C87
The Crown Prince asked as he quickly reached eye level with Liena, who knelt.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"I'm fine, Mikhail..."
Liena, who had been treating her lover comfortably according to her usual habits, regained her senses and corrected her tone.
"I'm fine, Your Highness. Rather, Your Majesty the Emperor..."
Upon seeing this, the emperor spoke for the first time since his second son appeared.
"Mikhail, what are you doing?"
"Your Majesty, the situation at the moment..."
"Didn't I ask what you were doing?"
Bam! The emperor threw something. It hit the prince's forehead as he stood up and fell to the ground. It was the fan that had relieved Liena's heat a moment ago.
"Mikhail!"
Liena was surprised and checked the prince's condition.
"Oh my God! How are you? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine. Are you really okay?"
"You fool! I'm fine, so why are you worried about me?"
Liena started crying, but this time she blocked the emperor's path as if protecting Mikhail.
"No matter how much Your Majesty is the Emperor, this is domestic violence! Domestic violence is wrong!"
Even Terence was quite surprised by Liena's actions. She was probably the only person in the empire who could reprimand the emperor without hesitation.
"Should I call it courage or stupidity?"
Of course, given the emperor's personality, he would never directly harm the noble lady of Cassius, but Liena acted like someone who knew no fear.
"Ha..."
The emperor's sigh contained indescribable feelings of absurdity and despair.
"Liena Cassius, come out. No. This is your prison, so we should leave."
The emperor walked out in large strides.
Terence followed, and the guards left the room, pensive.
"Liena, see you later."
The Crown Prince stayed until the end to comfort his crying lover.
"Mikhail! I'm worried about you!"
"I said I'm fine. Nothing will happen."
"I'm sorry. Only because of me..."
"Liena, I did all this because I wanted to. There's nothing wrong with you."
"Wait, don't go!"
"Stay safe here."
"Mikhail!"
After waiting for quite some time, the Crown Prince left the room where Liena was trapped and closed the door. The emperor burst into laughter.
"You're part of the love of the century."
"Your Majesty, Liena is not guilty of anything."
"Noisy!"
After catching his breath, the emperor pointed to the head of the imperial prison, who was trembling in a corner.
"Alright, please explain what I witnessed today in this room. The knight said everything was ordered by you."
Mikhail responded calmly without changing his expression.
"That's right. This prison is a very harsh environment for Liena, so I asked Iza to help her."
"Harsh? Where? It has everything, and even though it's said to be only for nobles, the royal family uses the same cell if they are locked up here!"
"It's harsh for Liena, who has always lived in the duchy surrounded only by good things. Besides, she's not guilty, right?"
"What?"
"I heard it too. Aren't all the crimes of the Iver Guild the work of Elliot Rudd?"
"So?"
"Liena is more of a victim. She lost the Merchant Guild she had worked so hard for because of Elliot. It's impossible to imprison someone like that."
"Are you saying that you took care of Liena Cassius because she was unjustly imprisoned?"
"Since I can't free her under my authority, I decided that I should at least give her some comfort."
"Alright, let's ask the guard."
The emperor pointed to the guard who had fanned the flames. He looked the shyest among the guards.
"Since when have you been helping the princess?"
"He, he... I've been taking care of my lady since she first arrived here."
He wasn't bold enough to dare lie to the emperor. The emperor looked at his son.
"How do you explain this? Yesterday, it was revealed that Elliot Rudd was the main culprit, so why did you take care of Lady Liena long before that?"
"That's because I knew Liena was innocent from the beginning."
"How?"
"I've been with Liena for a long time, and I trust her. She would never do anything wrong."
"What? Ah, really..."
Perhaps because he was so dumbfounded, the emperor couldn't easily continue speaking. Terence was a bit confused. Does the Crown Prince really not know Liena's true identity, or does he insist boldly on it even though he knows?
"It's not that either of the two possibilities is likely, but somehow it seems like the latter."