“Come to think of it, Baron Bouilhet is not present.”
It was quite rare for a man who was called the ‘Emperor’s Shadow’, a title with mixed feelings of respect and disdain, to leave the Emperor’s side, so Eugène brought up his absence.
The Emperor, who had been clenching and unclenching his pale fist, broke into a smile when he heard those words, probably because it was easy for him to hand over the heavy object he had been holding for a long time.
“You seem to think that the primary court guard attendant has nothing to do but follow the Emperor’s tail all day long. Do you know how heavy his responsibilities are?”
“I am well aware that he is Your Majesty’s vassal.”
“Vassal, liege. These words are nice. All court figures are envious and jealous of the Emperor’s favor, but only a few know what that really means. Baron Bouilhet is one of the few who knows its weight. So We treasure him.”
“I see.”
Seeing the Emperor change the topic like that, it seemed that Baron Bouilhet was away to do something secretive.
In any case, be diligent. Eugène, who was somewhat accustomed to the Emperor’s manner of speaking, nodded in agreement.
It was then; someone spoke from behind him in a very thoughtful and concerned tone.
Eugène, who didn’t even know he was there, looked back in surprise.
“Um, my apologies, Your Majesty. If you mess up your posture like that, I will not be able to make up the composition.”
The man said so to the Emperor in a tone that indicated that he was very sorry for saying these words and apologized, but he couldn’t help it either. The man was standing with his back to the window opposite the side where the Emperor was standing.
Seeing that he had an easel as tall as himself in front of his body, he seemed to be an exclusive painter of the imperial family. The reason Eugène couldn’t see him even though he was in a position where he could immediately see him upon his entrance was probably that there was an Emperor in the same room, one who was too glamorous and eye-catching.
Unfortunately for the painter, who was only trying to do his job, the Emperor’s brows furrowed when he heard that. The Emperor let out a deep sigh, as if he was highly bothered, and then placed his long, graceful hand on his forehead. The tailor’s hand fastened even more after realizing that the Emperor was annoyed. Previously, the speed of his hands was such that it was worrying to the viewer, but now the hands were moving as if they were flying.
“Is it over now?”
“Pardon? Yes, yes, it is done, it is truly over now.”
Before the Emperor’s patience ran out, the tailor miraculously finished the final measurements. The Emperor immediately pulled down the cloak wrapped around his shoulders and ordered his attendants to take off the cloak that was cut to fit his body. The hands of the skilled attendants brought the Emperor back to his casual attire in an instant.
The Emperor, barely liberated in a few hours, stretched his slender body. The painter’s expression as he was facing him gradually transitioned to a sad one at His Majesty’s intolerant, firm expression of no longer playing the role of a scarecrow once more.
“Your… Your Majesty. You must not do this. Is this not a portrait painted to commemorate the Third Landrienne Revolution? Only when this work is complete can we engrave the woodblock stamps for the pamphlets.”
The painter was nervous but said what he had to say. Contrary to his fragile appearance, he seemed to have a fairly strong core, but it was pitiful that it was not at the level that could be used against the Emperor.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The Emperor took the cloak from the attendant’s hand, who was struggling to hold the cloak of substantial width, found an attendant who was the tallest next to him, and put it on his shoulder. Then, astonished, the attendant bowed his head and even adjusted his clothes several times.
“Ggjk.”
The Emperor patted the servant on the shoulder, turned to the painter, and said firmly. The attendant, who unintentionally assumed the role of the Emperor, stiffened. The painter’s face was also horribly distorted as if the sky had collapsed. “Your Majesty… Even so, the attendant cannot replace Your Majesty… Your Majesty!!!” Even though the gibberish painter finally couldn’t resist and swallowed up crying, the Emperor never looked back. He ordered Eugène to follow him with a light nod and strode into the next room.
***
Seufcf obiibkfv atf Swqfgbg lcab j rwjii qjgibg jaajmtfv ab atf Ufala Cqjgawfca. Qtfc atf vbbg wjvf bo atlmx bjx kjr mibrfv, atf qjlcafg’r mglfr mbwqifafis vlrjqqfjgfv.
Ktf Swqfgbg yeglfv tlwrfio lc atf jgwmtjlg lc ogbca bo atf olgfqijmf jcv boofgfv tlw j rfja. Seuècf rja lc atf rfja gluta jmgbrr ogbw atf Swqfgbg jcv ibbxfv lcab tlr fsfr klat jc ecojwliljg ujhf.
“… Does Your Majesty hate having portraits painted?”
Of course, the Emperor was also a human being, so there were certain things that he didn’t want to do either. However, it was not easy for him to adjust to seeing him show his personal arrogance in his official duties for the first time. The Emperor, who was holding down his forehead as if tired, smiled slightly at his careful question.
“No, it is not like that… We were suddenly annoyed by other things, so We ended up taking it out on innocent people. To avoid this, We deliberately postponed the political meeting and changed it to a more leisurely schedule.”
The Emperor, shaking his head as if trying to get something off, leaned against the back of the armchair and looked at Eugène. As the sun went down, the rays of light that began to mix with the sun little by little drenched his dazzling blonde hair in scarlet. However, it may not be only because of the play of the sunset that his eyes appeared exceptionally red with a smile still visible in them.
“A while ago, you went to Viscountess Gagnon’s salon, is that right?”
The Emperor asked the question in a casual tone. Eugène responded cautiously, feeling the tension rising slowly from his toes.
“Yes. That is right.”
“How boring. After talking boastfully that you will survive on your own, are you now attempting to do that by aligning yourself with the remnants of the Eastern Nobility Faction?”
At first glance, the tone sounded acrimonious, but if one were to listen carefully, he wasn’t particularly scolding him. Rather than that, it sounded like he was lamenting. It felt like he was booing Eugène lightly, wondering if a method of such level was the best he could come up with. Eugène lowered his eyes, feeling a little ashamed.
“… Well, since they are all mere rumors at the end of the day, I thought I should give people a convincing circumstance. Since it is such a sensational affair, attention will be drawn to the scandal itself right away, but after a while, those who doubt the truth will come out. Frankly speaking, what type of fool would so passively believe that His Majesty desires my body? Sure, it is an interesting topic to talk about, but even if you chat away easily, it should be obvious that there’s more to it than what meets the eye.”
‘What type of fool?’ Since he had his eyes lowered, Eugène did not catch the moment when the Emperor’s expression hardened at those words. He seemed to dismiss the Emperor’s interest in his own body as something quite ‘impossible’, but the Emperor had a very different perspective on that.
“Some will wonder why such an excuse was necessary, and those who are smarter will even realize that Your Majesty had covered up for me, and will try to figure out if it was truly worth doing so. Then someone will come to the truth. We cannot let that happen now, can we? The fact that Your Majesty is preparing for a war against the Confederation of Five Nations is a grave secret that should be kept hidden to the end as much as possible.”
“And so, you intentionally created a misunderstanding?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. The timing was just right. The empire finally regained the Landrienne Plains after a long time of yearning, and the disturbance created by the greedy nobles led to confusion over the policy of territorial division. Long nights mean long dreams. In particular, the old eastern aristocrats, who rarely woke up once they fell asleep.”
True to his word, Eugène deliberately approached the eastern nobles in order to make people misjudge the Emperor’s intentions. For the first time in his life, his origins were of some help.
As was widely known, Ebroin V did not like the nobility factions but enjoyed using them. It was typical of the Emperor to like to break things up rather than group them together, and to use conflicts between incompatible factions to get what he wanted whenever necessary.
The matter of how to divide the newly acquired vast eastern territories was the most critical issue among the pending state affairs. It was a case of enormous interest, and there were so many people who were paying attention, that it had just become hot potatoes. The Emperor had not yet touched it because it would become a problem for a long time if it was not properly resolved.
However, if the Emperor, who had never officially shown any clear intentions under this circumstance, was concocting something with an eastern noble–or if people think he was–it was clear what would happen just by dropping such a nuance, and Eugène needed just that.
“Seems like you like to be looked down on.”
“Whenever it is necessary, yes. That is right.”
“Quite different from Us. More than anything else, We hate it when others look down or take advantage of Us.”
“Did I?”
“No, We were not talking about you.”
Ebroin V tapped the armrest with a thoughtful expression. Seeing this, Eugène realized that the Emperor had serious worries.
‘We were suddenly annoyed by other things’. Eugène carefully mused on the words he had heard earlier and waited in silence for the Emperor to speak.
“… Recently, the Monastery of Saint Eustace in Tuler has made a very interesting request.”
“What is it?”
“To commemorate the return of the territory to the empire, the current abbot would like to be formally ordained. That is probably what is going to happen. The monasteries of the Landrienne region have long lost contact with the capital, and because of this, friars who have not been approved of must have postponed their ordination.”
As he spoke, Eugène still didn’t know what the problem was. Eugène continued to listen to the details with a puzzled look.
“The problem is that they did not request the official stamp of approval but a license. Do you understand? In most cases, it is the Emperor’s sole authority to appoint cardinals and bishops for each sect. However, some monasteries, such as the Monastery of Saint Eustace in Colbert and Tuler, are different. They are immensely exceptional, where the abbot, who concurrently serves as the bishop, and families other than the imperial family have the right to consent to ordination.”
In the Landrienne region, Tuler was the site of the former Duke of d’Estuaire, and Colbert was the home of the present Duke of Benoist.
Eugène, after quickly inferring the relationship between the two families, realized why the Emperor was so angry and sighed deeply. If his conjecture was correct, the patience the Emperor was displaying right now was truly admirable.
Did the significant allusions I heard in the salon of the Viscountess Gagnon mean this?
He knew from the beginning that they were people with long dreams, but he couldn’t even imagine that they would have conspired in such a wild manner. Eugène forcibly suppressed the rising sigh, as if he could see the chaos that was about to happen right in front of his eyes.
“Do the d’Estuaires still retain the power to appoint bishops?”
“Someone missed that point while demoting their title and depriving them of their privileges.”
After this incident, judges were mobilized to thoroughly check the documents at the time, but they could not find a reason valid enough to nullify this point.
The d’Estuaires passed the right to consent to the ordination of the Monastery of St Eustace between the rights to other ordinary monasteries, and nowhere was it stated that this right supersedes the right to appoint a bishop.
“I understand that the name registered on the Cour Pleniere cannot be erased unless a crime of treason has been committed. Although the d’Estuaires were demoted, they were not guilty of treason, so their names still remain in the Cour Pleniere, yes?”
“Naturally.”
“… Are you going to let Count d’Estuaire become the Prince-Elector of the East again?”
Incendiary rhetorics such as ‘Thanks to His Majesty’s restoration of the entire Eastern land, including the Tuler Territory,’ and ‘without doing anything’ were avoided as much as possible, but that did not mean that the provocative nature of the case itself would disappear.
There were originally several conditions required to become a Prince-Elector, that was, an elector, but House d’Estuaire met the most essential requirements perfectly. Furthermore, since the Monastery of Saint Eustace of Tuler requested a ‘license’ as an official route, there was no way for the Emperor to reject them.
“Are you asking Us to sanction the innate privilege of the noble family without any justification? If We did that, not only House d’Estuaire, but the whole aristocracy would rise up. It does not matter if it is of no benefit to them. We cannot set a bad precedent.”
There was a saying that despite all, the dog got to eat the porridge you cooked. This was the case now. Even so, the birth of a nobleman with the qualifications of the Prince-Elector in the Eastern land, where the issue of interest was complicated, was a nightmare for the Emperor.
“What should I do?”
The Emperor was not one to discuss these important matters with him for no reason. Eugène, guessing to himself that there was something he had to do to stop him, sat calmly and waited for his task.
Ebroin V looked at him with mysterious eyes. They seemed to contain some kind of concern, it seemed that there was still something left to gauge.
“What do you think We should do?”
Instead of answering, the Emperor returned the question. Eugène, who became serious, thought deeply and suggested the only way he could think of.
“If Your Majesty cannot stop their reinstatement, it is best to completely separate authority from real power.”
In fact, this was one of the most basic tactics of the Emperor, and it was also used by Grand Duchess Alienor and the Duke of Benoist in the South.
“And?”
“You must make Count d’Estuaire owe Your Majesty a debt that would act as a shackle. If possible, a gift that cannot be refused would be appropriate. If Your Majesty is gracious, their progress will be stopped for the time being. Otherwise, it will become a case of a dog that bites its owner.”
During the conversation, even the dazzling sunset faded, and the twilight fell down to their feet. The Emperor, who had been silently listening to Eugène’s plan with his chin out, smiled and clicked his tongue as if he were dumbfounded.
“That would be a disgrace. We have to give a present to those who bit Our heel.”
The voice torn down by chuckles was comfortable to listen to, but Eugène couldn’t ignore the series of poisons trapped in the undercurrent of it. The emotion, which was forged so sharply, was as deadly as a hidden dagger, enough to make the opponent die the moment it was drawn.
“However, if that is the only way, then it cannot be helped. What do you think? Will you be Our messenger?”
“What would Your Majesty like me to relay to them?”
“The heavier the shackles, the better. I will grant the first week of the Grand Feaute to Count d’Estuaire.”
Hiiii Iiii totally did not hyperventilate and had to calm myself down, and i havent read it yet because uwahhhahahhahahahhah tysm for the chalter i love you so much author-sammaaa
Hnggg i missed this so much! Looking foreward to the ehem scenes
+1 I FEEL YOU DEAR! WE’RE IN THE SAME BOAT QAQ
Welcome back! 😍
I fell off my bed when I saw this posted. Hope all is well with you and glad to see you back.
Thank you very much for the update 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 you made my day 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
I was about to fall asleep when i noticed an update i got immediately awake hahahah. Welcome back Mimari! We’ve missed you!! Thank you for the hard work and thank you very very much for not dropping this novel 😭❤️
The way I screamed when I saw the update
Omg, you’re back!!
I see. The Emperor seems to be guilty of finding Eugene’s body interesting… Hmm👀
Welcome back~
This is sooo good.
Take your time ☺️
Welcome Back translator ♥️🤭…I’m so glad you are back .
Again I thank you for not dropping this novel and thanks for the chapter 😍
omg its back😭😭😭 I’m sooo happy, I can’t even believe my eyes when i saw the updates huhu thank you soo much 🥰🥰🥰🥰
Yesssssss you’re back ( ✧Д✧)!!
Thanks for the update.
Oh my that really was a long break.
But glad to see you back!!!
Tbh this is the only novel I look forward to read….
And only one I’m reading right now.
So thank you so much 💗 for posting ☺️
I kinda Missed that super cunning but super charming emperor.
Also interaction between his gonna be
baby 🐥
So great! Welcome back!
Welcome back,,,I am very happy to see you back.Tnx a lot ❤️
A we getting one chapter per week?
minimum once a week, but depending on how much time i have on my hands, double updates can also happen ;]
Ooh
you’re finally back😱😍
thanks for the update💐