Chapter 52. Begging His Wife for a Chance

Cough—cough—

A rough, congested cough echoed through the Emperor’s bedchamber.

When he briefly covered his mouth with a handkerchief, bright red blood stained the cloth.

Oriat Heil Lucene, the seventeenth Emperor of Turesian, was seventy years old this year. He had once had several sons and daughters, but now only two sons remained.

Twenty years ago, when rebellions erupted throughout the empire and joined forces with foreign powers to overthrow the country, his children and the Empress had been brutally killed on the execution grounds.

Except for Oriat, who had barely managed to escape, and Lesvan, who had disappeared without a trace, everyone had fallen into the hands of the enemy.

Afterward, Oriat rebuilt the country, recovered Lesvan, took a new Empress, and had another son.

Officially known as the Second Prince, that boy was now nineteen and an adult. Although intelligent, his abilities fell far short of those of the Crown Prince, Lesvan.

“Cough, cough.”

The door opened, and Lesvan approached with firm footsteps.

Black hair resembling that of the deceased Empress, vivid golden eyes—the symbol of the Turesian imperial family—and an aura of power far surpassing even Oriat’s in his prime.

“How are you feeling today?”

“I don’t think I have many days left.”

“You said the same thing three months ago.”

At Lesvan’s remark, the Emperor chuckled despite his sickly appearance.

It wasn’t a lie that he did not have long to live, but he found it easier to deal with the detached Lesvan than with the Second Prince, who always made a fuss over his condition.

Oriat had already handed most of the affairs of state over to Lesvan.

After ten years of continuous victories under Lesvan’s command, the army followed him with their lives on the line, and all the people of the empire supported the Crown Prince.

“Are you really planning to remain disobedient to the very end? Or is that ridiculous rumor I heard from the barracks actually true?”

The Emperor’s brows hardened slightly as he asked.

“I heard you brought one of your centurions into a room and stripped him.”

Lesvan casually moved his lips.

“He was harassing women in the conquered territories, so I cut off his genitals and threw them to the dogs. I fed the man himself to the lions. They crunch, crunch—they chewed him up quite well.”

The Emperor frowned at the graphic description, but Lesvan remained completely unfazed.

“Didn’t Your Majesty always teach me that even if you win a war, you’ve lost everything if you lose the people’s hearts?”

“You don’t win the people’s hearts through war and punishment alone. You must show them the future of the Imperial Family and give the people hope. How long do you intend to neglect your duties as Crown Prince?”

“The conquered territories……”

A cold light flickered in Lesvan’s golden eyes.

“There is one place left.”

Ten years ago, Lesvan had started a war and crushed five small kingdoms. He had taken thorough revenge against the kings and royal families of the kingdoms that had trampled upon Turesian, staining the continent with blood.

At the mere mention of Lesvan’s name, those who had once been enemies of Turesian trembled in fear, while everyone in the conquered territories bowed their heads beneath Lesvan’s iron heel.

They had been forced to bitterly regret either having once pointed their swords at Turesian or having failed to eliminate the future threat when Lesvan disappeared without a trace.

“By the time you reclaim that place as well, the daughter of the Grand Duke of Haines will probably already have two children.”

At the Emperor’s words, Lesvan gave a faint smile.

“You still had the Haines daughter in mind as a potential daughter-in-law? Surely you haven’t forgotten the story about her wetting herself when she saw me.”

“That was because you returned from the war covered in blood without even changing your clothes. No matter how strong-willed a woman was, how could she see you looking like that and not faint? Ah, my head.”

The Emperor furrowed his brow.

If he had known Lesvan would become synonymous with terror among women, he would never have granted his request ten years ago to lead the war of conquest for revenge.

Although he had reclaimed most of the empire’s territory and Turesian was now more prosperous than at any other point in its history, the Emperor was constantly tormented by worries about the imperial succession.

“You’ve driven me to the point of ordering your subordinates to throw even prisoners of war into your bedchamber.”

Of course, they refused the Emperor’s orders because they did not want to be killed by Lesvan.

“So you’re saying anyone will do. I’ve been waiting to hear you say that.”

At Lesvan’s words, the Emperor groaned and frowned.

Ten years ago—or even five years ago—the families with marriage prospects for Lesvan, Crown Prince of the Great Turesian Empire, had naturally been the most prestigious houses in the empire.

But by now, those noble ladies already had several children of their own.

As for the unmarried young ladies, vicious rumors had spread that Lesvan had a hobby of killing women, that he was a murderous fiend, and so on. Countless women trembled merely at the mention of his name.

Of course, if Lesvan appeared in high society now looking presentable, his appearance alone would quickly earn him the admiration and popularity of the noble ladies.

But Lesvan had no intention of stopping his act as a bloodthirsty warmonger.

“I will kill every last one of them. I’ll tear them limb from limb and make them crawl through the gutters like worms.”

The terrifying malice that had filled the eyes of a ten-year-old boy remained vivid in Oriat’s memory.

That must still be what drives Lesvan.

“You should have given up sooner.”

A cold smile passed across Lesvan’s lips.

Oriat understood what Lesvan meant.

“I didn’t think she was good enough for you.”

The girl from Frihatz whom his son had searched for.

They say you can recognize whether a tree will grow well from its first leaves, but that girl’s eyes had been remarkably dull.

Her family was not prestigious enough, nor did she possess even the qualities necessary to enter the Imperial Family.

How could he possibly find her for his son?

So he had ordered an attendant to tell Lesvan that the girl had died of an illness.

Later, he heard rumors that she had become the wife of a duke.

He had never imagined Lesvan would still remember her.

“I’ll leave my final wishes.”

Oriat now felt that it no longer mattered what happened.

He was too old.

“Do not take your brother’s life. Produce an heir.”

His dull golden eyes gleamed beneath his wrinkled eyelids.

“You must take a woman and continue the bloodline of the Imperial Family.”

Cough—

Another blood-filled cough burst from his dry lips.

Lesvan merely stared quietly at his aging father with indifferent eyes.

Bloodlines grew old, rotted, and disappeared.

Power and authority, meanwhile, extended from one end of the continent to the other.

Yet even amid the collision of their differing convictions, the only thing that lingered faintly at the tip of his nose was the sweet scent of rabbit blood he had smelled earlier.

**

“If you have nothing else to say, could you please leave now? It’s late.”

Essika spoke coldly as she looked at Kallian, who had entered her room and stood motionless before her for a long time.

Kallian stared at Essika with trembling eyes.

For days, he had thought about it over and over.

Where had his relationship with her gone wrong?

And, more importantly, what had he lost?

Essika Klaus.

This intelligent and beautiful woman who had come all the way to the capital solely for him.

For three whole years, he had relentlessly ignored her.

“Do you…… resent me, Duchess?”

At first, he had refused to accept the fact that she could change at all.

Even if he received nothing in return, he had believed Essika’s love would last forever.

He had repeatedly justified himself for feeling offended by the change in her.

Like a fool, he had believed only his mother’s claims that Essika was extravagant and wicked.

Even when it was obvious that she was being abused, he had deliberately looked away, telling himself there must have been a reason.

“I…… I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything.”

Kallian’s tightly clenched fists trembled.

His low voice carried a desperate apology to Essika.

Essika merely looked at Kallian with emotionless eyes.

“Only after you turned away from me did I realize how terribly I had wronged you. I realized far too late how deeply I must have hurt you.”

“……”

“I shouldn’t have believed only Mother’s words. I should have judged the situation myself.”

His self-reproach was filled with genuine regret.

“So please give me another chance, Essika. Give me a chance to make up for my mistakes and start over with you.”

He had never once begged Essika for a chance like this.

Until now, he had believed that everything he did was right and that there was nothing for him to regret.

The Essika of the past would have burst into tears and thrown herself into Kallian’s arms.

Of course. Let’s live well together from now on.

She would have dreamed of a future with her husband, who had finally realized the truth of their love after all their hardships and adversity.

But despite the sincerity of his regret, Essika felt nothing.

“If.”

Essika calmly and composedly poured cold water over Kallian’s remorse.

“If I hadn’t changed, would the Duke have apologized to me like this?”

Kallian’s violet eyes trembled violently.

Essika’s words struck directly at the heart of their twisted relationship.

I know.

People don’t change.

Essika’s blue eyes seemed to pierce straight through Kallian’s soul.

And she knew exactly what would have happened if she had never awakened to her identity as Yeongryeong.

“……Essika.”

This man would still have never spared her a single glance.

Just like the look in his eyes when he had pushed Essika to the ground, he would have looked at her with contempt, as though wishing she would simply disappear.

Everything would have proceeded exactly as it had in the novel.

Yuri would have become pregnant with Kallian’s child, while Essika would have been driven out……

“The important thing is…… that I realized how precious you are to me.”

Kallian grabbed Essika by the shoulders and cried out.

His brows were drawn together as though pleading for her to understand his sincerity, his voice desperate.

But Essika raised her hand and removed Kallian’s hand from her shoulder.

There was not the slightest hesitation in the gesture.

Kallian felt a pain in his chest as though he had been stabbed by a knife.

Is being completely rejected really this terrifying?

“The important thing is that I have already been hurt enough.”

At the word hurt, Kallian’s eyes trembled.

“And I no longer……”

The chest that had felt as though it had been stabbed continued to throb.

It was a terrible pain he had never experienced before.

Essika’s eyes, searching for even the slightest trace of warmth, were as cold as an icy sea.

“You took away my clothes, sent me to a tiny room, ordered the maids to feed me rotten bread, and had ice-cold water poured over me in winter.”

It was even more frightening that she spoke of being hurt as calmly as someone who had never experienced pain at all.

She had looked at the Imperial Investigation Team with these same calm, cold eyes when reporting everything that had happened.

“……I don’t love you anymore.”