Hyperion Sabrand Ferraro was the so-called ‘child born outside’ by the Empress. He was the evidence of the infidelity committed by the Empress, with not a bit of the royal Paragon blood mixed in.
And the Empress had no children after Peon. So there was a time when the only children in the royal family were Peon, who was raised in hiding, and Kaela, who was born much later.
The two met for the first time then. As Peon ‘oppa’ and ‘younger sister’ Kaela. From then on, they met a couple of times a year, but they were nonetheless ‘oppa’ and sister. It was like that until they got married.
Kaela couldn’t hear the calling. Her heart was pounding heavily, and she was breathing so fast that it felt like her throat would not only split but tear apart. Was the dream this vivid?
The Emperor hastily left, and she, who stood still in place, came to her senses belatedly. Before she knew it, her legs had given out and she had collapsed. She had to get up quickly, but it was hard to even stand.
“Excuse me.”
With a very familiar voice, a strong hand in a black glove grabbed her arm and lifted her up. It was a hand and strength that Kaela knew well.
Was this man this kind? No, everything was meaningless. In this situation, whether it was a dream or a flashback or whatever, she just wanted to do what she wanted to do.
“Father, Father!”
The voice squeezed out from her cracked throat was a half gasping sound. Kaela, without a word of thanks to the Grand Duke, staggered and crawled towards her father.
“Kaela, why are you here…! It was too dangerous…”
The hand of Duke Ostein, who hurriedly reached out and embraced his daughter, was also shaking. His face was pale as if he had seen a ghost. The incident had already happened. Kaela sensed it. It was certain that the Emperor had pointed a gun at her father and pulled the trigger.
Kaela kept checking on her father, but he was unharmed. It was thanks to the magic tool she had stuffed on him. It was a relief. It was really a relief.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. What’s going on with you? Don’t you know you can’t come here without His Majesty’s permission?”
And why did the Empress’s illegitimate child come, and what does it mean that the Empress has collapsed? The father and daughter, both pale as blank paper, hugged each other and repeatedly checked if they were okay.
“For now, both of you need to leave this place.”
A calm and strong voice intervened between the father and daughter. Grand Duke Lusenford, with his huge body wrapped in a long cloak, subtly turned his body towards the entrance he had come in.
“Please go this way.”
He, famous for being a filial son, was quite calm even after hearing that his mother had lost consciousness.
‘No, he’s just quietly enduring it.’
Kaela guessed right away. He had been her husband, even though they had never shared a room. He rarely showed his emotions.
With a beautiful but cold face and sharp features, he harbored a gaze like a spark, and merely scorned the approaching attack. The one who received the most of that scorn was, amusingly, Kaela.
“Let’s go, Father. Can you stand up?”
“I’m fine. What about you?”
“I’m okay too.”
She forced strength into her legs, which felt so vividly weak. Let’s get out of this cursed palace. And when she wakes up from the dream, death will come.
But if she just went home while the Empress was unconscious, wouldn’t that be impolite? After all, Duke Ostein was a son recognized by the late Emperor, so in case of a problem in the royal family, they had to be together as ‘family’.
“Please wait at Altein Palace. I will join you.”
Grand Duke Lusenford, Peon, who knew that well, suggested first. Anyway, it had to be done according to etiquette.
‘Besides, the Emperor, if it’s about the Empress, he’d go crazy without reason or anything, so if they don’t follow the etiquette, there will be a fuss again.’
She thought it was funny. The Emperor, who criticized the Empress for her lack of chastity, having an affair with another man and giving birth to Peon, was heavily obsessed with his wife.
Even the illegitimate child Peon, who was continuously abused and was driven to the north to fight with the evil dragon Gusalante, only cared about the Empress.
It was clear that he wouldn’t be sane when such an Empress lost consciousness. It’s horrible that a lunatic is not sane.
‘I envy her. How blissful Her Majesty the Empress must be.’
But more than anything, Kaela envied the Empress who had lost consciousness. Consciousness, locked in pitch-black darkness, would be forever away from the world and would not suffer any pain.
She too wanted to stop dreaming such an unpleasant reality-like dream and just die. Was the poison given by Beatrice Ravalley strange? She didn’t know why she wasn’t dead and was following her husband’s back here, relying on her father.
“You should sit down and rest for a while.”
When she sat down in the warm Altein Palace, she finally felt the cold in her body that had run with just a thin shawl on. Kaela tightened her shawl a little more.
“I’ll be here, so you go home alone.”
Duke Ostein Adeo de Chaser subtly suggested to his daughter, but she refused.
“No, no, Father. I want to be here too. I want to be together.”
The daughter, who had run pale, might have sensed something from the time he was told to take the protective magic tool.
Adeo didn’t suggest any more. It was fortunate that the gun brought by Grand Duke Lusenford, who stood tall next to the soft sofa where the father and daughter sat, had no bullets.
“Aren’t you cold, Kaela?”
Grand Duke Lusenford, who had been standing still, spoke to Kaela. It was a rather affectionate tone.
“No, I’m okay.”
But Kaela answered quickly enough to make him uncomfortable. Then she turned her gaze away completely.
The fact that her father was alive was far more important than Peon right now. She was trembling like a trembling tree in the agitation that her past, filled with terrible cold, hunger, and humiliation, had changed a bit, but she didn’t realize it herself.
And she didn’t even know that Peon was watching her carefully now. So she didn’t notice that his pupils, which were usually dark purple, had turned into a refreshing purple.
“Kaela, you’re shaking.”
Her reaction was slow. No, she had no interest in him at all. Kaela, who always followed Peon around calling him ‘oppa’, was trembling while tightly holding onto Adeo’s coat.
“Oh dear, my goodness. Kaela. It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Adeo kept patting his daughter’s back. Kaela, nestled in her father’s arms, looked particularly small to Peon. She was small and too young. She was twenty-one, with baby fat still on her cheeks. She was so white and lovely that it was hard to believe she had died of starvation.
‘She’ll get sick if she keeps this up.’
In Peon’s memory, Kaela had a weak body and was very sensitive to the cold. It was only natural considering her thin body, which made him doubt whether she had eaten properly. Thus she must have suffered a lot when she died.
She must have suffered greatly because of her husband, who knew she was sensitive to the cold and needed to eat well, but neglected her. Her ribs must have ached so much that they throbbed.
[If I put a taboo on you like that, you should have obeyed, why were you shaken by that stupid woman and rebelled against the taboo and made this mess!]
The poison that had been thick in his brain disappeared, and the noise that filled the world disappeared. With a clear and clean mind and senses, he saw Kaela clearly.
He quietly untied the knot that had been securing his cloak.
“Your Grace, could you spare a moment?”
At the suggestion of a private conversation between the two, Duke Ostein nodded and carefully sat Kaela on the sofa.
“That’s right. Stay here for a while, Kaela.”
Leave her here and let her father be alone with her husband? That can’t happen. As Kaela flinched and tried to stop them, her husband’s thick and overly long cloak was suddenly extended to her. Kaela looked at Peon in surprise.
“Please hold onto the cloak for a moment.”
“Yes. Wear that for a while. You’re shaking too much.”
Before she could refuse, her father intervened, and Kaela had no choice but to hold the cloak that was too heavy for her to lift and cover herself, and watch the two men turn the corner.
To keep dismissing it as a dream, yes, this is too vivid.
Cold sweat and damp palms, rough breathing from tension and excitement, and a heart beating as if to break her ribs proved that she was alive, even if Kaela tried to ignore it. There was no way a dream could be so vivid.
If it’s a vivid reality, then you’ll be hungry when you starve and hurt when you get hurt. Kaela, who’s had enough, rolled her head. What on earth should she do now?
‘…Originally, the emperor killed my father and took over Ostein. Because Ostein is a place where gold rolls around. But now, my father is alive.’
Yes. It’s a very happy thing, but at the same time, the timing was not good. The royal palace was extremely tense due to rumors that the empress had lost consciousness, and the security had become stricter.
‘At this point, that man is most likely to be hit by the emperor for no reason.’
In this situation, Grand Duke Lusenford will also protect himself. After all, he was the only son of the empress and the eternal evidence of betrayal.
She didn’t know anything else, but she didn’t want to give up this reality after saving her father.
And she didn’t want to live in pain, hardship, and sorrow again. That’s instinct, so Kaela decided to hold onto today. Let’s live for today first.
Then she should eavesdrop.
Kaela moved stealthily and moved to the sofa near the corner where her father and the grand duke had turned. Now that she was much freer than when she was the grand duchess and all information was blocked, she had to listen to all the words she could hear.
But the first words she overheard were shocking,
“Did you forget the bullets when you gave the gun as a gift, you?”
Kaela clamped her mouth shut.
