Chapter 70

Episode 70

The Significance of Eris’ Existence

The empress looked at my face and was silent for a long time.

“You lost weight.”

However, the empress who said such a thing also looked much thinner than before. The imperial palace was the place where all the seafood and delicacies could be found, but how skinny she was.

No matter how good you live and eat, everything is useless if you are not happy. When I said that Her Majesty was also skinny, the empress laughed.

I didn’t come to the imperial palace to talk about such trivial things. I took out the teacup that had been hidden well in my arms and handed it over to the empress. The empress looked at the teacup, but did not bother picking it up.

“There is poison on the teacup with four petals near the handle.”

“Didn’t I tell you that we’ll die together?”

“…..Isn’t it enough for the Empress to drink tea again after feeding the Emperor?”

At that, the Empress laughed, and then she picked up the teacup and began to examine it.

“It would be an implicit rule to make a teacup like this one to be used only once so as to not leave traces…….”

“Really? I didn’t know. Then do whatever you want. Do I have to tell you how to do it?”

When I deliberately imitated the marquis and spoke, the empress tilted her head slowly and made eye contact.

I gave her the teacup, and if I stayed here longer, I felt like I would only be robbed of my feelings by the sly empress, so I hurriedly stood up. (PR/N: as in, like she would confess everything to the empress.)

“Then, bye.”

“…….If you are caught for murder, you will be locked up in the room where you were detained last time.”

I turned my head and looked at the empress. She fixed her gaze on the empty window and continued to talk.

“There is a secret passage under the bed in the room. If you go down the stairs of the passage, it leads to the underground passage you’ve been to last time. It is a secret escape route that has been handed down only to the royal family from generation to generation in case of a rebellion.”

“I’m not going to be in the royal family anymore, so I’ll just pretend I didn’t hear it.”

Why are you suddenly trying to save me when you hate the marquis and want to kill me? Is this her own version of repaying a favor? In that case, it was in vain. My goal was to get revenge, not to survive after. I smiled and spoke with a cold face.

“Your Majesty is not the only one who wants death.”

The empress stared at me blankly with her eyes open. Finally, she laughed as if crying. Her red eyes were wet, but they did not shed tears, her voice did not tremble.

Some people would call that broken appearance ‘the example of the imperial family. She whispered quietly.

“How… How come all the people I tried to save don’t listen to me?”

Hearing those words, I remembered the theater stage. Was Alecto’s older brother detained there? Did the empress beg him, but he died there without escaping through the passage under the bed?

…… How many more stories are there left in this world that I haven’t read?

When I opened the door and came out, the crown prince was waiting. I was frightened, but when I remembered the eyes of that time, I thought it was an overreaction.

It’s something he doesn’t even remember anyway. It was only my loss to hold on to and swear at what was now gone.

I killed him, so that was it, and I was determined to pass by, but the crown prince suddenly grabbed me by the wrist. My heart dropped.

My legs were weak and I was dragged helplessly While my mind went blank, there was only one thing! came up with.

I had to call Anakin. I think he was near here.

The moment I barely spoke, the crown prince strongly shook my hand. I hit the wall while recoiling and managed not to collapse. My back was throbbing, Leaning against the wall, I stared at the crown prince. He was also glaring at me.

“What are you up to?”

“Did you not learn even the minimum etiquette towards a lady?”

“….Is it true that you wanted to break our engagement?”

I was wondering what you were talking about, but was it just that? I was dumbfounded, so I raised my head and laughed. When I laughed, the crown prince approached, grabbed my shoulder with both hands, and screamed.

“I’m asking if it’s true!”

“Yeah! You wanted it too. This broken engagement. Am I the only one who wanted it? How dare you yell at me instead of being thankful?”

The crown prince had a rather embarrassed face as I was angry. Almost there. Now, there was no need to imprison me just because ‘Lady Misérian’ was crazy.

Disliking the marquis, unless you’re the prince’s fiancée, that’s all it takes to kill him. I shook off his hand on my shoulder and responded.

“Speaking of which, correct your yelling habit. Are you deaf? If you shout frequently, you’ll go crazy.”

“How dare you……”

“How dare you! What are you going to do?”

He flinched when I stomped on his feet. It was a corridor in the imperial palace in broad daylight, so there were many eyes and ears. You can hit me, but you won’t do what I’m worried about. I tilted my head slightly and acted cheeky.

“If you’re so angry and upset, you should at least cut my throat for insulting the royal family, Your Highness. It will last a long time for future generations to come As the crown prince who killed his ex-fiancée with his own hands.”

The crown prince made a strange and complex expression. Somehow, the relationship between Eris and the crown prince seemed to have an invisible formula established.

Eris was blind and the crown prince refused. The crown prince got angry, and Eris put up with it. When the formula collapsed, the prince was at a loss.

“You’ve…. changed”

“Did I change? Me?”

“Yes.”

That’s the only word he finally spat out.

I imitated Eris. Except for the marquis, no one noticed that I was not Eris.

I don’t think I impersonated her well. It’s just…..that you weren’t interested.

If you cut your hair, you should know that your hair was long. That’s why makeup, tone of voice, attitude… If someone notices when small things change, it proves that that person was paying attention to you that much.

It was probably for the same reason that you constantly ask your loved ones about it.

He said I changed, but he can’t even recognize the reason I changed. One side of my chest cooled down. The more I quarreled, the more I felt like my intelligence was dropping, so I turned around.

I was going to turn around. If only the crown prince’s words hadn’t set fire to it.

“You love me.”

How dare you….

“Can you say such a thing?”

My teeth trembled. Love? How dare you put that in your mouth?

I’m not Eris Misérian, so I can never imitate her perfectly.

Many things were different between her and I.

The way she talked, habits, personality…..Among the many differences, what he recognized was the very insignificant reason, ‘Eris does not love the Crown Prince.

It’s not like he didn’t know how variable emotions were, but he couldn’t believe that Eris no longer loved the crown prince.

He began to suspect her only because she didn’t love the crown prince.

Is loving the crown prince the significance of Eris’ existence?

I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t even define exactly what this seething emotion was. Ah, madness. Yes, I was caught in madness, laughed and quietly said to the crown prince.

“Do you want me to tell you a funny story?”

I approached and grabbed the crown prince’s cheeks. I put my body close to his frozen body and said, whatever that came to mind.

“There was a girl. A girl who believed that she would be the Crown Princess. I don’t know why she dreamed of being a Crown Princess. From the time she could think she grew up hearing that she’ll become the Crown Princess, or perhaps was it a small desire to fall in love with the Crown Prince like a fool and marry him….?”

“Eris Misérian-“.

“Listen! Just shut up and listen. By the way… The girl, who had been trying to grow up as a Crown Princess all her life, suddenly thought that her efforts might be

useless. She couldn’t dream of love, but she won’t even get any reward even if she tried this hard.”

I wanted to tear this face apart. Why did I come all the way here? Why did I fall into an unfamiliar world and suffer? I was embarrassed and squeezed out the laughter. My eyes gleamed.

“That’s why the girl made a wish. She wanted to disappear from this world. It was supposed to end with just the wind, but my goodness…… What should I do? Well, whether it was luck or misfortune, the dragon that was passing by made the wish come true in exchange for her heart.”

“You…..!”

“You know…. Then, guess who I am?”

A trivial question caused a ripple.

Soon, it became a huge disaster and swallowed the man in front of me.

The man looked at me with a frightened face I had never seen before.

As if he had finally seen a stranger.

Alecto was born as a crown prince and raised as a crown prince. That means that as soon as he learned how to walk, he had to learn self-defense, and as soon as he started speaking, he learnt Caesareanism. (PRN: Caesareanism refers to special education for successors of royal families, it is not a discipline with a clear definition and does not correspond to the education of the general.)

Alecto had to get up on his own even if he fell. It was natural for the crown prince of the empire, but it was harsh for an underdeveloped child.

He had the name Alecto, but no one called him that, For everyone, Alecto was only the ‘Crown Prince’ or “His Highness’.

His father, the emperor, was not interested in him from the beginning, and his mother, the empress, treated Alecto coldly as he grew up.

The nanny was also friendly to Alecto on the outside, but it was only an act conscious of people’s eyes. When others didn’t see it, she just treated Alecto obligatorily. There was no affectionate touch or even a common compliment.

If you were to ask him whether the nanny scolded him, she did not, but in the vast imperial palace, Alecto had no place to turn to.

And indifference was sometimes crueler than violence.

At first, he tried.

He just had to do better.

Then he did well, and he believed that they would praise and love him.

However, hope was worn out by the constant contempt. Alecto became a cold boy worthy of the imperial palace.