Chapter 110

And Alyssa was a woman who wanted to leave Lucio with many wounds, more than anyone else. The feelings of inferiority and jealousy she felt towards Janet, who possesses all that she could not have, and the hatred towards Lucio, who would inherit all of it and eventually rise to the throne. In fact, none of this was either Janet or Lucio’s fault, but she could not help it. Alyssa needed someone to take responsibility for her negative emotions, and it was not possible for it to be the powerful Emperor. So that was why it had to be the weak Janet and Lucio, as they were without power. She couldn’t dare do this to the Emperor of an empire after all.

“You cannot even do what this mother wants. You are an invalid child.”

“… I am sorry, Your Majesty. However… killing some is…”

“No excuses are needed.”

The cold voice of Alyssa hit the young Lucio. Lucio bit his lips and stared quietly down. He usually tried to do everything Alyssa wanted. Otherwise, if he didn’t, the assault began immediately. But this really was wrong. To kill someone! It was something absolutely impossible that should not be done.

However, in Alyssa’s dictionary, there was no such thing as “absolutely impossible that should not be done”. She was an Empress of an empire, and now, without the Emperor, she was the Imperial Regent. She believed that there should be only one Emperor that didn’t do what she wanted. Otherwise, she would be so miserable. The Empress, who couldn’t earn any favor or power, was too insignificant.

“Child, when was the last time I picked up the beating stick?”

‘Pick up the beating stick’ was not a literal meaning, but a slang meaning and an indiscriminate assault onto Lucio. When Alyssa said those words, Lucio almost peed himself. Alas, even on his birthday day after all… was his mother trying to hit him? Why? Because he wouldn’t kill that person? The child’s thinking continued quickly, and the conclusion was this.

His mother was trying to hit him because he wouldn’t kill that person.

But that did not mean he could kill someone. He looked at his mother with a terrified face, and it was the child’s desperate struggle for mercy. If the young boy asked with such a sorrowful face, she could have shown a little mercy, but Alyssa did not. This was the only thing she had engraved on herself about him.

That child was not the son she painfully gave birth to.

“ACK!”

The beating began. Her assault motto had always been from ‘head to toe’. From the beginning was the head, and the end were the toes, one by one. Not just beating, but also sexual mockery. The brutality was so ugly and dirty that it was difficult to dare to speak about it. Nobody could think that a mother would dare do this to her child.

“SOB, AH-SOB!”

Lucio let out a distressed moan and protected himself by covering with his hands. His mother’s beating did not just cause physical pain. When someone known as his mother beat him, it shook the deep-rooted values of a child’s belief that “all mothers love their children.” Therefore, he constantly pondered and thought about why he should be abused by his mother, unlike other children.

And the results were always negative. Because children were so good, they were looking for the cause of this terrible abuse from themselves, the victims, not the abusers. Then, physical abuse did not only stop on the wound of the skin but also evoked deep feelings of self-destruction along with all other negative emotions.

All these series of procedures were difficult for even ordinary adults to endure, and a child who had not yet reached adulthood could not fully endure it. So Lucio was in the process of dying more and more.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty… save me…”

While struggling to survive, he didn’t dare to call Alyssa, who he thought was his mother, as ‘Mother.’ Perhaps because he already knew that Alyssa terribly disliked him calling her as his mother. So he was constantly struggling and hoping to show her as much as possible, at least to gain her mercy.

Alyssa, however, was a woman without mercy. She had no interest in the pain of a young boy who was not even her child. What made her such a cruel and sadly sick villain? Was it the Emperor’s indifference really making her do so? Or was it her husband’s mistress and a child born out of wedlock?

Perhaps she was already used to this repeated form of corporal punishment. Just as Lucio had become accustomed to his mother’s punishments, so too had she been domesticated by the unjustified punishments. Without realizing that it was making her into a demon. Maybe even if she became a demon, it wouldn’t matter.

“This damn child! Who said it would kill you? Who do you take after, to be so foolish and stupid?!”

The wound that had not yet healed, and made not long ago, broke open again. He bit down on his lips due to the pain, and he cried small sobs. Still, he barely managed to think with his mind that was becoming faint.

His mother always beat him up and said words such as, ‘who do you take after, to be so foolish and stupid?’ However, the young Lucio did not understand his mother’s words. He was clearly the child of his father the Emperor, and his mother the Empress. Who did he take after if not those two? It was a question he could never understand without knowing the secret of his birth.

However, even the faint thread of thoughts became difficult to maintain as the beatings continued. Finally, he felt his mind fade. Being used to repetitive pain had never made it painless. Just like being continuously stabbed by a knife didn’t make the pain duller.

He was just enduring. At least, he didn’t die from the previous assaults, so he wouldn’t die this time as well. He protected himself by having such positive thoughts that were nearly pitiful. Anyways, this was because young Lucio still wanted to live.

But this time it went a little too far. Lucio, who was enduring Alyssa’s assault, had this thought momentarily.

‘If I kill that person, my mother should finally stop hitting me.’