C10
"Welcome! Is there any medication you need?" The employee greeted the guests politely.
"I want to buy some herbs," Ethel said.
"Do you have someone sick at home? What are your symptoms?" the employee inquired.
"No one is sick; I just plan to prepare it as tea and drink it," Ethel replied.
"Ah, a medicinal tea! Sure, just tell me what you need, and I'll get it for you right away," the employee responded.
I whispered to the employee the ingredients and the amount I needed, intending to keep it discreet so the person behind me wouldn't overhear.
Fortunately, Terence was busy looking at the products displayed on the stand.
As the employee, who had been paid an additional fee on top of the cost of the herbs, went to grind the ingredients I requested, he started talking to me.
"If the destination was this, it would have been faster to go through the central square instead of the side road."
This herbalist shop is located in the busiest central square of the capital. As befitting the empire's best herbalist, they have all kinds of herbs.
So, it goes without saying that the shortcut is to cross the central square.
But I couldn't choose that path.
"I feel uncomfortable in crowded places," I explained.
"It's a bit surprising. You don't seem like it."
It's just as you see. You're the one who dislikes crowded places, not me.
At that moment, a faint line formed between Terence's straight eyebrows.
It was an extremely minor change, but it couldn't escape my careful scrutiny.
"I'm going to the bathroom."
After spending some time in the bathroom to ensure that Terence was comfortable, I returned to his side.
"The order is here."
The man holding the paper bag looked more comfortable than before.
The painkillers I had taken while I was away seemed to be taking effect.
The greatest weakness of the dark Marquess Friheiden in the novel is the chronic headaches he suffers from.
The power that runs in his veins inevitably causes him to have headaches.
A curse placed by the royal family's ancestors in the distant past in exchange for receiving part of the goddess's power.
Due to this, the royal family has been able to manipulate mana freely with little effort for generations, while suffering from frequent migraines.
And the degree of pain was proportional to the size of the force.
The emperor was famous for a story where he fainted during his wedding due to a headache when he was young.
Such an emperor had two sons said to have the greatest power in nearly 500 years of history.
One is the crown prince Mikhail, the male protagonist of the novel, and Liena's lover.
The other is Terence, the emperor's illegitimate son before marriage.
Terence's mother was the daughter of the Marquess of Molo and the emperor's first fiancée.
The emperor and she bragged about their affection, but problems arose when the emperor's older brother, the crown prince at the time, died.
The current emperor, who was originally the second prince, was installed as the crown prince.
The Marquess of Molo lost the emperor's favor due to his overly stubborn personality, and the emperor had no intention of keeping the Marquess's daughter as a wife.
After a while, the Marquess's daughter disappeared, and rumors spread that she had run away after encountering her coachman.
Desperate, the current emperor was engaged to the young daughter of the Birod duke's family and married her almost immediately.
This led to the gradual decline of the Marquess of Molo, and the Marquess's daughter seemed to be forgotten. Until one day, she suddenly appeared with a child in her arms.
According to the Marquess's daughter, she didn't run away at night but was kidnapped.
Although there was no physical evidence, the verdict was clear.
The culprits were Duke Birod and the former emperor, who were blinded by their greed to make her their empress.
However, who could criticize a powerful person like the deceased supreme emperor?
He couldn't find his place, and his son, who he had at the time of the abduction, was not recognized as a member of the imperial family.
That child is Terence Friheiden, the man by my side right now.
If things had gone as they should, he would have been the emperor's legitimate son.
"What a shame."
I felt pity for him once again.
He couldn't call his father "father," and his situation was difficult as he faced numerous assassination threats from Duke Birod.
The future is even bleaker.
Is the dark villain without any reason? In the end, he meets a miserable end after confronting the protagonists.
Terence will soon emerge as a strong successor to the throne and assume the position of the crown prince.
An adversary to be defeated by the protagonist.
I plan to use his power to divorce and leave the empire before the fight for the throne intensifies.
By then, a civil war would have erupted, and the empire's security would be in ruins.
Unless you can receive the protection of a great noble like Cassius, it's best to leave.
For the sake of the country's stability, the benevolent lord does not recklessly punish people who had ties to Terence unless they were directly involved in the rebellion.
"So, I was thinking of making a deal and then canceling it..."
When I met him in person, he seemed like a kinder person than I expected, so I was touched a bit.