Chapter 119

“I was completely convinced when I heard that Her Highness the Princess was going to accompany us to the outside of the capital.” He lowered his voice. “Now the nobles who are against His Majesty are gathered in the capital. His Majesty can’t help but care if they spread rumors about him. So he wanted to convey that he would not harm my family by sending his biological daughter, Her Highness. That way…”

“That way, even if the Grand Duke’s family was harmed right after we parted ways, nobody would doubt my father. Since he had the courtesy of sending his own daughter, he painted himself as someone who took good care of his precious guests.”

“That’s right. That’s the only reasonable explanation and it fits all the circumstances.”

Apollonia nodded slowly. Thinking about it again, his words were not wrong. From the Emperor’s point of view, it would be best to remove the Grand Duke without tarnishing his reputation.

However, it bothered her that this didn’t sound like Petra’s method at all. She was bold, and in serious matters, she was someone who focused on one task. If it was her, she would only focus on eliminating the Grand Duke with whatever it took.

“Don’t worry, Your Highness. I have already requested private soldiers from Viscount Merlin who possess a large land outside the capital. As long as he has the information in advance, he can prepare ahead.” Perhaps he read her expression, but the Grand Duke spoke in a confident voice this time.

Apollonia nodded slowly. He was the emperor, not Petra. There were a lot of things that he needed to consider before he acted and sometimes he did things in a different way from her.

“We’ll leave tomorrow.”

She parted ways with the Grand Duke after setting the place and time to meet. However, she couldn’t completely shake off the ominous feeling in her stomach.

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Farewell

“I brought a tea that reduces fatigue because you seemed to have overworked yourself in the past few days.” Petra put a tray of kettles and teacups on the table at the emperor’s office.

Meanwhile, the emperor stared at the wall, apparently lost in thought, and nodded when he saw her.

“Are you worried that the plan will go wrong?” She put the teacups in front of the emperor.

“…The Grand Duke must have already received the news, right?”

“Of course. They have no choice but to believe that they will be attacked by assassins as soon as they leave the capital.”

The emperor nodded. “It was an excellent tactic. If we had targeted them in the capital, the quick-witted Grand Duke would have likely escaped, and it’d become a problem because we can’t harm him outside the capital.”

“That’s right, the nobles who gathered in the capital would have noticed if we did that.”

“With your scheme, we were able to delay the Grand Duke’s departure without incurring their doubts.”

Their wolf-like eyes met in the air.

“Do you think it is worth the price?”

At Petra’s question, the emperor smiled bitterly. “That much is nothing as long as I can exterminate the Evinhart family in return.”

His gaze headed back to the wall, to be exact, to the blonde woman in the portrait there.

“You’ll be by your mother’s side soon. Of course, you need to sacrifice this much for your father.”

“There is no need to keep the princess alive, as she also poses a threat for us, and her marriage with Prince Bjern was canceled. If we deal with the Grand Duke and the princess at once, no one will be able to doubt Your Majesty. Even if they did, no one would dare to talk.”

The emperor smiled once again. No sadness or guilt was reflected in his fiercely shining eyes.

The emperor used Apollonia as bait to make the Grand Duke feel safe and hold his family in the capital. Then, while he was preparing for the situation outside the capital, the emperor planned to assassinate them all in unexpected places.

The emperor’s biological daughter would die in an accident, so who would suspect him as the culprit behind her death?

“Please drink the tea.”

Petra poured tea into the emperor’s gold-patterned teacup. The dark red liquid poured out from the kettle. It was the color that the emperor liked.

***

“You should spend the night here and leave tomorrow morning,” a young knight reported to the grand duke. He was a knight belonging to the Imperial Order, which the emperor had personally sent to escort them, and he was also one of the guards who would escort Apollonia back to the imperial palace once the grand duke left the capital safely.

“How many hours do we have until the sun sets? I don’t know if we can prepare suitable accommodations for Her Highness the Princess.”

They were passing through a forest that was quite far from private houses. The road was wide and there were no monsters around, but it was not common for a princess to sleep in a tent.