Chapter 25

***

At that moment, the memories of the day when the Chernicia mansion burned down and the people of Empress Margaret cut off my hair overlapped, and I stood frozen.

The unfastened hairpin on the shortened hair fell to the floor with a thumping sound.

Theodore bent down and picked up the hairpin that had fallen on the floor.

“Now that you have no hair to decorate, you don’t need a hairpin.”

“Theo, you don’t have to do this for me…… !”

Theodore went straight out of the office, and Katarina followed with joy.

Left between Armin and the attendants, I glanced at the silver hair that had fallen to the floor.

I could feel the whispering voice and the gaze of sympathy touching.

It was sad that the cut hair was like his affection that I had cherished for a long time.

***

04. We were like X when we met, let’s not see each other again

***

The emperor is weird.

That was the decision recently made by Armin Meyer, the emperor’s aide. His superior Theodore was originally a little crazy emperor.

– An opening class that will never be seen again in Albrecht history!

– Pretty garbage that can’t even be recycled!

That was the evaluation of his aides toward him.

Just because he was bored, he often acted out of nowhere, and if the number was wrong, he was cruel to his subordinates without even the slightest tolerance.

Had it not been for his capable qualities in state affairs, he would have gone down in history as a rare tyrant.

But half a year ago, a new evaluation of him increased.

– A wicked scumbag character destroyer!

Yves Llewellyn was the one Emperor Theodore brought from a sudden visit to Ferdinand last summer.

At that time, rumors that the emperor was really crazy were circulating in the Imperial Palace.

The emperor smiled kindly, spoke kindly, and occasionally pretended to be cute.

Only in front of Yves Llewellyn.

Of course, Yves Llewellyn had such a strikingly beautiful appearance that everyone looked back once in amazement.

– No one has ever seen Yves Lowellyn, but no one can just see it only once!

Among her fellow knights, even these words were circulated openly. Although no one could approach her because she was with the emperor every day, there were many people who wanted to get to know her.

But who was Emperor Theodore?

He was never one to be deceived by the beauty of his eyes. He was a man who was bored even in front of a lady who was called the most beautiful woman in the kingdom or a cute and adorable lady in front of anyone.

‘Was it a whim?’

At first everyone thought so.

‘Maybe he found a new person to bully.’

‘Pretending to be nice to an innocent young knight and trying to make fun of him.’

‘Poor Sir Yves. He didn’t even know he was being harassed while supporting His Majesty.’

But the emperor’s whims lasted quite a while.

After a month, two months, three months, four months…

It was after two seasons passed that everyone recognized it.

Maybe the Emperor really liked Yves Llewellyn and kept him by his side. Thanks to that, Armin was a little more comfortable.

Because as long as Yves Llewellyn was the emperor’s escort, his terrible personality disappeared.

At least he wasn’t mercilessly angry, nor did he terrify others with his harsh expression and tone of voice.

Of course, it was creepy in its own way that he was smiling kindly….. However, Armin’s peace did not last long.

After the horse accident, Theodore became strange again.

He had lost his memory, so people thought he was just going back to the old days, but something was subtly wrong.

If he didn’t like Yves Llewellyn’s presence, he could coldly kick her out, but he didn’t.

Of course Armin intervened by encouraging him several times not to kick her out.

Armin was in the process of doing it, but the emperor was someone who gave in to such a thing.

In any case, Yves Llewellyn must have been special to the Emperor.

The emperor didn’t bully him directly to kick him out, but there was  something strange about the atmosphere. Especially after the appearance of Katarina Ferdinand, who suddenly became the lover of the Emperor.

The couple’s engagement ceremony would take place 15 days later.

Usually, engagement did not take place so quickly in the imperial family.

And even though she hadn’t even had an engagement ceremony yet, she was growing so powerful that everyone called her ‘the emperor’s fiancee’.

It was clear to her eyes that the woman was gaining her strength little by little, but the emperor left it alone. 

To be precise, he just let it slide.

So did the emperor really fall in love with her and go crazy?

If that’s true, Theodore was having a more normal relationship than expected for a crazy emperor.

Armin really didn’t know Theodore would have such a normal relationship. Lord Lyndon, commander of the Imperial Guard, was Theodore’s longest-serving servant.

Unlike Armin, who became an aide immediately after he became emperor, Lyndon was his man from the days of his powerless First Prince.

Because of this, Lyndon knew some of Theodore’s most secret secrets.

Lyndon said that.

What absurd things did Emperor Theodore do when he was young to monopolize the girl he liked from Prince Ernst?

For example, a pill for an upset stomach was sprinkled on the second prince’s milk. (Of course, it was Lyndon who did this).

Or, falsely saying that there was a call from the emperor and sending Prince Ernst away. (This also was done by Lyndon.)

Sometimes, Theodore put Prince Ernst to sleep with the divine power he had just cultivated at that time. (This was the only thing Lyndon didn’t do.)

[Do you really need to do that?]

Each time, Lyndon asked Theodore. Then the young crazy tyrant smiled coldly and replied.

[Then do you want to win instead? I can put him to sleep forever if you want.]

When Theodore had lost that girl forever.

He really went crazy.

It was time for Armin to shake his head and shake off his fears, shaking so much that he got goosebumps just thinking about what he had heard.

“Sir Myer! We’ve investigated what you asked for a while ago!”

“Investigate……?”

“Didn’t you tell me to investigate the whereabouts of the survivors of Chernicia?” 

“Ah, that.”

Armin glanced over the first page of the investigation report handed to him by the lieutenant. 

Come to think of it, before the fall, the emperor said he would restore Chernicia. Theodore had been planning Chernicia’s reinstatement for a while.

Although the task was not easy, Armin also sent an assistant to his aid to find out if there were any survivors in Chernicia.

Gunther’s second wife, Grancy, was saved by the family’s request for a lifesaver. On condition of abandoning the castle of Chernicia.

And she had to survive regardless of her will.

“She is still alive and is spending the rest of her life with her parents, but she is said to have gotten ill and has few days left to live.”

“Oh no, that’s bad.”

Armin shook his head and turned to the next page.

“The whereabouts of the fourth Brian and the fifth Yvonne are still unknown.”

In the midst of the uproar, Brian and Yvonne Chernicia suddenly evaporated without even finding their bodies.

Armin glanced over the report and took a deep breath.

***

It was none other than Ernst who comforted me. Ernst’s attendant trimmed my shortened hair beautifully. 

“Okay, Yves, you look pretty with short hair.”

He showed me the mirror and smiled brightly, but my face as I looked at the shortened hair in the mirror did not smile.

The reason I grew my hair was purely because of Theodore’s suggestion.

[How about growing your hair?]

My heart throbbed at the thought of him kissing my short hair as he said that.

When he cut off my hair, a faint scar on the back of my neck was exposed.

The scar that had been hidden by my hair was the one he left on the day Theodore woke up with memory loss.

“But how did this happen? Is my brother being mean?”

Mean. 

Can I describe it as mean?

It was Theodore, who cut my hair at random, and Katarina, who was happy to see it.

“B*stards….”

Katarina was a b*tch and Theodore was a b*stards.

“Hey, Yves?”

Ernst looked at me, startled by my swear words.

“Why?”

“You didn’t originally say that.”

“That was 10 years ago.”

I retorted with a grin.

Ten years ago, as the daughter of Chernicia, I was unaware of such harsh profanity.

However, growing up among the apprentice knights at Ferdinand, I became a little rough.

The only thing I didn’t respond to every time Theodore said something bad to me was to put up with it, constantly reminding myself that he was sick.

Of course, there were those who were terrified of his power as an emperor and endured it humbly.

Anyway, it’s okay to swear like this when he’s not here.

Just because I loved him didn’t mean I loved his actions and personality.

“Hey, I see…”

Ernst looked at me with his eyes wide open.

“If it gets really hard, would you like to leave with me?”