Chapter 129

“I really don’t know now. I wouldn’t dare to judge your relationship with Lady Marianne. If you really trust each other, I will be more than happy. I have always hoped for you to have a happy family. You know that, right?”

“… Yeah, I know.”

“Damn it. I’ve never thought I’d have to say this…”

Jed grabbed his red hair roughly and crumpled it as if he was frustrated. After hesitating a bit, he looked straight into the emperor’s eyes as if he made up his mind. He straightened his body and swallowed dry saliva once.

“But Your Majesty. This is about treason. You should never forget that until the investigation is completely done.”

Jed’s voice was serious and low, unlike how it was before. There was a mixture of concern and responsibility, apologeticness and compassion in his dark brown eyes.

Eckart breathed out slowly, his jaw tight. Meanwhile, Jed knelt without hesitation and put his hand on his left chest, asking for his forgiveness.

“I think I said something arrogant. Jed of the Renault family asks for your forgiveness.”

In terms of the law and customs of the Aslan Empire, Jed’s remarks were a reckless interference in his private affairs. Any advice that the emperor didn’t ask for was rude, and even if somebody could offer advice for the public benefits without his request, it could still be stigmatized as unwarranted interference.

“I forgive you. So, stand up.”

Eckhart did not blame Jed because he felt he was not qualified to do so from the beginning.

“Let me keep your advice in mind carefully.”

He already knew exactly what Jed was trying to say.

Eckart closed his eyes. The moment his eyelids blocked the light and color of the world, the remnants of human emotions reflected in his blue eyes slowly faded away. Anxiety and expectation, displeasure and shame, solitude and even a bit of sorrow left him.

When he opened his eyes again, he was just the emperor, ruler of a flawless world, and the crystal of reason developed through divinity.

“Don’t worry. Let me make sure the things you’re worried about don’t happen.”

Even his low voice rang authoritatively.

Jed chewed his lips while looking at his casual attitude in a clear contrast to his nervousness from a moment ago.

“Your Majesty, I just…”

“If you want to leave before the sun goes down, sit there and draft the report I messed up again. I won’t rip it this time.”

Eckart cut off his words and pointed to a nearby auxiliary desk, gesturing with his chin.

As if he was no more interested in talking with Jed, he casually checked his remaining work for the day.

With a long sigh, Jed drooped his shoulders as he was troubled by Eckart’s usual attitude.

That night, Jed stayed put in the back garden of his mansion as soon as he got back home.

Soon, in a warehouse where all kinds of silk across the empire were piled up like a mountain, servants picked up some strong alcohol from the warehouse and ran to the back garden.

Just as the officials of the Treasury Department were regarded as spies if they didn’t know Jed, the chief Treasury official, was a heavy drinker. The servants from Earl Renault’s mansion were aware that they would be in trouble if they didn’t bring strong alcohol when he drank heavily.

It was usually one of two occasions when he drank heavily. Namely, he went on a drinking binge when he was very happy or when he was in a bad mood, knowing he wouldn’t get drunk otherwise but didn’t have any better idea.

Given that someone like Jed, who didn’t care about strong or weak alcohol, chose to drink strong alcohol, there was a high possibility that he was in a bad mood tonight.

The servants, quickly noticing Jed’s taste tonight, focused on carrying the bottles.

Even though Jed drank heavily as if one was pouring water from a bottomless pot, he never acted violently to anybody even after he was heavily drunk. As long as they tried to meet his demands, he was just fine.

However, one person at the house was worried about him rather than currying favor with him.

“Jed.”

He turned his head toward someone calling his name, pushing out the empty bottles below his feet. Obviously, one of his servants must have reported about his heavy drinking.

“Yes, Mom.”

“Why don’t you drink water if you’re thirsty? Alcohol only makes the thirst worse.”

Countess Renault responded casually and sat next to Jed.

“Well, I was regretting it. I know it, but I make the same mistake every time.”

Despite his heavy drinking, Jed’s face didn’t change at all. His pronunciation was articulate and his eyes were clear. When he took off her coat, which was only a shawl on an indoor dress, his hands didn’t tremble at all.

She did not reject her son’s kind gesture. She looked at the wine bottles on the table and the grass.

“Okay. Do you think you’re a bit drunk today?”

“Not at all, Mom.”

“I guessed so. Why don’t you give up drinking? Heavy drinking is also hereditary. I’m not sure what it means to be drunk, but as you’re younger and healthier, I assume you will never know.”

“Why do you make me sad by saying that its hereditary?” said Jed, joking at her.

But he felt empty when he said so.

While looking at him blankly for a minute, she reached out. What she held in her white hand was a glass. The glass was clean and dry as if nobody had never used it.

She glanced at Jed, holding the empty glass. Jed then brought a new bottle and opened it. Soon, a clear liquor filled the glass with a distinctive scent. She emptied the cup cleanly without frowning at all.

Jed hesitated for a minute and then filled the cup again.

“Mom.”

Having called his mother, he examined the back garden where it was already dark.

She was silent, sharing his glance at the garden. Obviously she was waiting for him to bring up any topic he wanted to at the moment.

“Mom, I heard that Lady Marianne was here to see you recently.”

“Yes, she did.”

“You must have met her for the first time in private. What’s your impression?”

The countess turned her head and looked at her son. She recalled Lady Marianne.

Marianne was the very woman whom lots of people in Milan were blaming these days.

Wearing a cunning prostitute’s mask, she told the countess about the coming tragedy with a smile. She was a woman who asked her to be her ally for her political interests, when she in fact declared that she was already in love. What would she say about that strange and special girl?

While the countess was worried, and at a loss for words, Jed couldn’t stand waiting and opened his mouth first.

“So… you felt she was good, right? Trustworthy, kind and good-hearted…”

“Well. You seem to have already decided on what you want to hear.”

The countess crumpled her eyebrows a bit. Jed, who looked far away all along, turned around and sat beside her.

“Don’t you know it? His Majesty has started to consider her to be very special.”

As the roots of a tree stretched out below the ground and grabbed the soil, their eyes met and became entangled.

Jed read her tacit acknowledgement in silence. He made a bitter smile. Rather than expressing joy that his guess was not wrong, he was conscience-stricken.

“I always hoped that the emperor could make a happy family. Since he was born with the destiny of the king, he could not marry a woman without any political considerations. But I don’t think he could live without love. So, given the choice, I wished he would meet a good woman and lead a less difficult life.”

“… Jed.”

“As you know, the emperor has no parents, brothers or sisters. So, I really hoped that he could meet a good woman he could genuinely rely on…”

He slurred his last words and grabbed the neck of the bottle in his hand. Then he poured all the remaining alcohol onto the glass. The burning taste of strong alcohol roughly went down his throat like a sword cutting into a saw blade.

“So, I told the emperor today that he should carefully check out the gravity of his job.”

He didn’t show any signs of becoming tipsy at all. He more vividly recalled Eckart’s face and voice that he witnessed.

“Do not worry. I will make sure the things that you’re worried about don’t happen.”

Eckart’s low voice, his calm look, and his cold-heartedness like arctic sea ice that froze the water so fiercely that no one could look inside. It was the light and shade of the one who chose to be the most perfect ruler rather than a weak human.

“Do you regret what you told the emperor?”

“…Well, I think I duly spoke out what I had to as his close advisor. Of course, I could be blamed for having advised him impertinently.”

In fact, he might have been better off refraining from giving Eckart such advice.