#20. The Variable Called You

“I didn’t know you had such moral principles.”

The Empress gritted her teeth while glaring at the smirking Belmont. She should have gotten rid of him earlier.

“You’d better watch your mouth.”

“Watch my mouth? Who helped you when you were about to lose everything and end up on the streets after that old man’s fortune was taken away!”

When Belmont shouted, the people drinking at nearby tables turned to look, but they quickly lost interest, assuming it was just a drunk causing trouble. As their gazes returned to their tables, the Empress took a deep breath, trying to calm her surging emotions.

“I’ve already paid that debt.”

Belmont cackled at the Empress’s response.

“Paid it off? Don’t make me laugh. The evidence that you were mine still remains in the imperial palace.”

Before Belmont could finish speaking, the masked man behind the Empress held a blade to his throat.

“Going to kill me?”

Even when he felt the blade against his flesh, Belmont kept laughing. It was impossible to tell if he was drunk or truly mad.

“Do it.”

He pressed his neck closer to the blade.

“All these people will be witnesses that you killed me, so at least it won’t be unfair.”

The Empress looked around at Belmont’s words. The innkeeper was watching them nervously from a distance, concerned now that a sword had been drawn.

“We’ll simply leave no witnesses.”

The Empress responded coldly while staring at Belmont. Finally, the smile disappeared from his face. The Empress would be capable of killing everyone in this inn and more. She was the type of woman who would massacre an entire village if necessary to leave no trace.

“That temper hasn’t changed a bit.”

Lilith at nineteen, who had nothing and was sold as a bride, killed her husband, Marquis McCoy. What was the reason again? That damn old man treated her like livestock every night. The old pervert with twisted s*xual preferences died by his young bride’s hand.

By pure chance, he witnessed that young bride disposing of the remaining poison. That was Belmont’s first meeting with Lilith.

He liked her fierce personality that would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. Though he thought his own tastes were strange, he found women like Lilith who wouldn’t hesitate to kill to protect themselves more attractive than fragile women who only cried and lamented their fate.

Perhaps his attraction to her was just youthful impulse. But Belmont knew well that Lilith would never be suitable as a lifelong companion. Her poison was too strong to keep by his side. That’s why he introduced her to the Emperor. Because he couldn’t handle her completely himself.

“Still, humans shouldn’t act like this. How many years have I looked after you?”

The Empress showed no sign of wavering at Belmont’s words.

“Shut up.”

“There would be a lot of trouble if I opened my mouth.”

The corners of Belmont’s mouth curved upward slightly.

“His Majesty couldn’t imagine just how vicious you are.”

“……”

“Not satisfied with devouring the old man and taking all his fortune, you even killed that innocent person out of jealousy.”

“Belmont, I warned you to watch your mouth.”

“Is that all? You even passed off my child as imperial blood to secure your position as Empress!”

“Belmont!”

The Empress jumped up from her seat in anger. At the same moment, Belmont pushed away the sword at his throat and quickly pulled out a dagger, lunging at the Empress.

Kill or be killed. That was the only thought in his mind.

The masked man blocked Belmont’s dagger by a hair’s breadth and kicked him in the stomach. Belmont groaned and tumbled backward. Nausea rose from all the alcohol he had been drinking. As the commotion grew, other drinkers all stood up with stern expressions, looking in their direction.

“Kill them. Every single one, leave no one alive.”

At the Empress’s command, the masked man readied his sword. Some people, sensing the dangerous atmosphere, fled toward the entrance.

“Have the men waiting outside take care of them all.”

As soon as the Empress finished speaking, the masked man swung his sword at Belmont.

Though Belmont thought this was how it would end, he felt wronged. Why did he have to take the fall and die when Lilith was the real villain? Meeting Lilith McCoy had been a disaster from the start. If he had known it would come to this, he should have ignored it when Lilith killed Marquis McCoy. He should have let the Marquis’s relatives expose her as a murderer and confiscate the inheritance she received.

Clang! Hearing the sound of clashing swords, he looked up to see someone in a black cloak standing in front of him. Had one of Aidan’s men saved his life again? Just as he was thinking how ironic it was to keep begging for his life from someone he considered a thorn in his side, the figure removed their cloak.

“Your Majesty…!”

At the Empress’s voice, Belmont also looked again at the person standing before him in surprise. From behind, he hadn’t recognized him, but it truly was the Emperor. Why was he here? The Empress seemed as shocked as Belmont, unable to even blink.

“To think it would come to this…”

The Emperor uttered each word as though grinding them out.

“I didn’t want to see your true nature like this.”

The Emperor’s voice was so low it was barely audible. It felt like his quiet anger was spreading from beneath his feet, consuming the ground where the Empress stood.

“Arrest the Empress and Marquis Belmont.”

At the Emperor’s command, the imperial knights rushed in from outside, as if they had been waiting.

“Your Majesty, please listen to me!”

The Empress desperately clung to the Emperor’s arm. However, the Emperor coldly shook off her hand.

“Are you going to claim it’s another misunderstanding?”

The Emperor asked in a toneless voice while looking down at the Empress.

“I heard everything here myself, and you still want to call it a misunderstanding!”

“That, that’s…”

He heard everything. He heard the entirety of her conversation with Belmont. What had they been talking about?

As the Empress recalled their conversation and remembered that Belmont had mentioned Lloyd, her legs gave out and she collapsed.

“No, he’s mistaken!”

She pleaded while grabbing the Emperor’s trouser leg.

“Don’t believe Belmont’s words. He’s only holding a grudge against me because he failed to make his adopted daughter Lloyd’s imperial consort.”

The Emperor looked down coldly at the Empress clinging to him.

“That’s absolutely not true. Lloyd… No. You mustn’t believe that man’s words.”

The Empress pleaded tearfully, claiming her innocence.

“Lilith.”

The Emperor knelt down, grabbed the Empress’s chin, and lifted it to meet her eyes. When he called her name, the Empress’s pupils trembled slightly. Her tear-stained face was exactly like that of the fragile woman the Emperor had known, the one he felt he needed to protect.

How many years had he been deceived by this face? How many things had he overlooked because these tears moved him?

The Emperor clenched his jaw so hard his jawbone showed, then released it.

“My patience has reached its limit. Don’t expect any mercy.”

The Emperor coldly rebuked her, released the Empress, and left the inn without looking back. Outside, the Imperial Knights had already subdued and bound the assassins hired by the Empress.

“Aidan.”

When he called out to Aidan, who was managing the situation among the Imperial Knights, he turned around. Aidan didn’t say anything. He simply met the Emperor’s gaze silently.

This morning, Aidan had come to see the Emperor. He thought it was a farewell greeting before departing for the Italus border region, but it wasn’t.

‘I know where Marquis Belmont is. More precisely, I found him and have been protecting him.’

The Emperor frowned at the word ‘protecting.’ It sounded like Aidan had diverted him while the Imperial Knights were pursuing him.

‘Her Majesty the Empress is trying to kill him. If he dies, I won’t be able to uncover the truth about the attack on me. You don’t think the death of Belmont’s subordinate in prison was a coincidence, do you?’

He couldn’t deny that the Empress had likely killed Belmont’s subordinate as well.

‘I didn’t mean to deceive Your Majesty. I only wanted to reveal the proper truth.’

Saying this, Aidan presented a small booklet he said was found in Marquis Belmont’s mansion. The old, worn booklet was Lilith McCoy’s diary.

‘Though you’ll make your own judgment, Your Majesty has a duty to face the truth.’

After saying this, Aidan revealed where Belmont was staying. He thought it meant to arrest him, but it didn’t.

‘Hide your identity, go there, and wait. You will face the truth you’ve been avoiding.’

He didn’t understand what it meant at that time. Watching Belmont cause trouble while drunk, his face hidden by a cloak, he only wanted to arrest and drag him away immediately.

But then Lilith appeared.

‘He is Your Majesty’s son. I swear on my life.’

She had insisted until the end, but even that was all lies.

‘Is that all? You even passed off my child as imperial blood to secure your position as Empress!’

Hearing those words from Belmont’s mouth felt like the ground was crumbling beneath his feet. Everything he had believed for over 20 years vanished like a mirage.

“Did you confirm the truth?”

At Aidan’s question, the Emperor squeezed his eyes shut. What had he done to this child to protect an illusion? To Grace… how could he ever repay his sins?

It felt like his heart was crumbling. His position as Emperor felt utterly meaningless.

“I’m sorry.”

That was all he could say. Aidan quietly watched the Emperor, then bowed his head and turned away. He intended to depart for the Italus border region as originally planned.

How the Emperor would deal with the Empress and Belmont was now his choice.

*