CH 45

Meanwhile, close discussions were taking place in the Imperial Palace in the capital.

“Count Vliette. Everything you just said must be true.”

“It is Your Highness. I wonder if my son, who is busy studying business management, even sent a long letter.”

Tahar tapped the table strewn with letters as he listened to Count Vliette’s answer.

It is a common habit that comes out when something bothers him.

Soon Tahar quietly gritted his teeth. It was because he did not like the contents of the eldest son of Vliette’s letter recited by Count Vliette.

‘How dare Daniel Prause show his willingness to fight me?’’

Although it is Prause who shows loyalty to the emperor from generation to generation and quietly protects the north.

[I clearly conveyed the will of His Highness, Crown Prince Tahar, to the Grand Duke, but the Grand Duke was preoccupied with looking after Frey.]

[Also, Grand Duke Prause seemed to be trying to take the place of Highness Tahar by joining forces with Frey, who has divine power.]

The opinion conveyed by Count Breck in a letter was enough to offend Tahar.

The Grand Duke refused to cooperate in getting rid of the offending woman and he joined forces with her to plot treason.

The moment he heard the news from the Count, Tahar’s subconscious reached a conclusion.

‘Are you saying that a prince without divine power is not even a prince?’

Grand Duke Prause and Frey both possessed divine power. And, what the two of them had, he didn’t have at all. That’s why they might think it’s easy and agree with each other.

Questions, once raised, are not easily forgotten. 

Count Vliette returned to the mansion, and even after a day, the back of Tahar’s neck was still sore.

How dare you to me, the legitimate heir to the imperial family?

Besides, there was one more catch.

[“majesty. According to the investigation of the informants, the researchers of Grand duke Prause tried to catch the undead monster alive several times.”]

[“You said He was going to capture him alive? It must be the rule to kill as soon as you face it.”]

[“Maybe they are secretly researching something…”]

What if Daniel Prause turned against him because he discovered something in the process of researching undead monsters?

‘Since Gelon’s research hasn’t been completed yet, it’ll be troublesome if he notices the big plan.’

Tahar made a decision.

“I think I need to visit my mother for a while, so send someone.”

Seeing that her son’s expression wasn’t good, the empress prepared tea and dismissed all the employees.

“Tahar, what happened? I heard that the investigation that was being conducted because of those menial things ended yesterday.”

Whether the Empress and the Duke of Gelon were involved in Lady Roselia’s death.

Did you force Frey, who was about to get married, to drink tea that causes infertility?

The emperor’s aides worked tirelessly to find evidence of the two unsavory things. But again, the emperor had to end the investigation without any gain.

‘What do you look at Gelon when there is no proper wizard?’

The Curse of Gelon leaves no evidence. He must have felt the unique magic of the victims Roselia and Freya, but that’s all.

The Duke of Gelon was not weak enough to be brought down based on subjective feelings.

‘The maid offered the sterilization tea to Frey, so it’s okay.’

The maid, who should have admitted her guilt and been imprisoned by now, would have cooled down and sunk in the river.

[“Also, would you really heal my sister if I told him that I gave her fertility tea out of jealousy of Frey, who is equally lowly and enjoys luxury?”]

He also kept his promise to the maid.

Because according to the scriptures, no one gets sick in the arms of God after death.

‘She must have reunited with my brother at the river by now.’

So it didn’t seem like Tahar was visiting because of the emperor’s boring and incompetent investigations.

“I heard an interesting story from Count Vliette.”

Tahar explained the contents of the letter sent by Count Vliette to the empress.

When she reached the point where Grand Duke Prause chose a half-princess rather than the crown prince, the empress’ brow wrinkled.

On top of that, the grand duke was trying to uncover the secrets of undead monsters.

“I thought the grand duke was just a man, so he was enchanted by Frey’s good looks and flirted with him, I guess it’s just because of that.”

If another family tried to ruin the business with nonsense, they would slowly put pressure on them and make them give up, but the opponent was Prause.

You should never look down on them. Now that the Empress realized that things could go wrong, she had to end it with a single stroke.

The empress laughed and moved her fingertips.

The delicate magic of the Duke of Gelon’s masterpiece radiated.

Soon, a scroll with a magic circle drawn in dark red ink appeared in front of Tahar.

He glanced over the magic circle.

“Is it a curse that has been handed down to Gelon?”

“A top-notch curse made from special materials. It was used by my father to sort out the bloodlines of the imperial family when he ascended to the position of the crown prince.”

“….”

“The speed at which the curse spread was so fast that I was helpless. My husband had almost no magical powers, but he survived because he had huge divine powers, but—”

The empress raised one corner of her mouth crookedly.

“Instead, the aftereffects are severe. I know that it is a chronic disease that His body deteriorates quickly.”

Tahar rolled up the scroll and took it.

The current emperor maintains his position with only one divine power even though he has almost no magic power. As soon as the divine power was determined, Frey, who made a trick and fled to the north, would not be able to reach that level.

‘It is said that the previous emperors spent many years only finding the divine power training method that was right for them.’

Needless to say, the traitor Daniel Prause’s divine power was far below the level of the imperial family.

“I will send it to Breck Vliette.”

“Okay. The throne will be yours soon, so don’t worry too much.”

The empress smiled, imagining Daniel and Frey who would be ruined.

* * *

“Huh…”

After a long meditation, Frey wiped the sweat from my forehead.

Concentrating your mind and emitting divine power in the form of a tree, meditation was one of the ways Wiz taught Frey how to strengthen her divine power.

Since the founding of the country, they said that they had investigated all the training methods of those who inherited divine power, but Frey never thought the method that the first emperor used would be perfect for her.

‘I don’t know what the first emperor was like, but it consumes a lot of stamina for me.’

It’s already been two weeks since Frey got up early to handle 

business-related tasks at dawn, played with Damon and Arsene, who was outspoken during the day, and practiced divine power at night.

‘What the hell did mothers who used to work and take care of their children do? Am I new?’

It was hard enough that Frey naturally respected the many working mothers she met in my previous life.

However, it was worthwhile grinding her teeth and polishing her divine power, and falling asleep.

Sigh…

Frey’s divine power, which was at the level of a candle when she was first judged, was now the size of a huge pillar of fire.

As hard as it was, the result seemed to be a certain method.

‘His Majesty, the first emperor, said that when he subdued undead monsters with divine power, it was like a volcano erupting.’

After the first emperor, it was said that only her father had such a huge divine power. Servants brought by members of the aristocratic faction often forget the importance of divine power.

‘What do you do if you have excellent divine power? It’s on the level of having no magic power, so it’s being suppressed by Duke Gelon.’

‘There’s no news of people being attacked by undead monsters these days, right? Now it’s better to be an emperor who can use magic than divine power.’

She was proud of her father.

It’s not something anyone can do to hold on to protect the people they love even when a tough opponent tries to devour them.

‘Anyway, I don’t know how the previous Duke of Gelon tried to harm my father who had such strong divine power.’

The decisive reason why Frey’s father hated the empress and her family was that her father’s brothers were all killed by the Duke of Gelon.

Of course, He couldn’t investigate because he couldn’t secure physical evidence in the end.

[“My older brother, while vomiting blood, instead of a will, only told me to be careful because it is definitely Gelon’s curse.”]

‘Dad, do I have an uncle?’ Frey asked, and her father smiled bitterly and told her that.

Because of that incident, her father said that it became a habit to wear layers of divine power even while sleeping and eating.

‘I have divine power, so I survived Gelon’s curse. My mother and the younger brother in the womb…’

Frey put down the glass of water she was drinking.

When she thought of her mother, who was vomiting blood and struggling, her heart yearning for revenge was set on fire, and her eyes were opened even in her sleep.

Although Frey’s body was in tatters from rapidly strengthening her divine power, she entered the study attached to the bedroom.

* * *

[Night market opening ceremony]

It was the final report Frey received a few days ago. With the support of Jakov, the head of the Merchant Guild, Daniel’s support, and Holt’s help, the night market was able to be introduced sooner than expected.

It’s not about creating a new store anyway, it’s also about extending business hours. ‘The event is in two weeks, but merchants came and said that the lodging was already full.’

Members of Holt’s upper house caught wind that the Grand Duchess would show off a huge jewel. Well, it wasn’t wrong, so there wouldn’t be any complaints about Prause.

During the two weeks, Frey processed rose quartz gemstones in a special way in her spare time.

And on the day of the opening ceremony of the night market.

“Your Highness, Grand Duchess. Anything else to pack?”

asked Lina while Emma gave her a final check on her dressing.

Frey glanced at the large bag of rose quartz.

“There is only one thing needed for the opening ceremony, but since it is a valuable item, it would be better for the knights to carry it, so let’s leave it to Luke Divine.”

“Um, is it very heavy?”

“Yeah. There was a rose quartz the size of a human head inside.”

“….!”

Emma and Lina’s eyes widened as if they had been counting the value in a short amount of time, but the price of rose quartz gemstones has also risen tremendously, so the ransom of rose quartz that Frey processed must have jumped even more.

‘If I tell them about the true function of the jewel tonight, it will jump even more.’

There is also a simple performance for those addicted to the Fog of Fall.

Frey smiled and got up from her seat.