Chapter 54

A silent darkness where the sun that had illuminated the whole world hid itself under the veil of night.

A splendid carriage entered the main gate of the Imperial Palace. Late at night, the Imperial Guardsmen, who were watching while being chased by sleepiness, quickly corrected their disturbed posture and saluted when they saw the spectacular carriage entering the main gate and the crown prince’s charioteer sitting in the driver’s seat.

“Yo-, Your Highness, Crown Prince is here!”

“Shh. Your Highness is resting, so please lower your voice.”

“So-, sorry!”

“Is Your Majesty in the Imperial Palace now?”

“Of course. A few hours ago, we received a message that His Highness the Crown Prince is visiting, and His Majesty and the Empress have been waiting for His Highness.”

“I see. Tell Your Majesty the news of the arrival of Your Highness in the Royal Palace right now.”

“Yes, I got it!”

The chaplain who had been chasing the guards running toward the imperial palace for a while as if their tails were on fire, soon came down from the coach’s seat and approached the carriage. Then he lightly knocked on the tightly closed door of the carriage and spoke to Crown Prince Owen inside.

“Your Highness, we have arrived at the Imperial Palace.”

“Open the door.”

In response to Owen’s reply, the valet opened the carriage’s door. Then Owen, who came straight down from the carriage, looked back at the valet, who bent towards him and spoke.

“You mean not only my father but also the Empress is waiting for me?”

“Yes. That’s right, my lord.”

“It’s good that I don’t have to visit each of them separately.”

Owen, who confirmed from his valet that the Emperor and the Empress were together, walked straight towards the Imperial Palace’s Main Palace.

The valet quickly followed after him, and his servants and maids who assisted the Crown Prince also followed the movement of the prince.

When Owen entered the main palace, Count Roche, the closest aide to the Emperor, bowed to greet him. Owen said, looking down indifferently at his shiny face, dressed in a splendid uniform and with a stylish moustache.

“Guide me.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Follow me.”

At Owen’s command, Count Roche guided him, bending as if he had waited.

Owen walked, ignoring the imperial servants and maids who bowed down and greeted him when he and Count Roche passed by.

Soon after, Count Roche guided him to the “Room of the Sun,” one of the Emperor’s official residences.

He inadvertently watched Count Roche open the door after knocking on the Room of the Sun ornate with gold and silver, and entered as soon as the door opened.

“Oh, Prince!”

Soon, Empress Maria, who was sitting next to the emperor who was sitting on the highest throne in the Sun Room, quickly got up and approached her son who was walking.

Owen greeted her affectionately while holding the delicate hand of Empress Maria, a beautiful middle-aged woman with green eyes and blonde hair that looked just like him.

“I’m back, mother.”

“Yeah, wasn’t it hard there? The servants and maids of the Alberton family would not have been like the imperial palace ones, was there any inconvenience?”

“Well, it always is.”

Owen smiled and blurred his words to Empress Maria, who held onto him and expressed her concerns.

In the meantime, the Emperor, sitting on the throne and looking down at Empress Maria and Owen talking, spoke out loudly.

“You’re here.”

“Yes, father.”

“It was earlier than I thought. As your mother is concerned, was your overnight stay at Alberton Castle uncomfortable?”

Owen deliberately did not answer the emperor’s question. When the emperor saw his son like that, he quickly grasped what he was feeling, and then continued with a short sigh.

“I guess so because you don’t answer. Even so, didn’t you go to see the party tonight? You should have thought about the face of your fiancée Marianne, too.”

When Marianne’s name popped out of the mouth of the Emperor, who secretly rebukes him, Owen opened his mouth with an uncomfortable expression.

“I have something to tell you about that.”

“Really? What is it?”

The Emperor raised one eyebrow and asked Owen, who looked up at the Emperor for a moment and moistened his dry lips.

After that, Owen held Empress Maria’s hand tightly and spoke to the Emperor as if he was determined.

“I want to break up my marriage with Lady Marianne.”

“…..What?”

“Prince!”

At Owen’s words, the emperor sitting on the throne and the empress standing next to Owen both screamed and looked back at him.

The Emperor looked at his son with a questioning expression on whether he had heard something wrong and spoke.

“That’s too much of a joke, Crown Prince.”

“I’m not kidding. I really don’t want to marry Lady Marianne.”

“Prince! What nonsense are you talking about!”

However, as if confirming a kill, Owen repeated his intention that he did not want to marry Marianne.

Empress Maria shouted at her son Owen and shook his shoulder, who had been firmly determined. And the emperor, who was looking down at it with a serious look, soon firmly spoke to his son facing him straight as if he was trying to carry out his will.

“That’s impossible.”

“Father, please look at this poor son. Are you telling me to welcome an ugly woman as the Crown Prince who tried to hold me down by using love potions?”

“It was concluded by receiving an apology from Duke Alberton.”

“Yes, dear. Just think it was cute and move on. Originally, all the young girls raised by the families supporting each corner of the Empire are arbitrarily selfish. From Lady Marianne’s point of view, how upset must it have been for you to be so cold to her? Please shake off the resentment you have left about it from your heart  and consider it cute even now.”

Owen was furious at the sight of the emperor and his wife, who took the side of Marianne and expressed their intention to force the engagement and marriage.

As the Empress said, if it was an act to win his heart by even using a love potion, it would not have been this hateful if she was not horrified by his dark and clever appearance.

Owen calmed down his disgusting mood just by the thought of Marianne and spoke to the Emperor and Empress.

“If she had tried to win my heart by using love potion, I could have yielded a hundred times and thought it was cute. But father and mother. It’s not my heart that the young girl wants from me. Rather, a child of the royal blood that flows through my body. It’s that my father doesn’t know that either.”

At Owen’s cold glance, the emperor and empress looked at their son with hopeful expressions.

When the conversation between the three of them was cut off for a moment and a heavy silence fell, the Emperor spoke to Owen in a low, subdued voice.

“……Did you read the mind of Marianne, Prince?”

“Yes. On the day I had a seizure after taking the love potion, I read the ugly heart of the young lady.”

“Oh my god! Prince! What’s wrong with you?!”

At the words of Owen, who quietly confessed that he had read Marianne’s mind, the Empress freaked out and grabbed the Crown Prince’s shoulder.

“Didn’t you vomit blood again!? Hey! Didn’t this mother say it so many times?! You must not use your powers! I told you that the more you use that cursed power flowing in your blood, the more it will take your life!”

“…I know it well too, Mother. Rest assured. That was the only time I used that power.”

“Promise this mother that you will never do that again next time.”

“I promise.”

Watching Empress Maria looking at her son, who was well over one head taller than her, with worried eyes, Owen gently wrapped her arms around her delicate shoulders as if reassuring her.

Looking down at the appearance, the emperor sighed deeply as the ground went out. If Owen had read it like that, there would certainly be no lies in it. The emperor had already guessed for what purpose Duke Alberton was helping the imperial family, but he felt like now he had been fully confirmed by Owen’s words.

The Emperor said while pressing his temple with his hand that looked like he was in trouble.

“If you say so, it must be, Crown Prince. But it’s already too late. Duke Alberton and his family know too much about the imperial family to break up the marriage. If this marriage falls, Duke Alberton will go straight to the imperial court and talk about us and the lies they made up about the cursed blood flowing through the imperial family and all the misfortunes that have happened to Duke Felix.”

“That’s right. Starting with Duke Alberton, they were born so mean. Isn’t it the logic of the Albertonians to throw away those who can’t meet their family’s standards, and betray those who don’t help?”

When Owen sarcastically made a cold face, the Emperor nodded heavily as if he agreed.

As Owen said, they are a double-edged sword for the Emperor and the imperial family. It was a perfect tool to deal with enemies that threatened them that day, but it was a sword that they never knew when it would cut off their flesh and spill red blood. Therefore, the tool that required more care and consideration was the ‘Alberton’ family.

The Emperor turned to Owen with a face that seemed to reveal his complicated feelings and responded.

“Yeah. They’re like that, the Alberton family. So, all the more, we should let them be with us.”

“…..father!”

“I know your meaning well. But I can’t cut them off now. If, as I said, the moment we declare a breakup with them, they will try to strike us down first.”

The Emperor, who again expressed his intention to refuse to break up the marriage to the crown prince, got up from the throne.

After that, the Emperor slowly descended from the throne and walked to the spot where his wife, Empress Maria and Owen stood. Then he spoke while slowly stroking Owen’s face with his wrinkled hand as if comforting his son, the only successor he loved dearly.

“Hang in there. It’s said that patience is bitter but the fruit is sweet.”

“…Are you telling me to marry that terrible girl, Father?”

“Yes. I just want you to ‘marry’ Marianne Alberton.”

“…….father.”

Owen asked back as to what it meant, and the Emperor’s eyes softened. It was quite different from the face that seemed to embrace all the troubles of the world a while ago.

The Emperor continued in a soft voice.

“Two months until the wedding, and I’ll go first to get rid of the Albertonians after breaking the curse from you that had plagued this imperial family for thousands of years.”

Saying so, the Emperor looked at Owen in front of him with tenderness.