Chapter 106
Ianheart’s mother and the deposed Empress Dowager, Carlin Denisha.
Almost thirty years ago, she had a lover she kept in secret.
It was Yuteran Zerlo, the third prince of Garon who had come to study in the Empire.
The two loved each other enough to vow their lives together, and they had made plans to leave for Yuteran’s homeland, Garon.
But those plans never came to pass.
“The late Emperor fell for the Empress Dowager.”
“So when they say he forced her into the Empress’s seat…”
“Yes. Even though she had a lover, the late Emperor made her his Empress. He threatened that if she refused, he would charge her family with treason. If you dig hard enough, you can always find a pretext.”
“…Unbelievable.”
Just hearing it was enough to make one sick.
No—saying it was merely vile wasn’t enough.
It was the very definition of human depravity.
“The Empress Dowager couldn’t refuse. The late Emperor was called a warmonger and wielded immense imperial power, while her family was nothing more than a count’s house.”
So Carlin had no choice but to accept the late Emperor’s coercion and become his Empress.
That was the beginning of all her misfortune.
The late Emperor achieved his goal. He brought Carlin into the palace and made her his wife.
But Carlin’s love with Yuteran didn’t break even after the forced marriage.
That was made easier by the fact that, soon after the marriage, war broke out.
Known as a warmonger, the late Emperor reveled in bloodshed and slaughter. He left Carlin in the palace and went to the battlefield.
Through Yuteran’s gift of handling animals, the two were able to sneak past the palace’s heavy security to exchange letters and meet in secret.
“But every war ends eventually. The late Emperor returned to the palace after just two months.”
From then on, he sought out the Empress Dowager every day.
Naturally, Carlin and Yuteran could no longer meet. Having to endure an unwanted marriage while leaving behind the man she loved, Carlin’s grief only deepened.
Then something happened.
“My mother became pregnant with a child she didn’t want.”
Riana didn’t know how to respond.
That unwanted child was…
“The late Emperor’s child. That was me.”
Ianheart’s voice remained calm.
“Learning she carried the Emperor’s child drove my mother half-mad. They say she wept every day and beat her own stomach.”
Carlin hated the child in her womb. She even harmed her own body out of hatred.
Oh, heavens…
Riana’s heart ached unbearably for the man sitting beside her.
The story itself was horrible, but even more painful was seeing him recount it so indifferently, as though it didn’t matter.
“Your Majesty…”
Her voice slipped out in a whisper, but Ianheart only placed his warm hand gently over hers, patting it as though to comfort her.
But who was really the one needing comfort here?
Before Riana could find words, Ianheart continued.
“You saw earlier, didn’t you? My wound closing. It isn’t limited to injuries. It’s abnormal recovery, physical ability—that’s the power inherited by imperial blood.”
Despite his mother’s hatred, the child born of royal blood grew up healthy.
The late Emperor, pleased at the sight of a boy with platinum hair and shining red eyes—the symbol of the first Emperor—named him Ianheart.
Born of the Emperor and Empress, the legitimate heir—Ianheart Lu Belnerum.
And this was only the beginning of his story.
Ianheart’s growth was unusual—physically and mentally.
By the time he was three, he already understood why his mother wanted him dead.
She had been forced to become Empress, forced to lie with the Emperor, all while loving another man.
Naturally, the child who bore the blood of the man she hated was also hated.
Whenever she looked at him, her anger boiled over. She spewed curses and often raised her hand against him.
“You’re not my child! Just die, die, I said die!”
Sometimes her delicate hands closed around his throat.
Ianheart never resisted.
Even if he didn’t, others would intervene quickly, prying him from her grip as if they were used to it.
A maid would pick him up as he gasped for breath.
“Your Highness, are you alright?”
“…Yes.”
“Take him to the physician.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Led by another maid’s pitying hand, Ianheart would be brought to the physician.
“Oh dear, here again today?”
“….”
“Let’s see… This time it’s your cheek and neck.”
The court physician, ordered to reside in the Empress’s quarters, treated the wounds on his face and applied salve to the red marks left on his pale throat.
The physician’s presence was necessary because healing magic wasn’t suited for children as young as him.
“Sigh… Why does His Majesty insist on keeping you both in the same quarters…”
In the physician’s muttered words, Ianheart realized his father knew everything and chose to turn a blind eye.
But he didn’t feel sadness or betrayal.
His father favored him because he resembled the first Emperor, but above that, the Emperor loved only one person—his mother.
“There, all done.”
“….”
“Um, Your Highness.”
Ianheart gazed at him quietly.
The physician hesitated, then asked cautiously.
“Why do you endure Her Majesty’s actions? You could avoid it, or order others to stop her.”
No one outside the Empress’s quarters knew how she treated him.
By imperial decree, nothing that happened inside could leak out, no matter how trivial.
Anyone who let a word slip would simply disappear.
“…Your Highness?”
The physician asked again.
Instead of an answer, Ianheart gave him a warning.
“In this place, you have no tongue.”
The physician seemed to understand. He didn’t ask again.
But the very next day, the Empress’s physician was replaced.
The maid who had waited outside during treatment had been the Emperor’s eyes.
As Ianheart grew, he learned more.
The fire that killed his mother’s family years ago—it had been the Emperor’s doing.
The long-haired man who sometimes snuck into the Empress’s quarters and shared tender affection with her—he was her lover, Yuteran. Somehow, through a trick, the Emperor never discovered their meetings.
And… they had a child together. A child one year younger than Ianheart.
He found out by accident.
At age five, he suffered a terrible fever that left him bedridden.
One maid, worried he hadn’t moved all day, cautiously entered his room.
“Oh my…!”
The room was sweltering with the boy’s burning fever. The precious imperial heir was groaning, unable to wake.
The shocked maid summoned the physician, who quietly gave him medicine and left, saying only to let him rest.
Ianheart finally opened his eyes late at night, long after the palace was asleep.
Normally, he would have stayed in bed, but that night the heat felt suffocating.
Sneaking out quietly, he stumbled upon a scene in the garden.
His mother holding a young boy in her arms, with the long-haired man gazing lovingly at them both.
He couldn’t hear their words, but their laughter was clear.
They were smiling. All three of them.
The boy’s bright, carefree smile—he refused to think about who that child was.
He didn’t want to.
From that day, Ianheart stopped calling her “Mother” and instead addressed her as “Her Majesty the Empress.”
Not that she ever answered him anyway.
Three more years passed before disaster struck.
The Empress and Yuteran, who had hidden their meetings so carefully, were finally caught by the Emperor.
The furious Emperor raged and had Yuteran seized.
“Carlin! Don’t worry, alright? I love you!”
Yuteran cried out as he was dragged away by the Emperor’s secret guards.
But before long, the Emperor ordered his mouth gagged, not wanting further commotion.
Watching her lover dragged off, the Empress wailed until she nearly lost her breath.
“Yuteran, Yuteran! If you harm even a single hair on his head, I’ll drive a dagger into my own throat this instant!”
“Carlin.”
“Don’t speak my name! You have no right, you monster!”
The Emperor’s face twisted in fury.
And yet—even in his rage—her threat of killing herself seemed to deter him. He did not order Yuteran’s immediate death.
“Confine the Empress in Hoeseok Palace. No one but myself and the Crown Prince is permitted to enter.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Barely restraining his fury, the Emperor ordered her imprisonment.
The Empress was lifted by her maids and, under guard, dragged off toward Hoeseok Palace.
And Ianheart had to watch it all.
