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Originally a priest, he was given the position of Bishop after succeeding Abbot Wilbert, the head of Wind Rock Monastery, upon the latter's death.
Originally, Priest Marid had begged not to take the position and asked for the order to be rescinded, but the Emperor had practically forced the bishopric upon him. Then, he made him stay in the Imperial Capital.
'Wind Rock Monastery has collapsed anyway, hasn't it? It's ominous, so stay in the capital.'
The excuse was plausible, but to put it bluntly, it was because he needed him when soothing or threatening Iris Achen.
Iris was acting quite stubborn, but she was still soft toward those close to her.
"Tell that former abbot that if he fails to persuade Iris Achen this time, I'll send him to Til Nebe Cedric as well."
The Chamberlain bowed cautiously.
"Will that be alright?"
This was because he realized the Emperor's words about sending the Saintess to Til Nebe Cedric were not empty threats. The Emperor snorted.
"The continent of the unbelievers is a place one should visit at least once. It's time to erase my sister's achievements."
Til Nebe Cedric.
Elio also had plans to conquer that continent of unbelievers. More accurately, it was to erase the shadow of Grand Duke Lacheize.
He planned to assassinate his sister soon, but regardless of that, it was necessary to display his own prestige.
Thus, Elio had already sent priests and knights across to Til Nebe Cedric.
[I shall establish ninety-nine temples of Eridrahan in Til Nebe Cedric!]
The citizens of Foldenbach cheered for the Emperor who made such a declaration.
However, it was not an easy task. The opposition from the other side was so severe that he almost respected his sister for establishing temples there in six years.
He deliberately approached through a different route than his sister, but even landing on the continent was difficult.
Locally, requests to 'send the Saintess' flooded in. They intended to rely on the power of the Saintess.
"And that girl should experience some hardship at least once."
Of course, the Emperor had other ulterior motives.
'I hear there is a temple of demons in Til Nebe Cedric.'
This was something he discovered after scouring every book on demons existing in the empire.
Some of the mages expelled from Foldenbach a hundred years ago had headed to Til Nebe Cedric.
And it was said they had established a new temple of demons there. His goal was to have his knights find it in secret.
'In my life, things have never flowed as I wished as they did back then.'
Having gone from prince to emperor, he found living to be more burdensome than he thought.
More accurately, there was a mountain of problems to solve. He had established a foundation using the Saintess, but internal enemies were still numerous.
'Isn't that why I kept a dead man alive?'
Rahan Norwich.
Regarding the man who had fallen from the cliff into the sea and died, Elio, after much deliberation, decided to announce to the people that he was 'still alive.'
The reason was simple. An external enemy unites the interior.
The citizens of the empire trembled in fear that Rahan Norwich was still hiding somewhere and would invade the empire with demons.
That wasn't all. It was also to appease Iris Achen.
'Anyway, it's a fact that the body wasn't found.'
There was a time when Iris did everything she could to die. She broke plates to slit her wrists, threw herself before the knights' swords, or slammed her head against marble.
Eventually, Prince Elio brought Bishop Marid and had him claim that 'Rahan Norwich must be alive.'
At those words, Iris clung to Bishop Marid and cried for three days and nights.
Just as she seemed to have finished crying, Prince Elio visited her and said,
'I'll look for Rahan Norwich for you. In exchange, if I can't find that brat within three years, you must marry me.'
Iris did not agree to this, but it didn't matter. Her consent wasn't necessary in the first place, but the reason he played such a game was simply to show that 'the Emperor is courting the Saintess with all his heart.'
Externally, of course, it would be seen as 'the Emperor is striving to thoroughly subjugate the demons and protect the citizens of Foldenbach.'
Regardless, the Emperor put all his effort into searching for Rahan Norwich. Of course, this was possible because he was certain of the man's death.
That cliff was dizzyingly high; there was no way someone who fell from there could survive.
Whether it seemed plausible or not...
He found out later that Iris, surprisingly, had also asked Bishop Marid to search for Rahan Norwich, spending the private fortune of House Ahen lavishly.
It was truly beyond cute.
'Akim Norwich is a bit of a concern, though...'
It wasn't that there was nothing to worry about. Akim Norwich. He was the Margrave Norwich who had been at Wind Rock Monastery at the time.
He had disappeared while everyone was in chaos. At the time, because of the Sanctuary declared by the Saintess and the hundreds of corpses, Prince Elio hadn't thought to look for Margrave Norwich.
But when he remembered later, he felt a momentary lapse. Upon urgently investigating belatedly, he found that the man had returned to the Norwich March.
‘I am deeply sorry. At the time, I was so startled by the Sanctuary and the demons that I rushed back in a frenzy, thinking only of my estate. I am simply grateful to the Saintess.’
That was what Akim Norwich blathered during Elio's coronation.
And that was it.
Suspecting that he might have done something suspicious while out of his sight, Elio had even sent men to the Count of Norwich's territory to search every nook and cranny. To exaggerate slightly, they had searched even under Lady Norwich's skirts.
But Rahan Norwich could not be found. Only then did Elio feel relieved.
‘Hmm. Come to think of it, has it already been two years?’
The Emperor counted on his fingers and gave a short laugh.
‘I should announce the engagement on my birthday.’
There were about six months left until his birthday. He had no intention of letting the full three years pass anyway.
‘She’ll probably wail and cry in hatred, but what can she do about it?’
Just thinking about the girl struggling beneath him, sobbing uncontrollably, made his lower body feel tight.
At first, he only intended to use Iris Achen, but after several years, he admitted to himself that he wanted to possess her.
‘If she were an ordinary girl, I would have locked her in a back room and forced myself on her long ago. It’s not as if this is my first experience, after all.’
Thinking this, Elio shook his head. No, that wasn't it. That would be boring. Too easy. And obviously, it wouldn't look impressive to others.
If he had intended to end it with rape, he wouldn't have dragged things out like this. That would be crushing the opponent, not possessing them.
Of course, Elio was not unaware that what he was doing now was, in some respects, the same as crushing Iris.
‘But this is fun.’
Thinking that, he felt he could almost understand that idiot who fell off the cliff.
You must have found that girl quite pleasing, too. That's why you could die without hesitation.
‘Considering he even got her pregnant, he was quite something.’
He heard that the time they spent together was only a month or two. It was surprising that they managed to produce an offspring in that short span.
Of course, unfortunately, the child between them never saw the light of day. With the mother asleep for a full hundred days, who could have survived?
The reason Iris Achen searched for her husband so desperately was likely similar.
Aren't women naturally incredibly lenient toward the father of the child they bore? And Elio found the answer there.
‘So, once Iris Achen carries my child, she’ll become docile.’
However, she had to pay the price for making him suffer. Otherwise, she would develop bad habits.
‘As I thought, I should send her to Til Nebe Cedric and make her suffer a bit.’
She’s vomiting and throwing things because he’s laying her in a nice place and serving her feasts at every meal.
Thinking this, Elio smiled thinly.
Since it would be troublesome if she used her unnecessarily erotic body—despite being skin and bones—to seduce some random bastard and run away, he decided he should attach female knights in addition to the priests.
As his thoughts wandered, his body grew hot.
“You. Come here.”
Snatching a nearby maid and pinning her down was effortless for the Emperor.
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