The Empror's Trap-Chapter 53: Ch - The Fifth Prince’s Invitation

For the first time, Kenji saw genuine vulnerability in Pluvia’s expression.

Though she often found herself at a disadvantage in their interactions, Kenji had never seen her quite like this before. He could guess what worried her so deeply.

"Your Majesty, I understand your meaning. I will cease my investigation here."

After a moment’s contemplation, Kenji chose to let the others off the hook.

This touched on internal political stability - if they truly uprooted all forces connected to the Fifth Prince now, it would inevitably trigger severe upheaval. They would have to find other ways to gradually loosen the royal relatives’ grip on power.

Having abandoned this line of thought, Kenji turned his attention to his new position.

Theoretically, the position of Imperial Family Court Director wasn’t particularly important to him. He was already Grand Marshal of Camelot, and the Director’s authority was basically limited to palace royal affairs - not to mention this was temporary.

Like a donkey going in circles at the mill - you can’t jump out of that loop no matter what.

However, this didn’t mean Kenji couldn’t extract some benefits from it.

Being able to handle internal royal family matters could still prove quite useful.

"Let us hope so. As for how to deal with the Fifth Prince, I trust I need not say more."

"Understood."

..............

"Duke Anos is actually serving as acting Director of the Imperial Family Court?"

The Fifth Prince frowned as he enjoyed the fruit before him.

"Your Highness, Her Majesty placing Kenji in the Imperial Family Court is almost certainly meant to use his authority to suppress the royal family internally. If we ignore this, we may find ourselves at a disadvantage."

An official spoke before the Fifth Prince.

Their interests were thoroughly entangled - the Fifth Prince had long promised him a chance at the Chancellor position in the future. Moreover, the Fifth Prince now showed great care for his family members, doing everything that could be expected.

And besides...

He found himself drawn to the world the Fifth Prince described.

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After serving as an official for so long, many had lost their former aspirations. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t remember them - that vision of an ideal world the ancient sages spoke of... if the Fifth Prince before him could truly achieve it, he very much wanted to be part of building that world.

"Kenji... that fellow has been rather too active these years," the Fifth Prince said with a smile as he popped a sweet into his mouth. "Even during the previous Emperor’s time, he was constantly trying to grasp power, and now his appetite for authority seems to have only grown. His existence has become a threat to Camelot."

"Indeed, yet Her Majesty has been deceived by him and keeps entrusting him with important duties," the official said indignantly.

"Has she really been deceived?"

The Fifth Prince looked at him with a slightly mocking smile. Though he couldn’t claim to know his sister particularly well, he believed he understood the Emperor’s character to some extent.

If she had truly been deceived, those previous attempts to expand power wouldn’t have happened. Ultimately, she still didn’t truly trust that minister - this was just an expedient measure, temporarily making use of him.

"Since this Grand Marshal has chosen to interfere in royal family matters, perhaps we should pay him a visit."

Though his interactions with Kenji were limited, the Fifth Prince very much wanted to meet him face to face.

Because he had an intuition that they might be very similar types of people.

"A visit... The Imperial Family Court isn’t far from here, and we could use paying respects to the ancestors as an excuse to approach him. But Your Highness, do you really intend to establish connections with him?"

In many people’s eyes, Kenji was indeed a powerful minister who didn’t show much deference to the Emperor, but if you had to say who he favored, it was actually the Emperor herself. After all, he had personally helped put the current Emperor on the throne - both in terms of interests and emotions, he would prefer to stand with the Emperor rather than other princes.

Oh, though if he actually came into conflict with the Emperor, he certainly wouldn’t back down quietly.

Precisely because of this, if the Fifth Prince chose to establish connections with Kenji, it would indirectly mean aligning with one of the Emperor’s supporters...

"Of course. Duke Anos is quite talented - I think having him under my command... wouldn’t be a bad outcome at all."

The Fifth Prince said with a smile.

Ah... no wonder the Fifth Prince had been a hot favorite in the succession race - he really thought differently from others.

"Would Duke Anos agree?"

"In the end, he’s just a minister seeking power - power is what matters most to him. Such people can easily become traitors if not handled properly, but they also make excellent pieces on the board. Isn’t he obsessed with power? That shows his loyalty to Her Majesty isn’t particularly strong."

Thinking this far, the Fifth Prince felt quite confident of victory.

As long as he could attract Kenji to his side, his odds of dealing with Pluvia would improve significantly.

Of course, what the Fifth Prince didn’t know was that while he was considering how to bring Kenji under his command, Kenji was examining case files in the nearby Imperial Family Court.

Watching Kenji seriously flip through the documents, Lina lay on the table beside him, staring at his focused expression.

Finally unable to resist, she reached out and poked his cheek with her finger.

A guard treating their master this way would normally be punished anywhere else, but Kenji just glanced up at her before looking back down to continue his work, casually asking:

"What is it?"

"Nothing really, just thought it was interesting."

Lina said matter-of-factly.

"Since when did you start doing things like this? I thought people usually only poke the cheeks of children or cute girls."

Kenji remained perfectly composed.

It wasn’t the first or second time his personal guard had such random impulses.

"Young Master, don’t you get tired being so focused all the time?"

"Don’t you get tired following me around every day?"

"Of course not, I’m used to it."

"Well, same here,"

"Young Master is quite different from normal people sometimes."

"Mm, probably."

As they chatted idly, an official from the Imperial Family Court brought a letter to him.

Kenji opened the letter curiously.

It was an invitation, signed by the Fifth Prince.

Oh ho? That was quick...