The Emperor Who Was Once a Tyrant Returns Chapter 125 : Chapter 125

Chapter . 125

“If that is true, then Cardinal, why have you only now stepped forward?”

It was a rightful question. Cardinal Orlanto, with the sa blunt face he had worn while confessing his sin, answered.

“Because His Highness Prince Leontes forgave . His Highness did not wish for the innocent Traneha Order or His Holiness to beco the target of people’s suspicions because of my personal sin. Therefore, His Highness did not demand my testimony. However, matters have now reached a point where His Highness needs my testimony, so Saint Traneha has sent . Therefore, I am prepared to receive every punishnt that arises from my sin. His Holiness has also bestowed his blessing upon my choice.”

Cardinal Orlanto, the right hand of the Holy Emperor and the power behind the Traneha faith, was the sa even before the threat that all his success, achieved through bone-grinding effort, might collapse into failure.

He was no different from when he offered rites in the temple. A blank face that spoke of ruin with his own mouth, a voice without rise or fall, yet faith itself, unwavering and unshaken.

The Empress’s faction’s resistance died down. As with Prince Leontes’s first accusation before, there was no frontal rebuttal from the Empress or others.

Above all, it was because every figure the cardinal nad as accomplices belonged to House Lauderdale.

It was less a warning than a signal. For the Empress’s faction mbers who were not House Lauderdale, this was the last chance to retreat.

“Even Cardinal Orlanto is human in the end. To hide ambition behind that face all this ti.”

“Even if he has His Holiness’s favor, he does not inherit His Holiness’s seat. Still, if that stone-like man is confessing sin, he must have been burdened by guilt to an extraordinary degree.”

“Either way, His Highness Prince Leontes is truly generous!”

“He is truly devout. But was only His Eminence the Cardinal involved? His Holiness supported his right hand, and when the whole order might be dragged in by a pretext, it might have been a cutting off of the tail.”

“That aside, if the witness was sent by Saint Traneha, then Duke Lauderdale has nothing to say.”

“The temple always claims everything it does is the will of god. Even when it clashed with the imperial house, it said so. By that logic, are you saying His Holiness the Holy Emperor should rule this country instead of His Majesty the Emperor? That is impious.”

“That is why he accused only the duke, not Her Majesty the Empress, the Emperor’s spouse. Most likely the cardinal joined hands with Her Majesty the Empress. But rather than using the Crystal of Truth as Prince Leontes did, Her Majesty would have used magic to draft a contract. So he did not ntion Her Majesty and attacked only the duke, slipping past the price of breaking that contract.”

“I agree. But why would Duke Lauderdale have needed Cardinal Orlanto’s help?”

“To secretly send n to Mount Petrafis, which no one can easily trespass upon, and abduct the prince who is its lord, would it have been easy? Even this ti, did the Empress’s faction not suffer the greatest losses there?”

“Indeed, Sir Edward, the heir and only son of Duke Lauderdale, died.”

“That brutal knight died young!”

“But who killed him, exactly? They say a clash occurred between the three factions on that mysterious mountain, and Sir Edward was the most famous knight among the casualties. Yet no knight or mage steps forward to claim they defeated him. They achieved such a splendid feat and stay silent. Does that make sense?”

Unless a jouster had the misfortune of killing a sovereign, the one who toppled a famous knight was always celebrated.

If they killed him in real battle, even an unknown knight’s value would soar overnight, and everyone from sovereigns to great nobles would line up to take him as a vassal.

“That is why it is suspicious. The Empress’s faction says he died in an accident. Since it was a mountain, he might have fallen from a cliff or fallen from his horse, but then why do Duke Lauderdale and his family say nothing at all?”

“Perhaps Sir Edward was also involved in the abduction and attempted assassination of Prince Leontes. He tried to assassinate His Highness, but was killed instead.”

“Then it must be Michelon. They say he has the makings of a swordmaster, and he defeated the famous Sir Edward. Incredible.”

While rumors boiled, the duke who had been shut away in his manor suddenly appeared.

“I… acknowledge the cri of having tried to kill His Highness Prince Leontes.”

People stared at the duke. At the duke who had aged beyond recognition. He clearly had not slept or eaten since his son died.

“As a traitor, I will accept any punishnt whatsoever.”

Yet the duke’s eyes were clear as he said it.

“He confessed!”

“Lies! It is a lie!”

“Traitor! You traitor!”

“To betray us, your own house!”

Whether people drew in breath, or the enraged mbers of House Lauderdale roared.

The uproar did not die until the duke’s guilt was pronounced and the Emperor proclaid the punishnt.

“I judge the criminal Duke Lauderdale for treason!”

He was stripped of every title and fief and beca Underville again. After being blinded by the punishnt of having his eyes gouged out, he was sentenced to lifelong exile on an island where great criminals were banished.

For treason, he should have faced a more brutal execution, but because the assassination ended in an attempt, and because Prince Leontes himself valued the confession and begged the Emperor for rcy, he was pardoned. His fief and assets were assigned to the prince.

Also, those Cardinal Orlanto had spoken of first, everyone who followed the duke and departed for Mount Petrafis, were likewise found guilty.

But because they did not confess as the duke had, all were destined to be executed. Only the mages, as always, beca the Emperor’s property instead of being killed.

“It was Her Majesty the Empress’s command. But His Highness Prince Desmond truly knew nothing.”

“Lies! It is a lie! My elder brother, who rose because of , dares betray and lie! It was sothing he and his dead son did alone! It is a sche to pin it on and my house now!”

The Empress shrieked as she refuted the duke’s words, but no one believed her.

“The price of cutting off the tail has been dealt by the very tail she ant to cut first.”

“To think that among the Empress’s faction, only Duke Lauderdale and his son alone were great enough to try to kill a prince of Armatia. Is it not entirely their rit that the Empress’s faction grew so large. The duke is practically Her Majesty the Empress’s benefactor.”

People rejoiced at the downfall of those who had risen like lightning, yet they were not incapable of grasping what was happening.

“We have always been forced to feel the clean craftsmanship of that master of cutting off tails, but this ti, do you not sense another hand at work as well?”

“Yes. Now that we look back, there was a hand that moved quietly at every turning point of this chaos and led it to this result.”

“When His Highness Prince Leontes first made an accusation with no witnesses and no evidence he could present, we thought he was reckless, that he was young, that he made a mistake in anger.”

“Everyone sympathized with him, but without evidence, we thought, how could he possibly cut down the pillar of the Empress’s faction. Yet he responded boldly even to the other side’s forced use of the Crystal of Truth. And when it truly beca a muddy brawl in court, Cardinal Orlanto confessed.”

“That is extraordinary skill. If from the start His Highness had accused the cardinal together, the Empress’s faction would have spread rumors that His Highness had bribed the cardinal to fra his half-brother and stepmother, and would have pressured even His Holiness. Many dislike the temple involving itself in imperial affairs, so the Empress’s faction would have used that to stir backlash against His Highness.”

That was precisely the point when courtiers had been deeply impressed by Prince Leontes’s politics.

“On the other hand, once the truth was practically already revealed, if the tedious exchange dragged on, the tily confession of the cardinal could drive in the final nail.”

“Still, there are those who dislike the temple’s involvent for any reason. In the end, because of all the controversies the Empress’s faction must have stoked from behind, the trial would have taken an enormous amount of ti. With that ti gained, the Empress’s faction would use every ans, and it would likely beco unfavorable for Prince Leontes as well.”

“And then, the duke himself appeared, did he not? Rather than be cut off as the tail, he must have chosen to strike the head first.”

Such speculation spread from the nobility’s social circles at court and on to wealthy commoners.

“For us who only watched all this, we cannot say who it was, but it is natural to feel grateful, thinking that hand led us to the ending as well. Each ti things tangled, he appeared at the right mont, bringing this one and that one onto the stage.”

“At first, the Empress’s faction led everything, no matter how ugly the conspiracy. But at so point, His Highness Prince Leontes seized the initiative and is finishing it.”

Amid all the talk, only the cell where Lauderdale—no, Underville—was imprisoned remained quiet. Tomorrow he would be dragged to the execution ground with his brothers, cousins, and nephews. There, the others would die, but he alone would survive and be confined.

Rhiannon, who insisted to the very end that she knew nothing and was innocent, was still found guilty, yet she would not die.

There had been empresses strangled for adultery, and empresses beheaded on charges of adultery and incest, but all of them died because they stood in the way of the Emperor remarrying.

However, he believed Emperor Lombroso would not remarry. As the Empress had always said repeatedly.

-Lombroso married because he thought that with two legitimate sons and one illegitimate son, there were too few candidates for the war of succession.

To kill an empress who had borne two sons would be to shrink the succession struggle in practice. That was far from the Emperor’s intent.

And even if he married anew and had another son now, the child would be far too young compared to the other brothers and would be out of the question.

When they were dragged away tomorrow, the Empress would be confined in a tower. Unless Desmond ascended the throne, she would never co out again.

‘Cecile and Margaret are safe.’

Margaret had already divorced him and gone to a convent with Cecile. Margaret would beco the abbess, and Cecile would beco her successor. Safe under Prince Leontes’s protection.

-I will protect your wife and child.

Just as Prince Leontes had promised when he appeared in his manor as if from nowhere.

At their feet lay a dead man. An assassin who had tried to kill the duke after the duke defied the Empress’s command to die and leave a will saying he would die first from grief at losing his son.

It was not because he wanted to live that he killed the assassin with his own hands. It was because he could not entrust Margaret and Cecile to his sister, who treated even her own son that way.

-What is the reason?

-It is not because you or your wife and child have that kind of value. Think of the tyranny you have committed against countless people, including , until now. Think of the benefits your family gained from that tyranny. What you need is not rcy, but justice. However, if you wish for the chance to repay that sin, I will grant it. But only if you prove that you deserve that chance.

-How must I prove it?

-I will ask you. If you could turn back ti only once, and return to a single point in the past, when would you return to?

At the utterly unexpected question, he fell silent and stared at the prince. Would he ask that of a father who had lost his son? It was impossible, but if such a thing were possible, then of course, without question—

-I would return to my sister’s first engagent.