Chapter 2

“……”

“Still, you were by my side for many years. I suppose it’s only right that I show you at least a final bit of mercy. Hanging doesn’t suit someone as proud as you.”

“……”

“What are you waiting for? Take it already. Didn’t you want to die so badly?”

“Draw the knife.”

As he said this, the Emperor raised the corners of his lips and smiled pleasantly. He looked more beautiful than anything else in the world.

A surge of blood rose into her throat, and Elenor swallowed it back down. She then dragged herself across the ground and pulled the dagger in front of her from its sheath.

The finely sharpened blade looked quite sharp at a glance.

It was the first time she had held a weapon since the day he had ordered her to put down her sword.

The Emperor lowered his head toward Elenor, who was staring blankly at the blade.

“Come now. Hurry up and stab yourself with it.”

“……”

“You screamed at me countless times, begging me to kill you, saying you didn’t want to live anymore. I’m granting your wish. So why are you hesitating?”

The Emperor spoke leisurely and leaned his head back. “If you kill yourself because of me, I’ll have to live with guilt for the rest of my life.”

She let his words, muttered in a deeply sorrowful voice as though he were being sincere, go in one ear and out the other.

Elenor tightened her grip around the dagger.

But all the strength had already drained from her body, and even holding the dagger was difficult.

Anyone who trained with a sword knew well how to die instantly and without pain. Elenor was no exception. Although it had been a long time since she had put down her sword, the sensation of holding a weapon was still alive in her hands.

However, now that all the tendons in her limbs had been severed and not a shred of strength remained, she could not die peacefully using any of the methods she knew.

The moment she reached that conclusion, she drove the dagger she was holding into her chest, directly where her heart was, without the slightest hesitation.

With her trembling hand forcing itself to exert what little strength remained, she collapsed face-first onto the ground with a thud. Then, struggling to move her body, she positioned the hilt of the dagger against the floor.

Elenor lifted her upper body slightly, then threw herself down, putting her full weight into it. The dagger, which had fallen with its hilt against the ground, plunged even deeper into her chest.

Blood that had surged up moments ago spilled from her mouth.

She wiped the sticky blood running from the corner of her lips with a trembling hand and felt that the end of her life was finally approaching.

The Emperor approached Elenor when he saw her trembling hand. The escort knights 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 Elenor wanted to ask him.

A woman as pure and beautiful as a lily. Helena. The woman who had been the Empress of the Empire. The woman the Emperor had loved—loved more than anything.

Why on earth had this man…? Elenor parted her lips slightly.

“……Why… did… you k-kill… her?”

“What?”

“……He… Hele…na.”

“……”

The Emperor’s face hardened. Soon, one corner of his lips slowly lifted.

“Oh my. You knew?”

When his cheerful voice reached her ears, Elenor desperately clung to her fading consciousness and opened her eyes wide.

‘It was true!’

Elenor’s lips trembled. Even after witnessing Helena’s closest maid secretly meeting Joshua with her own eyes, she had refused to believe it. But he really had killed the woman he loved with his own hands.

She simply could not understand it. Why would he kill a woman from a good family who was kind-hearted as well? Why would he kill the person he loved?

Without even remembering to breathe, she stared at the Emperor with eyes filled with shock. But he smiled brightly, looking as though he were enjoying himself, and spoke.

“What’s the point of talking about that woman now? She’s already dead. Isn’t she?”

“……”

“Oh, right. Come to think of it, I heard that your parents—the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Frihosen—had their graves dug up by the Empress’s maternal family.”

At the Emperor’s sudden remark, as though he had just remembered something, the veins on Elenor’s forehead bulged.

With all the strength she could muster, she looked at the Emperor before her in disbelief.

His emotionless gaze passed over her. There was not the slightest trace of guilt.

“That’s right. I ordered them to do it. You dared to attempt to assassinate the Empress. There’s no way the person responsible—or even her parents—could be left untouched. Don’t look at me like that. All of this is your fault. If you had simply stepped down from your position as Imperial Consort, I wouldn’t have gone this far.”

At his emotionless words, Elenor stopped breathing for a moment.

How could he? How dare he disgrace them like that? Had he forgotten who had raised him to that position despite everyone looking down on him? Overcome by unbearable rage, Elenor’s body began to tremble.

Looking at Elenor as the warmth slowly left her body, the Emperor leaned toward her ear and whispered softly. As though offering one final act of generosity, he revealed the secret he had kept hidden.

“There was something I wanted to tell you before you died. The truth is, I found you disgusting from the very first time I saw you.”

“……”

“What? Surprised? That bright smile you always gave whenever you saw me, even the way you would get shy around me—it annoyed me so much. Ah! Still, there is one thing I’m truly grateful to you for. If it weren’t for you, how could I ever have taken this imperial throne? Hmm?”

As she watched his grinning face, Elenor wept silently. Yet there was not a single gaze of pity anywhere for a woman who was already so close to death.

She gazed at his bright expression with blurred eyes, as though he felt relieved after finally confessing his secret, as though there was not a single lie in his final revelation. Slowly, Elenor closed her eyes.

What had Joshua thought as he watched her work so hard to put him on the imperial throne?

“I’m truly grateful for that. But…”

Joshua trailed off, then suddenly grabbed Elenor’s slender neck with both hands and squeezed with all his strength. He knew very well that if he applied just a little more pressure, her delicate neck would break. Elenor’s eyes rolled back as she struggled to breathe.

“Now that I’ve become Emperor, do I need you? Rather, my position will only be complete once you disappear. You’re not the one… I am. I’m the real one. I’m the real one.”

“Ghk. G-gah…!”

‘What on earth is he talking about?’

Elenor clenched her powerless fists. She could not understand Joshua’s final words. Even when she tried to think about them properly, her vision was growing hazy, and her breathing was gradually fading.

With her final strength, Elenor opened her eyes wide, as though trying to engrave Joshua’s image deeply into her mind.

‘I will never forgive you. Not even after I die.’

Even in death, she could not close her eyes peacefully.

She felt as though she were being sucked into a deep darkness. She kept sinking endlessly into a dark place without beginning or end, as though someone had grabbed her legs and was dragging her downward. Just as she was being pulled into that deep, black sea and could no longer breathe—

“Gasp—!”

Elenor suddenly opened her eyes and took ragged breaths. Grabbing her throat as though she were trying to spit out the water that had risen all the way up to it, she coughed and dry-heaved.

She had definitely been in the sea. She had been dragged down into an endless, pitch-black darkness beneath the water.

‘……It’s dark.’

Elenor raised both hands and felt her face, then touched her eyelids. She could feel her eyeballs moving beneath her fingertips. Her eyes were definitely open, yet all she could see was pitch-black darkness.

There was not even the slightest trace of light.

Unable to see anything, she carefully raised her upper body and remained still for a moment.

Just as her eyes were slowly becoming accustomed to the darkness, a question flashed through her mind.

Death.

I should have died.

This was not a dream. She had definitely died.

The finely sharpened blade of the dagger cutting into her flesh, her collapsing body, and that cold gaze.

As far as she got in her thoughts, Elenor suddenly felt nauseous. She hurriedly bent forward, covered her mouth, and began dry-heaving.

Even after waiting for her stomach to settle, her body refused to cooperate.

She felt as weak as though she had performed strenuous 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 sit down on the floor, pressing the back of her hand firmly against her mouth.

‘I died. I drove the knife he threw into my own chest.’

Elenor darted her eyes around. She could see nothing through 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, suddenly, light appeared.

The unexpected brightness dazzled her. Squinting and looking ahead again, Elenor saw a large mirror standing before her.

When had something like this appeared? Half wary and half curious, Elenor cautiously approached the mirror while keeping an eye on her surroundings.

And as soon as Elenor stood before the mirror, an image began to form on its surface as though it had been waiting for her.

Recognizing the person in the mirror, she looked bewildered.

‘Charles?’

Even after rubbing her eyes and looking again in disbelief, there was no mistake. It was Charles, the son of Derrick Berichmen, the former Marquis and close friend of the Grand Duke of Frihosen.

The last time Elenor 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 close aides to summon him to the capital, 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 in the Imperial Palace now—of all places, inside the Emperor’s own palace? Moreover, he looked somewhat older than he had at the wedding, and there was bloodstains on his armor.

Elenor slowly shifted her gaze to the person standing before Charles.

‘Joshua.’

He looked completely different from the Joshua she had last seen.