Until my desperate sobs died down, the emperor said nothing, only looked down at me in silence.
After a span of time that felt like an eternity beneath that suffocating gaze, the emperor finally opened his mouth.
“……Everyone else, leave and wait somewhere appropriate.”
At the emperor’s chilling command, the people filling the office began to withdraw all at once, like the ebbing tide.
Joseph Sterling, unconscious with his jaw shattered, was dragged out by the imperial guards, and in the place where he had been hauled away, a long, horrific trail of blood remained across the marble floor.
The emperor furrowed his brow and jerked his chin.
“Clean up that filthy stain as well before you leave.”
The attendants hurried over, wiped away the bloodstains, cleared away the teeth and fragments of bone, and then closed the door.
In the enormous office, only the emperor and I remained.
“Stand up and sit in that chair.”
Barely supporting my trembling legs, I rose and carefully sat on the chair the emperor had indicated.
Because I had struck my forehead so hard, blood was streaming from the torn wound and soaking the area around my eyes, but I did not even dare to wipe it away.
The emperor, resting his chin on his hand, silently gazed at me as I bled red for a long while.
And at last, clicking his tongue, he spoke in a heavy voice.
“That foolish Victoria…… Blind as she was, she brought back the wrong man.”
“…….”
“Your crime… If it had been the deception of an ordinary vassal state, you would have been boiled alive. Not in oil, where your breath would leave you quickly, but in hot water that would slowly cook your flesh. You would have been boiled to death in the most agonizing manner, screaming as you died for a very long time.”
The emperor’s voice was as cold as ice.
“That is how heavy and terrible the price is for insulting the imperial family. However……”
The emperor leaned back against his chair and said something unexpected.
“To kill you like that would, to be honest, be far too much of a waste.”
“……Pardon?”
“If I were to throw you into boiling water right now, there would be no small number of people in this empire who would grieve. Maximilien, for one, would lament the loss of a capable official, and that foolish Arthur would grieve the loss of a friend. And.”
For the first time, deep fatigue and affection flickered in the emperor’s eyes.
“Our Chloe, having lost the lover she cherishes most…… would likely truly collapse this time and be completely broken. In a way that could not even be compared to what happened with Adrian.”
“……Your Majesty.”
“To be honest, two emotions are rising within my heart at the same time. First, as emperor of this great empire, fury at your deception surges within me, making me want to tear you apart in agony right here and now. You dared, dared to deceive me.”
“……”
“Of course, after hearing what you said, I could roughly guess the truth. Ian Sterling, you truly are a clever… and foolish man. Why did you not simply come to me from the start and confess everything? Had you done so, even if I had to burn the Sterling Kingdom to the ground, you and your family would have been safe.”
“……”
“I might even have valued your audacity and placed you in an important position. After all, you are the sort of man who would have climbed upward by any means.”
“…I thank you for your generous appraisal.”
“My second emotion is this. Even if I were to kill every last person in the Sterling Kingdom, I want to forgive you and let you live. My youngest daughter likes you so much, and your abilities are outstanding enough for Max to acknowledge you. It would be quite useful to keep you at my side and make use of you. But the laws of the great empire are this strict, and even the emperor cannot simply overlook your punishment without cause.”
Having said that much, a chilling smile slowly appeared at the emperor’s lips.
“Thus, for the time being, I shall defer your punishment and grant you one opportunity.”
When I snapped my head up and looked at the emperor, he pointed with his finger toward the northwest.
On the map hanging on the northwestern wall was a vast basin kingdom surrounded by immense mountain ranges and highlands.
“Join the expedition against the Laurent Kingdom that will begin this spring. That difficult expedition our empire has struck against countless times for the past two hundred years, only to fail each time…… You will take part in it and make it succeed.”
The emperor’s eyes gleamed sharply, like those of a bird of prey.
“If you bring down Laurent and fulfill the empire’s long-cherished wish, I will value that tremendous achievement highly and recognize you as a legitimate member of the Sterling Kingdom’s royal family. I will demote the two pieces of vermin crawling about like insects outside to commoners and sell them off as slaves, and I will elevate the Harper barony of the south into the true royal house of Sterling.”
“……!!”
“If you succeed in repaying high treason with merit, I will leave everything as it is now. You will live as you do now—no, as an excellent subject of the empire even more glorious than now, and as Chloe’s partner.”
Though it came with the absurd condition that I had to join and succeed in an expedition the empire had failed at for two hundred years, I had no right to choose.
This was the only lifeline of salvation that had been lowered to me.
“However.”
The emperor’s voice sank low, like the depths of hell.
“If you fail…… then I will have no choice but to hold you accountable for the crimes I have deferred. As I said earlier, I will bestow upon you a painful death in which your very skin is peeled away. If it seems the expedition will fail, do not return to the empire. Cut open your own belly, hang yourself, throw yourself into the water—do whatever you must and take your own life. I will be especially merciful and sentence your family to nothing worse than beheading.”
Without hesitation, I got down from the chair and knelt on the floor once more.
“I will bear that in mind. I will stake my life on it and absolutely will not fail.”
“Good. I shall look forward to it.”
The emperor smiled faintly, as though satisfied.
“Then you should meet the expedition’s commander-in-chief in advance.”
The emperor rang a bell and summoned an attendant.
“Tell Victoria to enter.”
A short while later, the tightly closed door of the office opened, and First Imperial Princess Victoria stepped inside with the heavy sound of military boots.
“Imperial Father. You called—”
It was just as she walked into the middle of the room and was about to speak.
Smack—!
The emperor rose from his throne and approached like a thunderbolt, then struck Victoria across the cheek with all his might without warning.
“……?!”
Victoria’s head snapped to the side, and her lip split open.
But the emperor’s violence did not stop there.
“You stupid, useless wench! Because you were blind and brought back the wrong fake prince, the imperial family has been dragged into this wretched mess!”
I doubted my own eyes.
The emperor was driving his fist into his own daughter’s face and slapping her mercilessly.
Victoria’s face became a bloody mess in an instant, and even as her nasal bone broke and red blood soaked her uniform, the emperor did not stop.
“If only you had been a little smarter! If only you had been even a little more useful, this troublesome affair would never have happened!”
It felt as though my chest would tear apart.
Even while suffering such merciless beating, Victoria did not let out a single scream.
Far from resisting, she did not even collapse. She simply stood there in silence, like a boulder, receiving every lash of the emperor’s violence with her entire body.
The weight of the hell she had endured alone in this imperial palace was unfolding before my eyes in all its naked cruelty.
After beating her like a madman for a long while, the emperor panted harshly and shook the blood from his hand.
“Hah, hah…… You foolish thing.”
Panting like a beast, the emperor gave an order to Victoria, who was now covered in blood.
“Take this man with you and fight in the expedition against the Laurent Kingdom. If you fail to bring down the Laurent Kingdom, this fake prince will be executed immediately according to imperial law. Do you understand?”
Victoria’s wavering gaze reached me where I knelt.
The emperor’s cruel command continued.
“And you. If you also fail in the expedition, do not even think of returning to the Imperial City alive. I cannot stand the sight of you, so die there on your own. Together with that blond wench who follows you around.”
It felt as if my chest had been blocked shut, and I could not breathe.
Even as blood poured ceaselessly from her broken nose, Victoria lowered her head with an unwavering voice.
“……As you command.”
“I cannot stand the sight of either of you, so leave. Ian Sterling… no, Harper, you can simply live as you have been. Manage your relationships with the other members of the imperial family yourself. I do not particularly intend to do anything like cut off your meals, so use that extraordinary head of yours and think carefully about how to get over the walls of the Laurent Kingdom.”
The emperor waved his hand, dismissing us.
I staggered to my feet and followed Victoria, who had silently turned around and was leaving, out of the office.
The door closed, and the two of us stepped out together into the long, cold corridor.
Seeing her back as blood dripped down from her, I knew I had to say something, anything, but I could not bring myself to open my mouth.
Because I was a fake, she had been beaten so miserably. The guilt kept me from lifting my head.
It was then.
Victoria, who had been walking down the corridor, slowly stopped and turned back.
Both her cheeks were swollen black and blue, and from her split lip and broken nose, red blood flowed without pause. Her appearance was wretched beyond words.
With the back of her bloodstained hand, she roughly wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and quietly gazed at me.
There was no resentment or anger anywhere on her ruined face.
“……I’m glad.”
Moving her swollen lips, she whispered just that one sentence.
Leaving only those words behind, Victoria turned around again and silently limped into the darkness of the corridor on the other side.