The Tyrant's Happy Ending - Chapter 8.7
“Yernen, what did you say?”
“No, don’t do that. Leave Lyle alone…!”
“Hmm.”
Despite the words he spoke with his pride down, Harriet simply remained indifferent. Yernen spoke with a voice trembling with anger, barely able to quell the fire surging in his chest.
“What do you want from me?”
A cruel smile appeared on Harriet’s lips.
“What do you think you can do?”
“…?!”
“Now you have neither fame nor fortune. Not to mention, even your maternal family that supported you has fallen. What can you do?”
“My maternal family… The Marquis of Mariage has fallen…? What does that mean!”
Yernen shouted.
“Well, what does that mean?”
Yernen bit his lip as if it would bleed, and thought about what Harriet might want. It wasn’t money, fame, or status. But it was something only Yernen could give.
And then, an idea occurred to me.
“Kid.”
“… … .”
“You are hoping for a child.”
It was a bloodline.
The smile on Harriet’s face, which had been smiling leisurely, slowly disappeared. It was the right answer.
I thought it was strange. Even when Lizzie Marion had come upon him. And even when, after all, the ministers had raped Yernen as if they had been waiting for Lizzie Marion to become pregnant. Never, Harriet could not have not known, but he had not come to visit.
Yernen said, glaring at Harriet.
“Why do you want a child, Harriet? Have you become a eunuch in the meantime?”
“… … .”
Harriet looked down at her rudely rambling brother with a blank expression.
“The method of killing Lyle is very simple. Drive him into a corner and completely cut off his intermittent supply line, and even he will die.”
“You…! Ugh…!”
Harriet grabbed Yernen by the hair and pulled painfully, feeling as if her scalp was going to rip.
“Don’t you want that guy to die?”
“Ugh…!”
“Then I won’t kill you. If you become a full-fledged Beta and impregnate Lizzie, I can reinstate her as the Duke of Beltimore. Not only that, I can also get her engaged to the royal family again. Who would be better…?”
Harriet said, one corner of her mouth lifting.
“Yeah. I think Cecil’s child would be nice.”
“What? What kind of nonsense are you talking about…!”
Yernen looked at Harriet with a bewildered gaze. Cecil’s irony. That sounded like he was going to cut off the successor to the Duke of Beltimore forever.
“Yes, the Duke of Beltmore will disappear after this generation. If we kill the savage who inhabits the North, the rest will naturally fall apart. But isn’t that a merciful act? Have you forgotten, Yernen? He is now a slave. He has not been included in the list of enemies of the nobles.”
Harriet continued with a cruel smile.
“If you mate a slave of the royal family with another slave and feed her a stimulant to make her have a child, she will remain a slave forever and will never be able to regain her rights. Is that what you want?”
“This son of a b1tch… ! Ugh… !”
Harriet continued, tilting Yernen’s head painfully.
“Yernen, don’t think you have a choice. You can either let Lyle die like this, or you can necrotize your useless organs, impregnate Lizzie, and write a letter of permission for Lyle to marry Cecil’s child. And know this: I will never recognize him as an adult unless he is engaged to Cecil’s child.”
As she said this, Harriet held out the paper she had prepared in advance to Yernen. It was a document stating that Yernen, as Lyle Beltimore’s guardian, gave permission for Lyle Beltimore and Yernen Fortnum Helio to marry.
“If you sign, I will consider you accepting my offer.”
Yernen looked at the papers, pen, and small knife given to him.
Although the engagement was broken off, Yernen was once engaged to Lyle. And in the Helio Empire, engagement had the same rights as marriage, so the two were temporarily part of a family relationship.
With his parents and relatives all dead and all his servants enslaved, the only person who had the right to make decisions about Lyle’s fate was Yernen, who had once been his family.
In the closed social circles of the Empire, where engagements and marriages were only permitted by guardians, Lyle had to get permission from his former fiancé, Yernen, to marry anyone again. It was a damn thing.
And Yernen seemed to understand why Harriet had given him this permit. It had to be done now. Soon there would be no one left in the land who could give Lyle permission to marry.
Harriet had no intention of sending Yernen off the island alive. She planned to take Yernen’s life if Lizzie were to have a child.
If this document is not signed and that happens, as Harriet said, Lyle will never be able to reclaim the Grand Duchy.
“… … .”
My hands were shaking.
If he signs this paper… Lyle will never be his. He will be bound to someone else. And he will hate Yernen. For the rest of his life. Even after Yernen is dead. Because Yernen has prevented him from continuing the line of the Grand Duke.
But still, Yernen could not help but sign.
This was simply Yernen’s extremely selfish decision, without considering Lyle’s opinion. Still, Yernen wanted Lyle to live, even if it was this way. He wanted to get back everything he had lost.
Even though Lyle could not be his forever.
Yernen picked up the pen. It was awkward, as it had been years since he had held one. He signed with an unfamiliar gesture and drew bl00d from his finger to stamp his seal.
Harriet took the papers in front of Yernen. Yernen clenched his fists and shook them slightly as he watched her back.
“Let’s get started.”
At that sound, Yernen’s breathing became increasingly ragged. Whatever was coming next was certain to be terrible.
“Huh…!”
The same tube that had entered Yernen’s body just before began digging into his body once again, and began tearing apart parts of his body.
“Ahhhh!”
A terrible scream came out of Yernen’s mouth. The tube that tore through his body and reached deep inside him, as if setting fire to his body.
“Ahhh…! Ugh…! Aaaah! Ah, ugh…!”
Soon, the device that had kept her anus open, the long tube, and the hands that had tied her body were removed, but Yernen simply curled up, clutching her stomach, and groaned in pain as if she was going to suffocate.
“Ugh…! Black…!”
Although her stomach was burning, unable to touch or do anything about the excruciating pain in her stomach, Yernen could only writhe in excruciating pain and scream.
Harriet looked down at Yernen’s miserable body writhing on the dirty floor, her buttocks exposed, unable to even properly tug at her waist.
“Your Majesty.”
“What.”
“I found this.”
And then one of the knights handed Harriet an old notebook. Harriet scanned it with dry eyes. In it was a charcoal portrait of Lyle.
“Under.”
There was only one person who could sit in this old shack and draw a picture like this.
“Burn it.”
As Harriet said this, she approached Yernen. Looking at it, she saw that Yernen had a precious object hanging around his neck that didn’t match his old clothes, unkempt hair, and dirty clothes.
Harriet ripped off the necklace.
“Don’t do it….”
And then she grabbed the withered hand that was reaching out earnestly and opened the pendant. Sure enough, what was inside was Lyle’s face. Harriet turned away from Yernen, holding the necklace in her hand.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, yes?!”
Norenz asked back, seemingly puzzled.
“Ha, but Your Majesty. I administered a strong medicine…! If this continues, you may go into shock…!”
“There is no turning back.”
As he listened to the fainter footsteps, Yernen’s mind began to fade.
Don’t take it.
No matter how hard I tried to scream, the sorrowful voice only lingered in my mouth and no words came out.
There was a rumbling sound, the door of an old hut opened, and people could be seen leaving, one by one.
At the end, it felt like someone, a brown-haired knight, was looking down at him.
The field of vision was completely darkened. But even until the very end, Yernen remembered the pendant that Harriet had taken away.
It was the only thing that contained traces of Lyle, and it was the most precious thing to Yernen.
‘Don’t take it. Please.’
Still no words came out of his mouth.
Yernen closed his eyes. The hot water flowed down his cold temples.
My stomach… hurt.
* * *
Knock knock knock!
“What, what is it…!”