92. Sharing Secrets

Only Dean knew that Larael possessed a great deal of information about a future that hadn’t yet occurred. But without knowing that fact, one could easily think like Edward in wanting to make Larael the empress. Dean felt a strange sense of elation about this.

“Your Highness, don’t you believe that you possess the Third Eye yourself?”

Dean asked Larael the question he had always wanted to ask and had kept deeply hidden.

Larael froze like a statue at the sudden mention of the “Third Eye.” Her red eyes took on an even deeper shade and trembled severely. She had never once even thought about it.

While the Third Eye was now considered a legend and only claimed by some people, there were opinions that the Third Eye had never actually existed in the past either, but was used as a means to strengthen imperial authority in Kazel’s history.

The idea was that by having an empress with the Third Eye—an ability bestowed by God—assisting the emperor, it showed that God was with the Kazel Empire. In fact, from that beginning, the Kazel Empire had emperors who also served as the pope, acting as God’s representative. The abilities of empresses recorded in the past were merely myths created to strengthen imperial authority.

After a moment of silence, she bowed her head deeply and began to laugh out loud.

“If that were the case, this wouldn’t have happened. I couldn’t have lived such a foolish life.”

Dean tilted his head and carefully observed Larael’s expression at her incomprehensible words. Her laughter suddenly changed to sobbing.

“I believe that Your Highness possesses a great deal of information about the future, and that is precisely this ability.”

Larael shook her head vigorously at his words.

“If… if Dean knew how I know all these things… you would find me repulsive.”

Dean couldn’t understand what was supposed to be repulsive. But one thing he could clearly understand was that this—what she was trying to say now—was the cause of what had to be kept secret from the emperor, and the strange self-loathing in her tone.

‘What could her hidden secret be?’

Dean wanted to ask immediately, but couldn’t when he saw her anguished expression. He said nothing and just quietly gazed at her. The tips of his fingers trembled as he watched her, and Dean clenched his fists tightly. He wanted to go to her side right away and pat her shoulder, but unable to do so, he was suppressing that urge with all his might.

Larael’s sobbing subsided. Dean simply watched as she composed herself. He clenched his fists even tighter. Even though his nails were digging into his flesh, he didn’t feel it.

“…You were curious about my relationship with Herwen, weren’t you?”

Again, Dean gave no answer. Tears that had not yet fallen now streamed down Larael’s cheeks as she spoke. Dean’s mind turned blank as a sheet of paper.

Larael took a deep breath.

“You may not believe this, but I have lived another life. Everything I know comes from my previous life. It doesn’t make sense, does it? It’s not something like the Third Eye, but simply things I heard, saw, and experienced in my previous life, which was marked by guilt and regret. And all of this repeated from the day after I spent a false night with Edward.”

Dean was confused about how to take her words, which didn’t seem like lies. It was too absurd and shocking to accept at face value. But there was no law saying such things couldn’t happen. The answer to what he had always wondered—how she knew that Dean was the master of Four Seasons—would be here.

Dean continued to brush back his hair, which he had carefully kept neat.

“What do you mean by a false night?”

Dean asked her with unexpected calmness. Larael was slightly surprised by his composed tone. If someone had told her such a thing, she would never have believed it.

“I mean that night when rumors spread that I had deliberately seduced Edward. That night, I was used by Herwen, whom I completely believed to be my eternal love.”

Dean felt dazed, as if he had been struck on the back of his head.

“How terrible my life was in my previous life… How shameful my actions were—I’m even ashamed to speak of them. And you call this the Third Eye? This is not the Third Eye or anything like it. It’s just a curse. If God was going to give me this repeating life, why couldn’t He erase my memories along with it… No, then I would have repeated my worst actions again, wouldn’t I?”

Larael laughed weakly.

Whether her words were true or not didn’t matter. More than curiosity about her past life, his heart ached at the sight of her desolate smile. An intense sadness filled his empty heart.

“I committed an unforgivable sin against Edward.”

“Your Highness… what exists now, where you are living, is reality. The past that torments you is not reality.”

Dean’s voice sank low. His mouth felt parched.

“Not reality?? When it’s so vivid?”

“Have you not considered that it might not be reality but a life unfolded by the awakening of the Third Eye? That you simply had a long dream…”

“It would be comforting to think that way.”

Larael gave a hollow laugh and continued.

“But I can’t do that. So, please persuade Edward to withdraw the proposal you made to him. I am by no means a person suited to be an empress. The words of comfort you’re offering me now are words you can say only because you don’t know what kind of person I was.”

“Regardless, I want Your Highness to be happy. And for that, I thought you needed to be by His Majesty’s side. Was my thinking wrong?”

Larael’s hardened face briefly showed a faint smile as she thought of Edward.

“I’m already by his side. I’m satisfied with just this.”

“Your Highness, if you don’t have power, you could be sacrificed to that power at any time.”

“…”

Larael tightly clasped her trembling hands that rested on her knees. As if the trembling simply wouldn’t stop, Larael rose from her seat.

“I was trying to overcome it. But it’s not easy.”

“I will help you.”

“Dean… do you believe what I’ve said?”

“Yes. If it’s Your Highness’s words, I would believe you even if you said you had lived hundreds of lives.”

“Ha… that’s a bit cruel.”

Larael smiled slightly at Dean’s words.

“If it means Your Highness can be happy, I will help you by any means necessary.”

If Larael asked Dean to kill Grand Duke Vellaus right now, he could do it immediately.

“Why are you trying to help me like this?”

“I am, after all, the head of an information network. People who benefit me…”

Dean stopped mid-sentence. Flustered by Larael’s sudden question, he lowered his head to hide his embarrassed face and blurted out whatever came to mind. Then he abruptly raised his head. Larael was nodding in agreement.

“Today, I also spoke whatever came to mind without much order.”

As her surging emotions calmed, Larael felt a rush of embarrassment all at once. She sat back down and poured water into the glass on the table.

“Ask if you have any questions.”

Larael said, taking a sip of water and glancing at Dean.

Dean wanted to hear everything in detail from the beginning. He wanted to share her secret. But he couldn’t bring himself to say those words.

“You’re curious about my relationship with Grand Duke Vellaus, aren’t you? Since you were curious before.”

Larael spoke, recalling how Dean had previously asked about her meeting with Grand Duke Vellaus.

“You don’t have to tell me anything that’s difficult to talk about.”

Larael shook her head and, in a calm tone, told him everything from her meeting with Herwen, which she had briefly mentioned before, to how she had slept with Edward due to Herwen’s scheme.

The more Dean heard, the more his anger toward Herwen grew. He even made the absurd imagination that if she had never met Herwen, perhaps he could have been by Larael’s side. Dean recalled how, when he first met Larael, he had avoided her for fear of bad rumors spreading about them, and he felt ashamed. He had hurt her again in his heart after she had already been wounded by Herwen.

Dean didn’t criticize her for not telling the emperor. Indeed, who would have believed her words?

“But wouldn’t it be alright to tell His Majesty now?”