Chapter 207

"I'll have to stop him."

Empress Lavigne said to Duigi.

Duigi Angenas was more frightened by the calm appearance of Lavigne.

Since childhood, she has had a fiery personality and she would even smash things when she's angry.

But now she looked very calm.

And Duigi thought, she was better off getting angry.

It was because he felt like the bad situation is even more worst knowing how calm Lavigne is.

Perhaps, she's even more angry than what Duigi thinks.

Lavigne, who sat down at her seat looking powerful, was resentful, but now was the time to leave those feelings behind.

"What should I do, sister?" Duigi asked seriously.

"Didn't I tell you? We have to stop him."

Blue veins popped out of the back of Lavigne's hand, clenching her fist.

"That lowly thing..."

Lavigne gritted her teeth thinking of Perez.

She knew that something was up because he was quiet for a while, to think that he was planning such tricks behind her.

"It's obvious that the Second Prince, the Brown and Lombardi family, made up this plan, Duigi."

It was none other than Florentia Lombardi, who held the hunting competition and brought them into the Madman forest.

"I want to cut the throat of that ugly thing with all of my heart."

But she is the granddaughter of the Patriarch of Lombardi and the daughter of Gallahan Lombardi.

I don't know how the Lombardi would react if I touched her recklessly..

Besides, the Imperial Army is not allowed to enter the Lombardi's mansion.

Lavigne, whose thoughts spread to the imperial knights, asked Duigi.

"What about the knights?"

"There's a division within the Imperial Knights."

Angenas occupied the West, expanded their influence, and the Empress bore the enemy.

The 40 years that Angenas had been building up their power were enough to fill and spread their people all over the empire.

And the Imperial Knights were one of them.

"According to the report, it's split in half."

"Half?" Lavigne's eyebrows rose.

"How much money have we poured into the Imperial Knights? But only half?!"

Bam!

Lavigne struck the table with her fist.

"That is... isn't there a current knight commander? Tollian Buckton. It seems that the forces following the Second Prince and the Brown family are united around him."

"If we had a little more time, we could have filled the knights with our people."

If only I had a little more time.

Empress Lavigne kept muttering the words.

Something was strange.

She couldn't describe it in words, but of course the things that were supposed to fit were misplaced.

It was a great sense of incompatibility.

She had a strong feeling that she might have been being played by a single person, which is ridiculous but she couldn't ignore.

The one who found the dying Second Prince and became the guardian.

The one who sent him to the Academy which is beyond the influence of the Empress.

The person who gave the Second Prince the chance to have a seat within politics under the pretext of the northern slogan, and gave power to his granddaughter.

And finally, the person who set up a splendid stage so that the Brown family could get everyone's attention.

"Lombardi, that old man."

In the meantime, if you look at the incidents that have been in the way of Lavigne and Angenas, Lombardi was behind it.

Lavigne tried to cool her head, recalling Rulac.

You have to keep your head above water to deal with him.

"I will leave the noble meeting to you and the Patriarch Sushou, Duigi. No matter what, the Browns must not be put back on the aristocratic register."

"Yes, leave it to me." Duigi Angenas answered quickly.

It would have been very difficult to deal with Rulac Lombardi alone, but with the Patriarch of Sushou, there is a chance to win.

In fact, the power of Angenas in the aristocratic conference became stronger after the fact that the Patriarch of Sushou was on the side of the First Prince and was known to the public.

"By the way, how should I clarify the case for the First Prince?"

Right to that moment, Duigi has been eagerly spreading rumors that Astana 'did not do it on his own, he was just intoxicated with drugs.'

Thanks to this, the fears of the Angenas supporters that the First Prince would be disposed immediately and that something big that was to happen had subsided, but additional measures were needed.

"It's a false accusation, someone drugged Astana. Put it that way."

"If you ask who he is..."

Of course, the answer was Perez.

But it couldn't be stated by Empress Lavigne nor Duigi.

Perez is the investigator in charge of the investigation after all.

"For now, the priority is to turn the arrow from Astana. So..."

Empress Lavigne's eyes shone cruelly.

"Bellesac, you said that the child was still in custody, right?"

"He is.." Duigi Angenas opened his mouth.

It was because he knows what Empress Lavigne was trying to do.

"Are you thinking of pinning this on him?"

"Then is there a better way, Duigi?"

"If you look at the investigations of the Knights you brought in, Astana clearly said. 'Bellesac brought a canteen.'"

"But isn't Bellesac the son of Serral?"

Serral was the cousin of Lavigne and Duigi.

Empress Lavigne frowned when she saw Duigi's surprised face.

He looks upset.

And she snapped back.

"Duigi, Bellesac is not an Angenas. He is a Lombardi."

Duigi Angeas lost his words and was forces to look at the Empress blankly.

****

At the same time.

Perez, along with the Imperial knights, was entering the room where Bellesac Lombardi was detained.

In a tense atmosphere, Bellesac asked.

"When can I go back to the Lombardi mansion?"

"Well. There is no request from the Lombardi's side yet."

"It can't be..."

Bellesac stopped talking.

His father, Viege, was the same as being ousted from the Lombard family and his mother, Serral, was an Angenas' man and the empress's henchmen.

He realized that there was no one to roll up his sleeves for him.

Flop.

Bellesac, who sank into his chair, grabbed his head.

"I didn't do anything wrong, why..."

He bet on a bleak of hope.

By now, the side of Angenas, who had been asked by Lombardi or his mother Serral, would have taken him out.

But it was Perez and the Imperial Knights who came.

Now, there was nowhere else to hope for.

Perez, looking down at Bellesac's figure, told the knights.

"Get out for a while."

"...Yes, Your Highness."

The knights hesitated for a while, but soon moved as per order.

One of the knights who had been in place until the end looked at Perez and Bellesac alternately with suspicious eyes, but there was no other way.

The Imperial Knights must obey the orders of those with Durelli's surname.

Click.

With a quiet noise, the door closed, and Perez sat across from Bellesac.

The way he leaned deeply against the backrest and crossed his legs was quite different from the atmosphere when he was with the knights a while ago.

Bellesac looked at Perez with wary eyes.

"Hey." Perez called Bellesac.

"Do you want to die like this?"

"Well, what the hell are-----!"

When Astana was with him, it became a habit to mock and ridicule the Second Prince, and Bellesac, who tried to speak informally without realizing it, shut up.

Perez, who seemed to be aware of Bellesac like that, said in a calm voice.

"You still don't think anyone will save you. I think you're desperate."

Perez said, opening one of the wooden boxes that the Templar left on the table and showing the canteen in it.

"During the investigation, Astana said,'Bellesac handed me the canteen.'"

Bellesac's brown eyes shook.

Perez opened the second box.

"And this dagger used in the assassination of the Emperor belong to you."

"Well, that's..!"

"If Angenas side drove you as the culprit, what would you think this would look like to people?"

Perez continued as he looked at Bellesac's face, which gradually turned white.

"The Empress will put all the blame on Bellesac Lombardi. You know well that you are the person who will be pinned after that."

Bellesac bite his lips.

It was just as Perez said.

Bellesac himself knows how cruel Empress Lavigne is.

"I, who was the original owner of the canteen, and you who stole the bottle and gave it to Astana. But I'm the investigator in this attempt murder case, so I can't be accused. All that remains is you, Bellesac, who uses the Lombardi surname."

At Perez's words, Bellesac closed his eyes tightly.

Then Perez asked.

"Do you want to live?"

Bellesac raised his head.

His dull head turned quickly to try to understand the situation.

"Do you want to live?"

Perez asked again.

"...Yes, yes! I want to live!"

Bellesac seemed to hang on to Perez's legs.

Perez, who looked at Bellesac with cold eyes for a moment, took a piece of paper out of his arms.

It was a blank sheet with nothing written on it.

"What is this...?"

When Bellesac asked, perplexed, Perez threw the paper over the table and said,

"Write a letter to your mother, Serral."

****

The empress called the Patriarch of Sushou to the Imperial Palace.

"I only believe in Lord Sushou." Lavigne said to Chanton Sushou.

Last time, Empress Lavigne's request to assassinate Perez was like a test.

To find out if you can trust a person named Chanton Sushou.

Eventually, Empress Lavigne, who left behind evidence of what the former Imperial Knights commander Chanton Sushou tried to attack the prince, began to fully believe in Sushou.

"Isn't Sushou and Angenas on the same boat?"

Empress Lavigne poured tea to the Patriarch of Sushou With an alluring smile.

"I'll take care of Astana's side, so please look at the noble council, Patriarch Sushou."

"Are you pertaining about the Brown family?"

Chanton Sushou asked in a peculiar, monotonous tone with few highs and lows.

"Yes, it's extremely important."

The Empress continued to reply without loosing her smile.

But that smile did not last long.

It was because of what Chanton Sushou said while putting down the teacup.

"Then you must give us the lands of Angenas."

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N/A: "She had a strong feeling that she might have been being played by a single person, which is ridiculous but she couldn't ignore." 

Me: Oh dear... Lavitchy... I thought you were smart... oh well, she wasn't wrong when she said that Rulac is the high wall that's been blocking her and Angena's way but there's an even higher wall! Named Florentia! LMAO!

You know what I'm really glad about in this story guys? It's the fact that everyone focuses on the 'older' people like Grandpa Rulac, Daddy Gallahan, Baby Claryvan, our great auntie Shannanet and so on, and then they completely ignore Tia's presence. It's like, no one, LITERALLY NO ONE, knows that everything is happening because of Florentia. I mean just look at Viege who's hell bound on competing with Gallahan and Shannanet, completely ignoring Florentia, which is his biggest mistake. LOL. 

And I love that. Don't you?