Chapter 207: Settling the Score (Part 3)

  In the deepest part of the Imperial Palace, in the Empress's bedchamber.

  The Empress watched Rodhart, who was with the Cardinal, helplessly. Her entire face was twitching nervously. "You already know..."

  "Yes, I already know." Rodhart nodded silently.

  "I'm not human anymore..." The Empress's voice took on a crying tone, and tears rolled down from her eyes.

  "Don't worry, it's alright. No matter what you've become, you are unchanged in my heart. You are still you." Rodhart revealed a somewhat tragic smile, reached out his hand to caress the Empress's face, and gently wiped away her tears. "So neither of us has a choice. Other than standing on the same side as the Bishop, we have no other way. This time, the Bishop and I came to you because we need your help. Listen to me, we are going to..."

  After listening to Rodhart's words, the Empress's whole body trembled. She said in a trembling voice, "What? You want me to summon them all here now and kill them?"

  "It's only those four or five old fellows from the military. It's no big deal." Bishop Javi said flatly.

  The Empress shook her head: "No. General Thomas, the Old Marquis Minsk, Minister Jason... these are all veterans of two dynasties, important ministers of the court. When His Majesty and Roland return and discover..."

  "They won't be coming back." The Cardinal smiled and shook his head, saying slowly with a confidence that was plain to see. "Even if they aren't dead yet, if I wish it, I can guarantee they won't be coming back. The biggest obstacle is already gone. In this Royal Capital, I can say I have no more scruples. And rest assured, the blame for killing them will never fall on us. Someone in this Royal Capital will take the fall for us."

  The Empress looked at the Cardinal and Rodhart, saying in disbelief, "You want to usurp the throne?"

  The Cardinal smiled and shook his head: "Usurp the throne? Impossible. Neither of us is qualified to ascend to the throne, nor are we interested." He pointed lightly at the Empress, "We are just helping the child in your womb ascend to the throne."

  "My child? I don't have a child..." The Empress shook her head, at a loss. She knew she didn't have one now, and that she never would.

  "I can find a way for you to have one. Even if it's factually impossible, as long as I say you have one, no one will disbelieve it, or dare to disbelieve it. And once these most respected ministers are dead, won't this Empire be in the grasp of the three of us? And with a little manipulation on my part, the responsibility of becoming Regent to assist the throne can naturally fall to Rodhart..."

  "No~" The Empress let out a sharp scream. If the servants hadn't been ordered to stay away, this cry would probably have attracted many people. She looked at Bishop Javi, her expression already somewhat hysterical. "What on earth are you doing? You want the Magic Academy, I can give it to you, but you still threaten him? And now you're reaching your hand into the Empire..."

  "I've said it, I have no interest in this Empire. He is the one who is interested." Bishop Javi pointed at Rodhart. "Do you think I threatened him to make him stand with me? We are actually in a cooperative relationship."

  "You..." The Empress looked toward Rodhart.

  Rodhart shook his head and sighed, saying: "Why do you bother to delve into these things? You only need to know that this is the only way we can go now. Think carefully, if we don't do this, then if one day His Majesty discovers your identity... This is the safest and most proper way for us to proceed..."

  The Empress, trembling, shook her head and interrupted Rodhart: "You actually want to kill His Majesty, and usurp the throne, what about my sister... Why do you have to drag me into this? I don't want any of this..."

  Rodhart said in a gentle tone: "But since these things have happened, we must face them. That's why I joined with Bishop Javi..."

  "Face it? Didn't I ask you to leave with me long ago? If we had left together, how could there be all these things to face? Just for usurping the throne, for those desires for power and whatnot. And you even put it so nicely..." The Empress's face was already covered in tears. She slid weakly from the couch and knelt on the floor. "If you truly still love me, why didn't you leave with me? I am a woman, a woman doesn't ask for much, just a man she loves, a sense of belonging is enough..."

  "But I am a man." Rodhart suddenly said in a deep voice. "A man cannot have only a woman. Because a man must face the entire world, and so, besides this world, he has no other home."

  The Empress raised her tear-filled eyes, looking at Rodhart in astonishment. In her impression, this man had always been so gentle, so kind, as if he were the very embodiment of gentleness, mellowness, and beauty in the real world. Other things seemed invisible, as if this man could have no other emotions besides that gentleness and beauty. Now, for some reason, his voice and expression were filled with something she had never seen before. This something was harder, colder, heavier, but also incomparably powerful. This was the true emotion that had always been precipitated deep in his heart, the emotion of a man.

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  "A man sees farther and broader than a woman, and has more to face, so even the most wonderful emotions cannot be something to bury oneself in and indulge in while ignoring everything else. That is escape." Rodhart also crouched down, holding the Empress's shoulders. His expression now was somewhat strange. Although these were indeed his true feelings, with his depth of character and cunning, it seemed they wouldn't be so easily displayed before others. And his voice gradually became deeper, more serious: "Be with me, Chris. If you want to be my woman, then walk this path with me."

  The Empress clung to Rodhart, crying, "No... I beg you, don't do this... Can't we just leave together?"

  Finally, Rodhart slowly broke free from the Empress's hands and stood up. The look in his eyes as he gazed at the Empress held disappointment, sorrow, grief, and a kind of desolate resolve.

  The Cardinal, who had been watching coldly from the side, gently shook his head and sighed, "Chris, all these years of ups and downs haven't made you grow up. In the end, you're just a little woman. If only you were as capable and mature as your sister."

  Even in her extreme grief, the Empress couldn't help but look at Bishop Javi in astonishment at this extremely strange sentence. But Bishop Javi was no longer looking at her, but at Rodhart, saying, "Well? Isn't it just as I said? There's nothing to be done about it... She is, after all, just a little woman. She can't bear these things, nor can she do them."

  Rodhart didn't speak, still looking at the Empress with that same gaze. The color of hurt in it grew heavier and heavier. Finally, he turned his head and said in a low voice, "Actually, I already knew long ago, it's just... I still hoped..." His voice grew lower and lower. "Forget it... You do it..."

  The crying Empress froze. Before she could have any reaction, she felt a sharp pain from her limbs.

  The longsword, glowing with white magic light, danced into a brilliant pattern in the air before sheathing itself at the Cardinal's waist. The Empress let out a mournful cry and fell to the ground. Black smoke puffed from the wounds on her hands and feet. Bishop Javi waved his hand, and the light of white magic completely enveloped the Empress's figure.

  "Stop struggling. The time since your bloodline awakened is too short, your power is too weak. Crucially, I was the one who helped you fully awaken, so in my hands, you're about the same as a rag doll. Don't blame me, and don't blame your lover either. We've already given you a chance; we can only blame you for not accepting it. An unwillingness to help actively, yet knowing too much, makes you more useful to us sacrificed than alive." Bishop Javi lifted the Empress up and placed her on the bed. The Empress's hands and feet twitched, and her mouth opened and closed. But it was no use. In the light of the white magic, she not only couldn't move, it seemed she couldn't even speak.

  "The matter of the vampire biting Her Majesty the Empress a year ago is known to everyone. Plus, with the joint certification of the Cardinal and the priests and clerics of the Magic Academy, regardless of whether others are willing to believe it, it is absolutely irrefutable. And once this identity is confirmed, then many subsequent things can proceed logically, such as colluding with Diya Valley, secretly harming His Majesty the Emperor and Captain Roland, and so on... The rest is just to deal with those few old fellows as quickly as possible. You take over the Paladin Order, I take over the Magic Academy and fully support you, and this vast Ainfast Empire will be in your bag." Bishop Javi patted Rodhart on the shoulder and said, "Giving up one feeling to gain a country. No matter how you calculate this account, it's worth it."

  Rodhart still didn't dare to look at the Empress on the bed. Although his expression was mainly one of gloom and sorrow, it was mixed with an undeniable trace of excitement. These two completely different emotions made his expression very strange. After a long silence, he asked Bishop Javi, "You're giving me this entire country? You really don't want anything?"

  The Cardinal smiled faintly and said, "I've said it before. I just need you to lead this country and then send troops to attack Oufu. Once Oufu is destroyed, you give me the Paladin Order to go to Tulalion and snatch some things. Besides that, what I want is nothing more than a sword and a woman. Naturally, the woman I want won't be this kind of little woman."

  Although the Empress lying on the bed could not move or speak, she could still listen, could still cry, and could still grieve. If a heart could truly be wounded, hers was probably riddled with a thousand holes by now. To watch and listen with her own eyes and ears as the man she loved and depended on most abandoned her, treating her as a prop, a stepping stone, was the most fatal blow for any woman.

  But she didn't know that this was also the destiny of her kind of person. This wasn't actually others being heartless, but her own incompetence. Unable to gain others' recognition, lacking the ability to become the other's companion, yet still insisting on approaching and getting along, the only final outcome is to be a plaything or a tool.

  "My lord Rodhart, the squad captain of the fourth squad of the Paladin Order has an urgent report..." At this moment, a voice came from outside the bedchamber.

  The Cardinal and Rodhart exchanged a look. This was the person they had sent to the Chancellor's residence to investigate the situation, and it was the news they had been waiting for. Rodhart said in a deep voice, "Just say it out there. How is it?"

  "Report, my lord. The Chancellor is currently handling official business in the Chancellor's residence, and no abnormal incidents have occurred."

  "Eh?" Bishop Javi and Rodhart exchanged another look, but this time, their eyes were filled with astonishment.

  They had come to the Imperial Palace quickly to save time, but it wasn't that they were completely ignoring the situation at the Chancellor's residence. They had sent several members of the Paladin Order to scout over there. But they had absolutely not expected such a result. Even if the news came back that the Chancellor's residence had been razed to the ground, or that a great battle involving thousands had broken out, they wouldn't have been this surprised.

  "Are you sure nothing at all happened? Have you interrogated and investigated carefully?" Rodhart asked in a muffled voice.

  "The three of us visited the Chancellor separately at the same time, interrogated the guards of the Chancellor's residence, and investigated inside the residence, but we indeed did not find any abnormal situation." The voice from outside the door was very certain, very confident. In fact, the members of the Paladin Order had a solid basis for their confidence in their abilities. Since they said there was nothing abnormal, no one else going to investigate carefully would find anything either.

  "Understood. You may withdraw." Rodhart commanded in a deep voice. After the sound of footsteps had faded, he turned to look at Bishop Javi. "How could this be? Could we have guessed wrong?"

  "Could it be that they really didn't go to the Chancellor's residence? Then... where could they have gone?" Bishop Javi's expression now also became unprecedentedly grave. The perpetual calm and confidence he had maintained were gone. He now seemed to feel that perhaps things were not as completely under his control as he had imagined.

  After a moment of thought, Rodhart snorted, "Forget it. Whether that kid told the Chancellor about our business or not, we can ignore it for now. In any case, we hurried over here to get this settled precisely to prevent any accidents from happening on the Chancellor's side. Once Chris's identity as a vampire is exposed, her influence can be minimized to the lowest degree. And without her influence, even if that kid escaped from Lord Marquis's hands, he would be just a lone man, unable to affect the overall situation."

  Bishop Javi also nodded. It seemed the tacit understanding between these two men had now reached a considerable height. "Now, as long as we continue to do what needs to be done, it doesn't matter what happens to that kid next."

  A short while later, the Cardinal came out from the bedchamber, found the attendant waiting outside, and issued a command: "By the order of myself, Lord Rodhart, and Her Majesty the Empress, immediately summon General Thomas, General Minsk... and the Chancellor to the Imperial Palace. There is a matter of utmost urgency."