I Grabbed the Tyrant’s Heart - Chapter 143
To prevent myself from trembling, I clenched my fists tightly. I blurted out a curious question that I had vaguely been holding back.
“…Do you remember when that was?”
I had doubts about why the former Duke Lantia had died, but I had never properly considered when he had died.
“Oh, I remember very clearly.”
The Chancellor began to laugh loudly.
“It was when His Majesty, yes, when he was the Crown Prince. He was twelve when everyone conspired to dispose of him.”
Twelve.
Ah, my childhood friend.
While I was driven out of Alin, that child, unlike me who had lived peacefully under the care of my parents, had blood on his hands. He struggled to survive.
I felt a pain that seemed to ravage my chest.
“Fools would have thought that he was just blankly sitting around the palace.”
“Why did he choose Your Excellency?”
“Why me, you ask?”
The Chancellor laughed cheerfully when I asked why the Emperor chose him as the Chancellor, the atmosphere was quite different from the heavy one from before.
“Since I am telling the Lady this, please keep it a secret from the others.”
“I promise not to tell my parents either.”
Satisfied, the Chancellor nodded with a smile. His voice when he answered was very low and soft.
“The Sage Jerez, that’s me.”
‘Jerez,’ the name itself meant that the title comes down from one sage to another
The sage, said to be the only one existing in both the Northern and Southern Empires, was like a legend. They existed in some eras and not in others, usually concealing their true identities.
Very occasionally, the names of the sages were recorded in the historical chronicles. And the Emperor who found the sage was invariably called a wise monarch.
“How did you know you were a sage?”
“When my accumulated knowledge and wisdom reach a certain level, a mark appears. It’s difficult to gauge that level on my own, so it would be hard to tell you exactly.”
“Evaluating knowledge with an objective measure is a difficult task.”
“Hahaha. Thank you for understanding, Lady. To put it another way, it was difficult to recognize myself as a sage based solely on the mark. However, as the mark appeared, I began to accumulate knowledge that I had not yet known.”
Surprisingly, the Chancellor willingly continued the story.
“The nature of a sage is manifested regardless of the nation, family, or gender, and I am the current sage of this era.”
Was it a kind of contract, or was it passed down?
I wanted to ask more, but the speed of the carriage was gradually slowing down. It seemed that we were arriving at the palace.
“Even if you’re a sage, you’re useless if the authorities don’t recognize you. The sage possesses wisdom but not power.”
“….”
“It is up to the ruler to use people.”
When a knock came, the Chancellor opened the window.
“It’s me and Lady Hardland on board.”
“Understood.”
The momentarily halted carriage began to move again.
“His Majesty avenged my helplessness and uncovered my identity to entrust me with this task.”
As if nothing had happened, the Chancellor continued the conversation with ease.
“For me, that alone is reason enough to dedicate everything to His Majesty.”
“That’s fortunate.”
The Chancellor looked at me as if questioning the meaning behind my words. Meeting his gaze, I replied.
“Because His Majesty has someone of his own.”
As I finished my sentence, the carriage came to a stop.
“From here, we’ll have to walk.”
The Chancellor, who had alighted first, reached out his hand to me. Receiving his escort and stepping down, it seemed that we had come quite far into the palace grounds.
“His Majesty was last seen at Hill Palace. The witness is the chief attendant. Should I summon the chief attendant?”
“Yes.”
I had already guessed where the man who concealed his traces was. Calling for the chief attendant was for a different reason altogether.
“Lady.”
“Hello, chief attendant.”
I lightly bowed to the chief attendant, who was quite kind towards me.
“Please clear out Hill Palace.”
“Pardon?”
“Please evacuate everyone from Hill Palace, including the surrounding areas and the gardens.”
“Understood.’
The chief attendant, who hesitated for a moment, quickly nodded. Noticing the Chancellor’s calm face even with the inexplicable request, I also realized that he had guessed something.
“It seems Your Excellency also knows where His Majesty is.”
“No.”
“Is it a test, then? Testing how much His Majesty trusts me or whether I should be spared?”
Unlike in the past, the Chancellor now possessed power. With a different way of thinking from others and a combination of power, he didn’t seem to mind coercion if it served his purpose.
The Chancellor was blindly devoted to Tess. It seemed like he would support and follow anything Tess did.
With that Chancellor’s perspective, if Tess became emotionally entangled with me, he might want to kill me.
“I know what will happen if I kill the Lady.”
“….”
“If it hadn’t been the Lady, His Majesty wouldn’t have become what he is now. And my grudge would never be resolved.”
This man knows that Tess is associated with the devil. I thought I was the first to realize that, but realizing that wasn’t the case, I felt jealousy that wasn’t appropriate with the situation.
“I know very well that I am not the one who can summon His Majesty.”
Still, it was satisfying to have others confirm the fact that I am the most important and precious person to Tess.
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