“Episode 27”
Yuliana retrieved the emperor’s belongings hidden in her embrace. The black pebble-like object she held in her hand felt harmless, with no apparent meaning, but in reality, it was something fearsome. “Why would the Sun of All Things place something precious like this here—” “Duchess, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t like that phrase. If there’s only one sun, isn’t the result of wanting only one emperor this?” “Your Majesty, I…” “Your honesty surprised me. This place is a torture chamber to insert everything of the past emperors into the noble children. And what’s before the eyes of the Duchess is that intermediary. Well, of course, it’s not entirely the same. It’s more like something similar.” Lucian smirked. Then, he rolled the ominous object in his hand. As Yuliana watched the small pebble roll back and forth between his fingers, she was speechless. This was the worldview of the ‘Threads of Fate’ she had seen in her past life. [Just as there is one Sun of All Things, there is only one emperor who follows the will of the gods.] The insane choice of the first emperor of the empire led to the memories and all the magic of the past emperors being ‘passed down’ to the noble children through the generations. While the world where ‘Isiane’ lived had no means to carry out such madness, the world where ‘Yuliana Owen’ lived was a world where such madness was possible. The process of accepting magic and memories that were not one’s own was harsh. The ego was crushed, reality and the past became entwined. Children who inherited the magic of the past emperors naturally became stronger, but also ‘mad.’ However, the imperial family, enslaved by the obsession that only a strong emperor should rule the empire, inflicted such torture on the noble children through the generations. And the man before her was the survivor of that torture, the greatest beneficiary. He was the emperor’s illegitimate child, but he had passed through all that torture to become a true emperor. Yet at the same time, he was a nobleman, but not a nobleman. His precarious position only fueled Lucian’s paranoia. It wasn’t unreasonable for him to see the nobles not as his subjects to take along but as a ‘swarm of flies.’ But at this moment, what concerned Yuliana more than that fact was one thing. Why was Evan’s magic mixed in with the intermediary containing the memories and magic of the past emperors? Yuliana parted her lips. “Your Majesty. I didn’t mean to hide it. I just picked it up when Her Majesty was eyeing it, and I felt Evan’s magic for a moment. So, I was about to ask Evan about it, but—” “Ah, Her Majesty. It seems the charming empress has her eyes on my possession. How delightful.”
“That’s understandable. Dark magic is forbidden territory for sorcerers. But now you see how much the royal humans loved and cherished dark magic. I am the beneficiary of that dark magic, the one who will inflict that torture on my future child. The one who will make them a puppet, devoid of self or memories, as an emperor…”
Lucian chuckled with a dignified air, then placed the intermediary on the table. Yuliana tried hard to avert her gaze.
Following her gaze, Lucian tilted his head. Then, now with a clearer sense of reality, he spoke.
“The Duchess must be curious about why Evan’s magic is contained in the intermediary. You can ask the Duke, but he’ll surely tell some smooth lies. He’s the kind of person who would only want to give you the best, even if it’s through lies.”
“…Even if he lies, it doesn’t seem like such a big lie. Since Evan and Your Majesty don’t seem to get along well. Is there such a big secret that those two would share?”
Yuliana pretended to be bold. But no matter how much she thought about it, that thing was ominous. A violent method of transmitting the memories and magic of the dead to the living. The living possess the magic of the dead and claim all the history and past of the empire as their own.
Then, where does the consciousness of the living go? Where does the ego of those who become ’emperors’ go?
Yuliana looked at the wall surrounded by cozy yellow wallpaper. The wall meticulously finished as a medium for the dead’s memories and magic was incredibly eerie.
Ignoring her fear, Lucian continued speaking.
“The Duke and I were classmates at the academy. You must have heard of it?”
“I’ve only heard that you were classmates.”
Yuliana replied stiffly.
As they spoke, Lucian deftly stirred the remaining black tea with a teaspoon. Even though the situation made the approaching teaspoon slightly amusing, Yuliana didn’t smile.
Taking another sip of tea, Lucian grinned and said,
“I was a bastard son of a nobleman at the time. Although my benevolent father allowed me to be included among the nobles’ children, I could never be fully accepted.”
Taking another sip of tea, Lucian continued, his deep eyes drawing out the past.
“If the legitimate sons of my father and the heirs of the imperial family who inherited the blood of the royal family hadn’t all gone mad as mediums, I wouldn’t have had the chance to ascend to the throne. So I joined the process of becoming an emperor late. Well, then…”
Lucian shrugged his shoulders, looking at the empty teacup neatly placed in front of him.
“At that time, there were two friends I associated with, both of whom were bastards. We became close rapidly. We were teenagers at the time, lonely and wanting to create something like friendship. In the process, we ended up doing something foolish.”
“…Yes?”
“Specifically, it was the Duke and me.”
“What…?”
“While I was scared of joining the process of becoming emperor, afraid of losing ‘myself’ and becoming like my ruthless father, one friend tried to comfort me with ‘words,’ and the other friend proposed a completely different solution.”
Yuliana swallowed hard.
Her mouth became dry, and the corners of her eyes stiffened. She was tired. It was already dawn. The alcohol had long faded, but the aftermath of meeting her younger sister still lingered in her heart.
‘And Evan’s secret too…’
Yuliana didn’t want to respond to what couldn’t be answered. Despite her silence, Lucian affectionately continued speaking.
“We decided to keep only the memories unique to ‘Lucian Bieu Ariaque.’ We secretly created something similar by stealing part of the ‘intermediary.’ What you see before you, Duchess, is one of our experiments. It’s made by mixing the Duke’s and my magic.”
“…?”
Yuliana couldn’t answer what she couldn’t answer and didn’t want to answer. In her silence, Lucian spoke again.
“In that process, we shared our vulnerabilities and became closer. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if friends could remain friends forever? But once I became emperor, I realized it’s better to have fewer friends to share secrets with, if any at all.”
“Why did you do such a thing? You must regret it now.”
Yuliana spoke coldly.
The emperor was blackmailing Evan. Once, they were friends who created mediums to save a friend.
But as time passed and their positions changed, Lucian Bieu Ariaque became someone who valued his own position more than friendship.
That might have been a side effect of becoming emperor. Even though he stored his ‘memories’ and ‘magic’ separately, he couldn’t overcome the obsession with the empire and the desire for status that had already been fused with him by the past emperors.
Looking at Lucian, who had become a monster without realizing it himself, Yuliana shook her head bitterly.
“The Duke was probably the same. Initially, he didn’t know “The habit of creating ‘experiments’ probably started like that. That fellow, who was a bit eccentric even before becoming a Duke, started making even weirder experiments after becoming one. If you poke him, you’ll probably find quite a few strange things.”
“So? Does the end of this conversation mean, ‘Be careful, Evan makes a lot of strange experiments’ or something like that?”
“No. It means that the answer to the Duchess’s curiosity lies here.”
“Even I don’t know my own curiosity, how does Your Majesty know?”
Yuliana retorted stubbornly. And when she couldn’t hold back and was about to leave to find Evan, Lucian’s words caught her.
“There are many rumors about the Duchess, but most of them are hardly true. For example, that she spends nights with countless partners or doesn’t do the Duchess’s duties because she’s always with men. Oh, is the latter true?”
“Your Majesty!”
Yuliana turned sharply, glaring at the back of Lucian’s head.
‘What is this subordinate saying! He keeps emphasizing that this is the present.’
Yuliana’s heart bubbled up, and her eyes hardened with anger. She was furious, laughed, and felt disappointed in this dream-like place called ‘Icienne,’ even though it was supposed to be reality. So it was too much like the previous life. So, even as ‘Icienne,’ she couldn’t be genuinely angry, laugh, or disappointed. But…
‘As Yuliana Orvon, I couldn’t stand it.’
In that moment, she realized. Even in this life, which was supposed to be different from the previous one, she couldn’t escape the rut because it was too similar to the past.
Unlike the previous life, where she drove away everyone who approached her, the current Yuliana Orvon, accepted people who praised her, even if it was sweet lies.
She forced herself to smile at the gifts they gave her and the sweet words that tickled her ears. Otherwise, everyone would see her as pitiful.
At sixteen.
When she first debuted in society, she was the fragile noble daughter whom her own mother had proudly abandoned.
A beautiful but quickly wilting flower. Pity from everyone, but ultimately no one would care for her…
‘I wanted to escape.’
Yuliana bit her lip. Then the thin skin of her lips peeled off.
She filled her rotten self-esteem with other people’s lies. She made a different choice from the ‘me’ in the previous life, but in the end, the ‘me’ in this life also had low self-esteem and high useless confidence in common.
Foolish Yuliana Orvon.
Foolish Icienne…
“So?”
Yuliana responded. She immediately regretted her tone, which seemed arrogantly condescending.
As if knowing her regret, Lucian smiled slyly before replying.
“It’s just my guess from then on. The Duchess, with her low self-esteem, naturally mistrusted her husband and indulged in villainy until recently, but isn’t she still unable to trust her husband completely? I wonder about that. Such thoughts…”
“I believe in Evan.”
“Is that so? That’s rather pitiful.”
“What does Your Majesty want to achieve through this conversation…”
“I’m just trying to solve the Duchess’s oldest curiosity.”
“Ha!”
In the end, Yuliana burst into laughter. Then, pretending to be arrogant, she said. Fortunately, this time it sounded somewhat plausible.
“Oldest curiosity? I wonder what you know about me to talk like that.”
With a face showing only a clear smile, Lucian Bieu Ariaque replied, unable to detect any emotion.
“Isn’t Evan Hillen unsure why he loves a deficient person like you? And you, even if the Duke expresses it in words, you’ll still be anxious. And the Duke will swallow even that anxiety of yours. It’s a pathetic relationship. When anxiety swallows anxiety, it only deteriorates into greater anxiety. With obsession and violent methods.”
Yuliana forced a smile.
To ridicule Lucian’s conjecture.
However, his leisurely tone and languid gaze undermined her inferiority.
‘Am I less than Evan? No! Why am I even thinking that? Evan loves me. I finally see that now.’
Plop―.
