Chapter 2
An oracle is granted to every aristocrat in Las Vecchia the moment they are born.
[Don’t be blinded by desire]
It was the oracle granted to me.
Was it the price I must pay for ignoring my oracle by thinking that it was just an old myth?
Was my struggle to escape the humiliation I got from being an illegitimate child led to my daughter’s death?
“His Majesty has sent troops to Katan.”
As I sat in the riverside while scattering the ashes of my child and husband, the butler came closer and muttered.
“Yes, I see.”
I only nodded indifferently at his words.
Yvonne was no longer by my side.
Now, I had no reason to live anymore, so I didn’t feel threatened by that.
“…His Highness Joseph has prepared an escape route. Katan’s knights will be blocking the troops, so please run away.”
“Escape route?”
Although I had no intention to run away, the butler’s words made me scowl.
“Did you know that His Highness Joseph rejected His Majesty’s order to bring Lady Yvonne?”
“…Are you saying George tried to kill Yvonne instead of Joseph from the start?”
I had no idea.
Since Joseph never told me about any danger moving towards Katan.
“His Majesty seems to have offered a promise to leave Katan alone in exchange for Lady Yvonne, but seeing that madam doesn’t know…”
The butler said with a bitter smile.
“I don’t think His Highness Joseph had any intention of handing over Lady Yvonne to His Majesty in the first place.”
“…I see.”
I never thought he cared for Yvonne this much because of his stiff personality.
I couldn’t even say sorry.
How dare I.
I was so anguished that I couldn’t lift my head and tears fell to my hands.
‘I’m sorry.’
I’m really, really sorry.
How I wish I could say that out loud, but only the sound of my wailing gushed out.
Joseph was the previous emperor’s legitimate son, and the older brother of Carlo, who was removed from the line of succession after falling into my scheme.
Although he got discrowned, Joseph, who once held the succession, was chosen as my partner in a political marriage to pressure Carlo.
‘He was no different than a hostage.’
Even if it was a loveless marriage, there was no way he wanted to take me as his wife. Because I was the one who tried to eliminate Carlo from the throne and help his lowborn half-brother, George, to ascend the throne.
Nevertheless, he wasn’t a bad husband.
He was blunt but respectful. He never blamed me, his wife, nor my father for using him as a hostage to pressure Prince Carlo.
Even so, I still hated Joseph.
I was afraid of his great commanding force that led the victory in the vicious war against the West, and I was disgusted each time I saw his large build, which was twice as big as mine.
Unlike George who could loosen up the mood, he was a taciturn man who rarely opened his mouth, so I used to avoid him because he always seemed to criticize me in his silence.
His neat and righteous gaze reminded me of those dirty bastards who were scornful toward George and I.
‘The battle for the throne is always a constant war.’
I only wanted to make the prince I chose to be the emperor, and I thought George had the ability to lead the country.
Just like a coward, I wanted to turn a blind eye on Joseph’s existence, which prickled my petty conscience.
‘Still, he made an escape route for Yvonne and I.’
He could’ve just run away with us, but the lord couldn’t abandon his land.
After smiling candidly at the butler’s worried eyes, I stood up and reached out to him.
“Butler.”
“Yes, madam.”
“…I’m sorry for everything.”
Since I was always waiting for the day George calls me to the palace, I always neglected Katan.
“I’ve been a horrible madam.”
“That’s not true.”
The butler answered my unexpected apology with his head down.
“I won’t let George trample on Katan.”
Although he didn’t express it because he was bad with words, I knew Joseph cared for Katan.
The land surrounded by a snowy mountain range was desolate and barren, yet he embraced Katan warmly in his arms.
‘It’s the only way I can make amends for Joseph.’
I walked over the ridge toward George’s troops that swarmed like ants.
“Sir.”
The man in the lead was the knight who dragged my daughter.
On top of the horse, he raised his hand high as he caught my eyes.
“Surrender. His Majesty has ordered us to catch you alive.”
“George? He wants me?”
Did he still think of me as useful?
I smiled sharply and raised one corner of my mouth at Robert.
“Don’t speak of His Majesty’s name carelessly with your mouth, madam. I’m warning you.”
“I shall give you a warning since you like it so much.”
“….”
“Sir, you’d better not step on that line.”
I clearly warned him, but Robert grunted and ignored my words.
“It seems you don’t realize that you’re no longer in a position to command me.”
As soon as he finished talking and took the reins of his horse-
Whaang!
Kaboom, bang!
The alchemy, which I began to scribe on the day Robert took Yvonne away, was activated.
‘George seems to have installed an artifact inside the Grand Duke’s castle to block alchemy…but this is an open space.’
“This witch is playing a wicked trick! Back off, everyone!”
The panicked Robert ordered the knights to retreat, but it was meaningless.
The alchemy, designed to prevent anyone from stepping on Katan land, began to destroy the ground that the troops had stepped on.
‘George used my alchemy to become the emperor.’
I didn’t have much time left anyway.
Alchemy wasn’t magic, and there was always a price to pay to get what one wanted.
It took quite a sacrifice to destroy the hard ground extensively.
I seized George’s troops in exchange for my remaining life.
Whoong! Boom!
‘No one will be able to lay their hands on Katan.’
Along with my oath, the alchemy began to create a protective barrier that covered the huge northern mountains.
As I felt my blood turn cold, I smiled satisfactorily when I watched Katan shining in a white glow.
***
Plak-!
Surprised by the sudden slap, I tried to get myself together, but someone pulled my hair violently.
“How dare you humiliate me in front of the Empress?!”
‘…Father?’
The voice of the man clasping my long black hair was familiar to me.
‘How does father know about Katan?’
No, I recently had sacrificed my life to hide the existence of Katan from the enemy.
‘Don’t tell me the alchemy failed?’
Being alive meant my final alchemy didn’t work properly.
“Ka-Katan…”
What happened to Katan?
While holding my throbbing head, I mumbled to my father.
He was familiar, but somehow his face looked younger than I last remembered.
‘Did you dye your hair?’
I looked around to figure out what was going on in the room.
‘Isn’t this the count’s basement?’
It looked like the count’s basement that I used as a laboratory to hone my alchemy.
‘Because I was often confined here.’
But I had never been here since I married Joseph.
Even if my father was the greatest lord of the south, he couldn’t keep his married children in custody.
“Yes, Katan! If you have a mouth, explain yourself!”
I didn’t know what explanation he wanted from me.
‘Did Katan eventually collapse?’
If George decided to mess with Katan without consulting with him, of course he would be furious.
Because my father was the one assembling the Chimera army using the monsters that fell into a deep slumber in the north.
“So you don’t want to talk, huh?”
His eyes glistened when I didn’t answer, and his hand landed on my cheek again.
Plak!
His powerful hit made me fly like a broken marionette and fall face down on the ground.
The rough basement floor made my knees bleed, but it didn’t hurt that much.
‘This is nothing compared to Yvonne’s pain.’
George, who had a great obsession with the throne, won’t give Yvonne an easy death.
My heart felt numb when I remembered the crying child who was dragged away.
So I couldn’t listen to my father who kept raising his voice.
“How dare you embarrass me in front of the Empress by saying that you won’t marry the Grand Duke of Katan!?”
Without giving me a chance to breathe, he kept punching and kicking my body, which laid helplessly on the floor.
“Didn’t I tell you that you’re just George’s lover? How dare a bastard child like you try to covet the empress seat!? Prince George will be the Emperor!”
I wasn’t my father’s biological daughter.
Since he was infertile, one day, he called out his subordinate to my mother’s chamber. He did that to conceal his weakness.
‘Because of that petty reason, he made my mother come off like a promiscuous woman and eventually killed her.’
However, his shameful actions were not important now.
“Even though I raised a bastard child like you as the daughter of the late Countess! Such an ungrateful wench….”
All the words that came from my father’s lips were strange.
Did he turn so old that his head got even crazier?
“Get ready to marry the Grand Duke of Katan! I don’t want to listen to your opinion!”
I gasped for breath as he viciously kicked me. Then he closed the basement door and left.
I only stared at the closed door and frowned.
‘What did he just say?’
Yvonne passed away at the age of six, and I had a baby the following year after I married Joseph.
That means I married Joseph seven years ago.
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