Episode 99
Hildebrandt couldn’t remember what he had done. All he knew was that Yvonne had imprinted with the Emperor, and after that, everything was a blank.
When he came to, the imperial palace was devoid of life.
What little he could recall was that Emperor Hildegarde had used his father as a shield in an attempt to stop him, only to meet her own end. He also remembered slaughtering everyone from the Ferrite Ducal House.
Even Yvonne’s father, the Marquess Le Meredin, had died. That was Emperor Hildegarde’s cruelest act—she had planted a hypnosis spell to compel the Marquess and others to take their own lives should she perish.
No one had survived. Not the servants, the adopted princes and princesses, nor the ministers who had supported Hildebrandt.
Hildebrandt alone survived.
The reason was simple: he had awakened. With a power equal to Hildegarde’s unparalleled hypnosis ability, but with even greater magical strength.
As a result, the weaker hypnosis of Emperor Hildegarde had mostly been undone.
“Haha… Ha.”
Hildebrandt laughed as he looked at Emperor Hildegarde, who had taken her own life atop the throne. It was pathetic and ironic that she had clung to the throne until the bitter end, only to die on it.
“The imprint has been broken, Your Majesty.”
Hildebrandt thought something inside him had shattered irreparably.
“Stay away!”
Yvonne, holding a sword taken from a fallen knight nearby, pointed it at him.
“Hah.”
Not even realizing what she was doing, she drove the blade into his chest, right over his heart.
“Ah…!”
“Are you satisfied now?”
Hildebrandt let out a hollow laugh as he felt blood surge into his mouth. Though it was his body pierced by the blade, it was Yvonne who looked as though she might collapse from the shock.
He knew the impotent Emperor and Yvonne could never have shared a bed. But he chose to forget that. The clarity that came with the Emperor’s broken hypnosis revealed the misunderstandings that had driven them apart.
But so what?
Since awakening, his perspective had shifted entirely. The desire to live for Yvonne, the love so deep he’d wanted to die for her—it was all meaningless now.
“H-Hilde…!”
None of it mattered anymore. All he wanted now was for Yvonne to feel the same pain and despair that he did.
One thing he hadn’t dared to confirm was whether Yvonne had truly loved him or merely seen him as a stand-in for the late Emperor.
Hildebrandt lacked the courage to ask. If her answer were the latter, he knew he would want to die.
But he wanted to live.
Because he wanted to see her.
Even if it meant despair, even if it was painful, he wanted her by his side.
That day, the rain fell in an unrelenting downpour, a fitting backdrop for such a wretched moment.
* * *
“What are you doing?”
“Hilde.”
Hildebrandt had rushed to the west tower upon hearing that Yvonne was hiding there.
She hadn’t killed him with her blade. The injury had been dangerous, but the healers had managed to save him. However, he had deliberately kept the scar above his heart, ensuring it wouldn’t fade.
After his recovery, he had left her alone for some time. He had hidden her somewhere within his palace, observing her like a caged bird, ignoring her while keeping a watchful eye.
“Hilde…”
She was perched on the edge of the tower’s top-floor window, where they had once spent time together. Her precarious position made it clear that she would jump if he moved any closer.
Hildebrandt opened the door and approached the window but stopped short. Her trembling figure looked as though she might fall at any moment.
“What are you doing?”
“Hilde, do you remember this place?”
How could he not? This was the place where he had realized he could no longer deny his feelings for her.
“Come down right now.”
It was a large window, intentionally designed to give those imprisoned in the tower a final choice.
The size of the window only heightened his unease as he watched her.
“Hilde, I truly like you. I love you.”
“…”
“I love you, Hilde.”
The rain fell in a soft drizzle, with sunlight breaking through the clouds. The light landed on her platinum hair, making it gleam brilliantly.
“Goodbye.”
As he stared into her eyes, mesmerized, he suddenly realized what was happening.
“Yvonne!”
She was no longer sitting by the window.
* * *
Hildebrandt began using his newfound ability to hypnotize himself.
“I hate you more than anything in this world.”
“…”
When Yvonne woke, something was clearly wrong. She didn’t speak, didn’t react—alive, but utterly vacant, like a doll.
“I wish you were dead.”
He spat the words, using them to reinforce his self-hypnosis. He hated how she stared at him blankly, emotionlessly, like a lifeless puppet.
He wanted her to react, to feel something, even if it was from the wounds he inflicted. At the same time, he wanted to forget her entirely.
“I despise you.”
“…”
This time, he grabbed her neck. If he choked her again, maybe she would struggle, maybe she would show any sign of life.
“Hah…”
Hildebrandt tightened his grip around her throat. Her breathing grew labored as her airway was constricted, yet she offered no resistance.
“Beg me to spare you.”
“…”
“Beg me!”
His grip loosened, his strength waning. Still, she remained limp, her vacant eyes staring into nothingness.
“Say you love me. Please.”
It was then that Hildebrandt realized even his self-hypnosis unraveled at its own whim.
He couldn’t bear it.
He released her and fled, unable to face the void that had overtaken her.
* * *
Hildebrandt, consumed by his desire to hate her, took on the name of the Emperor Yvonne had loved—Hildegarde. He ascended the throne under that guise, deliberately pretending to be the late Emperor instead of claiming the throne as himself.
It wasn’t because he wanted power. It was because he wanted to torment Yvonne, showing her the image of the Emperor she had adored, ensuring she could never find peace in a relationship with him.
This was why he adopted Yvonne as his “daughter.” It was why he changed her radiant platinum hair to the corrupted silver of the imperial family and altered even her age to make her unrecognizable. No one could find her, and no one could free her from his grasp.
But something had changed.
“So, what you’re telling me is that her soul is elsewhere and needs to be summoned?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Reincarnation?”
“Correct, Your Majesty.”
Hildebrandt learned that on the day Yvonne had fallen, while her body had survived, her soul had left, having reincarnated elsewhere.
“That’s hard to believe.”
“It may be difficult to accept, but it is the truth, Your Majesty.”
“…”
Hildebrandt reluctantly tasked necromancers with summoning Yvonne’s soul. After experiencing a tragic end in her reincarnated life, her soul returned to her original body.
* * *
Hildebrandt despised how the memories he had buried would resurface with just a single careless word from her.
“How long are you going to speak so pitifully? Useless things are unnecessary.”
“I’ll become useful.”
He tried to forget that Yvonne was a Guide. He wanted to erase the thought of her being useful from his mind.
Yet, something about her had changed since reclaiming her soul. Unlike before, Yvonne now possessed immense magical power. The realization that she was still a Guide was one of the last things to break free from the hypnosis he had placed on himself.
Hildebrandt didn’t want her to be useful. He wanted her to believe she was worthless, to spiral into self-loathing and rot by his side like a decayed flower. Just as he had rotted near her, consumed by his obsession.
He loathed himself for having poured all his love into someone who didn’t love him back, for giving her everything and still feeling it wasn’t enough. His self-hatred should have built layer upon layer of resentment.
Hildebrandt had brought Yvonne’s soul back from another life intending to kill her with his own hands.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t do it.
He simply couldn’t.
“I love you, dad, more than anyone in the world.”
When he saw her eyes, the hypnosis he had used to convince himself to kill her would crumble effortlessly. The hatred he painstakingly built, the inhuman thoughts he harbored—they all melted away like ice in boiling water.
Hildebrandt loathed himself for this weakness. If only he could direct all his hatred toward Yvonne, he felt like he could do anything.
That’s why he devised his latest scheme.
“Do you know why I’m doing this to you, Grand Duke?”
Yurian Leonhardt.
A physical enhancement ability user of the highest caliber, and someone with magical strength on par with his own.
“For our little Yvonne to awaken, you mustn’t shine brighter than her.”
“…”
“So, bow and submit to her.”
Hildebrandt had left Yurian battered and bloody, shackled with chains and a gag, and dragged him to Yvonne. He knew the restraints would eventually break, and a physically enhanced ability user like Yurian would someday free himself from the hypnosis.
When that time came—
The one thing Hildebrandt could never bring himself to do, killing Yvonne, would be left to Yurian instead.
* * *
“Yvonne.”
“Yes.”
Hildebrandt, unable to suppress the words he had buried deep in his heart, clasped Yvonne’s hand as she slept and spoke quietly.
“Did you really love Uncle?”
“No.”
“Then why did you act that way?”
“I only love dad. So please, get some rest.”
“…Alright.”
Even as he told himself it was a lie, he found himself loving her for that lie as well.
* * *
Hildebrandt woke from a long dream, forced to confront the reality that Yvonne had escaped from him.
“Francis.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“If you find Yvonne, kill her on the spot. Without fail.”
As he spoke, he cast his most potent hypnosis upon Francis, using the full extent of his power.
He toyed with the amethyst earrings Yvonne had once given him, a bittersweet reminder of her.
And he smiled, as if unaware of his own tears.
⋆｡ ﾟ ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ ☾ ﾟ ｡ ⋆
☕ Hi, friends! Your support means the world to me. If you’d like, you can buy me a coffee here: Click the link on the image! 💖
Thank you for keeping me inspired! 🌸
⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆
