Chapter 21

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 21

Chapter Title: The Question No One Dared to Ask

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A question everyone had foreseen, yet no one dared to voice outright.

Even Arpad had never directly asked his father about it.

But Hilia did. She asked the Emperor himself.

Did he truly intend to set his own son aside and make Ludwig the next Emperor?

The Emperor furrowed his brow and shot back at her.

"Why do you think I'd do that?"

"It's common knowledge, Your Majesty. After all, you were the one who arranged the marriage between me and the Grand Duke in the first place."

The Emperor didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow while holding this conversation right in front of his son.

Hilia, standing beside Arpad, showed no sign of intimidation before the Emperor either.

"You wouldn't have handed over the Delphin ducal house unless it was to raise him as a rival to Crown Prince."

"...Are you saying, Duchess, that you orchestrated this whole affair because you didn't want to give the Delphin ducal house to him?"

Hilia blinked her large eyes and muttered a curse under her breath.

'Of course I fucking hate it! Hell, even just for setting up that marriage, I've wanted to deck the Emperor in the jaw at least once!'

But her lips curved into a smile as she replied with something else.

"How could I let personal feelings dictate something this important?"

"Then?"

Hilia, who had been standing demurely by Arpad's side, took a step forward.

Toward the Emperor's throne.

She knelt with utmost courtesy and lifted her head.

"How well do you know your nephew, Your Majesty?"

"Are you saying I have no eye for people?"

Hilia smiled without answering. But her silence was affirmation enough.

'I've actually heard exactly that before.'

From the man himself, no less.

"In many ways, my son surpassed me. He had a keen eye for people too. If only he hadn't had that mania..."

"Pfft!"

Arpad's stifled laughter came from beside her.

Though muffled, his giggling rolled across the audience chamber floor like shards of broken glass.

Hilia pressed on calmly, undeterred by Arpad.

"I've rarely had the chance to observe you up close, Your Majesty, so I have nothing to say about other matters. But I can tell you that you don't know Ludwig."

It was an insolent remark.

But the Emperor crossed his legs and propped his chin on his hand.

His expression showed even greater interest.

"It sounds like you know Ludwig well, Duchess."

"I've spent three years as his fiancée, after all."

In truth, the Delphin ducal residence had practically become Ludwig and Evangeline Ruth's honeymoon home.

'I was the only one who didn't realize it.'

"So you're saying the Ludwig you saw isn't fit to be Emperor."

"Yes. He's petty, riddled with inferiority complex, lacks the ability to match his boundless ambition."

Arpad burst into laughter again from the side.

"Ahaha! That's cutting. Really doesn't suit that pretty face of yours, does it?"

He looked thoroughly amused.

The Emperor, brow furrowed, at least agreed with his son on one point.

"Indeed, Duchess. You have a vicious tongue that belies your appearance."

'That's because someone put me through hell because of it.'

...Hilia swallowed that retort with effort.

Objectively speaking, she figured the Emperor bore a fair share of blame for her sufferings.

Hilia added an anecdote she knew to drive the point home.

"My perspective is narrow, so I don't know much. But there was an issue with internal affairs in the Delphin ducal territory."

Ludwig currently oversaw the internal administration of the Delphin duchy as well.

"An official embezzled funds and neglected the granaries and reservoirs. Yet Ludwig rehired the same official the following year."

"Why?"

"The new candidates opposed raising taxes the next year—it was a bad harvest. But the embezzler had a weakness we could hold over him, so he agreed to the tax hike."

"......"

"It's a small matter, but how one handles the small things reveals how they'll handle the great ones."

Hilia met the Emperor's gaze head-on with unwavering eyes as she concluded.

"You must know well what would happen if such a man decided the fate of the entire Empire."

The Emperor didn't answer right away. He stroked his beard with his fingertips.

After a moment of silence, his response affirmed Hilia's point.

"Your observation is correct."

"Then..."

"Even so, my judgment stands."

"Are you saying it's fitting for an Emperor to let personal desires dictate affairs of state?"

The Emperor tapped the armrest and replied in a voice cold as ice.

"Better than someone who goes mad and slaughters indiscriminately."

"......!"

Arpad dropped his smile at the response, so cold it bordered on cruel.

His vertically elongated red pupils narrowed, thickening with killing intent.

"Your Highness!"

Even as Hilia called out in reprimand, Arpad didn't stop.

And the Emperor held his ground.

The thick killing intent of father and son, both of the dragon's bloodline, clashed within the audience chamber.

It was enough to make any ordinary person feel choked just by being there.

But Hilia sprang to her feet and yanked Arpad's wrist.

"Your Highness! Enough!"

Seeing this, a flicker of surprise crossed the Emperor's face.

'What? Moving so freely amid the killing intent of two imperial kin? She doesn't look that trained.'

This was only possible because Hilia had died three times in her actual experiences.

But neither the Emperor nor the Crown Prince could know that.

Only after Hilia earnestly intervened did Arpad reluctantly withdraw his killing intent. Control of the situation shifted back to the Emperor and Hilia.

Arpad had stepped back.

He wanted to see how she would break through this.

"So Your Majesty must hold that view out of concern for Crown Prince's mania."

"Yes."

A fact everyone knew but had never been publicly acknowledged finally emerged concretely from the Emperor's lips.

Arpad scowled in displeasure but didn't point out the unfairness.

He couldn't be absolutely sure himself that he wouldn't go mad.

Hilia smiled casually.

"In that case, Your Majesty has no more reason to worry about Crown Prince. The mania issue has been resolved."

"...What?!"

The Emperor jolted in shock, half-rising from his throne before slumping back down.

She could feel even Arpad freezing in astonishment as he stared at her.

Ignoring it, Hilia continued beaming.

"Because I'm by Arpad's side now."

"......"

After fumbling for words, the Emperor finally managed to ask.

"You think being by his side resolves Arpad's mania?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

With an innocent expression and a sweet voice, she dropped the bombshell.

The Emperor let out a disbelieving chuckle.

"What nonsense is that? I've never even heard of anyone curing the hereditary dragon mania."

Arpad remained rooted like a pillar of salt, staring at Hilia.

Ignoring his intense gaze for the moment, Hilia focused solely on the Emperor.

He was the one she needed to convince right now, after all.

"I'm not sure if Your Majesty will believe this, but... the night before the wedding, I had a dream."

Hilia clasped her hands over her chest and raised her head again.

Earlier, she'd faced the Emperor directly. This time was different.

She looked higher up. Above the Emperor's throne, there was only one thing.

'The Dragon Artanus statue.'

A masterpiece crafted from gold and ivory, with red diamonds embedded in its eyes.

A symbol proclaiming with all its might that the Empire's founder was a dragon.

Gazing up at it reverently, Hilia declared.

"Lord Artanus himself appeared in my dream and spoke to me."

"...!"

"He bestowed his blessing upon me, saying that as long as I'm by his side, no descendant of the dragon will suffer from mania."

The Dragon Artanus's blessing.

That's what I claimed to have received, right in front of the Emperor.

'This much justification is needed for our marriage to be recognized.'

It was a union that shattered one arranged by the Emperor himself.

To back it up, nothing less than superior authority would do.

Authority greater than the Emperor's came in just two forms.

'A god... or a dragon.'

The Estrid Empire especially prided itself on being descendants of the golden dragon Artanus.

Moreover, Artanus had decreed:

—The bounty of the Artanua Plains will endure as long as I and the descendants of Estrid hold the imperial throne.

The Artanua Plains, the continent's central granary, held enough abundance to feed the entire continent.

Thus, no one—not just in the Empire, but across the continent—could challenge anyone backed by Artanus!

So, was it true?

Did Artanus really appear in my dream and bless me?

'Of course it's fucking bullshit!'