The Evil Empress Adores Me - Chapter 154

Carpel was wide-eyed. 

Surprise, followed by boundless joy, was all over his handsome face. 

After a while, Carpel asked me back with a trembling voice.

– Is this true?

– Mmm-hmm. Our child. 

Carpel looked blankly at my still-flat stomach. 

– You and our baby….

Carpel’s voice became emotional as the revelation sunk in. 

I kept Carpel in my sight. 

All I needed was him. 

….He was so blissful when it came to dealing with another life instead of mine.  

It was just like him to be that way. 

Typically, there was nothing wrong with that. 

But it’d be nice if you focused on ‘me,’ for once instead of someone else….

However, it looked as if he was trying to get something out. 

Just when it seemed he was struggling for breath-

Carpel spoke like he had made up his mind on something. 

– Lia. I have a favor to ask of you. 

– I know I’m being selfish by asking for a favor in a situation like this, but….

Carpel, who paused for a moment, continued after a long sigh. 

-….even after I’m gone, please protect the world in which our child will be born and raised. 

Instead of answering, I stared blankly at Carpel’s face. 

My expression right now was probably distorted beyond all possible descriptions. 

– It’s good that you know that you’re selfish. 

– ….Lia. 

– You said you loved me, but to casually ask me that….

I laughed briefly.

– And you’ll be leaving me all on my own. 

Carpel could neither hide his guilty expression nor respond to my sarcasm. 

Biting my lip till it bled, my mind was a jumbled mess. 

Carpel was indignant at what I said. 

But…

….It wasn’t that I didn’t understand why he said that, I was just saddened. 

Because I too, loved the child in my belly. 

After all, the child was proof that Carpel and I loved each other. 

Still, the child in my belly was too precious to me to ever bitterly refuse his request.

– All right. 

At my affirmative answer, Carpel widened his eyes.

– Only you have to come back to me.

– You’re saying….

Carpel quickly examined my expression, his expression soon turned hard as a rock. 

– Come back….and kill me. 

I spoke in a chilling voice. 

He’d never imagined that I would be able to speak so coldly. 

Carpel looked at me, his body stiff. 

– You want me to kill you? You’re joking!

– I’m serious.

Hearing my response, Carpel had a blank face, like that of an abandoned child in an unfamiliar place. 

– If you promise me that, I’ll do my best to protect humanity. 

Catching a short breath, I looked at Carpel with a calm gaze. 

– From generation to generation, our children will thrive as rulers, and they will live under my protection. 

– But, Lia….

– The blessing I bestowed is predestined to come to an end.

At my determined voice, Carpel was speechless.

– By making a contract with you, I lost my divinity. 

– Losing your divinity….

– From the moment I became your lover and sided with humans… it meant I lost the qualifications for godhood. 

I tried keeping my voice as composed as possible. 

– I’m fine now…but in the future, I’ll eventually lose my sanity and become a beast. 

Carpel’s eyes trembled greatly. 

The truth of what I said was hard to accept. 

– So when that moment comes, kill me.

For mankind, my existence itself was, in a way, a double-edged sword.

The divine beast could protect mankind with its mighty power, but should it eventually lose control one day, mankind’s neck would find itself held at knife-point. 

I chose ‘Carpel’ as he was the only one capable. This way we could protect our descendants.

So that in the far future, when the day I lose control comes…

The one to kill me…would be Carpel. I also wanted the person to end me to be him. 

– That’s insane, how could I possibly hurt you…

– You asked me to protect our children and humanity going forward, but you can’t fulfill my request?

I shrugged lightly.

– That much should be fair. Don’t you agree?

There seems to be a lot to cry over these days. 

My tears blurred my vision before I knew it. 

I must look ridiculous right now. 

I watched Carpel’s strength fade with tears in my eyes…

– ….okay. 

Finally, Carpel accepted my offer.

****

That day, Carpel peacefully passed away. 

He leaned his head on my shoulder and closed his eyes like he was falling asleep. 

I quietly raised my head.

Warm tears streamed down my cheeks. 

– I will keep my promise to you.

There was no reply. 

I slowly closed my eyes.

– So you too… keep your promise to me. 

Carpel weighed nothing as he lay on my shoulder. 

It was as if his presence wasn’t there to begin with. 

‘This was how I parted ways with Carpel.’ 

The time I spent staying with him seemed to go on indefinitely. 

It was only until the moment warmth left his body, that I had no choice but to acknowledge his death. 

More than anything else….I wanted time to just stop forever.  

****

Time went by like running water. 

Winsor.

The imperial family that bore that name had both my and Carpel’s blood running through them. 

The humans were thriving like never before, and the beasts did not take a single step out of the north. 

I kept my promise to Carpel.

I built an elaborate barrier around the empire and made myself the magic source for the barrier. 

The barrier’s purpose was to keep beasts out of the empire. 

Slumbering in the shrine’s basement, I waited patiently for Carpel’s reincarnation in the Winsor family. 

Oh, how so much time has passed. 

‘Carpel?’

I was startled by what I woke up to, having fallen into a drowsy state prior. 

He was still a young boy with dark blue hair and luminous scarlet eyes. 

A boy who had lost his parents early, had his birthright usurped by his uncle and was imprisoned in the deepest reaches of the imperial palace. 

After that, there would be a long period where no one except the Emperor was happy. 

The Emperor, through his continued tyranny, had plunged the empire into disaster. 

The people’s wrath was endless. 

Unsurprisingly, rebellions broke out everywhere.

As a result, the Emperor chose a scapegoat to bear the people’s wrath. 

That person was his own wife, the Empress.

‘Eloise, the wicked.’

A cruel woman with a vicious personality whose jealousy consumed her victims. 

Malevolent to the core, she murdered any woman who attempted to approach the Emperor.  

In reality, neither the woman’s character nor her actions were important. 

The people only needed someone to direct their fury toward. 

And just like that, the empire was slowly crumbling from within. 

The boy, who had been persecuted too many times to count, had finally awakened the divine beast’s power. 

‘How did you get free?!’

The Emperor yelled and pointed his finger at the boy. 

I sensed a familiar power emanating from the boy. 

‘Could he have awakened the power of destruction?’

My heart sank.

The boy was able to escape safely thanks to the Empress, who was scapegoated as the ‘perpetrator.’ 

‘Run away.’

The Empress, though terribly exhausted, whispered so. 

‘One day….exact revenge on the imperial family.’ 

He’d made it his life’s goal to crush this accursed imperial family, trampling beneath his feet. 

To make it disappear from the history books so that no one would remember it. 

The Empress’s whisper became the boy’s reason for living. 

The boy chose revenge instead of letting go.

And…

‘What the hell is that?!’

‘A monster, a monster!!’

The boy, who had become a young man, stared at the people cowering in the imperial place, his body drenched in blood. 

Numerous corpses were piled up at his feet.

‘Everyone run away!’

‘Spare my life, please!’

The people fled for their lives in front of the young man, like prey fleeing their predator. 

The young man slowly walked forward. 

He moved at a leisurely pace, as if he were going for a stroll. 

Step after step he took, without any haste. 

The young man took all the lives in front of him.

‘Damian!’

The Emperor, whose face had turned pale with fear, groveled at the young man’s feet. 

‘I made a mistake! So let me liv-!’

The Emperor perished without completing his plea. 

Crukkk!

With one foot, he stepped on the chest of the corpse emperor. 

There was nothing in the boy’s eyes, only an indifferent gaze as he stared at the body. 

There was no trace of emotion as if everything humane about him had been castrated. 

Then. 

The young man and the Empress finally met.

His eyes, which were cold, shook faintly for the first time. 

‘…Her Majesty, the Empress.’

Meeting the young man in front of her, the Empress laughed. 

Their faces were bright as if they were reveling in their newfound freedom. 

‘Now, I have to finish my revenge.’