The Eternal Kingdom had nothing to do with him.
But if people said he wanted to use his mercenaries to become king, then with his power and army, the Plumera Kingdom should have already belonged to him. Yet Benedict had never shown any sign of that. Even the title King of the Northern Region was something others gave him in secret.
Lord Gregory couldn't understand it either. But from that moment on, the name Benedict became a shadow deeply carved into his heart. It made him realize that no matter how high he climbed, even if he could control the entire Plumera court, as long as Benedict still existed, even if this regent stayed far away in the north, the Plumera Kingdom would never be a place he could control freely.
That day, after Benedict wiped out all of his elite guards, he didn't take Lord Gregory's life completely. He only left one sentence, warning him never to harm the bloodline of the royal family again, then disappeared back to the north.
Because of that sentence, even after all these years, even though Lord Gregory had taken full control of the Plumera court and turned Elara into his puppet, he still didn't dare to act recklessly. He didn't dare to truly harm Elara or Benedict, the last two heirs of the royal family.
Especially in those first few years, he always remembered that fact clearly, afraid that one day he would wake up and lose his head.
Later, as time passed and the northern border stayed quiet for years, Lord Gregory's heart, soaked in power, began to stir again.
Especially since his power had grown massively, almost a thousand times stronger than when Regent Martin killed him without resistance—now he believed that even if he still wasn't equal to the regent, he was no longer that far behind.
The shadow in Lord Gregory's heart was slowly replaced by his growing power, and he began to truly wonder: why did the regent do what he did back then?
Although Regent Martin held the title, ever since he led troops to the north, he hadn't gotten involved in Plumera Kingdom affairs.
The reason why he suddenly went north was never made public either. Some officials once wanted to make him king and went to the north to support him, but before they could even enter the region, he killed them with a single strike.
In the eyes of most officials now, the territory and authority of Plumera Kingdom only remained in the southern region.
What the northern border counted as depended entirely on how the regent viewed it, and no one else dared to say anything.
These were things Lord Gregory had observed and guessed at carefully all these years, which only made him more confused.
The more he wanted to remove the shadow that was the regent, the more he wanted to understand what that man with Plumera's strongest military power actually intended.
Later, after noticing that those who tried to harm Benedict and Elara would strangely vanish, Lord Gregory formed a new idea.
Regent Martin… was likely being held back by something linked to the royal bloodline!
Otherwise, how could someone who clearly didn't care about Plumera Kingdom still forbid anyone from harming those two siblings?
This discovery made Lord Gregory extremely excited. Even though his power now was far beyond what it was in the past, the fear of almost being killed by the regent had left a deep mark.
No matter how tempted he was, he never dared to disobey that old warning from Regent Martin.
But as the years passed and his private power grew larger and stronger, his patience wore thin.
He urgently wanted to test what kind of weakness or secret bound the regent to the royal siblings, making him act like this.
If he could figure it out and use it to his advantage, then even if he couldn't defeat the regent completely, he could at least limit him—stop him from being a sword hanging above his head.
So over the years, whenever Benedict and Elara were hurt or something strange happened to them, Lord Gregory would secretly send people to investigate the northern region.
But unfortunately… even after all that, the information he gathered was still very little.
He only vaguely noticed that whenever something happened to the two, the regent would seem a little more active than usual—like this time, going to the Snow Palace…
Still, even then, Lord Gregory hadn't found any solid clues or secrets.
As he thought, his narrow eyes turned colder. Over the years, despite the many assassination attempts on Benedict and Elara, they had never been seriously injured.
Could it be that they hadn't suffered enough yet? So whatever was binding the regent hadn't been triggered fully?
That conclusion was the only one left after all his testing and investigation.
He had actually thought about it long ago, but because it directly went against the regent's warning, he feared the consequences.
What if he made a move and things didn't go as he expected? Wouldn't that enrage the regent and bring about a terrible ending?
So he had held back all these years. But now, with his private army strong and ready, he no longer had the patience to wait.
With his growing ambition and swelling power, Lord Gregory touched the wine cup on his desk, thinking that the time had come to test it for real.
Of course, he couldn't do it himself.
He needed to find someone who had enough reason and power to seriously harm those two siblings…
Lord Gregory raised his head and squinted at the figure in front of him.
"Have the tax collections from each region been submitted this year?"
"They've been submitted. Besides the twenty carts of grain and twenty carts of gold and silver already sent to the national treasury, the remaining eighty carts of grain and eighty carts of gold and silver have been secretly transported to the nearby city using the usual route. In about six or seven days, they will arrive at the outskirts of the capital, where Captain Yang will take over."
The heads of the Yan and Lin families, who had been holding back their laughter while Lord Gregory was silent, now burst into laughter again!
It was time for the annual dividing of the national treasury! Just thinking about how most of the grain and money meant for the kingdom would go into their private storage made them overjoyed!
Captain Yang, being the closest to Lord Gregory among the three of them, had always handled the secret receiving of this fortune at the outskirts of the capital. That was the biggest reason he held command of the capital guards.
But this year, that Captain Yang…
Elara looked for a stone grinder and quickly found a modest but skilled workshop in the Plumera Kingdom's eastern district. Mathias, disguised as White Third Miss, showed the owner a sketch and ordered ten units.
The workshop specialized in carvings for nobles' mansions, not grinders, but business was slow. The owner agreed to take the job.
After placing the order, Elara visited the grain-and-bean market. She noted that in the capital, Azalea Kingdom's markets mainly sold beans. Rice was scarce and expensive, reserved for the privileged.
She decided to buy ten dan of beans and have them delivered to White Trading House tomorrow. Measurement tools were crude, each bag holding roughly fifty jin.
Elara didn't plan to grind them all at once. She would store them, make a sample to send to the testing house, and then increase production as needed. She also bought some essential utensils and supplies, observed market trade, and returned to the princess residence.
Dinner time had come and dusk was settling over the residence. Elara realized she had been busy since dawn. With no major secretary present, she handled everything herself in this early stage.
Her body was frail, and fatigue was setting in. But she remembered the look Guard Yang gave her before being whipped at the execution ground.
She chuckled and resolved to prepare more thoroughly. She whispered,
System 92 identify the man with a thousand faces in this residence and show me the way.
System 92 replied, "Yes master."
Late that night in the back courtyard, near a broken outbuilding, Elara stood before a battered door entangled in weeds. Without guidance from System 92, she would have struggled to find it.
This room felt nothing like the plum-themed mansion, more like a haunted abandoned palace. She thought of how Benedict once tormented the prisoner, locking him away and feeding him once a day.
Elara hesitated. Recruiting that man to serve her would be difficult. She said,
System 92 show me Benedict's information again.
System 92 answered, "Yes master."
She pushed open the creaky door and stepped inside the gloomy main chamber. In a locked side room, she found the prisoner.
It looked more like a low-level dungeon than a proper bedroom. A cold, dim space held a torn bed, a flickering candle, and a man chained to the wall.
His torso was bare, revealing a slender but defined physique. Dried blood scabs marked his chest and abdomen. His skin was pale from lack of sun. His handsome features carried a unique charm; his long black hair was neatly kept.
He was clean and well-groomed despite the rough treatment. Elara realized Benedict had kept him tidy so she, the crown princess, would feel satisfaction in punishing him.
Elara stared at the motionless man. He didn't react, as if he had already lost consciousness.
She turned to Guard Three, who followed her back. She instructed him,
"Go to the kitchen and get some food. Soup would be best."
Guard Three agreed and left.
Soon he returned with a hot bowl of broth. Elara took a stool and sat before the chained man. She nodded to Guard Three,
"Feed him."
Tres held the bowl, stepped forward, and lifted Emory's chin. He brought the bowl to Emory's mouth, pinched it open, and poured the soup in little by little.
Maybe because he was too hungry, the unconscious Emory tasted the food and instinctively started drinking it quickly. His eyes, which had been closed, slowly opened.
But just after swallowing one mouthful and seeing clearly who was in front of him, he suddenly choked violently. He quickly turned his head away from the bowl and glared at Elara with red, irritated eyes.
"You... cough, cough... what do you want this time... cough, cough... what are you trying to do?"
Seeing that he was awake, Elara waved her hand to signal Tres to step back with the soup. Then she stood in front of Emory, looking him up and down as she spoke.
"Emory, you've been in my palace for quite some time now. A few days ago, I heard something interesting about you, so I came to see for myself. I also wanted to imagine how nice it would be if you and your brother could both serve me. That would feel quite good, wouldn't it?"
Emory froze slightly at her words, but quickly returned to normal before she noticed. His eyes filled with hatred and cold mockery.
"What is the princess talking about? Emory is the only son in his family, and his home is far from the Plumera Kingdom. What brother are you talking about? The princess must be making things up."
His expression was calm and natural, as if he truly had no brother here and Elara was simply mistaken.
That kind of acting... he really lived up to the name "Man of a Thousand Faces." Even this weak, he could act so naturally. His control over his expressions and body was almost perfect. If they added in their ability to disguise themselves as anyone, even people they knew would be fooled.
If Elara hadn't already learned the truth from System 92, she might have ordered someone to investigate again.
"Is that so?" Elara took the bowl of soup from Tres and stirred it with the spoon. "Then I suppose I'll just have to call Scholar Fu here so you two can meet?"
Hearing Scholar Fu's name, Emory gave a mocking laugh. His eyes stared straight at Elara without flinching. "Who's Scholar Fu? I don't know him. The princess can do whatever she wants."
Elara wasn't angry. She nodded. "Fine, then I'll lock him up here too. He'll hang there every day like you. Only a bowl of thin porridge to drink, no sunlight, and wait for me to come visit whenever I feel like it."
She said it calmly and was about to tell Tres to go fetch Scholar Fu.
But Emory looked straight at her and said, "Princess, I already told you he's not my brother. Why bother dragging him here?"
Elara calmly replied, "If he's not your brother, then why are you worried? Didn't you just say I could do whatever I wanted?"
Emory suddenly laughed with sarcasm. He stared at Elara without hiding anything. "Princess, I'm not worried about him. I just don't have a heart as cruel as yours. You can kill someone so easily. I only pity the poor man who's about to suffer just because of me."
Tch. If the original Elara were here, she would have whipped him until he bled all over.
But Elara didn't get angry. The old Elara had been cruel, that much was true.
Still, not getting angry didn't mean she would let him get away with mocking her. After all, she was now the one in this body. She had no intention of taking all the blame for what the former spirit had done. These men were unfortunate, yes, but wasn't everyone in this world unfortunate in some way?
So instead of getting mad, Elara just smiled and went along with his words.
"You're right. So now I really want to call Scholar Fu and hang him here with you. Then I'll come by from time to time to 'visit' the two of you. Is there a problem with that?"
Emory clearly hadn't expected this answer. He stared at her in shock, forgetting to manage his expression. A bit of anger slipped out from his eyes.
"You!"
Elara sat back down in front of him and stirred the soup with the spoon again.
"Whether Scholar Fu is your brother or not, if I can't get a proper answer from you, then I'll just hang him here with you. Or maybe I'll..."