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While looking around the coronation hall, decorated in a gorgeous and neat manner, she stayed alert just in case she might bump into the Hazlet couple. She felt relieved thanks to the huge round pillars around that sort of served as a protective shield for her.

“…I’m so excited to know that the crown prince has already grown up to have a coronation! I’m so impressed!”

“You bet! He hasn’t succeeded the throne easily. He had lots of ups and downs. As you know, there were rumors about him circulating for a long time before he was designated as the crown prince.”

“Are you referring to the rumors that he was delivered by Queen Ruzan?”

“Yes, but that’s just groundless. I still vividly remember how Queen Ruzan furious was about such rumors. In some respects, I feel sorry for the crown prince. Queen Ruzan, who loved her son so much, passed away early, and so did the emperor.”

An elderly lady and another woman who was younger than her were chatting on the other side of the column from Wendy. Wendy listened to the conversation between the two.

They did not stop whispering.

“I heard that as soon as the coronation is over, the new prince will choose his partner. Don’t you think the Bishop family should have some expectations?”

“What are you talking about? We dare not expect it. As you know, everyone knows that the Jaylins and the Scholters were being talked about because of their lousy quarrel. How could she be chosen as his fiancee?”

“Well, it’s common for young ladies to quarrel like that. What’s the big deal about it? You don’t have to feel ashamed about it.”

The old lady went to her and comforted her with a smile.

Listening to their conversation accidentally, Wendy tilted her champagne glass, surprised at the new emperor’s choice of fiancee. Was the new emperor getting married soon? She instantly felt it was very unsuitable for him at this point, but she also thought that he could fill the vacuum left by his late father by getting married. The crown prince certainly needed somebody to comfort him.

A little later, they stopped playing suddenly then played some heavy tunes. All those who were engaged in chattering stopped and faced the massive arched door.

“Wendy!”

Wendy, looking at the front door like others, turned to the side when she heard the familiar voice calling her name. Lard approached her and met her eyes. As if he already sensed that his short absence caused her anxiety and tried to ease it, he grasped her gently. She felt relieved when she felt his firm grasp.

“So, have you accomplished your mission?”

“I have not met Captain Hoykin. He was out double checking the security outside the palace. I’ve just returned after instructing the 2nd Imperial Knights to tighten security around some fragile areas.”

Sir Hoykin, the Captain of the 2nd Knights, was in charge of defending the imperial palace. His responsibilities had increased since the 1st Knights focused on investigating the explosion of the princes’ palace and the death of the late emperor. The security of the Imperial Palace was coordinated between the two knight groups, but recently, the 1st Knights reinforced the 2nd Knights.

Lard was briefed by Jean Jacques Simuan about the status of the deployment of the 1st Knights’ main forces and ordered him to increase the security personnel.

“Crown Prince Isaac von Benyahan has arrived!”

Only minutes after the string concerto played magnificent tunes did the massive arched door slowly open. The prince was wearing a suit of gold, black, and crimson. His cloak stretched across on the floor behind him and moved silently as he walked in a solemn manner.

The silk cloak, padded with fine marten leather inside, seemed to show his gravitas.

His long gold-plated interlaced jacket sparkled with brilliant gold buttons and red rubies.

He moved toward the crown at the highest place in the middle of the platform. The crown, made of all kinds of precious gems from around the world and gold, seemed to be very heavy at first glance. If this fragile prince man put on the crown, it seemed like his neck would soon be broken by its weight. The weight of the next emperor’s robe and the crown were heavy as if they were designed to have him experience the weight of his responsibility as the next emperor.

After the Chief Justice chairing the coronation ceremony finished the long introduction, he read the official oath used by the succeeding emperors in a majestic tone.

The majestic voice of the prince resonated through the hall as he pledged his vows, occasionally looking at the scroll held by the two pages.

Wendy predicted that the pledge ritual would not end quickly when she noticed that the scroll in their hands was quite long.

She looked around the hall. As she stood still in high-heeled shoes, she felt uncomfortable because they weighed heavily on her toes. When she pulled one foot off the floor and moved her eyes aside, she saw a familiar face.

There was no trembling in the eyes of the other party as if she had been watching Wendy for a long time. She was none other than Mrs. Hazellet.

Wendy felt creeped out at her sharp glance. She looked at Mrs. Hazlet without turning her eyes, at a loss what kind of expression to make.

“Wendy.”

She turned her head only when Lard tightened his grip on her hands. He threw a sharp glance at the direction Wendy turned to. Only then did Mrs. Hazlet turn her eyes to the prince on the platform.

“Don’t care about her.”

Lard stepped forward and blocked the countess from Wendy’s sight. Although she was ready to confront her, Wendy found it hard to calm down her throbbing heart. She couldn’t describe how to express her feelings. The voice of the countess who had harassed her so much echoed in her ears from her memories.

As Francis Hazlet was in miserable condition after flogging, obviously the countess would feel more intense hatred of her. Although Wendy hadn’t seen her in three years, her malicious face and murderous gaze seemed unchanged.

Had Earl Hazlet come here with her?

Wendy suddenly became curious about his presence. It wasn’t out of curiosity about his affection for his beloved daughter. She was only wary of the presence of a potential threat, nothing more or less.

With Lard standing firmly next to her, she lifted her trembling eyes and looked around his shoulders to check where the countess was.

While Wendy was casting a glance at the countess’s place for a moment, she noticed a gray-haired old gentleman standing a little away from her. He was Earl Hazlet.

With a skinny and slender figure, he was looking at the prince on the platform while listening to his pledge. He looked a bit older and more skinny than when she last saw him.

Although he looked stubborn, he was a man with a tender heart. It was because of his timid disposition that he could not bear the countess’s fiery temper. While Wendy stayed at his mansion, he never protected Wendy.

Taking her eyes off of him bitterly, Wendy stared at the back of the prince as he finished his pledge. Her resentment and hatred of them slowly lifted its ugly head and broke her heart.

Their resistance to her decision to change her status and her fear of them possibly disclosing her true status as well as their possible retaliation for Francis’s punishment complicated her thoughts.

Even Lard’s explanation about the collateral punishment they would suffer did not comfort her much. She wondered if it would really limit the countess’s retaliatory actions against her.

She tightened her fingertips as if she were trying to feel Lard’s presence in her hand. She was nervous.

Initially, the reason for the inclusion of the purchase and sale of status in the clauses regarding treason was because the emperor intended to severely punish nobles shaking the foundations of the status system and challenging the authority of the aristocracy.

The lawmakers who tabled the legislation at first did not tolerate those who infringed on their vested interests by buying and selling noble status. In the days of Nicholas Benjahan, the first emperor, a case involving the purchase and sale of the status of aristocracy was first discovered, so the emperor applied the collateral clauses to the criminals to set an example through heavy punishment. Regardless of whether they were young or old, man or woman, the punishment would be levied against the whole family of the criminal. It was dreadful enough to every noble in the empire that they didn’t do it.

At the same time, the government began to block the sale or purchase of noble status by making a list of nobles, but it was almost impossible to obtain the list which was under strict control by the government, so it was difficult to find nobles who had given up their vested rights by selling their noble status.