Although he is weak now, he is a smart person.
If he went to Ethan, Ethan wouldn’t care.
But if he goes to Dorothea, Ethan will feel like he’s falling from the sky.
“You have been treating people the way you want them to. Many nobles have already followed you.”
Theon, who was talking, covered his mouth with a handkerchief and coughed. There was red blood on his handkerchief.
But Theon didn’t care anymore.
“As you wish…I’m not going to tell Dorothea anything about the Dark Spirit.”
He smiled faintly.
Theon knew that Ethan had meticulously hidden the Dark Spirit and Theon’s health from Dorothea until now.
Dorothea was worried about Theon as he grew thinner, but Ethan had hidden Theon’s illness in every way.
‘It is said to be a love’s disease, for the honor of Julia Delevingne.’
Dorothea knew that Theon was getting worse and worse by the day because of his lovesickness toward Julia.
“What kind of future do you imagine after I die?”
Theon smiled faintly and asked Ethan.
That smile made Ethan nervous.
And before Ethan could answer, his vision darkened.
It was a dark spirit.
‘Is Theon Freed unable to withstand the power of the spirits? Or is he trying to fool me?’
Ethan fumbled through the darkness to find Theon.
“Theon Fried…!”
Trapped in the dark, Ethan tried to calm his fast-beating heart with anxiety.
The cold silence in the darkness drove him more and more terrified.
‘What are you thinking? Since you have a day to die for, are you going to kill me to become your companion?’
Ethan thought a sword might come flying out of the darkness.
But the darkness soon dissipated as if nothing had happened.
Ethan closed his eyes at the sudden brightening of his vision. He was able to look around him only after he had slowly adapted to the light.
And Theon was nowhere to be seen.
Ethan instinctively felt ominous.
‘I’m sure there’s nothing he can do but die. But why am I so anxious?’
* * *
He wandered nervously around the palace, leaving other things aside, and looking for Theon.
The garden where he often took a walk and nap, the palace Raymond used, and the glass greenhouse that he destroyed because he could not control the power of the spirits.
But Theon was nowhere to be seen.
And someone found Theon before him.
“Oh, the Emperor just…!”
He hurriedly ran up to Dorothea’s room at the word of a servant who had come running.
And what he found was the fallen Dorothea. And beside her… Theon’s body was there.
Ethan thought nothing for a moment, and then his head was filled with countless thoughts again.
Theon Fried is dead. He hanged himself too.
“Because that will make you suffer more.”
Theon’s words echoed in his mind.
He had chosen Dorothea’s bedroom for the place of his death.
The place where he never set foot, no matter how many times Dorothea called out to him. The place where Dorothea stayed up all night in tears and slept in loneliness.
Ethan stared blankly at the pale face of the fallen Dorothea.
She was in danger like she could be blown away by the wind at any moment.
Theon Fried. He completely succeeded in revenge.
Ethan realized he could no longer dream of a bright future with Dorothea.
a slender wrist that seems impossible to even hold a sword properly. Dry cracked lips with bruises and blood clots, perhaps because biting has become a habit.
Fully puffy eyelids.
He sat down next to Dorothea and cried.
Dorothea, who shone through the battlefield without hesitation, was no longer there.
Ethan will never be able to restore Dorothea’s old self.
The arms that vigorously swung the sword, the moist and smooth lips, the smiles that dreamed of the future.
“Why did you…”
‘Why did you fall in love with Theon Fried? If you loved me, I would never have made you like this.’
‘I would have made you a perfect emperor that everyone in the world would envy.’
‘Why don’t I even get a chance? Why were you so blinded by one love and couldn’t see the other?’
He cried and blamed Dorothea.
But it wasn’t long before he realized that Dorothea wasn’t the only one blinded by love.
* * *
Some time later, when Dorothea woke up, Ethan was there with her.
“Your majesty…”
He called her when she opened her eyes.
He prayed desperately for her to open her eyes, but when she did, the anxiety came over him like a huge wave. huge waves.
‘What if she wants to die? How can I comfort her?’
Forgetting all his resentment, he thought about Dorothea like a fool again.
Dorothea opened her eyes, staring into the air with hazy eyes, and then her lips trembled as if recognizing reality.
Then she vomited out her empty stomach
“Doctor… ! Doctor!”
Ethan urgently called the doctor to Dorothea, who was vomiting as soon as she woke up.
However, the incompetent doctor did not know how to cure Dorothea.
Dorothea couldn’t even eat the food. If she ate even a little bit, she would quickly spit it out again.
When Ethan asked something, she didn’t answer.
That cruel silence was like walking on a blade, making it impossible to take his eyes off Dorothea.
“Your Majesty, take a nap for a moment.”
Even when Ethan begged, Dorothea stared into the air like a person who has lost her mind.
She had not slept for several days, and then she lost her strength and closed her eyes if she was exhausted or collapsed.
And when she woke up, she screamed again. Ethan hugged her trembling body and cried.
“Your Majesty, it is not Your Majesty’s fault.”
‘It’s not your fault, so please stop. It’s all because I’m not good enough. It’s all because I didn’t prepare it well. It’s my fault for being greedy for you.’
“Your Majesty is the most beautiful and highest emperor in the world. What are you afraid of?”
He asked Dorothea as if pleading.
Ethan reminds her many times about her outstanding value she had forgotten.
‘You shone so brightly, you wanted this position so badly. Don’t cry like he is your life. Come back, not as Theon Fried, but as Dorothea Milanaire.
But Ethan wasn’t born with the talent to restore Dorothea.
Dorothea stayed with the dead Theon Fried forever.
* * *
In the meantime, Ethan had to take care of the government on behalf of Dorothea.
He doesn’t know when Dorothea will come to her senses, but until then, he must defend her throne.
As the emperor’s representative, he bore the emperor’s seal and made important decisions on behalf of Dorothea.
But even that is a stopgap measure.
The Ubera empire was barely maintained, clearly making a hole.
Ethan felt despair in the midst of it.
‘The country I wanted to make with Dorothea was not like this.’
Everything was going against his plans, and things were taking a turn for the worst.
The nobles and other vassals also felt Ubera’s declining national wealth.
And finally.
“Let’s drive out Her Majesty the Emperor now.”
The agenda came up at the high-ranking officials’ meeting.
“Drive out…?”
‘Dorothea? My only emperor.’
As soon as they spoke those words, Ethan looked at the high officials with a cold, hardened face.
“We can’t leave a tyrant like this, we need to establish three new empires.”
“What do you mean, a tyrant?!”
“Doesn’t the Prime Minister already know?”
Ethan looked out the window as if not denying it.
The anger of the people has already been pushed into the inside of the imperial palace.
A decision was needed to calm that dissatisfaction and overcome the crisis.
“The Emperor is responsible for the tyranny.”
“Only the Emperor?”
Ethan lifted one corner of his mouth in disbelief.
‘If Dorothea is guilty, they are too. Who were the people who rejoiced next to Dorothea when she was in luxury?’
‘Who were the people who opposed Dorothea’s decision the whole time, and only took what benefited them?’
‘And now Dorothea can’t fill their pockets, so they will throw her away?’
They betrayed quickly as they did not follow her faithfully from the beginning.
“Who is responsible for the current situation if not the emperor?”
One sacrifice is enough.
Throwing a tyrant as a sacrifice will at least save others’ lives.
“If you drive out the current Emperor, what will happen next?”
Ethan asked dryly.
Milanaire no longer exists. He had killed every last bit of Milanaire’s distant blood as he chased after Julia.
He also worries about times like these. when Dorothea, the tyrant, would be overthrown, and that bastard nobles would think of bringing in another Millaneire.
“Become Emperor, Prime Minister.”
Unexpected bullshit tainted the officials meeting.
‘Do you want me to become emperor?’
“Isn’t it the prime minister who decides all government affairs now?”
Emperor Dorothea’s seal, signature, and decision-making authority were all in Ethan’s hands.
Therefore, they decided to hand over the title of the next emperor to Ethan In name only.
‘You speak in a flashy way.’
Ethan clenched his fists.
His appointment was just for variety. Anyway, they will fight a civil war to have the throne again.
“Who do you think is the reason you are here now?”
Ethan shuddered and asked them.
All those who now ascend to the ranks of the Empire were those who had driven Raymond out and had risen from Dorothea’s favor.
Their political roots were Dorothea.
However.
“The problem is that our roots cannot sustain us.”
They spit out dirty words as if they had a disease that they could only spit out bullshit.
It was unreasonable to expect Dorothea to take care of them faithfully when she was having a hard time.
Once he had purged all those who spoke well, all that remained were those who were born with the bat’s heart.
“The only emperor to me is Her Majesty Dorothea Milanaire.”
* * *
He is head over heels for Dorothy.
I wanna see what’s going on in the 2nd timeline!
As always, thanks chewyy <33
thank you so much chewyy 💕
I honestly don’t know what to feel about this back story. Regardless, it is a good read from their POVs. I wanna hate Carnan.. I always believe that a person becomes as a result of the influence with his/her environment. All of them, specially the strong characters (Dorothea and Ethan) rooted on how they were raised. Even before they regress. This is how every broken girl/boy story would be while also relevant real time. See how Dorothea became Ethan’s salvation because somehow they were the same. It seems to Ethan that no one in the world understand them so they should rely on each other; Ethan did, but not Dorothea though as she seeks Theon. Their “salvation” on their love interests had different intensions, you can’t even judge it. Really interesting. Thank you for the translation chewyy-sama! I thought their situation is a common story but when you actually think about, it is complex.
theon you piece of shit , am really glad that you are not our ml .
thanks for the chapter .
dammmm can’t wait to see how dorothea will react to all this 😯 and thank you chewyy for the update! 🥰