The imperial palace.

After going through all sorts of tedious, complicated ceremonial handoffs, the members of the kingdom’s delegation finally met the empire’s newly appointed Empress—who arrived late—in the palace’s dazzling, gold-and-jade banquet hall.

Celicia Leopold.

She stepped out under countless gazes, her waist straight, her chin slightly raised.

She didn’t dress the way the previous emperors met foreign guests—favoring those luxurious, long-hemmed, floor-dragging crimson ceremonial robes. Instead, she wore only a white court gauze dress that had been specially tailored and designed, one that neatly outlined her slender waist.

But that didn’t diminish her majesty. On the contrary, the pure, flawless light gauze falling down only made her noble coldness stand out even more. And above that silver-white hair, the crown—light as a hair ornament—still shone brilliantly, outshining the bright mana stones filling the hall, making people not dare look directly.

"Well?"

While bowing, Hertz asked Milne beside him in a low voice.

"Peerless elegance."

The heat in Milne’s eyes grew even stronger as he said softly, "Compared to that Ice Witch Third Princess from the rumors, whether it’s temperament or looks, she’s superior by a whole tier."

"She’s the emperor now, after all."

Hertz stroked his beard and smiled. "Confident?"

"I’ll do my best."

Milne took a deep breath. When the greetings ended, he seized the timing and spoke first.

"Respected Empress, I am—"

"You’re the one in charge of this delegation?"

Celicia’s cool, beautiful eyes swept over, abruptly cutting Milne off as she asked leisurely.

Milne stiffened, stopping with a trace of awkwardness.

"Respected Your Majesty, I am the one in charge of this delegation, Hertz Usman. Please forgive our late greetings."

Hertz hurriedly stepped out to smooth it over. "As for this one, he is our kingdom’s seventeenth prince, His Highness Milne. He admires Your Majesty, so his words were a bit impatient."

"So that’s how it is. I was wondering why it didn’t match what I knew."

Celicia looked at Milne and showed a polite, ceremonial smile.

"A slight offense—please don’t take it to heart, Your Highness. I saw that the first speaker from the kingdom didn’t match the one in the intelligence, and I feared some rude person had broken the rules. I didn’t expect it to be the prince."

"N-No... I misspoke. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."

Milne forced out a smile, secretly thinking it had just been a misunderstanding and not the Empress deliberately targeting him.

"What crime could the prince possibly have? Today is to welcome you all. Let’s not talk about such unpleasant things."

Celicia lightly clapped her hands, signaling the banquet to begin, and took the main seat first.

Everyone attending this state banquet sat down. Those qualified to sit at the same table as Celicia—aside from the kingdom delegation’s important figures—were all the empire’s upper ranks.

Hertz immediately took the chance to assess the surroundings. After this round of political reshuffling, sure enough, many of the empire’s important figures were people he had never known or understood.

For example, a young, stunningly beautiful woman with an enchanting, seductive air—judging from where she sat, her status was even higher than Marquis Angus, yet his intelligence had never mentioned a woman with such eye-catching traits. He had no idea who she was.

And on the other side, holy light permeated... even the Church had sent someone to join this banquet?

Hertz was slightly shocked, sighing inwardly that after the empire’s gradual decline, the kingdom’s position truly was extraordinary now.

Celicia also noticed those two uninvited guests. Her beautiful eyes narrowed as she said displeased, "You two... I don’t recall inviting you to ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) the banquet, do I?"

"What does it matter? With my position and status, do I really not have the qualifications to attend?"

Anna rested her cheek on her hand and smiled charmingly.

"After all, we’re here to supervise that Your Majesty doesn’t do anything excessive."

"That’s right, that’s right!"

Within the swaying holy light, the voice also echoed along.

"Then what a pity. Right now you won’t be able to supervise anything. You’re only wasting time."

Celicia gave a light snort. She didn’t want to get entangled with those two thieving cats in a setting like this, and turned her attention back to the banquet itself.

But Hertz, watching all of this keenly from the sidelines, had a sharp gleam flare in his eyes.

Just as he had speculated earlier, between the empire’s Empress and that high-ranking mysterious woman, their words were needles against blades. In the empire’s current upper ranks, there really were internal divisions!

And from the look of it, this Empress was even at odds with the Church!

And when Hertz’s attention returned to Celicia, he suddenly realized that the seat beside her... was empty.

Hertz immediately exchanged a look with Milne, who had also noticed it.

"Your Majesty."

Hertz cleared his throat twice and asked tentatively, "I heard you also have a fiancée. In such an important scene of diplomatic relations between two countries, why haven’t we seen his presence?"

"Heh."

Hearing that, Celicia’s expression turned cold at once.

"Why would I let him attend? He’s just a playboy who, in the blink of an eye, runs off somewhere to hook up with women! Even if he dies outside, it has nothing to do with me!"

Hertz was delighted. He stole another glance around and saw that when the Empress said such belittling words about her fiancée, the surroundings were silent. Even Marquis Angus—Muen Campbell’s maternal grandfather—kept his head lowered and said nothing, clearly not daring to say a word. Hertz couldn’t help becoming even more ecstatic!

Internal division, disrespecting the Church, and this Your Majesty clearly didn’t like that fiancée of hers either. It seemed just like the guess—she had only been forced to accept it to mend domestic contradictions and stabilize the situation.

Just one banquet, a little probing, and he had uncovered so many problems... the present empire was simply full of holes!

Hertz and Milne exchanged another look, both seeing the joy in the other’s eyes.

The empire’s weakness—whether for the kingdom, or for people like them with private intentions—was undoubtedly extremely advantageous!

"Then..."

Hertz seized the chance and continued.

"About the proposal our delegation submitted earlier along with the state letter, Your Majesty, you..."

"Oh? The exchange matter Lord Hertz mentioned?"

Celicia lightly nodded. "This is a good thing. Between two countries—especially among the younger generation who are the pillars of the nation—only by exchanging can they spur each other on to grow. Naturally, I have no reason to refuse."

"Th... Your Majesty speaks most rightly."

Hertz frowned slightly. What he wanted Celicia to bring up was the matter of their marriage proposal. A major matter like that couldn’t possibly go the way some story novel did—kneeling down to propose in front of everyone. If he truly angered the Empress, forget proposing—this entire delegation would be in danger.

So they had submitted the request early along with the state letter, giving her time to think.

But now, seeing her deliberate evasive attitude...

"Heh. Still holding out for a higher price?"

Milne, who saw it just as clearly, couldn’t help the corners of his mouth lifting as he analyzed with a light laugh, "Just like we expected. The ones who can sit on that seat always put self-interest first. She brought up the exchange matter to judge our value. And she’s deliberately snubbing me now because she wants to hold the initiative in her hand. An old negotiation trick."

"Then next, it can only depend on you."

Hertz leaned in and spoke softly.

"If it’s the exchange matter, I can’t help you there either."

"Don’t worry, Teacher Hertz. I absolutely won’t disappoint you and the kingdom."

Milne stood tall with confidence. His gaze swept over Celicia on the main seat as he said, "Like I said before, I’ll give those idiots in the empire—including Muen Campbell—a little genius shock!"

"Good. I’ve always believed in you."

Hertz nodded with satisfaction.

In truth, a large reason he could serve as the leader and head such a large delegation to the empire was because of his identity as the seventeenth prince’s teacher. And as long as he completed this task outstandingly, he would be able to take another step forward in the kingdom’s political landscape.

So his interests were completely bound together with Prince Milne’s. More than anyone, he hoped Milne would succeed—and believed he would succeed.

Because Prince Milne was special. As his teacher, he knew better than anyone how terrifying that talent truly was!

But compared to that...

Hertz’s peripheral vision flicked to the girl beside him. Even at such an important banquet, she still kept her head lowered and didn’t say a single word. Hertz frowned.

His other disciple, Sevier, had seemed far more dim lately.

She had once counted as one of the leading figures among the kingdom’s younger generation. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been sent to represent the kingdom at that Holy City trial before.

But... ever since returning in defeat from the Holy City trial, she often stared off alone. She wasn’t even as diligent in cultivation as she used to be. Asking her got no answer, and the Church also concealed a great deal about that trial. No one knew what had happened.

However, forget it. Now wasn’t the time to discipline this disciple.

Hertz shook his head, planning to speak a few more good words about His Highness in front of the Empress, to leave a better impression before the exchange.

"I heard Lord Hertz is skilled at teaching, and that you have many excellent students under you?"

But before Hertz could speak, he didn’t expect Her Majesty the Empress to proactively steer the topic in that direction.

Today, Hertz had already felt lucky and delighted more times than he could count. He believed even the goddess was blessing him. He immediately suppressed the smile at his lips and said neither servile nor overbearing, "Your Majesty overpraises me. Among my students now, only a few can truly be of use."

"Lord Hertz needn’t be modest. Even I, who have stayed in Belrand all along, have heard of your students’ reputation. For example..."

Celicia gently swirled a wine glass filled with grape-juice drink. The corners of her lips lifted as she sipped, wearing a soft smile.

Milne lifted his chest and head, his posture growing even straighter.

"For example, Miss Sevier under your tutelage. I hear she’s very outstanding."

"Huh?"

In an instant, not only Hertz and Milne froze—Sevier, who had been spacing out the whole time, also lifted her head in confusion. After looking around blankly and confirming there wasn’t a second person named Sevier here, she pointed to herself.

"Me?"

"You are Miss Sevier?"

Celicia’s gaze immediately fell on Sevier. She examined her carefully—especially sweeping over certain places in particular—then nodded.

"Worthy of being Lord Hertz’s top disciple. Reputation matches reality. Just at a glance, you seem very outstanding. Mm... that face, that figure—most men would probably find it hard to resist this charm."

"Th... thank you, Your Majesty."

Sevier saluted to thank her, totally bewildered. Even though Her Majesty was clearly praising her, why did she feel like the words tasted so strange?

And...

Sevier secretly glanced around. For some reason, she felt like someone else was also watching her, but she couldn’t catch where that gaze was...

At this banquet, aside from the delegation, she didn’t have any familiar people. Was it just her imagination?

"With such an outstanding disciple, Lord Hertz has every reason to be gratified."

"Many thanks for Your Majesty’s praise."

Even though he didn’t know why the Empress was praising Sevier so much, as her teacher, Hertz still accepted the compliment with a calm air of shared honor.

"But compared to Sevier, I have even more outstanding students under me—"

"I feel I have a strong affinity with Miss Sevier."

Celicia suddenly waved a hand, cutting Hertz off, and smiled.

"After the banquet ends, why don’t we ask Miss Sevier to stay behind for a moment, and have a private talk with me?"

"Ah?"

Now the confusion on their faces only deepened.

Hertz exchanged a third look with Milne—only this time, it wasn’t joy, but puzzlement.

Why did Her Majesty the Empress seem... compared to the genius handsome man Milne, to be more interested in Sevier instead?

...

...

After a welcoming banquet that seemed packed with content but was actually nothing but nonsense ended, Hertz and Milne had the delegation return to the embassy first, while the two of them waited outside the palace.

Naturally, Sevier had no qualification to refuse a request from an Empress. She was kept inside the palace for a private conversation.

"What’s going on?"

Milne frowned. "Why would the Empress be so interested in Sevier? Don’t tell me she likes—"

"Probably not."

Hertz waved a hand. "There haven’t been rumors in that direction. She’s probably just interested in Sevier herself."

"Then—"

"No need to be impatient. Once Sevier comes out, we’ll know."

Soon, Sevier—still wearing a bewildered face—stumbled out of the palace, swaying with each step.

The two hurried to meet her.

"What did the Empress talk to you about?"

"A... actually nothing."

Sevier scratched her head. "Just some very ordinary stuff—what color I like, what kinds of clothes I wear, what kind of boys I like... very ordinary girl-to-girl topics like that."

Milne pressed urgently, "Only that?"

"Ah, right. She also gave me a few books. It’s just that my head was kind of muddled then, and I haven’t had time to look yet."

As she spoke, Sevier pulled out several books.

The three craned their necks to look...

First: Keep Yourself Clean

Second: Scumbag-Man Prevention Manual

Third: Stubborn and Incorrigible

Fourth: Bring Ruin Upon Yourself

Fifth: Detective Case Collection: Dismemberment Murder Case of a Noble Young Master’s Mistress

"What does this mean?"

Hertz was also dumbfounded. He discussed it with Milne. "Could there be some political implication we don’t know about?"

"I don’t know either."

Milne was equally confused.

Only Sevier stared at the books. As if she thought of something, she couldn’t help shivering.

No way. It shouldn’t be possible. Weren’t the rumors that their relationship was very bad?

As she was thinking that, someone suddenly stepped forward and invited Sevier.

"Miss, someone would like to speak with you."

"Who?"

The three looked up in confusion again, only to see that not far away, at some unknown time, a black carriage with no markings had stopped there.

As the curtain fluttered, it faintly revealed an exquisitely beautiful face you would absolutely never forget after seeing it once.

"She seems to be some high-level figure in the empire. Maybe there’s something important to contact us about. Sevier, go take a look."

Hertz said in a deep voice.

"..."

With an increasingly ominous premonition, Sevier stiffly stepped into the carriage—then quickly came back down again.

"What did she say to you?"

"N-Nothing... basically the same as the Empress. She asked what type of boy I like... that kind of thing..."

Sevier’s expression was already growing numb, but inside she still kept repeating to herself—no way, absolutely no way, they wouldn’t know what kind I like...

"Miss Sevier."

Again.

"Someone wants to see you."

"..."

Under Hertz’s and Milne’s shocked, incomprehending stares, Sevier was personally summoned by some big shot for the third time today.

And this time, when Sevier climbed into that carriage, looking at that cute face she was no longer unfamiliar with, she finally couldn’t hold it in and cried out—

"You... Liya... no, Your Holiness the Saintess?!"

"Heh, Sevier."

Inside the carriage, Liya puffed out her cheeks. She narrowed her eyes at Sevier, then sneered.

"I didn’t think you’d chase all the way to Belrand too. You really are like a lingering ghost that won’t go away!"