episode_0132

Late at night.

It’s kind of fun.

There was something interesting about the situation where I was hosting a protest denouncing myself.

Do those people know? That I was behind those protests and that I bought the food they were given for free?

What will their faces look like if they find out?

You probably hate it so much, right? Maybe I’ll get criticized more for being a deceiver.

After seeing the street parade until late at night, I even ate tacos and headed to the imperial palace.

“Your Majesty the Grand Duke… His Majesty is urgently looking for you.”

As soon as I arrived at the imperial palace, I heard that Theodora was looking for me.

I wonder why she is looking for me.

Ah… I guess I understand now.

“Yes. Where is Theodora?”

I’m a little nervous inside, but it’s just my karma anyway.

“Now. You are in the bedroom.”

I nod at the guard’s words and head toward the newlyweds’ room.

while I was going.

It reminds me of the moments I spent with her.

Maybe that will end from today, right?

-Pisik.

A bitter smile comes out of my mouth without me even realizing it.

It’s a little… no, a little too bitter.

I don’t know if she was pretending, but it wasn’t a bad relationship.

Maybe this is the end of it too.

No… it might actually be hiding its claws.

Even if you figure out the situation and hate me anyway, your attitude may not change much.

If she wants to kill me, she must at least have my child to calm the chaos.

On my behalf, the owner of the Grand Duchy must listen well… or at least have a newborn baby who cannot understand words properly to have a justification for dealing with the Grand Duchy’s soldiers.

As I walked with such trivial thoughts in mind, I suddenly saw the newlyweds’ room.

“Your Majesty the Archduke, are you here?”

I smile and say to the guard guarding our room.

“Yes. Theodora said she was looking for me?”

At my words, the guard glances toward the door and lowers his voice.

“How about sleeping in the Grand Study Room today? It seems like His Majesty is very angry?”

“His Majesty the Archduke. What did you do to make His Majesty so angry?”

At those words, the senior makes lewd hand gestures and speaks.

“Tekki! Man, isn’t this the only thing that can make you that angry?”

It’s a little absurd that the guard thinks it’s just an ordinary couple’s fight, but I shouldn’t blame the guard for being clueless right now.

“That’s not it. Don’t worry, just open the door.”

“Yes!”

-Squeak!

When the door opens softly, we see Theodora lying on the sofa in the dark newlywed room, with the back of her hand on her forehead.

Just like a sick person.

Seeing that, I move into the room and say:

“You said you found me?”

I take off my coat and place it on the empty sofa.

I’m clearly not sleeping. Theodora doesn’t even move.

Maybe he’s thinking about what to say?

So I calmly sit on the sofa and wait for her to speak.

You probably have a lot to ask.

Will you denounce me as a traitor? Or should I just criticize him for being a authority figure?

I imagine this and wait for what she has to say.

After a long, long wait, a completely unexpected voice is heard.

“You… is that true? Really… did you pass over Epirus and Ezip?”

It was as if I was crying endlessly.

My mouth feels bitter as I listen to your tear-soaked voice.

Wow… I wasn’t expecting you to cry.

“Yes. that’s right. I handed Epirus and Ezib over to Ioannes.”

At my words, she jumps up from the sofa and looks at me.

Seeing her red eyes and red tip of her nose, probably because she cried a lot, made me feel sick to my stomach.

“Why?!, No… How can you pass this on without saying a word to me? That… what kind of land is that? What kind of land is that!”

Epirus and Ezip.

Both are fiefdoms symbolizing the emperor.

Epirus is the hometown of the first emperor, and Epirus is the home of the first emperor. When the first emperor founded the empire and the population in Rome became short of food, the gold dragon Eldra Shamhat, or first empress, used magic to transform the desert into fertile land for farming. This is the beginning.

Of course, it can be seen as the emperor’s own fiefdom that was inherited by the descendants of the emperor and empress after the first emperor died of old age.

We know that the symbolism of the two kingdoms of Epirus and Egypt is significant to the imperial family.

But if I hadn’t made that choice then.

You may be fighting a boring siege in Roman by now.

And the empire will be torn apart, and the devil’s limbs may soon descend on this land.

“So?”

So I have no regrets.

“So?, That’s why you said it?!”

I sigh and say to her who is glaring at me.

“If. At that time, I made that choice…”

“Shut up!”

She gets up from her seat and looks down at me and says.

“Shut up! Shut up! Who said I wanted to hear that excuse?, I… I think you…”

The moment I see her glaring at me and shedding tears.

I feel something different from before.

This isn’t my first time seeing her cry.

Why does my heart hurt so much?

“I thought you were a loyalist. I thought you were a loyal subject to the empire and me! But what? Yes, I admit that you saved Roman from the vortex of war! But… how could you give two of my territories to someone else without my permission and not say a word to me?! How could you do this to me?!”

-match!

Theodora slaps me.

“Why! Didn’t I tell you! Was it okay for you to trick me, deceive me, and play with me like that? Was it good? After selling Joy to a much older man! How can you laugh and talk like that in front of us? Are you human? No…do you love me?”

Soon he grabs my collar and shakes me.

“Knowing how much Joy follows you! Was it okay to sell that child like a slave?! How can you do something like that and laugh and talk with my family?!”

Is your lip chapped?

I can taste blood in my mouth.

As my bitter mouth fills with the fishy taste of blood, I gently grab her hand and gently twist it, loosening her collar and speaking softly.

“Do you know that I did it because I liked it?”

How many days and nights did I stay up trying to sort out the chaos after Valorant died?

While preparing for war, there was a time when I went to the emperor faction’s camp, ready to die to somehow prevent the worst.

That’s not the end.

With only the superficial title of emperor… the humiliation of secretly taking the land of a woman in her 20s, who was less than half my age, and giving it to Ioannes was something I could not easily bear.

And the thing that bothers me the most more than anything else is…

Why does my heart hurt so much?

Now is the time to see Theodora crying.

“Then?! Please at least make an excuse! You’re good at talking, right?! Don’t just keep your mouth shut like a mute, at least make an excuse!”

-puck!

“Why did you fool me!, why did you fool me!”

-puck!

“Did you like it? Did you enjoy playing with me? say! You bastard! This is trash!”

I can’t say anything to her as she hits my chest with all her might.

It is also true that I have committed sins.

So, I accept all the touches she hits and wait for her anger to subside a little.

-puck!

“I believed it! I believed it! I believed that only you would be different!”

-puck!

“How could you… trick me like this?”

How much did it hit me…

She sits down and sobs.

“Ugh… Is this your love?… Is this your love…”

Love…is it love?

I watch from the side as she vents her anger like that.

“You are a monster. Ugh… he’s a monster that doesn’t know human emotions. What’s the difference between you and Valorant?”

He stares at me as if he’s going to kill me, then sits down and spits out a curse.

“Both you and Valoran are monsters, it would have been better if both of your heads had been cut off and hung in the square!”

“A monster plotting treason and manipulating the empire!”

“A mentally ill person with no emotions!, a deceiver! It’s as if you encouraged Ioannes to revolt! know? More people might die because of you! A hypocrite who sheds tears over the death of soldiers on such a topic! You will die and go to hell.”

“Why did my father save someone like you… Just you and Grand Duchess Fulvia. I will let them both die.”

When I hear my mother’s story, my expression hardens without me realizing it.

“Ha?”

Theodora caught that minute moment.

She smiles with goosebumps on her face.

“Ah! Come to think of it. Grand Duchess Fulvia died trying to protect a monster like you?”

And he laughs and laughs with a crazy face.

“Why? A monster subject with no emotions. Do you feel bad when I talk about your family?”

At her words, for the first time, I grab her collar and glare at her.

“Do whatever you want, whether you curse me or hit me. But if you bring up your mother just one more time, I won’t let you go.”

When I grabbed her by the collar, I saw that she was choking and let go.

“Cough… Cough…”

She coughs like that and speaks with a bizarre face that is a mixture of pain and laughter.

“Ah~ Our poor Grand Duchess Fulvia. A poor woman who was abused by her husband all her life and lost her life while trying to protect her son.”

Those words make me frown.

Yeah… I backed off too much.

Theodora, let me remind you of the current situation.

I roughly grab her beautiful gray hair and tilt her head back.

“I said I wouldn’t leave you alone?”

-Tsk!

“Shut up! Traitor.”

When I feel her spit running down my cheek, I glare into her red eyes and say,

“If I bring up my mother one more time. At that time, I will kill both Joey and the Empress. Do you understand?”

“Pfft…!”

I say this as I look at her who is weighed down by my life.

“You can get those damn Epirus and Ezip back, right? joy? You think I’m going to let Joey get into an arranged marriage?! If you don’t know, just shut up!”

So let’s let go of her hair.

She starts laughing like she’s lost her mind.

“Hehe… Puhaha! try! Try it! Just touch our family with a finger! At that time…”

Then she glares at me like a crazy bitch and speaks quietly.

“I die too.”

Ignoring her words, I leave the newlywed room.