Ch.173While She Sleeps (2)

“It’s Ernst. Mother. Let’s talk for a moment.”

“Ernst…? Coming at this hour, even between parent and child, isn’t that rather impolite? I’m quite busy right now…”

Even as she spoke, panting breaths escaped, suggesting she was continuing her affair. The creaking bed released a soft groan.

“Hmm… Or perhaps you miss your mother’s embrace? If you want, I could hold you tight. Much more intimately than when you were little.”

Isabella chuckled softly.

From inside the room, quiet laughter followed.

Ernst placed his hand on his sword hilt.

“This is important. If there are any who would interfere, I’ll have no choice but to cut them down.”

At his cold voice filled with killing intent, the mocking laughter abruptly ceased.

Only then did they seem to realize that the man beyond the door was the Empress’s son, an Imperial Prince who could slaughter them all and face no consequences.

“Hah… Very well, let’s hear what you have to say. The rest of you, put on your clothes and wait in the next room.”

Isabella’s voice had grown noticeably colder.

The sounds of hurried dressing could be heard, and shortly after, the door swung open.

Six men and one woman filed out with bowed heads.

Four Royal Guards, two black-skinned slaves reportedly from the Panam region.

The woman was a young maid still showing traces of adolescence.

Ernst glared at them coldly.

Trembling like aspen leaves under the prince’s murderous gaze, they shuffled into the adjacent room.

“Do you plan to keep standing there? Come in. I’m quite curious what urgent matter brought you barging in like this.”

Isabella, still completely unclothed, sat on the soaked bed and smiled at Ernst.

Ernst met her gaze directly as he stepped into the room.

It was time to uncover her true intentions and have a final confrontation.

—-

“Now then, tell me. What brings you barging in so uncharacteristically?”

Unlike Ernst with his rigid expression, Isabella maintained a relaxed demeanor throughout.

With her pale legs slightly parted, she traced her fingertips through the fluids on her heated skin and brought them to her lips.

Despite facing such a lewd display that would make even a seasoned prostitute blush, Ernst showed not the slightest reaction.

“Matthias is dead, Mother.”

“Matthias? Yes, a sad affair indeed. You’ve always cared for your siblings, so you must be especially grieved… But if you’ve come to report this to me, aren’t you about two days late? I could hardly be unaware of it.”

“You don’t seem particularly saddened. Judging by how busy you are creating new children.”

Ernst gestured toward the thoroughly soaked bed.

From the looks of it, it was enough to conceive at least triplets.

If the Empress’s belly were to swell while the Emperor lay dead, especially if the child were born with dark skin… wouldn’t that be a disgrace recorded in imperial history?

“Hmm… I’m pleased to see you’ve learned to be sarcastic. Did you come expecting me to shed tears? Like this?”

Isabella dabbed at her eyes as if wiping away tears.

A thin liquid trickled from the corner of her eye.

What streamed down her cheek was not tears—this too was mockery.

“Hardly. Matthias wouldn’t want you to shed tears either.”

“Is that so? That child would…”

“Would he welcome false mourning from the one responsible for his death?”

A blatant accusation. Ernst glared at Isabella, openly displaying his hostility.

Isabella snorted and crossed her legs.

“…Bold words, Ernst. Are you suggesting that I killed Matthias? In case you don’t know, it was actually Leopold’s knight who—”

“An act carried out through him but orchestrated by you. Don’t make excuses. I didn’t come to hear excuses.”

Cutting off her nonsense firmly, Ernst stepped forward.

Isabella licked her lips. A sinister smile played across her glistening mouth.

“Hehe… Is that so? Then why have you come… interrogating your mother with such fierce eyes, what answer do you seek? Feel free to ask.”

“…First, I want to know if you have any countermeasures. With Matthias gone, our connection to the archbishops has weakened, and Faelrun and Landenburg will soon arrive at the capital.”

Ernst began with a sensible question.

To confirm this woman’s true purpose before catastrophe struck.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Isabella nodded calmly.

“Your scheme to frame Leopold won’t be effective with the high nobility either. The common people might believe it, but they know better. Especially the secular electors—knowing the imperial family well, they’re already convinced this was our doing. In fact, Lord Wien has already made up his mind.”

“Wien? Did you try to persuade him?”

Isabella tilted her head. Her narrowed eyes mocked Ernst.

As if he was foolishly working hard at an impossible task.

“Yes. I offered to recognize him as a Grand Duke and cede part of imperial territory as an independent kingdom… but after this incident, he refused. He said he couldn’t trust an Empress who brutally murders her own child, nor her eldest son.”

Ernst had also subtly revealed his intention to oust Isabella’s faction if he ascended the throne… but it was useless.

Wien had said he couldn’t entrust the imperial throne to the bloodline of a madwoman who treated her own flesh and blood so lightly.

“How unfortunate.”

“Unfortunate? Is that all you have to say? At this rate, our fight for the throne is doomed. We have no way to win the succession election.”

The shortened timeframe. Broken connections. Rising suspicions.

Everything Isabella had done recently was driving the succession election toward defeat.

“I suppose so?”

Isabella shrugged her shoulders. Her exposed breasts swayed gently.

“As I thought… you never intended to win it in the first place.”

Ernst gritted his teeth.

He had been 80% certain when she assassinated Emperor Ferdinand II, but now he was completely sure.

Isabella had no intention of leaving the imperial throne to the electors’ decision.

And there was only one way to ascend the throne while ignoring the election results.

“That’s right. Isn’t it obvious? You lack the talent to persuade your enemies. That’s Leopold’s specialty, not yours. If you want to win, don’t fight in your opponent’s area of expertise—choose the method you excel at. If you want something, take it by force, not words. That’s your talent.”

“…Are you suggesting civil war? In this empire? That’s madness. Our forces alone cannot defeat the combined armies of Faelrun, Landenburg, and Wien.”

That was it. There was no other option but to wage civil war and defeat Leopold’s forces.

No, the option had been eliminated—by Isabella’s hand.

And it was an impossible task.

A prince who defies election results and wages war against his own kin—the archbishops would certainly not help, and even the imperial army maintaining neutrality would be the best one could hope for.

In the end, they would have to fight with only the noble forces Isabella had gathered… against the empire’s most elite troops with abundant combat experience. There was no chance of victory.

“You don’t need to fight them all, Ernst. Did you think your mother wouldn’t have prepared for even this?”

Isabella chuckled as she stroked Ernst’s chin.

It felt like a maggot crawling up from a sewer, but Ernst was too preoccupied to care about the disgusting sensation.

Isabella’s words carried such ominous implications.

“Prepared? What have you done…!”

She smiled broadly.

A bewitching gaze, a sneer filled with malice.

An expression that hardly seemed human.

“Faelrun? When the Werebeasts begin their invasion, they’ll have to go defend against that. Landenburg? When the Ka’har invade, they’ll head to the Wall. Wien? If the empire falls into civil war, would the elves just stand by? Wien will be busy stopping them. In the end, only Leopold’s army remains. You can defeat that much, can’t you?”

At this moment, Ernst finally confirmed Isabella’s true purpose.

And he made his decision.

“…I see. I understand your thinking clearly now. Indeed, if things go as you say, we might be able to defeat Leopold.”

“If you understand…”

Ernst knocked away Isabella’s arm and drew his sword.

The azure blade gleamed coldly.

Isabella glanced briefly at the longsword, then frowned slightly as she looked back at Ernst.

“…What do you think you’re doing? Pointing a sword at your mother—your joke goes too far, Ernst.”

“As I thought. Your goal was never to become the empire’s ruler… Rather the opposite—your true purpose is to shatter the empire into pieces!”

Ernst no longer even used honorifics.

The words this woman had uttered were calling for the empire’s destruction.

A fact most people now overlook… the other races are strong.

The empire had been able to suppress them only because its unified strength was greater than that of the non-human nations.

The other races were hostile even among themselves, so they never attacked the empire all at once.

But if three different races simultaneously invaded a divided empire…

That would no longer be a matter of succession disputes—it could mean the collapse of imperial order itself.

“Well, isn’t winning all that matters?”

“If I let you have your way, even if I win, the empire is finished. It will never regain its former glory.”

Civil war. A massive invasion by other races. Could the throne seized after such events truly be called the imperial throne?

Absolutely not. Even if Ernst were to win after such atrocities, Faelrun, Landenburg, and even Wien would never recognize him.

The empire would split into three or four pieces.

He had realized the truth too late.

How could anyone have imagined that a woman who had risen to the highest position below heaven and above all people, enjoying every luxury and pleasure, would aim to destroy it all herself?

For Ernst, who was more soldier than politician, it was inconceivable that anyone would have defeat itself as their goal.

Logically, if the empire fragmented and weakened until it collapsed, Isabella would lose the most.

Her power, wealth, status—all were possible only because she was the Empress.

If the empire fell, she would be nothing more than an ordinary woman.

“So what?”

Isabella smiled.