I Became Crown Prince's Wife
How about a cup of tea (3)

Howard Kensway was a high-level priest of the Asteri Empire.

He was second highest after the high priest, but Howard was not satisfied.

He is expected to be high priest.

Howard was an arrogant and delusional man who thought that way.

For the past thousand years, the seat of the high priest has been occupied by the Kensway and Bangye families.

It lasted for a thousand years.

Of course, depending on the family or political situation, they can have a surrogate, but the big picture never changes.

This time it was Howard's turn to become the new high priest.

But Tenstheon, ordained Marron, a ruined nobleman, as high priest.

Marron was not even a high-ranking priest, let alone one of the top ten priests representing each region.

He is a meaningless man. Anyone barely even knew of his whereabouts, yet he became a high priest overnight.

When Marron became high priest, he investigated the case of Duke Cassil and the people supported him.

As a result, Howard and other high-ranking priests were unable to protest. They were forced to obey Tenstheon's orders.

The thousand-year rule has been broken.

However, Howard had no intention of becoming the disgrace of the Kensway family, being named as the first person in the family to fail to obtain the position of high priest.

"The selfishness of the villagers has gone beyond the limit."

"I should have regained consciousness when he attacked Count Cornwell."

The priests on Kensway's side often complained about Marron.

Count Cornwell colluded with the church and presided over many courts. He also used it to eliminate his competitors.

As a result, Count Cornwell made a fortune and married a young woman, leaving behind his old wife.

All of that was only possible because of the protection of the Kensway family.

Count Cornwell bribed the Kensways and maintained a close relationship with Howard.

However, as soon as Marron was ordained a high priest, they began to investigate Count Cornwell.

Count Cornwell pleaded for his help, but his plea was completely ignored by Howard.

He was in a hurry to remove all the evidence linking him to the count.

Count Cornwell was sentenced to death. Everyone involved in his actions was taken to the guillotine.

He manages to keep himself and the Kensway family from dying, but Howard takes a crushing blow.

People's belief that the Kensway family could protect their allies has been lost, and many have turned their backs on them.

Another priest, whose path was blocked by the influence of the Kensway family, was on Marron's side.

The honorable status of the Kensway family, which they maintained for a thousand years, declined rapidly.

On top of that, Marron personally went to many churches in the empire to completely eliminate the Asmodian (demonic) Court.

Therefore, the power of the Kensway family was reduced.

"Slave, please save us."

“If it continues like this, all high-ranking priests in the West will die.”

The high-ranking priests in the western region, slowly being taken care of by Marron, came day after day to upset Howard.

"Shut up!"

Howard, who was listening to the priests with an annoyed face, shouted.

"We're sorry."

People bowed and apologized. However, Howard knew that these people were trying to curry favor with him while secretly insulting him.

Everyone used to believe in the power of the Kensway family and offered them bribes.

However, it was only a matter of time before the Kensway family collapsed.

“I don't want to see you all! All of you, come back!”

Howard kicked out the low-ranking priests. Finally, only Howard and the priestess of the Bangye family were left in the spacious hall.

"Can we really leave those villagers like this?"

One finally broke the silence and spoke after much deliberation. Howard grunting.

"Marron is nothing but a puppet of the emperor."

Even if they got rid of Marron, the emperor would still control the situation through a different puppet. In the end, the mastermind was the emperor.

Tenstheon has long been hostile to the church.

He ignored the church when his son was cursed by the goddess, but as soon as the curse was lifted, he tried to reform the church.

To overcome this situation, Howard had to target the emperor, not Marron.

"Do you do what I tell you?"

"Yes." Yeah."

Gail, a young priest, replied.

People are afraid of the curse and the door of darkness.

They are also afraid of being brought to justice.

But it all ended in an instant.

The crown prince's curse was lifted and the door of darkness disappeared. Now, even that trial lost its power.

Tenstheon intended to weaken not only the Kensway family, but the entire church.

In order to make the imperial family the most powerful and influential in the empire, he tried to dominate the church by using the brainless village people.

Tenstheon announced an imperial alliance with Chang. Howard could use it to his own advantage.

All he had to do was instill fear in society.

If they are afraid, their reasoning and ability to judge objectively will be lost.

The corner of Howard's mouth was raised arrogantly, but the young priest's expression was skeptical as he stared at Howard.

“But is that enough..?”

It is true that public sentiment will be shaken by the rumors. But rumors are just rumors.

If the days of peace continue without anything happening, the people who believe in the rumors will eventually diminish.

Instead, it might even backfire.

However, unlike the caring priests, Howard had a casual smile on his lips.

“Nothing to worry about. The goddess will soon bring disaster.”

***

"Mr Collin, thank you for accepting my invitation."

“It was an honor for me to be invited by His Majesty.”

Collin knelt on one knee and kissed the back of my hand slowly.

"I will cherish this glorious moment forever."

"Haha really?"

He could not bear the seriousness that was so different from his usual and laughed out loud.

“You made a serious confession with laughter. I'm hurt, Collin.”

He tried to hold back his laughter.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. By the way, you look very happy today.”

"Because I was invited by His Majesty."

What a smooth speaker.

In the original story, I didn't know he was like this because he was so serious and obsessed with revenge for Tenstheon.

“In addition, there seems to be another reason.”

“Because you came back, my work was greatly reduced. I have a little more time to relax thanks to you. ”

Blake spent most of his time in the valley of chaos, so he never really took any formal lessons as crown prince.

Now that there was no longer any reason to leave the palace, he began taking formal succession lessons under Tenstheon.

Tenstheon gave Blake a number of assignments and taught him strictly, which greatly reduced Collin's working hours.

He said he was still overworked, but Collin looked satisfied.

“This is all thanks to you.”

“What do I do? You're having trouble because of me. ”

Blake had just begun his crown prince's lessons, which he was supposed to take seven years ago. That's not something to be grateful for.

“Come, sit. I've prepared a special candy for Sir Collin.”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

When Collin saw the candy in front of him, his face was filled with curiosity.

“I've never seen this candy before.”

“It's called yakgwa. This is Eastern cuisine.”

“Once, it has a beautiful shape. Did you make it yourself?"

“Yes, so eat a lot. It just came out of the oven so it tastes better.”

When I was a kid, I saw one of my neighbors make it, but I only saw how to make it step by step on YouTube when I was growing up.

Fortunately, I managed to create a yakgwa similar to the one I had in Korea.

"Your Majesty and Your Majesty haven't eaten all this?"

"Yes, Sir Collin will be the first to taste it."

"They'll kill me if I eat before them, but I'll risk my life because you're the one who made this."

He looked at the yakgwa with a grim look and a big bite.