A tactic that rattled someone’s mind by weaponizing fear and beauty was always effective.
The culprit, terrified to the core, spilled everything they knew before they could even try anything.
Even the name of the count who had hired them.
Edward sent soldiers out the moment the culprit confessed.
With that business concluded, Sasha shoved the culprit—who was staring at him in a daze—back behind the bars and left the underground prison.
There was still a lot to do.
Once they hauled the count in, they’d need to find out where the poison came from, whether there were accomplices who had planned it together, whether there were more schemes aimed at Sasha—an entire mountain of things.
If he wanted to pressure an opponent efficiently, he needed information in advance.
“I’ve never heard the name Count Vernon before. Do you know him?”
In the short time he’d been away, the capital had changed so much that Sasha still didn’t know its situation precisely. He worked in the Imperial Palace, so he couldn’t help but learn the surface-level things naturally, but he couldn’t know every small detail—much less the important, secret information only the high-ranking people knew.
‘If only I could use my information network.’
The capital information network he had rebuilt to find out whether Edward and the nobles under him were trying to kill him.
He’d built it under a false identity, but without anyone to run errands, it was useless unless Sasha left the Imperial Palace himself.
And aside from the hours he slept, he was basically glued to Edward all day.
In the end, the only channel Sasha could get an answer from right now was Edward.
“Your Majesty?”
When Sasha turned back at Edward’s silence, he found Edward’s golden eyes had gone unusually dark.
‘What is it?’
Was he impressed by Sasha’s interrogation? Did he suddenly decide Sasha was too dangerous? Or was Count Vernon one of Edward’s people?
Edward’s gaze sharpened, then he threw out a question.
“…Is that how you normally interrogate people?”
“I’m not sure what you mean by ‘that way,’ but it depends on the person. So—Count Vernon?”
Sasha had answered, so now he openly pressed Edward to answer quickly too. Just as the silence dragged on long enough for suspicion to thicken, the answer came back.
“Count Vernon is Count Hoover’s son.”
“Count Hoover?”
Count Hoover had been one of the Grand Duke’s faction nobles—someone who had already been cut off a long time ago. Even within the Grand Duke’s faction, he’d had a name, and Sasha had clashed with him more than once. He’d been obnoxious in every possible way, but his son was still in the capital?
And if he was Count Hoover’s son, then he should have become the new Count Hoover—so why “Vernon”?
“When the Grand Duke’s faction nobles caused trouble again this time, he reported them and changed his surname.”
Ah. So it had been an internal report? While he was at it, he’d changed his surname entirely—erasing the image of having been part of the Grand Duke’s faction, and trying to gain the image of being loyal to Edward instead.
‘Impressive.’
House Hoover had a fairly long history, and he’d changed that name. It was a radical choice. And so was the choice to cut down everyone who would’ve come to him trusting his father.
“Is he Your Majesty’s man?”
“It would be more accurate to say we were in a cooperative relationship.”
Oh, wow. He really wanted to shave off responsibility, didn’t he?
Still, it was better than lying.
“Do you believe a count has enough power to bring poison into the Imperial Palace?”
“No.”
Right—he hadn’t helped Edward become Emperor, and even if he’d offered help in the small incidents afterward, it would’ve been too much to heavily favor the child of someone who’d had a name within the Grand Duke’s faction.
“Then there’s another noble behind him.”
“There probably is.”
“So we’ll have plenty to do going forward.”
Aside from the count, how many more nobles would he have to dig into before the real head popped out? It looked like solving this would take more time than he’d expected. Yeah. There was no way it would be that simple.
“…From here on out, interrogations will be handled by our side.”
“Didn’t you give me the right to punish them?”
Don’t tell him he was changing his tune now. Sasha’s expression cooled.
“The right to punish them is still yours. But it doesn’t make sense to tell you to handle everyone yourself when we don’t even know how many there will be.”
That was true.
“There’s no issue with you observing the interrogations. Just don’t step in personally.”
He could say that and then keep Sasha from seeing anything.
“If I’m going to observe, I’ll have to go in and out of the underground prison constantly. I can’t have Your Majesty with me every time.”
Both of them knew Edward was busy. Even now, Edward should’ve been working instead of chasing Sasha around. Just from missing today, Edward probably wouldn’t even get to drink a single cup of tea in peace tomorrow.
“…I’ll give you a pass.”
Hmm. In that case.
Sasha had been thinking it would be annoying to have to meet every single one of them anyway. Besides, he had been the leader, but it wasn’t like Sasha had personally participated in every interrogation.
The ones who got to meet Sasha directly were usually the “head.”
‘It’s enough that I confirmed my skills haven’t rusted.’
Sasha was about to nod when he noticed Edward’s hand fidgeting.
“Your Majesty—though. You’re wearing gloves.”
He’d thought something felt different today. Soft-looking black leather gloves covered Edward’s hands.
‘It’s not like they don’t suit him.’
In three years—no, even after arriving at the Imperial Palace—Sasha didn’t remember ever seeing Edward wear gloves. He felt like he’d read a scene in the book where Edward answered Duke Grenville that the sensation of having his hands covered was uncomfortable, when Duke Grenville told him to hide his hands that had suffered so much. Even now, he looked uncomfortable.
And yet he’d come wearing them.
‘Don’t tell me… it’s because of today’s interrogation?’
If words didn’t work, was he planning to swing those massive fists? No matter how gutsy someone was, they’d open their mouth in front of that. It was also, admittedly, a great prop for setting a mood.
Sasha pressed himself tight against the back of his chair, putting as much distance between himself and Edward as possible.
“You seem uncomfortable. Wouldn’t it be better to take them off?”
If he kept wearing gloves, Sasha felt like he’d start imagining terrifying underworld big shots.
Edward took the gloves off without a word.
Sasha watched as the backs of his hands—veins standing out—and then his long, solid fingers were revealed one by one. Then, once the gloves were completely off, Sasha’s eyes went wide.
Huh?
There was a deep bite mark on Edward’s right index finger.
In that instant, a memory surfaced.
More precisely: a sensation.
The hand he’d bitten down on with all his strength, consumed by injustice and betrayal.
Sasha’s eyes darted around in panic.
‘How did I forget that?’
After biting him hard enough to leave a mark like that?
Sasha stared down at Edward’s hand spread out brazenly in front of him and spun his thoughts.
What happens if someone else sees that?
Do they arrest him for the crime of injuring the Emperor’s body?
It wasn’t intentional.
‘Was it intentional?’
Back then, he really had been genuinely pissed and bitten him. He’d bitten him because he wanted him to hurt too—after forcing him to drink that.
But Sasha had been mentally and physically compromised at the time. And that had all been Edward’s fault.
‘…There isn’t anything else I did wrong, right?’
Thinking, whatever, Sasha threw out a preemptive strike.
“My goodness—who did this to you?”
First, play dumb.
Blatantly insisting on nonsense was Sasha’s specialty.
Sasha wore a worried expression as he watched the hand come closer and closer to Edward’s face.
I don’t know anything. I don’t remember anything. I didn’t do it.
But Edward’s reply cracked Sasha’s perfect face.
“Wildcat?”
This bastard.
*****
[Side Story Preview Rumor 1]
! It’s a rumor post, so I’m gonna write in that blunt no-ending style.
! This isn’t an officially published work. Lots of awkward sentences and typos.
! Do not leak outside the café.
Sasha comes back to the capital for some reason and is staying in the Imperial Palace. (Haven’t decided the reason yet lol. If I actually write the side story, I’ll pick one.)
Not everyone welcomes Sasha. Yeah. He was a traitor.
Sasha telling Edward while sober, “actually I was like this and that,” kills his pride. Need a situation where Sasha naturally reveals what he’s thinking.
Alcohol? No. Sasha doesn’t drink enough to get drunk in front of people. He’s always trying to show only a cool, perfect image, and then suddenly he gets wasted in front of Edward? Absolutely nope.
Sasha isn’t that kind of guy (serious)
Sasha doesn’t intend it, but force him to reveal what he’s thinking by making him eat truth serum.
Not everyone in the capital welcomes Sasha, so he gets tangled in someone’s scheme.
They’re alone, Sasha collapses, Edward panics, but Sasha smiles brightly. It’s a kind of smile Edward’s never seen, so Edward just stares at that face like he did at their first meeting.
And then Sasha, eyes completely unfocused, starts looking for his dead older sister. That snaps Edward awake. Ah. He’s not talking to me.
But it’s the first time Edward’s seen Sasha speak in this intimate way—gentle and warm—so he can’t ignore the words. Without thinking, he answers as if he’s the older sister.
No to Sasha continuing to mistake him for the older sister. At the end, he realizes she’s not there, and Sasha’s expression has to harden.
So Edward thinks, okay, he’ll go back to normal now, but when Sasha realizes it’s Edward, he smiles at him faintly—not like before, but still.
He can’t say a lot. Just show a tiny gap, then lose consciousness right there.
Like, make it feel like: ah, there’s a side of him I don’t know. Make me curious?
+) Sasha has to not remember because he’s drugged! This is a secret only Edward knows.
+) Before this happens, it’d be good to set the stage a bit. Make Sasha kind of pitiful.
After losing to Edward, all Sasha has left is his face, and he’s weaker than he used to be.
Your strongest enemy, the person who was always perfect, showing a fragile side (but it can’t be a “broken” look. Sasha has to be proud anywhere, anytime. I decided that.)
[Registering your post.]