Chapter 149
Roant was of the noble Palen imperial bloodline.
From before he was born, while still in his mother’s womb, he had grown up hearing only the most exalted and finest words.
To call such a person a ‘piglet.’
Stunned for a moment by the first vulgar insult he’d ever heard, his mind went blank.
Then, rage surged like blood boiling backward.
“How dare you insult the imperial family!”
Roant roared and leaped to his feet.
No matter that it was Basilian, this could not be overlooked.
Roant paused as he was about to call the knights outside to drag him away immediately.
Count Basilian was far too composed.
He remained seated on the sofa.
Moving only his eyes upward, he smirked.
An ominous feeling washed over from that short laugh.
Roant shuddered unconsciously.
Watching Roant tremble slightly, the count curved his eyes into crescents.
“What imperial family.”
He laughed, sinking deeper into the sofa backrest.
“For the stable boy’s son.”
The late empress greatly enjoyed horseback riding.
She cherished her horses so much that she had a private stable.
Whenever she had time, she visited the stable to spend time with the horses…
But it was all to meet her lover.
She had placed her lover as the stable keeper and frequented the place.
Roant was the blood of that very stable keeper.
Only a very few knew the truth, yet Count Basilian knew that fact.
And not just that.
Count Basilian knew everything.
The secret assassination of a noble who had sworn loyalty to the imperial family, out of jealousy when he amassed great wealth.
Framing and ruining a family in marriage talks to pair the crown prince with a favored young lady…
He knew every vile deed Roant had committed thus far, as if looking into the palm of his hand.
As the master of the underworld, it was expected he held all sorts of information.
But not to this extent.
He could send Roant to the abyss.
With his weaknesses grasped, Roant couldn’t budge against Count Basilian from then on.
The count, revealing his true colors, treated Roant exactly as he said—like a ‘piglet.’
And that wasn’t all.
After Rose Basilian died, he became utterly mad.
Fallen into a black mage, he tormented Roant even more mercilessly.
The slightest offense to his mood, and he plunged Roant into pain with black magic.
After long persecution, Roant came to tremble at the mere shadow of Count Basilian.
Dragged around by the count like that, he had reached this very moment.
‘War with the Holy Empire!’
Roant shivered so hard his teeth chattered.
This was beyond what he could handle.
But refusing by saying no was too terrifying with Count Basilian.
Unable to do this or that, just trembling.
“Haa.”
Kierne let out a long sigh.
His gaze was frigid.
The look as if viewing a lowly creature made him cower instinctively.
Kierne tucked the watch he had been fiddling with into his coat’s inner pocket.
“Your Imperial Majesty.”
“……”
“Isn’t war with the Holy Empire scary?”
“…Well, there is that aspect a bit, so, if possible, resolve it peacefully.”
Unsure when he might snap his fingers, Roant rolled his eyes anxiously and stammered his reply.
Kierne leaned forward.
He grabbed the back of Roant’s head and brought his face close.
To Roant, panting as if hyperventilating, he whispered lowly.
“Instead of war, if there’s another way, want to do that?”
“Of course…!”
Roant, about to answer enthusiastically that he’d do anything, hesitated.
Because Kierne wore the expression of having snared his prey.
“I’ll make a new Holy King.”
His vision went dark.
To oust the current Holy King and install a new one.
Slapping Roant’s frozen cheek with the back of his hand from the shock, Kierne smiled coldly.
“It would be nice if Your Imperial Majesty helps diligently?”
There had been no proper research on fairies.
They were beings hard even to encounter, so it was natural.
Only superficial information like they liked flowers or wielded illusion realms was known.
Even that information was discovered by slave hunters who captured and sold fairies, encountering them closest.
It was inevitably biased information.
There were too many secrets even Cheshire, a fairy, didn’t know.
‘Am I really the fairy queen?’
Cheshire blinked in bewilderment.
The fairies sang joyfully, spreading flowers at Cheshire’s feet and scattering petals overhead.
The rabbit doll perched on her head bobbed its head to the song, delighted.
With the fragrant floral scent pouring everywhere, her mind was in disarray.
Swept along as the fairies led, Cheshire suddenly found herself before the massive tree.
Snapping back to reality belatedly, a sunflower was held out before her eyes.
“I’m so glad you’ve returned.”
The fairy who shyly whispered and offered the sunflower was a familiar face.
Before entering the Holy Empire, the fairy Cheshire had rescued from slave hunters.
She had engraved the fairy’s pattern on the back of Cheshire’s hand.
The butterfly pattern leading to the fairy kingdom.
Thanks to that pattern, the crown could drag Cheshire to the fairy kingdom.
‘Though the crown itself vanished somewhere.’
She needed to give it to Kierne, but whether she could find it before leaving the kingdom was uncertain.
Cheshire stared blankly at the fairy, one of the causes of this massive incident.
“Back then, I couldn’t even tell you my name.”
She smiled brightly and handed the sunflower to Cheshire.
“I’m Lia.”
Taking the flower Lia offered, Cheshire slowly looked around.
The fairies surrounding her were all filled with expectation.
“Everyone has waited for Your Majesty for so long.”
Lia knelt before Cheshire and looked up with desperate eyes.
“You won’t leave us now, right?”
“Uh…”
For the first time in a long while, Cheshire felt extremely awkward.
But she didn’t want to lie.
After deep thought, she just said honestly.
“First, I can’t stay here forever.”
The fairies all became shocked faces simultaneously.
Some even staggered and sat on the ground.
Cheshire was quite flustered by the ripple from one word, but she had much more to say.
Hesitating, she carefully added the rest.
“And I still can’t believe I’m the queen…”
Cheshire trailed off and yelped.
Because the rabbit doll pulled her hair.
“Foolish one!”
Tiny as it was, the rabbit doll jumped furiously on her head, angry.
“It is destined fate, inheritance of mighty power, a mission linked by soul and spirit.”
“The queen is the queen!”
Honestly, she thought what does a rabbit doll know to lecture, but Cheshire pretended to soothe it.
Otherwise, her hair would all be pulled out.
“Yeah, so assuming I’m the queen for now.”
“The word ‘assuming’ doesn’t fit at all!”
“Okay, I’m the queen.”
The atmosphere wasn’t conducive to reasoning.
It seemed better to quickly get the needed information first, then persuade the fairies or sneak away.
‘Still, I don’t want to treat them badly.’
If others acted so stubbornly, Cheshire would have answered with an axe swing without words.
But with the fairies, her heart kept softening.
Cheshire detached the rabbit doll still pulling her hair and held it in her arms.
To the fairies who looked about to cry, she gently asked in a soft voice.
“There are a few things I’m curious about. Could you tell me?”
“…Anything.”
Lia said gloomily.
“But before that, we want to hold a banquet for Your Majesty. A banquet to celebrate your return.”
She wasn’t in a position to leisurely enjoy a banquet.
But if she said no, they seemed ready to burst into tears all at once.
Wondering what to do in this dilemma.
The fairies suddenly hardened their tearful faces sternly.
They all looked up at the sky simultaneously.
Cheshire also felt a stinging sensation and looked at the sky.
Dark clouds suddenly gathered in the clear blue sky.
Dark clouds in the fairies’ illusion realm.
It was absurd.
Following the gray storm clouds covering the sky, lightning flashed…
With a booming thunderclap, something struck down like lightning.
What extended long from the sky and embedded in the ground was a pure white chain.
