Chapter 61

After seeing that Tashir had fully recovered, Latil told him to return slowly and came back to the palace with only the high priest. Initially, Latil did not take the injured Tashir directly to the palace because he was wary of the enemies inside. If those people saw Tashir with burns, they might suspect his connection to the auction carriage incident. Therefore, he had to be extra cautious until the end. "I wish you could help me a bit. Stay in the palace for a week or two and assist the Marquis Sablé." After writing a letter to his brother, Latil had someone deliver it the next morning and then began working on interpreting the ancient map. Adomar, where this ancient map was discovered, was a city of a nation that had flourished in the past but now had declined and disappeared. What was unusual was that Adomar had never been under the rule of any nation, even as several nations were founded and fell. Despite its decline, the city was vast, and its buildings were still magnificent and sturdy. This was because the nations that had occupied Adomar had all fallen due to internal strife, leading to rumors that the city was cursed. As a result, nations that viewed this as ominous avoided occupying Adomar. In the end, Adomar remained a city of a vanished nation, belonging to no country. However, because of this, various ruins and dungeons were continuously discovered, making it a land revered by archaeologists. If this ancient map came from such a place, it must contain something significant. Whenever he was not busy, Latil would go to the library, stack archaeology books on one side of his desk, and struggle to interpret the map. In this process, one person unexpectedly benefited. "Your Majesty, are you here again today?" It was Gest, who practically lived in the library. "Yeah, are you here today too?" As Latil entered the library and asked, Gest, hugging a book tightly, mumbled, "Yes, I wanted to finish what I was reading yesterday..." "You're really diligent. Is there a day you don't come here?" "I don't have many close concubines... and there's nothing to do in the harem..." "But you used to come here often even before you joined the harem, right?" Gest hesitated and then smiled shyly, making Latil realize he had made him uncomfortable. He laughed along, thinking, "I made him too embarrassed. I shouldn't have said that." After hesitating whether to say more, Latil finally just patted Gest's shoulder and walked to the archaeology section. For some reason, Gest, who had been reading by the window at a distance yesterday, followed Latil closely today. When Latil pulled a book from the shelf and asked, "Why?" Gest timidly asked, "I noticed that Your Majesty keeps reading books related to archaeology. Is that right?" "Yeah." Latil smiled, thinking of the ancient map he had hidden in his robes. "I've been interested in this recently. With all the bad things happening in the palace." To avoid taking out the map anywhere, Latil had only written down a few characters he wanted to decipher on a piece of paper. This was why he pretended not to know when Gest asked. "I..." Gest kept hovering around Latil, seemingly wanting to say something. "Why?" When Latil asked again, feeling impatient, Gest hesitated, quickly approached Latil, and pointed to the cover of one of the archaeology books, saying, "Machanru." "Machanru? Why are you calling a book cover Machanru?" Latil frowned, then quickly understood and asked loudly, "Can you read ancient language?" "Yes, I was deeply interested in it for a while." Gest mumbled, looking at his feet. Latil smiled, thinking, "This is great. It's been a hassle to find each character one by one." With someone to automatically read the characters, the process would be much faster. "Can you help me a bit?"

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Over the next few days, Latil met with Gest to learn the ancient script. Of course, he couldn't show the map directly, so he would open pages of other books containing the characters and have Gest read the entire page to decipher the characters. This greatly sped up the process and was very helpful, allowing Latil to interpret the ancient map faster than expected. Overjoyed, Latil asked Gest, "Gest, is there anything you want?" "Something I want?" "Yeah. Thanks to you, I saved a lot of time. I want to give you a gift. What do you want? Jewelry? A necklace? Clothes? A rare book?" Latil was willing to grant any request from Gest. However, Gest hesitated, looking at Latil several times, as if he had something in mind but couldn't say it easily. "It's okay. Just tell me, anything." When Latil smiled and made the atmosphere more relaxed, Gest finally mustered the courage to ask, "I want to spend some time alone with Your Majesty on my birthday. It doesn't matter where, just the two of us..." "Your birthday?" Latil was momentarily surprised but quickly responded, "Sure, let's do that." Seeing him say it like that, it must be soon. He couldn't have brought it up 10 months in advance. "Your birthday is coming up soon, right?" "You remember my birthday...?" "Of course! It's coming up soon." "Your Majesty..." Gest looked at Latil with gratitude, and seeing his innocent eyes, Latil felt a pang of guilt and deliberately looked at a book. * * * "Marquis Sablé, when is Gest's birthday?" As soon as Latil entered his office to handle business, he asked the head steward. "Gest?" The head steward, seemingly wondering why he was asked, thought for a moment and replied, "It's probably May 17th." "It's coming up soon?" Latil was surprised. It was really coming up soon. He thought it was still far away, but it was actually very close. "It's only about two weeks away, right?" "Yes." Latil clicked his tongue and blamed the head steward. "You should have told me earlier." "I was shortsighted. I apologize, Your Majesty." "No, I'm not really blaming you." Latil waved his hand, thinking he needed to calculate the time for the place mentioned in the ancient map and his trip there. If it was close, he could go before Gest's birthday, but if not, it would be more natural to go after. As he thought about this, the head steward, anticipating other questions, listed the birthdays of other concubines. "After Gest, the next birthday is Klein's on June 1st." "That's coming up soon too." "Yes, and the next is..." The head steward suddenly widened his eyes. "Why?" When Latil asked, the head steward laughed. "Oh, nothing. I just remembered that Lady Ranamon's birthday is the same as Your Majesty's." "August 26th?" "Yes. It seems to be a very auspicious date." The head steward, a supporter of Ranamon, subtly added his opinion. "If Ranamon becomes the empress, people will say it's a great destiny for the emperor and empress to be born on the same day." "People who like that are the Marquis Sablé." "..." The head steward cleared his throat, embarrassed. However, he didn't deny it, which made Latil feel like he was fatefully linking Ranamon and himself. To counter this, Latil casually added, "I believe Empress Aini of Carisen was also born on this day." If Ranamon and Latil had a destiny, then Aini and Latil also had a destiny. The head steward glared at him, but Latil maintained a calm expression. "What? It's true." Latil asked, intrigued, and Seun nodded. "Yes." Even though it could have ended there, the head steward, unwilling to give up, clapped and tried to link Latil and Ranamon as destiny. "It seems to be a very lucky date, Your Majesty. The birthdays of the emperors and empresses of two empires are on the same day. And..." However, just as the head steward was about to finish with, "It would be even better if Ranamon becomes the empress," Seun was about to interrupt, but Latil beat him to it, waving his hand. "No need to read too much into it. Tella's birthday is also on that day. Ugh." The head steward laughed awkwardly. He knew this but hadn't mentioned it. During the time Latil and Tella were the princess and prince, when Leann was firmly in the position of crown prince, this issue had caused a lot of internal strife, affecting the empress, the concubine, their supporters, and ultimately Latil and Tella. Not intending to make the head steward uncomfortable, Latil asked brightly when he saw the head steward's darkening expression. "So, when are Karin, the high priest, and Tashir's birthdays?"

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At that moment, Tiri was pacing around, crossing his arms and thinking hard. 'What should I do with this?' In his pocket was a small vial of medicine that Gest had received from Lord Chancellor and passed to him. If taken, it would render the person impotent for a year. 'Who should I give this to?' Tiri mentally listed the people who had conflicts with Gest. The person Gest was most concerned about was the high priest... Honestly, Tiri didn't want to give the medicine to the high priest. He was afraid of divine retribution. Although he wasn't a devout believer, like most people on the continent, Tiri had a formless respect and fear for the temple, the gods, and the high priest. 'Klein. I should definitely give it to that mad dog.' As soon as he crossed the high priest off the list, Klein immediately came to mind. Tiri nodded, convinced that Klein was the only one who deserved this. Although he hadn't had significant conflicts with other concubines, Klein had openly tormented Gest, insulting him as a dried plum every time he saw him and constantly picking fights. 'Our young master may be a dried plum inside, but he's so solid on the outside! He's a radish, not a dried plum!' Tiri thought of Gest's broad shoulders and solid limbs and huffed. Now that he had made his decision, he needed to act. Tiri looked around the dining area, looking for a way to get the medicine into Klein's food. As evening approached, servants began pulling wagons out of the kitchen. 'The food for that mad dog... that one!' Tiri, who had been lurking like a hyena, recognized a servant he had seen around Klein's room and quietly approached him. As a prodigy brought in by Lord Chancellor based on talent alone, Tiri was naturally gifted in physical abilities. Moreover, the chancellor had provided him with the best food and the best swordsmanship teacher for his son, making him stronger than most knights, even if he wasn't famous. Deceiving a few servants was no problem. 'Done.' Tiri uncorked the vial and waited. When the head chef called the servants for a moment, he quickly poured the medicine into the soup bowl destined for Klein. He returned to his hiding spot behind a tree, closed the vial, and suppressed a bit of guilt. 'It's okay. That guy has done worse to our young master.' The effect would only last a year and wouldn't make him permanently infertile. It would just make him unable to perform for a year. Wasn't this a satisfying revenge? If he couldn't serve the emperor, maybe that mad dog would behave for a year. Tiri nodded and quickly left the area. After Tiri disappeared, the servant, unaware of what was in the wagon, whistled as he walked down the corridor. Suddenly, someone called out, "Wait!" The servant stopped and saw a colleague who was supposed to take a wagon to Lady Ranamon's room. "What's up?" The servant asked, and the colleague, looking genuinely apologetic, said, "Can you switch one of the dishes? The soup and this soup." "Why?" The servant heading to Klein's room, confused, asked, and the one heading to Ranamon's room sighed deeply. "Lady Ranamon is a very picky eater. She hates peas. This is pea soup. Deks, I told him Lady Ranamon doesn't eat peas, but he made pea soup again. He's definitely taking money from one of the other concubines to do this." The servant heading to Klein's room clicked his tongue and placed the matsutake mushroom soup from his wagon into Ranamon's bowl. "Sure. We have to help each other, or we'll suffer when the higher-ups get angry." "Thanks. Really, thanks!"