Chapter 153 - North Korean rabbit

Episode 153

A commotion erupted, incomparable to the uproar that followed the Empress or Evangeline’s intrusion.

“His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince’s child?”

“But His Highness cherished Her Highness the Crown Princess immensely, did he not?”

“That’s right. Rumors abounded about how blissful their marriage was. It seems unlikely His Highness would have taken another woman as a lover.”

“Ah, but I have heard a rumor. That His Highness kept a separate lover outside the palace.”

“I have heard that as well.”

“However!”

“And that rumor said… His Highness’s marriage of abduction was to keep Duke Kieln in check, and that the woman he truly cared for was someone else.”

“What nonsense! I saw with my own eyes how deeply they cared for each other!”

Amidst the conflicting opinions, Evangeline deliberately flushed her cheeks as if embarrassed. Then, she slowly nodded.

“That rumor… is true. Before his disappearance, I was in a secret romantic relationship with His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince.”

But the Emperor’s reaction was icy.

“I have heard nothing of the sort from Arpad.”

This time, Evangeline could not hide her stiffening expression.

“That is because I begged His Highness not to tell anyone. About our relationship.”

She tried to bind herself and Arpad together with the word ‘our.’

Fluttering her long eyelashes pitifully, Evangeline continued in a sorrowful tone.

“I was content merely to have won his heart, and I did not wish to hurt Her Highness the Crown Princess. Even if we had grown distant, we were once friends.”

“Considering what you did to Hilia, that is not a very believable statement.”

The Emperor’s attitude was utterly frigid.

“There was the matter of the dress at the Artanus Hall banquet, and did you not commit adultery with Ludwig?”

The Emperor’s tone toward Evangeline was scathing and cold beyond measure. It bordered on outright hostility.

In contrast, the affection he did not conceal seeped into the tone with which he spoke Hilia’s name.

Evangeline struggled to suppress the rage and hatred threatening to break through her gentle expression.

‘Even after all the years I spent coming and going by his side, he never once showed me such tender regard!’

A fresh wave of bitter resentment and sorrow washed over Evangeline.

She is the Empress’s daughter. Even if not the Emperor’s own flesh and blood, is she not clearly his stepdaughter?

Yet, the Emperor was taking Hilia’s side, pushing aside the stepdaughter he had known for over a decade.

Sincere sorrow and resentment brought tears to Evangeline’s eyes.

“…I am deeply remorseful. That is why I intended to live hidden in the shadows for the rest of my life.”

Evangeline wept loudly, deliberately ensuring anyone with ears could hear.

Like a woman who had lost both her friend and the man she loved.

The Emperor’s gaze grew only colder at the conspicuous performance.

Meanwhile, the Empress was looking at her daughter with a still-disapproving gaze.

‘So she intends to insist it is Arpad’s child after all.’

She had opposed Evangeline’s plan to the very end.

Merely revealing it as Ludwig’s child would have been sufficient.

But now that Evangeline had already spoken before the Emperor, it would be foolish for her to deny it.

She argued in her daughter’s defense.

“For the sake of the Imperial Family and the Empire’s stability, you must recognize the imperial grandchild in Evangeline’s womb.”

“…….”

“It is the right thing to do, even for the deceased Crown Prince.”

At the Empress’s words, the Emperor shot up from his seat.

“For my dead son Arpad’s sake?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The Empress faced the Emperor with a faint smile.

Even though the Emperor made no attempt to conceal his fury and killing intent, she did not waver in the slightest.

Because the thrill of seeing and feeling his grief and agony was greater, enough to suppress even her instinctive fear.

“I understand you do not wish to acknowledge the sorrow of losing your only son. But as Empress, it is my duty to speak the truth to Your Majesty……”

*CRASH!*

The Empress’s words could not reach their conclusion.

Because the magical power unleashed by the Emperor shattered the round table of the State Council chamber.

And that was not all. The shockwave reached the Empress’s very feet. Fragments of shattered tile grazed her cheek and disheveled her hair.

“…!”

As the Empress slumped to the floor, unable to withstand the shock, the Emperor slowly walked toward her.

Though terrified by the specter of death, the Empress could not abandon hope as she watched the Emperor approach her.

A foolish hope that he might take her hand and lift her up.

Unconsciously, she reached out her hand, but the Emperor did not take it.

He bent down and whispered into the Empress’s ear.

The Emperor’s voice, colder than ice, pierced her ear.

“It almost seems as if you were waiting for it. For my son to just die. Both you and your daughter.”

“…!”

A cold silence pressed down upon the council chamber.

The Emperor straightened up and spat out words colder than ice.

“Take these two away at once.”

“Your Majesty!”

“Your Majesty, I am with child, an imperial grandchild!”

Walter Istrid had always strived to maintain his rationality since ascending the throne.

He judged that an Emperor should naturally do so, and it was also due to the fear and suspicion caused by his mania.

What if a judgment he made leaning on emotion was a side effect of his mania?

If the Emperor made decisions and acted in such a state, the entire Empire could be shaken.

For this reason, he doubted not only his son, but even himself.

He always listened to his ministers’ words, and even if they opposed his will, he did not punish or coerce them.

Because he believed that was the proper duty of an Emperor.

But at this moment, he decided to set aside that principle for a while.

Rationally, he understood.

But Grand Duchess Axion’s words still rang sharply in his ears.

“Do you intend to abandon my only grandson yet again?!”

And his wife’s dying wish as well.

“…Walter. Please, just that child, our son… do not let him meet the same fate as I……”

In truth, the moment he saw his son experiencing his first rampage due to mania thirteen years ago…

He had, in effect, abandoned his son all along.

It was that child who returned his son to that cold, ruthless Emperor.

Hilia.

That child’s words were still vivid in his ears.

“Please give me just one chance. Then I will prove that I can save Your Majesty’s precious son.”

It was as if light seeped from each and every word.

That salvation, he could not give up.

He had to protect the son he had painfully pretended not to know for thirteen years.

Not as Emperor, but as a father.

He declared.

“Arpad is not dead. Because I have not acknowledged it.”

“…Your Majesty!”

Evangeline’s protest was ignored.

“Therefore, if the child you claim to carry is truly my grandchild, it is a matter for Arpad himself to verify. Of course, that is assuming you are indeed truly pregnant.”

Evangeline’s face flushed crimson with rage and humiliation.

* * *

Here, the flow of time could not be felt, and spatial distance held no meaning.

I could see all the ‘memories,’ tangled complexly and occurring across multiple times and places.

Taking advantage of the fight between the Archbishop and Arpad, Evangeline fled in a wretched state.

Clutching a single sacred relic she had managed to seize in the chaos of battle.

‘Why are they showing Evangeline’s actions in such detail?’

It was somewhat puzzling. In truth, I was more worried about Arpad, who was fighting the Archbishop, than Evangeline’s actions.

Though it was a meaningless worry, as these were events already concluded.

I soon dismissed the thought.

‘It must mean this is an event of that much importance.’

As I expected.

Evangeline hid away in a shabby temple of a certain sky deity.

And then, as if familiar with the place, she entered a space hidden underground behind multiple layers of security.

In the basement was an altar, upon which lay a strange book.

Evangeline, clutching one of the goddess’s sacred relics, grabbed the book.

Then she began frantically turning its pages.

At that moment, I saw.

‘Huh?’

The contents of the book, densely filled with divine script.

It was the story of ‘me’ in this world.

「Yushina, a girl who had that name in Korea, was reborn after death as the only daughter of the Ducal House of Delphin.」

Evangeline glared at the characters as if they were enemies, then bit her finger to draw blood.

And with her own blood, she [overwrote] the book’s first sentence.

「‘Yushina,’ who read the ‘book,’ was reborn as its protagonist.」

It was a sentence in crooked, red Korean script.

Romance, Fantasy,