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23 years ago.
The person who ordered poison to be administered to Loras was none other than Marquis Offrége, the father of Second Empress Valérie and Alec’s father-in-law. Marquis Offrége was also the maternal grandfather of Second Prince Karl and First Princess Amélia. Alec had established Offrége as one of the founding contributors to the newly reformed empire, a key ally in securing the throne for the most promising heir.
However, when Loras was the victim of the plot, Karl had not yet been born, and the only child of the imperial family at the time was Loras. If Loras had not been so gravely harmed… If the court physician, bribed by Offrége, had not diagnosed Afrosa’s womb as irreparably damaged… Alec might never have considered having descendants with Valérie. Nor would he have sought heirs with Gladys as a counterbalance to Valérie and her powerful Offrége lineage.
Even then, Loras did not have a strong position. His mother, First Empress Afrosa, came from a lowly background. A prince born of a former slave had no historical precedent of inheriting the throne in the long, illustrious history of the Empostium Empire. Yet Alec resolved to elevate Loras to the throne.
He was determined, no matter the opposition, to place Loras on the throne so that his son could support the woman he loved. So that she could lean on him and have the strongest pillar of support imaginable.
But….
“Your Majesty, please, Your Majesty. Please save my mother. Please, save her… save her….”
Gladys’s daughter wept, her tear-streaked face a mirror image of her mother, a resemblance that made him want to rip it apart. Once, he had killed this child’s twin. He had ordered the midwife to strangle the infant at birth, then burn the body in an isolated forest to leave no trace.
He had done it to maintain the fragile balance he had painstakingly created.
He couldn’t stand the thought of that foolish woman strutting around with not one, but two princes under her wing, stirring trouble in his path.
“I’ll beg you like this… I’ll beg… Please….”
Anashenka crawled to him, clutching at the hem of his pants.
He looked down at her with cold, emotionless eyes. He had no intention of sparing this woman, either. Anything that had been touched by Gladys, he planned to destroy and burn without hesitation.
“Mother is… Mother is still Your Majesty’s wife. Hic… sob… Even if you are to take her life, please… not so cruelly….”
He said nothing.
“If it’s your command, I will do anything. Please, grant her a hanging, at least.”
Gladys had her tongue and ears cut off today. She was the true culprit behind the murder of the First Prince, the arson of the botanical garden, and the death of the First Empress, who perished trying to save the prince. Yesterday, she had lost two fingers on her right hand. Tomorrow, she was scheduled to walk naked through the streets in penance. After that, her eyes would be burned out, and she would be burned alive.
It had been a week since Afrosa and Loras had died. Though alive, he felt as if his existence had ended with the sight of the botanical garden collapsing in flames. His life was over. There was no longer any reason to endure—only to shatter.
He had resolved to turn to ashes. To burn everything to the ground, reduce it all to cinders, and then close his eyes. Neither the empire nor the throne mattered to him anymore. He had no desire to protect it. Revenge was all that remained, and after that, he would return to Afrosa. This palace, this country… everything vile and detestable. The vermin that had consumed his wife….
“Imprison her.”
“…Your Majesty?”
Anashenka, clinging to his legs and sobbing, looked up at him in shock. Without a shred of emotion, he turned his gaze away from the princess. At his command, the imperial guard moved to seize her. As she was dragged away, Anashenka looked at him with eyes filled with disbelief.
“Your Majesty. The Privy Council and the elders of the Red Assembly seek an audience with you.”
Zenas bowed and murmured. Without a word, Alec brushed past him. It had been a week since he had convened a council meeting. By midnight tomorrow, after executing Gladys, he planned to summon the Privy Council, the Red Assembly, and the court officials to the Robale Hall for a formal session.
“Aristide?”
“She is ready and waiting in the outer palace.”
Alec thought of his daughter. At the funeral for Afrosa and Loras, Aristide had stood before the golden coffin, her face devoid of life. The bodies of Afrosa and Loras had burned entirely to ash, leaving the coffin empty. His daughter’s gaze had remained fixed on the void within the coffin, unmoving.
“Ari….”
A girl in a radiant purple wedding dress, fitting for a bride, stood on the balcony.
Her daughter’s fiancé was the president of the neighboring Republic of Constantium. Afrosa had thought it would be better to marry her daughter to someone from a closer country, but she had also decided that a man with noble status was unnecessary. If Aristide desired a man with nothing but a kind heart and noble spirit, even someone poor, Afrosa would send her off.
While Valery and Gladys were desperate to marry their daughter into a wealthy, noble family, Afrosa, his wife, had never thought the same way….
“I heard the president of Constantium is the highest in the republic, just like the emperor of Empostium. But is that not enough? If someone is not born noble, does it mean they can never be noble, no matter what position they hold? Can nobility not be earned through effort?”
Her face was unusually pale. He couldn’t say anything while looking at her fragile, almost fragile face. His heart ached. He felt tightness in his chest and discomfort in his stomach. The way she folded her hands and averted her gaze gave him the sense that she was being pushed away. Things that were incomprehensible back then… he now understood.
“Ari.”
His daughter did not answer. She didn’t even look back. Even though she felt his presence, she treated him as if he weren’t there. He looked down at her and spoke again.
“I’ve sent word to Constantium.”
“…?”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t attend the wedding.”
“…?”
“My dear.”
Aristide turned her head. Her sandy-colored long hair, resembling Aphrosa’s, was blown by the wind. For a moment, the figure of Afrosa, twenty years younger, seemed to flicker above her daughter’s form. Aristide, with her dry eyes, passed him and went inside. He lowered his gaze as he watched her slender figure leave. After leaving the palace, Aristide entered the royal carriage, which was marked with the imperial seal. Alec stood motionless, watching as the carriage departed.
When Loras had been poisoned and suffered from fever, Gladys’s father had been torn apart and killed. The reason was that he had poisoned the emperor’s son. Though it was true that he had distributed poison-making ingredients, he claimed that he had never brought them into the imperial palace. Until the day he was torn apart by horses, he denied his crime. He died twenty years ago in a scream, and Belzenor’s factories and mines were confiscated by the imperial family. However, Alec did not believe that Belzenor had plotted against Loras. Even if Loras were to be destroyed, it would not immediately benefit Gladys. He had seen that Gladys had worked with Marquis Ofreze to push Afrosa out, but that was all. On the other hand, Ofreze and Valery, who had clean backgrounds, would be the ones to benefit the most if Loras were to be damaged. They were the ones who could use the damaged state of Afrosa’s womb to force an heir out of him… it was their doing.
Still, Alec hated Belzenor, and if killing him could remove one of the two from the palace, he would do so when the opportunity came. And so, without hesitation, he killed him. Marquis Ofreze, who had been part of the plot, was later killed for his military corruption, meeting the punishment he deserved. Though he didn’t die for killing Loras, he made sure to avenge those who sought revenge. It was his nature. There was nothing more perfect to him than revenge. So…
“To treat Empress Consort #3 like that…”
She stood before the crowd, her body covered in wounds.
Her knees and back were torn, and her head was shaved. The people threw filth at her. With her hands bound so she couldn’t cover her face, the woman was tied to a post at the end of the march. Not long after, she was set on fire.
Reynok wet himself as he watched his mother being torn apart. Anashenka said that Gladys had fainted when she screamed. The nobles whispered about whether it was necessary to kill even Gladys’s children, who were not involved in the incident. Although they had no courage to openly oppose his actions, they murmured their discontent. Even though they were children of a woman who had committed such a heinous crime, they were still family. Some even murmured that it was too excessive to punish young, unmarried children so harshly. It was a ridiculous thing. These were the same people who showed no sympathy when Afrosa lost her young children. And now… the faces of the vermin who looked at him with disbelief over his harsh decisions came to mind. Alec did not care. No matter what they said, they were all people who would die anyway.
As Gladys screamed while burning alive, Alec couldn’t hide his smile of exhilaration. After Gladys died, Anashenka and Reynok were executed one by one, their heads severed. Alec watched with a grin as his children’s heads were struck off with an axe. Each time the dull blade struck their necks and failed to sever them easily, Alec laughed in delight at the sensation. Valeie. He was looking forward to the night when he would personally kill her and her filth. He would cut, tear, and burn… He smiled, thinking of the mercenaries he had summoned just a few days ago.
The Red Council referred to the group of nobles who held official positions in the central government. High-ranking nobles were generally part of either the Red Council or the Privy Council and were involved in political activities. Alec had invited them all to a midnight gathering at the Hall of Rovale.
“What is this… Just because a half-prince and his commoner-born mother, the empress, are dead… how, how…?”
“Commoner? Didn’t you hear? She was not even a commoner, but a slave. A runaway slave, no less.”
“Count Bonail, stop. What you’re doing is nothing short of an insult to the imperial family.”
“Ha! Am I wrong? If someone committed a crime, only the guilty should be punished. But why should the young Second and Third princesses die? What crime did they commit to deserve their heads on the chopping block?!”
“Please lower your voice, Count.”
“What have I said wrong? Is it not true? Even the Emperor’s decision is too extreme. How could he… How could he go so far? No matter how much he hated his in-laws… to kill the children too…”
“Count. You are frightening your listeners. Don’t you know the Emperor’s temperament? Even if they are close associates… Ah, ah!”
“W-what… what is this… Ugh, black!”
The massive dome, made of gold and pure white plaster, began to shake. At the same time, a pungent scent seeped into the hall, overwhelming the air. The nobles, who had been chatting about the events of the past week while waiting for the emperor, started coughing and became flustered, panicking.