Countess Seomina barely supported Aratine, who collapsed like a person who had lost her soul.
Claude spat on the floor as if he didn’t want to look at her. Apart from Aratine, the second child conceived in her belly could be in danger, but he didn’t seem worried at all.
“Are they here?”
Then the door opened and Madam Rachel appeared.
“Rachel!”
To Claude, who was cornered, Rachel, a trustworthy tactician, looked almost like an angel sent from heaven.
“You’ve come. I just needed you!”
Claude opened his arms and greeted Rachel hastily. His Rachel, symbolically dressed in her gorgeous red dress, embraced him with a coquettish smile.
“I thought you would. Because this Rachel is always helpful.”
“Hmph, no way. You’re not just helpful!”
Both Rachel and Claude acted as if Aratine, who was sitting on the floor, was not there at all.
“Then I have something urgent to tell you, so let’s go inside…?”
At Rachel’s flirtatious glance, Claude moved toward the bedroom without a word.
Aratine watched in despair as the man she loved and who spat on her took his mistress’ hand and entered the bedroom together.
“Your Majesty the Empress!”
In the end, Aratine, unable to overcome the shock, passed out. But neither Claude nor Rachel looked back.
***
As soon as they entered the bedroom, Rachel poured out the first drink that was served and offered it to Claude.
His throat was burning, but he wasn’t sober at all. However, unable to resist Rachel’s urging, Claude hurriedly drank.
“You went through a lot of hardships.”
“Stop mentioning it.”
It was a frustrating situation, but Claude thought that Rachel would have a trick.
Rachel’s confident and calm attitude even in a situation that was almost ruined further fueled that belief.
‘Isn’t she actually in a bigger crisis than me because of this?’
Claude believed that such a person must be able to do something if she’s this calm.
“How is it, is there a way?”
Grabbing Rachel by the hair, slapping her on the cheek, kicking her in the stomach.
In his rage and violence, Claude treated Rachel casually, as if she were not a person but a doll he could kick and throw away at will.
But not now.
The coy attitude of begging for a solution in a low voice that seemed to be whispering seemed pitiful.
“You command me, so I will answer. The secret to solving the current situation is…”
Gulp. Claude swallowed and waited. Rachel smiled.
Her smile was strangely different from usual.
“Doesn’t exist.”
“Yes! …what?”
That’s right, Claude, who was about to hit his knee, asked again, dumbfounded.
But Rachel’s answer was the same.
“I said it doesn’t exist. Wasn’t there a unanimous vote at the meeting of the electors?”
“…”
“This is the law that the first Emperor promised. How could a subject of this empire rebel against its laws?”
“You…”
Claude’s mouth fell open. His head was dizzy, perhaps because he was so angry that his blood was gushing out.
“You…! You!”
Claude couldn’t even swear, which he was good at, and just pointed his finger at the air.
It was funny to see him huffing, so Rachel let out an innocent and clear laugh.
“Your Majesty, no. Your Highness cannot challenge the throne forever. Did you know? An emperor rejected by the council of electors will not even be recorded in history! Your Highness will only leave his name in history as the Grand Duke of Rogadis.”
“This…you crazy devil bitch…!”
“You foolish bastard who couldn’t even keep the throne until the end despite committing a crime that a beast in heat would commit by coveting something he couldn’t have.”
Rachel pressed her face close to Claude, who was breathing heavily as if he were about to roll over. Her clear brown eyes were like blazing fire.
A flame of vengeance that consumes everything.
“That is you, Claude Rupenwein. You will remain the world’s bastard for eternity.”
“You…!”
There was no need to think twice. Claude immediately stretched out his arm towards Rachel.
‘Huh…?’
But his hand didn’t move as vigorously as usual.
His arms, floundering in the air as if they were underwater, couldn’t even reach Rachel’s head.
“Bitch…what…to me…”
“Don’t you think of anything when you look at my clothes?”
Claude’s knees buckled.
Rachel seemed uninterested as she turned around and picked up a flower from a vase.
A red flower that blooms brilliantly.
A Rachel-like flower…
“You, you…!”
That year…for him!
It was only then that Claude realized what Rachel had done and exploded in a frightened rage.
“Now you know! How do you feel?”
But it was already too late.
Claude felt his tongue harden from the root and opened his eyes.
Rachel was smiling from pure joy.
“How…why…”
“You thought you were the best in the world, Claude Rupenwein.”
Rachel poisoned Claude with her tongue to drive Claude to the pit one last time before he died.
“You never knew even in your wildest dreams that I respected and admired the Sun Emperor, and therefore harbored hatred for being used by you. If I had been a little suspicious, I might have known.”
“S-stop…”
“Did you know that Aratine also really loved the emperor? That woman was stupid and thought she loved you, but in reality, the emperor didn’t give her love so she just decided to love you with a grudge.”
“Aaaagh!”
Claude screamed while spouting bubbles of blood. Then, at his screams, the blood entered his airway and fell on the floor, coughing loudly.
It can’t be like this.
It shouldn’t be like this.
He’s a great emperor, so he can’t die miserably like this…
Rachel gently raised her foot expressionlessly on Claude’s cheek, who was forcefully tightening his eyelids that were on the verge of turning over.
“You’re a pathetic loser.”
“…”
No, no!
He’s a great person.
He, he…
“No one has ever loved you. I’m not even afraid of you. You lived your life like a ghost and you will leave a miserable name.”
“Kuh ugh….”
“Everyone will laugh at you who died at the hands of your mistress.”
Claude began to vomit blood and foam. Still, he wiggled his fingers. Rachel kicked his face without hesitation.
“Kugh…!”
“Bye bye, loser. It was dirty because we were together.”
Finally, Claude rolled his eyes. Even so, he wriggled his back painfully several times.
He suffered miserably like a bug for a while, but after a while, he became very still.
Rachel looked down for a moment at the wretched man who was drowning in the mud of his own vomited blood and filth.
The time left was probably not long. After a while, people will be looking for Claude to formally go through the eviction process.
Rachel picked up the bottle Claude had left behind and poured the remaining on a glass.
With a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a glass in another, Rachel headed to the balcony.
“Sometimes you just want to ask…”
How did things come to this point?
Where did things get so twisted?
Maybe she shouldn’t have dedicated this flower to Idoel?
It would have been better not to marry her husband.
But Rachel hastily married her husband because she didn’t want to be around her father any longer, who treated her as useless.
What if she had been born as a son?
For a precious heir, her father might have told her about the deadly secret of the Rahel flower.
If so, at least she wouldn’t have done the stupid thing of giving Rahel flowers to the emperor without knowing anything.
“And I might have been able to serve you wholeheartedly and kill that traitor with this flower before you die.”
Suffering a mysterious death without even evidence left should have been the author, not the respected emperor.
Looking back on it this way, it was all regret, regret and more regret.
A life full of regrets…
“It’s all in vain…”
Closing her eyes and humming, Rachel gulped down her drink.
What kind of life was this? A laugh came out without reason.
Suddenly, she looked up and saw the moon. It was already cold.
The night sky illuminated by the moon looked blue. The moment she saw that dark blue light, the face of the Grand Duchess came to mind even more than Idoel.
It’s such a stupid and futile life, but would it have been of any help to the child who resembled His Majesty the Sun Emperor?
“It’s not bad when you think about it that way.”
Rachel buried her nose close to a red flower that resembled her.
Golden stamens tickled her nose. Her death seeped through her nasal passages at once.
Finally, Rachel did not resist as she slowly lost her consciousness.
It was because she was too close and inhaled the scent.
She had no choice but to close her eyes meekly, like a flower that bloomed for ten days, and like a fading flame.
In her darkening vision, Rachel reached for her deathbed.
But she wasn’t lost. She went straight to her death.
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