Chapter 307 Funeral

Hey guys, AIdka's Here!

Someone in P4TRE0N asked some questions. After thinking for a moment, I decided to post the answers here too.

1. Why the earl acted against Claus? Claus was going to be exiled anyway, so there was no need for him to plot against him.

As you said, there was no need for the earl to do anything because the emperor already was planning to get rid of Claus. And in fact, he did nothing for a long time. If you read the story, you will realize that everything started when the earl's son, Al, had a dispute with the earn without the earl knowing. Everything escalated until Al ordered an assassination without the earl knowing, which Claus frustrated.

The earl, however, realized that something was wrong with Claus with that assassination, so he sent his daughter to learn more about Claus, just in case. He did not attack him, and only sent her to become Claus's friend, but his plan backfired, and Louise ended becoming Claus's girlfriend.

Only after this (and some other things Claus did), the earl finally realized Claus was more threatening than he thought, so he planned together with the Empress to get rid of him. You can say that this plan is the only time the earl directly acted against Claus, but by this point, he had enough reasons.

2. Why the earl became power-hungry?

This one I don't think I need to answer. This situation is pretty common in real life, and I personally know several cases of people becoming power hungry and leaving aside their family.

3. Why the emperor hates Claus so much?

He is projecting his guilt for the death of Claus's mother, on Claus. It was explained in chapters 39 \u0026 40 if you want to read it again.

4. Why Alan (The crown prince) doesn't care about others?

He is just a selfish bastard. His personality is like that. He doesn't care for anyone else but himself. In fact, the emperor is also like that and I know of people like that in real life too. (An uncle of mine is an assh*le that literally abandoned his ill mother to not spend money in her meds).

I hope these answers help you! Thanks for your support!

Bryan's funeral occurred almost ten days after we left the forest of wolves.

In normal circumstances, the funeral of a prince would have occurred much sooner. However, Prince Bryan's death was not confirmed immediately. In fact, the empress refused to accept he was dead.

It was even uncertain if there was going to be a funeral.

After all, the body of the prince was never found. There was the possibility he was caught and brought to the daemon empire, or perhaps he was still in the forest.

Thus, the empress organized several search teams and sent spies to the daemon empire in hopes of getting information about her son. Unfortunately, she got nothing.

Moreover, the messengers she sent to the daemon empire came back and told her that the daemons did not take captives during the forest of wolves' operation. In fact, none of the daemons sent to the forest had returned. Perhaps all of them were dead, or perhaps they went into hiding until the situation calmed down.

As last resort, the empress paid a huge price to beg the Goddess of Order to divine if her son was still alive.

And the results were unfortunate.

The prince is dead. That was the answer the empress got.

After hearing that, all the hopes of the empress were dashed.

The empress fell ill, not leaving her bed for two days straight. Meanwhile, the emperor finally ordered to start the preparations for the funeral.

And as a prince, I'm forced to attend that funeral even if I don't want.

I mean, I'm sure that this funeral will be filled with hypocrites crying and praising my trash of brother and saying that he was talented, a good person, had a good future, and he should not have died.

Yeah, everybody is a good person when in a coffin.

Interestingly, according to the information I got from the Red Skull Gang, many commoners thanked the goddess for bringing retribution to the evil prince.

In fact, I'm sure that if not by the fear of being executed by the angry empress, many commoners would have organized a festival to celebrate my brother's death.

Anyway, the funeral started in the morning. A group of imperial guards carried a coffin from the imperial palace until the headquarters of the Church of Order, followed by a procession dressed in black.

The first person after the coffin was the emperor. He was wearing a long black robe and had an inscrutable expression on his face. It was impossible to know what he was thinking.

Behind him, empress Lilia was crying bitterly. She was being held and helped by Hope and Lotus, Lilia's two personal maids. Moreover, Lena and Alan were walking beside her, holding Lilia's hand and crying bitterly (Alan was probably feigning it, though).

Dina and I were walking directly behind them. Dina's expression was indifferent, without a trace of pain, but she was holding my hand firmly. In the eyes of the people around us, she was doing ti to get emotional support.

Of course, I knew that was false. In truth, Dina was just taking advantage of this opportunity to hold my hand in public. In fact, I could feel she was doing her best to suppress her urges to smile.

Well, I was not much better. In fact, after a while, I hugged Dina's shoulders and pressed her body against mine. Dina trembled before shooting me a reproachful look, but she remained like that the rest of the way.

Apart from the imperial family, other people in the procession were Iris (Bryan's fiance), Daisy, Louise, Earl Riea, Headmistress Evelyn, and a lot more. The number of people attending the funeral easily surpassed one thousand.

Well, no matter how disappointing of a prince he was, he was still a prince. His funeral must be grand enough.

After almost two hours, the funeral procession finally reached the main cathedral of the Goddess of Order. We were received by several cardinals and the saintess in person. Afterward, the coffin was put below the altar to wait for the start of the ceremony.

By the way, Saintess Safelia was the one in charge of the ceremony. As the saintess, she was one of the few people qualified to perform it.

The ceremony was programmed to start two hours later, at noon. I was bored of staying seated in front of an empty coffin, so after accompanying Dina for five minutes, I excused myself and stood up.

Then, I wandered around trying to find something to do.

Several people approached me to give me their condolences, and I accepted it while putting my best face of a little brother pained by the death of his elder brother. I wonder how convincing I was.

But in the middle of that, I meet Clara's eyes.

My fiance smiled at me and walked away. I understood her cue and followed after her.

Less than five minutes later, the two of us arrived in an empty room.

When Clara was sure that there was nobody nearby, she rushed towards me.

"Claus!"

I hugged her enticing body softly and kissed her auburn hair while Clara put her head on my chest.

"Sorry for bringing you to this place," Clara muttered softly. "But you know that due to my position, I can't hug you like this in public Well, not yet"

I looked at Clara with a look of amusement and chuckled. "Do you already received the news?"

" Yes." Clara nodded with a shy smile. "Sister Safelia told me yesterday that the church will do an exception and allow me to continue our engagement"

So that was the reason she called me here, huh.

I was wondering why Clara took the initiative to do something so risky as escaping from the funeral with me, but it looks like it was because she was unable to contain her happiness and needed to share it with me.

"Claus, what did you do?" She asked me with a coy look.

I chuckled and pecked her soft lips. "Well, you know your husband is awesome. As for the specifics, that is a secret."

Clara pouted, but perhaps because she was too happy after hearing the news, she did not insist on it.

Instead, she intertwined her fingers with mine and put on a happy smile.

"Thank you..."

I smiled and kissed her soft lips again.

Only after we finished kissing, Clara remembered about the funeral.

"By the way, Claus, my condolences about the death of your brother."

I chuckled. "You don't need to. I think you are clear about my relationship with that part of my family."

Clara smiled wryly. "Please, at least show a bit of respect for the dead."

"Oh?" I curved my lips up and wrapped my hands around Clara's waist. "How dare you criticize your husband when you are having a tryst with me in the middle of the funeral?"

Clara blushed in embarrassment and lowered her head.

In front of such a cute gesture, I was unable to suppress my impulses and stole her lips fiercely.

But when my hands were going to start roaming the body of my sweet fiance, the door of the room was slammed open.

Then, an angry saintess appeared in front of us.

"What do you think you are doing!?"

...

P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels