The Tyrant's Happy Ending - Chapter 7.5

The Empress told him to get out of there in a voice that seemed to be fed up with him clinging to her, but she didn’t really dislike having s3x with him. On the contrary… she seemed to enjoy it a little. In particular, the Empress enjoyed sitting on top of him and touching him here and there.

After over a month of intimacy, Lyle gradually expanded his territory inside the Empress’s body, and after the Empress became accustomed to the relationship, he sat on top of her in her preferred position, grabbed her slender waist, and inserted his p3nis all the way into her.

Lyle had finally whisked his omega away from the alphas, enjoying a satisfyingly heated honeymoon through the early winter. Everything had felt so right, so perfect. It made him feel foolish for not thinking of this sooner, for coming up with excuses that had kept him from stepping outside with her.

Today was yet another blissful morning. After a long night, he had gently washed the Empress, laid her on fresh sheets, and tucked her under a warm blanket before stepping out.

Once he confirmed she was deeply asleep, Lyle made his way to the council chamber. It might have seemed to others that he was so wrapped up in his newlywed life that he was ignoring matters of state. In truth, he managed his duties diligently, rarely leaving the Empress’s palace—but today was an exception. A pressing issue awaited his attention: the meeting to resolve the rebel threat in the East.

“They’re finally showing their hand,” Lyle noted, his tone laced with irritation.

“Attempting a march on the capital… in the middle of winter.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the Duke of Fortnum replied, studying the map before him with a complicated expression. The other nobles mirrored his concern, their faces clouded with apprehension.

Lyle remained silent, lost in thought. Preparations for the civil war were nearly complete, yet one essential matter was still undecided: who would lead the vanguard.

He would have preferred to appoint Tenes, but rallying the western military, including the forces of the Marquis of Trigia, proved problematic. It would take over a month for the western forces to reach the capital, and the West bordered the Kingdom of Feinen, the only kingdom that had not fallen to the empire’s expansion. For these reasons, the West was not an ideal option.

Withdrawing troops from the North was also out of the question. Lyle, who had served on the front lines until two years prior, understood the fragility of the northern borders, where the empire had only recently managed to unite various small kingdoms. The North remained volatile.

The only forces that could be withdrawn from the North were the private armies of the Marquis of Mariage and Viscount Boer. But these, too, had drawbacks. The Marquis of Mariage, Yernen’s maternal relative, could easily become a rallying point for anti-imperial nobles in other regions watching the conflict closely, while the Viscount Boer’s forces were simply too weak.
This left the Duke of Fortnum as the natural choice. Yet there was one other option—a superior one—but Lyle wasn’t ready to make that decision.

“For now,” Lyle began, his voice steady, “as soon as the rebels declare war, we will respond immediately. We’ll decide the vanguard later.

For now, let’s conclude this meeting.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the nobles responded in unison.

Lyle said that and finished the meeting and left Daejeon. But then someone spoke to him as if they had been waiting for him.

“Your majesty.”

“What’s going on?”

Lyle loosened the collar that was tightly around his neck and faced the person who had spoken to him.

It was Eden.

I was curious as to why he, a man you don’t often see in the palace, had come all the way here.

“Would you mind if I spare you a moment?”

“Well….”

It was a difficult question. If you were to ask if the time was okay… There was no specific schedule after that. However, it was only an official schedule. There were many things he had to do unofficially. The first thing he had to do was to head to the Empress’s Palace right away.

Even if it wasn’t the time, he didn’t really have the heart to talk to Eden alone. For some reason, Lyle didn’t like the snake-like Pope.

“Time can be either available or not, depending on the business. What’s going on?”

“I have something urgent to convey to you regarding the rebels in the East.”

“… … .”

This was another topic that was difficult to refuse.
“Please go to my office.”

“Let’s do that.”

* * *

“This is the rebels’ financial situation as reported by the Eastern Church.”

Lyle, sitting at the head table, took out a paper knife and opened the envelope Eden had handed him. He then looked through the documents that had been taken out.

“Unexpected.”

I thought there was something suspicious, but surprisingly, the content of the information he gave me was… excellent. And I think I understand why he insisted on meeting me at the Vatican. It was dangerous information to pass on to someone else.

Not everyone would expect the Holy See to trace back the donations made by the nobles.

Lyle looked through the documents, memorized everything written inside, and then set them on fire to burn them.

“That’s pretty good information.”

And then… he looked at Eden with sharp eyes.

As expected, he was a man more suited to being a nobleman than a priest.

“With this much information… it seems like there might be something you want.”

“I will tell you later when the time comes.”

“Let’s do that.”

Lyle slowly got up from his seat.

Rather, it wasn’t bad. If he openly revealed his ambition, it would be easier to deal with him. Only then could he understand Eden’s actions, which he had never understood before.

As ambitious as he was, he had been careful to look around, and now that the search was over, he was trying to choose a line.
The Vatican had maintained neutrality all along, because it had no legitimacy. But now things were different.

The fact that he had stayed in the Empress’s palace all along was also a political calculation to attract those who claimed to be neutral, like the Vatican, so it could be seen as a blessing.

“But…”

Lyle took one more look around Eden’s office before leaving.
A bookshelf filled with old theological books, an unpublished series of paintings by a famous artist, a tapestry with a unique pattern decorating the wall and four swords embedded in it. Nothing particularly unusual was visible. However… .

“I just feel like something’s off.”

Still, Lyle’s gut instincts warned him that Eden might be hiding something.

I don’t know what it was, but there was definitely something there.

“I’m going to go now.”

Eden gave a small bow.

“I will serve you.”

One of the priests who had been waiting at the gate followed him, offering to show him the way. He was the gloomy fellow who had followed him with his head bowed when he came to the Vatican.

“I think you have something to say.”

“Your majesty.”

As expected, the guy who had been showing that he wanted to talk to me the whole time started talking to me as I was going down the stairs.

“There is something I would like you to clear my name of.”
The face of the priest who spoke like that and raised his head was, like my master, a face unfit to be a priest. There was a terrible grudge in both his eyes.

“What?”

“My… brother, it’s about Lord Ainz, who was Her Majesty Harriet’s bodyguard.”

“… … .”

Lyle looked up at the sky. In contrast to his mood, it was incredibly clear.

“How long has it been?”

This is such a fucking feeling.

This was… comparable to the feeling I had that day when I was branded a slave and dragged off to the battlefield in the North.
Philip’s older brother, Ainz, had suffered a brutal fate at the hands of Yernen. Stripped of his knighthood and left to die in the fields, his body was forbidden a proper burial, with orders that it remain until wild animals and birds had consumed it.

Five years had passed since, yet Ainz’s remains lay uncollected, a testament to the lingering wrath of the former emperor.

Philip had relentlessly pressed for an imperial decree to retrieve his brother’s body, hoping to restore Ainz’s honor with a proper funeral. But Lyle had no interest in granting this request. He harbored no sympathy for Harriet or Ainz, and tales of Yernen’s past atrocities failed to unsettle him.

What did bother him, however, were Philip’s insinuations about Yernen’s private life—insinuations that clung to his mind, returning in dark moments long after each conversation had ended.

“Your Majesty, do you feel no remorse for the tyrant’s actions?” Philip would say, voice laced with bitter accusation.

“My brother told me that Yernen manipulated Lady Harriet into dismantling the House of Beltimore, then sent you off to the brutal northern front.”

“And that wasn’t even the worst of it,” Philip would add.

“The tyrant was a nymphomaniac, hosting his vile orgies as a routine. He took the throne by force after ruining Lady Harriet, who had only tried to confront him about his wrongdoings!”

Each word seeped deeper into Lyle’s thoughts, unsettling the steadfast image he’d held of Yernen. Though he had dismissed it all at first, clinging to disbelief, he now wondered if he had been too willing to ignore the warning signs, too eager to deny what might very well have been true.

“I watched that mad tyrant kill my brothers, desecrate their bodies by bedding Teneth Trigia beside them, and be dragged away naked, thrown into the prison of the Northern Square.”

Lyle grimaced, letting out a slow, measured breath. Philip spoke of Yernen’s betrayal so often it had become almost habitual, yet somewhere deep inside, Lyle had always denied it, wanting to believe there was some reason behind Yernen’s actions.

Even when Eden told him of Teneth Trigia’s bond with Yernen, he’d dismissed it as absurd. But now… he realized just how foolish he’d been, ignoring what was in front of him, clinging to a hope that was never there.

Even after death, it seemed Yernen was still playing his games.

“Your Majesty…?” Russell’s voice broke through his thoughts, sounding surprised.

“Where is the Empress?” Lyle asked, his tone sharper than he intended.

“She has been resting in her room since Your Majesty left.”

“I see.”

Lyle gave a brief nod and began ascending the stairs, his pace slow and steady. Yet, a strange urgency pulled at him—he wanted to see her, needed to.

The soft texture of the rug cushioned his steps, familiar and comforting, just as it always was when he entered her quarters.
For some reason, the Empress’s residence was perpetually quiet, deserted, with no one to attend to her needs. Lyle had learned over time that when her space was this still, something was often troubling her.

“What happened?”

It was right when the master gave the order.

Lyle moved quietly through the living room toward the bedroom, his steps slow and deliberate. As he had expected, the room was empty. The blanket he had carefully draped over her that morning was untouched, and not even faintly warm. Still, he knew with certainty that the Empress had been there. If she’d left, he would have felt it instinctively—her very presence lingered.

He checked the bathroom next, his footsteps soft and measured, but found nothing. The bathroom, the living room, even the adjoining bedrooms—all were empty.

Which meant there was only one place left where the Empress could be.

The glass greenhouse.

The only place Lyle had not looked was the lush, huge glass greenhouse that looked like a summer garden even in the middle of winter.

Like everything in the Empress’s Palace, the well-maintained glass doors opened smoothly without a single squeak. Lyle walked slowly along the marble path laid over the soft dirt floor.
He couldn’t even hear the sound of footsteps. It was a habit that had left a scar on him after living on the battlefield for more than ten years.

Lyle approached the center of the glasshouse and stopped walking.

“… … .”

As expected, there was someone in the glasshouse. But… it wasn’t just one voice he heard. There were two.

Lyle pressed himself behind the thick canopy of trees, barely breathing, ears straining for every sound that drifted through the still night.

“Your Majesty,” came a voice, quiet but clear.

Lyle’s pulse quickened. The king? He had suspected something unusual, but this was far beyond what he’d anticipated.

“I don’t know what the gods in the sky are thinking, but I don’t think I’ll be kicked out of this body until I give birth to Lyle’s child. Don’t worry. Just find a place for us to live together.”

“Is it really right for us to live together?”

“Hah.”

A small sigh and an annoyed voice were heard.

“Tennessee Trigia. How many times do I have to tell you before you stop asking?”

“… … .”

Lyle ran a trembling hand through his bangs. The words that came into his head were not properly interpreted as if he was in a state of panic.

“F*ck.”

What kind of nonsense is that now?