CH 102

Her body which Leonis had licked and sucked as much as he wanted, had been wiped clean with a handkerchief he had taken out from under the chair. She changed into clean clothes and wiped it down, but there was nothing she could do about the chair that was filled with semen, so she sat on a blanket instead.

“…Has he seen it?”

“He must have seen it. He must be hysterical right now, a bastard pretending to be brave but in reality a coward.”

Celia looked curiously at Leonis, who chastised Michael. Since she knew the contents of the original novel, Celia had a rough idea of what Michael thought of him.

Michael perceived Leonis to be an “easy hit” who could easily move because he was dominated by madness and was basically looking down on him.

It could be because he is confident that he can make him run wild.

Conversely, while Leonis considered Michael cunning, he tended to ridicule him because Michael was just a lowly person.

In contrast to Giel, who is regarded as an excellent prosecutor, Michael assisted the emperor in managing state affairs.

Phil was neither one nor the other.

‘To be honest, that bastard’s abilities were imprecise.’

Phil was smarter than Giel but dumber than Michael, stronger than Michael but inferior to Giel.

It was understandable that the emperor couldn’t promote Phil to the position of the crown prince. Because if someone like that were to become Emperor, there would be uprisings all over the country, and everything would be turned on its head.

“I think we’re almost there.”

As Leonis whispered, Celia quietly leaned her head on his chest.

Neither the emperor nor Michael could reproach her for not attending the banquet tonight. She wondered how Michael would react if he received the note with his father’s name on it.

‘I’m going to have to do what you want me to do……’’

✦ ✦ ✦

‘Who the hell!’

If the note had been poisoned, then Michael must have also been poisoned. However, he could not take it any longer and snatched the paper from the attendant’s hand.

He wanted to tear it up on the spot but realised it would be safer just to burn it. The ripped paper leaves traces.

He ordered lanterns to be brought and burned all the notes on the spot and the attendants who saw the contents irritated him.

“……”

The attendants seemed to have noticed that their life was in danger. They were only looking at Michael’s face, turning blue.

Michael led them back to his palace as if nothing had happened at the moment.

And as soon as they returned to his quarters, he called for the escort knights and gave orders for them to execute all of the attendants. The attendants screamed and begged Michael, but all he did was look at them with cold eyes.

His devoted knights immediately carried out their master’s orders.

“Clean it up.”

It was made to prevent betrayal, to be exact. It was like tying each other up so they wouldn’t have any more children besides themselves, but they couldn’t control themselves as their sons.

Michael gritted his teeth as he recalled that terrible day in the past.

The day his mother, the First Empress, taught him the existence of her biological father was supposed to be the happiest day in Michael’s life.

It was the day that Orkan, the emperor, gave him his first recognition for all of his achievements on that day.

It was before he came of age, but he was quite grown up.

16 years old. He wasn’t yet an adult, but he was of an age when he was treated as one and expected to shoulder the same responsibilities.

On that day, the first empress called the delighted Michael to her residence and told him.

“Actually, you are not the son of His Majesty the Emperor.”

The First Empress’s face, which had confessed the truth, was as lovely as ever. She was a beauty who thought she was a beauty of ice or snow.

Although he lacked her affection, she possessed the elegance of an imperial woman, and although Michael knew that his mother is trying to manipulate him, he did not hate her.

It was a time when he was trying to avoid his mother’s interference because her ego had not yet fully realized.

Michael couldn’t tell what kind of expression he had when he heard that. Only his mother, the first empress, knew what his face would be like.

The First Empress had told everyone to make up a secret story and not to come in, no matter what sound was heard inside.

The ladies-in-waiting had left a hot teapot, several glasses, and some biscuits. He remembered the count, who was the proprietor of a merchant guild, offering a kettle containing a mana stone.

The kettle swiftly boiled water and always maintained a boiling temperature even when there was no fire.

It was created for the first empress, who loved hot tea.

‘What kind of expression did I make?’

Michael rolled his eyes when he saw the joyous laughter.

He knew the moment he saw her face that the First Empress would look at him with those eyes for the rest of her life.

She would have used the fact that he wasn’t Orkan’s child to threaten him for the rest of his life.

He could rise to the position of emperor, but when he imagined himself as the first empress’ puppet for the rest of his life, playing in her hands, Michael lost his reason.

He instantly struck the first empress after leaping over the table. He remembered her body collapsing like a chair on the floor.

Even her beautiful expression.

Her arrogant and cruel expression had become distorted and tinged with fear. Michael felt the joy in her expression.

As for the first empress, she always looked down on him.

He still shuddered at the thought of those eyes on him because he was the illegitimate son of a noble, not a member of the imperial family or the daughter of a marquis.

Michael closed the mouth of the first empress and brought a kettle of boiling hot tea, and poured it over her face.

It was insane to think about it again.

He remembered the First Empress scratching his arms and body as she struggled in agony under his grasp.

The joy of that time! The anger at that time!

Michael wanted her to be afraid of him. He wanted to be remembered as the beast who could harm her, not as the illegitimate son of nobles who could mock and ridicule his secrets whenever she pleased.

He hoped she would panic whenever she remembered Michael, just as he did whenever he remembered the name “Martin Cesar.”

Because she made him like this.

Michael believed that his perfect birth had been ruined by the first empress. He was certain that if the emperor had embraced her without any connection to Martin Caesar, he would have been born the emperor’s son.

As a result, he could not forgive the first empress.

A woman who ruined his birth and tried to look down on him with the eyes of the patriarch.

Her screams escaped through his fingers, but no one came into the room as she had requested. Michael’s hands were wet from the water he poured on her face, but his rage was stronger than her pain.

In the end, the first empress passed out. Michael was still ecstatic when he remembered her whinging.

The first empress, as expected, was terrified of Michael and eventually came to despise him.

She sought the best healers and priests, but some of the burn scars remained.

The First Empress was still beautiful, but the reddish pigmentation of the skin on her forehead and around her cheekbones was a scar that would follow her for the rest of her life.

That enraged her greatly. So he tried to seduce the emperor to abandon Michael and have another child. If he had not disguised the accident and repeatedly miscarried it, they might not have died.

This legacy was also a part of it.

Michael was the only option for both the first empress and his maternal grandfather.

‘If she hadn’t spoken up, no one would have known.’

It was not even known to the parents of the First Empress. His maternal grandfather knew it was because the First Empress would not be moved from her hatred of Michael.

It was possible because she did not even in her dreams know that the burns on her face were caused by Michael.

If she told him that Michael did it, nothing good happened to her. It was also the first Empress who covered Michael’s sins.

‘Who the hell is this?’

The Duke of Cardian was the most suspicious, but he thought he would have threatened him differently from the start.

He was like a beast. He thought of him as a brute who liked to corner his prey and scrutinize it for himself.

He set out to attend the banquet, and when he turned the carriage around, he suspected he had escaped in response to someone’s words.

Then who?

It wasn’t Phil. If it had been him, he would have celebrated and informed the emperor.

He was a moron who thought that because the emperor had no other choice, he would clear his name and reclaim the throne right away.

Or Giel?

Giel was likewise out of reach. If it had been Giel, he would have demanded the release of Vivian in exchange for keeping the secret. It would not have put him under such duress but would have “ordered” him to come directly and offer Vivian.

Giel, believed that an illegitimate son of a commoner or aristocrat was not a human being.

‘I need to hurry up with my plan.’

He was not sure who it was, but he was not going to accuse them right away. But it was obvious that they were going to make a demand or destroy him in the near future.

Before that, he must seize power.

Michael grabbed the piece of stone he had found in the banquet hall. His throat constricted in annoyance at the notion of his future relying on something phoney or misleading.