Chapter 2
“……”
“Still, you’ve been by my side for many years. I suppose it’s only right that I show you at least a little mercy at the end. Hanging yourself doesn’t suit someone as proud as you.”
“……”
“Why aren’t you taking it? Didn’t you want to die so badly?”
As he said that, the emperor pulled out a dagger and smiled brightly, the corners of his lips curling upward. He looked more beautiful than anything else in the world.
Elener swallowed the blood that had risen into her throat once more. Dragging herself weakly across the floor, she pulled the dagger in front of her from its sheath.
The blade was clearly sharp, honed to a fine edge.
It was the first time she had held a weapon since he had ordered her to put down her sword.
The emperor lowered his head toward Elener, who was staring blankly at the blade.
“Come on. Hurry up and stab yourself with it.”
“……”
“You cried and begged me to kill you over and over again. You screamed that you didn’t want to live anymore. I’m granting your wish. So why are you hesitating?”
The emperor spoke leisurely before leaning his head back.
“If I kill you, I’ll have to live with the guilt for the rest of my life.”
He muttered those words in a deeply sorrowful voice, as though he genuinely meant them, but Elener let them go in one ear and out the other.
She tightened her grip around the dagger.
But all the strength had already drained from her body, making it difficult even to hold the weapon.
Anyone skilled in swordsmanship knew how to die instantly and without pain. Elener was no exception. Although it had been a long time since she had held a sword, the sensation of a weapon in her hand was still deeply ingrained in her.
However, with all the tendons in her limbs severed and not a shred of strength remaining, she could no longer use any of the methods she knew to die peacefully.
The moment she reached that conclusion, Elener drove the dagger in her hand into her chest, directly where her heart was, without the slightest hesitation.
With all the strength she could force into her trembling hand, she collapsed forward with a heavy thud. Then, struggling to move her body, she placed the dagger’s hilt against the floor.
Elener lifted her upper body slightly before throwing herself down with all her weight.
The dagger, which had landed on the floor with its hilt, sank even deeper into her chest.
Blood that had risen moments earlier once again gushed up and spilled from her mouth.
She wiped the sticky blood from the corner of her lips with her trembling hand.
She could feel that the end was near.
Seeing her trembling hand, the emperor approached Elener.
The guards around them tried to stop him, but when he glared at them menacingly, they fell silent and quietly backed away.
At the very end of her life, there was something Elener wanted to ask him.
A woman as pure and beautiful as a lily. Helena.
The woman who had once been the empress of the empire.
The woman the emperor had loved—loved more than anyone.
Why had this man…
Elener slightly parted her lips.
“…Why… did you… kill… her?”
“What?”
“…He… Hele…na.”
“……”
The emperor’s face hardened.
Then, slowly, one corner of his mouth lifted.
“Oh. So you knew?”
Hearing his cheerful voice beside her ear, Elener desperately clung to her fading consciousness and opened her eyes wide.
It was true!
Her lips trembled.
Even after witnessing with her own eyes Helena’s closest maid secretly meeting Joshua, Elener had still refused to believe it.
But he really had killed the woman he loved with his own hands.
She couldn’t understand it.
Why?
Why would he kill a woman from such a respectable family who even had a good personality?
Why would he kill the person he loved?
Without even realizing that she had stopped breathing, Elener stared at the emperor in horror.
But he smiled brightly, looking as though he were enjoying himself.
“What’s the point of talking about that woman now? She’s already dead. Isn’t that right?”
“……”
“Oh, right. Come to think of it, I heard that your parents—the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Frihosen—had their graves dug up by the empress’s maternal family.”
At the emperor’s sudden words, as though he had just remembered something, veins bulged on Elener’s forehead.
She stared at the emperor before her with eyes filled with disbelief, forcing herself to muster what little strength remained.
His indifferent gaze passed over her.
There wasn’t even the slightest hint of guilt in his eyes.
“That’s right. I told them to do it. They dared to attempt to assassinate the empress. There was no way the people responsible, let alone their parents, could remain untouched.”
“……”
“Don’t look at me like that. All of this is your fault, after all. If you had simply stepped down from your position as empress without resistance, I wouldn’t have gone this far.”
At his emotionless words, Elener stopped breathing for a moment.
How could you?
How dare you dishonor them?
Have you forgotten who it was that raised you to that position when everyone else looked down on you?
Unbearable fury welled up inside her, causing Elener’s body to tremble.
Looking down at Elener as the warmth slowly left her body, the emperor leaned toward her ear and whispered.
As though granting her one final act of generosity, he revealed the secret he had kept hidden.
“There’s something I wanted to tell you before you died. To be honest, I found you disgusting from the very first time I saw you.”
“……”
“Why? Surprised? That bright smile whenever you saw me, the way you’d get embarrassed so easily… Do you know how irritating it was?”
He paused before grinning.
“Ah! Still, there’s one thing I’m truly grateful to you for. If it weren’t for you, how could I have ever ascended this throne? Hmm?”
As she watched him grin, Elener silently sobbed.
But there was not a single gaze around her that held pity for a woman already so close to death.
Staring at his bright face with her blurred eyes, as though he felt relieved to finally reveal his secrets without a single lie, Elener slowly closed her eyes.
What had Joshua thought as he watched her work so hard to put him on the imperial throne?
“I really am grateful for that. But…”
Joshua trailed off before suddenly grabbing Elener’s slender neck with both hands and squeezing hard.
He knew very well that if he applied just a little more force, her fragile neck would break.
Elener’s eyes rolled back as she struggled to breathe.
“Do I need you now that I’ve become emperor? Rather, it’s only when you disappear that my position will be complete.”
He tightened his grip.
“Not you. Me… I’m the real one. I’m the real one.”
“Ghk… G-gah…!”
What on earth is he talking about?
Elener clenched her powerless fists.
She couldn’t understand Joshua’s final words.
Even when she tried to think clearly, her vision continued to blur, and her breathing gradually grew fainter.
With the last of her strength, Elener opened her eyes wide.
As though she wanted to engrave Joshua’s image deep into her mind.
Even after I die, I will never forgive you.
Even in death, she could not close her eyes in peace.
She felt as though she were being sucked into a deep darkness.
It was a dizzying sensation, as if someone had grabbed her legs and was dragging her endlessly downward into a dark place with no end.
And just as she was being swallowed into the depths of a pitch-black sea, unable to breathe—
“Gasp!”
Elener suddenly opened her eyes and sucked in a ragged breath.
She grabbed her throat and coughed violently, as though she were trying to spit out the water that had risen all the way to her throat.
She had definitely been in the sea.
She had been dragged down into an endless, pitch-black ocean where there was nothing but darkness.
…It’s dark.
Elener raised both hands and felt her face before touching her eyelids.
She could feel her eyeballs moving beneath her fingertips.
Her eyes were open, yet all she could see was pitch-black darkness.
There wasn’t even a single point of light.
Unable to see anything, she cautiously raised her upper body and remained still for a moment.
Just as her eyes were slowly beginning to adjust to the darkness, a question flashed through her mind.
Death.
I should be dead.
This wasn’t a dream.
She had definitely died.
The finely honed blade of the dagger cutting through her flesh, her collapsing body, and that cold, indifferent gaze.
When Elener recalled all of it, nausea suddenly surged up.
She hurriedly fell forward, covered her mouth, and began dry-heaving.
She tried to wait until her stomach settled, but her body refused to cooperate.
She felt as though she had performed exhausting labor.
Even when she tried to stand, her legs had no strength.
In the end, she had no choice but to give up trying to get up and slump back down on the floor, pressing the back of her hand firmly against her mouth.
I died.
I drove the dagger he gave me into my own chest.
Elener darted her eyes around.
Nothing was visible in the darkness, but anxiety had engulfed her entire body, making it impossible for her to remain still.
Then where is this place? Heaven or hell?
She calmly narrowed her eyes and looked around.
Then, light suddenly appeared.
The sudden brightness made her eyes sting.
She narrowed her eyes and looked ahead again.
A large mirror stood before Elener.
When did something like this appear?
Half bewildered and half curious, Elener carefully approached the mirror while remaining wary of her surroundings.
And when she stood before it, an image began to appear in the mirror as though it had been waiting for her.
The moment she recognized the person reflected there, Elener looked bewildered.
Charles?
Even after rubbing her eyes and looking again, there was no mistake.
Charles Berihimen, the son of the late Marquis Derek Berihimen, the former Grand Duke Frihosen’s close friend.
The last time Elener had seen Charles was at her wedding to Joshua.
After that, Charles had shut himself away in his own territory and rarely left his estate.
From time to time, Joshua sent his aides to the capital to summon him, but every time, Charles politely refused, saying that he was too foolish and ignorant to understand Joshua’s intentions and therefore could not follow his wishes.
He rarely even came to the imperial capital.
So why was he now inside the Imperial Palace, of all places—and specifically inside the Emperor’s Palace?
Moreover, he looked somewhat older than when Elener had seen him at the wedding, and there was bloodstained on his armor.
Elener slowly shifted her gaze toward the person standing in front of Charles.
Joshua.
He looked completely different from the Joshua she had seen at the very end of her life.
