Younger sister?
She was his younger sister.
Yuriel was. Then what about me?
The emperor and my eyes met. He didn’t look surprised this time either. Just troubled, like before. Only one thought came to mind.
He knew.
I understood all the traces left until now. Right after that I thought,
He’s insane.
“If those words are false, you die on this spot,”
The emperor proclaimed gravely. He had just said that he would kill the only duke’s grandson in front of the nobles and each country’s delegates.
But it was precisely because he had no intention of killing him that he could be so blithe. Because Yuriel was ‘real’.
Then what about me?
The question circled back to me like a wheel. My mouth went bone-dry.
Yuriel looked straight at me and slowly walked toward us. I focused on her black hair which scattered like waves over her white dress, and her red eyes. Soon, I remembered that the emperor and I were siblings who were unusually similar in appearance.
I was legitimate. Then may Yuriel was…
“I can prove it. But before that, Your Majesty.”
Yuriel stood on equal ground beside me and looked up at the emperor.
“Please accept my greetings.”
Tears dripped from Yuriel’s eyes. The emperor’s face was stony but I could see his eyes twitch.
“Please pardon me for… failing to recognize you, Your Majesty.”
Yuriel’s face clouded over. I stood with my back to the emperor and said,
“First, prove it.”
Yuriel looked up at me. Then she smiled.
“Your Majesty. This was in Her Highness’s bedchamber.”
“That?”
“It is Your Majesty’s lost jewel.”
I realized why Yuriel hadn’t collected the item she found.
“It is the object the former emperor bestowed upon my mother, and that my mother left to me as a keepsake, Your Majesty,”
Yuriel cried out earnestly, brushing away tears. Her voice could pull at heartstrings.
“I wished to treasure it deeply all my life, but Her Highness confiscated it from me. Saying that she would never acknowledge me as a member of the royal bloodline…! Because she threatened me and forced me out…”
“Is that the truth?”
“There is not one falsehood in my words! Please believe me!”
“…Why are you announcing the truth now?”
“Once, I tried to adapt. However, my Lord found me and….. once he discovered what Her Highness had done and was trying to do…. I came here and I saw the party hall covered by that common white powder.”
Everyone was dumbstruck, with some already pitying Yuriel.
Looking embarrassed, Dominat hastily cut in.
“Your Majesty, please give the order to search Her Highness’s bedchamber. If the princess has a clear conscience, what reason does she have to object?”
“This is not a matter so easily decided.”
The emperor glanced at the crowd of delegates and nobles. I spoke on his behalf as he was hesitating.
“Please allow it. You will find it in my room.”
“…Are you acknowledging this child’s words?”
The emperor flicked his eyes to two servants, who withdrew and disappeared.
“I would never, Your Majesty.”
I took a deep breath, making sure not to let it show. Yuriel seemed like she was shivering with pleasure. She seemed overjoyed to be standing on the same stage as me. And at the thought of crushing me.
“I cannot allow you to dirty my name as you stake the title of a princess of this nation. Furthermore, I gladly grant approval to prove my innocence for the sake of the empire’s dignity.”
I took one step toward Yuriel. Yuriel instinctively shuffled her feet but didn’t move back.
“I proclaim to the one who claims to be His Majesty’s younger sister and my flesh and blood.”
Everyone was watching me.
“The slander today will come back to haunt you.”
“Slander, you say…”
“Your anger toward me is causing you to overexert yourself.”
I stepped out in front of the people.
“This child was my servant who engaged in an illicit affair with my concubine, and though I showed mercy, she approached yet another concubine, so I ordered her expulsion from the palace. As such, hear me, Lord Dominat. Because you have broken a royal decree, trusting the words of one whose identity has not yet been verified, you will atone for your crime.”
“However-.”
“No matter whose blood flows through that child’s veins. That will not change.”
“…”
Dominat shut his mouth.
Progress toward downfall: 29%
So you want to do this, do you. I clenched my fists tightly.
“Further, even if that jewel is discovered in my bedchamber, that will not be enough to prove that I confiscated it from you. Yuriel.”
“…….”
“As you were once a servant who went in and out of my bedchamber, how could I believe everything that you say? Moreover,”
I laughed out loud.
“Had I truly discovered your bloodline and rejected you….. Are you not excessively well right now?”
Suddenly, the hall got quiet as though it were empty. Yuriel’s lips tightened. I’m sure she hadn’t expected me to be so direct.
“Of course, I jest. Is it possible that I would kill my younger sister? However…… I am curious. If we are to take your words as truth, that means I did not even go through the trouble of disposing of the evidence and kept it hidden instead. In my bedchamber at that.”
Yuriel did not say anything.
“That’s right. How did you know it was in my bedchamber? Did you search it in secret? ……Or, did you know because you were the one who hid it?”
Most likely, these two had thought the emperor or I would be able to quietly cover it up if it remained a matter of the royal family. But if they announced it somewhere each country’s delegates and the eminent nobles were gathered?
They’d regarded the princess’s birthday party as their chance to drag into the light everything which had been kept hush-hush until now because she was royalty.
And Yuriel wouldn’t have refused since she would be able to newly reveal herself as the other princess.
I understood everything. The drugs at my feet and the claim that I’d threatened Yuriel were not things I had done, but that the princess most definitely could have. They would have been confident that their slander wouldn’t be uncovered.
No one was surprised. Even as the princess’s innocence was uncertain, no one believed it. That’s what their expressions told me. Separate from my racing heart, I felt a deep exhaustion wash over me at that fact.
“These drugs too.”
Progress to downfall: 21%
“Can you prove that they are mine? I only received them as a gift, but how can you be so certain that they are related to me?”
I ordered that the gift registry be brought out. But I could not find the name of the person who had gifted the drug-filled statue.
Someone had brought it in secretly, and now that it had come to this, the probability that the truth could be completely masked was extremely low. In addition, it would be difficult to detain and investigate not only our country’s citizens but the foreign delegates as well.
At least the charges they had brought against me couldn’t be wholly proven either.
At that moment, the two servants the emperor had sent out returned. In their hands was a small box. Inside it lay a necklace with a brilliant, red gem.
So that’s the ‘Necklace of Blood’.
“I assume you know how to use it,”
The emperor said. Yuriel bit her lip as though she were nervous and smiled at the emperor like it was habit.
“I will demonstrate my innocence as well. Please observe, Your Majesty.”
A servant handed Yuriel a small knife. Yuriel used it to slice her palm. Blood dripped from her clenched fist, and the servant brought the necklace underneath.
The blood pooled on the surface of the necklace, which suddenly emitted a blinding light and absorbed the blood.
“……”
I had thought it was strange that a mere necklace could be important evidence.
Magic. To me, it was beyond the realm of common sense.
It absorbs royal blood or something?
The people began murmuring. Moved, Yuriel wept and bowed toward the emperor. The emperor let out a long, deep sigh as he blinked his eyes.
“Are you truly Lobelia’s daughter?”
“Yes…”
“Lobelia is…”
A familiar-looking noble uttered.
“She was my nursemaid. When I was young, my mother the empress dowager threw her out. I remember hearing that she might have royalty in her belly. The princess… Princess Yeldria had only just started walking so she would not know.”
‘Princess’. The title no longer existed just for me.
Anyways, Yuriel would have known that she couldn’t get a stranglehold on me with this alone.
Even though she might be able to reclaim her status as ‘princess’ within the predetermined storyline.
Obviously, Yuriel had brought in ‘Dominat’, a man not part of the storyline, for the purpose of fast-tracking the story.
And because of that, their goals wouldn’t be completely in line with each other. They had reached an agreement in order to produce this situation, but things were different now. It wouldn’t be long now before the two dissolved into disharmony.
Because Yuriel had already gained what she wanted. Then what did Dominat want?
The emperor let out a sigh. He may as well have advertised the family history.
Suddenly feeling someone’s eyes on me, I turned my head and met Dominat’s gaze. He was glaring at me like he wanted to murder me.
“…”
It crossed my mind that maybe their fundamental goal was the same.
“Your Majesty, I have one more thing to report!”
“I am warning you to cease.”
“I cannot!”
Dominat spread his arms once again. The door opened, and a man with a tanned face slowly entered the hall. And after him, a group pushed into the hall.
They were young boys. Their wrists and ankles were in shackles and they were bound together by their feet. They were filthy from not washing, expressionless, and were carrying something above their heads.
They laid down what they had been carrying. The stiff cloth rolled out, exposing the contents.
It was a corpse. It gave off an awful odor, the face was difficult to distinguish, and the wrists and ankles were in shackles, unremoved even after death.
The people let out quiet screams.
“……How much disrespect must I endure from you?”
The emperor was beginning to lose his temper, and Dominat knelt in front of him with a confident expression.
“Yuriel…. Lady Yuriel reported it to me. Yu….. Lady Yuriel witnessed horrible sights while working as the princess’s servant, and this is one of them.”
Meanwhile, I was flabbergasted. Isn’t this different from what Yuriel said just a minute ago? Can you do that?
The emperor looked apprehensive like he had realized the same, even more so because he had hoped to bring the night’s events to a close with the revelation that Yuriel was a member of the royal family.
I ordered for the corpse to be covered back up with the cloth. Then I took a deep breath.
For a moment, I struggled to maintain my reason. I just needed to hold on for a little longer, to sort out the situation. Then everything would be okay.
“……Are you saying I killed them?”
With the corpse laying in front of him, Dominat bared his white teeth in a wide grin.
“You have done worse, have you not?”
At first, I didn’t understand. Unable to open my mouth, I stared at him blankly as he graciously answered in my stead.
“I speak of necrophilia. Did you not purchase young slaves……and thoroughly enjoy them, killing them before the new year only to enjoy them once more?”
I didn’t know what to do about the sudden surge of nausea.
“And young boys at that! And they say that before the sun rises, they will all die.”
I realized that the rumor was actually exposing the ugly reality of what happened every year.
The princess, the body I was wearing right now, made me want to throw up. I didn’t want to stay in this skin any longer.
I staggered backward. I grabbed my arms. I abhorred the princess. More than anyone, I couldn’t tolerate the princess, whom I had already become. My breathing was harsh.
“Declare your innocence regarding this matter as well, Your Highness. I even have a witness here.”
Dominat flicked his eyes toward the dark-faced man who fell at his feet and shouted,
“I-I have committed a grave sin, Y-Your Majesty! Please spare my life…… I only did as Her Highness c-commanded…..”
My vision went blurry. Were you this irredeemable? To this extent?
And at that moment…… The entrance to the party hall slowly began to open. It was a low, small sound, but the cold wind wrapping around my ankles caused me to turn around.
The large, majestic door opened its jaws and spit out a person.
That person was Ettsen. He wore a red tailcoat…..
The people suppressed their screams. I couldn’t see him clearly.
The crowd parted. Ettsen wasn’t alone. His white tailcoat was stained red, and he was supporting someone.
“Robia.”
That someone’s entire body was red. Covered head to toe in blood, Robia clung to Ettsen. Every time Ettsen took a step, blood gushed from Robia’s abdomen. The blood that stained Ettsen’s clothes was Robia’s.
“Robia…….”
I chanted like a sigh. I didn’t even realize I was calling his name.
I forgot everything that had been filling my head.
Robia was looking at me. Green eyes, cheeks paler than usual. Rumpled clothes, hair drenched in sweat. I saw him try to speak but close his mouth when he failed to.
Spitting up blood, he slumped to the floor. Then he lifted his head and cried out,
“You must not fall for their words, Your Majesty!”
Ettsen supported Robia’s shoulder and explained to me, his voice unwavering,
“His abdomen was pierced by a swo-.”
“What are you all standing around for instead of treating him! Save him, right now!”
It was an ear-shattering noise. It was only after feeling myself out of breath that I realized it had been my shout.
“You can’t let him die…. You.”
You can’t.