The Tyrant Couldn’t Fall Asleep

Clink!

A loud plosive sound echoed in the drawing room of the Imperial Palace.

Fragments of broken teacups and blackened silver spoons were scattered on the floor.

“Isn’t this the poison I gave you to feed the emperor?”

Feeling betrayed, Duke Lauchen grabbed his daughter's neck with one hand.

“How dare you give me back the poison I gave you! You ungrateful thing!”

He thought she would beg for doing something wrong, but Izaya smiled again.

“If I poisoned the emperor, you would still throw me away. So I betrayed you, is that wrong?”

Duke Lauchen stared at his daughter as if it were absurd.

“If you had children, I would have respected you as Empress. But weren't you the one who failed?"

It has been more than 6 years since the emperor became an adult. However, there was no successor, and public opinion that a new empress should be welcomed rose.

In addition, rumors circulated that the emperor was secretly meeting with the sister of Grand Duke Tares, boosting the theory of the empress's dethronement.

At this rate, everything would be lost, so Duke Lauchen decided to poison the emperor.

“So I gave you a chance to make up for your failures…yet you betrayed me. Did you think that the emperor would spare you, who had tormented him for a long time?”

‘No way.’

Izaya looked down on the emperor in front of her father, treating him like a foolish child.

That wasn't enough, she monitored him and confessed his actions to her father.

But even if her body was torn to death, she did not regret her actions.

'If I didn't, you would have ruined him.'

A good duke of an honest and virtuous emperor.

At first, Duke Lauchen drew public attention with such a hypocritical appearance.

Having acquired wealth, power, and military power, Duke Lauchen began to put pressure on the emperor.

Duke Lauchen's ultimate goal is to become regent and take control of the Empire while carrying the heir from the Empress, Izaya.

As the emperor grew up, his rebellion grew stronger.

After removing the emperor's aides, the resentful Duke tried to turn the emperor into an idiot by giving drugs to him, who was only 16 years old.

Upon learning of this, Izaya persuaded her father.

“Something may go wrong and there may be no successor. So please wait until there is a successor.”

Convinced by his daughter's words, the Duke waited for a successor to appear.

However, there was no successor and the emperor was now 25 years old.

It was natural. Although they had been sharing the same room for a long time, the emperor had never touched Izaya with a single finger.

So, while his father endured nine years of being deceived, Izaya perfected the trap to bring him down.

‘You must have found it by now?’

Her husband would have captured the symptoms of rebellion through the extradition of his close aide, Grand Duke Tares. Even so, the father's seal remains intact.

All of these were traps that Izaya had made.

However, in all of these situations, there was something that she did not understand at all.

“Why did you revolt? We both know that unless the person is of the royal family, they cannot become emperor.”

The lineage of the royal family that inherited the blood of the hero was like faith in the empire.

All children, regardless of status, grew up listening to the story of the founding emperor, and the entire nation held a festival once in 10 years at the founding festival.

In such an empire, only the immediate blood relatives of the emperor who have received the recognition of the holy things that have been passed down from the time of the founding emperor can become the next emperor.

Even if the duke, who became the emperor’s father-in-law as a vassal, caused a rebellion, no one in this pedigree society would readily admit him as emperor.

And the Duke of Lauchen was well aware of that.

Wasn't that why you waited for a child to be born even after having that enormous power?

“Give up now. Do you know…?”

Slap!

The duke's large hand stroked the white cheek without mercy.

He stared at his daughter as if to kill her, and then grabbed the arsenic.

“It is as you say. A person who is not of the royal family cannot become emperor in this empire. So I was looking for someone to serve as the new emperor. You are more suitable than Ernfried.”

Upon hearing this, Izaya frowned.

‘You can’t. Obviously, all the imperial family except him…'

The holy relics that have been passed down since the founding of the emperor recognized only the “direct line” of the emperor as the emperor.

Originally, there were two princes under the empress, so there would have been no way for Ernfried, a illegitimate, to ascend to the throne.

However, with the exception of Ern, all immediate members of the royal family suffered an accident “that day”.

However, Izaya could not dismiss the duke's words as nonsense.

'The holy relic, the Chaotic Orb, only responds to the direct lineage of the Emperor. If it's fake, you won't be able to even touch the holy relics, so you can't be so proud...'

At that moment, the duke grabbed Izaya's neck tightly.

“Now that you know the future, don’t worry, you’re just going to die. Your death will give me a cause to establish a new emperor.”

Soon, Izaya's lips parted in pain, and he poured the poisoned tea in her mouth.

She struggled, but half of the poison went down her esophagus.

Izaya felt her body getting weaker and weaker.

‘I can’t be killed like this.’

Even if she dies, she must take her father with her as a companion.

After glaring at her father with her life, Izaya struggled to grab the shards of pottery.

And the moment she was about to put it on her father's neck-

“Izaya!”

Like a lie, the voice she had been wanting to hear the whole time was heard.

Bam!

Then she heard a harsh hitting sound.

Soon, the hand that was strangling her neck fell off. Izaya stared at him with trembling eyes as he wrapped his arms around her shoulder.

Tall stature, broad shoulders, and a strong body that looked like a trained knight.

And a beautiful young man with bright silver hair and purple eyes.

It was her husband, Ernfried.

‘How did you get back so quickly?’

It is normal that Ern left the northern place, and it should have taken a week to return from the distance. But is he here now?

Furthermore…

‘Why is no one around him?’

When he left, Ern was clearly with the Archduke Tares. However, there was no one around him.

That time when Izaya stared at Ern with an ominous premonition.

Ring! Ring!

The call bell rang loudly indicating that it was an emergency. It was the work of the Duke of Lauchen.

"You're rushing me."

Ern, who pulled out a sword, tried to chase the running Duke Lauchen.

However, there was a touch that grabbed Ern's wrist.

It was Izaya.

"There will be knights coming soon. You have to get out of this place!"

Moreover, even if he killed the Duke, it wouldn’t be resolved.

‘Rather, it could be counterattacked. First, you have to hide yourself and join the forces.’

However, Ern just stared at Izaya with his face crumpled as if he were displeased.

‘As expected, you don't believe me. Because of what I did.’

It was then that Izaya's hand was held.

At the same time.

"Follow me."

* * *

Ern led Izaya to a secret passage.

'That's a relief. It'll be hard to find an Ern for a while here.’

At that time of relief, Ern suddenly spoke.

"You, you seem to be out of breath..."

Then Izaya shook off his hand in surprise.

"Let me go. I can walk alone."

However, Ern's hard hands did not let Izaya go.

'I'm going to be his burden at this rate.’

Slap!

Izaya hit Ernn's hand roughly.

A poignant voice that came out soon.

"You'd better leave me and run away. Unless you want to be killed here."

Still, Ern had no answer.

Nervous, Izaya continued, swallowing dry saliva.

"There's a royal family in the rebel group."

Then Ern stared fiercely at Izaya.

"What does that have to do with it?"

Izaya continued without being discouraged.

"You may not know it. That you neglected state affairs.”

The only reason why the current emperor can be safe is because he is the only imperial family.

However, now that a new royal family has emerged, safety will not be guaranteed.

"It was only in opposition to my father's reign that Duke Tare and some nobles took your side. But if you go with me, not only Tare but also your servant may turn their back on you. Since there's a substitute."

Now abandon me and go to allies.

But his answer was different from Izaya's expectation.

"I'm not going."

"Didn't you hear me? Soon, enemies..."

"It doesn't matter."

Upon answering, he held Izaya's hand with a fierce glare in his eyes.

"So you'd better not think about running away.”

Izaya laughed helplessly.

‘Run away? Rather, I want to be by your side. But the time is...’

At that moment, Izaya felt pain as if her lungs were burning.

Cough!

When Izaya's thin body collapsed with the blood, Ern quickly hugged Izaya.

"You… What did you do?”

Izaya smiled helplessly at Ern's interrogation in a firm voice.

‘I wanted to make you happy even now. You became unhappy because of your marriage with me.’

A four-year younger husband, he was the only warmth Izaya experienced and the only family she thought of.

However, her father, the Duke of Lauchen, meticulously deprived the power of the young emperor, who had no backing, and removed his people one by one.

On the outside, wearing a mask of a father for the empress.

When she learned that hrt father's greed had turned to the throne, Izaya decided to attack hrt father to protect her husband.

Pretending to be a mistake, she leaked a map with a place where her father's confidential documents were hidden, and manipulated false circumstances.

<The Duke of Lauchen killed his daughter, the Empress, and tries to rebel by blaming the charges on the emperor's aide, the Duke of Tares.>

To make the false situation real.

Originally, Izaya thought that the end was to die at the hands of her father, and her father would be punished appropriately as a sinner.

‘Eventually, I failed… Still, there's still something I can do for Ern.’

She has to get Ern out of here safely.

For that, Izaya could endure being hated.

"I don't want to die while looking at your face. So get lost."

Then Ern's stiff face was severely distorted.

'Yeah, it must be abominable and disgusting.’

He will never know in his life.

The fact that it's more painful to see that expression than the pain of poison.

‘I'm sorry for all this whole time. I'm going to disappear from your sight, so you can happily...’

The moment she prayed for her husband's happiness, the door to the secret passage was broken.

"This way!"

Ern, who just glared without responding to the incoming rebels.

"Kill the emperor!"

That was the last sight Izaya saw.