I Possessed The Immoral Empress

Chapter 26

I Possessed The Immoral Empress - Chapter 26

After retrieving Helen’s body from the temple and purifying the surroundings, they realized that the sun had already begun to set.

Everyone present there underwent questioning before heading back to the palace.

Due to unfinished business with Felio, Ermedeline decided to return with him.

Both the orphanage and the trial related to the murder case had a lot of stories to tell, but inside the carriage, a heavy silence prevailed.

This was because of the atmosphere of Ermedeline, which seemed to be sinking endlessly due to Helen’s death.

Even Rooney, who would normally make senseless chatter just to lighten Ermedeline’s mood, found herself lost in thought, unsure of what to say.

Helen, whose chubby cheeks still had adorable freckles, had yet to lose her innocence.

Ermedeline always watched Helen closely whenever she cleaned, as if her petite and frail body might be carried away by the wind at any moment.

Even during the curse, when her entire body was covered in an inky blackness, the features of her face and the patterns on the walls remained vivid.

The memory of those deep blue eyes, which gazed up at her with an earnest expression, as if there were words left unsaid, continued to haunt Ermedeline.

Due to the powerful curse, her body could not be returned to her family; it had been reduced to a handful of ashes.

‘Her mother and sibling are still held captive, right? First, I must rescue them. But how? I received the estate of the duke, but all the soldiers were confiscated by Henry. Should I hire mercenaries?’

Henry’s decision to spare the life of Duke de Françoise had political motives, but in truth, Ermedeline had also found some relief in the outcome.

Though it was unclear if there were any deep emotions between the two, both with tainted blood, Ermedeline’s primary concern had been recovering the money she had lent to the duke.

She felt that the Duke’s punishment was light, but she also felt that it was appropriate, partly because her accusations hadn’t resulted in the death of a blood relative.

At that time, she did not know.@@@@

She never imagined that a father would genuinely want to kill his daughter, even in the most villainous of families.

‘If only the duke had been executed back then...’

Suddenly, a frightening thought passed through Ermedeline’s mind. She shuddered at the terrifying idea, and Ermedeline instinctively wrapped her arms around herself.

“Your Majesty, are you cold? Do you have a fever, perhaps...?” Rooney, witnessing her distress, frantically searched for something to cover her with.

“No, it’s not that. I’m fine, so don’t worry,” Ermedeline replied in a somewhat subdued voice, her head bowed as she stared at the floor.

Upon hearing her response, Rooney made a momentarily disappointed expression, then took hold of Ermedeline’s shoulders and forcefully lifted her slightly slouched upper body.

“Are you really okay? You don’t look okay at all. Right, Your Excellency?”

Felio, who had been sitting across from them and still seemed a bit stunned from the lightning strike, momentarily appeared puzzled but then nodded lightly in agreement, as if acknowledging Rooney’s words.

“Your father tried to kill you, how can you be okay? I can’t even imagine, but if my parents tried to kill me, I think it would be really sad,” Rooney continued.

‘Sad?’

Ermedeline slowly lifted her head and looked at Rooney’s face. In her tender brown eyes, tears had welled up unnoticed.

‘Oh, I’m sad. Right now.’

Finally, Ermedeline had figured out what this discomfort, this persistent ache in her heart, was all about.

‘Yeah, I think... I’m sad. My fantasy about having a family has been shattered, and the owner of this body is sad because her dad is really trying to kill her, so that’s why my heart hurts like this.’

While she was relieved to have found the answer, a new headache began to throb in her head. The pain caused wrinkles to form on Ermedeline’s forehead.

“That’s right. I think I’m sad right now,” she admitted in a very soft voice, almost like a whisper, acknowledging Rooney’s words.

Ermedeline felt an intense headache coming on, and she lost consciousness right there.

***

Henry was deeply troubled.

“My health hasn’t been good, so I haven’t had a chance to wear them. That’s why I haven’t checked.”

Valliere replied with a playful smile, but Henry’s expression noticeably began to grow colder.

“You haven’t checked it?”

Henry couldn’t readily accept her explanation. It had been a tradition between them for over a decade. Whenever she received jewelry, Valliere would eagerly anticipate the message engraved on the back more than the jewelry itself.

The woman before him, smiling awkwardly, was undoubtedly the lover he cherished, but strangely, her demeanor felt so unfamiliar to Henry.

It was difficult to describe, but an unsettling sense of disquiet passed through Henry’s entire body as he watched her.

“If you haven’t checked it yet, you must still be feeling quite unwell. Stop praying and go lie down in bed to rest.”

His lover, who seemed to know everything, now felt even closer to him when she wasn’t around.

Before his own emotions could waver any further, Henry decided to get up.

“Your Majesty!”

As Henry attempted to leave, Valliere clung to him with her entire body.

“To be honest, I think I made Your Majesty uncomfortable this morning, so I felt sick to my stomach and couldn’t focus on wearing the earrings. I’m sorry. My body is almost completely recovered now.”

Seeing her desperate demeanor, Henry felt a momentary wavering in his heart.

“I, and now that I’m not feeling unwell anymore, from today...”

Although her words trailed off, it wasn’t difficult for Henry to read Valliere’s intentions, as she sent a blatantly strange glance his way.

In the past, he might have reacted physically to his lover’s bold temptation. However, strangely, very strangely, Henry felt a chilling coldness running through his entire body, as if sinking into dark and icy waters.

It was because Valliere’s eyes, despite her odd expression, seemed to exude a rather ominous aura with her amber-colored irises.

***

‘What the heck! Seriously, is that man insane?!’

If it weren’t because the walls have ears, Valliere would have surely screamed herself hoarse.

It was her last resort, devised to obtain the title and the territory. Even though the idea was still awkward, she had mustered the courage to suggest spending the night together, only to be met with rejection.

Henry left her bedroom without uttering a word in response to her proposal as if he were fleeing.

‘Why! Why are you doing this? Weren’t the two of us practically inseparable? The maids even said they were going to sleep here because it was getting late! Why are you rejecting me? Why!’

Valliere couldn’t accept the situation that lay before her.

Naturally, it was something she couldn’t comprehend.

Valliere had always seen Henry as a means to an end, a tool to achieve her goals, and never acknowledged the fact that he was a human with emotions.

To Valliere, Henry was nothing more and nothing less than a tool to make her Empress, a plot device for the protagonist. And this was where the problem arose.

Despite being a calculating, self-centered, and ruthless emperor, Henry’s feelings for his lover were genuine. She was the only human part left in him.

But Valliere, who even during her time as Yerim saw everyone around her as supporting characters for her own life, couldn’t possibly understand this fact.

It made her sick to her stomach.

The nauseating emotion she couldn’t accurately describe could perhaps be best described as a feeling of filth and discomfort. Valliere couldn’t understand why seeing her long-time lover’s strange smile made her feel this way, but it was undeniably the case.

Henry returned to his office with a complex mix of emotions, unsure whether he wanted to cry or get angry. As he entered, the courtier informed him urgently about Ermeline’s condition.

“Empress has collapsed again.”

Without suppressing his emotions, he rushed to the Empress’s bedroom, where he found Ermeline lying in bed with a pale face.

“What happened?” Henry asked.

In a heavy voice, Louise, who was examining Ermeline, replied, “There don’t seem to be any physical issues. It appears to be a malaise of the heart.”