The Saintess Returned to the Emperor's Arms

The Blessed One

 

“Get out of the way, Lou.”

 

No matter how hard Lou tried, she could not disobey the emperor’s order.

 

As Lou lowered her head and stepped back, Riella picked up the towel instead and covered her body.

 

Riella was soaking in the bath, so she couldn’t escape outside like Lou.

 

“Your Majesty. Even though you are the Emperor, if you come in like this while I’m in the bath, you can’t….”

 

“…..”

 

“I’ll wash up and go out soon. Haha. Please wait outside. Okay?”

 

“…..”

 

“Your Majesty…”

 

Riella tried to persuade Herhan with a fake smile, but it didn’t work.

 

Herhan approached the bathtub with his eyebrows furrowed and his expression stiff to the point of ferocity.

 

As Riella, who had nowhere to run, tossed and turned in the water, the water that overflowed from the pool with her movements soaked the hem of Herhan’s trousers.

 

“Riella. Put that towel away.”

 

“Your Majesty, Lou is watching—”

 

“Put that down.”

 

“Sir Jess said earlier that in order to slowly purify, you have to avoid touching my bare skin—”

 

“Riella!”

 

Lou ran out with a tomato-like face, leaving Riella cowering in the waist-deep water.

 

Unable to do anything more as Riella desperately grabbed the towel that was wrapped around her body, Herhan examined Riella’s body exposed outside the towel with his burning eyes.

 

Her shoulders and arms, which should have been as smooth and white as a piece of carved ivory, were stained with blue bruises here and there.

 

“Look closer.”

 

Riella closed her eyes tightly at the cold command she heard for the first time in a long time.

 

“Your Majesty, your clothes are wet. I will clean up and go out, so let’s talk outside…”

 

The next moment, Riella opened her eyes to the loud sound of water splashing.

 

Herhan had entered the bathtub with his clothes still on.

 

“your majesty…!”

 

“Who made you like this? When did you become like this? Huh?”

 

Herhan comes to her with a very pained expression on his face, urging her on, but Riella feels so embarrassed dealing with him that she feels like she is going crazy.

 

“Riella!”

 

So, Riella just wrapped her arms around Herhan’s knees and hugged him.

 

It was easier to talk to him by covering herself and getting out of his sight than to be sifted through by his persistent gaze.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“Riel…”

 

“I’m not making this up, but I really don’t know. When I opened my eyes in Sir El’s carriage, my body was already like this, so I think these are the wounds I got while I was passed out in the lake palace.”

 

“Then it’s Loriell.”

 

“Maybe. But I’m not sure…”

 

Herhan closed his eyes in despair and clenched his fists.

 

There was a fleeting memory he read from Loriell just before he lost consciousness in the garden.

 

Loriell roughly dragged Riella, who was fast asleep, out of the lake palace bathroom, and dragged her along the floor by only holding her by one arm.

 

Herhan thought he might have seen something wrong because he wasn’t fully conscious yet, but it seemed it was true.

 

“Hah….”

 

As expected, the wrist that Loriell had grabbed and pulled was unusually blue.

 

Herhan reached out and stroked Riella’s soft back.

 

Anger reached its peak and his firm hands smoothly ran down her wet skin.

 

“Ahh…!”

 

When Herhan’s fingertips touched the red, raised wound on her back where the skin had been scraped against the floor, Riella let out a hot moan without realizing it.

 

At the sharp and thrilling feeling, Riella flinched while placing her fingertips on Herhan’s forearm, and Herhan let out a breath that was still boiling with indignation that did not subside.

 

“I didn’t want to start wielding a knife as soon as I came to my senses,”

Herhan said.

 

“I feel like tearing that woman to pieces right now.”

 

Riella only thumped her hot forehead against Herhan’s chest.

 

“Now just let me go. Or, just stop hugging me now….”

 

Even Riella herself did not know what the plea meant.

 

Then Herhan touched Riella’s wet hair and flinched again.

 

“Did Loriell put a knife to your neck too?”

 

“Ahh….”

 

When she looked up in panic, Herhan had an expression on his face that looked like he was going to run to the prison cell and cut off Loriell’s limbs at any moment.

 

Riella hesitated and then opened her mouth cautiously.

 

“Are you going to tear to pieces the person who hurt me like this?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“It’s all over.”

 

Riella answered awkwardly, then laughed awkwardly.

 

Herhan opened his mouth wide, but his throat was blocked by the absurdity and he couldn’t say anything.

 

“Don’t joke around.”

 

“It’s true…”

 

If it was something she could have just joked about, she would have done so.

 

But Herhan would soon investigate El himself, and then it would be revealed anyway.

 

In that case, it would have been better to confess it herself.

 

“Why on earth…?”

 

“I threatened to kill El if he didn’t send me back, and somehow it ended up….”

 

A groan escaped Herhan’s tightly clenched teeth.

 

“It worked well. It was very well-received, so I was able to come back thanks to it.….”

 

Riella told him that she was okay now and that she was trying her best to comfort Herhan, but it seemed that she ended up tormenting him.

 

Herhan rested his heavy forehead on Riella’s shoulder.

 

As the two bodies pressed closer together, the water in the tub splashed again. Outside, a lot of water had already overflowed.

 

Herhan’s pants and shirt were soaked with water, sticking to him so that the shape of his body was completely exposed.

 

“Can a person die from guilt?”

 

“I think I made Your Majesty sick enough to die.”

 

“I’m not going to blame Loriell or El. I might have been the one who put you in a corner.”

 

A painful groan touched the back of Riella’s neck hotly.

 

“Seeing you hurt like this, I’m sure I’m a cursed bloodline.”

 

“Your Majesty.”

 

Riella raised one hand and cupped Herhan’s cheek.

 

Herhan raised his head again and saw the warm eyes and smiling face of Riella.

 

“Do I look sick to your Majesty right now?”

 

‘No. You look so lovely that it takes my breath away.’

 

So, Herhan’s heart began to pound even harder.

 

“I don’t know what it means to be a descendant of Ann, what it means for me to do so, or what my future holds, but I do know that I am blessed.”

 

Riella continued speaking softly.

 

“You don’t know how happy and grateful I am to be able to share in the pain of someone I love.”

 

Herhan shook his head and his eyes turned red.

 

Even though Riella said she was blessed with such a pretty appearance, Herhan couldn’t understand it.

 

“I still don’t know, Riella.”

 

“Your Majesty….”

 

“What good is my power if I can’t protect you? What good is being the emperor?”

 

Herhan’s voice trembled slightly. Moist tears began to form around his reddened eyes.

 

The moment she saw that, Riella’s heart sank.

 

Riella had a mischievous thought that she would make Herhan cry someday, but she never thought that moment would come like that. She never thought she would watch it with such a painful heart.

 

“I will fix everything. Even if it means selling my soul.”

 

Herhan spoke forcefully, gritted his teeth, and with hot anger gleaming in his eyes.

 

“I will never let anyone touch you again.”

 

* * *

 

Herhan decided to question Loriell himself the next day.

 

Yesterday he thought he was going to make her suffer through a long and tiresome fear, but he changed his mind.

 

Herhan shuddered at the thought that someone threatening Riella was still breathing somewhere.

 

This was even more evident when he saw the wounds on Riella’s body.

 

‘How dare you.’

 

Herhan gritted his teeth and decided to put that woman on the guillotine as soon as possible.

 

There was another reason.

 

“Did you find it?”

 

“No. I couldn’t find it even after turning over all the grass in the main palace’s indoor garden. I only found an empty box.”

 

The red diamond, ‘Queen’s Sun’, that Herhan had personally obtained from the northern mines in order to propose to Riella had disappeared without a trace.

 

“It looks like that woman stole it.”

 

“It was not found during a body search at the time of arrest.”

 

“There was a brief period of escape before she was arrested, so she must have hidden it then.”

 

“Huh. Is she out of his mind? In the meantime, she had the spirit to steal it and run away.”

 

Asion was furious. It was he who had witnessed Loriell escaping on all fours in such an ugly manner.

 

“I will go with you, Your Majesty.”

 

At that moment, Riella, fully dressed, came out into the living room.

 

Asion immediately pretended that nothing had happened and pushed the mention of the ring out of his mouth.

 

“Please let me go with you. I told you that I would never leave Your Majesty’s side again.”

 

“No. Stay here. Riella.”

 

Herhan shook his head firmly and slowly stroked Riella’s hair.

 

He didn’t want to show her how vicious he was.

 

Fighting fiercely against the enemy was enough for her alone. He always wanted Riella to be in a peaceful place, just a blessed being.

 

It was the first time the Emperor had officially left his inner room after being threatened with poison by a reckless maid.

 

Upon hearing the news of the emperor, the imperial ministers lined up in front of the steps of the main palace, bowed their heads, and confirmed the emperor’s well-being with their own eyes.

 

The lobby was lined with flowers and gifts sent in greeting to the emperor. The palace was filled with gifts sent by the nearby imperial aristocrats, and carriages from all over the empire, and each country was finally arriving.

 

“Useless things.”

 

“It seems everyone is afraid that this will be an opportunity to completely purge the opposition and reorganize their forces.”

 

Herhan passed them all.

 

The cold prison cell of the barracks where Loriel was isolated.

 

The news of the Emperor’s awakening had left the barracks with a deeper sense of foreboding than before.

 

The attempted poisoning of the Emperor. The kidnapping of the Emperor’s ambassador.

 

It was natural to be nervous, as that unprecedented event had occurred all at once and the Emperor himself was there to investigate.

 

“The isolation room is this way.”

 

At the end of a corridor that was as deep as a maze and heavily guarded.

 

Entering the dark room, the first thing he saw was Jess with disheveled hair.

 

“Your Majesty, you have arrived.”

 

Jess came out with a tired face, cracking his neck so loud it made a cracking sound.

 

“How’s the progress?”

 

“It’s still the same. She admits to giving sleeping pills to the maids of the lake palace and sending Miss Riella to El, but she denies to the end that she gave poison to Your Majesty. She didn’t know it was poison.”

 

“Then?”

 

“She thought it was a love potion.”

 

Herhan frowned.

 

“She was planning to give you a love potion and hug you, Your Majesty. Oh my god, where in the world can she find such a potion?”

 

Jess snorted and took off his leather gloves.

 

His leather gloves were visibly dirty: saliva, vomit, and even a hint of blood.

 

“I’m not the type that would punch a lady.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Still, Your Majesty’s orders were faithfully carried out.”

 

“I know.”

 

All sorts of unidentifiable vials were scattered on the floor, and he could see Loriell, who was half out of her mind with her hair disheveled as if she was crazy.

 

“She is still conscious. She can still have a conversation.”

 

Jess said, throwing the gloves he had taken off into the trash can.

 

Just as he said, Loriell, who had been absent-minded, recognized Herhan and raised her head.

 

“Huh…?”

 

Herhan approached Loriell with an eerie expression.

 

Loriell was out of her mind. She was talking nonsense to the point where she couldn’t even recognize the expression on the face of the person who came to kill her.

 

“Your majesty…Your Majesty, have you come to listen to me? Have you come to save me? Your Majesty, I… I admired Your Majesty. As a lady, I respected and loved Your Majesty, the sun of this land. That is all I am guilty of. Do you know that, Your Majesty? Huh?”

 

Instead of answering Loriell, Herhan called out to Jess in a low voice.

 

“Jess.”

 

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

 

“You should have cut out her tongue.”

 

Whether or not Loriell’s face was blank, Herhan spat out sharp sarcasm at Jess.

 

“Are you telling me to listen to this disgusting voice right now?”

 

* * *