The Tyrant Wants To Live Honestly

“Theon, believe me. I never ordered Julia to be killed, and I didn’t even know where she was!”

Dorothea knelt before Theon and pleaded not guilty.

Theon looked at Dorothea like that and clenched his fists until the veins swell. He was crying with his teeth clenched as if his jaw was breaking. His tears ran down his cheeks and fell on Dorothea’s lap.

“Don’t cry, Theon. please…”

‘Don’t cry for Julia. Don’t blame me and cry.’

Dorothea thought it would be better for Theon to hit her.

However, Theon kept his mouth shut and cried, leaving a look of resentment, and left.

And Dorothea’s guilt was soon proven.

“Theon…?”

Late in the evening, when Dorothea opened his lonely bedroom door and entered, a long shadow was cast over the bed. the figure dropped from the canopy. Dorothea did not recognize what was hanging for a moment.

‘Dark shadow, man? No. That’s…’

She doubted the truth, and her mind went blank. And the moment Dorothea was convinced that the figure was Theon, she lost her mind.

When Dorothea woke up again, Ethan was there. She thought what she had seen was a sleepless nightmare.

Then.

“your majesty…”

It wasn’t a nightmare.

The moment Dorothea noticed it, she vomited on the spot. Ethan called the doctor, but it didn’t work. The only way to cure Dorothea, Theon, is back to life. 

After that, Dorothea couldn’t sleep.

‘I killed him. Theon died because of me.’

She was afraid to close her eyes, and she refused to take even the strong sleeping pills that had protected her for so long.

Fainting or having seizures and falling unconscious were more common than sleeping.

Each time, Dorothea met the people she had killed with her own hands in her dreams. Raymond came first, then Julia, and finally Theon.

One day, her mother, whom she had only seen as a portrait, came to her and strangled her, crying.

Occasionally her father, Carnan, also visited her. When his light spirits also accuse her, Dorothea wakes up screaming in her darkness.

Ethan kept whispering to Dorothea like that.

“Your majesty. It’s not Your Majesty’s fault.”

‘Lie. A lie so blatantly. It’s my fault from the start!’

“Your Majesty is the most beautiful and highest emperor in the world. What are you afraid of? I am by your side.”

Ethan continued to whisper the false echo.

‘Am I the most beautiful in the world? Who is this haggard and dirty woman in the mirror?’

‘Highest in the world? After all, I didn’t have anything.’

Dorothea was disillusioned with all his words. 

She did not take good care of the state affairs. Not only the government, she does nothing. She did not care to pay wages for the halted construction of the palace, nor did she pay a good price for those who flattered her.

Dorothea couldn’t remember what she had done from that time until her death.

Even remembering the moment was painful, so she easily forgot it, and easily let everything go.

The rebellion against the incompetent tyrant took place only three months after Theon’s death.

The people and the nobles came to the palace with one heart and one accord, cursing Dorothea.

And one step ahead of them, Ethan came.

“If you don’t give me the seat of the government, I will become the emperor.”

He offered the last deal.

‘Ah, the seat of the government. It’s the place you’ve always wanted.’

Those words reminded her again that Theon was dead.

“Do whatever you like…I can’t give you that place.”

Let Theon die like that and give Ethan his place. Dorothea could never do that.

Then Ethan’s lips trembled in anger.

“What… What the hell is that guy doing for you?”

At Ethan’s question, Dorothy thought hazy.

“Theon is…”

Dorothea stayed still with her lips open.

‘what was it.’

‘He was my first love, my fiancée, my husband, my last love…It’s probably the only thing I don’t have.’

‘I thought I had him by marriage, but in the end, he belonged to Julia, and that may have touched my greed even more.’

Dorothea was always satisfied only by having what she wanted and longed for what she didn’t have. Like she coveted Rey’s things she didn’t have.

As she longed for an imperial throne that was not allowed to her. She endlessly longed for Theon she would never have.

Well. A collection of all kinds of desires, passion, and emotions was Theon, and her love.

Therefore.

“Theon is…myself.”

The perfect mirror to project the greedy Dorothea.

‘Even if I try to throw it away, I can’t let go of myself.’

Love, hate, excitement, regret, joy, sorrow, happiness, and pain. An object containing all the emotions Dorothea had.

Dorothea Milanaire cannot be explained without Theon.

After hearing the answer, Ethan’s expression contorted into an incomprehensible expression and immediately laughed as if he were out of his mind.

“Hahahaha…!”

Dorothea looked at Ethan with unfocused eyes. Ethan’s laughter lasted for a long time before it subsided.

“Okay. If this is your choice…I will also follow you.”

“…”

“Don’t regret it.”

Dorothea seemed to have heard it from someone at some point.

‘I hope you don’t regret it’, who said?’

Then Dorothea assured her that she would not regret it.

‘And now… There was no room left to regret.’

Dorothea was not afraid.

‘I was confident that no matter what happened, it wouldn’t matter.’

What happened next was the expected sequence.

The servants and knight who followed Ethan brought Dorothea out, and the mob burned the palace.

It was then that Dorothea felt better.

She smiled madly as she saw the things she had been burning.

Those who came to arrest the tyrant tore her clothes, whipped and tied her with ropes, and took her to the square.

Dirt and stones were thrown in front of the emperor instead of rain of flowers and cannons. There were so many swear words flying in, she couldn’t even hear what they were saying.

There was no one, Raymond, Theon, or Ethan beside Dorothea as she walked down the road.

All the bad things that happened during her life became her fault.

Infectious diseases, the murder of the lords that Ethan killed, the extermination of the Delevine family, and enormous irregularities and crimes that Dorothea did not know put her in the sea of sin.

‘Was there anything I did well?’

‘I didn’t want to blame anyone. Yeah, I am a tyrant.’

The Emperor is responsible for all the misfortunes that have happened in this country, and she has made too many unhappy people, even herself.

‘I didn’t do it, but that’s all I did.’

‘I killed Theon.’

‘I killed everyone and ruined the country!’

She even broke the will of the Emperor on the subject of not being able to command the Spirit of Light!

 Dorothea burst out laughing.

‘Such a foolish life.’

Dorothea didn’t know that whipping and stoning were painful anymore. 

And when she reached the execution table, Dorothea found Ethan.

“It’s your last chance.”

He was alone with Dorothea for the last time before being put to death.

“…”

Dorothea looked shabby, covered in filth, and her hands were tied. There was a time when Dorothea thought her death would be glorious.

The people of the whole empire mourn, put on a clean shroud, and enter a beautiful coffin. A wreath for me covers the coffin, a mournful funeral tune flows, and full of incense. A death like that, buried next to Theon and engraved with a plausible inscription.

‘Or I’d rather have died fighting Raymond, No…’

‘Any death was meaningless now.’

“I… I don’t want to become your slave.”

Ethan bit his teeth and swallowed.

Ethan, who was dressed in a white robe as the prime minister, held the staff of a spirit symbolizing the emperor in his hand.

The appearance was, surprisingly, beautiful. Even in blurry vision, it is particularly clear.

“ ‘Please save me’ Just say that one word.”

“….”

“If you just say that one word, I’ll take care of the arrangements so far and save you somehow… Please speak.”

Ethan approached Dorothea, who smelled of filth. Dorothea thinks Ethan always smelled fragrant, and his words were sweet as always.

His white, fine hand slowly approached Dorothea.

However.

“I’m sorry, Ethan.”

Dorothea licked her dry, chapped lips and turned her head back. The anger of the people and the wrath of the servants could be heard from outside.

“I am evil.”

‘listen to their voices If I’m not evil, who is evil?’

Dorothea laughed.

‘Well, good and bad, I think the world needs that.’ 

“I… I want to become a saint.”

Even if she wants to, Ethan Bronte will be a better lord than Dorothea Milanaire.

Ethan, whom Dorothea knew, was capable and loved by all.

If he had killed the tyrant, the emperor would gain legitimacy, unlike Dorothea Milanaire.

Ethan bit his lips at Dorothea’s words.

“Why don’t you want to live?”

“….”

Ethan looked at Dorothea, who didn’t answer and extended his clenched fist.

“Take it.”

In his hand was a large jewel that Dorothea had never seen before.

Dorothea could recognize at a glance the jewel, which seemed to shine on its own. So she quietly shook her head.

Ethan tried to open his burning red lips again but soon stopped at Dorothea’s gaze. His hand clenched again and fell down.

Ethan Bronte. A very quick-witted person. He recognized her mind just by looking at her.

“You… You are the cruelest person in the world.”

Ethan mumbled softly.

At that, Dorothea nodded with emotionless eyes.

‘Yes, I know.’

“So, that’s why they call me a tyrant…”

Dorothea smiled weakly as she turned her gaze to the accusations pouring down like torrential rain from afar.

And Dorothea left Ethan behind and went up to the execution table.

Like the first time she had nothing, she was empty-handed again. There wasn’t even an imperial throne that was excessively usurped. There was no love that Dorothea was forced to take.

Dorothea did not have the wealth and power she had built up horribly.

When she finally climbed to the execution table with her torn and dirty body. Dorothea was happy.

Seeing Guillotine standing on the execution table, it was a pity that Dorothea was not hanged.

(TL: A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading)

‘No, do I dare to die the same way Theon did?’

There is only one regret.

‘I want to die a little sooner.’

Dorothea dies first before Theon commits suicide.

Before Julia died.

Before killing Raymond.

Before Carnon died and left his will.

Before Raymond became Crown Prince.

Before she realized that she is unloved.

Before her mother died giving birth to her

‘I thought I’d die sooner.’

If that was the case, no one would have died and they would have been happy.

‘Those who cursed at me and threw stones at me would have been happy too.’

‘Forget it. This is the lesson of life.’

‘So go ahead and kill me. Before I regret not having died sooner.’

Lowering her head quietly in Guillotine, Dorothea died willingly.

* * *