A Marriage Alliance for Revenge - Chapter 3

The vibrant life force that had pulsed in her womb just moments before was now fading, thinning away.

 

The tiny, delicate child within her struggled for breath, its gasps growing fainter and fainter as she fought against the gushing blood.

 

“I never thought one mistake would lead to this,” Gusto said in a cold and unfeeling voice.

 

A searing pain surged from deep within her.

 

It caused her to double over, clutching her abdomen, it was all she could do.

 

“What, a mistake?”

Blood stained Olivia’s lips.

 

Her appearance was in stark contrast to her former vitality, she looked like she was going to lose consciousness at any moment.

 

Despite her distress, Gusto’s word, “Mistake,” reverberated loud and clear in her ears.

 

Mistake.

 

Coughing up blood, Olivia forced herself to raise her head.

 

Five months ago.

 

It was Gusto who had barged into her bedroom, drugging her before she could resist.

 

But Olivia didn’t hate the day she’d most like to forget.

 

It was because the new life in her belly came from it. 

 

“I was planning to keep you alive until next year; that’s what I agreed to with the Marquis.”

 

Olivia closed her eyes at the mention of the Marquis.

 

Her father had aided and abetted her death.

 

Not only had he sold her off to Gusto to be sold for the family name, but he’d also arranged her demise?

 

“How Eve freaked out when she found out you were pregnant,” said Gusto in a mocking tone.

 

Gusto sat back in his chair and looked down at Olivia, who was crawling on the floor.

 

The will to live was demanding to be out of this claustrophobic space.

 

She crawled on the floor, hoping that if she could just open the unreachable door, she could save her baby.

 

Gusto looked down at her with a sneer as she struggled.

 

The Empress, who always lectured him with her smugness, was a terrible person. Gusto took pleasure in the fact that he was the one who dealt the final blow.

 

But even in this dying moment, Olivia craned her stiff neck to lecture him.

 

“Gusto, this is your child.”

 

Giving up on crawling to the door, Olivia clung to Gusto.

 

Her strength waning and her grip desperate, she jerked her head toward her child’s father and husband, trying to hold on as her life slipped away.

 

Even after drinking the poisoned tea and being covered in blood, she was still graceful. Gusto’s stomach churned at the sight.

 

“It doesn’t matter whose seed it is; all that matters is that it has taken up residence in your womb.”

 

He laughed out loud as he watched her stiff neck crumple miserably before him.

 

“Your Majesty, I was wrong. I was wrong. Please spare the baby, please spare the baby, please spare the baby,” Olivia’s voice implored in a desperate chorus.

 

Olivia bowed her head to the floor and begged frantically for Gusto.

 

It didn’t matter what she’d done wrong.

 

As long as he changed his mind and spared the life in her womb that was still dying.

 

“Hahaha. That’s not how one should speak to an Emperor. Shouldn’t you be listening to me as you try to pick yourself up?”

 

“Gusto, Your Majesty, please. Cough.”

 

The life in her womb was dying with each passing second. So fast that even Olivia could feel it.

 

“Our‥‥‥. the child. Eve will carry my child, so you don’t need me to carry it.”

 

Tears welled up in Olivia’s eyes.

 

Her child would be abandoned, all because it came from her womb.

 

A life that was barely surviving was about to die at the hands of its father this terrible night.

 

“Wretched thing, I can’t believe it. Even after drinking the tea, you’ve held on for this long. It’s a pity my people, who know their empress as a saint, will have to come to terms with your demise.”

 

The floor was stained with Olivia’s blood.

 

Maskoto, an herb that causes a victim to vomit all the blood out of the body.

 

It was a vicious, venomous herb that favored agony over death.

 

The torment of disembowelment followed, but Olivia couldn’t surrender now.

 

In what seemed like a response to her determination, it was clear that the baby was not giving up either.

 

“Help, help me. Your Majesty. Please, please help me, please, please.”

 

Her vision grew increasingly crimson. Blood spurted from her mouth and elsewhere.

 

Gusto clicked his tongue and glared at Olivia. His gaze was akin to looking at something unclean.

 

Four years of marriage culminated in her husband murdering her. The bubbling blood stained the floor red.

 

After clinging desperately to life, Olivia gradually lowered her face to the floor.

 

“Haa, haa.”

 

Yet her ragged breathing persisted.

 

She had to survive.

 

She had to keep her baby alive.

 

Strangely, even as blood soaked the floor, the world in Olivia’s eyes was turning black and white.

 

“Poison.”

 

“Huh!”

 

She drew her final breath as the blade sank in.

 

The shock from the blow snatched the life from her womb.

 

Even in the throes of death, she could still sense the baby’s movement in her belly.

 

‘I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

 

“Ckkk.”

 

Olivia blinked at the last glimpse of Gusto’s form.

 

She would eternally remember. Even in death, she would not forget.

 

Gusto’s blade took Olivia’s last breath. The baby breathed its last breath. The world, now drenched in black and white, descended into utter darkness.

 

“Take it slow, baby. I can watch your back.” 

 

With one final glimpse of Gusto, Olivia closed her eyes.

 

A yellow butterfly waltzed through the obscurity. It marked the final chapter of the Empress of the Rhone Empire, who couldn’t even leave behind a will.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Huh!”

 

A gasp escaped her lips, as if she had been pulled from the depths of water.

 

Sweaty hair clung to her face as she curled up on the hard bed.

Struggling to breathe, she clutched at her chest as if she had just woken up from a nightmare.

 

“Huff, huff,” she panted.

Her breathing was ragged and strained, as if she had been strangled.

 

Dok-dok-dok!

The sound of a violent noise, akin to a fist pounding, reverberated nearby. 

 

“Go back to sleep; what are you doing early in the morning!” 

 

The woman slowly raised her head.

 

“Ack, cough, cough, cough, cough.”

 

Her breathing was erratic, transitioning into a violent cough.

 

She coughed so loudly that the walls on both sides shook.

 

“Shut up! Go back to sleep or I’ll have to clean you up.”

 

The words rang in her ears, but her coughing fit didn’t relent.

 

The woman leaned back, hands on her stomach, and breathed heavily for a long time.

 

“Haaahhh.”

 

She looked up, revealing the aftermath of her tumultuous experience.

 

Her disheveled countenance, marked by sweat and tears, was illuminated by the early morning, moonlight filtering through.

 

“What the hell?”

 

Olivia slowly lifted her trembling hands.

 

She had clearly been killed by Gusto.

 

The life in her womb had been extinguished by the poisoned tea, and her own life was snuffed out by his knife.

 

She saw his face, covered in her blood, grinning like a demon.

 

“My child‥‥‥.”

 

Olivia wrapped her arms around my stomach.

 

She couldn’t feel anything beyond her scrawny, barren belly.

 

“Where am I?”

 

“Lady, do you really want to die?”

 

Olivia’s voice was too audible for her own good.

 

The walls were thin enough to let even a cough pass through.

 

The man’s voice heightened as it bounced off the walls.

 

If she made any more noise, he would break in at any moment.

 

But Olivia didn’t have time to consider the situation next door.

 

She had just been murdered by her husband. She vividly remembered Gusto’s knife plunging into her body.

 

But she lived.

 

“I survived.”

 

It was dawn.

 

Fueled by desperation, Olivia pushed herself to her feet on shaky legs.

 

The creaking echoed loudly.

 

Olivia’s movement caused the neighbor to hit the wall again.

 

The false wall, made of worn planks, looked like it might collapse at any moment.

 

“Where the hell am I?”

 

A small mirror sat on a table that she fumbled to find.

 

Although she was only two steps away from the bed, her forehead glistened with sweat.

 

Her arms, resembling thin, dry branches, trembled as she grabbed the small mirror.

 

“Who are you?”

 

Olivia sank to the floor, fixated on the woman reflected in the mirror.

 

A woman with ash-colored hair she’d never seen before was staring back at her.

 

Surely she had met her end at Gusto’s hands.

Certainly, death had welcomed her.

 

Yet now she had woken up in a strange place with a face she didn’t recognize.

 

“This is the second time in a row, something insane has happened! I died today!”

 

The house was so old that it creaked with every step. Olivia yanked the door open roughly, shouting menacingly as if she were about to burst out of the house next door.

 

She pushed the door open and found herself in a lengthy hallway with doors all around her.

 

Not concerned, Olivia stumbled in search of an entrance.

 

“What on earth is this place?”

 

Each step produced a creak, and each room she passed spewed profanity.

 

Olivia had woken up in a slum on the outskirts of the capital.

 

For a young woman, it was a perilous place to wander at dawn.

 

But there was no way she could have sensed the dangers of the slums after her untimely death.

 

Staggering down from the second floor, Olivia pushed open the dilapidated door and ran outside.

 

“Ha-“

 

The first thing she did was take a deep breath of the chilling, early morning air.

 

Cold air filled her lungs.

 

Although the gritty filth brushed against her bare feet, Olivia didn’t care.

 

“Am I alive?”

 

Raising her hands toward the moonlight, Olivia staggered through the streets.

 

She had to know what happened to her.

 

If she was alive, she had to uncover the fates of Olivia, the Empress, and the baby in her belly.

 

“Hey- young lady, did you have a rough night’s sleep? Would you like to go somewhere nicer with me?”

 

A young woman meandering through the streets in a thin nightgown and bare feet was easy prey for slumlords.

 

A group of drunken men gathered around Olivia.

 

“Where am I going?”

 

The men chuckled as Olivia spoke to herself.

 

In the slums, it was not uncommon to see distraught women.

 

Numerous women in the slums had either fallen victim to brutal pimps or fled their husbands, losing their sanity. 

 

Hence, a barefoot woman in her nightgown at the crack of dawn was nothing but prey for these streetwise men.

 

“What do you mean you don’t know where you are? Then you must not know who I am.”

 

Olivia stopped walking.

 

“Who?”

 

Olivia asked the man, remembering the reflection in the mirror.

 

Maybe he was the one who actually knew who owned this body.

 

“It’s your pimp!” the man proclaimed, inciting laughter from his companions.

 

Unlike the men, who laughed heartily, Olivia’s face remained impassive.

 

“You bastard, how dare you!”

 

None of the slum dwellers were interested in the small disturbance at dawn.

 

Besides, it was evident that she was stuck in the middle of a group of callous men.

 

No one bothered to join in the commotion unless they were going to harass her.

 

“Well, well, well. You’ve got company.”

 

At Olivia’s call, the man scowled and straightened his back.

 

She wanted to defy him, yet surrounded by men, she was helpless. 

 

Moreover, their numbers were growing.

 

They converged around Olivia like intoxicated men on their way home, stumbling upon a source of amusement.

“The precious lady seems deranged, spouting off at the crack of dawn. We’ll just have to take her somewhere and sober her up.”

 

With Olivia in the middle, the men exchanged glances.

 

He was the first to spot her, so he was the first.

 

Silence descended on the street, which had been filled with laughter and chatter only moments before.

Like a madwoman, Olivia was not turning back. 

 

She looked like she’d just run away from a brothel.

 

If the pimps had shown up a moment later, she could have walked away.

 

The men’s murderous momentum made Olivia stumble backward. It was an instinctual response.

 

“The lady recognized me and came to me.”

 

The man she’d bumped into as she backed up grabbed her in a bear hug and shouted.

 

“Shut your trap! I saw her first!”

 

The man who had first harassed Olivia snarled, baring his teeth.

 

Olivia struggled to free herself from the man holding her.

 

“Ack!”

 

Soon, they were jostling and punching each other over Olivia.

 

For a moment, dumbfounded by the unforeseen chaos, Olivia instinctively recognized that this was her chance to flee.

 

“What the hell, she’s running!”

 

Noticing her haste, the men gave chase.

 

Sharp glass cut into the soles of her feet, but Olivia didn’t look back.

 

Survival was her sole objective.

 

Only then would she know what had happened.

 

Only then could she exact vengeance for her baby.

 

Revenge.

 

Gritting her teeth, Olivia recalled the look on Gusto’s face as he handed her the poisoned tea.

 

“You’re mine.”

 

The man’s snicker echoed close behind her.

 

Her slender body quickly grew weary from the lack of sustenance.

 

She had just risen from bed.

 

“Huh!”

 

“What do I do?”

 

He could effortlessly drag her away if he’d only reach out his hand.

 

Yet for now, he could only follow closely behind, relishing each of Olivia’s movements.

 

Clearly, he aimed to capture her in one fell swoop, playing with her hope of escape. A cruel temperament, indeed.

 

“Huck! Huck!”

Her ragged breath mingled with the early morning dew.

 

She couldn’t tell if she was running or merely walking at this point.

 

When Olivia finally emerged onto the sidewalk, a carriage sped toward her.

 

Without hesitation, she threw herself into the carriage’s way.

 

She didn’t even pause to assess whether it belonged to a nobleman or a merchant.

 

It was a risky gamble to stake her entire new life on this decision.

 

And Olivia’s gamble paid off.