Chapter 3 – [Part 1]
Saye opened her eyes to the setting sun outside the window. She was so weak that she couldn’t even lift a finger, and the tip of her nose reddened as she recalled the previous night’s events. She buried her face deep in a pillow.
“Are you awake?”
She thought she was alone in the room, but she suddenly heard a voice. At this, Saye tried to get up, but her entire body was paralyzed by pain, and so she lied down again.
“The Sultan has ordered you to rest for the time being. Shall I draw a bath?
“Who are you?”
“I am called Enin, and I shall serve Your Majesty from now on.”
Enin was a middle-aged woman with a gentle demeanor, one that Saye had never seen in the harem before. Her dark blue eyes were sharp, but the older woman looked at her with utmost kindness and a soft smile. Puzzled, Saye simply stared back at Enin, who appeared to be shorter and had a voluptuous body.
“I am not a person worthy to be served.”
At those words, Enin’s eyes fired up.
“That is not so, Your Majesty, for you had spent the night with His Majesty. You are the one and only concubine in the harem.”
It was natural for the Sultan to have a harem, and there was no guarantee that he’d continue to privately seek Saye in the future. The place would be overcrowded again, and a night with the Sultan would serve as a weapon to solidify one’s position among the ranks of women.
“I shall draw your bath.”
Under Enin’s insistence, Saye bowed her head when the woman stepped out of the door.
Last night’s conversation with the Sultan, Kainer, came to mind. Would he enforce his warning that if she stepped outside the palace, every step she took would be stained with blood?
The Sultan was kind. He was handsome and young enough to possess any woman in this Empire. Hadn’t she stared at him in awe every time he came to the library? There was a time she wished that, instead of keeping his eyes on a book, he would look towards her direction, even once. She would have such thoughtless ideas at times.
She bit her lip as a habit.
Click.
Saye’s features froze as she looked back towards the sound of the door opening, wondering if Enin had returned.
“I heard that you woke up.”
Kainer leaned obliquely against the door, his chest muscles exposed over his loose clothes. Drops of water were dripping from his hair as if he had just finished bathing.
“Your Majesty, you haven’t finished bathing yet…”
By raising only a hand, Kainer stopped the chief attendant’s urgent voice.
“Are you feeling better?”
He walked up to the bed where she sat and bent down on his knees without hesitation in front of her.
“Your Majesty!”
A frightening sound was heard from behind. Saye was taken aback and so she flinched, the sudden movement causing a pain deep in her stomach. She grimaced as damp hands cupped her face.
“Well, I guess you’re still in pain.”
The Sultan never bowed to anyone. This was a singular instance that people must never find out about.
Her body trembled as she thought of how many times the man in front of her had kneeled before her. And he constantly talked to her. Although he was rude to those in high positions, he used such words to exalt her, as if he respected her wholly.
Seeing the guards and servants from behind Kainer, glaring at her as if they were about to kill her, Saye got out of bed and fell flat on the floor.
“Please kill me, Your Majesty.”
“What? And why do I have to do that?”
His hand, which reached out to caress Saye’s pale forehead, lost its way and stopped midair. Kainer looked down at Saye, who was lying on the floor in such a way that it looked as if she was trying to flatten herself.
Saye, who was rendered speechless by Kainer’s words, just wanted to cry. The solemn question, ‘Why are you doing this to me?’ lingered between her teeth, but it did not come out. She shoved her nose deep into the soft carpet, hoping that the Sultan in front of her would move away from her.
“I am doing this because you keep lowering yourself.”
Saye bit her lips again at the friendly voice that clearly had a smile on his face.
“Your Majesty, I am part of the harem. I am not a concubine of Your Majesty, but the concubine of the late Emperor.”
Without raising her head, Saye spoke firmly to Kainer for the first time.
“Heeup!”
Behind her came the collective sound of their gasps. She doesn’t know what kind of face Kainer has while looking at her, but Saye continued to talk.
“Please don’t do this to me.”
“The late Emperor never held you, did he?”
In that sweet voice resembling honey, there was not a hint of anger. It was as if the voice was stroking Saye’s wounds gently.
However, in reality, the servants who were looking at Kainer’s expression were shocked. They were looking at a concubine who dared to speak arrogantly in front of the Emperor—his tone was sweet, yet his face was as cold as a forged blade.
‘Raise your head and look at the Emperor in front of you!’
The servants wanted to shout this in unison. Everyone thought that if the little girl with only skin and bones would see the look on the Emperor’s face in front of her, she wouldn’t have said anything.
The Ninth Prince was famous for not being interested in the Emperor’s position originally. The First Prince, Haseki Kadin Efendi,* was the one who was most favored by the Emperor, For the Ninth Prince, the Sultan’s seat was far away.
{Author’s note: All women in the harem are called ‘Kadin Efendi’. When she gives birth to a child, the title ‘Haseki’ (meaning nobility) is attached to the name in front of it, so Haseki Kadin Efendi. When a harem woman’s son becomes Emperor, she would receive the title of ‘Valide Sultana’, meaning Queen Mother.}
Nevertheless, many elders supported the Ninth Prince, due to his lineage. The Ninth Prince’s mother was the daughter of the Chief of Tuareg, the largest desert tribe. Although she died shortly after she gave birth to him, the prince did not die along with his mother.
The Ninth Prince was the only one who could oppose the First Prince.
As soon as he was born, the Tuareg took him in and raised him because the Emperor, who gave up his child, said that the child was unlucky for having devoured his mother upon birth. By the time he returned to the Imperial Palace, everyone had forgotten the existence of the Ninth Prince, however, when he returned to the palace at the age of fifteen, everyone was shocked.
He was a prince who inherited the blood of the Emperor best.
From martial arts to academics, there was nothing he couldn’t do. Additionally, the Ninth Prince was cautiously considered by those in lower nobility as the next great Emperor, especially because he had a stronger background than the First Prince’s mother’s family.
However, shortly after entering the Imperial Palace, he was exposed to frequent assassination threats. The Tuareg warriors who had entered the Imperial Palace with him and protected Kainer from these threats, and so he overcame many hurdles.
Nevertheless, he was a prince who had never unsheathed his blade.
People around him tried to make him Emperor, but Kainer was not even interested in the throne. He did not blink when the silverware was discolored black, or when the blood of his assassins got splattered with every step he took. He was the one who suggested that they’d go on an excursion when the Validak (Crown Prince) who would succeed the Emperor had been chosen.
This happened at a time when even those on the Ninth Prince’s side were still unsure whether Kainer truly wasn’t interested in the throne, or if he was only hiding his claws.
The Ninth Prince had a sister, the only sibling he had with the same mother. Born three years earlier, the relationship between the two of them was the beginning of the catastrophe.
The Fourth Princess, Erensia, met her brother fifteen years after he had been born because he grew up with the Tuaregs, and so she did not feel any kinship with him. She did not consider him at all as a brother, as he had been abandoned by the Emperor.
On the other hand, Kainer, who met his sister for the first time in all his life, was very fond of his only blood relative. It was the force of impulse, and Erensia knew of his fondness as well.
The problem that arose involved her fiance, Darg. He was a loyal retainer who swore allegiance to the First Prince. When Kainer was twenty years old, the princess invited him to her birthday banquet and shed tears in his arms, saying that she had something to tell him. She summoned Kainer secretly and stabbed him directly in the stomach. On top of that, many hidden assassins appeared.
Kainer was alone back then because he had left the side of the Tuareg warriors who were escorting him. It was all for his sister, who had pleaded with tears that she had something to say in secret. After killing the assassins on the spot with a deep dagger stuck in his stomach, he hid deep inside the palace from his pursuers, then returned to his entourage only after three days. At that time, he was really at the edge of his seat.
Perhaps it was because of his sister’s betrayal, the succeeding five years was when Kainer led a revolt and usurped the throne.
He was an Emperor without blood or tears.
During this rebellion, Kainer purged his enemies and spared no one, not even his sister. Princess Erensia died along with her fiance Darg the moment the rebellion broke out, and soon, the First Prince also fell unconscious in his bedroom without knowing what had happened. The First Prince’s mother, who had tried to kill Kainer ever since he was a child, also lost her life while trying to flee with her maids.
After ascending to the throne, he personally killed all twenty-seven of his brothers and imprisoned all nineteen princesses. Curious as to why the execution of the princes was done so quickly, a close associate asked Kainer about it. Kainer’s answer left everyone dumbstruck.
[“Once I solidify my position as Emperor, everyone will try to stop me when they’ve come to their senses.”]
That really would have been the case. Once he rose to the throne, started correcting the dizzying affairs of the Imperial Family, and began reestablishing the discipline of the country, everyone would have stopped him from executing his brothers because he had no heirs. In case something happened and a young Emperor is left with no heirs, the remaining sons of the previous Emperor would have been next in line.
Kainer, now Sultan, killed all his brothers and became the only person with the Imperial bloodline as he had no heirs. After purging everyone, including his own bloodline, he found Saye after three days, a girl who people didn’t even know existed in the harem.
“Miss Saye, didn’t I tell you?”
With goosebumps rising, the servants trembled at the imposing voice.
“…Yes, Sultan.”
“You are my only wife.”
The servants somehow felt pity towards the woman who was lying on her stomach.
“I do not deserve this title.”
Everyone wished for the girl to shut her mouth as she still answered the Sultan in that clear, resolute voice without even raising her head, but then Kainer lifted Saye’s chin.
“Why do you think so?”