One dawn, when the opportunity rarely presented itself, Yerena barely managed to hang herself. Pretending to be asleep with her eyes closed, she got up and hung a long cloth from the bed post. But even that failed, and she ended up seeing the world again with open eyes.

No one reprimanded her for her actions. But after that, at least three people kept watch over her with open eyes all day long. Unable to bear it, Yerena screamed and rushed at the maids. Then she snatched a hairpin from someone and thrust it toward her neck.

But the problem was that she hesitated momentarily before stabbing her neck. A quick-handed maid swiftly struck Yerena’s hand. The pin missed its original trajectory and stuck in her shoulder. After that, those who entered the room wore no pointed accessories at all.

Moreover, priestesses who could use healing powers were waiting outside the room, and priestesses and clerics dedicated solely to her were being summoned from all over the country. With the treatment of several physicians and holy power, Yerena soon became perfectly fine.

When she woke up again, Yerena couldn’t bear her healed body and screamed. With her hair loose and disheveled, she strangled herself with her own hands.

This time, people restrained her. While apologizing, they tied both her hands to the bedpost, and their faces showed desperation. Yerena paused momentarily at the maids’ faces, even in her insane state. But soon she screamed again for blood to flow from her neck. The anxious maids, hearing someone’s order, put a soft cloth in her mouth.

It was useless to refuse water and food. No matter how many hours it took, servants ordered by the maids pushed water and food at her. Physicians also forcibly fed her dozens of medicines to maintain her health. There’s a limit to throwing up. Thus, Yerena lived. More precisely, she was made to live.

As she became unable to move like a mounted butterfly, her mind grew more confused. The louder the voices of her family members circling her ears became as her body grew more comfortable. And with them, the visions that now appeared clearly. Seeing the images of her family and the people of the Sedas Kingdom clearly captured on her retina, Yerena wondered if she had died and fallen into h*ll. She thought perhaps the entire current situation was a punishment in h*ll.

‘Lady Yerena.’

The funny thing was that it was the man’s voice that broke through those unbearable visions and auditory hallucinations. When the enemy’s voice clung to her ear, everything disappeared.

But that didn’t make things easier. The man’s existence was the most terrible thing for the current Yerena. The man, the enemy whom she had thought was her lovely lover, slammed her into reality.

‘Lady Yerena.’

Every time the dead princess heard the man’s voice, she realized that she was perfectly alive, not in h*ll but in an even worse reality. So she screamed and screamed to erase the man’s voice, even with the cloth in her mouth.

Maids with shocked faces approached and removed the red-soaked cloth, putting a new one in her mouth. But the mounted princess, paying no attention, produced several such cloths a day, proclaiming that she was alive.

* * *

The Empire, especially the noble society, was in an uproar over what the deposed emperor Kedrick had done. Not only had he brought mercenaries into the palace as emperor, but on his birthday, he had tried to bury nobles who had gathered to congratulate him, and high nobles at that, alive in the ground. The nobles all poured harsh words on Kedrick.

The people had turned away from the emperor long ago. Thus, no one sympathized with Kedrick. Everyone eagerly prayed for his head to be cut off.

It was the end of a tyrant who had ascended to the emperor’s throne as the late emperor’s illegitimate child. A position he couldn’t protect for even ten years. Emperor Kedrick was thrown into the underground prison with his head barely treated and his life barely intact.

The soldiers who dragged Kedrick to the underground prison didn’t hesitate to spit at him, who would soon die. While staying in the palace, they had seen many times how the former emperor tormented and easily killed the weak like themselves.

But even in this situation, Kedrick’s temperament didn’t die. Or perhaps anticipating death, he rampaged incessantly.

“Do you know who I am! I am the emperor of the Empire! A descendant of the goddess with the name Vistius!”

Kedrick grabbed the bars and screamed at the top of his lungs. He shouted that what they were doing to him, the emperor, was outrageous, and repeatedly called out the word “traitor.” The soldiers wanted to kill him on the spot, but the knights gritted their teeth and stopped their subordinates.

Thus, more than ten days passed. The emperor initially cursed and threw away the terrible food, but from some point, he stuffed it into his mouth and ate well. And by then, even the soldiers guarding him could tell. The former emperor dared to hope to live. He harbored hope that he could survive.

“Do the higher-ups intend to keep him alive?”

“How could they? After what he’s done.”

“I wish they’d deal with him quickly. So that face…… Oh, you’ve come!”

It was when the soldiers were frowning at Kedrick. A middle-aged man with a limp entered with a knight, a place where only knights and soldiers guarding the former emperor came and went.

“It’s His Grace Duke Day. He’s come to see the criminal with His Highness’s permission, so open the door.”

At the knight’s words, the soldiers opened the prison door without delay. The duke looked at the iron bars stretching beyond the door with a gloomy face.

“I’ll go alone from here.”

He briefly told the knight who was guiding him and entered. Then he limped toward Kedrick, who was locked in the farthest room.

Kedrick, who had been ravenously tearing at bread so hard he could barely chew it properly, turned his gaze to the shadow coming over the iron bars and flashed his bloodshot eyes. He threw the bread and rushed to the iron bars.

“Duke!”

Bang. The sound of hitting the iron bars was loud. Duke Day bit the inside of his mouth as he looked at the former emperor with red eyes bulging beyond the iron bars.

‘Drag him away and lock him up. I’ll kill this traitor in front of the empress.’

At that time, he suffered permanent damage to his left leg while being dragged away by mercenaries hired by the emperor. For a knight who didn’t go to the battlefield, such a disability would remain a great shame. The duke forcibly suppressed the rising indignation and stepped back from the iron bars, looking down at the former emperor with cold eyes.

“What did Roshan say? What did my brother say he would do to me?”

The former emperor’s words made him laugh hollowly. How had he addressed Roshan when he was emperor? In private, Kedrick had referred to his bloodline only with vicious words. But now that the situation had turned like this, he called him with an intimate title and worried about his own life.

“Surely he won’t kill me? After all, I’m his only blood relative and was the emperor. The moment he beheads me, the new emperor will be remembered in history as a vicious traitor. Though that’s already the case, but hm……”

The emperor coughed as if he had choked while hurriedly muttering at the duke’s expression. The duke stepped back another step from the splashing saliva and black blood. And without hiding his contempt, he muttered,

“You seem to want to live.”

The former emperor’s face contorted. Having lived his whole life suppressed by inferiority, he sensitively noticed when someone saw him as inferior and despised him. But such blatant contempt? The former emperor gritted his teeth and raised his eyes with burst blood vessels. And after breathing roughly for a while, he recalled his position and barely calmed down before speaking.

“……It would be better for you if I survived. Liliana. Your daughter, I mean. You wouldn’t want your daughter to become a widow at that age.”

Duke Day was incredulous. He had already detached himself emotionally from his daughter who had committed many sins. Though as a final act of fatherly affection, he ended with the punishment of placing her in a temple for life, he had no intention of giving anything more to his daughter.

What did it matter if his daughter became a widow or not? And in the current situation, it was much better for Liliana to become a widow. If the former emperor and Liliana remained a couple, Duke Day’s family would also be directly or indirectly linked to the former emperor. The duke wanted to finally end his connection with the former emperor, which had begun with his own mistake.

“I thought your head had gone bad over that dirty, filthy thing. But you were rotten from the start. You can’t think at all. Well…… tsk.”

The duke didn’t hesitate to mock the former emperor. He had thought Kedrick couldn’t think because of the drugs he had taken through High Priest Sinax. But that wasn’t it. Kedrick was simply stupid and thoughtless from the beginning.

“The reason I came down here is to show you this.”

The duke no longer wanted to exchange words with the former emperor. He approached the iron bars again and put his hand into his bosom. Then he took out a bundle of papers he had received from Roshan long ago, containing the secrets of the late emperor’s crimes and Kedrick, who was born as their product.

“Do you know how filthy a being you are?”

The duke said as he unfolded the bundle of papers and brought it close to the iron bars. The former emperor didn’t even think of looking at him and screamed with a phlegmy throat,

“You! Are you saying my mother’s origin was lowly! But I am the son of the late emperor! Regardless of the womb that bore me, I have the blood of the emperors and goddesses of the Vistius Empire flowing in me!”

The duke put more strength into his hand holding the papers at the former emperor’s words. The corner of his mouth twisted. The former emperor finally noticed something strange and read through the papers. And at some point, his eyes stopped and trembled uncontrollably.