The Age Of Arrogance

He dismounted from the horse and entered the Soleil Palace confidently.

 

The sound of Carlyle and his army’s footsteps echoed through the golden hallway, but no one stopped them. The palace felt strangely empty.

 

There were also no guards in front of Soleil Hall.

 

Carlyle gripped the doorknob of the Soleil Hall door tightly and pushed it open with force.

 

Creeeaaak, Bang!

 

‘Did it always make this sound?’

 

He never paid close attention before. No, it was never this quiet for him to hear such a sound.

 

On the opposite side of the grand Soleil Hall, the Emperor and Empress’s thrones were placed. Beatrice, dressed extravagantly, sat there alone and smiled.

 

“To open the door of Soleil Hall without announcing yourself. You’re still as reckless, Carlyle.”

 

Her voice was completely calm.

 

Carlyle’s knights immediately took a defensive stance, but Carlyle raised his hand slightly to stop them and walked forward slowly by himself.

 

“I seem to be very late. Your Majesty seems to be upset.”

 

“Upset? You’ve been upsetting me ever since you were born.”

 

“Should I have called the one who killed my own mother ‘Your Majesty’? Haha!”

 

Carlyle also laughed cheerfully.

 

Beatrice still asked in a gentle voice.

 

“I’m curious, Carlyle. Who told you about the plan to establish the Holy Empire and the matter of your father being framed?”

 

“For you to ask that means… my father met you before the banquet that day.”

 

“Ah, you might not know this, but your father becomes quite impulsive after drinking. I thought it would make things easier…”

 

She tilted her head slightly and frowned as if regretting something.

 

“So, who told you?”

 

“As a last wish, let me tell you. The plan to establish the Holy Empire was revealed by those who couldn’t entrust their fate to their mother or brother, and the fact about my father’s infertility was revealed by a woman who lost everything because of it.”

 

Beatrice’s face instantly hardened.

 

“Josephine and Charlotte betrayed me?”

 

“Betrayal? Those are hardly the words a mother should use for daughters who were trembling with fear and never received a single warm word from you.”

 

She trembled with anger.

 

While the daughters are daughters, it was even more surprising that Viviana, whom she thought she had sent away, had come back to get her revenge.

 

“That woman, Viviana, should have been killed after all.”

 

“You’ve always been careless with finishing things. Leaving the physician who framed my father alive is another example.”

 

“Ahaha! It seems my problem is that I’m too soft-hearted and weak-willed.”

 

“No. The problem was your arrogance. The baseless arrogance that everything would go your way.”

 

The two of them had smiles on their lips, but their eyes were colder than the winter wind outside.

 

“Now get down from there. Before it gets any uglier.”

 

“Oh, Carlyle. Why do you think I killed your mother, killed the many humans who tried to protect you, and made your father a widower?”

 

Her smile grew wider than ever. Sweetly, but bitterly, like caramel that had been boiled too much and burned.

 

“I wanted to be recorded in the history books of the Chad Empire as ‘Empress’ and ‘Mother of the Emperor.’ And so it shall be.”

 

Suddenly, Carlyle felt a chill and rushed towards where she was sitting.

 

But no matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t be faster than her taking out a small vial and pouring it into her mouth in one go.

 

“Beatrice Lebrun Evaristo!”

 

“This is my victory, Carlyle. Resent it until you die. Ahahaha! Ahahahaha!”

 

Beatrice laughed merrily and slowly collapsed.

 

By the time Carlyle reached the throne, she was already dead.

 

Carlyle grabbed Beatrice by the collar and shook her.

 

“Get up! You don’t deserve to die so easily!”

 

He couldn’t accept that she would die so easily.

 

Memories of his long-standing hatred for Beatrice flashed through his mind.

 

Without even the time to grieve for his mother, who had died protecting him in her womb, Carlyle had been plagued by assassins sent by Beatrice since his earliest memories.

 

His maternal grandfather had spent all his energy protecting him, and countless people around him had died instead of Carlyle.

 

And what about when he was just fifteen years old and the previous emperor had sent him to the battlefield?

 

[Your Majesty, don’t you have a lot to do in Zyro? The fact that Your Majesty has a son blessed by Aguiles is surely the will of God to have him destroy the enemies in Your Majesty’s place.]

 

The cowardly father, as if he had been waiting for this, sent him to the war zone with a dark complexion.

 

Beatrice had done everything she could to kill him, and Carlyle had gritted his teeth and endured those brutal years just to survive, just to become emperor in vain.

 

How could he repay his life, his resentment, which he had lived in the midst of death since he was a child?

 

“Beatrice Evaristo! Get up!”

 

Carlyle tried to put his fingers in Beatrice’s mouth to make her vomit the poison. But there was no way a dead person could have a gag reflex.

 

“Damn it! Damn it!”

 

Asha and Lionel approached Carlyle, who was shaking with anger and holding Beatrice’s body.

 

“Your Majesty…”

 

Lionel, who knew well of Carlyle’s hatred for Beatrice, called him softly and patted him on the shoulder.

 

“She’s already dead.”

 

“Ugh……!”

 

“If the body of the Empress is desecrated, public opinion will turn bad. Please calm down, Your Majesty.”

 

Lionel tried to calm Carlyle down, but Carlyle could not contain his anger and tried to grab Beatrice’s neck.

 

Asha, who was watching Carlyle and Lionel, spoke in a dry tone.

 

“I heard that in some foreign countries, there is still a punishment by digging up the grave of the dead and cutting off the head of the corpse.”

 

Carlyle looked at Asha. His anger and excitement gradually subsided as he saw Asha’s cold face.

 

“She is the one who assassinated the Emperor. What greater sin is there than that?”

 

“Yes, that’s right.”

 

“So don’t make that face like it’s all over, Your Majesty. We haven’t caught His Majesty Matthias yet, so we need to focus on that. It’s not too late to punish this woman after that.”

 

Carlyle came to his senses as if he had been splashed with cold water.

 

He was ashamed that he had lost his reason because he had not been able to kill his enemy directly. Asha should have been the one to kill Beatrice directly for revenge.

 

“You’re right.”

 

Carlyle nodded at Asha’s words. The fight, and the revenge, were not over yet.

 

“Lionel.”

 

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

 

“Have this woman’s body embalmed and kept. When I become Emperor, I will execute her in the square then.”

 

“Understood.”

 

Carlyle stood up.

 

“Find Matthias. He must not have run far away since his mind is unstable.”

 

“Yes!”

 

He turned and left the place with Asha.

 

“Announce that Beatrice Evaristo is dead and occupy the Imperial Palace! Make sure that none of the servants or officials in the palace are hurt, and check that there are no humans who are stealing important imperial objects!”

 

His orders now began to carry the majesty of the Emperor. And no one felt awkward about that fact.

 

* * *

 

“Long live! Long live!”

 

“Long live His Majesty the new Emperor!”

 

The atmosphere of the capital of Zyro was filled with a festive atmosphere, and cheers erupted from all over. It was thanks to the fact that the owner of the imperial palace had officially changed after a month of Carlyle’s rebellion.

 

Matthias, who had escaped with the emperor’s crown, was caught as Carlyle had expected, before he could go far.

 

He tried to bargain with the crown and his own life, but Carlyle walked up to him and beheaded him without hesitation.

 

[This will be a better ending for you too.]

 

It would have been an honorable death for Matthias to face his end while he was still sane. However, it seemed that he himself wanted to live, even if it was dishonorable.

 

Carlyle, who had officially become the emperor after a simple coronation ceremony, built an execution platform in the square and decided to immediately execute those involved in the murder of the previous emperor.

 

The first sinner was naturally Beatrice.

 

“Proclaim the crimes of the evil woman Beatrice Evaristo, who led the murder of the previous emperor!”

 

Beatrice’s body, which was placed on the execution platform, was beautifully preserved thanks to the embalming process and showed little signs of decay.

 

However, no one sympathized with her as all her crimes were revealed, starting with the murder of Ivelina, Carlyle’s biological mother, to her attempts to kill the young Carlyle, her evil deeds of making the previous emperor a puppet and eventually assassinating him through the black magician Gabriel.

 

Beatrice’s body was beheaded with the sword of the executioner, along with Matthias’s head.

 

Matthias’s reign was not recognized, and naturally the revised law he issued was nullified, and Beatrice was not recorded as the emperor’s mother.

 

Next was Gabriel.

 

As soon as he was revealed to be a black magician, he was excommunicated from the Church and welcomed the execution because of the pain of divine punishment that had worsened due to his inability to perform the ritual.

 

“Do you still have no intention of apologizing for what you have done?”

 

To Carlyle’s last question, Gabriel smiled wryly with a haggard face.

 

“I will be in the arms of Libato when I die. There, I will look down on you as you are dragged around like a dog of Karakash. The true judgment will be made by Elderis, not by the humans here.”

 

“I can’t be sure if I will receive Libato’s vision when I die, but I’m sure the name of the dog of Karakash will be the same as yours.”

 

Realizing that it was futile to expect Gabriel to repent, Carlyle executed him without asking any further questions.