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Chapter – 01
“Execute the deposed Empress.”
The judgment pronounced upon a villainess was always ruthless, regardless of the era.
“Kill her! Kill her! String that witch’s head up in the square!”
As the death sentence was pronounced without fail, Josephine was finally able to let everything go.
“Look at that expression. It’s like she’s a corpse that died and came back to life once already. Gives me the creeps.”
Of course it was. This was already the second time she faced this tedious life.
The first thing to wither within Josephine’s heart on this journey had been hope.
“They say a witch’s blood is as cold as ice. She’s never had a warm heart in her life, so of course she wouldn’t know love or guilt.”
Josephine did not look back at the murmuring crowd.
She had enough to deal with just the charges laid against her in this life.
Arson, murder, deceiving the sovereign, forgery of official documents, abuse of authority, embezzlement, organizing a criminal syndicate, and finally, suspicion of treason.
“Do you acknowledge your crimes?”
Immediately after, a sweetly pleasant male voice fell beside Josephine’s ear.
“Please enlighten me.”
Josephine’s drowsy gaze turned towards the man who was the 55th Emperor of the Sharloise Empire and her ex-husband, Henrieus.
“You truly do not know your sins?”
Not backing down from Henrieus’s provocatively taunting russet eyes, Josephine repeated her question.
“No. Please tell me what sin I have committed against you. Henrieus.”
This time, Henrieus was silent.
“Even if I sinned against the whole world, I never sinned against you.”
Josephine was unwavering.
She had defied fate and made him, a bastard child, Emperor.
To purge his opposition, she wielded the influence of her powerful family from the shadows, bearing the full brunt of the poor populace’s resentment on her own body.
All the blood shed in that process fell on Josephine’s hands, not his.
Yet, all that returned to her was Henrieus’s suspicion and betrayal.
‘The Empress and her family, the Ducal house, have seated their influence at the very pinnacle of the Empire. I shall certainly rectify this.’
Thus, in her previous life, Josephine took the blame for all crimes, was deposed, lonely and abandoned in a convent, only to be poisoned by someone.
And then, with an inexplicable regression, her second life began.
Yet, even after being so utterly abandoned, she ultimately could not bring herself to hate him to the end.
She had loved him that much. So, this time, she struggled to become a useful person to him.
That’s why she wanted to ask now.
What had she, who lived for him twice, done wrong?
“Empress.”
Henrieus opened his mouth mockingly.
“Your crime is your very existence.”
It was the truth from Henrieus that Josephine was hearing for the very first time.
“You have not produced a single heir since becoming Empress. If that is not treason, what is?”
He looked down at Josephine’s dumbstruck face and openly sneered.
“Being a penniless orphan, if you had nothing else, you should have at least been good at womanly charms. But even that is no better than your friend.”
She had steeled herself for an answer like ‘I never loved you from the start.’
“…Ha, ha!”
But this was humiliation.
“My crime… is not being able to bear a child?”
His words were an excuse. He had never even given her the chance to conceive in the first place.
“You might as well be honest. My usefulness has run out, so you no longer need a lowborn Empress.”
Henrieus spoke without bothering to hide his pitiful expression.
“An Empress has the duty to bear a legitimate heir. According to the Imperial Physician’s diagnosis, there’s no issue with me, so clearly, the problem lies with you.”
Josephine, plunged into despair, did not retort further.
Her guts twisted with betrayal, and she couldn’t even move her lips.
“So, was it that jealousy, which exceeded your station, that drove you to target my son?”
As soon as Henrieus’s words fell, someone standing next to him flinched and trembled violently.
She was the woman who had succeeded Josephine as Empress in the previous life.
“Cici.”
Josephine moved her parched, cracked lips and called her old friend by her nickname.
“Answer me. Did I truly try to kill your child?”
Gathering her crumbling resolve, she asked with all her strength.
“I was your closest friend. I, too, am a mother who knows the pain of losing a child. Why on earth would I try to harm your baby?”
Elizabeth clutched the baby swaddled in blankets even tighter.
“Wh-what are you talking about? You never had a child or lost one, so why are you still lying about that, Jo?”
‘What?’
Josephine felt as if she’d been struck hard on the back of the head.
“Lying? But back then, the Imperial Physician you brought for me said exactly that. That signs of pregnancy were visible in me too…”
“He said it *might* be possible, he didn’t say it *was*, right? Don’t tell me you mistakenly thought you miscarried because of that and resented me so much you put poison in my food?”
Elizabeth cried out, her face deathly pale.
“Poor Jo. You were never pregnant. It was all just your delusion!”
No, that’s not true. Josephine’s lips moved soundlessly.
“You… you congratulated me too. You said Henrieus would be happy too, and you even picked out baby clothes and shoes yourself…”
“I don’t know anything about that. For something as important as pregnancy, you should have checked more thoroughly. You can’t blame all that on me, can you?”
Elizabeth suddenly put on a sorrowful face.
“As a friend, I’m sorry for what I did to you. But what can I do? You couldn’t give him an heir.”
Yet, her eyes were brimming with an unprecedented sense of triumph.
“So His Majesty simply loves me more than you, Jo. You should have understood that much.”
‘Sorry, Jo. I… I had no choice.’
Josephine couldn’t believe any of it.
The words Elizabeth had sobbed out when she visited her just before Josephine left for the convent in her previous life were still vivid.
‘It was the Emperor’s order. To protect my family, I had no choice but to obey. I’m truly sorry to you.’
That day, Josephine had forgiven Elizabeth.
She hadn’t blamed Henrieus for his choice either.
In her previous life, they also had no children, and he desperately needed an heir to quickly stabilize the Imperial authority. So, in a way, Elizabeth being chosen as the new Empress was a natural course of events.
Therefore, Josephine understood their positions too and wanted to forgive.
Even up to this very moment, foolishly.
“I couldn’t tell you until now because I was worried about how you’d take it. How could I possibly say with my own mouth that you were infertile?”
Elizabeth cried out sorrowfully, loudly enough for all those gathered to hear.
“You think I lied? Do you really think that?”
Josephine looked Elizabeth straight in the eye and asked.
“If it were you in my position, and not me, could you not think the same? Truly?”
As if struck in a sore spot, Elizabeth firmly pressed her lips together.
“Henrieus, if you were the one who couldn’t have children, and not me, would you still hold me accountable for that crime?”
The audience jeered at the audacious question.
But Josephine was sincere.
If their positions were reversed, would they have stood by her?
She certainly would have. No matter what arduous path lay ahead, she would have stayed with them until the very end.
But not them.
“…I see.”
A single line of tears traced down Josephine’s face.
At first, she thought it was some misunderstanding between the two.
That’s why their attitudes had suddenly changed like this, and if that misunderstanding was cleared up, everything could return to how it was.
But no. Now she could be certain.
“So from the very beginning, the two of you conspired to betray me.”
To that, Elizabeth retorted with a venomous voice.
“You made me like this, Jo. So don’t blame me.”
She wouldn’t blame them. Because now she knew the truth.
Her husband Henrieus, and her one and only best friend, Elizabeth.
From the very beginning, the two of them were demons who had joined hands to ruin her life.
“Execute the deposed Emp—”
Before Henrieus could finish the command, Josephine herself first stepped up onto the guillotine platform.
Kneeling on the platform, Josephine looked through the round hole.
‘Never again.’
And she offered one final prayer.
‘Please, don’t let me be reborn as his wife or her friend.’
Please, just let me die. She pleaded like that.
‘If that can’t be, then please don’t let me start over from the beginning.’
Finishing her prayer, Josephine closed her eyes and placed her neck inside the wooden hole.
“Kill her! Kill! Kill that witch!”
And so, the second life of the villainess Josephine also came to an end.
* * *
And morning dawned once again.
“Your Majesty the Empress, did you cough?”
The maid, Harbor, gently called for Josephine.
“Your Majesty?”
Josephine opened her eyes again. She hurriedly felt for her neck.
“I’m the Empress?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Who else would you be if not the Empress of this Empire?”
God had not granted her plea to die.
As if there was still unfinished business for Josephine within this long stretch of misfortune.
