* * *
They’d lost a useful tool. Ranshel’s head throbbed.
Still, that didn’t make Petro’s actions any more understandable.
“…I really don’t get it. Why him? Why the young master?”
Even knowing his backstory, it didn’t add up.
So he held a grudge against the Empress—fine.
But what did Zavad have to do with that?
“Did the young master set the fire that killed your son? Was he even born back then? Wasn’t he just crawling around as a baby at most?”
Ranshel’s blood boiled, and the world spun before his eyes. He was furious.
“You wanted revenge, but the Empress was too far out of reach, so you picked and picked until you landed on Zavad, didn’t you?”
“…It’s not like that.”
“Oh please. You went after him because he was an easy target, just a defenseless kid.”
Ranshel snapped and slapped Petro across the face.
Sure, it wasn’t right to hit an old man—but so what?
Villains do evil things.
That’s their whole deal.
But then Petro said something Ranshel hadn’t expected at all.
“I heard… if the young master is cast out of the castle, the Empress will suffer a blow to her status.”
“…Excuse me?”
Was this old man losing his mind? Ranshel frowned.
“Why would the Empress be affected by the bastard son of the Emperor getting cast out?”
“When Madam gave birth to the young master… the Empress bestowed a special blessing upon him. If he turns out to be mad, then it reflects poorly on her power… I heard her position in the imperial family would become unstable…”
…What kind of plot twist was this?
Ranshel rubbed his aching forehead.
First things first—he needed clarification.
He shot a look at the seemingly senile old man.
“What do you mean she gave him a blessing? She’s not some saint.”
“…You’re being serious? You really don’t know who the Empress is?”
Ranshel raised an irritated brow.
Petro looked genuinely shocked.
“What, did you grow up on some remote island? You don’t know the Empress used to be the High Saintess of the Grand Temple?”
“…What? That can’t be—”
Wait a second. Ranshel froze.
‘This… connects to the game story, doesn’t it?’
In ‘Flowers Bloom Even in the Ice Castle’, the heroine Frey Berschel was born under a demonic curse from the snowy mountains, her legs frozen solid.
No matter what they tried, they couldn’t thaw them, and so Frey, unable to walk, was destined to live her life shut away in her home.
Until one day, a divine oracle descended at the Grand Temple, changing her fate forever…
That’s how the game begins.
Yes—Frey had been chosen by divine oracle to become the Saintess.
And the Saintess of the Empire, blessed by the gods, had a skill: the ability to grant blessings to those who met certain conditions.
In game terms, those blessings translated into skills—powerful ones, tailored to each character’s unique traits.
That meant Frey had the insane ability to grant each romanceable character a special additional skill.
Because of course she did—she was the female lead in an otome game, and she needed that kind of OP power to properly tame the wild assortment of messed-up men in her harem.
Anyway, if Petro was telling the truth, then Zavad had already received a blessing from the previous Saintess—who was now the Empress.
And the skill that made Zavad the highest-ranking knight in the empire… had come from the Empress herself?
And he was destined to receive another blessing from Frey later?
‘No wonder he felt like a cheat character.’
Never in his wildest dreams did Ranshel imagine this twist would unravel this way.
Was this part of some extra story content?
‘Crazy game devs. Are they seriously selling this stuff as paid DLC?’
Ranshel clenched his fists.
Then he smacked Petro again.
“In the end, it’s the same thing. You couldn’t touch the Empress directly, so you decided to go after an innocent kid instead.”
“……”
And why the hell had the Empress given such a blessing to Zavad in the first place?
‘What’s so precious about a child born outside the palace walls?’
Even if the imperial couple had no affection between them, what kind of woman blesses a bastard child her husband had with another woman?
Everyone in this castle—or the entire imperial family, really—was utterly insane.
Ranshel shook his head in disbelief.
Then he grabbed the crying Petro by the shoulders and shook him.
“Get a grip and answer me. Who was your accomplice?”
“That’s…”
“Tell me. You didn’t do this alone.”
“…Even I don’t know who it was.”
“Right. Bye then.”
Ranshel raised his scythe high.
Petro flinched and shook his head frantically.
“It’s true! I never met them in person!”
His voice trembled as he began to explain.
‘That person’ had introduced themselves as a Watcher of the Imperial Family.
At first, Petro had dismissed the letter as a prank.
But then they sent him a seal—an imperial one. He had no choice but to believe.
[Don’t you want to avenge your son?]
The Watcher proposed a secret alliance to bring down the Empress, calling her a disease infecting the imperial foundation.
As a mere gardener, Petro could never have even approached her—but now, they offered him a way to exact vengeance on the “Moon of the Empire.”
“…You can read?”
“I’m a fallen noble. I couldn’t pass down the title to my son, but still…”
So that’s how it happened.
Ranshel clicked his tongue.
Even if he’d received the same letter, he’d have tossed it into the fire—he couldn’t read it anyway.
“In any case, this person clearly knew your story, and they knew about your connection to the young master. That’s why they chose you. Anyone else would’ve set off the kid’s alarms and never gotten close.”
“……”
“You betrayed Zavad’s trust, used the secret passage, and tormented him from the shadows.”
Ranshel let out a deep sigh.
The Zavad he saw in Petro’s memories wasn’t the shrewd and prickly young noble he knew.
Likewise, Petro wasn’t the cantankerous old man Ranshel remembered either.
In those memories, he was simply a kind servant who made a flower bookmark from the ones Zavad’s mother used to love.
“Apologize.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Why are you saying it to me? Is this a joke?”
Ranshel struck him again.
“Apologize to the one you betrayed.”
“…”
“I don’t mean with words. And take the fact that you betrayed your young master to the grave.”
He lightly tapped the old man’s cheek, now flushed from being hit so much, with the back of his hand.
“Pay with your body. That’s what servants are for, isn’t it?”
“…What are you…?”
“Become fully loyal to your young master now.”
Ranshel grabbed Petro by both shoulders and pulled him upright.
Still bound by chains, Petro instinctively sat up and stared at Ranshel with a dazed look in his eyes.
“I don’t care whether the Empress falls or not. I’m not interested in palace power struggles either. But I am interested in the young master’s future.”
Ranshel smiled faintly.
“If the young master gains power in the Imperial Court, the line of succession for the title might change. The Duke won’t be able to ignore pressure from the crown. And if the young master becomes the lord of this estate, then the Pomel family fortune becomes his, doesn’t it?”
Petro furrowed his brows in confusion.
“…So your goal is the young master’s fortune?”
“What else could it be?”
Ranshel answered, bored, propping his chin on his knee.
* * *
