Chapter 23

The day of judgment for the Marquis of the Reinhardt family had dawned. The Grand Tribunal in the imperial palace was so packed with nobles from across the empire there was no room to stand. Beside the Emperor on the throne sat the Crown Prince Julian with a stern expression, and behind him Kaion stood firm alongside the other royal guards.

All eyes were fixed on the center of the court, on the Marquis of the Reinhardt family standing in the defendant’s place. Though he wore a prisoner’s garb, he still surveyed those around him with an unbowed, arrogant gaze.

The trial began, and the imperial investigators presented the evidence one by one.

“Evidence one: Those arrested in the abandoned temple were all wearing armor engraved with the Reinhardt family’s crest, confirming they were the Marquis of the Reinhardt family’s direct knighthood.”

“Evidence two: During interrogation, the captured knights confessed they were acting at the behest of the Fontaine family. However, the fact that poison was found in the Fairy Spring, which the Fontaine family manages, is a top secret of the imperial household; information only the perpetrator could possibly have known.”

“Evidence three: The poison ‘Silent Belladonna’ found in the Crown Prince’s chambers matches exactly the compound detected in the Fairy Spring managed by the Fontaine family. And the Fontaine family has maintained close ties with the Reinhardt family for generations.”

All the evidence pointed at the Marquis of the Reinhardt family. The traps and lies he had set had come back as a boomerang, aimed at his throat.

“Nonsense! This is a grand conspiracy concocted by those jealous of me!”

The Marquis protested vehemently. He claimed his knights had been deceived by someone, or that the Aster family had manipulated everything with wicked Magic. But his arguments fell flat before the evidence.

While everyone’s attention was fixed on the imperial palace’s grand stage, Rian’s shadow moved busily through the dark underside of the capital.

Argos, led by Old Fox, seized the chaos as an opportunity to absorb the collapsing Reinhardt family’s merchant guilds and intelligence networks for a pittance. Merchants who had operated illegal trades under Reinhardt’s protection now needed a new shield, and Argos offered them an offer they could not refuse.

Rian’s hand also reached out to the remaining members of the Fontaine family, abandoned and burdened with all the blame.

“To a dog that has lost its master and hungers, a scrap of bread thrown by a new master tastes sweeter than anything in the world.”

Rian bought the Fontaine family’s loyalty with money. They handed over the Reinhardt family’s records of internal corruption and secret transactions to Argos intact.

Back at the Grand Tribunal.

The final witness, the head of the Fontaine family, took the stand. With the face of someone who had lost everything, he tearfully confessed that under the Marquis of the Reinhardt family’s orders he had been lacing the Crown Prince’s spring with poison for years. In his hand were the secret letters exchanged with the Marquis of the Reinhardt family—decisive evidence Rian had obtained by turning the Fontaine family.

No more excuses would do.

The Emperor rose from his seat and pronounced judgment solemnly.

“Strip the traitor Marquis of the Reinhardt family of his title, and confiscate all estates and properties belonging to his house to the imperial household. Furthermore, for crimes that shook the foundations of the empire, imprison him forever in the empire’s deepest and darkest prison, the ‘Tower of Oblivion’!”

It was a punishment more dreadful than death: eternal solitude and oblivion. It was the moment a great pillar that had supported the empire collapsed entirely.

That night, at Aster Manor.

Rian sat in his room redrawing the power map of the capital’s nobility. He drew a thick red line through the name ‘Reinhardt’ that had occupied the largest position. Centering on that vacant spot, he began filling in countless arrows and new names—the merchant houses and intelligence networks absorbed from Reinhardt, and the nobles who had sworn new fealty.

“I cut off one head, and dozens of little heads are raising themselves.”

Rian’s eyes scanned the map. The nobles’ power struggle to fill the vacuum left by Reinhardt’s fall had already begun.

The judgment was over, but the real war was just beginning. In a gameboard that had become vaster and more complex, the shadow prepared its next move.