Chapter 138
Translator: Lunarise
Editor: Larkspur
While Viola was asleep, Lustian spent time with Wendy. When it was time for her nap, she was sent off to the crown prince’s palace. Then the emperor met a man that came frantically running. Scrunching up his face, he hurried back to the temple. Just then, he encountered the previous empress who was holding a memorial service at the altar.
“It has been a while.”
Even though it had been a while since they last met, the empress did not seem happy to see Lustian as she used to. Ever since the love of her life passed, she projected her resentment onto her son. Their once wholesome mother-son relationship faded away. Her visage was cold. Her frosty stare once aimed at Ivan was now directed at Lustian.
“How are you doing?”
“You ask as if you don’t know. I for one am praying for your father every single day. I indeed wonder why you show up after eight years of hiding from me.”
“The empress will be here soon.”
Her hands shook. She used to be the most precious mother to him but not anymore.
When Viola realized that all of the possible suspicions about her were realized, she started moving so as to figure out the true nature of the situation. If Paul hadn’t told her about this, this would’ve been dangerous for her. She was expecting that she’d go looking for the previous empress so… Paul passed this onto Lustian so as to protect her.
As soon as Lustian heard about this, he rushed into the temple. If he couldn’t stop this, he decided he must hear it for himself and insist that she wasn’t God’s Companion…
“Do you think you’ll change anything? No matter how much you try to stop it, you cannot shield her from her destiny.”
“I can.”
“How do you intend to do so? If they are already suspicious, the whole imperial palace would know already by now. Ho ho. This is truly ridiculous.”
“For now, I am!”
Just then, the empress stopped ridiculing Lustian’s actions. An unstoppable aggressiveness surged out of his body. Since it was most important to him that Viola wasn’t taken away by God, his mother’s love for him was secondary. His lips twitched as he stared at former empress.
“I command you as Emperor. Do not spread this around. Those who disobey my command will never be forgiven.”
The empress dowager thought her ears were deceiving her. Was this the same child she gave birth to? His words repeated in her head. I sacrificed everything I could to make him Emperor, but now that same person is ostracizing me. As if it wasn’t enough that I couldn’t cover my eyes or ears, I can’t even exercise my power.
Ever since the previous Emperor, I came to the temple thinking that all of my ambitions were of no use, but it was surreal to see Lustian come back as a different person after all of these years.
“This is what I have to say. So I ask this of you, please. Do not force me to have you punish you with my own hands.”
“Do not fret. There is no hope left for me anyhow.”
“——”
A look of embarrassment washed over his face. Spouting out these nasty words would not ease his heart.
“Now leave. It is time for my prayer.”
“Next time, I shall return with the empress.”
“No, do not return.”
“Mother.”
“I have no intention to take on the role of your mother. So Lustian, find your path. I will let myself be buried with the incense of His Highness.”
A deep sigh came out of her mouth. Lustian got up without looking back.
She thought of the time she turned sixteen. She saw him at a party of one of the marquis. As soon as she saw the crown prince, she was infatuated by his enchanting looks and fell in love with him. As soon she found out she had an arranged marriage with him, she felt as if she owned the whole world. She knew that the person watching her from afar was of the highest status, but her mother did not want her to be the crown princess.
“If you marry him, your life will be in shambles.”
It was at that moment when she regretted not heeding her mother’s words. However, she also thought that it was Providence.
“Humans are incapable anyhow. Is that not true? You can come out now.”
She watched someone coming down from the altar. She walked down a few stairs and then stopped in her tracks. The person was wearing a red dress, proudly wearing a crown on her head with the appearance of Empress. She must’ve been planning to arrive with an appearance like that from the start.
“That’s right, how do you feel about hearing that with your ears?”
“——”
The woman was Viola. Arriving just before Lustian, it dawned on the previous empress that she was also her daughter-in-law.
“Do you intend to become God’s Companion on your own? It may be that becoming God’s Companion is the most peaceful method to end things, but—”
“No, I do.”
“Pardon?”
She was shocked at Viola’s words. Lustian was the one insisting upon keeping her identity secret, but she suggested otherwise.
“I was thinking that if I were God’s Companion, what would God want from me? I also wondered why He’d let His own partner sleep with another man and bear a child with him? It’s suspicious.”
“You haven’t even been inside of God, so how would you know?”
“This is what I was thinking of. It feels like God is intending something other than finding a love that turns into the other half of his heart.”
“…?”
“I have already given my heart to Lune. God would not gain anything from having a partner that’s only an empty shell.”
She refused to make eye contact with Viola. This had always been the case, but her resilience even in my presence was surely different from the other princesses.
“It seems like you know more than I do, Your Highness. You know that God doesn’t really want love from me.”
“Wh- What? What are you talking about?”
“I thought about the story of the two of them as I was on my way over here. [The Story of God and the Virgin]. On the outside, their relationship was disguised as a beautiful love, but in truth. God broke the unbreakable vow. The two of them were in love, so they didn’t know that they committed an unforgivable sin.”