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***

Mendoza was buzzing with excitement over the impending war. The emperor was elated by all the praise he received as though he had already secured a victory, and he did not spare words of praise for Duke Escalante. He had the duke stand before the Imperial Council and made a rather embarrassing speech praising his loyalty. But the duke himself maintained an expression of indifference all the while. If anyone had anything to be ashamed of, it was not him but the emperor, who was too absorbed in contentment to notice the unimpressed look on the duke's face.

The emperor was acting as though there were festivities to be enjoyed while the duke stood there solemnly, having just sent his son off to war. The emperor seemed to have forgotten all about the tests and threats he had directed toward the duke in recent months and seemed to be reveling in the profits he was making from selling war bonds. Though the emperor had always pretended that this wasn't the case, he had always been partial to money. Back when he had been a powerless prince, he would always vent to Juan and Cayetana that his allowance was practically nonexistent, making it sound as though he suffered great persecution. It was what had drawn Cayetana to him, because she had been looking for the most foolish, desperate, and easily influenced man among the princes.

The emperor declared that he would issue a commemorative coin engraved with Cárcel's bust on the one-year anniversary of the war, and the other nobles congratulated Duke Escalante. How ridiculous. Juan found himself agreeing with Duke Valeztena who he glimpsed sneering at the emperor.

Oscar put in that his uncle deserved even more praise for having raised such a wonderful son. He commended the duke for his devotion and sacrifice of sending his son to war at a time when Ortega was in great need for a hero, which drew a round of applause. The emperor clapped Duke Escalante on the shoulder with a pleased nod, acting as though they had always been friends.

The duke had been forced to make a decision while treading a tightrope he could be knocked off. He was caught between a rock and a hard place-he had to either send his eldest son to a doomed war, or compel his other son, who had lost his mind over his betrothed's unexpected death, to marry the blasted Signorelli who had tormented his late betrothed for years and secure an heir who was related to the emperor by blood.

Until recently, the emperor had never cared about the numerous rejections Dolores had faced. He had even clicked his tongue at the empress who had personally raised his illegitimate child, saying that it had been an unnecessary and embarrassing thing to do. When Dolores was born, she had been rejected by her mother's husband and subsequently abandoned by her mother, but the emperor would not have cared whether the girl ended up as a scullery maid, starving in an alley, or being sold off to a brothel. And no noble would have adopted her just to earn the emperor's favor when he clearly didn't care about her himself. Though Empress Cayetana may have taken Dolores in merely for her own political purposes, without her, the girl would have died before she ever learned to walk.

At times, Juan thought to himself that it might have been better if this had been the case. The fact that the emperor was indifferent to his illegitimate children was good for his sister Cayetana most of the time, but not always. Because in the end, the emperor regarded his only legitimate son with the same disinterest.

When Oscar was just a child, the emperor had been quite fond of him. He had made Admiral Calderon's daughter his wife and placed the admiral's beloved grandson on his lap to have a portrait made of his family. That day, he had told Juan that he finally felt "like an emperor" rather than "like a father." It was as if he had finally collected all of the symbols of formality he had been unable to find for a long time.

He had never lived as the eldest son entitled to everything, and he had never received any attention from his own father, the late emperor, so he had desperately tried to stabilize his shaky legitimacy by invoking the name of Ortega's most revered hero. Back then, the emperor had been the most enthusiastic about his son, telling everyone how perfect his lineage was. He claimed that the boy already showed great promise as a future ruler because he took after his maternal grandfather; the emperor's praise was all over the newspapers.

At first, Juan had figured that the emperor was truly fond of his own flesh and blood, seeing how much he seemed to treasure Oscar. And when the emperor turned his back on all his illegitimate children that were born afterward, the duke thought that perhaps he favored Oscar because he was the eldest and his legitimate successor who had solidified his power during the early days of his reign. Oscar had proper status, a high-born mother, and was born within the bounds of marriage-meaning that he would not be criticized by the church. He could not be compared to any illegitimate children.

The emperor had once told Cayetana, referring to an illegitimate child that one of her young maids had borne him, "Do as you wish with the child. You may kill it or let it live. If you did not give birth to it, it is no child of mine."

Juan had believed this to be in favor of Oscar, solidifying his position as the crown prince, and a way for Cayetana to strengthen her influence as well. But he had been mistaken. The duke soon realized that the emperor in fact cared for no one else but himself.

One day, Juan heard about how the emperor had once killed an illegitimate child one of his mistresses had secretly borne with his own hands back when he had only been a prince, because the child might become an obstacle in his goal to gain Admiral Calderon's approval for marrying his daughter. When his last illegitimate child, born to House Esquel, had died to an epidemic at the mere age of five, the emperor had simply commented that children died easily. He had laughed, telling Juan, who had been in the room at the time, how grateful he was that Oscar was spared from such a fate. It had sent a chill down Juan's spine. In any case, that had been the last time the emperor had been cautious around Admiral Calderon in his lifetime.

It almost seemed like the emperor was simply trying to prove just how fertile he was. He had, after all, thrown a fit when Cayetana had sworn never to bear another child after the two days of intense labor she went through to give birth to Oscar, saying that her selfishness was going to make him look impotent. He had even sent a letter to the admiral just when he had returned from battle, asking him to scold his fool of a daughter. The admiral, grown weary of both his daughter and his son-in-law, had made Juan draft a reply, telling the emperor in a roundabout way that it was a miracle they had become parents in the first place, and that they ought to take care not to spoil their only son and turn him into a terrible person like them. He had then returned to the sea.

At a certain point, the emperor began to grow anxious at the fact that the string of illegitimate children born to him had petered out. It was around the time that Oscar was approaching adulthood that the emperor could no longer hide this anxiety. He had praised his son all his life, saying that there could not be a more perfect crown prince. Oscar was, after all, related to both the imperial family and a war hero, unlike the emperor himself. But when he came to his senses one day, he realized that no one in the world could replace this flawless heir.

Back when his last illegitimate child born to House Esquel had died, the emperor had been young and most likely confident that he could have many more children. When Oscar had been a helpless child, the emperor may have welcomed his presence as a tool to solidify his own legitimacy, but once the crown prince began to grow up, this was no longer the case. He was becoming a separate entity with a much more legitimate background than the emperor himself. At least, that was how the emperor saw it.

If the emperor could live forever, he would have made all of the women who had warmed his bed barren or gotten rid of anyone in his way to ensure that he was the only one suitable for the throne. But since he was not immortal, he had reluctantly appointed Oscar his successor. As much as he needed the crown prince for his own legitimacy, he despised his presence at the same time and constantly made his son nervous. He made sure that his son overheard the false rumor that the child of House Esquel had in fact not died and was still alive somewhere when Oscar was just twelve or thirteen, and even told him outright that any of the illegitimate sons he had hidden around the empire could come and replace him at any moment.

"You are not as useful to me as the world tells you. If you are not adequate, if you fail to show enough loyalty to me, or if you harbor any untoward intentions, you can easily be pushed aside. A single wave of the hand is all it takes for me to replace you. If you displease me, you will become the most useless existence in the world. In other words, I have no reason to cherish you. You would be absolutely worthless were it not for your mother's bloodline."

No matter how much Juan reassured Oscar that the emperor's words were empty threats, the prince couldn't brush them off lightly, as he knew nothing about how powerless his father had once been.

"If there really are no illegitimate children hidden out there to threaten my position, why would His Majesty say such a thing? My father despises me, Uncle. He is searching for someone who can replace me. I must have done something wrong again. His Majesty is once again disappointed in me. He will do something to me soon..."

Juan had pitied the young boy suffering from such anxiety. He was the crown prince that House Escalante had produced after many, many years. After he found out that the emperor had been pathologically criticizing the crown prince in secret for most of his life, Juan began to treat Oscar like his own son. At first, he might have been driven by his own ambition, but after he found out how the emperor treated Oscar, Juan had treated his nephew with sincere fondness.

More than ten years had passed since that day. Though Juan had believed that his nephew was still the nervous wreck he had pitied in that moment, the Oscar he faced today seemed entirely unfeeling. It was as if his days of being consumed by worry had never even happened.

Juan was just taking a break in a room away from the nauseating presence of the emperor when Oscar entered with a friendly smile. The duke regarded him for a moment before muttering to himself, "Yes...I did once feel sorry for you."

"Uncle, you do not look glad at all on such a momentous day. I brought you before the Imperial Council myself, and yet you simply walked away."

"Was this your intent all along, Your Highness?"

"What do you mean?"

Juan's expression hardened. Despite his love and care, the boy had grown up to become just as despicable as his father.

their innocence. If they were truly guiltless, God would protect them from harm, wouldn't He?

The trap House Escalante had been led into had been set up by Oscar in the first place. He had done this by making the emperor suspect that Duke Escalante was determined to place his beloved nephew on the throne much earlier than necessary. The emperor had always had such suspicions, considering how paranoid he was, but it was as if someone had stoked the fire until it burned bright. Several nobles had testified to conspiracies, statements, and fabricated circumstances that held no truth.

Though Juan had insisted that he was blameless, the emperor had come up with a ridiculous argument. "If you truly are guiltless, you should be willing to give up your son's life. If House Escalante is innocent, your son will not die, after all."

It was like the old days when someone accused of theft had to place their hand in boiling water to prove their innocence. If they were truly guiltless, God would protect them from harm, wouldn't He?