Chapter 34: Disordered Thoughts

"Your Majesty, why are you going to such lengths against the Korvekar family?"

"What? Does it bother you that your ally has been harmed, for fear that your position might be affected?"

"I didn’t mean, Your Majesty..."

"Yes, you did... In any case... because the game they’ve been playing of late has become utterly repugnant. Let me ask you this: do you know which prince the Korvekar supported during the reign of the previous Emperor?"

"They declared neutrality..."

"Exactly. It was Grand Duke Dravarius who supported me, whilst Korvekar withdrew entirely from the battle for the throne and openly declared neutrality, so I became Emperor without a hitch. Although my brothers withdrew from the battle for the throne as soon as Dravarius and Korvekar announced their positions, none of them are alive today; each of them died quietly. To this day, our special investigation unit has not discovered how they were assassinated. In any case, - In this generation, Korvekar supported you this time, so you became Crown Prince immediately, whilst Dravarius, despite helping your eldest brother with trivial matters, remained in the shadows and did not truly participate in this generation’s imperial succession struggle. Do you know why?"

"Please enlighten me, Your Majesty."

"For some reason, although Korvekar withdrew from the battle for the throne in my generation, they have been relentless and ruthless in defending you as never before, to the extent that they sent a Knight of Death to protect you. And when that knight died whilst protecting you, they sent a second one without hesitation. Overnight, the noble family suspected of attempting to assassinate you at the time was wiped out. Although some of the roaming knights were blamed and punished, it is clear that they acted on Serafim’s orders, and were later sacrificed as scapegoats to close the case."

"But... forgive me, Your Majesty, but my mother..."

"Although your mother has a close friendship with Serafim, who regards her as his sworn sister, do you really think Knights of Death grow on trees? Serafim sent her his own Knight of Death as a wedding gift to protect her, as she was to enter the Imperial Palace; and after Serafim became Grand Duke, he secretly sent an entire squadron of the Knights of Nochvory—the second-highest knight order in Korvekar—to your grandfather, -And in addition to the two Death Knights who were sacrificed for you, and the roaming knights who were sacrificed solely to avenge you and merely to warn of the consequences of attempting to assassinate you again—all these elite forces were abandoned at a time when Korvekar needed every extra soldier after two consecutive, horrific wars... ?"

"But I still do not understand the purpose, Your Majesty. I mean, if it is a political advantage they are seeking, what could I possibly offer them? We cannot even imagine that they might send one of their daughters to marry me in order to gain control of the Crown; Throughout history, there has been only one marriage between the Imperial Family and the Korvekar family, and even then it was an Imperial princess who married a Korvekar son and went north; yet even then she severed all ties with the Imperial Family, to the extent that she renounced her title as Imperial princess and her family name, Nordkaiser, in accordance with the terms of that marriage. Even her husband was merely the illegitimate son of the Grand Duke at the time, and even his name was removed from the Korvekar family records after his marriage to Princess of Nordkaiser. and according to all genealogical records, they had no children together; therefore, the Korvekar lineage never intermingled with the Nordkaiser lineage. They literally and effectively avoid marrying into the Nordkaiser family as if they were avoiding the plague...! "

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For a moment, silence reigned in the Emperor’s office whilst the Emperor looked strangely at his son, who immediately turned pale at his father’s gaze and was seized by panic... he had been caught

Although it is no secret that the Korvekar family despises the imperial Nordkaiser family.... Hmm, in fact, you’ll rarely find them truly respecting anyone... No, actually, they really don’t respect anyone at all, and that is also why you find so many illegitimate children and family problems amongst them, because they seem to have an aversion to something called loyalty, even towards their life partner. Even Serafim, who, although he appears to the general public as a romantic, heartbroken lover, has not remarried since his wife’s death, even after ten years, despite holding a high position such as Lord of Korvekar.

Yet this man, in reality, rarely spends his nights alone, and no one knows how many illegitimate children he has. According to Imperial Intelligence, they have already confirmed three children; they even attempted to abduct one of them, but just half a day after the abduction was successful, the team sent to carry it out vanished and the child returned to his mother. So it is clear that Serafim, although he has not acknowledged them – and perhaps they do not even know he is their father – has arranged protection for them and is not oblivious to their existence.

In any case, that is not the subject at hand.

He sighed and looked sadly at his son.