CHAPTER 169
The final day of the Commander-in-Chief election.
The method involved the Lieutenant Generals entering a sealed room one by one to cast their vote.
It was the same method used to elect representatives in a democracy.
Since it was conducted under strict supervision, only the final result would tell who had been chosen.

As the Lieutenant Generals were finally about to cast the votes that would decide the outcome, Inferno looked back at Anastasia.
She had magnificently displayed her will in front of everyone.

Although he and Harua had prepared a few things, her words in the debate hall hadn't been wrong. As long as the homework known as Black Dawn remained, the Regular Army needed a true Commander-in-Chief who could surpass Rapha Hastel.
Anastasia had chosen to face that challenge head-on.

In that case, he had to trust the resolve she had shown.
The rest would be decided by the results.

The moment the final voting—where no one knew who would win—began.

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

The sound of frantic footsteps echoed from outside the voting room.

Clatter!

Immediately after, the door to the voting room burst open, and someone rushed in.
This was a critical voting room to elect the Commander-in-Chief.
Someone barging in like this was obviously unacceptable.

As the Lieutenant Generals glared at the intruder with wide eyes, they saw the Chief Secretary of the Central Branch.
Clutching a piece of paper in his hand, his face pale white, he shouted.

"L-Lieutenant Generals, it's an emergency!"

For a man in the position of Chief Secretary to cause such a fuss.
This was no ordinary incident.
As they looked at the Chief Secretary, wondering what was going on, he let out a gasp and cried out.

"His Majesty, the Emperor of Gladion, has been poisoned!"

His next words instantly shook the entire room.
The assassination of the Emperor.
Everyone knew exactly how massive of an incident that was.

The Lieutenant Generals froze, their faces stiffening in shock.
The Regular Army was a military force rooted in the Gladion Empire.
An incident in Gladion would naturally have a direct impact on the Regular Army as well.

Inferno and Anastasia's eyes briefly met.
They had heard beforehand from Harua hinting that an incident would occur within the Imperial Family.
They had vaguely assumed some scandal would break out regarding the throne that would shake the 1st Prince's standing.
But the Emperor's poisoning?
This was something they hadn't anticipated in the slightest.

As a strange silence fell among them.

"Has the culprit been caught?"

Kandelhar stepped forward and asked the question.
Who was the lunatic that poisoned the Emperor?
The Emperor was already nearing the end of his lifespan anyway.
When asked about the culprit behind his death, the Chief Secretary turned even paler.

"T-That is..."
"Speak quickly. Isn't everyone waiting?"

At his urging, the Chief Secretary finally bowed his head.

"It is... Her Highness, the Empress."

Kandelhar, who had been listening calmly, slowly widened his eyes.
The other Central Lieutenant Generals reacted the same way.

The Empress.
Meaning, the mother of the 1st Prince.
She had poisoned the Emperor.
What did that signify?

It meant the 1st Prince was now the son of the woman who murdered the Emperor.
Under normal circumstances, the 1st Prince would have been the strongest candidate for the throne.
But in this single instant, his entire foundation had collapsed.
Because there was no way the child of the Emperor's murderer could ever become the next Emperor.

Kandelhar's lips parted soundlessly.
He looked as if he had no idea what to say in this moment.
All the connections and ties Kandelhar had painstakingly built with the Imperial Family...
Every single one of them had just crumbled to dust.

The Central Lieutenant Generals let out heavy sighs.
Even the Frontline Lieutenant Generals couldn't bring themselves to rejoice.
It was a literal bomb.
And that bomb had just dropped dead center in their laps.

"W-Why...?"

Unable to believe it, Kandelhar asked again.
His brain simply couldn't comprehend why such a situation had occurred.
The Chief Secretary understood Kandelhar's feelings, but he had no choice but to relay the even more miserable reality.

"...It seems Her Highness the Empress has long desired for His Majesty to look only at her, but because he refused to grant her wish until the very end of his life, she ended up..."
"What... what the hell kind of nonsense is that?"

No definitive reason, no logical answer, no justifiable cause.
An absurd, ridiculous motive.
A foolish reason that no one in the world could have ever predicted.
And yet, a reason completely incomprehensible to logic had become reality.
Sometimes, reality is far stranger than fiction.

A devastated Kandelhar.
The Central Lieutenant Generals turning their eyes away from him and sighing.
Because of this one absurd incident, the result of the Commander-in-Chief election had been decided for a single person.

"...What on earth have we been fighting so hard for?"

Just like Kandelhar's words.
It was an election result that left behind nothing but pity and a bitter taste.

Inside Iox's mansion.
Having received the report, I sat there with a dumbfounded expression.

The Emperor was poisoned by the Empress.
I knew from the 1st Princess that an incident was going to happen in the Imperial Family, but I never expected a result like this.

"...This is a result that completely overturns every assumption we made."

Sitting across from me was a woman with an equally blank expression.
It was Babiyen's great-aunt, Vanessa.
After hearing the 1st Princess's story, she and I had made various deductions.
Gathering the information, we assumed that one of the Emperor's consorts would act out of jealousy and cause a scene.
However, we never imagined it would be the Empress.
The woman who held a higher position than any other woman in the empire.
The Empress herself.

"No. In a way, our guess was actually correct."

I quietly covered my face with my hand as I stared at the contents written in the report.

"Maternal love is ultimately a form of love, after all. This just goes to show how far love can drive a person insane."

In a twisted way, Vanessa's prediction had been spot on.
And because of that, the real problem was what to do about this situation.

"Whoa, this is crazy, what do we do-ssumda? Hasn't the Commander-in-Chief election turned into a total mess-ssumda?"

Lululio, who was standing nearby, spoke up with a horrified look on her face.
She was exactly right.
I had been worried because there was no news from the 1st Princess.
To think a bomb like this was waiting for us.

"I suppose the election results are basically set in stone."

Aigis quietly noted Anastasia's impending victory.
Kandelhar, who had built a close relationship with the 1st Prince, would no longer be able to even set foot near the Imperial Family.
Naturally, the outcome of the election was a foregone conclusion.

For us, it was good news in the short term, but a victory like this...
If Kandelhar's influence had naturally waned and Anastasia won cleanly, that would be one thing.
But like this, the Central Lieutenant Generals wouldn't easily accept the election results.
Undoubtedly, Anastasia would be locked in a battle of nerves with the Center for a long time because of this.
And that would create cracks within the Regular Army.

‘Dammit, if it was going to be like this, a head-on clash might have been better.’

We had tried to put out the immediate fire that was Black Dawn, but it felt like we had sparked an even bigger inferno.
I thought the chaos within the Regular Army would end with the Commander-in-Chief election.
But instead, an even greater chaos was about to shake them to their core.

‘At this point, I have no choice but to trust that Anastasia will do a much better job than I expect.’

Anastasia's capabilities as a Commander-in-Chief.
She would have to utilize those capabilities to their absolute fullest to lead the Regular Army.
In essence, Anastasia had just been handed a path covered in thorns.

"Do you think Her Highness the 1st Princess knew it would go this far?" Vanessa asked with a deep sigh.

The 1st Princess had observed the Empress for far longer than we had.
Did she foresee this situation, and thus predict the Emperor's early death?

I had no idea.
What kind of signs do you even have to read to predict that the seemingly fine Empress would go crazy from love and poison the dying Emperor?
Hell, I doubt even her own son, the 1st Prince, saw this coming.

"We can just ask her directly."

The Imperial Family had been turned into an absolute warzone.
Given the circumstances, the 1st Princess would contact me soon enough.
I could easily guess it wouldn't take long.

The bigger issue was the state of the Imperial Family.
Even if the Emperor was poisoned and the culprit was caught quickly, the Emperor was currently gone.

"Just when I thought the Commander-in-Chief election was finally over..."

We were now in a situation where the next Emperor had to be decided immediately.
And the candidate pool had been narrowed down to two people: the 2nd Prince and the 1st Princess.

"Harua, do you think the 1st Prince will just sit still?"

Aranseol, who had been watching quietly beside me, pointed out the biggest problem this incident would cause.
That was exactly what was weighing on my mind.
Because of the conversation I had previously had with the 1st Princess.

The incident in the past where the Emperor was captured by Black Dawn.
What if he claimed the Emperor had been brainwashed because of it?

"...The 1st Prince will claim that the Empress killed the Emperor because His Majesty was brainwashed by Black Dawn, and she did it to stop him."

I quietly relayed the argument the 1st Prince was bound to make in the future.
That statement made everyone in the room freeze.
They had all heard the story directly from the 1st Princess regarding this matter.
If the 1st Princess knew this story, there was no way the 1st Prince didn't.

He would absolutely use this issue to somehow cover up the Empress's actions.
But if he did that, the fallout was blatantly obvious.
To make that claim, he would have to expose the Imperial Family's darkest secret to the entire world.
The disgrace that the Emperor had been brainwashed and played by Black Dawn.

If something like that spread, the Imperial Family's authority would naturally be shaken to its core.
But the 1st Prince's faction had already lost everything due to the Empress's actions; they would be completely blinded by desperation.

‘He'll definitely do it.’

A man with his back against the wall has no reason to hesitate.
I could already see the Empire fracturing into three pieces right before my eyes.
An irreversible chaos was beginning to descend upon the world.

"I'm going to go see the 1st Princess."

I couldn't waste any more time.
If I left the Imperial Family alone like this, it would turn into an absolute bloodbath nine times out of ten.
But if I was there, the story would change.
If I revived the Emperor, we could somehow bypass the current crisis for now.
The 1st Princess must have kept this fact in mind when she made that deal with me.

Just as I was about to head to the Imperial Palace.

"Harua!"

Babiyen, who had been stationed near the Imperial Palace, hurriedly arrived in a carriage.

"It's an emergency!"
"An emergency?"

When I expressed my confusion, she spoke with a face drained of all color.

"H-His Majesty the Emperor left a will stating that he is entrusting the position of the next Emperor to Her Highness the 1st Princess!"

My face froze upon hearing her words.

...Damn it all.

The 1st Princess was going to oppose reviving the Emperor.