The Eternal Debauchery's

scapegoat

"Speak, what do you have to say to defend you?" The emperor asked in an ice-cold tone. At the same time, he released his aura to suppress us.

I frowned for a moment and grabbed Dina's hand. Although this pressure was nothing to me, Ysnay, or Evelyn, Dina was only a 6th tier practitioner. He would find it difficult to withstand the pressure of an 11th layer practitioner.

As soon as I held Dina's hand, she felt the pressure attacking her to disappear. Surprised, Dina looked at me and smiled thankfully. He then grabbed my hand tighter and spoke calmly to the emperor.

"Your Majesty, what do you mean?"

The Emperor raised an eyebrow in surprise. He never expected Dina to take the initiative to speak.

The Emperor expected Evelyn or me to speak instead, and Dina was the most vigilant among us. After all, it was in front of the emperor and some powerful ministers facing the possibility of the death penalty. A normal person would be so frightened that he would pee on his pants.

But Dina did not curl up and instead acted as if nothing was wrong.

Even Evelyn and the ministers in the hall were slightly surprised by Dina's calmness.

Unknowingly, my lips curved into a gentle smile.

My brother has grown a lot.

She had transformed from a poor princess into a strong woman capable of standing firmly in front of the emperor.

Unfortunately, now is not the time to remember my brother's growth.

Although the emperor was slightly surprised by Dina's composure, he narrowed his eyes and snorted when he heard her question.

“Dina Quintin, don't you already know what happened? Or will you avoid your responsibility in two thousand deaths?

Dina frowned and did not immediately reply. He had noticed the emperor directly asking us to take responsibility.

That's outrageous! He did not even know the details of the situation! thought Dina

Dina knew that if we were to be declared responsible for death, our lives would end.2000 deaths was something that even the emperor could not ignore easily.

Besides, obviously the emperor wants to put this death on our heads. He doesn't care if we did it or not. He wants to use us as scapegoats!

After all, we have long been thorns on his side.

Aware of the dire situation, Dina looked at me as if asking for help. But I just smiled and said nothing.

In fact, I stopped Evelyn from speaking.

This is a great opportunity for Dina. Although it seems like we are in big trouble, I have actually prepared a countermeasure for this.

So, to me, it's just a game.

But if my sister is performing amazingly in this drama, maybe we can get an unexpected reward.

Therefore, now that my sister took the initiative to step forward, I will let her continue to face this alone. We're all just going to be supporting characters in the drama.

Seeing none of us answering, the emperor frowned.

“It looks like none of you are willing to admit it, yes. All right, I'll talk then. This morning, Principal Evelyn along with Prince Claus and Princess Dina embarked on an operation to eliminate the so-called 'seed' that one uses to manipulate some citizens in the capital to commit crimes. I personally gave permission to start that operation."

"However, I don't remember telling you to kill 2000 citizens!" Emperor slams his throne arm. “2000 citizens! 2000 citizens were killed in the Imperial Institute! In addition, we received information about thousands of animals that died simultaneously. Do you know what that means?”

“... I know, Your Highness.” Dina frowned and said.

"But it seems you're not!" Emperor snarls. “Do you know how big this problem is? How will we answer the people for this death? Many citizens in the capital lost their loved ones today. What if they ask for an explanation? How will we answer them? We can have a rebellion on our hands! Do you understand!?"

"i understand, Your Majesty."

The Emperor looked at Dina and then at us and sighed sadly, as if he felt disappointed.

However, I could feel him very excited.

He doesn't care about the people who died. Of course, some of these people will demand explanations, and there is a risk of rebellion.

But at the same time, this is the perfect excuse to order our execution.

And once we are executed, the emperor can use our deaths to appease the citizens, appease the masses.

In other words, he exchanged the lives of 2000 commoners for our deaths.

For the emperor, it was quite good.

Therefore, he pretended to show an expression of pain and spoke.

“... One must be responsible for this. Everyone, what do you think?” He asked the ministers in the hall.

“Your Majesty, the situation is very serious. I'm sure the citizens of the capital will not be satisfied unless we give them the right answer.”

“It is clear that Principal Evelyn is guilty here. As the one who proposed this operation, he should be in charge.”

"You're right. At least they should be exiled.”

I heard all their words with a smile.

No one here is an idiot. They all knew the Emperor wanted to take this opportunity to get rid of us.

After all, although most commoners knew nothing about the matter in the Imperial Family, it was no secret to the nobles.

Thus, many nobles wanted to use this opportunity to take the emperor's heart.

In fact, a normal prince and princess would escape this situation with the least amount of reprimand and light punishment.

And even if one needed to take responsibility, no one dared to use a prince/princess for this.

The fact that so many people dared to suggest punishing us shows our precarious position in this empire.

But the worst is yet to come.

Someone hasn't spoken yet.

And now, my father-in-law, Earl Carson Riea, take a step forward.

“Your Majesty, you must be a virtuous emperor. Blood debt must be paid by blood!”

*Surprised!*

Some nobles flinched.

Even the craziest of them did not dare to suggest killing a prince.

After all, the emperor is ultimately our father. Even if our relationship is bad, killing us is too extreme.

But to the surprise of many, the emperor did not hesitate to nod.

“You are right, blood debt must be paid by blood. The one responsible for this should receive the appropriate punishment.”

I grinned in my heart. Hypocrites.

… How many innocent people have you not killed in your whole life, huh?

Your words are nothing more than nonsense.

But even though I was in the mood to curse her in my mind, Dina panicked.

Although she did her best not to show it on her face, I could feel the hand holding my hand trembling slightly.

Glancing at me, Dina bit her lips and sighed.

“Your Majesty, if someone needs to be punished, it must be me. I'm the one who directed this operation. The others just follow my orders.”

These words of Dina shocked the people in the hall.

“Dina, you–!” Evelyn tried to speak, but Ysnay stopped her with a quick glance. He then looked at Dina with interest.

'… What a sweet girl.' I heard his voice in my mind.

The emperor frowned. "What do you mean that you admit this is your responsibility?"

"Yes." Yeah."

“So... How awesome, but it's not enough. Others have to pay too!” emperor says.

“Yang Mulia–!”

“Stop Dina.” I cut it and smiled. "You don't have to beg him."

Don't joke, my dear dearest. Obviously the emperor would not miss this opportunity to bury me seven meters underground.

Dina still wanted to talk, but I stopped her with a small laugh.

“It's okay.” I said smiling mysteriously.

Before Dina could understand my point, a voice came from the entrance of the hall.

"Your Majesty, you should investigate the situation before making a decision, don't you?"

I curled my lips upwards. He finally arrived.

The emperor frowned. He soon realized that something was wrong.

“.... What are you doing here, Saintess Safelia?”