Chapter . 124
“…You are insane…….”
Desmond muttered, then suddenly shouted.
“Why do you think the Crystal of Truth has not been used until now? Which emperor ever swore on that crystal and ascended the throne!”
“Why do you dislike it? Desmond, do you not wish to be a true emperor before the people?”
What emperor like that existed in this world? Even I, the people and the realm were a ruler’s property. Would even Royal Father be truthful?
Those were the words Desmond wanted to spit back, and they rose all the way to his throat.
Leontes asked again.
“When I ascend the throne, the people of Armatia will beco witnesses to my truthfulness.”
Was it possible? The imperial house of Armatia was a house shrouded in mystery. Their power and bloodline were miracles bestowed by the God of Traneha.
Even the legend that the heroic Valasca was a being beyond humanity greatly helped the Armatia imperial house exert even stronger influence.
And yet Prince Leontes, who had displayed various mysterious powers even before reaching adulthood, said he would beco an emperor who proved his truthfulness?
There was no way.
In that mont, Prince Leontes turned his head, looked at the people, and smiled.
“They all look forward to that mont with .”
And so everyone sympathized and agreed.
At the prince’s words that they looked forward to that mont.
Wishing that an emperor like that would appear.
‘I look forward to it.’
They wanted it so badly that they etched that answer deep into their hearts, savoring the aning in their minds.
“If you will not prove yourself to be a true sovereign before the people of Armatia, that is also your choice. Your truth.”
Desmond could not stand Leontes, who so skillfully mixed sincerity and truthfulness……. As if one who was not truthful could not be a true sovereign.
As if he even knew what a sovereign was.
“Hyung is forcing !”
Prince Desmond had never imagined he would end up looking inferior to Prince Leontes. Not Maximilian or Alexander, but soone he had only ever pitied. To be defeated by him.
Was his half-brother truly… truly so determined that he had to push him in every way to feel satisfied? It was not enough to make him submit, he even had to be superior in truthfulness?
“Is it truthfulness to be forced by others? Even if you truly did not know the sche, you joined an operation with the duke to find and kill . If you only say you did not know, does your own conduct beco as if it never happened? Can soone who cannot even take responsibility for their own actions live like a person, let alone be a sovereign? I have given you a chance to repay that cri. Even so, if you truly refuse to make any oath at all, then stop.”
When Prince Leontes first brought it up, it had seed as if he aid for Prince Desmond’s submission. Yet when he withdrew cleanly instead, people could not help but feel one question.
Then if Prince Desmond did not even make that oath here, what would happen?
The Empress had already lost her power. The fall of the Empress’s faction was a foregone conclusion too.
The Emperor might not expel the Empress, but an Empress without power in the Imperial Palace was worse than nonexistent.
She would only beco like the empresses who had lived their entire lives in a dwelling more wretched than a chief consort’s, or who had been driven out entirely by those who coveted the seat.
So Desmond was in the sa position Leontes had once been.
But even obeying Prince Leontes once ant being his person. Even if Leontes did not intend that, everyone around would think so. That until Leontes was done with him, no one should touch him.
If he kicked away even that chance himself, Desmond was alone now. Without mother, without maternal family.
Desmond realized it, and so did everyone else.
Arthur cast him a desperate glance. But Desmond could not bring himself to say it.
‘How can I obey Leontes?’
That dreadful day when Maximilian nearly killed him, when Alexander saved his life, when Edward died. To obey Leontes, the only victor of that day, while I am the greatest loser of that day?
Desmond’s chest burned.
When his mouth would not open, Rhiannon opened hers.
“My son, do you intend to abandon ? , your mother, who dared any trial for your sake and suffered even this hardship? To overco this trial, there are tis when you must do things you dislike, is that not so.”
Rhiannon’s eyes, clinging to him desperately, held a cold air even as they were wet with tears.
Rhiannon, who had scread that Desmond should rather die than submit to the son of that woman, now wanted Desmond to make that oath of obedience. The dangerous oath she herself had refused.
A beautiful face that seed even more mad for its fickleness, and even more mad as it stirred pity.
But Desmond did not feel pity. Realization ca first.
A lie.
Just as Leontes had said, no one could trust Rhiannon’s words.
Desmond did not hesitate any longer. He placed his hand on the Crystal of Truth.
Before people’s distrust of Rhiannon’s lies spread to him as well.
“I swear that I will offer Prince Leontes hyung a single act of obedience.”
The crystal did not produce the light that judged truth or falsehood. As if warning him about the day he would fail to keep the oath, even if this oath itself was true.
When he raised his eyes with a bleak heart, he t Rhiannon’s eyes. Those eyes glittered.
“One act of obedience is nothing. Sotis you must placate an enemy and wait for an opportunity. I beca that woman’s maid as well. But in the end, I beca Empress!”
The Empress could not hold her tongue. It was as if she had forgotten that people already did not believe her words.
Or as if she tried to ignore that fact, yet in the hollow emptiness she could not shake, she needed to speak more.
Desmond let his mother speak. Even if it ant he went to Leontes, he could not let anyone notice his desire to escape his mother.
Leontes’s blue-gray eyes were quietly watching him. Desmond clenched his teeth.
‘You know nothing. You must not know why I chose you.’
If Mother did not know him, then no one could know.
Leontes’s gaze lingered on him, then slowly moved away.
As if he had noticed even the feelings Desmond had not spoken.
“A trial shall be opened for the attempted assassination of Prince Leontes.”
Then the Emperor declared. By the proper procedure.
“Thank you, rciful Emperor! Reveal the innocence of and my family!”
It was Rhiannon, shouting proudly to the end. Desmond, horrified, almost surged and shouted at his mother. But Leontes was watching. With a face not surprised at all.
Leontes, who knew his mother better than he did.
A half-brother who knew him better than his mother did.
With a crushing sense of defeat, Desmond squeezed his eyes shut.
The Empress’s faction gathered up its last remaining strength and struck back. No matter what, they had years of building power behind them. They could not collapse from a single incident like this.
In the end, the Crystal of Truth had never once been used as evidence in a trial. The imperial house of Armatia did not wish to be judged by a tool they monopolized.
That was why Prince Leontes’s truthfulness stood out even more, but even so, adopting the Crystal of Truth as evidence would be disadvantageous to other imperial family mbers besides Leontes.
Also, no matter what enormous thing had happened before the imperial presence around the Crystal of Truth, that was not a trial itself.
The Empress’s faction first strained itself to delay the duke’s trial. The duke claid illness and did not appear. While doing so, they tried to draw other factions in.
“We have absolutely no intent to slander Prince Leontes. We only an that he might know only part of the truth. Even so, that is not his fault at all. But for his sake too, should we not reveal the entire truth?”
“In truth, it seems the First Prince’s faction and the illegitimate faction abducted Prince Leontes and pinned it on Her Majesty the Empress.”
“In fact, the words of Her Majesty that most moved the heart were that she had already been cursed with every insult for abusing a young prince, and if she even abducted him, she would beco the wickedest stepmother under heaven. That wise woman is no fool. She would never do sothing so reckless.”
“I hear that the First Prince, Duke Grimiati, and Marquis Alexander all already knew the Empress’s faction had abducted Prince Leontes and kept their mouths shut.”
“Then in the end, if by any chance Her Majesty the Empress is guilty, there is a strong possibility they are accomplices as well.”
Of course, the First Prince’s faction did not stay still either against the Empress’s faction’s last struggle to drag everyone down with them.
“I sympathize far more with the First Prince’s words that he was threatened that his younger brother’s life would be in danger if he did not follow Her Majesty’s will.”
“That is an impertinent thing to say about the First Prince. Is he soone who would be threatened? He would be the one making threats.”
“How could he withstand it when his younger brother was taken hostage? The fact that such a proud man endured that threat out of concern for his younger brother is precisely what is moving.”
“It is so moving that it is hard to believe. Since when did he cherish his younger brother that much? Until His Highness Leontes succeeded, was he not soone who ignored even his own blood brother as if he did not exist? Now is this suddenly welling love aid at his younger brother, or at the dragon egg. I am deeply curious.”
“It is better that he looks after his younger brother now. Should he instead have no brotherly affection at all, like soone who went out to find his elder brother with the very uncle who tried to kill that elder brother?”
“He did not know! Even His Highness Leontes did not accuse him!”
“Oh dear, what a pitiful man, to be deceived by his uncle. If soone like that ascends the throne and is deceived by maternal relatives, or even by foreign envoys, would that not be a disaster.”
Then, an astonishing figure stepped forward. It was Cardinal Orlanto of the Traneha Order.
“I let my eyes be clouded by power and fell into Duke Lauderdale’s temptation. The duke promised that if I helped with the abduction of Prince Leontes, he would support so that I could soday beco the Holy Emperor, and so I committed a great sin against His Holiness the Holy Emperor, His Majesty the Emperor, and His Highness Prince Leontes.”
As he said that, the cardinal claid he had cooperated in the duke’s abduction of Prince Leontes, but that he had never agreed to an attempted assassination of the prince.
Rather, he said the duke had tried to kill the prince, refusing even the cardinal’s attempts to dissuade him.
“Horrified, I sent the Knights of Saint Romola in order to save His Highness Leontes from Duke Lauderdale. However, before that, His Highness had already escaped, and fortunately the Knights were able to join His Highness as you went to Montova Castle. I commanded the Knights to cooperate actively with His Highness in order to atone for my sin even a little, and His Highness was satisfied with the Knights’ cooperation.”
Indeed, the Traneha faith was a power that contended even with the imperial house of Armatia and with rulers of many nations.
The very fact that the Knights of Saint Romola had acted in matters outside the temple was astonishing.
No matter how much Grand Commander Immanuel might have been impressed by Prince Leontes, the Knights could not possibly have acted in the prince’s affairs without the temple’s command. Now that reason was revealed. A secret pact between the prince and the temple.
To accomplish such a thing at that age.
As people marveled, Lombroso IV pressed him.
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