Chapter 8 ….
But for some reason, I couldn’t hear her voice properly.
Her red lips were definitely moving, yet it was as silent as if someone had pressed the mute button.
“Huh…?”
Before I could resolve my confusion, my vision spun around.
ZeuSia, eyes wide open, rushed toward me. Her movement felt strangely slow, like a scene in slow motion.
Only when I fell into her arms did I realize my body was burning up like fire.
‘Well, no wonder… standing out here in this cold dressed like this—it’d be strange if I didn’t have a fever…’
ZeuSia, wearing an expression of shock uncharacteristic for her, seemed to be saying something, but I couldn’t make out a single word.
Even as my consciousness grew hazy, the only thought filling my head was the worry that she might go back on her word.
“Your Majesty, you must never break your promise. You have to let me live, I…”
ZeuSia’s face noticeably twisted.
Why was she making that expression?
She didn’t hesitate at all when she tried to kill me with her own hands, but now the thought of me freezing to death scared her?
‘Ah, crap. After coming this far, if I really freeze to death here, that would be a problem…’
I absentmindedly reached out my hand toward her face, fumbling to smooth out my mother’s furrowed brow, and muttered,
“Let’s live together. The two of us.”
The last thing I felt was a faint warmth in my hand touching ZeuSia’s before all sensation left me.
The emperor of the Eastern Empire, ZeuSia—symbol of absolute monarchy—had one thing she lacked.
Legitimacy.
Her mother was a wandering gypsy.
The original story barely mentioned her, so little was known, but it was certain she was breathtakingly beautiful and so talented at dancing that she was invited to perform at a royal banquet.
Dragged into the palace, the woman caught the emperor’s eye during her performance and bore his child. But abandoned afterward, she died giving birth to her daughter.
That abandoned illegitimate child, ZeuSia, spent her childhood begging scraps while drifting between outbuildings of the imperial palace.
Fortunately, she was gifted with exceptional physical abilities. By chance she learned swordsmanship, and from then on distinguished herself in many wars.
It was a time when the Eastern and Western Empires were locked in fierce battles over interests. With each victory, General ZeuSia’s fame soared higher and higher.
Then the previous emperor died on the battlefield, and not long after, the crown prince also lost his life.
Thankfully, the late emperor had many children. The throne passed on in succession to the second and third heirs.
But strangely, every healthy royal who ascended the throne met a mysterious death.
As though someone were deliberately killing them.
Eventually, the throne went round and round until it landed on the half-blooded ZeuSia.
And unlike the others, once she seized the throne, she did not die.
That was all the original story revealed about ZeuSia before she became a tyrant.
‘The comment section went wild saying ZeuSia must have murdered her half-siblings.’
Given the insane emperor she became, it wasn’t hard to believe. I, too, had “liked” those comments speculating her atrocities.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine…
That I’d transmigrate into the daughter of that crazy woman—no, crazy emperor.
Seeing ZeuSia in person, she was far more beautiful and captivating than any words could describe.
The original claimed her personality was cruel beyond measure, but honestly, that was an understatement.
‘How could anyone politely call this human “cruel”? They should’ve just written: full-blown psychotic lunatic!’
Just as I was grumbling about how sugarcoated the novel had been, an unfamiliar voice suddenly filled my head.
「Serve your purpose. You must…」
The voice repeated the same words over and over. I couldn’t even guess the speaker’s gender or age.
「Serve your purpose!」
With the thought that my head might soon split open, I shut my eyes tight—yet ironically, my heavy consciousness suddenly awoke.
“Huuhk…!”
Gasping for breath, I bolted upright.
My whole body was drenched in sweat, my clothes damp. At the same time, strangely, my body felt light—like how you feel after recovering from a severe illness.
‘Wait… right, I collapsed at the lake that time!’
Going out into that freezing weather with only an indoor coat—I must have been insane.
‘But the underground passage was warm, and I didn’t plan on staying by the lake long…’
Besides, that coat had been the thickest one I owned.
I clutched my throbbing head, trying to recall what happened after I collapsed at the lake, but nothing came to mind.
‘Come to think of it, this doesn’t look like my room…?’
I finally took a look around, tilting my head in confusion.
The room I woke up in was massive—so large it was intimidating.
The bed I had just been lying on was so wide eight grown men could roll around on it. The furniture, tastefully arranged, was also enormous and grand.
‘Feels like I wandered into the land of giants.’
With that foolish thought, I realized even the room itself was absurdly big.
‘This… is all just one room?’
It was enough to redefine the word “studio apartment.”
Not only was the size overwhelming, but every visible object looked exorbitantly expensive.
‘This is practically a room fit for an emperor, coated in gold—wait. Emperor?’
A shiver ran down my spine.
Before I could dwell on the thought, I sensed someone’s presence nearby.
The real problem was that the presence wasn’t beside me or behind me—it was below me.
“Hey.”
A beautiful voice carrying less-than-beautiful words.
At that call, I jerked my head back—and locked eyes with ZeuSia, lying underneath me.
Ah. I was sitting on top of ZeuSia’s stomach… no, more precisely, her firm, muscular abs.
‘I thought I was sitting on some kind of stone bed…’
As I debated whether or not to voice that excuse, ZeuSia, brows furrowed, spoke in a low, husky tone.
“You survived.”
“Ah, y-yes…”
“…”
“…?”
Was that it? Just you survived, and nothing more?
Mother and daughter, strangers to each other, stared in silence for a long while.
‘Shouldn’t she at least be asking about my condition right about now?’
Just as the oppressive silence was making me restless, I remembered—ZeuSia wasn’t an ordinary mother.
And I recalled the resolve I’d had when I forged our “promise” at the lake.
‘I’ll shoulder the burden and turn this story from a 19+ tragedy into an all-ages one.’
That way, neither I nor this emperor—who would one day go mad—would face such a cruel ending.
A strange sense of mission made my chest burn with heat.
I knew ZeuSia wouldn’t fall for a cliché like “You’re the first baby who smiled at me.”
But still, I decided to try following the trope.
“Did I scare you yesterday when I suddenly collapsed? I’m all better now! My body feels light as a feather, no fever at all.”
I beamed brightly and even raised my arms high in the air to show her.
ZeuSia watched me grin for a long moment before replying in an expressionless tone,
“Yesterday? You lost consciousness at the lake a week ago.”
“A… a week? You mean I’ve been asleep this whole time?”
“I already told you. You’re lucky to be alive.”
I thought you were dead.
Her murmured addendum, muttered with her eyes lowered, sent another chill down my spine.
“But you didn’t die.”
Her voice, cruel as her words, carried an odd undertone of gloom. Then her lips twisted into a wicked smile.
“Anyway, you’re such a restless sleeper. Because of you, I haven’t been able to get a proper night’s sleep in seven whole days.”
She wasn’t about to unload seven days’ worth of pent-up frustration on me now, was she?
Hastily, I kept smiling as sweetly as possible and asked,
“D-did I toss and turn that much? Normally I sleep really quietly…”
“You wriggled so much, I’d have been better off hugging a wild beast to sleep.”
The way she spat out the insult so naturally was the real problem.
‘…Looks like the “all-ages” plan is already slipping. Maybe I can still manage PG-12… no, PG-15 at best.’
