In Avenro, evil dwells. The Emperor would occasionally recall that insignificant villa of the Marquis Alemichi’s estate in that city and shudder.
It was in this city that the Empress committed a disgraceful transgression.
“The evil dragon, that one? How did he extend his hand to Avenro? Is he trying to take the Empress?”
The Emperor asked, his eyes turning blood-red, not even taking a breath.
“Your Majesty, please calm down. No, how could I dare commit the terrifying treason of contacting the evil dragon?”
Beatrice spoke clearly and loudly, shaking her head.
“To uncover his intentions, you can make contact. What’s the problem? You just need to take more power.”
The world the Emperor knew was a world of pure power, domination, and authority. Greater power always dominates weaker power. To avoid being taken, one must become strong.
And everything in the world belonged to the great Emperor. Even though the Empress, who was then the Marchioness of Alemichi, had nothing to do with the Emperor, her daring to act as the dragon’s prostitute in Avenro was an act of betrayal.
“It is an honor that you grant me such privilege, Your Majesty.”
The Empress was stupidly overconfident and thought she knew everything.
Beatrice, quick-witted, immediately recognized the honor and prostrated herself. After all, this is why Beatrice could never surpass the Empress. Something too easily caught is uninteresting.
“But I have found another method. There is something in Avenro.”
Beating around the bush was also uninteresting and irritating. The Emperor furrowed his brow.
“I met another dragon, Your Majesty.”
Another dragon? The Emperor’s eyes narrowed as they scanned her, then gradually widened.
“Another dragon? What, another dragon? There are more…”
The Emperor’s words were cut off mid-sentence, his eyes wide and rolling.
Indeed, the only dragon known in the Crania Empire was the evil dragon Gusalante, but there were certainly other unknown dragons. No, it was said they existed. The Emperor pressed Beatrice.
“How? Can you prove it?”
“Your Majesty, I always carry out your orders at the risk of my life. Of course, I have verified and re-verified.”
“Sit and tell me everything.”
Beatrice sat at the Emperor’s gesture and began speaking.
“I must reveal my shameful details to Your Majesty. I told you that the merchant group that took all my family’s debts is in Avenro. No human could suddenly generate 83 million liquettes.”
Even the Emperor found this impossible. It was an astronomical sum that would shake the Crania Empire’s economy to its roots.
The statement was correct, but the Emperor looked at Beatrice with a sense of contempt, unable to understand how she could have accumulated such debt. Whether aware of his gaze or not, she explained concisely:
“Based on long investigations in the Imperial Library you provided, first, dragons are known to accumulate vast treasures. They grip all the world’s jewels, and humans only enjoy a minimal portion. Thus, only a dragon with such wealth could immediately mobilize 83 million liquettes.”
It was a quite reasonable deduction. The Emperor nodded, pleased.
“What else?”
“Secondly, the name of the merchant group I deciphered, ‘Insenidraken’, means ‘Mad Dragon’ in an ancient language. Only a dragon, an extremely long-lived wizard, or someone like Your Majesty who possesses extensive world knowledge could understand it. In fact, the merchant group’s personnel stated that the dragon they serve is not the evil dragon Gusalante.”
When that name was mentioned, the Emperor slightly flinched. He thought he had been imperceptible, but it was clearly visible to Beatrice.
“They called it the Light Dragon.”
“Light Dragon?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm…”
The Emperor sighed with curiosity and leaned back in his chair.
He couldn’t decide whether the news of this new dragon’s appearance was a blessing or an ominous sign. Beatrice quietly placed the box she had been keeping beside her onto the table between them.
“The Light Dragon’s subordinate told me this would prove everything. From my examination, it’s a perfectly functional magical artifact.”
“A magical artifact. What does it do?”
The Emperor’s expression immediately brightened at the prospect of an intact magical artifact, raising both hands in welcome.
“They said this could safely protect Her Majesty the Empress.”
“…How strange.”
“Indeed, it is strange.”
Beatrice nodded.
“Why would this dragon, whatever it is, suddenly appear and interfere now?”
It was too strange.
“They say the Light Dragon is a being beyond comprehension. But in addition to its wealth, if this magical artifact supposedly containing the Light Dragon’s power works properly here of all places, Your Majesty…”
“It seems this Light Dragon does exist.”
The evil dragon Gusalante’s magic could absolutely never be realized in the Crania Empire.
“But what if this is the evil dragon’s trick?”
“When I pointed this out, he simply said one thing: ‘Now, at this point?'”
What to do. It seemed suspicious to believe, yet too tempting not to.
“You catch a dragon with a dragon.”
“Instead of asking me to believe, you’ll prove it with this…?”
Beatrice looked bewildered as the Emperor abruptly stood up mid-sentence.
“Ah, Empress, Evelyn!”
The Emperor, turning pale, glanced around after seeing the Empress lying on the bed, then quickly grabbed the magical artifact Beatrice had produced and rushed to the bed.
While the Emperor desperately tried to activate the magical artifact, Beatrice, following behind, was shocked to see the Empress gradually fading.
“How do you use this! Use it quickly!”
Beatrice received the magical artifact from the panicking Emperor, opened its lid, and cut her hand to drop blood.
She hadn’t just received the magical artifact from the merchant. Having received other powers, she managed to handle it despite her trembling hands, but even during the simple ritual to activate the artifact, the Emperor was in hysterics, stamping his feet.
“Quickly! Do it quickly!”
Needing to light a small fire and produce some smoke, the Emperor grew anxious and irritated.
“Hurry up! Evelyn is disappearing!”
The Empress flickered like a dying ember. The magical artifact, stained with smoke and blood, barely emitted light. The Empress, who was becoming transparent, gradually became more distinct. The Emperor repeatedly touched and checked the Empress, confirming she was truly tangible.
Beatrice sat on the floor, breathing heavily with a shocked expression.
“Evelyn, Evelyn, you didn’t run away, right? You’ll stay with me, won’t you? Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness… I almost lost everything.”
The Emperor burst into childlike tears, holding the Empress’s hand and pressing it to his forehead. Beatrice watched him, catching her breath.
What shocked her wasn’t that the Empress almost vanished, but that the Emperor had shouted at her. And now he’s relieved like this? Her heaving breath gradually turned into suppressed laughter.
****
The night was deep. Standing on the terrace of the bedroom previously used by the Princess of Ostein before her marriage, Peon gazed at the distant imperial palace.
How was today for the Emperor? Is he at peace now? Has Beatrice proven her usefulness?
No, they know. Even if they don’t fully understand, they’ll instinctively know today was just a temporary measure.
Have those who have always held absolute power, or lived parasitically off that power, ever felt such anxiety and helplessness? Unresolvable anxiety drives people mad, and helplessness ultimately erodes the spirit.
Shouldn’t it be precisely this way?
It had been almost 30 years for Peon, and 4 years that made Kaela give up her entire life. Therefore, the Emperor had to suffer on the throne long enough. He absolutely did not intend to end it all at once.
When he finally falls completely into the abyss, the Emperor must not think, ‘If only I had continued to reign!’ He must be more overwhelmed and devastated by the fact that the absolute power he believed was utterly perfect and wielded arbitrarily could not even protect him. He must despair while sitting high up.
For a very long time. As long as the time it took to break a proud woman, to suppress a child and prevent them from functioning properly, to destroy another woman.
Around that time, he could no longer bear it and looked back.
“Aren’t you sleepy?”
Kaela, all cleaned and her hair dried, kept peeking out at the terrace. Has she been interested only in jumping down all day? He felt his sharply heightened senses were reaching their limit.
He was barely restraining himself because of Kaela, and simultaneously exploding because of her. Her mere existence had become the source of his madness.
“Shall I put you to sleep?”
Kaela flinched and then shook her head. At times like these, she seemed to remain forever twenty-one. Exactly the same gentle appearance.
“Then?”
Peon moved and slowly pushed Kaela, who was standing by the door, inward, moving her away from the terrace.
“Then what can I do for you, My Lady?”
“I’m curious about something…”
He unexpectedly smiled and nodded. What could our Lady be so curious about?
“When executing a high-ranking noble lady, is it beheading or hanging?”
Sometimes Peon wished Kaela’s intelligence would drop precisely to the Emperor’s level. He wished he couldn’t read the subtext of her words, that he would take them at face value, that he knew nothing at all.
“Why are you asking that?”
The voice asked, its temperature instantly dropping. In fact, he was asking while knowing.
“Who do you want to kill?”
She shakes her head again. Of course. The kind-hearted Princess of Ostein cannot harm others. She only harms herself. Without fear or hesitation, she brutally destroys herself.
“But why?”
What could make a woman who wishes to die painlessly ask about gruesome beheading or hanging? The cold, almost emotionless man looked at her with a mercilessly shaking gaze.
Today was good, wasn’t it? She ate the food made by her family’s head chef well. She digested it well and even laughed. What was the problem? Oh, he was the problem. His incompetence made Kaela anxious again.
He, born as a dragon’s son but leashed and raised as a human from childhood, he who was bound by a fragile taboo that could only be broken by dying – he was the problem.
Peon wanted to die at times like these. He would rather be doused in oil and burn to death.
But because he was sentenced to the punishment of life for stealing Kaela’s death, he endured. He kept his eyes open, his ears attentive, waiting for the faint single word that would ultimately shatter him.
“Because in the current situation, if the Crown Prince ascends the throne, I will be a target of purge.”
Kaela said it very quietly, but without hesitation, all at once.
Peon pressed his eyes shut and endured the pain of his soul shattering. It was good. Kaela didn’t hesitate or shut her mouth, but spoke everything frankly. This was very good.
“So, were you already preparing? Which one seems better to you?”
The blue eyes, long darkened, blinked and then slowly answered.
“Probably hanging would be better.”
“Why? Because it’ll end quickly? What if they execute you with piano wire? It would be painful for hours?”
“I’m considering that too.”
Peon felt his strength drain in the midst of pain.
“…I don’t know where to even begin. Normally at this stage, one doesn’t think that far ahead.”
“The Empress’s faction and the Crown Prince’s faction have split. I…as the daughter of the Duke of Ostein and the Grand Duchess of Lusenford, will be categorized in the Empress’s faction whether I want it or not.”
Political factionalism is thoroughly dragged along by blood relations, regardless of will.
Just as Kaela could never escape her identity as the Emperor’s niece, Peon is the son of the Empress whom the Emperor loves terribly.
Therefore, Peon becoming the center of the Empress’s faction was predetermined, regardless of his own intentions.
“If you look at history, it’s always been like this. Those who are stronger than imperial power or who oppose the Crown Prince will unconditionally…”
“Be purged.”
Kaela nodded hesitantly. It was true. No matter how thoroughly you searched history, there was never any good outcome for those who opposed the future ruler. Moreover, powerful figures whose influence threatened imperial power were naturally purged.
The Crown Prince would have to cut Peon off completely upon ascending the throne. This was natural for the sake of imperial power.
The Emperor deliberately kept mentioning Peon to continuously stimulate the Crown Prince’s inferiority complex. Peon was just a tool to provoke and cultivate the Crown Prince, to be broken and discarded after use.
“You always think of death first.”
Peon smiled bitterly. While being indifferent to everything else, to the point of having no reaction, she always quickly noticed and prepared for death faster than anyone.
“Don’t you think I’ll stop it?”
The blue eyes, which had been looking elsewhere with a trembling voice, finally gazed at him.
“Still?”
She still doesn’t think he’ll stop the approaching death?
Ah, yes. For a wife so destroyed by her incompetent husband who was suppressed and couldn’t even awaken as a dragon, this was natural. Peon completely understood and accepted this. This was all his fault.
Stupidly succumbing to long-standing taboo, his own foolishness of not even understanding what the problem was.
Peon was engulfed by familiar self-loathing and anger. If Kaela still doesn’t understand, he’ll do his best until she does. That’s how it should be.
The moment he decided this, the Empress in the Soleil Palace bedroom began to blur again. In the palace, the Emperor’s screams rose beyond shouting.
