LADAD Chapter 37

"If Duke Russell's house seizes control of the imperial family through this opportunity, there won't be any need for something like a sacred maiden to exist going forward."

So that's what it was. Only now could Aaron fully understand the sudden order Duke Russell had given.

Duke Russell was scheming to achieve his dream as quickly as possible through an aggressive approach—different from the passive way he'd been until now. He figured that after seizing the throne, he could just finish off Amelia once she'd become useless.

"I've grown tired of going through the trouble of experimenting and killing while keeping secrets. Now it's really time to bring this to an end."

His words were right. In that case, the sacred maiden's secret and her bloodline wouldn't matter either. The secret that had been maintained for 200 years would quietly sink below the surface.

"And once the master of the throne changes, your father's revenge would become possible too, wouldn't it?"

"...Yes."

Duke Russell suddenly brought up Aaron's father as a topic.

"If that happens, your poor father who died would dance in the afterlife."

So Aaron naturally recalled the memory of that day when he had taken Duke Russell's hand.

Aaron's father in his memories was an extremely affectionate person toward his only son, but at the same time, he was timid and severely anxious.

"Father!"

"I told you not to appear suddenly!"

He would startle just from people appearing suddenly, and he couldn't bear to see anyone walking with their hands clasped behind their back in front of him. Since his mother had died of childbed fever after bearing him, Aaron had no way of knowing about his father's trauma and always found his oversensitive reactions bewildering.

"Again, again they're trying to kill me!"

Aaron came to understand him when he was just past ten years old. His father would have seizures, saying someone was trying to kill him. And truly, not long after that, he was run down and killed by a carriage.

"Are you Aaron?"

Right after his father died, someone came looking for Aaron, who was left alone. For reasons unknown, it was the person who had been trying to kill Aaron. The current Duke Russell saved Aaron from that assassin.

"Th-thank you."

"I'm glad I wasn't too late."

"......"

"I'm sorry about your father's matter. You might think he was an unusually nervous person who suddenly died one day, but he wasn't like that from the beginning."

Duke Russell stroked the head of Aaron, who was left alone, as if he pitied him.

"Actually, this time too..."

Duke Russell opened his mouth meaningfully but trailed off.

"No. It's not something to say to a young child."

"What do you mean?"

It was Aaron who caught hold of him. The moment Duke Russell tried to lift his hand from Aaron's head, Aaron clutched his sleeve and questioned him.

"...The Emperor killed your father."

After hesitating briefly, Duke Russell answered thus.

"How do you know that?"

"From a letter the Emperor sent that your father showed me."

Duke Russell continued speaking composedly despite Aaron's doubt. And he showed Aaron the evidence as well.

The letter's contents were malicious. The Emperor poured out vicious curses and abuse at Aaron's father. He told him to immediately take his child and flee to another country, or go hide away in some godforsaken countryside. If he didn't do as commanded and remained a threat to him and his child, he would sever both Aaron's and his father's necks.

But Aaron and his father had neither gone to the countryside nor fled to another country.

"Your father was completely sober that day—he hadn't touched a drop of alcohol. But does it make sense that three days after receiving such a letter, he was struck down and killed by a charging carriage because he couldn't dodge it?"

Duke Russell asked. Aaron couldn't answer. His small hands gripping the letter were simply trembling.

"Moreover, the owner of that carriage was a former imperial coachman. Your father's death occurred after his abrupt dismissal."

"Why, what reason was there? Why did the Emperor..."

Aaron asked haltingly. No matter how much he pondered it, he couldn't fathom why his father had to die by the Emperor's hand.

"Your father was the late Emperor's bastard son. So he was always having his life threatened by the current Emperor."

Duke Russell cleanly resolved Aaron's final question. Worried that Aaron's father might pose a threat to him, the Emperor had always regarded Aaron's father as a thorn in his eye. And as those in high positions tend to do, he had attempted to kill him multiple times.

"Even that coachman would apparently only receive a simple fine. Despite having killed a person."

The Emperor had finally succeeded in fratricide.

"There are many eyes and ears the Emperor has placed beyond the walls of this estate as well."

Aaron finally understood why Duke Russell had been able to save him from death at such a dramatic moment. Just as the Emperor was watching Aaron, Duke Russell was also watching Aaron.

"That's why I came to get you. Since you're left alone without parents, they'll try to get rid of you somehow."

"......"

"You have to live first, don't you."

Duke Russell reached out his hand first. The young boy nodded his head, frightened.

That night, a massive fire broke out at the house where Aaron had been living. Everything burned to ash—such a tremendous blaze that even the bones of the orphaned boy who had lived alone in that house couldn't be discovered. That too was the Emperor's doing. The blazing estate and the Emperor's knights who had prowled the vicinity before vanishing were evidence of it.

For a boy who had lost his family and been left all alone, it was unbearable tragedy and fury. Aaron, who had witnessed that entire scene, cast aside all doubt and grasped Duke Russell's hand.

"Please let me have my revenge."

Duke Russell quietly nodded his head. And to protect Aaron's life, he had him entered into the branch family of Count Skipper.

That's how he had lived.

The crimson flames that had darted their scarlet tongues and his childhood memories that had blazed away were still vivid before his eyes. Aaron had barely managed to sustain his life through Duke Russell's help and lived up until now. So there was no reason to turn away from a life devoted to achieving his purpose and completing his revenge.

"Don't kill that child the Emperor has taken just yet. Let the sacred maiden continue staying in the imperial palace under the pretext of looking after that child."

"Understood."

Amelia's face did come to mind—she who wouldn't be able to live even as long as her originally allotted lifespan. But since she was fated to die once she'd served her purpose anyway, it was merely a question of whether it would be a bit sooner or later. That pitiful face wasn't his concern.

"Who?"

Ivan asked. Rodan dryly recited again the fact that Aaron, the High Priest, had come to the imperial palace.

"What's the reason."

Ivan put down the pen he was holding and leaned deep into his chair. In that position, when he even crossed his arms, it became quite an arrogant posture.

"Well, he must have come to see the Sacred Maiden."

He was someone who held the temple's secrets. Whatever he was thinking, he was probably worried that he had brought Amelia into the imperial palace and that secrets might have leaked out. It was something that could be understood without deep thought.

"Should I attach someone to them?"

"Leave them be. They'll bite anyway if only the two of them talk. Don't make it obvious that we're keeping our attention there."

Ivan casually shook his head at Rodan's question.

"However, we should prepare before they have any other thoughts."

"By preparation, you mean..."

Rodan subtly raised his voice at the end, trailing off. It was clearly an interrogative.

"Since an envoy from Reed will be coming soon. Make arrangements with the temple in advance so the Sacred Maiden can appear before them then."

"You're going to show the Sacred Maiden in a diplomatic setting?"

Until now, Escliffe's imperial family had worked to prevent situations where political power would be given to the sacred maiden. Ivan, who had been openly on the opposing side from the imperial family, was someone too tiresome to even mention.

But suddenly? Rodan gaped his mouth open as if he couldn't understand. Ivan watched that spectacle and laughed for a moment.

"I don't know what you're thinking, but it's not to empower her."

And he easily denied Rodan's thoughts.

"Of course, we should tell the temple that it's to make up for the unpleasant incident between Reed and the temple previously and to restore relations."

The temple probably wouldn't refuse. Perhaps they might think they were being considerate because of the oracle that had come down before. Since Ivan and Amelia appeared to be on distant terms on the surface, they wouldn't think she would say anything foolish in that setting.

"But the Sacred Maiden will reveal her truth in that place."

Amelia would tell everyone that she was an ordinary human who aged and died. She would also say that the position had only continued because the temple had forced intercourse upon her to bear children, over and over again.

He was curious to see how the temple officials would react when the truth was exposed in a public place where everyone was present. They couldn't say that the sacred maiden they had pretended to worship had lost her mind.

"The sacred legend and the great noble forces that supported it will crumble, and the imperial family will newly stand in that place."

It was a thrilling thought. Ivan's face became satisfied as if the goal he had aimed for had already been achieved.

"Will the Sacred Maiden agree to that?"

"She will. When I met her recently, she said she would help."

"Recently met, when..."

"I went to meet her through the underground passage."

Rodan let out a low sigh. Each palace had underground passages connected for emergencies. He hadn't known that Ivan had even used that to go meet Amelia. It wasn't as if they were lovers secretly dating.

"Then what are your plans for handling the Sacred Maiden afterward?"

Rodan asked. Ivan's eyes drifted aimlessly through empty space. He recalled the tender affection that had clung to him.