Episode 98
Rurik swiftly drew the sword from its scabbard and threw it before the Empress.
“If that is your final wish, then go now, honorably. This is my final gift to you.”
The Empress gasped for breath.
Her trembling hands picked up Rurik’s sword.
She probably realized for the first time just how heavy a sword could be.
Amidst a silence as profound as death, the longsword was raised to the level of the Empress’s head.
“Huuuk!”
However, the raised longsword ultimately cut nothing and fell with a thud to the sandy ground, rolling away.
“Huhuhuk…….”
The Empress wept, clawing at the sandy earth instead of stabbing herself.
Rurik let out a soft laugh and gestured with his chin.
“Burn it for her.”
The Empress’s heart-wrenching sobs echoed distantly through the garden.
The Emperor, until the moment he was imprisoned with her, could only shed tears inside the carriage.
Those watching clicked their tongues in disbelief.
“To have been called the Conqueror Emperor until now… the title is truly wasted on him.”
The moment the transport carriage was about to depart, Princess Cirlila rushed out, still in her indoor dress.
It seemed she hadn’t been dragged out, but had come of her own volition to find her parents.
“Mother…! Father!”
She grabbed the closed carriage door with both hands and fell to her knees with a thud.
“Your Majesty…! What is the meaning of this…?!”
In truth, Cyril had already suffered a great shock when Hart collapsed, losing his spirit.
Then, as her brother was deposed and ultimately died, the simple-minded girl felt as if her world had collapsed.
For a while, Cyril was lost, not knowing what to do amidst the sense of loss and fear.
It was already burdensome to soothe the Empress, consumed by rage, and now a rebellion had occurred…
Cyril wept bitterly, but the Emperor knocked on the carriage wall and spoke in a grief-stricken voice.
“Depart at once.”
“Father…!”
With a rumbling sound, the transport carriage began to move.
Cyril, crying, ran after the carriage but tripped over her hem and fell.
Lying prone on the sandy ground, she couldn’t even bring herself to get up and merely sobbed.
“Huhuk, Father…….”
By now, the sky was growing light.
Rurik slowly walked through the rigidly standing guardsmen, who were like stone pillars, and approached Chirlila.
“Although it was done with a different intent, the fact that you hid the Grand Duke of Babenberg’s location was helpful to me.”
The morning sun cast a long shadow beside him.
Cyril realized for the first time just how tall her second brother had become.
“I will give you a choice. Will you go to a convent, or to the Duchy of Wess?”
Wes was the most barren of the vassal states, but the very offer to send her there was a consideration from Rurik.
It would be better than life in a convent, where it was difficult to escape the imperial family’s surveillance.
But Chiril, perhaps failing to recognize this, wept hoarsely and said,
“Please send me… to the convent. I will live the rest of my life as a maid if I must, just let me go to my parents and attend to them… Please, Brother, I beg for this final mercy.”
Rurik shook his head coldly.
“Not the same convent.”
Chirilla’s sobs echoed once more, but he turned away, pretending not to hear.
It was the day he tore out with his own hands the denial he had craved all his life.
The parental roles he had wanted to fill, even if only in pretense, were now irrevocably empty.
As he looked up at the sky with a desolate face, his adjutant, Jesus, was the first to kneel before him.
“I behold the true conqueror, the new Emperor who dedicated half his life as the Imperial Sword for the Empire. Long live His Imperial Majesty Rurik Sylderic Frisland Brentania!”
Like dominoes falling in succession, everyone knelt.
“Long live Emperor Rurik!”
“Long live His Imperial Majesty!”
—Knock knock.
When the door opened after the urgent knocking, I was startled to see Ernst’s face.
It hadn’t even been a week since he returned to the royal city.
“Erni, when did you get here?”
His face flushed, he came straight to me and knelt on one knee.
“I congratulate you on your brother’s great achievement. It is said there will be an coronation for the new Emperor a week from now.”
“……What?”
He pulled my hand and brightly kissed its back.
Then, springing to his feet, he pulled me into a tight embrace.
“His Highness Rurik—no, His Majesty—has successfully seized the Imperial Castle and secured the throne. They say without a single casualty.”
“……Really?”
It felt like cold water had been splashed on my mind, which had been steeped in the diary’s gloom for days.
‘This novel ends with Rurik ascending the throne and marrying Helena.’
Even if the protagonist’s sister, who was fated to die, had subtly inserted herself into the story, ultimately, nothing had changed.
‘So it’s okay. The past is just the past.’
So relieved that I was crying without realizing it, Ernst tenderly wiped my wet cheek.
“You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you? It’s all over now, Ru.”
It’s all over……
It seemed the news had reached others outside, as the place was in an uproar.
From the hallway, I could hear Helena’s voice saying she must return to the Imperial Castle immediately.
While everyone was busily planning their next steps, my gaze turned to the diary on the desk.
The very diary that, for several days now, had been revealing only gloomy prophecies of death.
In the evening, I quietly opened the diary and looked inside.
The embossed pattern of Moghold was still visible on the blank page.
Touching it might bring forth another depressing entry.
I hesitated, then withdrew my finger.
‘Let’s stop.’
This is terribly bad for prenatal education, and above all, it’s pointless.
“Overcoming fate is a matter of how you face it.”
Didn’t Moghold say that?
Perhaps he helped Louise and they found another way.
‘And perhaps it’s because of that other way that I was summoned here.’
The result is what matters.
Perhaps this result, too, is a precious opportunity created by Louise and Moghold’s desperate struggles.
‘I am here now, with the baby who will soon be born.’
I am safe, healthy, and quite happy most of the time.
Until now, the reason I wanted to know the diary’s contents was to find the baby’s father…
‘But why can’t I just choose?’
After all, I am the master of this novel.
I’m sorry, but Louise was simply fated to die, both in my novel and here in reality.
‘If Moghold summoned me here to overcome Louise’s fate…’
Now, bearing the risk of childbirth alone, wouldn’t it be okay for that choice to be mine?
As I sat there dazedly with these thoughts, a knock was heard.
—Knock knock.
It was Ernst.
He quietly came and sat beside me.
“Don’t worry, Ru. I’ll be by your side.”
Perhaps misunderstanding the source of my worry, he spoke kindly.
“Father will attend the coronation himself. I came to stay here with you.”
“Okay.”
I nodded gratefully.
There was now less than two months until my delivery.
‘If the baby were already born, I could have attended the coronation and congratulated my brother.’
But whether fortunately or unfortunately, it was known that my health had deteriorated again after the Empress’s attempted kidnapping.
Ernst was quite adept at continuing to comfort me.
“There will be plenty of opportunities to congratulate His Imperial Majesty in the future.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“So, let’s focus on what we can do here.”
“What we can do here……?”
Ernst grinned.
“How about having a portrait done to commemorate the baby being in your belly?”
“A portrait?”
Thinking it absurd, I looked down at my swollen belly, but then changed my mind.
Remembering how celebrities in my past life took commemorative photos at full term, there was no reason I couldn’t do the same.
‘Besides, here I’m as pretty as any celebrity…’
Wouldn’t the baby like to see it later?
“Okay. But won’t the painter spread unnecessary rumors and cause trouble?”
Ernst’s face immediately brightened, and he spoke confidently.
“We can summon one from among those I sponsor. They absolutely will not talk, even if you were the Empress and not the Princess.”
I laughed cheerfully and stroked my belly.
I hoped that this time, hiding in a small hotel in the south protecting my baby, would also be remembered as a good memory later on.
A week later.
After Rurik’s coronation, Callisteon hurriedly came to Edessa instead of returning to Babenberg.
“I’m back, Ru. His Imperial Majesty was also in good health.”
He greeted me like that, knelt on one knee before me, and kissed my hand.
Then, as soon as he stood up, he asked,
“Where is the portrait?”
