Chapter 5: 5

However, the Emperor already knew that she was pregnant. Not just a vague guess, but confident enough to confirm with him. What did that mean?

“… Now that I see it, you have done away with what made her pregnant.” 

Upon learning of the unexpected, Eugène muttered in disbelief. The Emperor raised his eyebrows when he heard his words. He calmly denied the charges against him, still with a friendly-looking face.

“The child’s father is not I, but my cousin.”

“The biological father of the child must, of course, be Prince Merrick. However, it must be Your Majesty who made it so that she could not get away and admit to adultery so that she would have no choice but to have this child under the public’s gaze. In a way, Your Majesty is like another father to the child.”

Come to think of it, even though the timing was coincidental, it was a bit too coincidental here. How did the scandal arise just in time for the Emperor’s visit to the palace, and the order to investigate exactly when she was pregnant? 

If his wife had a little more time, things wouldn’t have gone this far. It would have been enough to come back from a vacation in the countryside without having to be the subject of rumors like other ladies with unexplained children.

It may have been them who committed adultery, but it was the Emperor who put two and two together like this. At his confident remark, the Emperor smiled. Shamelessly, he no longer denied what he had done.

“Do you think what I did was unfair?”

The Emperor asked a provocative question in a rather gentle manner. Eugène looked at the Emperor with profound eyes. Had it not been for the Emperor to ask the question in that way, he would have had to accept a duel from Eugène. But his opponent was the Emperor after all. He could not even express his anger properly, let alone apply for a duel against the Emperor.

“No, could I dare to have such an opinion? Come to think of it, it’s quite effective. For Prince Merrick to be deprived of his right to the throne without Your Majesty’s hands being defiled on the outside. What could be a more ideal solution than this for the imperial power?”

Eugène suppressed his boiling emotions and responded to the Emperor with a level-headed reason. It was only when he came this far that he could truly understand. Why the Emperor planned and proceeded with this.

One of the greatest duties of the Emperor of Estina was the protection of the Great Code. Prince Merrick, who had committed adultery with a married woman, conceived an illegitimate child, and then used expedient methods to save his life, had already lost his legitimacy as a protector of the law when he petitioned for a divorce trial. The world will find out that the young little prince, who would become the eldest son, was also an out-of-wedlock child at the time of conception, and as such, would not be able to claim the right to succession.

The matter alone left the right to succession only for the immediate imperial family, and the greatest beneficiary of this trial was none other than the Emperor, as the legitimacy had been established over the authority of the direct line. He relieved his feelings of distress with this one scandal. 

“That’s right.”

The Emperor smiled calmly and nodded.

“I knew you would understand me. It’s better than beheading Merrick directly. If we were to behead him, we would also have to kill half of the central nobles stuck to him, but it’s still too early to do that.”

While his smiling face was serene, the words that came out of his lips were cruel and raw. Even though he was just talking about an instance, a faint bloody smell brushed the tip of his nose. Eugène’s lips stiffened. 

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“Wouldn’t it be better for you to be humiliated than to risk a civil war?” The Emperor’s face when he said that was arrogant, but Eugène had nothing to object to him. Eugène, a soldier, knew the weight of blood.

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However, he was so careful that he knew exactly that it was the last card to use. From the perspective of a nobleman and soldier of the Estina Empire, not a woman’s husband, Eugène was aware of how precious the Emperor’s prudence was.

The seething emotions subsided. There was no need to involve emotions, as long as he knew that his wife’s scandal was not just a normal scandal but a thoroughly calculated conspiracy. The Emperor did what he had to do, and the wife was down on her luck. No, maybe she was lucky. If she hadn’t been pregnant at the right time, the Duchess would have been someone other than her. 

“Prince Merrick should know her worth. The dowry is the head of the Emperor’s kin and the blood of half the central aristocrats, so perhaps there has been no bride in the history of the empire whose worth was as much as hers.”

Eugène said bitterly and expressed his surrender. As the Emperor himself explained, this divorce trial was no longer his personal matter. The problems involved were too big to keep holding onto his self-respect as her husband and comment on this and that. In court, all he could get would be her head, but Eugène didn’t love his wife enough to want to decorate his shelf with her severed head, and would rather have her live with her head on, with other people. He had the choice. She and the baby in her womb, Prince Merrick, half of the central aristocrats. And himself. The way many people would survive was surprisingly simple.

“She should have known your worth. To abandon a capable man like you and depend on someone as foolish as my cousin, the Baroness has no eye for men.”

The Emperor spoke in praise after he heard Eugène’s decision. While it came off as a compliment, the true meaning was ambiguous. Eugène, unable to determine whether his words were a joke or a mockery, simply bowed his head without saying anything. 

“There’s no need to worry. As I said before, I have an ongoing desire for talented people. I’m not going to use a man as competent as you for this matter. I’ll make sure you don’t lose anything with this. Your allegiance to the empire, publicly and privately, will pay off.”

“I’m much obliged to Your Majesty.”

The Emperor was kind, despite him being the source of this chaos, he was also the one providing a solution for it. Responding to the Emperor’s janus-faced kindness with heartless gratitude, Eugène looked down at the floor with an expressionless face. Did he notice that he was listening to him half-heartedly? The Emperor’s gaze on Eugène subtly waned. He looked down at the top of the head of the man who was bowing to him and said in earnest.

“Don’t take my words lightly, Vice Admiral Chastan. As the Emperor never goes back on his word. If you want to survive in the imperial court, you’ll have to keep this in mind first.” 

What he said contained a hidden meaning. Eugène sensed something from the Emperor’s words and raised his head to look at the Emperor’s face. Their eyes met unintentionally. But again, Eugène was unable to read anything from the Emperor.

As his eyes moved to look at the Emperor again, the man still had a friendly-looking face on. Neither the face of the observer who keenly scraped him off nor the absolute authority who suppressed him with his innate dignity and forced him to make a decision, but of a good gentleman.

Nevertheless, at that moment, Eugène knew. That’s what the Emperor looked like when he exuded menace.

The Emperor gestured to Eugène as if all he wanted to say was finished. Eugène bowed deeply and stepped back from the Emperor’s penetralia. The Emperor’s last words were ringing in his head, but he wasn’t sure what in the world they meant. Eugène rubbed his temples, feeling an incoming headache from arising doubts. 

“Did the audience go well?”

When he came out through the wall he had first entered through the secret passage again, it was not the servant who was waiting for him, but Victor Adelphe. Eugène raised his head and looked at Victor.

“Were you waiting, Mr. Adelphe?”

“Yes, that’s right. Since I brought you here, I have to take you back as well. Come this way, Your Excellency The Vice Admiral. It’s quite dark to walk here.” 

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It was the same as a master or a servant hiding his intentions with an unknown smile. Eugène, shaken by the smirk resembling the Emperor, took an unwilling step and followed Victor. As Victor said, the passage was dark. It seemed that the sun had completely set, seeing that it was darker than when he had entered the place earlier.

Eugène thought about his future as he walked down that dark passage. It felt like he was falling into something he didn’t want. Eugène struggled to hold his breath at the daunting feeling of floating in the vast sea without a helm or a mast for support.

***

His wife was entering the courtroom. 

Eugène stared intently at his wife as she entered the courtroom with a veil covering her face while being wrapped in an old-fashioned gray gown with long sleeves that covered the back of her hands, contrary to the latest fashion, with a collar high enough to cover her neck.

It felt strange to see his wife, who valued following trends and liked to dress up and show off stylishly, dressed as if she were a nun.

The voluminous gown that did not reveal any body lines at all was like a sack, and even the material was so rough that it was hardly suitable for a noblewoman to wear. She seemed to be claiming herself to be a prisoner before the law could even pronounce her sentence.

The man following her was quite handsome. As if to prove that he inherited the blood of the imperial family, he was a rare nobleman with blonde hair resembling the Emperor and clear, beautiful blue eyes. Unlike the modestly decorated wife, he was dressed in a manner where his class was minimally maintained. 

He actually came all the way here. How unexpected.

Eugène thought that he would not appear directly in court because of his position as the Emperor’s kin, but was puzzled by Prince Merrick’s appearance. Although it had spread to a scandal that everyone knew, it was not a wise move to show up together publicly in one place like that.

Did he notice that Eugène was looking at him? Prince Merrick’s gaze turned to Eugène. Their eyes met in the air. The two looked at each other carefully, keeping eye contact for a moment.

It was Eugène who ended the short fight first. After looking at Prince Merrick for a moment, Eugène quietly lowered his eyes and calmly bowed his head. Prince Merrick noticed his identity and had an uncomfortable expression on his face, and turned a blind eye to Eugène’s greeting. Eugène, after passing his greeting, turned his gaze forward, but his mind was not at ease. 

Still a young’un. Terribly underdeveloped worldly wisdom along with inadequate competency. Eugène was able to recognize the man’s potential in that brief moment their eyes met. Unfortunately, Prince Merrick was not enough to be called an enemy of the Emperor.

Their aptitudes were so different in quantity itself that he could not be called an enemy even in haste. In Eugène’s view, Prince Merrick was nothing but an obstacle. An inconvenient threshold that was placed halfway to the height of the Emperor’s feet. Only that much.

One problem was that the Emperor had a disposition that would not forgive even a low threshold. The Emperor had already made up his mind to clear the obstacle. As a result of this trial, he may be safe for now, but the future was a problem. It would be unlike the Emperor to simply let him go, who may become a source of trouble, and not completely pluck out his roots.

… His Majesty said <it’s still too early>. 

Eugène let out a deep sigh in his heart as he recalled the important words of the Emperor.

After a small number of nobles who were allowed to attend entered, the guards began to control the entrance. The heavy doors of the courtroom closed and everyone stood in place waiting for the trial.

Eugène got up from his seat and went out to the front of the courtroom. His wife, who was waiting in front of the courtroom in advance, looked at Eugène through the veil that had been draped over her. He couldn’t see her face but it was possible to guess how she was feeling at the moment when he saw the backs of her hands that were holding each other in front of her chest turning white. Eugène spoke to his young wife with a bitter smile.

“It’s been a while, wife.” 

Eugène’s wife, Louise, looked at him with stiff shoulders. As if she had never expected that Eugène would come to greet her, she answered in haste, with genuine embarrassment.

“Oh, it’s been a while, Baron. Have you been at peace?”

The greeting was done with an attitude that felt too distant for her husband, but Eugène pretended not to know. It was because he had no intention of intentionally harassing his wife, who was still struggling.

“His Majesty the Emperor, the Lord of Ardi, Kleman and Nervoge, Ruler of the Neutel and Salpine Rivers, and the Protector of Lex Ardica, enters. Everyone stand up and pay your respects.” 

Fortunately, they didn’t have time to talk any further. This is because the name of the judge, His Majesty the Emperor, came forward and his arrival was announced. Everyone in the courtroom got up and knelt. As the door inside the court opened, the guards entered and were arranged in front of the judge’s seat, while the servants lined up with their backs against the wall.

Then the Emperor stood there.

“Everyone, raise your heads.”

Eugène raised his head as ordered. The Emperor, sitting on the highest seat in the courtroom, the judge’s seat, was wearing a purple robe that flowed down to his toes. 

This splendid attire with wedge-shaped embroidery around the edges, engraved with a book and scale pattern, representing law and justice, in the center of the chest, was one of the many statuses of the Emperor. It symbolized the Protector of Lex Ardica.

Perhaps that’s why the Emperor today was not the man with a friendly exterior he had met alone in the study a while ago. The Emperor stood there in the form of a ruler with a crushing grandeur, with golden eyes that shone intensely.

“From now on, I will begin the divorce trial that Baroness Amieux petitioned through Prince Merrick of Fernand. There is no one who does not know the gravity of the trial, which was petitioned by the Emperor’s kin and is being held in the Emperor’s presence. Don’t make fun of the law and the Emperor by recklessly speaking out lies.”

The warning was rather coercive. Frightened by the stern Emperor’s warning, the wife did not dare to raise her head. Eugène sighed and bowed deeply. 

“I will keep that in mind, Your Majesty.”

When he showed an example, his wife hesitated but followed suit.

“I will keep that in mind, Your Majesty.”

“Start the trial.” 

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