"Yes."
The chief attendant answered without any change in pitch.
"Bullshit! That makes no sense! Anyone can see I'm the victim! Do you know how many times this woman hit me? Why am I under house arrest while she isn't! It's an insult to the royal family! It's an attempted assassination of a royal!"
"It is an order from His Imperial Majesty."
The chief attendant answered calmly without blinking an eye.
The Second Prince, grinding his teeth, grabbed the Chief Attendant by the collar.
"Stop talking nonsense and ask again! This makes no sense!"
"...Your Highness the Second Prince."
When the chief attendant called out to him in a low voice, the Second Prince, Yuldian, flinched and let go of his collar.
"I will convey your message to His Majesty. However, as the message has been delivered for now, I ask that you return to the castle."
"...Shit."
"His Majesty is a man of fairness and justice, so if you feel wronged, it will be resolved quickly."
"...Fairness my ass! Who do you think doesn't know he only cares about my big brother and that mongrel!"
He muttered fiercely, glared at Roselyn, then spun around and disappeared quickly.
"I will take you there.”
"Um, I'll go with you, Young Lady!"
"No, please go see a doctor. It is embarrassing for a fiancée to be acting like this."
Roselyn spoke somewhat coldly, almost heartlessly, and turned away.
“Please guide me.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Roselyn turned her back on Arma and followed the chief attendant away.
***
The place they arrived at was a magnificent and large office.
The walls, plastered entirely in gold, looked like a treasure trove filled with all sorts of precious things. On one side of the office was a collection of rare jewels, and on the other, stuffed rare animals were visible.
And the figure sitting on the sofa in the center of the office caught his eye.
His once-brilliant golden hair was now close to a faded brown, and his eyes were sky blue.
Despite being close to 50 years old, he did not look that old except for the wrinkles on his face.
Messy hair and sloppy attire that felt almost completely lacking in formality.
If the clothes he was wearing hadn't been expensive, she would have believed he was a back-alley scoundrel rather than an arrogant and noble Emperor.
However, he was a man whose true feelings were hard to discern because he was always smiling.
In a sense, even more so than Garen.
Roselyn greeted the man who was the master of the empire with respect.
"I greet the brilliant and noble sun."
"Oh. I wonder if that is a somewhat embarrassing greeting to hear from a woman who has caused quite an amusing incident in the castle where the brilliant and noble sun resides."
Roselyn also smiled sweetly without saying a word at the words, which were packaged in a sophisticated tone telling her to stop messing around after causing trouble.
As Roselyn smiled, thinking 'So what?', the Emperor rubbed his chin with a meaningful expression, looked at her, and nodded.
It was a somewhat half-hearted and light voice.
"Well, sit down for now."
At the Emperor's brief command, Roselyn sat down without a word on the seat opposite the sofa he pointed to.
"Lady Bellion's vibe has changed quite a bit. Is it just my imagination?"
The Emperor glanced at Roselyn from top to bottom, tilted his teacup, and spat out his commentary.
"There were various things that happened."
"Ah. I heard the story. Why is it such sad news?"
The Emperor spoke with a look of no regret whatsoever.
"So."
The Emperor put down his teacup and looked up at Roselyn.
"I wonder what Young Lady was thinking when you did something like this, considering you were not just cautious, but a 'safety first' type."
What on earth is that indecisive, timid bastard thinking, with absolutely no resolve?
Roselyn naturally interpreted the Emperor's 'elegant socialite language'.
"I would like to break off my engagement with His Highness the Third Prince."
Roselyn spoke nonchalantly while holding the teacup the chief attendant had brought.
For a moment, the Emperor could not understand her words and, with a bewildered expression, let out a hollow laugh and asked back.
"... What?"
"I wish to break off the engagement with His Highness the Third Prince, Your Majesty."
Roselyn repeated it once again, slowly and clearly.
Then the Emperor opened his mouth kindly with a smiling face.
"I heard that Young Lady was in a serious accident. It looks like you might have injured your head. I will send a doctor, so why don't you get a check-up?"
Roselyn likewise stared at the Emperor for a moment and then smiled faintly.
"In return, I will solve two problems that are giving Your Majesty a headache."
"...Two problems that are giving me a headache?"
The Emperor retorted with a look that suggested he found it laughable.
Roselyn nodded without blinking an eye.
"Yes. I will handle negotiations with 'Kaluta,' which borders the north, and resolve the recent disappearance cases occurring in various regions."
The Emperor, who had been indifferent, narrowed his eyes at Roselyn's words, which were even more nonchalant.
Roselyn waited for the answer, extremely nervous. In fact, it was half a gamble.
'However, if the prediction is correct, the major events will unfold pretty much the same way.'
And 'Kaluta's Negotiation' and this disappearance were events that, if handled well, could change the history of the empire.
The Emperor twitched his eyebrows once, then looked at Roselyn and let out a meaningful smile.
Both the negotiations with Kaluta and the gradually expanding scope of the missing persons case were indeed things he was currently worrying about.
There are few people who know about this matter.
To prevent unnecessary anxiety from growing, information was blocked from leaking to everyone except close associates.
'...But the sickly princess who can't even leave her room knows that.'
Her pale complexion certainly didn't look healthy, but her eyes were sharp.
"You're saying this is timid and weak...?"
Just looking at her eyes, doesn't it look like she's killed someone?
"I am unwavering and confident in myself. It is not arrogance or conceit."
To dismiss it as nonsense, she pinpointed exactly what the Emperor considered his biggest headache right now.
"That's strange. The Roselyn Bellion I know isn't this kind of lady."
"I even tried to kill myself, so what more is there to fear, Your Majesty? Death is what humans fear most."
Roselyn had even been subjected to terrible torture for a week, so there was nothing more frightening or terrifying for her now.
The Emperor gave a somewhat lighter impression than she remembered.
So, her face was ecstatic, but her voice was light.
He looked somewhat cocky, or to exaggerate a little, like a spoiled nobleman who had grown up unaware of the ways of the world, so he did not exude any dignity, and there was no sense of vigilance to be seen in his grinning face.
He even tapped his feet while crossing his arms.
Judging solely by his smiling face, he seemed to take the whole situation lightly.
However, Roselyn knew the Emperor's true nature.
This man was by no means someone to be ignored. So she did not show even an inch of weakness.
He was a cruel man who could slit another's throat with a smiling face.
He does not care whether someone commits a sacrilegious act insulting the royal family or what his children do.
The Emperor just stands by and watches.
So at one time, everyone referred to him as a 'clown emperor' who had neither dignity nor guts.
'But I will carry out a major purge about a year later.'
One day at dawn, the Emperor suddenly sent investigators secretly to all the nobles in every region.
The Duke's family was no exception.
When those who usually disregarded the Emperor went to confront him, asking what kind of outrageous behavior this was, he still had a smiling face.
He nodded with a smiling face, saying he understood, and then, with a smiling face, beckoned the one who had argued first to come closer...
With a cheerful yet somewhat silly smile, just as usual, he slit his throat in an instant.
He was the first nobleman the Emperor executed for the crime of insulting the royal family.
Since then, dozens of charges against that nobleman have been revealed.
Three months of purge.
In the incident that is later talked about so much, one-third of the nobles died, and one-third of the nobles lost more than half of their property.
Even the Duke of Bellion could not escape the aftermath.
The Emperor, having examined everyone from the collateral to the direct line, selected and pruned all those deemed trash and unworthy of life.
No one could resist it. The Emperor was that powerful.
And in the process, the second son of the Duke's family, that is, Roselyn's uncle, died.
It was partly because he was a notorious scoundrel, and partly because a shocking secret that even the Duke could never cover up was exposed.
However, perhaps because Roselyn was the Third Prince's fiancée, he let it slide.
Anyway, this Emperor was a madman.
'Claiming it was education, he recited the parents' crimes one by one in front of the successor and killed them.'
And he immediately passed the title on to their successor.
And in front of his dead parents.
"Ha ha ha!"
While Roselyn was lost in thought, the Emperor burst into loud laughter.
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