IBMLS

Chapter 17

“Don’t do this. I’m having a hard time right now. I’m hurt and exhausted. If you had eyes too, you’d be able to tell I’m basically a critical patient right now!”

‘Instead of clinging to a sick person and acting pathetic, could you just disappear already?’

Why did this bastard have to be the Emperor? I couldn’t even curse him out and throw him out. I bit my lip tightly to suppress the insults rising to my throat. Perhaps sensing my mood, the Emperor spoke in a somewhat deflated voice.

“…All right, Anise. For now, get plenty of rest here, and once your body recovers, let’s go to the Imperial Palace together. I’ve already ordered preparations.”

The Imperial Palace? I glared sharply at him and answered.

“Your Majesty, because of my condition, I don’t think I’ll be able to visit the Imperial Palace for quite some time.”

At my cold and immediate refusal, the Emperor closed his mouth for a moment. But he didn’t give up and started rambling on anyway.

“I know you must’ve been upset because I doubted your words and thought it was all staged. And since you got your throat injured because I called out to you, you must be angry too. But, Anise, it’s too dangerous for you to stay here alone. Right now you only have one knight guarding you, don’t you? Next time, you could really die. So come to the Imperial Palace with me. It’s much safer there than here.”

Those words made anger surge inside me.

“If Your Majesty hadn’t come here in the first place, the assassins would never have gotten anywhere near me.”

Everyone except Dayvin stared at me in shock after hearing that. I spoke firmly to the Emperor.

“I’d managed to keep them out all this time, but because Your Majesty came, the traps had been turned off.”

And on the very day the Emperor came, that many assassins stormed in to kill me—could that really be a coincidence?

When I glared at him with hostility, the Emperor’s expression stiffened. I spoke to him coldly.

“This estate isn’t as dangerous as Your Majesty says it is. And I’m tired right now, so I need to rest some more.”

Seeing that I clearly wanted to end the conversation, the Emperor stayed silent for a moment before rising from his seat.

“…Understood. Get some rest. I also hope the resentment you feel toward me will ease.”

Even after standing up, the Emperor looked at me with lingering regret in his eyes, but I pretended not to notice. Soon he let out a sigh and walked out of my bedroom. The moment he left, he staggered slightly and was quickly supported by his startled subordinates.

‘…?’

Click—

The door soon closed, and the staggering Emperor disappeared from view.

‘What was that? For a moment he looked like the sick one.’

Tilting my head in confusion for a second, I then addressed the nurses remaining in my room.

“I need to speak with my knight alone. Could you leave for a bit? I’ll call if I need anything.”

“Understood, Countess.”

Click.

Once everyone from the Imperial Palace left, the room became quiet in an instant. I turned to Dayvin and asked suspiciously,

“Why did you let the Emperor into my room?”

Other people might say a mere knight of a count’s household could never stop the Emperor, but I knew that if Dayvin had truly decided to stop him, the Emperor wouldn’t have been able to get near me.

Dayvin had seen me get stabbed because of the Emperor, so why had he allowed him into my bedroom?

But instead of answering, Dayvin asked me a question.

“Do you still believe His Majesty the Emperor is behind this, Lady Anise?”

“Isn’t it suspicious?! The Emperor, who hadn’t contacted me at all until now, suddenly came on the exact day assassins broke in! And then he accused me of staging everything and demanded evidence, and on top of that, he shouted at me at that exact moment, which caused me to get stabbed in the throat…!”

“Please calm down first, Lady Anise. It’s not good for your wound.”

As my voice rose in agitation and my face turned red, Dayvin tried to calm me down. Watching me fume, he wore an awkward expression before replying seriously.

“I understand why you would suspect him, but I’ve concluded that His Majesty has nothing to do with the culprits.”

Then Dayvin explained what had happened while I was unconscious. During the battle, the imperial knights and the assassins had fought with everything they had. The assassins had genuinely tried to kill the Emperor as well, and because of that, the Emperor himself had been injured.

“The Emperor was hurt too?”

Was that why he staggered earlier? I was startled.

“He’s hiding it under his clothes. Everyone’s keeping quiet in case word gets out, but His Majesty was stabbed by a poisoned blade as well. There was chaos in the other room earlier. He even took an antidote.”

Even though they tried to keep it hidden, it seemed Dayvin had noticed everything.

“If His Majesty were truly the culprit, there’d be no reason for him to go so far as to injure himself with a poisoned blade just to put on an act.”

After emphasizing that point, Dayvin continued explaining why he had never suspected the Emperor in the first place.

“If His Majesty truly wanted to kill you, Lady Anise, there would be no need for such complicated schemes. The imperial knights would simply have come to arrest you. There have already been plenty of malicious petitions against you, so combining a few of them would’ve been more than enough to frame you.”

Malicious petitions?

“People hate me?”

“…There have long been many nobles who opposed the idea of you becoming Empress.”

Dayvin answered carefully, worried I might be hurt, but strangely enough, hearing that actually reassured me. The situation finally matched what had been described in the original story.

The revolutionary army that opposed the Empire had spoken of Anise Miller as the true Empress who had cared deeply for the people but was murdered by corrupt nobles. Meanwhile, the nobles described Anise as the worst empress candidate in history, evidence of the Dowager Empress’s senility, and an evil witch who didn’t know her place and committed countless atrocities.

‘So the nobles really did hate Anise.’

Dayvin carefully studied my expression to see if I was hurt before continuing gently.

“The current situation is complicated, so it’s understandable that you’d suspect His Majesty. But as you saw earlier, Lady Anise isn’t someone His Majesty can simply cast aside either.”

I frowned as I remembered the Emperor practically begging in front of me earlier. Seeing my expression, Dayvin calmly explained,

“The two of you practically grew up together since childhood.”

“We grew up together?”

“Yes. After your parents died protecting the late Emperor, the Grand Dowager Empress personally brought you into the palace and raised you herself. She told the current Emperor, who was her grandson, to treat you like family, so the two of you spent your childhood together.”

Since Anise was a character who died early in the original story, it had only mentioned that she was engaged to the Emperor. It never explained how the two of them had grown up together. Following Dayvin’s words, I murmured,

“I grew up in the Imperial Palace when I was little…?”

“Yes. But after the Grand Dowager Empress passed away, you returned to this estate.”

Now the pieces in my head finally started falling into place regarding why Anise had become engaged to the Emperor.

“Wait… was it the Grand Dowager Empress who arranged our engagement?”

“Yes. In fact, your marriage was her dying wish.”

Wow, she even left it as her last wish? I suddenly felt overwhelmed.

A dying wish from the grandmother who had raised him and even helped govern the Empire during the regency. I could imagine how heavily the Emperor must take this engagement.

‘What if he refuses even if I ask to break off the engagement?’

The thought suddenly terrified me. Frowning, I rolled my eyes nervously.

“The two of you bickered often, but you always took care of each other. Perhaps His Majesty only spoke that way earlier because he didn’t know you had lost your memory…”

My fear that the Emperor might refuse to break off the engagement lasted only a moment. Watching Dayvin speak in such a defensive tone toward the Emperor, I immediately scrunched up my face.

“No matter what you say, Dayvin, I have no intention of forgiving the Emperor so easily.”