Chapter 13.
Anel took a step forward in response to Sandman’s question.
“She hasn’t been seen since last night. According to the maid who shares the room with her, she said she wasn’t feeling well.”
“…Is that so.”
Anel smiled bitterly.
“I’ll call her right now.”
“No, let her rest.”
Anel stopped Sandman.
Her heart was uneasy.
She knew that Jazel had been upset since yesterday.
But at least for today, Anel thought they would be together.
There is time to sort out Anel’s feelings now.
All the servants were bowing along the road from Devita Palace to Solis Palace.
Between the people standing on both sides, Anel walked with a heavy heart.
“The sunlight is strong, Your Majesty. Should I bring a parasol-”
“Just leave it. I’m fine.”
As they stepped outside, the sunlight was pouring down strongly.
While enduring the warm sunlight, crossing the bridge connecting the two palaces.
Anel stopped once again.
And at that moment, the maids who were following her also stopped and raised their heads.
“Your Highness.”
“Lady Morata.”
“Samu.’’
Samu stood at the end of the bridge.
Just about ten steps away.
Anel staggered.
“Your, Your Highness.”
Then the maidens supported her.
Samu’s body also instinctively took a step forward.
But he clenched his fist, then stepped back again.
“Lord Samu.”
Anel called him with the support of the maidens.
How did you come here?
I heard you received the farthest territory from the capital and could never leave there.
Anel took a step forward. However-
“Just a moment.”
Samu raised his hand to stop her.
“Would you mind standing there for a moment, Lady Morata?”
He said so, and his lips twitched for a while.
“I know that blocking the way like this is against etiquette. But just a moment. Just a moment….”
“In the desperate tone, Anel’s heart was gradually crumbling.’’
It was the first time he had seen such a sight. He had always been a person who smiled kindly.
He had grown up not knowing despair. A person like that,
because of her, with such a face.
“Are you well?”
She looked startled.
But, as always, he cared about others’ well-being.
More than anyone else, he must have suffered the most.
That’s why Anel couldn’t answer.
“I am doing well. I hope the Lady is also doing well.”
Samuel said that and lowered his head.
“I have been granted permission to attend the coronation ceremony. Just in case-”
“You must go, my lady.”
Sandman urgently interrupted Samuel’s words.
Although he knew he shouldn’t block her way.
Her protocol was speaking.
It couldn’t go on like this.
Anel looked at Sandman’s face once, and then at Samuel’s face.
He was there. She had to go.
Her whole body was screaming at her to go.
But maybe it would become dangerous the moment she moved-
“Think about Lord Samuel, my lady. For his sake, you must go to the coronation ceremony now.”
In Sandman’s words, Anel’s eyes wavered.
“I will be there, in that place.”
Samuel’s voice echoed from a distance.
“I will be there for you.”
Anel raised her head to look at Samuel.
The sunlight was pouring down strongly.
It was shining only on him.
He alone was shining.
Unable to bear the light, Anel closed her eyes.
When she came to her senses, she was walking in the middle of a grand hall.
She stood alone on a long, golden carpet.
On either side of the path adorned with jewels and flowers, people were kneeling.
Oh, I actually came here.
A sense of reality washed over her.
“Anel von Morata, the sole lady of the Crocelota and Morata Ducal Houses. The inheritor of Eseren, Roselia, and Segrabo, and the Duchess of Sallizen and Kerrayer.”
Even amid all this, her footsteps did not falter.
Samuel was watching. The thought of it added to her agony.
Compared to what he was feeling, Anel’s emotions were nothing.
Helplessness, sadness, wretchedness.
No words could describe Anel’s emotions. However, there must be a sense of betrayal in Samuel’s heart. Nevertheless, Samuel coming this far meant he had forgiven her.
That affection, instead, was breaking Anel’s heart. She walked on instinctively, knowing that this path led to hell.
At the end of the road, as if it were natural, there was the man—Johannes, dressed in royal attire, an impeccable emperor. No one could doubt his majesty.
Yet, enduring disgust was all Anel could manage. Also, there was that gaze—an inhumane stare. Anel barely endured the desire to turn away.
“Let’s end this charade quickly,” she thought. Anel quickened her pace, inevitably approaching him.
Finally, she stood before him. Now was the time to kneel before the emperor, listen to the pontiff’s proclamation, and receive the crown.
Anel stared at Johannes until the end, kneeling with determination. The pontiff, with a bewildered expression, began the proclamation.
“On this blessed day, favored by the gods, under the sun of the empire…”
Anel lifted her head, meeting the emperor’s gaze firmly, seemingly surprising him. Nevertheless, she didn’t want to avoid his gaze. She wanted to witness the end of the two lives he had ruined.
“…blesses the most noble union of destinies.”
The Pope’s benediction echoed throughout the entire cathedral in Daejeon.
However, Anel paid no attention at all.
Johannes’ eyes were also fixed on her, and they didn’t waver for a moment.
Throughout the benediction, the two of them only stared into each other’s eyes, as if by doing so, they could dominate the hidden souls of each other.
“Now, to the glorious Empress who will become the honored mother of the empire-”
Welcome, Empress.
At that moment, Johannes’ lips twitched.
…Welcome? Is he playing some kind of joke right now? Just as the suppressed anger was about to boil over,
“I shall bestow the imperial crown.”
The voice of the Pope was heard.
The Pope reached out his hand towards the crown held by the priest.
However, there was a hand faster than his.
Johannes intercepted the crown and placed it on Anel’s head with both hands.
At this sudden action, the entire audience held their breath.
“Anel von Morata.”
But the most astonished person was none other than Anel.
She could do nothing but listen to the man’s words without fleeing or resisting.
“With the achievement of Dnegeo, I shall bestow upon you the title that accompanies your name.
Certainly, he had a joyful expression.
“Anel Catenatus Dineger.”
He was enjoying all of this, that man.
“You are now my empress.”
Amidst the series of incomprehensible situations, Anel couldn’t gather her thoughts.
Catenatus. Among the nobles, there was no one who didn’t know the meaning of that word.
Even Ern, who was officiating the coronation right next to her, stood with a frozen expression.
While everyone was trying to understand the situation, Johannes’ mouth didn’t stop.
“So, now I must fulfill everyone’s expectations.”
Johannes clapped his hands. Then, two attendants each holding a crown for the empress stood behind him.
“So quickly…!”
Anel looked up at him without even considering standing up.
Nominating an empress immediately after her coronation was not a sign of respect for the empress.
Everyone thought so.
However, again, what did it mean for the emperor to personally place the crown on the empress’s head? Because no emperor in history had taken such an action, the nobles each scratched their heads.
“As the 1st Empress, chosen to oversee the Empress, I appoint Flora Rodian of Lordian as the Empress’s governess.”
Up to this point, it was as expected.
It was foolish to overlook Lordian Marquis.
Still, it seemed that an agreement with Lordian Marquis was reached in the end.
Looking at the slowly emerging attire of Flora, which was undoubtedly the empress’s ceremonial dress, anyone could see that.
Flora knelt with one knee behind Anel, to the right.
“I present myself before the great sun of the Empire.”
And, just as Johannes did to Anel, she waited for herself to be personally bestowed with the crown.
However, Johannes’s hand did not move.
Originally, it was customary for the pope to personally bestow the empress’s crown.
But didn’t an incident just happen a while ago?
So, the pope, thinking that the emperor would personally bestow the crown again, waited behind.
However, as time passed and Johannes’s hand did not move, the pope, bewildered, finally lifted the empress’s crown.
“I bestow the imperial crown to the new First Empress of the Empire. The First Empress, who wholeheartedly cares for Her Majesty the Empress Mother, shall…”
When the emperor again made an incomprehensible move, the nobles became restless once more.
Among them, Lordian Marquis, who was rigidly observing the scene, was the most troubled.
Lordian couldn’t determine whether it was a good or bad thing for Flora to receive the imperial crown in the traditional manner.
The same was true for Flora.
With a confused expression, she received the imperial crown.
Regardless of whether people were confused or not, Johannes, seemingly indifferent, opened his mouth.
“2nd Prince.”
Until then, Anel continued to gaze at Johan.
Just as he had done, she persistently followed his lips.
To see how far this man, who had lost his mind, would go.
And Anel realized, with Johan’s subsequent words.
That I had underestimated this man too lightly.
This man is not just crazy to a certain extent, but-
“I designate Jezel Estaranza.”
There is something more than just madness.
Anel glared at him. Then, Johan lowered his head, whispering so that only she could hear.
“I’ll say it again. Welcome, Empress.”
To my abyss.
