Chapter 1. Kill the Empress
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‘About 15 minutes away from the capital, birch forest, wooden houses, and houses with many children.’
Tamon began searching for the child based on evidence that Mana had received from Natasha Roanti’s maid.
It was noticeable to visit every house and knock on the door, so he searched for houses with babies during the night.
Fortunately, the characteristics of the tulip knights he brought were silent and quick in action.
‘There are no signs of a baby in this house.’
‘We also checked three houses in the east. There was a baby, but it was a girl.’
After examining the allocated area, Tamon opened the map and handed it over to the knights who had finished reporting.
After about four hours of work, he came home first.
If his knights couldn’t find the baby, tomorrow they had to widen the radius a little bit.
This was all he could do for Asha in Tanatos now.
He could peel the flesh and bones out if she wanted to, but that wasn’t going to help Asha.
This revenge belonged to Asha, from trivial to large.
Gillotti Tanatos would have to pay back the sorrow and pain that had dyed her eyes red with his spirit, body, and that humble soul.
For that purpose, Tamon only followed Asha as her hands and feet.
Hands and feet did not move for a price.
He just followed what his brain wanted.
But his scruffy head today seemed to reward his hands and feet a little.
“You haven’t slept yet.”
As if waiting for him to come back, he approached Asha with delight as she came out of the front door.
“I have a place to go with you.”
“……now?”
At Tamon’s words, Asha reached out to him and said,
“Shall we go for a walk?”
＊ ＊ ＊
During the day, Asha spent most of her time with her face hidden or in costume.
She didn’t remove the makeup when she was in the mansion, to avoid the surveillance of anyone who might be there.
Because of that, Tamon has rarely seen her original face to his heart’s content recently.
Tamon tried hard to sleep next to her because she removed her makeup just before she went to sleep.
Seeing her original face in the darkness was more addictive than he thought.
He would count Asha’s eyelashes like a madman, or appreciate her breathing. There were a few times when he stayed up almost all night.
Maybe he was a real pervert, as Asha said.
It was also a fresh shock and fun to realize that this would happen if he were crazy about someone.
But now, Asha came out with nothing covered. It was a very strange thing to do.
Moreover, Tanatos in July, there were many people who stayed up late.
The taverns were constantly visited by customers until dawn, and the streets were not dark due to the lights of the braziers and stoves placed all over the street.
It passed 2 a.m., and there was a possibility of running into someone here, but Asha wandered the street without a care in the world.
“Can you walk around like this?”
Eventually Tamon grabbed her wrist, and asked cautiously.
Asha smiled and looked up at Tamon.
“Yes.”
“……I don’t know what you’re up to.”
“It’s not a big trick. It’s just….”
Asha took a step further toward the empty street.
“……I’m going to be a ghost of Tanatos.”
She raised her fingers to her lips, stopping Tamon from chasing her.
“Over there, stay quiet.”
Tamon had no choice but to sit tight and watch her suspicious behavior, as her intentions were clearly communicated.
‘What the hell is she thinking about in that little head?’
From the time she was Empress of Tanatos until now, Asha surprised him time and time again.
Looking at the straight head raised and clear eyes, it was clear that she was about to do something again.
Tamon’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Asha standing in the middle of the empty square street.
When Asha looked at him like that, somehow he couldn’t stand it.
Not knowing what he couldn’t stand, but strangely, he felt a stirring under his navel and his body became hot.
It made him look forward to something instinctively?
And to his great surprise, Asha did something Tamon never expected.
[May this country be blessed, white winter.
Be the weapon of this country, the cold of the flesh. We are your…….]
A smooth voice resounded calmly through the dawn.
Incredibly, Asha started singing.
＊ ＊ ＊
Gillotti, who couldn’t resist the urge and poured his powers on Roxon, fainted less than a day later.
It was the day of the third dinner with the Pentheion Continental Union.
The first and second dinners showed only bad things to each other, so the third dinner was very important.
However, during the dinner, which managed to continue in a not bad atmosphere, Gillotti went out without overcoming his temper once, and fainted.
He was fine throughout the dinner, but as soon as his interests conflicted, he fainted, and the Allies suspected that he had intentionally “fake faint.”
It was Gilotti who was displeased with them.
John held his leg and begged to talk calmly, but the Allies visited him with a fiery temper, saying that the emperor of Tanatos had deceived them.
Eventually, the Allied delegations packed their bags without completing the festival.
“The emperor is not ready yet, so I promise you next year!”
They did not hesitate to turn around and leave Tanatos.
As many as seven countries’ combined envoys turned their backs at once.
John grew ten years older in those few days, and Gillotti insisted that he would not interact with those arrogant allies for ten years.
The court nobles missed the former empress very much whenever Gillotti did this.
And whether or not those aristocrats’ hearts touched heaven, a startling rumor began to spread in the capital.
“……what, the ghost of the Empress is going around?”
It was a rumor that the ghost of the deceased Empress wandered around the capital while singing.
＊ ＊ ＊
“……ghost?”
Of course, the rumor went into Gillotti’s ear.
Roselyn’s ghost wandered the streets at night and sang a song about the founding of the country.
A more bizarre phenomenon was that she had left a burnt-out flower in places where she passed.
The public added an arbitrary interpretation, saying it meant the downfall of the current dynasty.
The Empress, who died unjustly, returned from hell to kill the emperor.
“……Huh?”
Gillotti stared in horror at the burnt artificial flowers brought by the captain of the guard as evidence.
The news he heard as soon as he woke up from bed was that the ghost of the former empress was going around!
A ghost? A ghost? Then that nightmare day. Was it really her ghost that led him to the previous Emperor’s room? No, it doesn’t make sense. There’s no such thing as ghosts, right?
Gillotti threw burnt flowers on the floor with a white face and covered himself with a blanket.
Roselyn here, Roselyn there!
The lack of substance has strangled him. Gillotti was really going crazy.
He was suffocated to think that the spiteful woman had indeed returned as a ghost.
Didn’t it mean that his power wouldn’t work on her ghost now?
How do you use the power of death to a ghost whose body is dead, how!
“What a useless power!”
This humble trick that made him faint just because he killed a few people felt like a curse.
“Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!”
Tanatos in July must be unconditionally fun.
The festival was still in full swing outside, but only Gillotti, deep inside the palace, was quietly going mad.
＊ ＊ ＊
Ghost rumors seemed to have had their own effects.
Asha looked grimly at the envoys leaving Tanatos much earlier than scheduled.
In this chaotic situation, Gillotti will not be able to afford to keep an eye on Hans.
He gained some leeway to gather power safely and pursue it.
“We have to coax the Countess of Mexis.”
Mexis was the family of Deputy Commander of Katren.
It was the very family of the Vice-Commander Katren, who had lost his life severely for the crime of disobeying the emperor’s orders to protect Roselyn.
The unjust death of an outstanding daughter alienated the Mexis from the palace.
Maxis was the only family who dared to express their disappointment at the palace and survived.
If Gertium defended the entire country, it was because Mexis were one of the main families defending the capital.
The entire force was not comparable to the Gertium, but in any case, the first family to move troops in the event of a rebellion in the capital was Mexis.
In order to appease the family, the first person to approach was not Count Mexis or his eldest son, the Golden Lion.
“The scariest thing in my family is not my father or my brother. Who is it? It’s my mother. She has a lot of spirit hidden in her small body.”
Asha remembered Katren, the vice commander who was talking about the family as if he was embarrassed.
She once again pulled herself together heavily.
Asha, who was thinking about the Mexis, finally remembered one person she had forgotten.
“Come to think of it, what happened to Anna?”
She was so distracted that she didn’t even think about finding Anna.
She received a message that she would arrive by mid-July, but now July 20 has already passed.
Someone knocked on the door of the mansion as soon as Asha thought she had to find her.
Surprisingly, Anna appeared in an incredibly shabby appearance in front of her, who was surprised to see if it was actually Anna.