# 120
Sirius didn't answer immediately.
The Emperor was expecting an answer, but he relented with an indifferent hand gesture and took another sip of tea.
Sirius watched quietly, then opened his mouth and asked:
“Can I get revenge otherwise too?”
Sirius was entrusted with deciding Greylind's fate, but the Emperor did not specify to what extent he could interfere in other matters.
It was just like not discussing the Second Prince's achievements.
The Emperor never explained anything, merely created a mysterious atmosphere that would force a person thirsty for an answer to cling to any information.
“Well…siblings might fight growing up. We're past the age where we teach them everything.”
The Emperor's answer remained ambiguous until the end.
Deyarin, who was listening, felt very frustrated. The answer opened up many possibilities.
‘Does this mean that the two will fight freely, and the victor will win? Or is the age of fighting over, so they should not fight?'
This convoluted language of high society annoyed Dearin greatly, and the Emperor was the one who mastered it best among them.
If there was a minister he didn't like, he would have eliminated him in this twisted, angry way.
"Understood."
'Get it?!'
Deyarin was boiling inside her and she didn't know what it meant.
But Sirius lowered his head and did not continue to ask any more questions.
The strange conversation between the two was as if it were from a different world for Deyarin.
“Let’s end this passionate encounter here. It will take some time to prepare the First Prince’s Palace, so I will provide you with a room in the Imperial Palace for a while.”
"Thank you all."
The Emperor raised his arms as if he had finished speaking, and the meeting with his son, whom he thought was dead, was very short.
Charlotte, who seemed indifferent and respectful of the Third Prince, as well as the parents of the imperial family, did not understand it at all.
When Sirius rose, followed by some servants, Dearyn tried to hide her body among them and move with them.
But before she could take a step, the Emperor's gaze stopped at Daren.
“You are there.”
"Yes?"
She couldn't help but stop at the Emperor's finger that was carefully guiding her.
Deyarin's heart beat hard. She thought it would go unnoticed, but he caught her at the last moment.
Sirius looked hesitant and embarrassed.
“Yes, I couldn't recognize you well from afar. Are you the one who changed her hair color a while ago?”
Deyarin was silent.
“Also, were you getting close to this guy named Halt or something?”
Deyarin did not know what to respond, so her eyes moved around motionless.
While she was feeling so nervous her mouth dried up.
If it was just to protect herself, she could speak freely even in front of the Emperor, but for fear that Sirius would be hurt because of her, she couldn't move freely.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
She was careful to speak less, hoping that he would let her go.
But the Emperor seemed to begin to feel a strange interest towards her, and his eyes began to sparkle.
"Hmm, a witch? From your clothes you don't look like a priestess. No, you might be in disguise."
The servants' eyes gathered towards Darin.
“Whatever, did anyone dare to approach her?”
Deyarin's face turned red at the direct question.
Sirius felt angry at the insult directed at her, and feared that he would lose control.
But Sirius looked calm on the outside.
“Is this an important question?”
"No, just curious. I don't care. No matter how close the prince gets to a woman, as long as she doesn't give birth to a child, there's no problem. Did you get close?"
Sirius smiled weakly, as if thinking.
"not yet."
Dayarine was silent in astonishment.
'What a scoundrel!'
Dearyn almost blamed him instead.
The Emperor joked sarcastically, but D'Erin knew full well that Sirius was sincere.
‘You, you, you… you stupid dog! How can you even think like that!'
Deyarin was staring at him with fiery eyes.
But Sirius ignored her gaze as if he didn't know.
“So she is that ‘woman’ you kept by your side?”
“She helps me a lot.”
"Well, a woman who's good at magic would be helpful. You two seem like each other in this strange place."
The Emperor turned his gaze away from Dearen after saying something telling.
Deyarin breathed a sigh of relief and began to think quickly.
The Emperor's last words were not just a passing word, but rather a direct warning.
'Brothers, right?'
Sirius almost asked for clarification from the Emperor with a questioning look.
He could have dropped the topic, but it seemed that the Emperor was in a good mood.
“Where were you staying in the palace?”
“In the Palace of the Third Prince.”
"Well, you hid yourself well. Well, who would have thought of you as a member of the royal family without that hair color."
Sirius fell silent.
“Have you seen the Third Prince?”
"Yes."
“Do you feel something when you look at the Third Prince?”
Just feeling like he was from the imperial family, and that the emperor acted like a fool in his old age, that's it?
The Emperor smiled slyly as if he found it amusing at the two people who couldn't answer. No one laughed with him, but he didn't care.
"When you meet him again, take a good look at his face. It will be more pleasant if you put him next to Indine."
“…?”
The Emperor did not reveal everything.
But he clearly gave an important hint.
Then the Emperor issued an order to leave the place, as if he was telling them to really go now. So they left the greenhouse quietly.
What should have been a touching meeting between father and son ended leaving only vague questions.
—
“You can both use this room.”
The servant offered them one room as if it were a matter of course.
Dearyn had lost even the strength to ask for another room since her meeting with the Emperor, due to her feeling of dread.
Well... If His Majesty the Emperor says Ceres's woman, then she's a woman... just like that...
It was as accepted as one of all the gossip she would put up with until Sirius was safe.
“If you need anything, please call me. His Majesty the Emperor has invited you to breakfast tomorrow.”
"Good."
“And the lady too.”
"Me too?"
The servant nodded and left the room immediately.
As with the maids of the Third Prince's Palace, even the First Prince seemed to show a cold attitude if he didn't find something to stick to.
“...Huh...”
Once the servant was gone, Dearyn sat on the sofa as if she was collapsing.
Sirius approached and hugged Dearyn's shoulder.
“You worked hard, Diarren.”
“….”
The roles have changed... haven't they?
But she had no energy to argue with that. Sirius' strong body and warmth were a comfort. It was like hugging a big dog and putting your face in its fur.
Dearyn hugged Sirius's broad back.
“Sirius, you also made a great effort.”
Not all day had passed, but they had both been subjected to a whirlwind of events that could only be described as “a great effort.”
What's worse is that this storm is not the end but the beginning, which makes them even more exhausted.
“…And what do we do now?”
Where and how can they escape the storm?
In fact, they are the ones causing the storm, so there is no point in running away from it.
“It will get better somehow.”
Dearyn gently slapped Sirius' back and broke up with him.
Sirius tried to stay a little closer and protested in a low voice.
“I need you, Dearyn.”
"That's enough. I won't be Sirius' 'woman.'
“But...”
“What?”
Dearyn crossed her arms and looked at Sirius defiantly. “Try to make excuses if you can.”
“I'm not a bad man...”
“…”
Even that was a weak excuse.
Dearyn's gaze grew two times colder.
Sirius, who was confident before the Emperor, shrank as if he knew his mistake.
“But if you ever marry me…”
“I won't.”
“Why are you so confident, Dearyn?”
Deyarin almost screamed as usual, but she stopped.
That innocent, aggrieved expression in Sirius's eyes was just a trick. I watched firsthand how assertive she was in front of the Emperor… she was truly provocative.
At the same time, I realized that rejection alone would not be enough.
“The Emperor also told you, be careful of women. You are now a prince, and you must choose your wife carefully.”
Ceres' mother had a marriage of convenience. And Sirius, the First Prince, will never be able to escape that fate.
Marriage is the most effective way to make absolute allies.
“But I will not use marriage to increase my power.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“There are a lot of ways. If they don't exist, I will find them.”
Now that he was the First Prince, his words would have a different weight than in his puppy days. But it still sounded like a screaming child, and Dearyn smiled as if she found that cute.
“Okay, but my heart will still be closest to the Governor, so what are you going to do about it?”
No matter how much Sirius tried to cling to Dedaren, if she refused, that was it.
The heart cannot be moved by the prince's status.
Sirius's gaze suddenly changed to a firm one.
“If you are the First Prince, it might be worth fighting with the ruler.”
“Hahaha, what are you talking about...?...Huh?”
Dearyn laughed on her own, because Sirius' speech sounded like a puppy's speech. Before he was asking if the ruler was good at fighting, and now he was saying he was worth fighting? He does not even know where the governor is.
The ruler is an invisible being, but his will is expressed through the temple.
In other words, in this world, the ruler is the temple.
The Temple is an authority group capable of fighting.
“…isn’t it?”
“….”
Sirius didn't answer, just smiled secretly.
“…Isn’t it?!”
Sirius didn't answer until the end.
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