle that he shamelessly pretended to collapse despite being resistant to poison.”
Duke Flice and Cedric bowed their heads before the Emperor.
“He clearly knew about our plan! That must be why he acted like that.”
As the Emperor scolded, Duke Flice looked at Cedric next to him.
“It seems the secret has leaked from Count Wences. Rose, that kid must have extracted information from Eric.”
Duke Flice stated his opinion without hesitation.
Far from protecting his subordinate, his intention was clearly to cut off his tail.
Cedric bit his lower lip and repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist.
“Cedric, raise your head!”
The Emperor’s voice, crushed by rage, echoed throughout the room.
Cedric slowly raised his head, his neck bloodshot.
'Rose, how dare you!'
The blood rushed to his chest.
A suspicion he had tried to ignore blossomed in Cedric’s mind.
Rose de Serviat had systematically approached the Count of Wence.
It was a reasonable assumption.
Rose, who had been acting so foolishly until then, had suddenly changed her tune and joined the Grand Duke of Artaeum.
She clearly intended to marry his son and extract information.
'How dare you... Use my son!?'
The thought that Eric, whom he had raised with such care, had been used by the incomparably cunning Rose filled him with anger.
What’s more, Rose was about to destroy the reputation he had built for the Count of Wence in an instant.
'Damn it...! She was a truly desirable woman, just like her mother!'
Cedric's anger didn't subside easily, perhaps not knowing that Rose, whom he considered foolish, would strike him from behind.
A wave of shame washed over him at the thought of having been fooled by Rose without knowing anything.
However, he couldn't reveal this shame in front of the Emperor.
Even if he complained, it would only poison him.
Cedric stared at the Emperor with hardened eyes.
"For a secret to leak from the Count of Wence? This is unbelievable."
He raised his voice as if he were being wronged.
"I was in charge of this, not Eric. Eric knows nothing about the biological experiments taking place in Chicagor. So how could information leak through Eric?"
"If it weren't for the Count of Wence, how could she have heard all that! Not only does she know how to make poison using cyclamen, she even knows the slang term 'the light of Chicagor.' The only explanation is that someone leaked the information!"
“I agree with Your Majesty. Our family has no ties to the Serviat family, so we must assume it came from the Count Wences family.”
Duke Flice, egging on the Emperor, supported his words. His gaze at Cedric was devoid of any camaraderie.
Cedric was incensed by the Duke’s attitude.
‘I’ve worked for you for decades...!’
If Duke Flice were human, he would embrace Cedric, who had taken on the dirty work, but he didn’t. Instead, he took the lead and drove Cedric away.
For a moment, Cedric felt a sense of betrayal, but he forced his boiling anger to subside.
At the moment, appeasing the Emperor was more important than Duke Flice.
“Your Majesty, please calm down. The truth hasn’t been revealed yet, has it? I’ll investigate to see if she really knows about the human experiments. And if I see even the slightest hint of something strange, I’ll deal with it, so don’t worry too much.”
“Shouldn’t you have been careful not to leak the information from the beginning, Cedric? What’s the point of killing her after she knows everything?”
“It’s not certain yet, so please don’t be so sure, Your Excellency the Duke of Flice. After listening to you quietly, it seems like you want our work to come to light?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m asking if you have other plans, Your Excellency. Are you planning to use this opportunity to frame Your Majesty and me and seize the throne?”
Cedric spat out barbed words and turned to the Emperor.
"I'm so wronged, Your Majesty! You know my character! I've been Your Majesty's hand and foot more than anyone else. Not Duke Flice! The one who will benefit from this revelation is Duke Flice, not me. There's plenty of evidence that I conducted experiments in Chicagor, but Duke Flice has none, right? He could have even instigated Your Majesty from the beginning to seize the throne for himself. Please, think rationally."
Bam!
At Cedric's words, Duke Flice slammed his fist on the desk and rose from his seat.
"How dare you! What are you saying in front of His Majesty!"
Duke Flice's face flushed red, and he heaved a ragged breath.
The Emperor, hearing Cedric's words, seemed lost in thought and simply stared at Duke Flice in silence.
'Duke Flice... is a man with a dark heart, like a bat.'
Duke Flice was a loyal subject of the former Emperor.
The former Emperor trusted and cherished him more than anyone else. He had willingly betrayed his monarch and chosen the current Emperor.
There was no guarantee that someone who had betrayed once would do so again.
Cedric's words held a point.
Seeing the Emperor's expression harden, Duke Flice gritted his teeth and denied his words.
"Your Majesty, don't listen to Cedric's attempts to muddy the waters. I gave my life to Your Majesty. And yet, how could I betray Your Majesty? That's a preposterous assertion!"
He sent the Emperor a desperate look, then glared at Cedric.
“Cedric, instead of kneeling and apologizing, you’re trying to sow discord between His Majesty and me!”
Cedric and Duke Flice snarled at each other in front of the Emperor.
“I must be quite ridiculous, Cedric! I shouldn’t have taken you in, you bastard with such lowly origins!”
As the illegitimate son of the Wence family, he was struck by Duke Flice’s words.
Cedric had a sense of entitlement about his own birth.
The word he hated hearing the most was “origin.” After all, his mother had been a commoner.
“Why are we talking about origins here! Your Excellency...!”
“Enough!!”
The Emperor cut off Cedric mid-sentence and shouted harshly.
Only then did they cease their sharp swords at each other. However, their glaring gazes remained.
Heavy air filled the office.
The Emperor sighed deeply, as if his mind was in turmoil, and ruffled his poor hair.
The men's grumbling breathing subsided. The first to break the silence was none other than the Emperor.
"Enough,"
He said to them in a much calmer voice.
"Cedric."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"I will leave this matter to you."
At the Emperor's words, Cedric's lips quirked up.
"Yes, please leave it to me."
The Emperor had entrusted the matter to himself, not Duke Flice. It seemed Cedric's words about Duke Flice coveting the throne had resonated.
Cedric looked at Duke Flice with a leisurely smile.
Duke Flice was furious that someone like Cedric had rebelled against him.
"You bastard...!"
It was a clear declaration of war.
"A punk who used to roll around on the street now runs wild without any gratitude."
Cracks began to appear between them in their seemingly solid relationship.
Internal division is the path to ruin.
It was a disjointed division caused by Rose's single word.
"Ugh..."
Cedric walked out with mixed emotions.
He no longer felt like being in the palace. He trudged back to the mansion. As Cedric walked down the long hallway, a familiar figure appeared before him.
It was Eric.
"...What are you doing there?"
Eric's face looked extremely haggard as he looked around, as if searching for something.
"Eric."
He approached Eric.
'I should take him out too.'
He didn't want to attract Duke Flice's attention, as this could spark a firestorm for his son.
"Let's go. Today is not the time to be in the palace."
Cedric approached, but Eric's eyes remained dead.
"Where are your mother and Beliana? Bring them to the carriage immediately."
Eric signaled his refusal to Cedric's commanding words.
"You should go first. I still have business to attend to."
“Business? What business do you have left in the palace?”
“I haven’t checked yet.”
Eric fidgeted, his voice trailing off as he seemed quite impatient.
“Rose must have been poisoned, so I need to check if she’s okay before I go. I also have things to say.”
Cedric’s expression hardened at the mention of ‘Rose'.
“...What kind of regrets are you holding onto to make you do this? Didn’t you clearly want the divorce?”
Eric furrowed his brow at Cedric’s words.
“I wanted the divorce? No. It wasn’t me who wanted the divorce; it was my father who wanted it.”
“What? You punk! When you said you would divorce her, why are you coming here now to make excuses for me?!”
It was true that Cedric wanted Eric to divorce. However, the final decision was Eric's.
He hadn't even paid Rose a second glance at him then, and now he seemed to be trying to blame Cedric.
"If it weren't for my father, I wouldn't have divorced Rose!"
Eric's voice snarled sharply.
"Rose speaking harshly to me, her running away after being hurt by me... none of this would have happened if my father hadn't instigated me back then!"
Eric glared at Cedric with resentful eyes.
Cedric's head ached at Eric's blaming him for everything.
On the other hand, his heart ached and was suffocated at the sight of his son being played by Rose.
It was like seeing himself being played by Rose's mother, Rivera...
'... Damn it!'
Mother and daughter are shaking up Count Wence's family together. His pride couldn't have been more hurt than this.
“There’s no point in coming here and talking about it now. I’m going to settle the misunderstanding with Rose before I go, so you can go first or not.”
Eric’s cold voice rang out sharply.
Seeing Eric clinging to Rose, Cedric’s desperately held onto his reason snapped.
Cedric roughly grabbed Eric, who had his back turned. He then placed his hands on both of his shoulders and shouted,
“Get a grip!! That girl never loved you in the first place. So stop worrying about that damn girl!”
Eric’s expression crumpled like a piece of paper at Cedric’s words.
“Rosa never loved me?”
He didn’t want to hear any more of Cedric’s absurd words.
“Father, you should stop. How long are you going to keep driving Rose and me apart before you feel better?”
Eric shook off Cedric’s arm and denied his words.
Cedric glared at Eric, who didn't even pretend to hear him, and shouted,
"You idiot!!"
At the same time, Eric's cheek turned violently.
Cedric couldn't hide the face contorted with anger and gritted his teeth. His palms were stinging from how hard he had slapped Eric's cheek.
"Don't you understand?! You were thoroughly used by the Serviat family! That kid, Rose, was just acting to use you!"
Eric's mouth fell open in shock, as if he had been hit with a hammer.
But, he didn't want to hear Cedric's words anymore.
He wanted to go to Rose.
He wanted to hear everything from her.
Boom!
“What the hell is going on here!”
The Emperor’s office.
“The daughter of the Serviats family knows I am conducting biological experiments in Chicagor! And that damned Grand Duke thinks so little of his uncle that he shamelessly pretended to collapse despite being resistant to poison.”
Duke Flice and Cedric bowed their heads before the Emperor.
“He clearly knew about our plan! That must be why he acted like that.”
As the Emperor scolded, Duke Flice looked at Cedric next to him.
“It seems the secret has leaked from Count Wences. Rose, that kid must have extracted information from Eric.”
Duke Flice stated his opinion without hesitation.
Far from protecting his subordinate, his intention was clearly to cut off his tail.
Cedric bit his lower lip and repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist.
“Cedric, raise your head!”
The Emperor’s voice, crushed by rage, echoed throughout the room.
Cedric slowly raised his head, his neck bloodshot.
'Rose, how dare you!'
The blood rushed to his chest.
A suspicion he had tried to ignore blossomed in Cedric’s mind.
Rose de Serviat had systematically approached the Count of Wence.
It was a reasonable assumption.
Rose, who had been acting so foolishly until then, had suddenly changed her tune and joined the Grand Duke of Artaeum.
She clearly intended to marry his son and extract information.
'How dare you... Use my son!?'
The thought that Eric, whom he had raised with such care, had been used by the incomparably cunning Rose filled him with anger.
What’s more, Rose was about to destroy the reputation he had built for the Count of Wence in an instant.
'Damn it...! She was a truly desirable woman, just like her mother!'
Cedric's anger didn't subside easily, perhaps not knowing that Rose, whom he considered foolish, would strike him from behind.
A wave of shame washed over him at the thought of having been fooled by Rose without knowing anything.
However, he couldn't reveal this shame in front of the Emperor.
Even if he complained, it would only poison him.
Cedric stared at the Emperor with hardened eyes.
"For a secret to leak from the Count of Wence? This is unbelievable."
He raised his voice as if he were being wronged.
"I was in charge of this, not Eric. Eric knows nothing about the biological experiments taking place in Chicagor. So how could information leak through Eric?"
"If it weren't for the Count of Wence, how could she have heard all that! Not only does she know how to make poison using cyclamen, she even knows the slang term 'the light of Chicagor.' The only explanation is that someone leaked the information!"
“I agree with Your Majesty. Our family has no ties to the Serviat family, so we must assume it came from the Count Wences family.”
Duke Flice, egging on the Emperor, supported his words. His gaze at Cedric was devoid of any camaraderie.
Cedric was incensed by the Duke’s attitude.
‘I’ve worked for you for decades...!’
If Duke Flice were human, he would embrace Cedric, who had taken on the dirty work, but he didn’t. Instead, he took the lead and drove Cedric away.
For a moment, Cedric felt a sense of betrayal, but he forced his boiling anger to subside.
At the moment, appeasing the Emperor was more important than Duke Flice.
“Your Majesty, please calm down. The truth hasn’t been revealed yet, has it? I’ll investigate to see if she really knows about the human experiments. And if I see even the slightest hint of something strange, I’ll deal with it, so don’t worry too much.”
“Shouldn’t you have been careful not to leak the information from the beginning, Cedric? What’s the point of killing her after she knows everything?”
“It’s not certain yet, so please don’t be so sure, Your Excellency the Duke of Flice. After listening to you quietly, it seems like you want our work to come to light?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m asking if you have other plans, Your Excellency. Are you planning to use this opportunity to frame Your Majesty and me and seize the throne?”
Cedric spat out barbed words and turned to the Emperor.
"I'm so wronged, Your Majesty! You know my character! I've been Your Majesty's hand and foot more than anyone else. Not Duke Flice! The one who will benefit from this revelation is Duke Flice, not me. There's plenty of evidence that I conducted experiments in Chicagor, but Duke Flice has none, right? He could have even instigated Your Majesty from the beginning to seize the throne for himself. Please, think rationally."
Bam!
At Cedric's words, Duke Flice slammed his fist on the desk and rose from his seat.
"How dare you! What are you saying in front of His Majesty!"
Duke Flice's face flushed red, and he heaved a ragged breath.
The Emperor, hearing Cedric's words, seemed lost in thought and simply stared at Duke Flice in silence.
'Duke Flice... is a man with a dark heart, like a bat.'
Duke Flice was a loyal subject of the former Emperor.
The former Emperor trusted and cherished him more than anyone else. He had willingly betrayed his monarch and chosen the current Emperor.
There was no guarantee that someone who had betrayed once would do so again.
Cedric's words held a point.
Seeing the Emperor's expression harden, Duke Flice gritted his teeth and denied his words.
"Your Majesty, don't listen to Cedric's attempts to muddy the waters. I gave my life to Your Majesty. And yet, how could I betray Your Majesty? That's a preposterous assertion!"
He sent the Emperor a desperate look, then glared at Cedric.
“Cedric, instead of kneeling and apologizing, you’re trying to sow discord between His Majesty and me!”
Cedric and Duke Flice snarled at each other in front of the Emperor.
“I must be quite ridiculous, Cedric! I shouldn’t have taken you in, you bastard with such lowly origins!”
As the illegitimate son of the Wence family, he was struck by Duke Flice’s words.
Cedric had a sense of entitlement about his own birth.
The word he hated hearing the most was “origin.” After all, his mother had been a commoner.
“Why are we talking about origins here! Your Excellency...!”
“Enough!!”
The Emperor cut off Cedric mid-sentence and shouted harshly.
Only then did they cease their sharp swords at each other. However, their glaring gazes remained.
Heavy air filled the office.
The Emperor sighed deeply, as if his mind was in turmoil, and ruffled his poor hair.
The men's grumbling breathing subsided. The first to break the silence was none other than the Emperor.
"Enough,"
He said to them in a much calmer voice.
"Cedric."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"I will leave this matter to you."
At the Emperor's words, Cedric's lips quirked up.
"Yes, please leave it to me."
The Emperor had entrusted the matter to himself, not Duke Flice. It seemed Cedric's words about Duke Flice coveting the throne had resonated.
Cedric looked at Duke Flice with a leisurely smile.
Duke Flice was furious that someone like Cedric had rebelled against him.
"You bastard...!"
It was a clear declaration of war.
"A punk who used to roll around on the street now runs wild without any gratitude."
Cracks began to appear between them in their seemingly solid relationship.
Internal division is the path to ruin.
It was a disjointed division caused by Rose's single word.
***
"Ugh..."
Cedric walked out with mixed emotions.
He no longer felt like being in the palace. He trudged back to the mansion. As Cedric walked down the long hallway, a familiar figure appeared before him.
It was Eric.
"...What are you doing there?"
Eric's face looked extremely haggard as he looked around, as if searching for something.
"Eric."
He approached Eric.
'I should take him out too.'
He didn't want to attract Duke Flice's attention, as this could spark a firestorm for his son.
"Let's go. Today is not the time to be in the palace."
Cedric approached, but Eric's eyes remained dead.
"Where are your mother and Beliana? Bring them to the carriage immediately."
Eric signaled his refusal to Cedric's commanding words.
"You should go first. I still have business to attend to."
“Business? What business do you have left in the palace?”
“I haven’t checked yet.”
Eric fidgeted, his voice trailing off as he seemed quite impatient.
“Rose must have been poisoned, so I need to check if she’s okay before I go. I also have things to say.”
Cedric’s expression hardened at the mention of ‘Rose'.
“...What kind of regrets are you holding onto to make you do this? Didn’t you clearly want the divorce?”
Eric furrowed his brow at Cedric’s words.
“I wanted the divorce? No. It wasn’t me who wanted the divorce; it was my father who wanted it.”
“What? You punk! When you said you would divorce her, why are you coming here now to make excuses for me?!”
It was true that Cedric wanted Eric to divorce. However, the final decision was Eric's.
He hadn't even paid Rose a second glance at him then, and now he seemed to be trying to blame Cedric.
"If it weren't for my father, I wouldn't have divorced Rose!"
Eric's voice snarled sharply.
"Rose speaking harshly to me, her running away after being hurt by me... none of this would have happened if my father hadn't instigated me back then!"
Eric glared at Cedric with resentful eyes.
Cedric's head ached at Eric's blaming him for everything.
On the other hand, his heart ached and was suffocated at the sight of his son being played by Rose.
It was like seeing himself being played by Rose's mother, Rivera...
'... Damn it!'
Mother and daughter are shaking up Count Wence's family together. His pride couldn't have been more hurt than this.
“There’s no point in coming here and talking about it now. I’m going to settle the misunderstanding with Rose before I go, so you can go first or not.”
Eric’s cold voice rang out sharply.
Seeing Eric clinging to Rose, Cedric’s desperately held onto his reason snapped.
Cedric roughly grabbed Eric, who had his back turned. He then placed his hands on both of his shoulders and shouted,
“Get a grip!! That girl never loved you in the first place. So stop worrying about that damn girl!”
Eric’s expression crumpled like a piece of paper at Cedric’s words.
“Rosa never loved me?”
He didn’t want to hear any more of Cedric’s absurd words.
“Father, you should stop. How long are you going to keep driving Rose and me apart before you feel better?”
Eric shook off Cedric’s arm and denied his words.
Cedric glared at Eric, who didn't even pretend to hear him, and shouted,
"You idiot!!"
At the same time, Eric's cheek turned violently.
Cedric couldn't hide the face contorted with anger and gritted his teeth. His palms were stinging from how hard he had slapped Eric's cheek.
"Don't you understand?! You were thoroughly used by the Serviat family! That kid, Rose, was just acting to use you!"
Eric's mouth fell open in shock, as if he had been hit with a hammer.
But, he didn't want to hear Cedric's words anymore.
He wanted to go to Rose.
He wanted to hear everything from her.
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