Chapter 249. Cartel (1)
At the main palace, where the former emperor's coffin lay in state...
Caron stood silently before it. The coffin, adorned with gold and a multitude of precious gems, gleamed in the soft light. It felt too splendid—far too extravagant for a man who was now dead.
"I offer you a flower, Your Majesty," Caron murmured.
He gently placed a single chamomile bloom—freshly picked from the imperial garden—at the foot of the coffin. The emperor's throne, once occupied by Pellin, sat atop the steps just behind it.
No one else was present in the main palace. Caron was alone, and in that solitude, he quietly gazed at the coffin.
The late emperor, who had overthrown his own father—the Malevolent Emperor—and ruled the empire for nearly fifty years, lay within. In his lifetime, he had been praised for restoring order to a realm left in chaos by his predecessor.
And to some degree, Caron agreed with that assessment.
"You went through a lot," he said quietly.
In Caron's memories, Pellin remained the ambitious young third prince. Opportunistic to a fault, perhaps, but not an entirely bad man. They didn't share many memories together—at most, fleeting recollections from the days when Caron had still gone by the name Cain Latorre.
Even so, he sincerely wished for Pellin's peace.
"Rest easy now," Caron added.
Pellin had watched his own son die before him. That fact alone was reason enough to offer a prayer for the dead.