Chapter 118

Aivert, having made a plan, surveyed the outside.

—Thud!

He stepped onto the windowsill and leaped.

Rodella felt a fresh pang of pain in her arm at the sight.

Her wrist, connected to him by the chain, wasn’t the injured arm, but it still needed to move in an emergency.

Her body had tensed up instinctively.

“…!”

Still, she bit back any sound.

Just in case she made a sound and Aivert was discovered.

While Rodella waited with an anxious expression, she saw Aivert, gripping the outer wall, reach the height of the third floor in an instant.

Now he would pull the handcuffs, and all she had to do was step out of the window herself.

It was at that moment.

—!

Aivert suddenly turned his head in another direction.

Someone unseen from the opposite direction attacked him.

At that moment, the moonlight was obscured by clouds, making visibility difficult.

Just as Rodella was staring across, her face pale with dread.

—Crackle.

A moment later, a faint sound, like a tree branch breaking, echoed.

The unfeeling shadow that had covered the moon slowly dispersed.

In the hazy moonlight, Aivert’s face was revealed.

The dark shadow held in one of his hands was none other than a person.

As Rodella flinched, Aivert gestured as if to say he was fine.

Then, he slammed the person through the window, which had opened unnoticed.

The limp body was clearly not that of a living person.

Afterward, Aivert turned back to Rodella.

“…!”

She flinched for a moment but then bit her lip.

Right, it wasn’t like she hadn’t expected this.

Now, she just had to cross over, right?

Rodella stepped onto the windowsill.

The moment she stepped into the void, looking at him, safe and sound, before her vision plummeted downwards.

—!

The chain between the handcuffs shortened, and Rodella’s body was sharply pulled towards him.

“Welcome.”

And inside the window, now inexplicably close, stood the Emperor.

***

The Emperor appeared unharmed, for now.

However, he looked a bit weary, as if he had been confined for a long time.

“I am sorry to see Your Majesty in such circumstances.”

Rodella bowed briefly, her face solemn.

Meanwhile, Aivert surveyed their surroundings and searched the dead assassin’s clothes.

The Emperor and Rodella conversed.

“Not at all. If it weren’t for you two, I wouldn’t have had the luxury of observing such formalities.”

“What in the world… happened?”

Rodella asked.

Though Benerix and his forces had likely cornered him here, she needed to hear the full story.

At her question, the Emperor recounted what had happened so far.

“At first, I was spending some personal time with Duke Benerix. It was something we always did. Though I had my suspicions of some trickery.”

His story continued from the arrival of the assassin to how the guards, bribed by Duke Benerix, had gradually confined him to this North Tower under the guise of safety, telling him to stay there “until the assassin’s den was cleared” before descending.

Everyone present knew that there was no separate “den,” but rather, those instigated by Duke Benerix were continuously infiltrating the imperial palace through paths revealed by traitors.

“I knew Duke Benerix would do something, but I never dreamed he would put himself in harm’s way, feigning to block an assassin.”

She had thought of him as utterly abhorrent and distrustful of others, and couldn’t have imagined him performing such an act, which could have cost him his life.

While the Emperor massaged his forehead, Rodella asked, “So, were the downstairs stairs destroyed under the pretext of assassins?”

At that, the Emperor nodded.

“They said they detonated the stairs after seeing someone targeting me coming up, but well, it’s not very convincing.”

Just as they were discussing this, Aivert seemed to have finished examining the assassin’s body and stood up.

He held an artifact that was clearly the assassin’s, along with a long, flare-like object.

‘Was he planning to use it after assassinating His Majesty?’

As Rodella watched it intently, Aivert asked, “Were the Imperial Knights disarmed under the same pretext as the guards?”

“They weren’t disarmed, but they were deployed near the outer wall.”

In effect, it was as good as saying that Benerix was controlling both the Imperial Knights and the guards.

Aivert narrowed his eyes.

“In short, are you saying that there are no friendly forces, and only Red Knights are approaching the North Tower?”

“That’s right.”

The Emperor massaged his forehead.

“If you had been a little later, you and I wouldn’t be standing here talking.”

At that, Aivert gestured to Rodella.

“It was her idea to come here, so please direct your praise to her.”

“There’s no need to tell me; Dame Rodella Syveric is the only suitable candidate for the next chancellor anyway.”

‘If we survive this night, that is.’

Aivert finally shifted his gaze from the Emperor, who had added that last remark.

He would have kept staring if the Emperor hadn’t mentioned a chancellor candidate.

“First, this seems to be a flare,”

He shook the long rod, on which a magic circle was intricately drawn.

Next, he held up a round artifact.

“This looks like an explosive artifact, and it appears to be the same kind as the one on the ship.”

“The ship you two went to, you mean?”

It seemed the Emperor had heard that the two of them had gone to Port of Pomers.

Rodella nodded.

“Duke Benerix tried to sink the ship, and he used an explosive artifact then.”

At that, the Emperor narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Perhaps they were made in the same workshop.”

“We can have Royden track that down. Anyway, the problem is this guy came here, and Benerix must be eagerly awaiting some outcome from here soon.”

If they delayed any longer, he would sense something was amiss.

Aivert and Rodella’s eyes met.

Judging by the Emperor’s words, Benerix had not yet fully seized control of the imperial palace.

Because the Emperor was still unharmed.

But if a situation arose where the Emperor “unavoidably” met with misfortune, Duke Benerix would then attempt to seize full power.

This assassin was sent to create that situation.

Then, perhaps…

Rodella had a good plan, but she was deliberating on how to word it delicately.

However, Aivert, without hesitation, blurted out in front of the Emperor,

“Let’s pretend Your Majesty is dead.”

“What?”

To the bewildered Emperor, Rodella quickly said, to save Aivert from the crime of insulting the imperial family, “You just need to pretend to have passed away, just for a moment.”

At that, the Emperor raised an eyebrow.

***

A few minutes later.

—Boom!

A sudden explosion erupted from the third floor of the North Tower within the imperial palace.

Startled knights immediately turned their heads.

It was a loud explosion, audible even deep within the inner fortress.

“Your Majesty!”

The Imperial Knights and guards who knew the Emperor was taking refuge there cried out in despair.

“Do not leave your posts!”

“There might be others trying to target His Majesty during this chaos!”

They couldn’t move easily due to the words of the Red Knights.

It was true that there were traitors among the guards and Imperial Knights.

As they gritted their teeth.

—Bang!

Another silent flare shot into the sky.

Strangely, it was a flare invisible to the knights’ eyes.

But it would have been clearly visible to Duke Benerix.

Aivert, who had launched the flare from the third floor, felt the distant presences become agitated and tossed the flare aside.

“Then, Your Majesty, please follow.”

He kindly extended a hand to Rodella, then abruptly turned, as if unconcerned with the Emperor’s safety.

And he pushed open a secret passage that even the Emperor, who had been confined to the room, didn’t know about.

“Haha. So there was a place like this.”

The imperial castle’s secret passages could not be recorded, so successive Emperors could only pass down what they remembered.

Some were forgotten in the process of oral tradition.

But Royden was different.

Those who had served the Emperor for generations perhaps knew more about the imperial castle than the imperial family itself.

Anyone else would have been unbelievable…

“…”

The Emperor’s gaze turned to Rodella.

As long as she desired to be the next chancellor, and as long as she wasn’t part of the noble faction.

Aivert Royden, who was as good as leashed to her, was the most trustworthy assistant the Emperor could ask for.

—Click.

A moment later, instead of the Emperor’s usual flowing robes, his figure, now clad in the black clothes of an assassin, vanished into the passage.