Chapter 76………………………………………..
“Annoying. Making a loud noise and wasting my vocal cords for no reason. At my age, what else is there but death ahead?”
Watching my father act so calmly, I couldn’t make sense of anything.
I was overwhelmed by the thought that maybe I had overreacted to his nonchalant attitude.
If my father were in a critical condition… and I had accidentally noticed it… he surely wouldn’t have reacted like this.
No matter how cold he was, he was still human.
“Has hanging out with Noah made you overreact too?”
The words came from the Emperor, punctuating my earlier anxiety with blunt clarity.
The effect was so strong that Theo’s jaw dropped.
Overreacting. How many times had he clicked his tongue at his younger brother for overreacting?
Spending so much time together inevitably meant influencing each other. But overreacting—that was the one thing he never wanted to catch from his younger brother.
Worried that even being shocked might count as overreacting, he pressed his lips tightly together. He held his trembling body steady, keeping the emotions he had absorbed hidden. Then, just like his father, he asked casually,
“Are you really okay?”
“I have no problems except for my troublesome son. As for dying, that day can come anytime.”
He frowned at his father, who kept bringing up death.
“You, who seem the healthiest, say such things? Please live a long life, Father. As long as possible, so I can inherit the throne later.”
If his father had been in a critical state, he would have known. Even if Theo didn’t notice, Noah, who was always by his father’s side, would have.
His doubts didn’t vanish completely, but they were fading.
“Theodore.”
His father called his son.
“Did you dislike the way I raised you?”
“It was hard.”
“Do you hate me?”
“Why? Are you asking for forgiveness now?”
“No.”
The Emperor uttered words that defied all logic. Theo had half expected at least an insincere apology.
But hearing such absurd words, he didn’t even get angry. He was genuinely curious about the meaning behind them, since no apology was coming.
Reading the doubt on his son’s face, his father said,
“I knew it would be hard for you, yet I did it anyway. And now I ask for forgiveness? Wanting forgiveness is the greatest hypocrisy a human can commit. It was my choice. If my actions made you suffer, and if you hate me for it, then I accept that.”
How could someone be so shameless and bold? Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to hate a father who took full responsibility for his actions. If he had asked for forgiveness now, it would have only made Theo angrier.
Looking at his son with a mix of love and frustration, he continued,
“Theodore. If you hate me, become such a worthy heir that my name is erased from the Empire. Critique my shortcomings, break them, fix them, and leave history remembering you as a greater ruler than I ever was. You have the talent for it.”
It was a strange kind of recognition, a strange kind of expectation.
He wasn’t being asked to imitate him or learn a lesson from him. He was being told to surpass his father—to crush him and become a great emperor himself. Strange, indeed.
Yet, for the first time, Theo didn’t feel burdened by the future his father had envisioned. Instead, he felt a refreshing sense of motivation.
“Then… will you revoke the order about the Crown Princess?”
The Emperor’s expression showed annoyance.
“Do you dislike it that much?”
“It’s more important to me that she doesn’t dislike me than that she likes me.”
“So, I am your shield, idiot.”
Theo signaled with his eyes, prompting an answer. The Emperor thought that if the prince had used such persistence to woo a woman, he would have already succeeded long ago—but he held his tongue.
“You will revoke it?”
“Understood.”
For the first time, the Emperor—or rather, his father—granted his son’s request.
“Miss, we’ve arrived.”
After sitting in the carriage all day, my body felt stiff and sore!
The journey had been so long that by the time we reached home, night had already fallen.
The driver, though forced by the Emperor’s command, apologized for the inconvenience.
If it hadn’t been for the driver, I might have jumped off the moving carriage and ended up with weeks of injuries. Considering that, and knowing that no one could defy the Emperor’s orders, I decided to generously forgive him.
“Joyce!”
Perhaps hearing the carriage arrive, Peredil ran out of the Woodville mansion as soon as the doors opened. With long legs, he quickly reached me.
“You must have been worried. Theo told me that the Duke would wait here in Woodville.”
“I wanted to come myself, if only I could.”
Though he didn’t say “sorry,” guilt was clearly written across his face.
At this rate… I probably wouldn’t even cry.
“The Emperor was the one who took me away. If you had come, you might have gotten in trouble for no reason. You did the right thing by staying away.”
It really was better that he didn’t come.
If Peredil had tried to take me away, the Emperor—ever the nitpicker—might have punished him severely for disobedience.
He was not impulsive, but lately, he might have risked confronting the Emperor over me. As infatuated as he was, he couldn’t allow our departure to create conflict with the Emperor.
“What really makes me mad, though, is something else.”
He wore a confused expression.
“You didn’t tell me what was troubling you, but you told Theo that the Emperor demanded I become Crown Princess!”
I expected him to laugh as always when I pouted like this.
But he asked cautiously, with a dark expression:
“Did you… accept the Crown Princess position?”
His face was tense, clearly anxious.
Was it a lack of trust in me? Or did I fail to show that I liked him?
I wondered why he assumed I would accept.
“Why do you think that?”
“Being Crown Princess means eventually becoming Empress. The Empress of an empire enjoys immense glory. My place beside you seems insignificant in comparison.”
Seeing him speak so doubtfully, I realized why.
He wasn’t doubting me—he was doubting himself. A lifelong lack of self-esteem made him see himself as unworthy.
How could someone so remarkable see themselves so small? Seeing him fail to recognize his worth made my heart ache.
“And if I said I accepted? Would you let me go?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately, almost embarrassingly fast.
“Then why ask if you wouldn’t let me go?”
“Just… wanted to confirm, I guess.”
Wanting reassurance of affection, I gave him a proper hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he bent down to meet me, guided by my embrace.
Our heights matched perfectly.
“What if I refuse, but the Emperor doesn’t withdraw his order?”
“The bond between Seymour and Coventin would be broken, of course.”
It was a natural answer, since he had promised not to let me be taken.
He would always obey the Emperor’s command. The fact that he had even considered defying it showed how serious this was.
It seemed the Emperor had orchestrated the seduction perfectly.
“Don’t worry. Theo said he’d make the Emperor withdraw the order.”
“So, you asked me even though you knew the Emperor’s order would be revoked?”
I paused the hug to answer his question.
“I just… wanted to confirm.”
Finally, it seemed we could joke again. Seeing me playfully teasing, he finally laughed.
The person who needed to lighten the mood with silly jokes because of excessive worry—
I didn’t find that annoying.
In fact, I felt proud that I could do that for him. Watching him, who acts like the world is ending, light up with hope at just one word from me, was a joy.
Just as he laughed, he suddenly turned serious and glared at me.
“Stop going to the office alone for speech lessons.”
“I used to go alone because I couldn’t bring a maid or guards secretly with me.”
“Exactly. Now there’s no need to sneak around. The engagement has been officially announced, and everyone in the Empire knows we’re a couple.”
That made sense. After that deep kiss at the royal ball…
The memory made my face flush.
But that warmth wasn’t even comparable to the heat of his sudden announcement.
“…Or should we announce the engagement instead?”
Why did his smiling face suddenly look twisted?
“N-no!”
I realized I had spoken out loud before thinking.
It was involuntary.
I never imagined the ending scene would involve rejecting the male lead’s proposal in a single second.
