Everything collapsed suddenly, all in a single day.
As though waves before a storm had transformed into a whirlpool in an instant.
“I shouldn’t have used that poison. I shouldn’t have...”
Lavennia lowered the communication artifact and began pacing the room in disarray.
Inside the fireplace, amid the ashes, lay the bracelet she had worn earlier that day.
One week... No, two?
Scenes from the past days flashed through her mind one after another.
“You must be joking! Staying behind to take care of the Frost Association?! And His Majesty allowed it?! Aaah!”
Poor Fides.
Her only son had once again lost a perfect opportunity.
This time, Ardiana could have been removed far away.
This time, they could have secured their position in the Emperor’s eyes even more firmly.
“Some Association business, caring for those pathetic beasts fighting on the outskirts... And he allowed her to stay for that...!”
“Your Highness, this concerns mercenary management.”
At that moment, several maids she especially favored stepped forward.
“Forgive our insolence, but perhaps this is not something to dismiss lightly. There may be something far deeper hidden beneath it.”
Lavennia felt both irritation and confusion at once.
Was there truly something about managing the Frost Association that she herself failed to understand?
“I have a bad feeling. The Myeongseong ceremony already proved that the mercenaries’ position is no longer what it once was.”
The fact that Agavert had attended the Myeongseong ceremony.
The fact that the number of mercenaries in the capital had been increasing day by day lately.
And the way more and more mercenaries, following after them, had begun settling within the Old Gods’ borders and gradually forming connections with nobles.
“What appears insignificant is often the most frightening of all. The princess has been cunning since birth. Who knows what she’s plotting.”
Only then did Lavennia finally realize it.
All this time, Ardiana had been planning everything from the shadows.
Knowing she could never earn the Emperor’s trust through ordinary means, she had begun with the mercenary business no one cared about.
And then she quietly expanded her influence....
And just as the maids said, she had once again tripped Fides from behind.
“No.”
“Your Highness?”
“I can’t just sit and watch this happen. I won’t allow it. Never.”
Lavennia was forced to make a choice.
Whether to let Ardiana continue monopolizing the mercenary market.
Or interfere now before Ardiana claimed all the benefits for herself.
She did not deliberate long.
“How many mercenaries are currently in the capital?”
Lavennia secretly invited mercenaries she managed to contact into the Empress’s palace.
And meeting them one by one, she made offers they could not refuse.
“Leave the Association.”
“...Excuse me?”
“I’ll create a better place for you. And if you show good results, some of you may even be granted titles. You saw how the King of the Dead from Agavert’s squad received a title from His Majesty, didn’t you?”
“W we heard about it, yes, but the official investiture ceremony apparently hasn’t happened yet....”
“What does it matter whether it happened or not?! That promised title alone allowed the King of the Dead to walk into the palace as though it were his own home until the expedition!”
“......”
“For ordinary people, this imperial palace is a place they would never even dare look up at in their entire lives. And I am offering you the chance to work here, for me, and yet you dare...!”
There was noise and dissatisfaction, naturally.
But in the end, Lavennia had been right.
Every mercenary she managed to contact agreed to leave the Association immediately.
“The plans have changed. Once the Association I’m building takes proper shape, I’ll hand it over to Fides.”
“Your Highness is truly farsighted.”
“I never realized I was so talented at these kinds of things. They all licked their lips so greedily at the sight of money and titles....”
However, not all mercenaries appeared pitiful to her.
Among those she had met over the past several days, there were people who caught her attention.
Lavennia remembered that morning perfectly.
The day before, she had suffered from headaches, barely slept, and felt awful.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Your Highness. My name is Ness.”
Ness.
Ness was a poisoner from a small mercenary squad that operated near the capital.
The moment she entered the Empress’s palace, she immediately began chatting freely about herself.
For example, how her great grandmother had been the most famous shaman in her homeland.
“My grandmother was executed for worshipping a heretical god. I was very young back then, so I don’t remember much....”
“Good heavens! You mustn’t tell such stories in detail! Her Highness is a busy woman!”
The maids were horrified that Ness was rambling so casually without permission.
But Lavennia reacted differently.
Instead of ordering Ness removed, she raised a hand to silence the maids.
“Continue.”
“I’m already grateful that Your Highness listens to such a worthless story with interest.”
With a soft, harmless smile, Ness continued speaking.
“...Later, I married a man from a neighboring village. I had a child.... But during a magical beast attack, I lost them both.”
At some point, Lavennia had already risen halfway from her seat.
“E everyone... Leave.”
She herself did not even realize the state she was in when she dismissed the maids.
They were different ages. Different backgrounds.
And yet somehow, they had endured astonishingly similar pain.
The fact that before meeting the Emperor, she herself had once been married.
The fact that she had lost the child she once carried in her womb—a secret she had never told even her maids....
And the realization that Ness had suffered something similar naturally shattered the walls inside her heart.
“But it’s strange.”
And it was precisely then that Ness, while looking at Lavennia, began to cry.
“Your Highness... I can see a crown blooming above ashes.”
Lavennia’s heart sank heavily once again.
A crown blooming above ashes.
Naturally, she thought of her homeland burned completely to the ground.
It was as though the scene from the day she first met the Empress, covered entirely in ash, had returned vividly before her eyes.
“You poor woman... Do you still wake to the smell of burning?”
Ness stepped closer and knelt at her feet.
At that very moment, the scent of eucalyptus from her homeland wrapped around her.
“There’s no need to be afraid. It seems the blood of my ancestors truly was passed down to me. Sometimes I see things others cannot.”
Raising her head, Ness stared directly at Lavennia.
A chill crawled over her skin.
“The gods are cruel. How could they send such terrible trials to such a kind and talented woman....”
At that moment, Ness saw straight through every nightmare she carried.
As though hypnotized, Lavennia rose from her seat.
And seized Ness by the shoulders.
“Trials...? You see something? If you do, speak. Immediately.”
Ness hesitated, as though reluctant to say it aloud.
But soon she finally answered in a barely audible voice.
“Your Highness. Forgive my insolence, but the wind that once blew toward you has changed direction. It seemed as though it would last forever, but in the end....”
Just two sentences.
But those two sentences were enough to break Lavennia.
“His Majesty... Could it be that another woman has appeared?”
The anxiety that had lived inside her from the moment she first entered the palace after the Empress.
“Ah, aaah! Lately he’s been avoiding me. He no longer loved me the way he once did, and now in the end....”
The fear that one day he might abandon her too, just as he had once abandoned the Empress.
“Your Highness....”
Lavennia did not even notice herself collapsing to the floor as her eyelashes trembled faintly.
Silence hung in the air for a long time.
The next day.
And the day after that.
Lavennia summoned Ness to her chambers again and again.
And spent entire days with her without parting.
From knowledge about mercenaries to pharmacology and magical sciences, Ness was astonishingly knowledgeable about nearly everything.
‘You’ve suffered so much.’
‘In the end, Your Highness will be the one who triumphs.’
Every single word Ness spoke soothed Lavennia.
And helped prepare her for the danger drawing near.
“It’s an extremely useful poison, Your Highness.”
“A useful poison?”
“Yes. It’s extraordinarily difficult to obtain, which is why I’ve carefully preserved it until now without selling or using it.”
“......”
“I heard there are still senior nobles who oppose Prince Fides. I assure you, such people only realize their mistakes when standing at the very gates of hell.”
Ness advised using the poison to eliminate political enemies.
But—
“No. There’s already someone.”
Inferiority, fear, and anxiety had paralyzed Lavennia’s mind.
“If I get rid of only him, everything will be solved. Everything, everything....”
In truth, Lavennia understood it herself.
Inside this enormous palace, there was only one thing that truly belonged to her.
“My son....”
Fides.
Fides absolutely had to become Emperor.
It was the only path capable of pulling her out of the hell she had endured all these years.
