I’m back
“Don’t do that. Put it down, Ambassador.”
“Okay. Seeing Sir El acting like that, I think I really am a descendant of Ann.”
At the self-deprecating words, El tightly closed his eyes.
Looking at such an El, Riella also bit her lips.
It still seemed like a joke, even to that moment, when she held her own life hostage and held a shard of glass under her own neck.
“That’s not it. There’s blood on your hands. Put it down!”
“You kidnapped me and now you’re worried about these injuries?”
El was a very strange person.
‘He says that he was after me from the beginning and that it was all intentional, but what are those eyes?’
“Tell me. You brought me here, and now? What did you plan to do with me? Who are you going to hand me over to?”
El raised his head again.
The moment she met his empty eyes, Riella realized that she had asked a question that didn’t need an answer.
If she really was a descendant of Ann, she was probably the only one left at the moment. Naturally, that meant that there were countless people after her.
“Whoever seeks me, wherever it may be,….I don’t want to go. I want to go back to my place.”
“The Ambassador’s place…Where are you talking about? Are you talking about His Majesty’s side? His Majesty is just one of those who seek to exploit your power.”
“That’s right. That’s right. Then I guess I have to go back. His Majesty needs me. He can’t live without me, right?”
Despite El’s meaningful attack, Riella remained calm.
Rather, her mind became more at ease and more reassured.
‘It doesn’t matter what kind of being I am, whether I’m a descendant of Ann or not. I just need to be by His Majesty’s side.’
El stared at Riella like that, then turned away and said.
“It might be too late.”
“Huh? What…?”
“There is someone else moving on his side. If the plan had been successful, Your Majesty would have been helpless by now.”
“What did you say…?!”
Riella froze, her eyes wide open, with the shard of glass still pressed against her neck.
El slowly approached and reached out his hand to Riella.
His eyes, looking at the clear bloodstains on the thin, white neck, were pitiful.
Finding it hilarious, she pushed him away and threw the shard of glass she was holding to the ground.
“My life is precious, and without me, the king is in danger, so I will not threaten you further with my life.”
“Good idea.”
“Instead, I will threaten Sir El with something else.”
She clenched my fist and the part where the glass shards had cut her stung.
Blood was seeping out from between her tightly clenched hands, but Riella still gathered strength and continued to speak resolutely.
“Sir El. Were you and your family constantly being threatened?”
“…!”
“Your family…I have them with me now.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
El’s eyes widened. His pitch-black pupils shook violently like branches swaying in the wind.
But Riella had no time to be weak.
“I wanted to help you. I wanted to save you and your family. But not anymore. It’s not you that I need to save, it’s His Majesty. So bring me back to His Majesty! Send me to His Majesty right now! Or If I fail to save Your Majesty because of you…!”
Riella suppressed her tears and glared at El.
“Your family’s lives will be lost.”
She meant it.
If only she could return to Herhan’s arms, who is desperately waiting for her now. It seemed as if Riella could have become an even worse villain.
* * *
The atmosphere in the palace banquet hall was chaotic.
Even though the palace musicians played old-fashioned music and the servants came and went busily to serve the guests, the distracting atmosphere did not subside for a moment.
Part of it was the awkwardness of the first official banquet in a year, part of it was the strange sight of armed knights moving around the banquet hall, but the biggest problem was that the host of the banquet, the emperor, had not yet shown up.
“Isn’t it possible that His Majesty’s business trip has been extended?”
“If so, he would have contacted us sooner or later. The banquet was held as scheduled, wasn’t it?”
“I thought I would finally be able to see His Majesty since this was his first banquet since ascending to the throne.”
At that moment, a gray-haired man intervened among the murmuring crowd.
“It must have been a very important business trip, so I guess it took a long time to finish.”
“Oh my god, Count Igdnis.”
When one of the ladies recognized him and greeted him, the count nodded and smiled as if he was very satisfied.
“I assume you are familiar with His Majesty’s schedule?”
“Of course. It was my family that organized this business trip.”
“Oh, really? I didn’t know that Count Igdnis was so close to His Majesty.”
“Haha. It’s all thanks to my daughter. She works in the imperial palace, and His Majesty keeps my daughter close to him and dotes on her.”
“Ah. Really!”
“Yes. Once upon a time, she was invited to His Majesty’s inner room at a very late hour…”
Count Igdnis’s voice was very loud.
Moreover, since they were the only ones who had even a ‘fancy enough friendship’ with the new emperor, people naturally flocked around them.
Before they knew it, Count Igdnis and his wife were in the center of the banquet hall, the center of attention.
“I see His Majesty is quite pleased with Lady Loriell.”
“Of course! I was personally invited by His Majesty to this glorious occasion today.”
Countess Igdnis smiled shyly and looked around again.
“By the way, why can’t I see Loriell? We agreed to meet here.”
It was Loriell who had been shouting at everyone to dress up and come to the palace today, saying that something good would happen at the banquet.
“Oh, Mother. Father…!”
It was a few minutes later that Loriell made her appearance. She was covered from head to toe in something like a black blanket.
“Loriell! Where have you been? Why are you wearing that weird thing?”
“That…, come out quickly. We shouldn’t be here.”
“What do you mean, we are leaving now? The banquet hasn’t even started yet. What are you talking about?”
Compared to Loriell, who was trembling in a small voice as if crawling inside, her mother’s voice was loud.
“Everyone! Here is Loriell. It seems she has been with His Majesty all this time. Hahah.”
“Oh, Mother!”
Loriell was going crazy. She didn’t know what she was doing, risking death to save her family in the banquet hall.
“Loriell! Take off that thing and show your face, you need to greet everyone.”
“Oh, no! Father! Don’t touch me! Please, let’s leave quietly! Okay?”
While Loriell was desperately trying to drag his parents away, his father frowned and pulled down the veil Loriell was wearing.
In the middle of the palace banquet hall, the eyes of the nobles of the imperial palace were all turned to one place. To Lorielle, who was shaking like a drowned rat.
“Oh, my god…”
The room suddenly became chilled as if cold water had been poured over it.
In between, a gasp of disbelief escaped.
Standing in the most noble and splendid place in the empire, in the most miserable state, Loriell was frozen like a statue and could not move.
Her parents, who had presented her as a proud treasure, blushed and then turned pale.
Loriell remained in a daze for a few seconds before she suddenly came to her senses.
‘Ah, this, this isn’t right!’
Loriell quickly snatched the veil back from her father’s hands, but by then she had already been seen by the knights who were searching for her around the banquet hall.
* * *
“Ah…No. This medicine doesn’t work perfectly either.”
Jess muttered in a terrible voice.
Meanwhile, Herhan’s chest was still rising and falling roughly. His lips were parched and bloodless, blue.
Then a knight ran towards Asion.
“Sir, I found the maid you mentioned.”
“Really!?”
“Yes. She is in the banquet hall outside now. She is surrounded by knights.”
Asion gritted his teeth and stood up abruptly.
It was Jess who caught him as he stepped forward as if he was going to kill Loriell right away.
“Let’s move His Majesty first. I need to take him to my laboratory right away.”
Asion couldn’t easily calm down his anger and stared out the door before reluctantly nodding.
He’d tried all the first medicine he could think of, and it hadn’t worked. He couldn’t keep his lord lying on the ground like that.
The attention of the people in the banquet hall was a problem, but even that was not more important than saving the life of his lord.
“Everyone, protect His Majesty.”
Jess and Asion supported Herhan on either side, and the knights surrounded them in a circle.
When they came out to the banquet hall, it was a scene of chaos with Loriell struggling to avoid arrest.
“Hey, let go of me! I did nothing wrong. Am I the victim who was almost raped by the Emperor,
Seriously!”
At that moment, Loriell’s eyes caught sight of the Emperor’s party moving.
Loriell shouted louder, desperate to grab onto even a shred of hope.
“His Majesty, there he is! Can you see him, everyone? Is he out of his mind?”
The surroundings began to become noisy.
The imperial knights would tie her up as ordered, but the problem was that the guests filling the banquet hall were shaken by Loriell’s absurd excuses.
“You all know, right? Riella Blinite! The woman who followed His Majesty here without a conscience, even though she was an assassin, and stuck by His Majesty’s side. She seduced His Majesty and enjoyed all the luxuries, but then she had an affair and ran away. I saw it with my own eyes. She ran away with her aide last night! Your Majesty lost his mind when he found out about it! So I, Riella Blinite’s maid, was sent to him!”
The audience murmured in confusion at the shocking story.
As if he couldn’t bear it any longer, Asion gritted his teeth and pulled out his sword.
“Jess. Don’t stop me.”
“Yeah.”
Jess sent Asion and helped his Lord instead.
Those who knew the meaning of the captain of the guards drawing his sword began to scream and fall back.
When Loriell heard that sound, she stopped rambling and was shocked.
That was when a luxurious banquet hall became a terrible mess.
As the banquet hall door opened, someone entered the center.
Jess, Asion with his sword, and Loriell who was shedding fake tears while being held by the knights, all opened their eyes wide as they realized the identity of the ‘late guest’.
Even at that moment, Herhan was the only one who couldn’t raise his head and was breathing heavily.
Everyone moved out of the way as she walked in a straight line toward the Emperor without a word.
Some people moved out of the way because they recognized her face, some because someone whispered something to them, and some because they didn’t know anything about her, but just the sight of her desperate face was enough to make their hearts sink.
Riella’s pace became faster and faster. She started walking briskly, and at the end she was running, holding onto the hem of her skirt, until she was out of breath.
Although he was surrounded by tall knights and hard to see, Riella was still certain that Herhan was there.
If she thinks about it, it’s always been like that.
She didn’t have to look for him, Herhan was always there in the direction her heart was beating.
She thought it was because she loved him, but it seemed like there was an instinct that went beyond that.
Connected from the beginning. That is how fate made it inevitable for them to recognize each other.
“Your Majesty.”
Riella’s sobs, though small, filled the large hall.
Only then did Jess feel relieved and sit Herhan down on the chair, and the knights opened the way for her to the Emperor without any orders.
“I’m back.”
As the world held its breath, Riella hugged Herhan’s sweaty head deep into her chest and wept with gratitude and relief.
* * *
thank you so so so so so much!