Chapter 15

Chapter 15

In the novel, whether it was because the emperor got the male protagonist buff or not, it was told he can handle one hundred men on his own without issues. I wanted to see if that was truly the case.

‘An emperor that stands and leads the army at the front, I thought I would only get to see such a thing in a drama.’

The front line is literally the first in line to face the enemy. Thus, an emperor, who symbolizes the existence of a nation, usually commanded at the rear for safety. Being on the front lines either meant you were arrogant or confident in your own strength and armed forces.

Of course, the male protagonist was the latter. As evidenced by this, after the emperor’s reign, immediate elite troops that served under him were renowned as the units that had the highest survival rate. That was even after they were given deadly missions to complete during the three conquest wars.

Due to this, the nobles tried to put their children in this unit as it had a higher probability of survival, and it was easy to catch the emperor’s eyes if they succeeded in their duties. The only problem was that, they did not know when they would die from the sword of this fickle emperor.

As I imagined his face swinging his weapon around in the battlefield, I remembered the exhilarating scenes of the original novel.

‘Oh my! Those scenes were really cool. If I remembered correctly, his body was also…’

As I watched how the flow of my consciousness went in that direction, I remembered his physical condition. I also remembered his tight chest that touched my back all night.

At the same time, my face burned.

‘T-That was a force majeure! It’s an important part of my job to be together with him often! Snap out of it!’

I shook my head to cool off my heated face, then the emperor’s body shook. My movements paused. His long eyelashes slowly went up. After seeing me, he went still for a few seconds, then he yawned and stretched his body.

“Did you sleep well, Lily?” He gave me a sunny smile, indicating he slept well.

I suddenly remembered the emperor that was filled with murderous intent during our first meeting yesterday. Today though, the emperor’s smile made me feel like he was a purring, satiated beast. He stood up and lightly grabbed my hand.

“Come.”

He led me to a sitting position on the long sofa in the middle of the room. Then laid his head on my lap.

“I will be sitting on this couch in the future. That chair,” he gave a dissatisfied glance at the previous one and said, “it’s hard.”

He pulled out colored candy from the pretty glass bottle on the table and started eating.

‘I feel hungry, probably because I haven’t eaten lunch yet.’

I was just thinking about the emperor’s poor eating habits when he started talking.

“It is quite unimaginable that I fell asleep thanks to you. I feel a little relieved.” He let out a breath and continued speaking, “Yesterday, there was this idiotic man named Ivan that kept chasing after me and told me to leave the Kingdom of Lucretia alone.”

A displeased expression flitted across his face, “If I had already found people that could replace him, I would have gotten rid of him on the spot.” Then he frowned.

I listened to his scary words that went from one ear and out of the other. I didn’t know why he was telling me this, I didn’t even understand the situation, so I just silently contemplated where the Kingdom of Lucretia was.

Kingdom of Lucretia.

It was a neighboring country in the southeast of the Ivant Empire ruled by a tyrannical emperor. It was a rich and prosperous kingdom that was known for its abundant wheat production and high-quality textiles. This kingdom was frequently traveled to from the empire.

‘The silk is very famous there.’ I remembered the wife of my former owner who constantly boasted of the silk shawl she received as a gift.

Because there was much to gain from diplomacy and trade, the neighboring countries chose to stay in good terms with the Kingdom of Lucretia. But seeing Chancellor Ivan, who had been serving the country for years under this tyrant, very worried about the situation, the emperor must have mentioned his desire to conquer Lucretia. Moreover, it was clear why he chose this kingdom as the target that would spark Fourth Conquest War.

‘If it’s Lucretia, it was there, right? The country that didn’t do anything when the original Liliana crossed their border. If they didn’t intentionally keep a blind eye towards the situation, she wouldn’t have gone until that point.’

I had sympathy for her because the original Liliana suffered a very terrible ending in the story. It was understandable that the emperor had been traumatized. The description of the misery was so detailed that after reading it that for a while, even I didn’t feel well.

I nodded with a hundred percent approval to the emperor’s desire to conquer the Kingdom of Lucretia. I could sympathize with his plight, after all.

The emperor touched the tip of my hair. “Lucretia will be erased from the continent. They kept trying to raise the silk prices for a while now anyway.” Then he grinned, “I just had a great idea. How about I raise the price of silk and in exchange, I’ll take their nobles’ heads? Of course, I will dedicate them to you, my dear Lily. Please accept them.”

He was saying those words with a bright smile on his face. It wasn’t a smile with murderous intent, but a soft and beautiful smile that was full of life. The scene would’ve been perfect, if only his words weren’t viciously condemning.

I screamed little bit on the inside. ‘I don’t need that!’

All the heads of the three kings from the last few conquests would have been placed at her tomb. That was because all three countries contributed to the original Liliana’s death.

But I wasn’t Liliana, so I wouldn’t be happy to have the heads of the ones responsible in front of me. No, if Liliana had seen it in the first place, she would’ve been terrified of the emperor and would want to get rid of it right away.

Uncaring about my own thoughts, he continued talking about his day for an hour after that.