Chapter 132 - North Korean rabbit

Episode 132

Evangeline slipped into the imperial palace under cover of night, like a sewer rat.

She was dressed not in a lady-in-waiting's uniform, but in the garb of a palace maid.

Resentment and humiliation surged through her to the very tips of her hair.

‘That I should have to enter the palace like this, dressed as a maid and sneaking in at night. It’s absurd!’

She had always entered and exited with dignity, surrounded by her splendid noble-born ladies-in-waiting.

As the sole flower of the imperial palace.

But there was no choice. The Empress, who had summoned her, had given strict orders.

As Evangeline walked the back path, the rounded roof of the Crown Prince's Palace came into view.

It seemed to look down on her from on high, as if symbolizing the difference between Hilia's situation and her own.

Hilia, standing proudly at the very top.

Evangeline, hiding in a low, dark place.

Hilia, now a member of the imperial family as the Crown Princess.

Evangeline, the Empress's daughter, yet recognized as imperial by no one.

By now, she was probably adorned like a flower, whispering and laughing coyly beside the handsome, imposing Arpad.

‘She’s probably filling his ears with all sorts of slander about me.’

Hilia would find the thought ridiculous.

When she was alone with Arpad, she would have no leisure to spare a thought for Evangeline.

But to Evangeline, it was only natural.

Of course Hilia would always be mindful of her, envious, jealous, and plotting to slander her.

Because that is what she herself would do.

Treading on a shadow stained with anger and jealousy, Evangeline slipped into the Empress's Palace.

And the words spoken by the mother who had summoned her daughter were shocking.

"Marry Ludwig."

"What?! What did you just say?"

Evangeline thought she had misheard. But the Empress's reaction was indifferent.

"I said marry Ludwig."

"...Have you perhaps lost your mind after being confined to these rooms for months? Knowing what state Ludwig is in now, how could you ask me to...!"

"Fallen to a state where he has not a penny to his name and must perform hard labor."

"You know well! He can hardly be called imperial anymore! If I marry him, I'll become the laughingstock of the world!"

Moreover, during the trial meant to corner Hilia, it had been revealed that the ones actually engaged in an affair were Ludwig and Evangeline.

The number of Ludwig's women who appeared then was so great that Evangeline was somewhat overshadowed, but the bad rumors and looks still lingered.

And now, marry Ludwig?

It would mean Evangeline ultimately taking upon herself all the disgrace and shame related to that trial.

Yet the Empress remained unmoved.

"Though he has become practically non-imperial, the blood flowing in his veins is still that of the imperial family. And you, we, need that."

"The imperial bloodline... you mean?"

"Yes. So, even if only on paper, hold a wedding ceremony and bear Ludwig's child."

"Mother!"

Evangeline trembled all over in shock.

The Empress was treating Ludwig and herself like breeding stock.

"As you said, Ludwig is already ruined. This way, we will have an imperial we can put forward, won't we?"

"...!"

In the end, what mattered was the imperial bloodline.

That was also the reason the Empress was forcing Evangeline to bear Ludwig's child.

Evangeline's eyes blazed with anger.

"If having imperial blood is so important, does it have to be that fool Ludwig?"

"Who else is there?"

The Istrid imperial family had few members.

That was why Ludwig, born an illegitimate child from an affair, could later be recognized and even inherit his father's title to some extent.

Evangeline's voice lowered.

"There is one more. A man with greater legitimacy than Ludwig, and with thicker imperial blood."

The Empress's brow twitched.

"...Are you speaking of Arpad?"

Evangeline raised her head.

Marrying a loser, a good-for-nothing like Ludwig, and bearing his child? The mere thought was horrifying.

How Hilia would laugh at her.

"Yes! Even if it's the same imperial bloodline, a child of the Crown Prince would be better than a child of the already discarded Ludwig...!"

The Empress threw the teacup she was holding at her daughter.

*Crash!*

"...!"

The porcelain cup shattered against the wall right beside Evangeline.

It was the first time she had seen the Empress act so passionately and violently.

Even after the possession, and in the memories left in the body from before the possession.

Glaring coldly at her daughter, frozen in shock, the Empress continued.

"Arpad is that woman's son. Are you telling me to look upon a grandson mixed with that woman's blood? And to put him on the throne?"

"...!"

Evangeline was well aware of the Empress's jealousy and sense of inferiority towards the former Empress Roxelline.

But she had never seen it expressed so vehemently.

While Evangeline hesitated, overwhelmed by the force, the Empress regained her composure.

And declared.

"Even if you desired it, you would never bear Arpad's child."

"I can do it!"

The Empress shook her head. It was not a statement that Arpad would not succumb to Evangeline's seduction.

In the dim light, the Empress's eyes gleamed ominously.

"That wretch will soon go mad and die."

That it sounded exactly like 'I will kill him' was probably no illusion.

"Mother, what are you planning to do?"

The Empress smiled softly. But only her lips smiled. Her eyes still flashed with a dangerous light.

"It is something you need not know."

"...Is it perhaps that matter? The imperial madness that you can control?"

"......"

"You intend to use that to kill Crown Prince Arpad?"

The Empress did not answer.

But Evangeline was not so foolish as to not understand that this silence was affirmation.

Evangeline left the Empress's Palace with complex feelings.

‘It's true that we need an imperial to put forward. And that it would be good for me to have a child... I can understand that.’

Though being treated like breeding stock was horrifying.

Becoming the mother of the next Emperor and seizing power was what Evangeline had desired. And it was true she needed the Empress's help.

But for that child's father to be Ludwig... she hated it.

After agonizing all night, she soon reached one conclusion.

‘As long as it's an imperial child, whose does it matter? I just have to tell the Empress it's Ludwig's, don't I?’

A cunning smile played on Evangeline's lips.

* * *

The cave-like room in the underground tomb was filled with the sound of breathing.

The breaths of two people endlessly tangled and separated.

How much time had passed?

No light entered this place, making it difficult to sense the passage of time.

So it felt as if an eternity had flowed by, and also as if we had been together for only a fleeting moment.

But the time we were together was neither an eternity nor a fleeting moment.

When I opened my eyes, Arpad was asleep in my arms, wearing an expression that looked very docile and peaceful.

Though we had lived as husband and wife for nearly half a year, this was the first time I had seen Arpad so completely defenseless.

His pale cheek looked somehow soft, and I reached out without thinking.

His cheek was more tender and hotter than I had imagined.

‘Does he have a fever?’

As I touched his forehead, *flutter*, his eyelids lifted.

Eyelashes fine as spiderwebs woven from moonlight fluttered along his blinking lids.

As I stared, momentarily entranced by the sight, Arpad looked around slowly at me and our surroundings with a dazed expression.

I sat bolt upright and asked.

"Are you awake, Arpad? Are you in your right mind now?"

I grabbed his shoulders and shook him vigorously. Then the smooth, porcelain-like space between his brows furrowed.

"...If you would stop shaking me, I believe I could soon return to my senses."

"Judging by your speech, you seem fine."

The room, and our state, were a mess.

The bloodstains Arpad had spat out, clothes torn in places and soiled with soot.

Even his disheveled hair.

Though still in a disarrayed, dazed state, Arpad alone was an exception to the mess, still handsome and beautiful.

Because even his tousled hair suited him as if deliberately styled that way.

Truly, infuriatingly good-looking.

I got up first and roughly straightened my clothes. There wasn't much to straighten.

We had rolled around on the floor together... but nothing that intense had happened.

‘Hmm, I was prepared to go all the way... but he came to his senses faster than I thought.’

Frankly, it was a bit embarrassing, but that was all.

We had just kissed a bit more intensely, longer, and while rolling around more than usual.

Since our marriage was consummated, we had kissed quite a lot for various reasons.

It was nothing particularly special.

Just then. Arpad called my name in a completely hoarse voice, then abruptly stopped. A rough hand seized my wrist.

"Hili……."

"Ugh!"

On my palm remained the wound I had made earlier to feed him my blood.

A wound still bleeding, not yet stanched.

And it wasn't just my palm. From my fingers to my arm, it was covered in bruises and wounds scraped against the floor and chains.

"Are you all right?! Are you unharmed?"

Arpad's voice was filled with an urgency I had never heard before.