Rolling in Bed with the Male Lead

I felt so ashamed that I wanted to bite off my own tongue, but for the sake of the greater cause, I had to endure it.

"Hahahaha!"

The Emperor burst into loud laughter once again.

"My, my, how audacious. But it is amusing..."

The Emperor tapped the armrest of his chair with his fingertips. As the sound echoed through the banquet hall, a chilling aura swirled through the air.

"However."

In an instant, the look in his eyes changed completely.

"Young Master Friedrich, do you realize just how perilous your proposal is?"

He rolled his broad shoulders once and slowly continued.

"Marriage to the Crown Prince is no simple union. It would be a monumental event that would alter the fate of the Empire and the established balance of power."

A maddening interest lurked beneath his suddenly lowered voice.

"Hmm... Seeing such a bold attempt after so long makes even my heart race, but as a reward for your service, it seems excessive. The 'price' of this request... would be beyond imagination."

The Emperor slowly looked down at Richard, a cold smile playing on his lips.

"Do you think you can handle it?"

"..."

What would happen if I answered 'Yes' here?

Hmm... Do you truly believe you can handle it?

The Emperor would narrow his eyes as if intrigued. And then...

Then let him die.

Snick!

Richard's head would roll.

End of the forty-ninth regression.

...

Then what would happen if I answered 'No'?

Hmm... So you don't even have that much courage?

The Emperor's smile would immediately twist. And then...

How boring.

Snick!

This time, too, Richard's head would roll.

Again, the end of the forty-ninth regression.

"..."

Richard quietly curled one corner of his mouth.

I can't die.

This is only the beginning. It can't end so meaninglessly.

"I dare ask Your Majesty just one thing."

Richard neatly clasped his hands together, held his head high, and spoke.

Politely, yet without groveling.

"Do you truly believe a 'price' is necessary?"

A brief flash passed through the Emperor's red eyes.

They gleamed as if in surprise.

"Isn't it only natural?"

He did not slice Richard's throat. Instead, he chose to respond with a question.

"A male Crown Princess Consort? It is preposterous. In the Empire's thousand-year history, such a thing has never happened."

"..."

"There must surely be a commensurate 'price.'"

But Richard, unshaken by the rebuttal, smiled faintly.

"Well. If I may dare to share my thoughts..."

He boldly rose from his seat and took a step closer to the Emperor.

Overcoming the suffocating pressure weighing down his entire body, Richard spoke.

"Would this marriage not be beneficial to Your Majesty?"

The Emperor's lips twisted.

"And why would you think that?"

"Because—"

Richard looked him straight in the eye and enunciated each word clearly.

"Your Majesty does not favor His Highness the Crown Prince."

For a brief moment, the Emperor's red eyes turned cold.

Richard did not miss the opportunity.

"Your Majesty hates His Highness the Crown Prince. You do not wish to pass the throne to him."

"..."

"If His Highness's reputation were tarnished by marrying a man like me, questions would naturally arise about his suitability as the next Emperor. Could Your Majesty ask for a better opportunity than this?"

A frigid air pressed down upon the banquet hall.

"Hmm."

The Emperor's smile grew colder.

"Your words have merit, but there is one critical flaw."

"What is it?"

"Why do you think I hate the Crown Prince?"

The Emperor also rose from his seat.

He took a step toward Richard.

Tap.

The sound of his polished shoe echoed through the hall, and a wrinkled hand seized Richard's chin.

"Cailus is my only biological son, born to me and my beloved Empress."

Holding Richard's chin, the Emperor brought his face close to his.

"There is absolutely no reason for me to hate him."

As if cornering a mouse he had been toying with.

However—

"'Only one,' you said?"

Even with his chin seized and his head forced upward, Richard met the Emperor's gaze unwaveringly.

"That is right. My 'only' biological child."

He was not drawn in.

"How could there be any other biological child?"

"..."

"Her Majesty the Empress passed away while giving birth to His Highness the Crown Prince, did she not?"

"!"

For the first time, agitation stirred in the Emperor's previously unmoving red eyes.

Richard subtly raised one corner of his mouth.

"His Highness the Crown Prince was born at the cost of his own mother's life. In the end, it was because of His Highness the Crown Prince that Her Majesty the Empress, whom Your Majesty loved so dearly, passed away..."

He had not originally been a madman.

A wise emperor.

He had been a wise emperor who ruled the Empire competently and, for the first time in its history, took not a single concubine.

The reason such a man became a madman...

Was because he lost his beloved Empress because of the Crown Prince.

"Do you truly not hate His Highness the Crown Prince?"

"..."

"..."

A cold silence stretched on.

After a long while—

"Ha, hahaha!"

The Emperor threw his head back and laughed.

"Hahahaha, how amusing!"

Mad laughter burst from his lips, stretched wide as if about to tear.

Like the roar of a beast.

"..."

Richard did not laugh.

"I see. You know quite a lot."

"..."

"So, what is it you truly want?"

The Emperor's red eyes flashed.

"No matter how mad I may be, I know that your true desire is not marriage to the Crown Prince."

He had only entertained the request because it interested him.

"It makes no sense from the start, does it?"

"..."

"You claim to love the Crown Prince, yet you [N O V E L I G H T] wish to lead him down a path that will send him plummeting into ruin?"

He raised one corner of his mouth in a sneer.

As if to say that was not love.

If the two of them married as Richard intended, Cailus would lose his position as Crown Prince and fall from power.

"..."

Right. That is not love.

Love is sacrificing oneself for the other, not destroying the other for one's own sake.

As he said, Richard did not love Cailus.

However...

"That is not so."

Richard's eyes gleamed like a madman's.

"Please consider it once more, Your Majesty. I am a man."

"..."

"How could I ever reach His Highness the Crown Prince without going this far?"

If he could not persuade him with logic, it was better to pretend to be mad.

"Whether His Highness the Crown Prince's standing is affected is of no importance to me. What matters is—"

Richard smiled brightly.

"That the two of us are joined."

Like a madman twisted by unbearable love.

"Hmm."

With an expression that was half doubtful and half convinced, the Emperor narrowed his eyes sharply.

"And, Your Majesty."

Richard smiled leisurely and rose slightly onto his toes.

"I know far more of Your Majesty's secrets than you might think."

Richard whispered into his ear.

"Secrets?"

The Emperor raised one eyebrow.

Richard curled one corner of his mouth and spoke.

"Your Majesty."

After a brief pause—

"You are searching for Her Majesty the Empress's corpse, are you not?"

He had struck his opponent's weak point.

"..."

"..."

A momentary silence followed.

"Ha?"

One of the Emperor's eyebrows, relaxed until now, shot upward.

Twenty-one years ago.

On the day of the Empress's funeral.

Her body had disappeared.

From that day until now, the Emperor had been desperately searching for it.

"How do you know that...?"

"Does that matter?"

Richard spoke with a soft smile in his eyes.

"I will find it for you, so how about granting my request?"

"..."

The Emperor let out a derisive chuckle.

"Ha. Are you saying that because you know where it is?"

"Of course."

Richard answered without a trace of agitation.

"In the basement of the Chesika Dukedom."

Naturally, Richard knew.

The Empress's body was hidden underground in the Chesika Dukedom.

"Your Majesty knows as well, do you not?"

He also knew—

"That Her Majesty the Empress's body is hidden beneath the Duke's mansion."

That the Emperor knew this fact as well.

It was merely that the circumstances were not yet right for him to retrieve it.

"..."

The corner of the Emperor's mouth twitched.

"Just how much do you know?"

"Well."

Richard's watery eyes settled into a cold gaze.

"Perhaps even more than you do."

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