?The brightness of the day was not able to ovee the gloominess of the Empress Pce for over a week.


    Leaningfortably on a soft luxurious chesterfield sofa, Empress Carolina was immersed in deep contemtion as she sipped the ss of red wine in her hand.


    Her thoughts wandered deeply onto her son whom she was not able to contact for so long. The matter of being publicly questioned during the morning council was a great blow on her son''s status and power.


    She clearly saw how his influence wavered after the matter blew up.


    Equally helpless, she was not able to say anything when Kazimirshed out on her and her brother Maxim after the council meeting.


    All she could do was watch in shock upon hearing the news and the intense quarrel between her brother and son.


    Boom!


    The thundering sound of the table being heavily hit by Maxim''s hands reverberated in the Empress''s office. Duke Maxim''s eyes were glowing red as he looked at Prince Kazimir with a heavy and annoyed look.


    "You!!! How could you be such an ingrate to your Mother and Uncle!! How many times do we have to exin that the reason for the investigations was actually to detect the enemy who was trying to foil our ns!? This matter was done clearly for your sake, yet you go against us and me us mercilessly?!"


    Prince Kazimir was also fuming in anger as he stood and kicked the nearby wooden furniture. He growled like an agitated tiger whose tail had been stepped on.


    "How would I understand when you don''t exin why you have to do that without permission?! Tell me, what''s so dangerous about the situation that both of you scrambled in panic and moved without even considering the consequences? Did you even consider how it would impact me?! Tell me? Do you really believe that it was for my good???!"


    Kazimir looked at his mother and asked in a low yet scary voice, "Tell me…Mother.. Do you really have me in mind? Huh??? Tell me for whose sake were you and uncle''s ns where? Why not tell me so I could understand??"


    "…" Empress Carolina kept mum about Kazimir''s question. Duke Maxim also didn''t answer no matter how angry he was at the moment.


    Seeing the two didn''t have the intention to answer his questions, Kazimir looked at them and let out a dejected self mockingugh,


    "Hahaha, Father Emperor was really right… I really had forgotten that I was a Seirende before I was a Ves. Why did I even have to plead on your behalf when you have no intention to be fair with me and let me understand? I brought this to myself… Ahahaha!!!"


    Without waiting for their reply, he strode quickly out of the room and heavily closed the door.


    His words only ended at that but as Kazimir''s mother, how could Empress Carolina understand what he implied with his statement?


    ''Because I only listened to the two of you, I got in trouble. Now I wanted to just hear your exnation, but why can''t you give it to me?''


    The Ves Siblings were gloomily left in the hall, staying still in a daze.


    Forget about Kazimir doubting their intentions, the entire capital had already set their eyes on them, watching their every move.


    But the two had a tacit understanding that no matter how difficult it would be, they would never reveal the truth about the curses and the past of the Ves n to the current generation.


    This was to ensure that even if they fail in their time, there would be the next generation surviving until the victory is achieved.


    They learned this lesson through their father, who kept them in the dark until the day he died. He arranged everything that would happen after his death, ensuring that the Ves''s lineage will never be wiped out.


    As such, even how Kazimir pressured them into exining what really happened, he will not have any idea about the Ves''s connection to the sinister organization.


    That was also true with Duke Maxim''s son and daughters. All they knew was they had trained especially strong knights and established underground organizations, such as the ck market, which could umte money for their house.


    They would never associate these operations to the Vess cooperating with the Spectre, whose origins were actually from the Vess too!


    If this matter would be exposed in any way, the whole of Prasinos would target their family topletely destroy the Spectre and wipe out the Ves''s trace in the world.


    So afterforting each other and agreeing to stay out of the radar for a few months, the siblings parted ways with troubled states of mind.


    This is a great loss on their end - a chip of their power had been destroyed by the incident and its aftermath have forced them to dy their nsid down in the dark.


    When Empress Carolina remembered that particr day, she couldn''t help but sigh in regret and helplessness.


    She knew that Kazimir would not understand these things and it would be something that could turn into a seed of doubt in their rtionship.


    She''s clearly seeing it now.


    This matter managed to sessfully sow discord between their mother-son rtionship as well as Kazimir''s rtionship with his maternal family.


    But now that she had already spent some time pondering about what she would do to restore their rtionship, she decided to take it carefully, step by step.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Shadow.." She called out.


    A few secondster, a shadow appeared from her balcony and knelt to her in acknowledgement, "Empress.."


    His build and figure matched the characteristics of the dark knight assigned to Empress Carolina''s side, Can.


    "What''s the update on the First Prince?" She asked coldy.


    "Reporting to the Empress, the First Prince continued to stay in his pce until this moment however…" Can hesitated for a while. He was unsure if he would report the matter about the Princess Consort whom the Empress openly disliked.


    "What''s the matter? Continue.." Empresso Carolinamanded.


    "Yes! He has been staying in the pce, spending time with the Princess Consort and young prince… These days, the news of the First Prince rekindling the rtionship with his estranged wife has been circting even in the Emperor''s ce. "


    Can exined as the Empress demanded, holding his breath to brace himself for the Empress'' s outburst.


    But contrary to Can''s expectation, Empress Carolina did not even show any traces of anger on her face.


    Sipping her wine she even smirked and said, "Hmmm.. continue to send someone to closely observe his situation. Let him do what he wants. Notify me if his mood has already been stabilized."


    She thought that her worthless daughter inw had some use. At least she managed to appease Kazimir earlier than expected. With that, she was sure that the reconciliation with her son would not be far off from now.


    Hearing some good news on Kazimir''s side, Empress Carolina''s mood improved as she gestured Can to continue reporting.


    This time she asked about the movements of the two other princes.


    "The Second Prince was busy leading the task of imposing the sanction while the Third Prince kept his usual routine whenever he was in the capital, going to the barracks and training the Crimson des."


    "Hmm.." Empress Carolina raised her brows upon hearing this news.


    If there was no suspicious movement from the two princes then who could the enemy be? Valentin? The two grandmasters?


    "How about the big wigs?" She anxiously asked.


    Can shook his head as he dutifully reported. "There were no movements from the Emperor, nor the two grandmasters and their family. The two families did not change that much, only that they were now extra enthusiastic because of Eli the great inventor joining their ranks."


    "Eli… is she doing something suspicious?" The more she heard about the known threats being unsuspicious, the more her brows furrowed in anxiousness.


    "The great inventor has announced that she will be working with the research institute to fasten the progress of their inventions. She has been busy researching within the Farauld Institute Library and woulde home routinely in the Farauld Estate."


    Now hearing another piece of worthless info, Empress Carolina waved her hand, dismissing Can off.


    Her mind was more confused than ever, who could this enemy be?


    She was running out of candidates amongst the known ones who would likely be a threat to their ns. It was fine if she could get some small details that could lead her to someone suspicious, but there was not a single one!


    None of the people on their list showed any signs of going against them.


    ''This is bad.. With the investigation forcibly halted, our ns would be hampered even more! A great amount of time would inevitably be wasted!


    While she was extremely disturbed by these concerns, the Emperor had a calm and serious look on his face.


    He was holding a pair of gardening scissors as he worked to trim down the flowers that have withered on their secret chamber garden.


    Snip snip snip!


    The surroundings were still and quiet. Only the asional sounds of snipping and rustling of the nts could be heard in the chamber.


    Valentin, the Emperor of the Seirende Empire tended the flowering pots, dutifully pruning branches that would suck the life out of the peaceful thriving nts.


    Only when he had finished trimming down thest of withered parts did he raise his head to look at the sun''s rays gently prating the transparent ceiling of the chamber.


    "Have I done a good job?" He mumbled.