Episode 163
In that moment, Reinhardt hesitated.
Should he eliminate the Empress as she was?
As much as she cherished her son, she would cause a massive uproar if she realized the soul within had changed.
However, the Empress acted in a way he had not expected at all.
Click.
The door closed.
It was the Empress, who had been trembling in place as if nailed to the floor, who closed it.
At the same time, the Empress’s guard knight rushed over and knocked on the door.
“What is the matter, Her Majesty the Empress!”
It seemed he had come thinking something had happened because she had dropped what she was holding.
But once again, the Empress acted in direct opposition to his expectations.
“N-nothing is wrong. I have urgent words to discuss with the Crown Prince, so everyone withdraw. At once!”
At her incomprehensible behavior, Reinhardt narrowed his eyes like a snake.
Just what was her scheme?
Why was she pretending not to see this sight and dismissing everyone?
As soon as the guard knight left, the Empress asked, her lips trembling violently.
“Are… are you truly the Crown Prince?”
Sticking close to the door and unable to even meet his eyes, it seemed she was indeed terrified of his monster-like appearance.
Reinhardt said nothing.
Then, the Empress somehow managed to continue speaking.
“It does not matter what your true identity is. If you are wearing my son’s shell, then you are my son.”
“…….”
“The Reinhardt who has lived as my son until now… is it you?”
“If it is?”
Their eyes met.
The Empress, startled out of her wits by the face covered in snake-like scales, jumped back.
She stuttered while pressing firmly on the left side of her chest to calm her racing heart.
“Hurry and return to your original form before others see you.”
“Are you saying that knowing what my original form is like?”
Ssssss.
Soon, the human shape collapsed, and the form of a giant snake began to reveal itself.
As he drew closer, the Empress’s face looked as though she was about to faint. Nevertheless, she did not flee and moved her bloodless lips.
“I-I will make you the Emperor!”
Reinhardt stopped approaching.
“If you remain in the form of the Crown Prince, I will make you the Emperor. You must know. How many nobles follow me…”
“Why?”
Reinhardt, in the form of the giant white snake, blinked slowly.
“Even knowing I am not your son, why?”
“My son is the Crown Prince!”
The Empress shouted in a voice that seemed to suppress her fear.
“It does not matter what is inside. My son is the Crown Prince, and he is a noble being who must become the Emperor!”
“…So, it does not matter who the soul is, as long as you become the mother of the Emperor?”
The Empress fell silent at the words that pierced the heart of the matter.
Reinhardt curled the corners of his eyes slightly.
Come to think of it, he seemed to recall hearing that in the past, the woman who was the Empress’s sister and the former Duchess of Skya tried to make her son fight a divine beast for fear of losing her honor.
The Empress was the same. She did not cherish her son dearly.
She cherished her son who was the ‘Crown Prince.’
In that case—
“How about becoming the Emperor yourself?”
“Wha… what?”
The Empress, flustered by the suddenly changed manner of speech, stammered.
“What does that…”
“Would it not be better to become the Emperor yourself rather than the mother of the Emperor?”
“Well, that is true, but…”
The Empress, who answered instinctively, hurriedly covered her mouth.
However, her true feelings had already been exposed.
Reinhardt curled his eyes even further.
“Becoming the Emperor of this empire with a young and vigorous body.”
“…Is that possible?”
“Of course. You just have to take this body. Hand over your old and shabby physical form to me.”
The Empress’s eyes wavered greatly.
Since youth is something that cannot be bought even with money, the proposal to swap bodies sounded incredibly attractive.
Moreover, was it not the being who would soon become the Emperor!
Thus, unaware that it was the whisper of a devil, she snapped it up.
“H-how should I proceed?”
“It is simple.”
The corners of Reinhardt’s mouth drew a deep arc.
“From now on, do not resist the actions I take.”
An unprecedented incident occurred in the Imperial Family.
The Crown Prince had died suddenly of an unknown cause.
Everyone was greatly shocked by the death of someone who had been fine until recently.
Those who knew he was to be deposed whispered, wondering, “Did he not take his own life?” while the Emperor, who had briefly collapsed and then woken up, felt despondent, saying he had become a father who devoured his child.
“What is the Empress doing? She must have received the greatest shock.”
“She has not left her room, refusing all food and drink.”
“…Contact the palace physician and have him deliver medicines that can boost her energy.”
“That is…”
The Chief Chamberlain hesitated. He replied cautiously to the Emperor’s questioning gaze.
“She ordered that no one enter… The Head Maid tried to enter several times already, but she reportedly could not because the Empress threw teacups and got angry.”
“I see.”
The Emperor let out a sigh.
Since the Empress’s devotion to her son was so famous, and she had been with the Crown Prince until just before his death, it seemed she had half-lost her mind.
“She might harbor ill thoughts, so tell the Head Maid and the knights to look after her without leaving her side for a moment.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Meanwhile, at that time.
The Empress—no, the being in the form of the Empress—was grinding its teeth while staring at the back of its hand.
“Why does the poison not disappear even
though I changed bodies?”
He had seized the Empress’s body to discard his poisoned one, but as the wound on the back of the hand followed him exactly, the poison was also transferred.
Even though the Imperial Palace had been turned upside down because he had to kill the Empress—who was now in his old body and screaming in pain from the poison.
“Ugh…”
He felt the poison remaining in the wound spreading through his entire body via the blood vessels.
The mana circuits, which he thought had finally been purified, were becoming a mess once again.
He grit his teeth.
Although the poison had been somewhat neutralized by changing bodies, the pain was more severe because he had moved to a body much more senile than his previous one.
Furthermore, under the pretext of protecting the unstable Empress, knights and maids followed him wherever he went, narrowing his range of movement.
No matter how one looked at it, the situation was much worse than before.
It was then.
“Her Majesty the Empress, I am coming in for a mo—”
“Did I not tell you not to enter!”
The Head Maid, who always stayed close to the Empress, was trying to come in.
He rejected the Head Maid’s entry while mimicking the Empress.
“No one is to enter until I give my permission!”
He did not know the person called the Empress well.
Even though they were once mother and son, it was natural since he had no interest in others.
Thus, having unexpectedly shifted into the Empress’s body now, he could be caught not being the Empress if he was not careful.
‘I must change bodies as quickly as possible.’
If he persuaded a target and gained their consent as he did with the Empress, he would be able to switch quickly even with little mana.
For complete detoxification, it was necessary to change bodies several times.
Then, where should he recruit the
humans…?
While agonizing, he discovered a box kept preciously on one side of a drawer in the Empress’s room.
Inside, it was full of tulip bulbs.
He recalled the Empress once boasting during a tea time that she had received them from young ladies.
Right.
If he held a tea time and persuaded the participants one by one…
The corners of his mouth tilted up slightly.
It was decided that the Crown Prince’s funeral would be held after the conclusion of the Divine Beast Thanksgiving Festival.
It was to calm the public sentiment, which was stirring with claims that the Crown
Prince’s death was divine punishment, and because not much time remained until the day the source of the gods was to be revealed.
Thus, they held only a brief period of mourning for the Crown Prince.
And not long after the mourning period ended, Asil received a tea time invitation from the Empress.
The gist of it was that she wanted to soothe her lonely heart after the Crown Prince’s death by conversing with the young ladies.
“To think she sent invitations to all children of nobility at the rank of Count or higher…”
Arshian, who was reading the invitation while traveling to the Imperial Palace in a carriage to attend the tea time, knitted his brows.
“It is certainly suspicious. Don’t you think so, Asil?”
“That snake has the ability to take the bodies of others.”
Brianna, sitting on Asil’s other side, took up the conversation.
“It definitely wouldn’t have died; there’s a high probability it seized the Empress’s body. What do you think, Asil?”
“That is indeed the most likely scenario. Since we don’t know for what purpose the tea time is being held, it seems right to go and see… so, please tell your mother that, Asil.”
“Please tell your father that I will follow in my original form.”
“Please tell your mother that it would be better to put a lizard in a pocket rather than a parrot.”
“Asil, please convey to your father that disguising as an ordinary bird would be much more natural than having a bulging pocket?”
“Asil, explain to your mother that the tea time location seems to be indoors, and a bird flying around indoors is absolutely not natural.”
“Asil, tell your father that a lizard is just as unnatural…”
“Asil…”
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